"Ethics and Journalistic Integrity"

[BobbyBesar]

. It'd be about as informative as going through The Hobbit with a red pen to grade its connection to reality.

That sounds hilarious. Somebody should start a tumblr where they grade classic fiction as though they're high school history essays.

[Deadpan]

Wait, that's what Pegg said? I only heard of this interview by way of Twitter headlines, which summarized his statement as calling sci-fi infantilizing, which seems to sell the actual thought rather short.

 

If any GG thing deserves the level of scrutiny you are talking about, it might be their hapless database of ethical non-issues, but combing through that to point out every single thing that's wrong with it would a) be incredibly depressing and b ) require convincing them that giving a game a score that is not exactly identical to the Metacritic average isn't malfeasance by any stretch of imagination.

[Vainamoinen]

If any GG thing deserves the level of scrutiny you are talking about, it might be their hapless database of ethical non-issues, but combing through that to point out every single thing that's wrong with it would a) be incredibly depressing and b ) require convincing them that giving a game a score that is not exactly identical to the Metacritic average isn't malfeasance by any stretch of imagination.

 

That site, hein? Remains a thorn, because it's so pretty with that clean responsive design and all those stolen pictures.

 

On the most basic level of criticism, they're declaring most of the mentioned journalists their enemies just for having their email appear on a simple journalist mailing list. If that wasn't an accusation of sorts for them, they'd only have a handful of people left to accuse, hardly a 'database' any more. Just to make it look like a case at all, they had to rest it on a burnt match.

 

A great opportunity for the SPJ to embrace or renounce McCarthyism here! Yet, hey, it wouldn't be the first time I wept for the state of the USA.

[dium]

Wait, that's what Pegg said? I only heard of this interview by way of Twitter headlines, which summarized his statement as calling sci-fi infantilizing, which seems to sell the actual thought rather short.

 

You may have been reading reactions not to his response-to-a-response blog post, but to his initial statements in the Radio Times (or really, the bit of it that io9 quoted and put a clickbaity title on here).

 

...but even that statement wasn't worth getting huffy about. People are just overly sensitive about being asked to examine why they like the things they like.

[itsamoose]

That feels like using a cannon to kill a mosquito. Do we really need a history prof to point out such nuanced ideas as "Apartheid was bad" and "It's spelled Weimar"?

I was only half serious with that comment, but damnit I really want that mosquito dead. From what little of gamergate's theses I've been exposed to, the formula seems to be just suggest something provocative, or speak in generally agreeable terms then say whatever the hell you want. Usually that means they end up saying something appalling, or just flat out wrong (GOP for example has been incredibly successful at pushing their agenda, just not at the federal level).

I can't quite put my finger on what exactly could be done to connect with this mindset. I'm sure at some level people that write that kind of thing just refuse to accept they are wrong in any way. I just wonder what will be the thing that will finally make its supporters abandon the cause, or realize they've been duped into crusading for charlatons. I mean the sarkeesian effect people just basically describe themselves and their actions, and how shitty they are, then replace their names with Anita's.

[BigJKO]

Let's nuke that mosquito.

[Vainamoinen]

I can't quite put my finger on what exactly could be done to connect with this mindset. I'm sure at some level people that write that kind of thing just refuse to accept they are wrong in any way. I just wonder what will be the thing that will finally make its supporters abandon the cause, or realize they've been duped into crusading for charlatons. I mean the sarkeesian effect people just basically describe themselves and their actions, and how shitty they are, then replace their names with Anita's.

 

I didn't see their argument like that. It's strange how gaters reject Owen and Aurini, together with Roosh, as central gamergate ideologues – but still rely on their pamphlets and websites as credible sources, and pick up their thoughts as gamergate morals. Aurini and Roosh have cultivated actual misogyny and racism in the movement – zero backlash. The whole "Sarkeesian Effect" movie is about gamergate's fictional enemy conspiracy which, if that poll I posted a few pages ago is accurate, easily more than 90% of gamergate supporters think of as something factual.

 

What can be done? Not sure. The situation is just too ludicrous. But there is a reason why gamergate is so damn scared of the academic view. As a result of gamergate agitation, we should strive for a new era of Enlightenment, benefitting the art of the video game. And, of course, topics of diversity/inclusion will undoubtedly become more reflected in games, with more game developers becoming accustomed to the basic problem.

 

Education, on the one hand, ends this. And creation, on the other.

 

Which makes Jón here a big help, although he pleads for the nuke.

[twmac]

Kind of a combination of Ethics and Journalism:

 

http://www.polygon.com/2015/5/19/8624665/big-indie-kickstarters-are-killing-actual-indies

 

I really liked this, as the topic has been bothering me for a while with people getting on Kickstarter without clearly explaining that they have alternative funding.

[Vainamoinen]

Entirely related: An analysis of gamergate's attempts to troll DiGRA in 2015, with a particular focus on the conspiracy idea and the "influence" legend. Interesting is especially how Vidya's main ideas are definitely echoed by gamergate at large, only just devoid of comparisons to Weimar Germany and the "degeneration" of art... 

 

http://ungaming.tumblr.com/post/119569355555/observations-on-gamergates-belated-response-to

http://torillsin.blogspot.com.au/2015/05/digra-2015-aftermath-hashtag-anger.html

 

Very important words by Torill Mortensen (bold font added by me):

 

Mark Kern is an example of the type of push-back against criticism which is both expected and common when anybody, scholars, amateurs or professional critics, start looking systematically at any cultural expression and ask more of it than just superficial entertainment. This reaction proves, just as the entire Gamergate affair does, that game criticism and research is growing up. It is no longer simply scratching at the surfaces of description, as we did in the first few years, at which time we tried to understand what was actually going on, creating a language of academic discourse, and fighting for the value of a thrashed and disrespected medium. The anger, the shouts of "don't criticize if you can't do the same as me", the misunderstandings and the deep fear that Gamergate expresses, demonstrates that the research has touched a nerve, has come too close for comfort.

I am not going to say game research is "winning", as that is Gamergate terminology. There is no victory to be had here. [...]

 

This last part echoes what I expressed in my last post, I guess.

 

It's interesting how Mark Kern enters the debate – the guy who started that "heal the rift" poll which actively demanded more journalist corruption and a return to the 1980s, when game magazines were nothing but mere fanzines, mere advocacy for the fledgling game industry. I've described video game journalism's progress like that months ago, yet here Mortensen applies the same kind of hobby advocacy to the early stages of academic research: "fighting for the value of a thrashed and disrespected medium".

 

I also urge everyone to read Mortensen's comment responses in the second linked article.

[Vainamoinen]

I really had an overload of SJW conspiracy nuts today. Could we get the term censored on this forum, like "politi cally c orrect"? (written without the spaces, it gets transformed to "opinionated in a way that is different from me")

[SuperBiasedMan]

Decent human being could be a good replacement.

[Tanukitsune]

That's one of those terms I never know if it's being pejorative or not and it's not as clear as when people use "SJW" as an insult. 

[Vainamoinen]

I'm still all for "funny hair and hat person" for both SJW and Social Justice Warrior.

 

Doable? Doug?

[Deadpan]

That problem is already solved if you just use the SJW to skeleton browser plugin. Although clearly it should be Skellington.

[Cleinhun]

I already have the chrome plugin that replaces it with "skeleton", I wouldn't mind if that was made a forum-wide replacement.

[tegan]

[Mangela Lansbury]

Can we change millennial to snake people too?

[Problem Machine]

I like Skeleton to Skeleton because it sounds like either a communication technology or a skeleton interview show

[Twig]

SJW

 

i tested and it still hasn't happened

 

(i have no emotional investment as to whether or not this happens)

[Jutranjo]

*********s

 

pine apples

[Twig]

pineapples

[Deadpan]

Skeleton to skeleton is a communication technology that makes your bones vibrate in resonance with somebody else's bones (invest in my startup btw)

[Mangela Lansbury]

Sorry, Apple is already working on that as an upgrade to heartbeat sharing. I don't think it would be a wise investment.

[Merus]

Guys, the transmogrification for politically correct doesn't seem to be working for me.

[Tanukitsune]

 

This thread is bad to the bone now!