"Ethics and Journalistic Integrity"

[twmac]

Meanwhile, an absolutely fascinating insight into the internal politics of Gamergate's leading citizens in this account of the discussion around the Denton "leak" by Brennan.

 

These people are insane.

 

It is at times like these that you need a 'This Ming is a psycho' Flash Gordon gif

[thefncrow]

The most hilarious part of the Blizzard stuff is how vehement the denial of all this is. There's an interview with Keighley with Morhaime where Keighley mentions the denouncement of Gamergate, mentioning GG explicitly by name, and Morhaime nods at the statement. The GG contingent is already screaming about "Look how visibly angry Morhaime is at having these words he clearly doesn't agree with being put in his mouth!"

[Cyborg771]

Ming sounds like a forgotten racist term.

Also, that villain looks a little like Aurini. Fitting.

[syntheticgerbil]

I understand the point they're trying to make. It frustrates me at times when I see a FIFA 2015 review by a person who doesn't understand Soccer for instance, or a Final Fantasy review by someone who hates JRPGs. Giant Bomb in particular is guilty of this, but I kinda know what I'm going to get now when I tune into one of their sports game videos. Making it a blanket rule, however, is silly because there is some use in seeing how a person who doesn't understand soccer might interact with the FIFA new user experience. Also, it's obvious that my example isn't what they're targeting with that statement.

The thing is, it seems like they are basing the point on an aesthetical and artistic basis than actual gameplay itself. Like I can totally see someone who has no clue about the genre or general gameplay of a series getting mad at it for being what it is, but if someone enjoys the gameplay of the game in question, then they should be able to review the outside wrapping itself whatever way they like, then there's the degree on how integral it is to the game's plot and so on.

 

It's like this, this is one of the worst reviews I'd ever seen: http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/09/11/double-dragon-neon-review He rates DD Neon 3/10, which is considered half broken on the IGN scale, because he hates punching stuff and also failed to press the select button and ever upgrade any of the RPG elements, because he fails to say there is anything beyond punching. He also lies and says the game takes 30 minutes to beat. As of now, the fastest speed run is at 36 minutes, which is impossible to obtain on a first playthrough and was only done by maxing out all upgrades on a new game plus file and knowing the game in and out. He doesn't really give the game a fair shake and seems to just have hang ups about the beat 'em genre. There's a lot of fair stuff to criticize that is subjective as far as aesthetics, content, animation, and level layout, but he just seems to be angry at the core of the game, which means he really has no business reviewing such a thing. Most publications tend to assign someone to a game where they will like the gameplay style.

 

Anyway, this letter doesn't seem to be doing anything right.

 

Has anybody been paying attention to what KiA and 8chan have been doing about the Austin woman who was running for city council?

I can't seem to find much on it post election. I pretty much tuned her out upon finding out she was running. I did just find this article which is hilarious on how poorly researched it is: http://www.dailytexanonline.com/2014/11/07/effects-of-gamergate-controversy-felt-in-austin-city-council-race

 

Kelly, an energetic, personable candidate who models in her spare time, has quickly become a prolific and passionate advocate for #GamerGate. When followers learned the candidate was an avid gamer, they urged her to take a stand to promote ethical treatment of women within the admittedly eccentric culture of “gaming journalism.” A curious cause that has never before received political discourse, Kelly knew that choosing to speak up would be a risky political move.

 

When a video game developer took to the web to publicly accuse his video game journalist girlfriend of cheating on him with other developers, diehard gaming groupies everywhere went berserk.

 

A term first coined by actor Adam Baldwin, GamerGate’s broader goal seeks to combat the marginalization of women in gaming.

 

And while some have dismissed the ongoing controversy as a “tone deaf rabble of angry obsessives,” the problems it seeks to remedy — violent harassment and sexual threats against women — are certainly worth redress.

Hahaha, what?!

 

I think the article writer probably couldn't fathom how a woman was running for a platform based on harassment and misogyny, so she wrote it in the most sensical way possible.

[twmac]

So they are just doxxing anyone now:

http://digg.com/2014/when-gamergate-hits-the-wrong-target

[Erkki]

I think the article writer probably couldn't fathom how a woman was running for a platform based on harassment and misogyny, so she wrote it in the most sensical way possible.

Haha, that is amazing.

[Bjorn]

So they are just doxxing anyone now:

http://digg.com/2014/when-gamergate-hits-the-wrong-target

 

Good fucking lord. And his characterization of the KiA thread seems accurate. I couldn't find that thread, so I poked my head into the Escpapist gg thread, and it's a combination of denial, accusations about his character, "no true scotsman", mockery, insisting that he just needs to be quiet and he never should have said a word in the first place as it will only make things worse for him.

 

At least I got to read something written by another Kansas farm boy and now I know he's someone to follow. 

[juv3nal]

So they are just doxxing anyone now:

http://digg.com/2014/when-gamergate-hits-the-wrong-target

 

#TakeAwayTheHalos seems to have more or less run out of steam now, but it was briefly a thing

[Denial]

So, on an academic level I know that staring in disbelief at the Gamergate detective squad will at some point get old, but oh my God these guys.

[Problem Machine]

Jesus Christ, the speculation about how Mattie Brice is probably a rich kid who has no idea what things are like in the real manly man world of STEM is the shit cherry on the moron sundae.

[Denial]

Yeah. I don't know about you, but I list every minimum-wage job I have ever had on my LinkedIn page. It impresses people who might want to employ me as a consultant!

[Twig]

So, on an academic level I know that staring in disbelief at the Gamergate detective squad will at some point get old, but oh my God these guys.

I haven't dug into this reddit in a while but I'm eatin' my cereal and listenin' to some music and figured I'd dive in for a bit.

 

"You can tell the gamer master race by the fact that GG and NYS don't buckle the second someone challenges them in any capacity."

 

"Gamers buckle? we're GAMERS. They come onto OUR turf and pick a fight with GAMERS on the Internet? Jesus. That's like trying to fight Aquaman in the water."

 

"We have burned on the flaming steps of the forums, we have heard our comrades last breath on ventrilo and our mothers lustful moans on xbox live. My tears were soaking my controller, playing the flyer level in Battletoads when our enemies were not even seeds in their father's sacks. My skin is iron."

 

lollllllllllllllll (fairly certain that lost one is self-mockery? but who even knows with this crowd)

[Hermie]

"Gamers buckle? we're GAMERS. They come onto OUR turf and pick a fight with GAMERS on the Internet? Jesus. That's like trying to fight Aquaman in the water."

 

I like this one, because Aquaman is useless in any other situation other than in the water. It secretly confirms a self-image of social ineptiude outside of the internet.

 

 

 

(PS: Please don't derail this thread by discussing the merits of Aquaman. I'm sure he's fine.)

[Paul Smith]

#NotAllAquamen

[Henroid]

I'm fascinated by the concept that the internet somehow belongs to one group.

[Twig]

hahahah

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWn5noD53SI

[Twig]

oh god there's a whole bunch of these

 

http://www.buzzfeed.com/katienotopoulos/here-are-the-gamergater-song-parodies-that-will-change-your

 

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ahaha

 

You know I have to admit a few of these are actually pretty well done, stupidity aside. Most are really bad, though. Dude on that Johnny Cash parody has a sick voice. Mary Poppins lady was also good. EDIT: I listened past the first few lines of the Johnny Cash song and I'm retracting that statement. Mary Poppins is still good, though. Well, "good". Oh god that Bohemian Rhapsody is baaaaad.

[Erkki]

Haha, I can't tell if that Still Alive cover was made as a parody of gamergate or by a gamergater.

[Smart Jason]

Mattie's asked to be removed as an IGF Judge following today's incident. Looks like she might be leaving Twitter as well, which sucks.

 

I notice a lot of people are blaming the Indie Games Festival for "siding" with GamerGate, which I don't think is entirely fair. They didn't remove her (as actually I feared they might), the worst they did was ask her not to reference the event in jest. Admittedly, that's giving GamerGate more credibility than it deserves, but I don't see it as choosing sides any more than doing complicit harm by staying neutral. Actually, fuck that, since posting this I saw that Mattie felt that IGF threw her under the bus, and I'm not going to second guess her.

 

Either way, add one more name to the list of those bullied and harassed out by the bigotry of this culture. However, as those who followed her over the past week or so know, even bringing her up in a capacity which can provoke a response from GamerGate does more harm than good. Stifle this shit, support diversity and positivity, don't engage these psychos for any reason. That's my new perspective, feeling particularly affirmed in it after this and after listening to Brianna Wu on the Indie Haven podcast today.

[Christopher]

I notice a lot of people are blaming the Indie Games Festival for "siding" with GamerGate, which I don't think is entirely fair. They didn't remove her (as actually I feared they might), the worst they did was ask her not to reference the event in jest. Admittedly, that's giving GamerGate more credibility than it deserves, but I don't see it as choosing sides any more than doing complicit harm by staying neutral.

 

I think it's pretty fair to criticize IGF as siding with them. Other judges, like this guy, have also made jokes about being biased. He was not publicly reprimanded or removed by IGF. (Christine Love is saying that the "asked to leave" is just bureaucratic and that Mattie Brice was removed, and I trust her to know.) In that case, it's pretty clear what's going on: Joking about being an IGF judge is a problem if and only a judge that is under constant surveillance and harassment by gaters. If a judge is being stalked and harassed by gaters, then IGF will publicly reprimand them and remove them from their position. It's a decision the IGF has made to side with a hate group that was already obsessed with attacking Maddie Brice.

 

This is probably not their intention, but in practice that's de facto effect of their decision.

 

If they want to not side with gaters, they need to either start combing through a lot of twitter records to fairly apply this rule and eliminate probably a lot more judges who made jokes, or they need to issue an apology and a denouncement of gaters ASAP.

[Merus]

Yeah, given the long-standing whiff of dodginess around the IGF, I think this is the last straw for me. I think they've been fairly useless to indies by rewarding games that make a good first impression or have a pre-existing reputation - they stopped being a decent discovery tool for indies around 2005 - and now we see them being actually harmful to indies. Fuck 'em.

[Gormongous]

Haha, I can't tell if that Still Alive cover was made as a parody of gamergate or by a gamergater.

 

I thought it was painfully obvious that someone had used one of gaming's most iconic villains to pillory the paranoia, viciousness, amorality, and entitlement that #GamerGate represents... and then I got to the end and had a doubt. The comments removed it and replaced it with several others. At least a minority of these people actually like being compared to a psychotic supercomputer that's willing to murder an infinite number of people in order to meet some arbitrary deadline?

[Problem Machine]

IGF posted an apology that seems pretty decent to me.

http://igf.com/2014/11/a_statement_on_igf_inclusivity.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+igfnews+%28IGF+News%29

[juv3nal]

IGF posted an apology that seems pretty decent to me.

http://igf.com/2014/11/a_statement_on_igf_inclusivity.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+igfnews+%28IGF+News%29

 

There are a lot of imo valid criticisms, not the least of which is, if they don't have the spine to call gamergate out by name, how the heck is that going to make anyone else feel any safer?

[Denial]

Yeah, this Voldemort thing is getting kind of silly...