"Ethics and Journalistic Integrity"

[Ben X]

GG blocker blocks GGs, right?

 

Wrong.

[osmosisch]

I have stopped paying attention to the terminology. GG blocker blocks GGs, right?

You'd think so, but nope.

[CollegeBaby]

My favorite KotakuInAction quote of the day, from this elegant deconstruction of academia:

 

Oh man people are still arguing about objective game reviews? What is there objective to say about a game that isn't just a wiki article?

 

Because if we apply the logic of "No such thing as objective reviews, so why bother?" we can apply it to court hearings, college essays, and almost all aspects of human life where decisions need to be made.

 

Well considering a review is an analysis of a piece of media/art/entertainment while a court hearing is an analysis of real world events - the slippery slope stops pretty damn short of giving up all decisions to subjectivity.

 

They keep talking as if reviewers shouldn't be biased. What actually is a non-biased critic? What do they have so say about anything that is actually meaningful? What qualification can they possibly have to give their analysis of a piece of entertainment? What does an un-biased critic think is the definition of a "good" video game?

 

It's a sad reflection that the most intelligent comment is right at the bottom of the heap.

 

Oh okay, so you don't have a problem with a reviewer finding portions of a game sexist, you just have a problem when they don't explain their work?

 

I agree, it's really annoying when anyone reviews something and they don't expand on their opinions. That's paper writing 101: "This is what I think, here is why I think it."

[Twig]

Randi Harper is freebsdgirl - she made the GGBlocker that made it almost impossible for Gamergate to get anywhere. She works at Kixeye now which is a game developer who I don't really know, but she is clearly a legit code slinger.

Whoa. I've heard some really terrible things about Kixeye in terms of blatant unapologetic sexism and racism. That was a few years ago, though, so maybe they've improved. (They're a SF flash game dev. They made the first TD game I played: Desktop Defender.)

 

Their advertising was also... something to see. Once.

 

 

 

Well that's enough rambling I guess.

[Justin Leego]

Whoa. I've heard some really terrible things about Kixeye in terms of blatant unapologetic sexism and racism. That was a few years ago, though, so maybe they've improved.

 

Yes, much improved, according to Randi herself:

 

Actually, KIXEYE responded really well to what happened a few years ago. An outside investigator was hired, the people that were toxic were fired. That part is rarely publicized.

I love my employer. They are pretty awesome. I've seriously never been happier.

(https://np.reddit.com/r/GamerGhazi/comments/2lfc1b/ggers_tried_to_get_the_creator_of_the_twitter/clui1n1?context=3)

[Twig]

Oh that's awesome, then.

[Bjorn]

Whoops, wrong topic.

[Turkey]

It's pointless to argue with them about "objective reviews," cause it's not what they want. They just hide behind the term, because saying what they really want sounds kinda bad.

[Nachimir]

It does now seem pretty pointless arguing with gaters. References like that ohnovideogames storify will be useful in getting people up to speed, but GG seem to have shed all of the not-idiots and keep developing increasingly cult-like, impenetrable counter-points (on posting that storify, the responses were that ohnovideogames is a "known troll", as defined by gaters, and that #stopgamergate2014 is "a dead hashtag" so that somehow invalidates the documented abuse).

[Henroid]

GamerGate sadly lives on in World of Warcraft. Every General chat channel eventually gets hijacked by someone talking about feminism being bullshit, etc.

 

I hate being told to leave the channel, because it is otherwise fun and helpful.

[TychoCelchuuu]

It's pointless to argue with them about "objective reviews," cause it's not what they want. They just hide behind the term, because saying what they really want sounds kinda bad.

Agreed: http://www.objectivegamereviews.com/objective-game-reviews-gamergate/

[Problem Machine]

Those are good words TychoCelchuu.

[tegan]

 

 

prominent GG supporter wants to become actual "professional victim," irony lost on thousands, film at eleven

[Henroid]

Don't forget, The Free Young Capitalists are in on this bullshit, and officially declare that you only count as being transgender if you've actually gone through the transition process in full. Also,

https://twitter.com/TFYCapitalists/status/536183137962041344

[Problem Machine]

and officially declare that you only count as being transgender if you've actually gone through the transition process in full.

That doesn't seem quite accurate, based on their words as quoted by Zoe Quinn. Don't get me wrong, though: They're still jerks.

[Bjorn]

TFYC seem pretty ignorant about transgender stuff, particularly that certain terms can be understood multiple ways, and do a shitty job of explaining what they actually mean.  Of course they've had fucking months now to take the 5 or 10 minutes and read through some good resources. 

[Problem Machine]

I don't think the dickheaded insistence that research trumps and gives license to disregard lived experience is something that can be resolved with more research, though.

[Henroid]

[Twig]

I posted that on my Facebook and got the response: "I thought it was about slutty indie devs ( ͝סּ ͜ʖ͡סּ)"

 

|:

[Mangela Lansbury]

I just realized what they mean when they say "muh soggy knees" and I don't know if I'm dumber for not getting it or if they're dumber for coming up with and using it.

[Twig]

 

I just realized what they mean when they say "muh soggy knees" and I don't know if I'm dumber for not getting it or if they're dumber for coming up with and using it.

 

Oh wow I just got it too.

 

I'm gonna go with they're dumber.

[BusbyBerkeley]

Is it supposed to sound like misogynist? Ughhhhhhhhh

[Bjorn]

There's something about muh soggy knees that's fairly discomforting, that I'm assuming was just a lucky coincidence on the part of whoever coined it.  It's got a kind of sexual submission element to it, that you can imagine being used in some other context. 
 
gg's latest targets seem to be focused on the IGDA and the woman who created the autoblock list.  It honestly was a poor decision for the IGDA to actively suggest people use the autoblocker, but of course KiA is blowing it way the hell out of proportion.  Randi Harper, who created the list, tweeted out the email of someone who had either been harassing her, or had emailed her boss in an effort to get her fired (not sure which).  For which KiA is screaming DOXX!   Around the same time, Big Mike ran a piece (archived) about how she as arrested once, which has now led to multiple high profile gg folks as labeling her a criminal.  Because she got arrested and booked once (for what looks to have been expired tags or some other minor offense).  Both Milo and Big Mike used her Encyclopedia Dramatica (storified exchanged between Milo and Harper) page as a source.  Milo also tweeted out a picture of Harper's dead sister photoshopped in front of a Nazi flag "asking" if they were both neo-Nazis.  Now that's journalism!  Journalism, ethics, sources, facts, doxxing.  These fucking people don't know what words mean.

[Problem Machine]

It honestly was a poor decision for the IGDA to actively suggest people use the autoblocker, but of course KiA is blowing it way the hell out of proportion.

If their intent is to actually support victims of harassment, I think it's a grand decision.

[Bjorn]

I'd argue that it's a poor decision because the autoblocker takes a shotgun approach to blocking that actually catches (and included) a lot of non-gg people, including some of the IGDA's own staff.  At one point in time (though I've since stopped following any of the prominent ggers), I would have been blocked by it.  A lot of games journalists would have been blocked by it, since they have a professional interest in following even the toxic people on Twitter.  It's fine for an individual to choose to use an overly broad tool, but for a professional organization to endorse it is another matter. 

 

I don't know if the tool removes people from the block list or not, or if once you're on it that's it.  But it is not a good professional tool that limits communication solely because you have followed a couple of people for awhile.