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Here's a discussion between Jeff and an actual Gamergater. It's amazing just how ridiculous his arguments seem when they leave the echo chamber and come out into the real world.

Ahaha.

 

"I miss that a little bit, because I think fake guns are fucking rad."

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Just finished Dan Ryckert's Anxiety as an Ally and it wasn't bad. Its mostly an extended anecdote about how anxiety has affected his life for the last 12 years and how he found ways to cope. I don't know how much value its going to provide anyone who's already been diagnosed and is dealing with anxiety themselves, especially if it is PTSD; for him it was exercise, zolof and CBT (cognitive behavior therapy aka "face your fears"), which probably won't be useful for a lot of people who've experienced trauma. He's also still Dan Ryckert so if his life irritates you in general, this will probably not change your views of him. 

 

However, for anyone who's just been with diagnosed with a general anxiety disorder, especially if they're young (teens, early 20's), I'd recommend it. I'd probably recommend it to friends and family of sufferers as well. It talks a lot about his struggles to get his friends and family to understand what he was going through, having to go through long regimes of prescription drugs that weren't working for him until he found one that worked, finding ways of coping and managing his anxiety and falling into the trap of thinking he'd conquered his anxiety and the depression that would come with that.

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Second, seeing that Video Thing made me have to go back and watch the 2Human video, because that's what immediately comes to mind with the Video Thing category.

 

http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/video-thing-2human/2300-29/

For me, the quintessential Video Thing will always be It's a Website. My friend Neil and I still (very) occasionally quote it at one another.

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Just finished Dan Ryckert's Anxiety as and Ally and it wasn't bad. Its mostly an extended anecdote about how anxiety has affected his life for the last 12 years and how he found ways to cope. I don't know how much value its going to provide anyone who's already been diagnosed and is dealing with anxiety themselves, especially if it is PTSD; for him it was exercise, zolof and CBT (cognitive behavior therapy aka "face your fears"), which probably won't be useful for a lot of people who've experienced trauma. He's also still Dan Ryckert so if his life irritates you in general, this will probably not change your views of him. 

 

However, for anyone who's just been with diagnosed with a general anxiety disorder, especially if they're young (teens, early 20's), I'd recommend it. I'd probably recommend it to friends and family of sufferers as well. It talks a lot about his struggles to get his friends and family to understand what he was going through, having to go through long regimes of prescription drugs that weren't working for him until he found one that worked, finding ways of coping and managing his anxiety and falling into the trap of thinking he'd conquered his anxiety and the depression that would come with that.

 

I bought it, but haven't read it yet. I figure the first step is admitting that I have a problem?

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Ahaha.

 

"I miss that a little bit, because I think fake guns are fucking rad."

 

It is hard to believe Jeff had to patience to talk to that guy that long.

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I just wish that Jeff et al. were more vocal about the opinions they obviously hold w.r.t. GG and that ugly side of "gamer culture" (whatever that means). I understand that they need the money and the audience, but there are still a lot of shitty people inside the GB community and I think a part of that comes down to the staff being a bit elusive whenever something vaguely political pops up. Seeing how easily Jeff puts the anti-GG point across in a very lucid way makes me feel really frustrated that he hasn't said much about it.

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I just wish that Jeff et al. were more vocal about the opinions they obviously hold w.r.t. GG and that ugly side of "gamer culture" (whatever that means). I understand that they need the money and the audience, but there are still a lot of shitty people inside the GB community and I think a part of that comes down to the staff being a bit elusive whenever something vaguely political pops up. Seeing how easily Jeff puts the anti-GG point across in a very lucid way makes me feel really frustrated that he hasn't said much about it.

 

I hear ya.  But you get the audience you deserve.  If you make your space a safe place for fuckheads, there will be fuckheads.  

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I just wish that Jeff et al. were more vocal about the opinions they obviously hold w.r.t. GG and that ugly side of "gamer culture" (whatever that means). I understand that they need the money and the audience, but there are still a lot of shitty people inside the GB community and I think a part of that comes down to the staff being a bit elusive whenever something vaguely political pops up. Seeing how easily Jeff puts the anti-GG point across in a very lucid way makes me feel really frustrated that he hasn't said much about it.

 

What specifically would you like GB/Jeff to do? I'll grant you that there's always more that can be done, but they have certainly addressed it directly and indirectly. Jeff wrote an article last summer specifically stating GB's views, they talked about it on podcasts. Indirectly, Samantha Kalman has been on the Bombcast, Danswers, Bombin' the AM, Danielle was on Danswers and Bombin', Zoe Quinn was on Bombin'. Again, there is always more that can be done. I don't disagree. At the same time, their actions in support of diversty and against GG do exist.

 

I have to wonder if their reticence is because they think delving back into it would be fanning the flames. I don't know, I can only speculate.

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GB's traditionally had a tendency to pawn that stuff off on Patrick, who has a Chrome extension dedicated to removing his content from the website, including Bombin' the AM.

 

While they did put up an article about GG, it wasn't last summer (which would have been pre-GG away), it was two months after the fact, and after Zoe had already called out GB specifically as a site that hadn't done anything to cover or even prevent GG from using their names (I'm sure the article was in the wings for a while, but after two months they kind of deserve to get called out for it). And when they talked about it on the Bombcast, it was a very half-hearted discussion missing critical details; they described it in the vague terms of "people threatening game developers" and not the much more accurately descriptive "Gamergate-supporters threatening women." Everything else has come down to subscribers-only stuff like Jar Time or Danswers where it's less likely to go noticed. I don't think that anyone at GB is pro-GG, but they did a terrible job of showing it.

 

It really made me appreciate the way that the Thumbs handled it: they haven't talked about GG much, but within a week of it starting they made it abundantly clear that they recognized and condemned GG for exactly what it was.

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Yeah. I don't know. I'm conflicted - I think Jeff in particular has a lot of clout among the kind of fuckboys who call into his... drive time radio show (???) and insist that he's on the side of gamergate, and it would be personally satisfying to hear him deflate that entire contingent beyond all shadow of a doubt, but I think my feelings about whether or not Giant Bomb has "done enough" are based more in my personal feelings about the duders than anything else. Namely, I like them, I look up to them personally and professionally, and I want them to agree with my side of this. I think that their letter was comically late, but it did go up, and it said the right things. Why isn't that enough for me?

 

I wonder sometimes if Jeff really is right when he says that focusing so much on gamergate, The Movement really is giving them more power than they deserve. Obviously they aren't going away, and we need to support their victims in whatever way we can. I don't think we should stick our heads in the sand or ignore things. But my snarking on twitter about gamergate doesn't do half as much to turn back the tide as my making things, as criticizing and making games when and where I can, as trying to be a positive force for change instead of wringing my hands about whether or not I'm gonna be ~truegendered~ if I do anything at all. Fuck that, man. Fuck being scared and fuck letting them hold me hostage and fuck even giving them, like, an inch of room to try and undo the inevitability of change and progress in this industry. 

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I feel like they ignore the gg shit because it is shit. Their MO has been to make wide ranging light and fun gaming videos and host a wiki. Typically Gisn't Bomb hasn't been the site with deep insight and journalism in the industry. They just make fun shit. Their letter was well written and poignant. I liked it.

That being said, does anyone else get the feeling that Brad just phones it in now? Pretty much every UPF he sleeps on the couch or brings in a broken game/ plays a game that they have done to death.

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Giant Bomb has always seemed to me like a site that doesn't like to be involved in politics or controversies, and generally takes a neutral ground on most issues. Gamergate is entirely about extremes vs extremes, so it made perfect sense to me that, as a site, they would not engage with it. Jeff talking with that GG guy just maintains that position. (I didn't finish the whole thing but I was most of the way through.) He was just trying to talk the guy down and make him consider it from both perspectives, instead of getting all crazy about the fate of his saturday morning cartoons and whatnot. The most reasonable thing for Giant Bomb to do in this whole thing is wish sympathies for all victims of threats and attacks, and leave it at that, which is exactly what they did. There's no use engaging most people involved. 

 

And yes, Brad has lost his passion. Just waiting for the announcement of his new Twitch show: Gamin' with Guineas, (Or, Playin' with Peegs). 

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I would watch Playin' with Peegs.

 

I really hate the sentiment, on both sides of GG, that "if you are not saying anything, you are obviously against me".  It is unproductive and a bad way to think about things.  I personally don't say anything publicly about the awful GG stuff, but I have my opinons, I just don't share them publicly.  I would be bad at that.  There are plenty of other thoughtful and eloquent people that could say things better than I.

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Giant Bomb has always seemed to me like a site that doesn't like to be involved in politics or controversies, and generally takes a neutral ground on most issues. Gamergate is entirely about extremes vs extremes, so it made perfect sense to me that, as a site, they would not engage with it. Jeff talking with that GG guy just maintains that position. (I didn't finish the whole thing but I was most of the way through.) He was just trying to talk the guy down and make him consider it from both perspectives, instead of getting all crazy about the fate of his saturday morning cartoons and whatnot. The most reasonable thing for Giant Bomb to do in this whole thing is wish sympathies for all victims of threats and attacks, and leave it at that, which is exactly what they did. There's no use engaging most people involved. 

 

And yes, Brad has lost his passion. Just waiting for the announcement of his new Twitch show: Gamin' with Guineas, (Or, Playin' with Peegs). 

 

I disagree with the assertion that gamergate is about "extremes vs extremes." What's the extreme notion that these people are reacting to? "Women and queer people should have more representation in games than they do now" isn't an extreme position, it's, like, the minimum standard of human decency.

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I think there may be some extreme people among those that gamergate has targeted - it should come as no surprise that queer circles tend to be politically radical in the American conception of what radicalism means, after all - but I guess my issue lies with the framing of this whole thing as some sort of debate, with people on both sides offering positions that deserve to be taken seriously. It's not a conversation in the same way that someone mugging you in an alley isn't a conversation.

 

Anyway, this is totally the wrong thread for this, haha. How about Mario Party? That's good stuff, right?

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I would agree that there is definitely like 99.9% of rational people on one side of the debate, (Though, I don't know who that 0.1% would be).

 

The problem with addressing the whole GG situation (to a larger degree than just one open letter) is that it just kind of takes over the narrative of their website.  If you talk about it... they will come.  And then everything turns into a shit show.  Sucks that it turns out that way, but that is how it has been happening.  One thing that GB has done, though, is have people like Samantha Kalman on their shows, and it was no big deal.  If you make a deal about it, people go crazy, so they are not discussing it on the site.

 

I feel like their position on the whole thing is like you are saying "This isn't even a debate, and the GG folks are so crazy" so we aren't going to give those people the time of day by treating it as a legitimate discussion topic.

 

To change the subject, anyone try the Nacho oreo abomination?  My brother texted me that he tried it and it was great.  Uggh.  Dan is an idiot and I love it.

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I really hate the sentiment, on both sides of GG, that "if you are not saying anything, you are obviously against me". It is unproductive and a bad way to think about things. I personally don't say anything publicly about the awful GG stuff, but I have my opinons, I just don't share them publicly. I would be bad at that. There are plenty of other thoughtful and eloquent people that could say things better than I.

It's a hard and uncomfortable thing to grasp, but there is truth to it. I can't speak to the experiences of people targeted by GamerGate, but I know from my personal experience as a queer person that silent support feels like damnation. It doesn't have to be much, just a little message of support. When you're in a bad situation, the words of support just mean a lot because not saying anything feels like you're saying, "This (read: you) doesn't matter enough to me to say anything about it."

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It's a hard and uncomfortable thing to grasp, but there is truth to it. I can't speak to the experiences of people targeted by GamerGate, but I know from my personal experience as a queer person that silent support feels like damnation. It doesn't have to be much, just a little message of support. When you're in a bad situation, the words of support just mean a lot because not saying anything feels like you're saying, "This (read: you) doesn't matter enough to me to say anything about it."

 

And the converse is that #GamerGate aggressively markets silence as support for their bigotry and hate. We've seen this just with Giant Bomb: first all of GB privately supported #GamerGate according to them, then everyone besides Patrick once he started speaking out, then when Jeff posted his letter it was still everyone except Patrick (who probably pressured Jeff into saying something he didn't really believe), and then a few months later it's everyone except Patrick and Jeff, the latter of whom might really just be confused about what #GamerGate really is...

 

Like, I know that these guys are in the business of talking about games, not playing politics, but I can't help but feel that history will vindicate those who stated their positions as soon as they felt able and in a way that refused misinterpretation. I think treating #GamerGate as the bully that your mom assures you will just give up if you don't give him what he wants is damaging to GB in some way, but of course I can't prove that, so it's whatever.

 

Really, I hope everyone who opposes #GamerGate in whatever way that they see fit are vindicated in their strategies. I don't know how that's going to happen, but I wish all strategies were equally as effective at dealing with the bullshit.

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Maybe Jeff's past history with being bold with his opinions is leading to some reticence on addressing the topic any more than they already have.

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I still think it has a lot to do with the Early Access GamerGate that kicked off when Maddy Myers and Samantha Allen came under attack last ~July. They'd immediately got mobbed for calling out GB for their homogeneous hiring practices when they brought on Dan Ryckert and Jason Oestreicher (with the subtext being "...instead of them", or at least that's what was being thrown back in their faces). Allen actually left games entirely as a result. That's probably why GG is/was so sure GB is on their side as well.

 

It took a while for GB to condemn that and not before they were further called out for ignoring what was being done in their name, if not necessarily by their community. And, when they did it was the in that "you don't represent us" style mentioned recently above. 

 

I'm sure they don't support GamerGate, but I also don't think they feel a lot of urgency to hoist a banner in the fight for progress either. 

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It's worth noting that under the direction of their corporate overlords CBSi, they are probably pretty discouraged against taking overly political views under the main GB banner because business reasons and stuff. I imagine that's the biggest reason why we're getting this trickle of information re: their views through weird channels like Mixlr and whatever.

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