GamerGate and Ethics in Journalism
For anyone who doesn’t know, the seeds of the GamerGate movement began when game developer Zoe Quinn’s former boyfriend wrote a blog post accusing her of cheating on him, and of generally being “an unbelievable jerk,” which led to a campaign of harassment against Quinn. Quinn’s ex- alleged that one of the people Quinn had slept with was journalist Nathan Grayson, and that this led to a brief mention of one of Quinn’s games in an article that was published before the alleged relationship ever started.
Because GamerGate is all is about ethics in journalism. And also time travel, apparently.
The movement began its crusade for stronger ethics in journalism with such rallying cries as, “Next time she shows up at a conference we … give her a crippling injury that’s never going to fully heal … a good solid injury to the knees. I’d say a brain damage, but we don’t want to make it so she ends up too retarded to fear us.” People who spoke out in support of Quinn were attacked as well, and their personal information published online.
All right, fine. So this all started with a whiny man-child’s temper tantrum about his failed relationship. But then it evolved into a Very Serious Conversation about ethics in journal–
Actually, what happened next were death threats and other harassment against Anita Sarkeesian.
But that was all before Adam Baldwin coined the term “GamerGate”! Just because the not-yet-officially-named movement was born in the muck and slime doesn’t mean Baldwin couldn’t turn things around and lead the newly-baptized group into a more Productive and Important Discussion of ethics in–
Wait, no. Baldwin coined the term in order to spread the attack on Zoe Quinn. Sorry, my bad.
But soon women and minorities joined the #GamerGate boat, coining the new hash tag #NotYourShield to protest those who were focusing on harassment instead of ethics in journalism. Apparently a small minority of Angry Feminists™ and Social Justice Warriors were using GamerGate as an excuse to push their own agenda. But ethics affect everyone, and #NotYourShield clearly showed that most women and minorities weren’t upset about–
Whoops. Turns out #NotYourShield was born and raised over in 4chan, using sockpuppet accounts and such.
Well, I’m sure GamerGate soon turned their attentions fully to the issues of ethics–
I mean, after they got done sending death threats to game developer Brianna Wu, driving her and her husband from their home, presumably as ethical punishment for the crimes of Mocking GamerGate and Gaming While Female.
All that aside though, the core of the movement is to reduce the nepotism in gaming journalism, which game designer David Hill notes “was essentially coopted as a marketing arm for certain AAA publishers.” Aha! And now we see GamerGate finally focusing on its core mission to fix ethics in–
Oh … Hill goes on to note that GamerGate looks like “some strange bizarro world” where the people being targeted and attacked have nothing to do with the larger problem of ethics in journalism.
But the people making threats aren’t really with GamerGate. They’re all sockpuppets, and also, Wu and Quinn and everyone else have been posting threats against themselves to discredit the movement. Because we all know women lie, right? And the best way to criticize a group you don’t like is … um … by posting your own home address on the internet? I guess? So where were we. Ah yes, ethics in–
And now Felicia Day gets harassed and doxxed for expressing her concerns about GamerGate.
But the sidebar in the Reddit GamerGate group clearly says “No doxxing,” so it couldn’t have been anyone from GamerGate. Lots of GamerGate people are speaking out about how the harassment and doxxing has to stop because it’s awful, unacceptable, hateful behavior it makes GG look bad.
And maybe it wasn’t an official GamerGater. Because at this point, the top Reddit post in the GamerGate discussion also says, “Stop identifying as ‘#GamerGaters.’ You’re Gamers first, Consumers second.”
Problem solved! If nobody is identifying as GamerGaters, then obviously GamerGate isn’t harassing anyone.
Look, from reading through some of the boards, it’s clear there are people involved with GamerGate because they genuinely care about the problems in gaming journalism. And it sounds like there are legitimate concerns there, and things that need to be challenged and addressed. But there are an awful lot of people who jumped on the GamerGate bandwagon because it was an opportunity to troll and harass and attack women in gaming. Who view “Ethics in Journalism” as synonymous with “The Evil Social Justice Warriors are coming to Ruin All the Things!!!”
Sexism and harassment in gaming? That’s a legitimate and real concern too. And the GamerGate movement was born from it. Maybe it’s grown into a hydra with one head that truly just cares about ethics while another head is all about harassing women, and a third head is just mad at social justice warriors, but no matter how many heads GamerGate has sprouted, it only has one ass, and it’s been dropping an awful lot of particularly noxious crap for months now.
N. E. White
October 24, 2014 @ 11:31 am
Thanks for this. I don’t play games and haven’t followed this closely. I honestly wasn’t sure who the bad folks were…I still don’t know but at least I understand the problem.
Jess
October 24, 2014 @ 11:33 am
I remember using the #StopGamerGate hashtag to tweet support, and was immediately jumped on for pointing out that it’s really scary being a woman. One of them accused Sarkeesian of faking her death threats, which I’ve seen thrown around online, but the accusers have yet to offer any actual proof (and you’d think the FBI would catch something like that early on, considering they’ve verified some?).
Fred Kiesche
October 24, 2014 @ 11:39 am
Well done, Jim. Good summary.
Kristy
October 24, 2014 @ 11:49 am
I am a gamer, but I tend to avoid online gaming for all the reasons seen here. Great summary Jim!
Vivacia
October 24, 2014 @ 11:51 am
This is spot on – sadly none of the little GG’s will believe a word of it and simply say you’re yet another “SJW”, blindly pandering to the left. Sigh.
The thing that’s infuriated me the most is the pathetic whinging about having “gamers” disrespected and their opinions silenced because of prejudice or corrupt journalism. You don’t have to be a genius to see the irony when someone like myself would normally happily link this comment to my blog and post my real name. But I am keeping my identity out of any comments I make about GamerGate online. Why? Because I identify as female and a gamer and that’s enough to make me a target apparently.
The only gamers being silenced and disrespected right now are ones with a uterus or who identify as female. And it ain’t journalism or “SJW”s doing that.
Martin
October 24, 2014 @ 11:52 am
It is just another entitlement debate. The GG folks think that others (Zoe, Anita, Felicia) have something that rightfully belongs to them: attention, recognition, fame, etc.
They say “Why does the press ask Anita about games? She doesn’t really play. But they ignore me, the great gamer, who mastered the dungeon of endless boredom to retrieve the amulet of mass-grinding. The press must be corrupt. So this is about ethics in journalism.”
ganymeder
October 24, 2014 @ 12:03 pm
I remember I responded to a tweet about GG, I think something like “I can’t believe all this is over gaming!” as a reference to the sexual harrassment. Boy, I got a lot of responses to that one, luckily none offensive to me, most very defensive about the ethics. It’s just… why?
SMQ
October 24, 2014 @ 12:09 pm
Also of note, from Leigh Alexander (one of the harassed): an actual (partial) list of ethical concerns in games and games journalism: http://leighalexander.net/list-of-ethical-concerns-in-video-games-partial/
SMD
October 24, 2014 @ 12:11 pm
It boggles the mind why the folks in GG who actually care about ethical stuff keep associating themselves with GG. If you just discarded the label and focused on the ethical stuff, you’d be taken seriously (well, assuming your ethical stuff is valid, of course). The people desperate to defend the movement when it has so obviously destroyed itself from the inside is beyond me…
Wez
October 24, 2014 @ 12:16 pm
I have save games older than some of the people who are whining about how they aren’t all like that (assuming the media is still good) but I don’t get taken seriously ’cause I don’t play the right games or have the right body parts apparently.
I’ve been lucky not to get much grief online but I see enough of it to be both disgusted and bored with it. If this is really about ethics they’d be going after the big players not indy developers who are ‘coincidently’ female and the odd guy who supports them. They start taking on the big companies I’ll start taking them seriously in their claims that it’s not about keeping gaming a No Girls Allowed Club.
Isabel C.
October 24, 2014 @ 12:34 pm
An easy guide for anyone unsure whether to take “GamerGate” and its claims of “but but but journalistic ethics!” seriously.
1) Try to think of any legitimate sociopolitical movement that has ever centered around or been created by someone’s butthurt ex.
2) Yeah. Didn’t think so.
3) Go have a beer.
David Steffen
October 24, 2014 @ 1:09 pm
Unfortunately, they don’t HAVE to take on the big companies because the big companies have just stayed out of it despite everything.
Muccamukk
October 24, 2014 @ 1:52 pm
I feel like there’s a Lenin/Trotsky joke in there somewhere.
Muccamukk
October 24, 2014 @ 1:54 pm
Great post, Jim. I was just saying to my brother that it’s really heartening to see all the nerd guys on side, as we women folk are pretty sick of arguing about this by ourselves.
Isabel C.
October 24, 2014 @ 2:06 pm
Isn’t there always? 😉
marc
October 24, 2014 @ 2:28 pm
Sigh, “ethical journalism” such a great buzzword for them to grab onto. Of course none of them actually know anything about journalism, they’ve never actually worked in the industry, haven’t taken any courses in journalism and all they seem to know about how it works (if they know anything about it at all) they “learned” from watching the “oh so accurate” portrayals seen in movies and on TV.
I’ve worked in the field for more than a decade now, I’m an editor and while I now work in the public sector I cut my chops working in financial news. These people have no idea how fact checking works, how stories are vetted and the kind of approval process stories go through before they’re sent to the public. Nor do they realize the amount of work made by editors to ensure that the stories do meet the codes of journalistic ethics.
They also have no conception that it isn’t possible to do an “objective” critique on something. That what makes a review/critique useful and interesting is the author’s take on it. People with a long history of reading reviews from certain people will know what their bias is and we’ll tend to gravitate towards reviewers that they share a common ideology with.
I wish the gamergaters would take at least a little time to educate themselves on what journalistic ethics really are, how they work in relation to the job that is being done and then they’d understand that most of their “issues” aren’t even real.
Celestine
October 24, 2014 @ 2:40 pm
Same here, Kristy.
Celestine
October 24, 2014 @ 2:43 pm
I would like there to be a like button on your blog, please, Jim, so I can like this whole thread, kthxbai.
Kristy
October 24, 2014 @ 2:52 pm
True that!
Sally
October 24, 2014 @ 3:05 pm
When they start taking on the cozy relationships between makers of AAA games and reviewers thereof, that’s when I’ll believe them. The “I went on an all-expense paid trip to BungieCon or EA World or Land o’XBox, look at our swag… and here’s my totally unbiased opinion of the game… and a selfie of me and the head of the company… and the thousands of dollars they pay us each month in advertising…” Kinda makes me doubt any journalistic ethics. Woodward and Bernstein weren’t collecting cash and prizes from Deep Throat.
Kristin
October 24, 2014 @ 7:28 pm
Damn, I’ve been playing forever and the Amulet of Mass Grinding hasn’t dropped for me yet.
Pat Munson-Siter
October 24, 2014 @ 7:31 pm
Most of the gamer magazines are at least in part owned / supported by major gaming companies, from what I hear, so it would be pretty difficult to give ‘objective’ reviews anyway. That’s ignoring the point Sally, above, makes – reviews cannot help but be subjective and therefore are going to be biased.
Jayle Enn
October 24, 2014 @ 9:26 pm
You could write a paper on modern cargo cults based on some of the things these people have done. A couple of weeks into the whole stupid thing, a swarm of the busy little fire ants got their way into JSTOR or something and tried to ‘debunk’ scholarly articles written by people they’d decided were enemies of the movement. I’d never seen so much misused terminology, misunderstood reasoning, and florid examples of classically fallacious arguments in my life.
Jayle Enn
October 24, 2014 @ 9:35 pm
Given the scale of this shit, the FBI is probably doing the same thing they did when Anonymous was giving people carte blanche to make psychopaths of themselves: preparing a dragnet. Not that they actually give press conferences or the like for everything that’s brought to their attention to begin with. For them, all of this is a tempest in a teapot; it isn’t worth making grand announcements.
Besides which: unless they find you standing over a body, carrying a hammer matted with gore, due process tends to take a while.
Martin
October 25, 2014 @ 4:16 am
That is easy to fix. For the amulet to drop you first need to cap your mindless skill and remove all your social skills. Afterwards you repeat any action you’re currently doing 100.000 times, puff, there it is ;-).
D. D. Webb
October 25, 2014 @ 7:13 am
As a gamer, this entire debacle has been mortifying. I quit following the whole thing after my initial examinations showed what Jim has just demonstrated: this has never been about anything but trying to harass women out of the hobby.
Over the years I’ve been delighted to see the field of gaming opening up and gaining a lot of female players. Unfortunately, gaming is also one of the last subcultures in which overt sexism and harassment is widely and openly practiced without repercussions. Gamers come from all walks of life, but there was a time when it was seen as a hobby for guys–and a certain kind of guy, at that. All that’s happening here is that those “certain kind of guy” holdouts are upset that what was once theirs belongs to everyone. Yes, that is every bit as transparently pitiful as it sounds. The real stinker is how the Internet enables one vocal group of remorseless know-nothings to set the tone of an entire discussion.
As long as stuff like this keeps happening, the gaming community will continue to have the bad reputation it does. I do my best to welcome everybody in, and play only with others who share that attitude. I’m actually part of a pretty good community in the only online game I currently play, where behavior like this doesn’t gain much traction. Eventually, that will be the norm. For now, I guess this idiocy must be suffered.
Jessi Benwhoski
October 25, 2014 @ 7:17 am
“And maybe it wasn’t an official GamerGater.”
That’s the thing, though, there is no “official” GamerGate. By their own admission, they have no leaders and no single, cohesive goal. It’s not a club with a memebership roster, it’s just a thing a bunch of people call themselves for any number of reasons.
I rant about this more in my own blog post (http://benwhoski.com/wordpress/the-terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-hashtag/) but the shorter version is that I do think there is a reasonable faction among the GamerGaters who really are trying to _make_ it about ethics, but it’s still a “movement” that was originally formed out of outrage that a female game dev allegedly slept with a bunch of people. That faction of GamerGate that wants a reasonable thing (disclosure when a journalist covers someone where there may be a personal connection) would really, really do well to walk away from the GamerGate name. It isn’t helping their cause and is only aligning themselves with the masses that are, at best, throwing tantrums about “SJWs”.
I know the argument to that is “but if we change to another name, the trolls will just follow us there!” to which I say “Maybe you don’t need a stupid, sensationalist hashtag to make your point in the first place.
Droewyn
October 25, 2014 @ 9:57 am
But if it IS about ethics, then they absolutely have to take on the big players, because they’re the ones who buy good reviews, campaign to get reviewers who give their games poor reviews fired, etc.
The fact that neither EA nor Ubisoft has had so much as a mention from any BlameHerGater pretty much proves that ethics is nothing but a smokescreen for harassing women.
Droewyn
October 25, 2014 @ 9:58 am
But… but… how can there possibly be a more reliable source as to a person’s character than from their jilted, angry ex?
Have I been living a lie all this time?
Katie Berger
October 25, 2014 @ 10:47 am
IGN, The Escapist, and GameSpot are all owned by marketing companies whose biggest accounts are video game companies (so is GameFaqs, which is owned by the same company that owns IGN). GameInformer is owned by Gamestop, which, well, Gamestop.
The idea of an objective review of anything is ludicrous since a review is by nature a (hopefully) educated expression of someone’s subjective experience with a product and/or service.
Rico
October 25, 2014 @ 11:13 am
Jim, I believe your passion on this subject has caused you to overlook some key details on what started this. Eron, was horrifically abused by his significant other. Reading the Facebook chatlogs, which were given authenticity by a video of Eron scrolling through them on FB, it sounds as though he suffered experiences similar to what the people that you give rape counseling to go through.
By her own definition, Zoe Quinn raped her boyfriend. Raped him. She also threatened to kill herself if he left her. From your experiences as a counselor, I would gather that you consider this horrific abuse. Soon after this information was released, someone on twitter came forward and stated they were sexually harassed by her at a wedding. This individual was shamed for speaking up. In your experience does this ever help anyone but the abuse to hide their crimes?
From her past writings, she talks of being abused growing up, it sounds as though she has become the abuser now. Jim, I am not trying to change your mind on gamergate. Merely to convince you to provide this serial abuser no cover.
Chrysoula Tzavelas
October 25, 2014 @ 12:07 pm
So… is GamerGate about ethics in journalism or punishing Zoe Quinn?
Chrysoula Tzavelas
October 25, 2014 @ 12:10 pm
Because if it’s about ethics in journalism, Zoe Quinn should be _completely irrelevant_ to the discussion.
Rico
October 25, 2014 @ 12:18 pm
I make no claim as to what it is about. Also, do you not understand that some people care far more about preventing a serial abuser from hurting others then doling out punishment?
Katie Berger
October 25, 2014 @ 12:38 pm
The allegations against Zoe Quinn W/R/T her behavior toward Eron Gjoni fall into the category of “deeply concerning, if true.” However, as a partner of someone with severe depression with anergic/catatonic expressions, which is the form of depression that Quinn suffers from, my perspective is that “I will die if you leave” is not so much a threat as a statement of what the depressed person believes to be true.
HOWEVER, Gjoni’s response to it literally defines “disproportionate retribution,” in that he made her the target of an unending stream of abuse and rape/death threats. It is PRECISELY attempts at mob justice like this that make due process important.
Gjoni was looking for an army to punish his ex. He flowcharted out his attack on her to make sure that it would have the desired effect. That the effect was far greater than he anticipated is irrelevant; his DESIRE was to punish his ex by marshaling the forces of the Internet to attack her.
Rico
October 25, 2014 @ 12:53 pm
Katie, these sorts of allegations have come from multiple accounts and even from Quinn herself.
Has what Eron did harmed Quinn in many ways not including financially? Yes. However I keep seeing it used to cover up what she did. Piles and piles of information about the things that has happened to her all but burying the abuse. Is this being reported about in the media similar to when other game developers have commited sexual abuse, no. On her abuse we get deafening silence
You are doing it yourself. It sounds like you are trying to invalidate what she did by what Eron did in response.
Droewyn
October 25, 2014 @ 1:25 pm
Okay, fine. Let’s accept your premise. Zoe Quinn is a bad person. Right.
Who did Anita Sarkeesian abuse?
Who did Brianna Wu abuse?
Who did Leigh Alexander abuse?
Who did Jenn Frank abuse?
Who did Jennifer Hale abuse?
Who did Mattie Bryce abuse?
Who did Felicia Day abuse?
Rico
October 25, 2014 @ 1:49 pm
Droewyn, what are you even trying to prove?
Jim C. Hines
October 25, 2014 @ 1:54 pm
Reading through the back-and-forth, my take on the question is that while this may be true, what does it have to do with GamerGate?
Rico
October 25, 2014 @ 2:18 pm
Well, as she is mentioned in your own post about the gamergate controversy, I think you would agree on some level that she is part of gamergate. Also, in the outcry against gamergate any information about the abusive nature of Quinn has been mounded over with diversion. I see Gamergate as being used as an excuse to ignore the monstrous actions of Quinn.
I also believed that this information would be relevant to your personal pursuits.
Stefan
October 25, 2014 @ 2:36 pm
Sorry, but Quinn’s sex life is of no concern to you, me or Gamergate.
“I see Gamergate as being used as an excuse to ignore the monstrous actions of Quinn.”
I see people under the Gamergate banner harassing people (see Droewyn’s post). As for Quinn, I am not going to play judge, jury or executioner here. What transpired between her and her ex is their business and consequently their issue to resolve.
If abuse did take place? There are support groups for that. There are institutions that can help you.
What you don’t do is sic an internet mob on someone who is suffering from depression as is.
Chrysoula Tzavelas
October 25, 2014 @ 3:05 pm
Here’s a key point of your allegations against Zoe Quinn, by the way. “By her own definition, Zoe Quinn raped her boyfriend.”
She has an extreme definition of rape, one that even she couldn’t live up to. Fortunately for her, it isn’t the _actual_ definition of rape. And we don’t treat people by the standards they set. Or do we?
By my standards I’m Queen of the World. Everybody now has to pay homage to me, right?
But by commonly accepted standards, she acted (allegedly) in the same way thousands of men (and women) act all the damn time: behavior that is unpleasant but subject to personal ethnics only.
If you care so much about preventing an ‘abuser’ from hurting others, I suggest you find other ways to go about it than walking into threads about Gamergate and bringing up Zoe Quinn. Talking about her sex life doesn’t stop her from hurting anybody. At no point in the history of the world has talking about a woman’s sex life served to ‘protect others’; the only point is shaming and ruining her life. Do you think Zoe’s life needs to be ruined to protect random strangers on the internet from her sexual wiles? Go ahead, say ‘yes’. But I fully expect you to then start working on ruining the life of anybody else who ever had sex beyond the bounds of their relationship, whether or not they consider it ‘rape’.
Chrysoula Tzavelas
October 25, 2014 @ 3:09 pm
Nobody cares about her ‘abuse’ because almost everybody has sex and many many people have sex outside of a relationship at some point in their life. Presidents do it. Sports stars do it. It used to be scandalous. It’s barely that anymore. It’s certainly not a crime.
Rico
October 25, 2014 @ 3:11 pm
“Sorry,
Rico
October 25, 2014 @ 3:14 pm
“Sorry, but Quinn’s sex life is of no concern to you, me or Gamergate.”
That is exactly, exactly, the sort of attitude that allows abusers to get away with it. However, as Mr. Hines would be the local expert on the topic I would bow to his wisdom on the subject.
Jim C. Hines
October 25, 2014 @ 3:24 pm
I agree that she is involved with GamerGate, as the attacks on her were where this all seemed to get started.
You said that discussion of Quinn’s crimes have been diverted by all of the attention on GamerGate. But what happened here was that I posted about GamerGate, and you’re diverting the subject to your claims that Quinn is a rapist.
That’s certainly possible, though I haven’t seen claims or evidence of such, aside from yours. But it doesn’t change the fact that the harassment and threats and attacks happening in GamerGate’s name are not okay.
If Quinn is a rapist, then I absolutely agree that this is despicable and should be addressed. But I don’t think it should be addressed by going into conversations about a large group that’s been threatening various women and saying, “But one of those women is actually a Really Bad Person.”
Does that make sense?
Rico
October 25, 2014 @ 3:46 pm
It does
Stefan
October 25, 2014 @ 3:51 pm
If that’s the way you chose to interpret it. That’s not what I said however.
Mob justice is not okay. There are ways to deal with abusers. Rallying people to send death and rape threats is not okay.
I also agree with what Jim said below.
MadGastronomer
October 25, 2014 @ 9:10 pm
The people who are saying that they’re interested in the ethics keep ending up resorting to the things that have already been disproven, and there’s quite a bit of evidence that most of them are sockpuppets for people who are actually misogynist assholes trying to make Gamergate look a little better but not actually caring about anything but bringing down the women they’re targeting. Zoe Quinn just came out with the logs (and screenshots and video) of an IRC channel she’s been hanging out in where they’ve literally been plotting these things. Hell, they’ve plotted some of it on public boards.
They are not concerned with actual ethics. They are misogynists trying to bring down women in gaming. We have the evidence of actual conspiracy here, conspiracy to destroy lives and careers. That’s why they keep associating with GG — because that’s why they’re there.
MadGastronomer
October 25, 2014 @ 9:20 pm
What there are, though, are a bunch of people who are specifically setting out to keep the “movement” going and to drive it in certain directions. And those people are intentionally driving it in the direction of misogyny, of destroying these women’s lives and livelihoods. They are behind the entire idea that this is about journalistic ethics. They are the ones claiming that. Most of the posts talking about ethics are by their sockpuppets. (Yes, there is evidence of that. Zoe Quinn has a bunch of chat logs, screenshots and video of an IRC chat room where they’ve been planning an awful lot of this entire thing.) And the “ethical” issues they’re talking about are not the real ethical issues going on, but entirely manufactured and already disproven bullshit. There is no one in Gamergate who is genuinely concerned with actual ethical issues. There’s not.
Jessi Benwhoski
October 25, 2014 @ 11:38 pm
Oh, I know that the “journalistic ethics” thing started as a smokescreen to lend legitimacy to the name. I get that. I do think, though, that there are people who have genuinely fallen for the ruse. Perhaps I am giving too much credit to some of the GG supporters I’ve interacted with. I honestly don’t know whether, in this case, that makes me too cynical or not cynical enough 🙂
Katie Berger
October 26, 2014 @ 8:51 am
“Harassment is bad but harassed person did XYZ bad things” is a really disgusting idea. It’s used to morally excuse harassment by implying that the person who was harassed deserved to be harassed – because their moral purity is suspect or lacking, they therefore lack the protection of the righteous, and can be attacked and destroyed at will.
No. Regardless of what Zoe Quinn did or did not do, she did not and does not deserve to be harassed by hundreds of enraged strangers, and I will stand fully against the idea that ANY sort of behavior deserves the sort of crowdsourced abuse that she has been subjected to.
Harlinden
October 26, 2014 @ 5:13 pm
First post on your blog. I passed one hour this afternoon reading on a board I follow since many years. The moderator has banned six persons in Chat for bad comportment in a discussion on GamersGate, some of the banned refusing a place for women in gaming.
An other blog mentionned the problem of the True Gamers, ie if you don’t play hardcore you are not a gamer.
I am not an American, and I have not beef in that question, but that appear to me that the Internet has permitted that the most radical of the opinions are visible for alll, and could coalesce in self-renforcing groups.
madd
October 27, 2014 @ 10:38 am
Now I kind of wan to buy this shirt: http://teespring.com/sjwarrior
madd
October 27, 2014 @ 11:06 am
Apparently, the whole rape deal came about because Quinn said that she slept with someone and didn’t tell Gjoni, there has been some debate as to whether they were “on a break” at the time. She believed that, if he had known about it, he would not have continued their relationship. So, to her mind, she took away his ability to consent by withholding that information. She labeled it rape and her detractors, whether they would normally consider this behavior rape or not, jumped on it.
David Steffen
October 27, 2014 @ 5:07 pm
>>But if it IS about ethics
I find it hard to believe that anyone actually thinks it’s about ethics. It would just be even harder to find a following if your soapbox statement is “girls aren’t allowed to play with my toys and if they do I will rape and/or kill them.” They are using “ethics” in the same way that corporations use “synergy”–as an obscuring buzzword. Because anyone who argues with ethics must be a horrible person, right?
James
October 27, 2014 @ 10:09 pm
“This is spot on – sadly none of the little GG’s will believe a word of it and simply say you’re yet another “SJW”, blindly pandering to the left. Sigh.”
So how is he not pandering, not only to the left, but to his mostly female readership?
“The thing that’s infuriated me the most is the pathetic whinging about having “gamers” disrespected and their opinions silenced because of prejudice or corrupt journalism.”
Did you read the article by Leigh Alexander which triggered much of this GamerGate rage?
Don’t make games for gamers because gamers are over according to the author.
” Because I identify as female and a gamer and that’s enough to make me a target apparently.”
It isn’t that you’re female, or even a gamer. If you were a female gaming designer who used sex to curry favors (seeking favorable reviews) with gaming journalists for a “depressing” game, then you might become a (legitimate) target.
Or if you are a relatively unknown feminist activist who decided there was just too much sexism in games (Without mentioning all the sexism in the pornography industry, or in say the Japanese gaming market) and that must change regardless of how popular those games are, and irrespective of gamers’ opinions on the matter, then you might make some people angry.
If you are a “gamer” then play games, there are obviously some games you like to play, and don’t worry about what games other people play.
“The only gamers being silenced and disrespected right now are ones with a uterus or who identify as female. And it ain’t journalism or “SJW”s doing that.”
Name six female gamers who have been silenced by GamerGate….
Thorgar son of Kronar
October 28, 2014 @ 1:53 pm
I did read the article by Leah Alexander. Did you? Because you seem to be displaying a lack of comprehension skills. She said that games aren’t just for the stereotypical “gamer” (unwashed boy in his parents’ basement) anymore, that gaming includes many more demographics now, and that the stereotype of the “gamer” is over. But I assume you just read the headline and went from there. Or someone you follow on social media saved you that trouble altogether.
Try to wedge this into your cranium: accusing a woman of using sex to “curry favors” is SEXISM. Saying that it makes her a “legitimate” target of abuse and threats is REPREHENSIBLE.
You’re saying that just because Sarkeesian is publicly giving feminist critique on video games that are popular, and not on every single other thing that contains sexism ever, that that either invalidates her (as “little known”) or else makes her deserving of the overwhelming amount of sea lioning, doxing, and violent threats (because she “makes people angry”). I can’t figure out which point you’re trying to make here and I really don’t care which because both are inexcusable. She’s stating her opinion. Don’t agree? Nobody said you have to. Why does that make it OK to send her threats? Why does that make it OK to try to silence her?
As to your final “point”, I don’t have to name any. You seem to suggest that not naming six Actual Woman Gamers silenced by GamerGate makes GamerGate perfectly OK, because it doesn’t actually silence anyone. Or something? Never mind that you CAN’T name someone who’s decided to not use her name (for fear of precisely the kind of threats that people who DO use their names have gotten, including our own Jim now…). If you can’t honestly open your own two eyes and SEE how many people have been threatened under the banner of GamerGate by this point in the game, your own head must be firmly lodged in some place where the sun don’t shine.
Jessi Benwhoski
October 28, 2014 @ 9:53 pm
Wait, so this isn’t even a matter of some dirt dug up on her that she’s trying to keep hidden or something? This is something where she, basically, did something she believes was wrong and shouldn’t have done?
How… uh, dare she?
James
October 29, 2014 @ 10:49 am
Thogar, I read the article, I also know the context behind the ire against the author, do you? Gaming has been a subculture for over thirty years. Now, gaming is “mainstream” but where were these people thirty years ago when gamers, including myself, were teased, persecuted even for playing video games?
Gaming stems from wargaming and video gaming just like table-top gaming (D&D) branched out from that. Today maybe “gaming” isn’t for nerds anymore, just like computers aren’t just for nerds anymore, but the identity of gaming and of the core, hardcore gamer, is that of a nerd.
Culture doesn’t die just because an author said it should die, there has to be a natural death, and judging by the response to authors like Leigh Alexander in the form of Gamergate, it doesn’t seem like the core gamers are willing to let go of their identity just yet. You would understand this if you gamed, but it’s clear you do not.
James
October 29, 2014 @ 11:02 am
As for Ms. Sarkeesian, she stuck her nose into a business she knew almost nothing about, and a culture she was ignorant of, declared both misogynist and lectured down to gamers. And then she is shocked, shocked that some people got angry at her.
I don’t know about death threats, perhaps she was threatened, but threats on the Internet, that’s nothing new. You insulted me twice in one post, not quite a threat, but getting close, change a word or two …
No one was “silenced” however, Ms. Sarkeesian is still speaking as far as I can tell, as are the other female gamers.
Bottom line is if you are going to attack a culture be prepared for some anger directed at you.
Jim C. Hines
October 29, 2014 @ 11:14 am
Nobody is shocked that people got angry.
“I don’t know about death threats…”
Then perhaps you ought to educate yourself before continuing in the conversation. Particularly if you’re going to try to normalize or excuse the kind of threats and harassment people have been receiving.
Robert Wood
October 29, 2014 @ 4:32 pm
James, This is basically victim blaming, and if you read the article, inaccurate.
Robert Wood
October 29, 2014 @ 4:35 pm
I think folks are a bit skeptical here, because we’ve been getting so many different stories about gamergate. As one narrative is discounted, the goalposts are changed and we get another story. This is the first time I’ve heard about this in my reading on the subject, and I have to admit that I’m very suspicious of it.
James
October 30, 2014 @ 1:46 am
I am not excusing the behavior. There is a difference between understanding why an event occurred and justifying that event. Case in point: 9/11, I understand the anger that led to the event, it doesn’t mean I condone it. You’re a writer yes? I assume you know the difference.
As for the death threats, I don’t condone threatening people of course but I also don’t take anyone’s word on the Internet at face value. Ms. Sarkessian is free to produce the relevant tweet(s) and subsequent police report as evidence and people can determine for themselves whether what was said (written) amounted to an actual threat.
Wendy
December 20, 2014 @ 6:20 pm
I never used to be afraid of identifying as female online. I knew I’d get the odd asshole who would try eloquently to solicit intimate pictures of myself (Prove your female – show us yer tits or something equally charming) (and yes they’d use your instead of you’re) but on the whole most people didn’t give a crap, most of them didn’t care I wasn’t a hard core gamer but someone of average to decent ability who enjoyed playing games.
These days I’m less inclined to play multi player games, much less inclined to group with strangers and, on the rare occasion when I do, seriously disinclined to let people know that my gender and my characters match.
Pretty sure for every person like me there are several others who feel the same and at least one or two who have quit gaming ’cause they really don’t want to deal with what is happening. I am not a unique and precious snowflake so my story will be shared by a decent number of women.
Of course since you didn’t know any of us existed since we are just ordinary gamers who happen to be women I’m sure we don’t really count to you.
If you aren’t as set in your opinion as you appear I’d hope you’d realise that there are lots of people out there who just aren’t up to telling their story ’cause they are afraid of what will happen if they do.