#GamerGate (the consumer revolt that won't go away)

I have been wanting to do this thread for a while but I have been waiting for a good enough media article base it off of.

Some of you may have heard about gamergate but for those of you that haven't a large scale consumer revolt has been going on for quite some time in gaming under the name of #GamerGate with the goal of reducing corruption in video game journalism, unfortunately it has acquired numerous critics that are denouncing it as a hate group.

mangotron.com...

I have an article here with interview with prominent figures from both sides of the argument, I strongly suggest checking it out and coming to your own opinions

but here are quotes from both sides to give you a gist

#GamerGate first

1) What is GameGate to you?
Gamergate is, very plainly, a call for transparency and fairness in journalism. It should be required in every facet of journalism, yet you will see it is enforced less the farther away from main stream media you get.
It is impossible to be an unbiased journalist. We don’t expect someone to be unbiased – we are all human, capable of independent thought.
We do expect people in positions of influence to put their bias aside in the interest of covering an issue fairly. In the event there is a personal or financial conflict of interest which could call the ability to cover something fairly into question, that should be disclosed.

and here is the quote from the anti GamerGate side

3) What does GamerGate want to achieve, in your view?
Well, certainly there’s a more-than-insignificant contingent of it who seeks to legitimize an anti-woman agenda and cover for harassment of prominent women in Gaming such as Zoe Quinn, Anita Sarkeesian, Brianna Wu, Leigh Alexander, and the list goes on.
Such people will claim Gamergate was never “about” these people (comically dehumanizing by referring to them as Literally Who #1-9, at last count) while still attacking them, not just with death threats as in the more notorious cases, but with insane accusations such as Zoe Quinn being guilty of murder, for instance. And this portion of Gamergate, it must tragically be acknowledged, has been the one actually getting things done

Personally I am very much in favor of GamerGate as I have found the anti Gamergate side to be almost Orwellian in its tactics at times especially with there use of mainstream media for smear tactic.

This is the first truly unbiased article I have found since it began, so please if you have heard anything good or bad about gamergate or are interested in knowing check it out.

The first article is truth.
The second is lies.

Allow me to link some knowledge.

www.youtube.com...

I probably shouldn't embed it as it MIGHT be NSFW depending on your level of decency.

They're only doing in the gaming press what they're doing in the main stream press - creating an approved narrative and shutting off everything that doesn't conform.

a reply to: ketsuko

I agree but its still scary to see how many people fall for it

a reply to: monkofmimir

I was going to say it's nice to see how many who fall for it in the wider context are having their eyes opened to the tactic when it strikes video games. I'm hopeful they might open their eyes to things beyond the narrow scope of gaming.

I generally try to see both sides but I can't really see the point of GamerGate. Every time I've entered into a conversation on a forum about it there is just so much hatred of woman it's impossible to get real answers.

It's highly suspicious that it started with Zoe Quinn's ex calling her out as a whore after they broke up.

Also the people fighting these women include people like this insane serial killer who threatened "“the deadliest school shooting in American history” if Sarkeesian gave her lecture."

The threat, e-mailed to Utah State staff by someone purporting to be a student, stated, “I have at my disposal a semi-automatic rifle, multiple pistols, and a collection of pipe bombs,”.

www.washingtonpost.com... iting-police-inability-to-prevent-concealed-weapons-at-event/

The whole thing absolutely reeks of Men's Rights nonsense. Stuff like this is what gives gamers a bad name.

-Annoying feminists with useless college degrees and an axe to grind (and their supporters) start commenting on video games and how they are geared for men and promote violence against women, anti women stuff etc.

-Idiots spew nonsense on the internet like death threats/rape threats/women are stupid etc. (remember this happens regardless of your position on ANYTHING on the internet)

-The whiny feminists see that this can be used as "evidence" and the morons keep taking the bait and giving them ammunition AND THEN...

-Morons that couldn't hack it as real journalists and pretend to be gamers/video game enthusiasts/relevant eat it up (controversy = page views) and start making asses of themselves supporting the other whiners (see above) that won't be happy until everything is so PC that you're just not allowed to play any game (or exist). To make them happy you would have to have basically every character you could imagine (example: person that was born a male human but identifies as a female T-Rex that now identifies as a female triceratops and is also a black midget with autism and is wheelchair bound) as a playable character.

-The journalists keep milking for page views and eventually go completely bonkers with some suggesting it's time to bring back bullying (no joke, completely blind to irony) so that nerds learn their place and become subservient in gaming to the smallest gaming demographic.

-----

-Rational gamers express outrage under the banner #gamergate.

-The whole point being that the new "media" claiming to represent or comment on gamers is essentially clueless, and doing a bad job, and also stigmatizing the majority as sexist, homophobic, kitten stomping Nazis.

-----

I would be AMAZED if the vast majority of ATS wasn't pro #gamergate.

a reply to: Domo1

But what harm did they do to the gamers other than internet trolling which is considered an art form to most gamers? They keep pumping out CoD and GTA and the other games like them. What are the tangible effects on gamers playing games of this feminist agenda?

Seriously I'm a gamer at heart. Enlighten me so I can understand what the fuss is all about? Cause it sounds to me like it's a case of "you can give it but you can't take it". Gamers have been trolling and hacking for years so it can't be that unless they massive hypocrites. Are they getting violent games shut down or something or just pushing for inclusion?

So basically these guys are dicks, do a terrible job and are Narcissistic wannabe gods, who are more like nerds living on money from others.
Stop paying money. Names are listed. cut their ties to the industry, start over by cutting funds and create new investments, while creating branch standards, and common rules, that count for everyone.

Start over.

You started it, finish it, kill the pests.

a reply to: Sinter Klaas

Which side is the dicks? I have my supposition but it's hard to get credible information on the topic.

a reply to: tavi45

You watched the video posted ?
He delivers the names of the bad ones. delete them first, work up from there on. You don't do that as an individual. You could end any payments to highlighted companies or individuals, and wait until more information is available.

a reply to: Sinter Klaas

I watched enough to see that the evidence is all about sites getting hacked and trolled. Gamers do that all the time.

Could be as well fueled in part by the direction gaming has taken, from a niche thing to gaming is for everyone! Even your grandparents. The games have become about marketing and money, and gaming now is largely characterized or stereotyped by the testosterone fueled, FPS fanatic. Or they're the segment that speaks the loudest. That segment wasn't there years ago, or no where near what it is today. Gaming companies have taken advantage of that, really almost to the determent of gaming as a whole. The hyper-masculinity aspect wasn't there years ago, but there's been a lot of money gearing towards that. Games that can cash in on that do, and ironically don't perhaps exactly target the audience that gave video gaming its foundation.

a reply to: Turq1

Yep it's reflecting the issues of our nation and world in a fantastic microcosm. There's even insane bigoted extremists threatening mass killings. Guess it's not a Muslim phenomenon.

a reply to: tavi45

Then you might have missed a part.

a reply to: Sinter Klaas

Huh? Enlighten me then. What did i miss? Don't be so mysterious

a reply to: monkofmimir

First things first.

Women gamers are something which gaming in general needs to see more of going forward, and the more women who are involved with creating, marketing, and playing games, the better for the industry.

What I would say however, is that the industry needs to avoid certain changes, and promote others. For example, in my opinion social gaming is a disease, and ought to be done away with. I do not know about everyone else, but for me, computer gaming is simply an excuse for me to terminate the ever loving hell out of sprites, by the thousand. I care not one fig for having friends with me when I do this, as I am greedy for kills. Nor do I want to play versus other players on a server, nor do I want any facet of my game play to be dependent on the gameplay of others.

I just want every game I play to be a body farm to which I provide experimental test bed creation services.

However, what DOES need to happen, is that the gaming industry needs to pay more attention to expanding the size of single player games, the scope of them, and the number of them. What it also needs to do, is get boardrooms out of the way of creation of fantastic games. What it needs to do, is focus harder on making the writing and directing of a game, equal to the amazing skills of the graphic designers and animators, and physics engine creators who work on the visual product itself, and the interface between gamer, and game.

But the gender of people working in these industries is, in my opinion, irrelevant to the problems the industry has, the ones it created for itself, those being money becoming more important than the art, money being saved in the wrong places, and the fact that despite being told several thousand times what they ought to be about, the creators of Final Fantasy 7 still have not made the game again, word for word, scene for scene, with newer, more hardcore graphics.

#gamergate is most likely just going to be a speed bump in journalism. We've had journalists get caught bang to rights straight up lying and it didn't reform anything in particular overall.

Gamers in particular have really been dragged through the mud. I don't know many sexist or evil gamers, though I know there a lot of immature people online exist. Factors like this that make #gamergate empty:

* Negative associations, gamers are seen by the public as immature jerks
* Bigger journalists reporting more important things have been caught bang to rights, no one cares
* Gaming journalism is mostly about selling things to people ... discovering corruption in a purely self interested system is like finding out politicians lie
* The fall of journalism in general has resulted in this, most of the problems are wide spread and being discussed elsewhere more effectively

The only semi-unique element of gamergate is SJW and academics vs gamers and hard science philosophers but we did that in the atheist community. In fact, Thunderf00t and the rest have just casually wandered in off the street. It's like an American atheist reunion party.

Welcome to #gamergate everyone, new bar, same faces, old issues. Pull up a stool, lets argue over the narrative and achieve nothing. Next round's on Pinke!

a reply to: Pinke

maybe but the difference between atheism and gaming is the consumer side of things, how many companies bottom line it is hurting. If GamerGate can keep itself going it will win in the long run because the industry giants can't afford that kind of constant negative publicity.

>>
social gaming is a disease, and ought to be done away with. I do not know about everyone else, but for me, computer gaming is simply an excuse for me to terminate the ever loving hell out of sprites, by the thousand. I care not one fig for having friends with me when I do this, as I am greedy for kills. Nor do I want to play versus other players on a server, nor do I want any facet of my game play to be dependent on the gameplay of others.
>>

Wow. This is a truly asocial stance....not meant in a negative sense but you know what I want to say. But I see those type of guys (like you) on many places, including the "Elite Dangerous" Beta forum, just one example.

I am entirely opposite although IN REAL LIFE really anti-social and "don't like people" (so is my wife, which is a good thing). But in terms of gaming "single player" for me is LOOOOOONG dead.

It must be an exceptional good game that single-player still motivates me, otherwise they don't even come close to the experience in MMORPGs or even playing shooters in multi.

The social component (however you want to define it)...is extremely important to me. A GOOD (!) MP/MMO game will always leave you freedom to either play with others or do your own thing, whether you want to make you game experience dependent on others would be on you. (Say, in WoW or similar games, no-one forces you to play with others but you CAN if you want to). Means: MORE OPTIONS...as opposed to fewer options.

Game worlds which only consist of NPC are dead to me, it is simply so much more exciting and cooler to have the option to team up with others and to experience a game with others, but that's just me. (I am playing MMO games since the early days of MUDs where everything was still text only)

Both me and wife have extensive experience in MMORPGs with wife constantly being a guild master and leading guilds with hundreds of people, in WoW, TSW or now SWTOR (which she plays, I don't at the moment). Played WoW up until Panda expansion came out for years extensively but stopped because Pandas== shiate.

But can you even remotely get an experience like in the good days of WoW, say, when you decided you simply walk into Horde territory (as an Alliance)...and then encounter real (enemy) players etc... or if you start to meet that ONE guy who constantly beats and outwits you...and even if he's your enemy you develop real respect because of his/her skills....PvPing, dueling, etc... or simply some fun ganking the others..oh god, so much fun. All those things you cannot do with single player games.