Worth Reading: 11/10/2014

Strange how the bots are only hitting Patrick's articles.

@grantheaslip: I agree with you. People are handling it in a very ethnocentric manner. I have no idea why Patrick hasn't had on any of the female devs that are pro-gamergate to discuss their concerns with the media. Corporate media is a huge problem and it's at the heart of the issue I have with the gaming media. The gaming media is only telling one side of the story. It's like the ISIS; we all know the ISIS are awful Wahhabi extremists but the news never covers the crimes of the Shia militia and Iraqi Army. It's all corporate media propaganda. It's what the Leveson Inquiry was all about. The more I read the more I don't trust anyone.

That tweet by PetiteMistress is pretty dead on. I've still yet to play a western RPG where I give a shit about the characters or story or world. Might have something to do with the presentation being so god awful. Or PLAYER CHOICE being tantamount.

I like western RPGs because of the focus on player choice, but I don't think it's possible to make that kind of game with an engaging story or non-interchangeable characters.

Gamergate article focuses again on US poltics when Gamegate has plenty of us who are too foreign to be invovled in that stuff. Side note: Klein was behind the original Journolist.

It amazes me that you don't realize that GG is the entity seeking to end the politicization of video games. I mean, that's one of their main goals. They are sick of video games being shit on and called sexist because the reviewer has a political axe to grind, and a liberal fanbase to cater to.

Yeah, it does seem odd how they keep trying to force foreign politics into it. But then again, I don't expect much anymore after the other ridiculous insults and harassment are thrown out and ignored.

Couldn't it be possible that even though you are from another country, since you are participating in discussion on predominantly US websites that you could be stringed into our political arguments without your awareness? Even though you don't have a dog in the fight you may be contributing to a conversation that is firmly entrenched in US politics. As a US citizen I can tell you how prevalent and unrelenting the party lines feel within my country. I'd be amazing if it didn't spread and involve people from other countries against their knowledge. Especially since this situation has taken place predominantly on the internet.

Though the article is obviously written from an Amerocentric point of view, the Ezra Klein article does at least accurately depict an unfortunate problem that, while not wholly new, is far more easily enabled by the internet and the modern buffet of media outlets to draw yourself into. It's too easy now for someone to just surround themselves with things that exist to just reinforce their pre-existing views.

The first thing I think of when I read a piece like that is how Polygon sort of declared themselves as an outlet that wants to speak up for "Progressive" thought in the games industry in a recent Letter from the Editor. And that's all well and good, of course. It's Polygon's right to do that. I'm sure there exists some interesting niche for an outlet like that from some perspective. There's probably some demand for it. I'm as left-wing as all get-out, so go for it. But then I think, "Really? Is this where we are right now?" People need progressive games coverage? To go along with progressive news sources, I suppose? And do you need your entertainment to be progressive, too? And your clothes, and food, and all of your social media feeds?

I get angry when people equivocate MSNBC and Fox News as equally destructive forces, but at some point a couple years back even I realized that, as much fun as it was to tune in to listen to Rachel Maddow rant about the top story of the day (in a pleasantly sarcastic manner, as I like) I wasn't actually getting much news out of MSNBC. I was just getting pandered to. A day-time lineup had been constructed specifically to appeal to me; young liberal, telling me exactly the spin on the news I wanted to hear. So I stopped watching. Funny enough, Ezra was a frequent guest on the network's prime-time shows.

And that's always where admitting there's a problem with over-politicization comes to a stop. Ezra laments this, but I doubt he's willing to admit some element of culpability in this, or even if he is, that he's willing to admit bending news, entertainment, and advertising with a certain tilt should actually be cut back, or that diversity of opinion means more than throwing together different shades of liberal. Plenty of games writers certainly don't, much as they agonize over how everything is a controversy from political forces, or how certain people bend news within an echo chamber, they seem content doing things as they are. Surrounding themselves with identical voices, as they do even though they claim to like hearing opposing views; this rarely manifests in any meaningful way when the chips are down. So it should be no surprise that this vicious cycle just goes on and on. Everyone sees a boogeyman they have to combat for the good of society and the ends justify the means. It sucks all around, and for a person like me, who just likes seeing two compelling sides go up against each other, be challenged, refine ideas and arguments, etc, instead it's just a screaming match, where everyone is convinced the other guy started it.

@l4wd0g: I think one of the problems with claiming gamergate is about journalistic ethics is that most people find it absurd to hold people writing about hobbies to the same ethical standards and subject to the same scrutiny as people covering politics and international wars. And this seems to be focused specifically and solely on videogames. Where is the outrage about "Knitting Monthly" being in the pockets of Big Yarn? Or the guy that writes ads for "Toy R Us" having sex with an employee at Mattel? No body gives a shit.

So when people from gamergate say they have completely legitimate concerns about ethics in gaming journalism, nobody takes that seriously. What they really mean is there is a scary liberal media conspiracy that has infiltrated videogames. Somebody got chemtrails in our gears of war! Nobody would give two shits if ubisoft paid Jeff a million dollars because people like watching Jeff put on a penguin suit and play videogames. It's a hobbyist website. Despite what they may claim, that really is not the concern of gamergate. They claim they want journalistic ethics on par with Pulitzer prize winning journalists for people who write about Donkey Kong, but really what they want is for Patrick to stop writing about minorities, gays, and female representation in video games. And that is the big scary conspiracy. That somewhere out there, some cartel of gays, "feminazi's" and racial minorities are secretly controlling the games media to make white guys feel bad about themselves, which the gamer gaters refuse to do under any circumstances. Because then the terrorists win or something.

@vagabond7: I don't think it's that cut and dry.

Zelda II is the Mario 2 of Zelda games, in that it's one of the best. :)

@vagabond7:

I don't identify with either end of the Gamergate debate, but I disagree that the media should not need to be held to a higher standard simply because it is "people who write about Donkey Kong". This is a medium of entertainment and expression that has one of the most diverse audiences of any. There will always be bias in writing, but that can be mitigated with a variety of works covering different perspectives and viewpoints; something the games press has actively discouraged within a narrowly networked group centralized around the same places and talking to the same people.

The games industry and gamers as a whole are much bigger than the media covering them. Most of the press seem unaware of this, given the scope of their writing.

Thank you for those reads.

Here's a very worthwhile piece addressing FeministFrequency's work on a pretty educated basis.

https://medium.com/@cainejw/dishonesty-feminist-frequency-part-1-fe937f6a791e

You should give it a look.

Aye let's have a drink. Maybe it's a blessing I've my hands to full to even be bothered by gamergate. The older I get, closing on 27, it seems like all rambling bullshit is meant for 16yr olds, they have time, and the sleaze bags we elect to office, they have puppet donation opinions. How campaign donations are not bribes is a whole 'nother discussion. Perhaps MGS is right and humanity could use some patriots...

Spot on man. Couldn't have said it better myself. Thanks for posting.