Coffee 'n Cameras 'n Q&As: 09/04/2014

Nepotism. It is a fact of life, and basic human nature. Younger people rail against it because its scary and damages their future prospects, established people participate (willingly or unwillingly) and generally try to not think about how they do it. Eventually the younger crowd gets entrenched and they then participate as well. Because why wouldn't everybody? Why wouldn't a person look out for the security and prospects of friends and family? A friend asks you for a recommendation? A friend asks you for information about job openings? 99% help those friends because its what we do. The funny thing to me about the nepotism ethics debate has always been that the people on the against side always end up on the ignore/defense side over time, because everyone helps out the people they know and love.

The issue isn't so much that nepotism exists in gaming (it will always be there), the issue is that it should be larger and more diverse. It isn't so much that nepotism shouldn't exist, its that there should be more groups represented to have their cliques and support bases (including the more thoughtful members of the current call to arms). This obviously runs foul of economics, but its a noteworthy goal and what they should actually be working towards instead of pointing fingers at current media. That many of the attacks have focused a lot on people who would be supporters of this, themselves from smaller less represented groups, is the biggest tragedy of this ordeal. It makes no sense to squeeze out critical voices (even if you disagree with them) if what you want is more and greater critical voices across the board.

@theht: That was a damn fine write up on this whole thing and you made some of the best point I have seen on this situation.

IMO both sides are being quite ridiculous here, what with all the hacking/death threats being thrown around. One side is seeing the other as some joker-like sociopath and the other is seeing their opposition as some bizarre race of primordial animals. Twitter/internet/people at its worst. Its like giving a microphone to two drunk guys at a political debate. Nothing is gain and everyone comes out extremely annoyed.

@amafi: "There are plenty of ways to talk about the whole situation without ever mentioning someone's private life, or invading anyone's privacy. The stance that "if we talk about this at all, the terrorists win" is a terrible fucking stance to take for a supposedly grown ass man calling himself a journalist."

While I do appreciate that Patrick at least broached the topic in the video, I do agree with this sentiment.

I do truly feel for the people receiving threats and I hope those who are doing it are brought to justice but........I am not one of them. It would be nice to be able to have a discussion about facets of this whole thing ranging from the ethics debate all the way to the inflammatory articles from the games press denouncing "gamers" without being told those are off-topic due to a few disturbed individuals.

@theht: I'd just like to say that I thought you make a number of excellent points.

@shoddyrobot said:

If you haven't already you should all read this article. It discusses the points of the non-harassing users of gamergate and why their arguments are muffled and disorganized. https://medium.com/@upstreamism/to-fair-minded-proponents-of-gamergate-7f3ce77301bb

Thanks Patrick

@emuprime said:

I concur. As a premium member I would be fine with this being available for everyone to watch. There are some important answers that a lot of people need to hear.

Honestly from some of your previous statements I wasn't expecting such an even-handed approach. I'm glad my faith in you isn't misplaced.

Personally I just don't like the hypocrisy I see from the groups supporting people like Zoe and Anita. The doxxing and hacking has gone both ways but I've only seen games journalists covering the side that they want to see.

Last time I posted about specific events I got my comment deleted, so I'll just say that people suck on both sides.

@patrickklepek said:

@marokai said:

If the conversation has been taken over by a vocal minority who only seek to tear people down, why aren't you trying to take the focus of the conversation away from them? You're a member of the media, you have a louder megaphone, you have the ability more than the rest of us to help steer the larger narrative; why haven't you tried doing so, then?

I saw a tweet from Alex pop through my feed earlier that complained about how the dialogue has been stolen by loudmouths and how much of a bummer that is; why has that been allowed to be the case? The only thing I've seen people try to do about it has just been to bitch back at them, which is counter-productive and in Patrick's Tedx talk was a big no-no. So what do we do about it?

We apparently can't change the topic, either, because some people are being too vile right now before the rest of us can have an adult conversation about something separate since... that totally makes sense and wouldn't be an invalid rationale against any other burning issue in history ever. "Police brutality? Sorry, we can't have that conversation right now with all these riots going on." I'm sure that's how we all think about that, right? In practice, the refusal to engage with any of the criticisms associated with the "GamerGate" silliness while any harassment continues, means that we never will, because there's always going to be some level of harassment going on somewhere.

So, we can't moderate these people out of existence, because it's real life and we're not Gods. We obviously shouldn't try fighting with them on our own because that only incites a mob. But we can't talk about anything tangentially related to it while any harassment goes on, either, so the topic can't ever change. I'm beginning to see why this isn't getting any better.

What's going on right now is basically the scene from Pokemon where Metapod fights Metapod.

If I had to provide an honest criticism of my own talks, it's that solutions are hard to come by. I try provide is a set of recommendations and general purpose tactics that are applied on a case-by-case basis. To say there are specifics that apply to every situation is unwise, as context is everything in these situations.

I'm not saying we can't change the topic, but when the topic changes are happening in the middle of people being pushed out of the industry, folks being chased out of their homes, I'm supposed to say "you know, put that aside, and these people have a pretty good point"? I just can't do that, and it's not reasonable. Even if there are some ethical concerns hidden in the forest, they're happening in the middle of a big ol' forest fire. In a forest fire, you're worried about putting out the fire.

I don't see why it's an either/or situation. Put up two articles instead of one. Done.

Rami Ismail tweeted earlier about the primary focus needing to be stopping harassment. I'd love to know how we can, as a species, stop assholes from being assholes. The forest fire analogy falls flat when you consider that dealing with these assholes isn't nearly as direct as dumping water on it.

Then there's the whole "culture" angle. Let's create a culture where harassment isn't acceptable. If you could show me how this so-called culture accepts harassment, then sentiments like that wouldn't ring so utterly hollow. That it happens doesn't prove that it's a culturally acceptable thing to do. No one in their right mind accepts harassment.

The thing that makes it culturally unacceptable is when it does happen and people speak out against it, and when there are consequences for it. You can't dig in your heels and ignore everything else while speaking out against harassment though. It's not something you neatly put the lid on before moving on to some other topic.

It's a constant struggle, and a peripheral one. While decrying harassment, have that honest conversation about sexism in video games, have that honest conversation about skewed representation, have that honest conversation about institutionalized sexism, have that honest conversation about conflicts of interest.

Harassment is never okay. It's never justified, never a force for good.

Say so as you should, and then point out that it makes no fucking sense to go after Jenn Frank for that op-ed. Point out that full disclosure is something to be used within reason. Point out that potentials for conflicts of interests vary depending on the circumstances of the individual and the relationship. Point out that if you don't trust an individual to be honest, then by all fucking means, do not trust them.

If you feel uncomfortable about a connection, point it out. Discuss it, don't immediately jump to the worst possible conclusion. A few months ago Alex posted an article about the Amplitude kickstarter by Harmonix. People expressed discomfort that a former Harmonix employee posted an article promoting a kickstarter by them. If you knew anything about the site and the folks here, you probably wouldn't think it to be a shady situation, but all the same people were uncomfortable, and all the same Jeff and Alex decided to remove the article. Simple.

It probably would've been fine if they left it, but that's coming from someone who presumes to have gleamed some insight over the years into the principles of these individuals. Doesn't change the fact that from the outside looking in it's a red flag, and that's fair.

The attempted reduction of similar concerns raised recently, like insisting that getting food, drinks, or hotels paid for by video game companies must also be indicative of corruption, is disingenuous and inflammatory.

The insistence of widespread corruption and collusion is mindfuckingly paranoid. Some of the connections highlighted between certain individuals is absolutely disconcerting, I will grant. But those alone in no way validates the condemnation of all of video game press, let alone individuals who, after applying some shifty logic, are deemed "corrupt".

Everyone needs to fuck the fuck down (or just calm down) and think responsibly before they keep on with what's become a mere witch hunt, or before they comment on the whole shituation with their intentional or unintentional megaphone.

Stop for a moment and look at what the fuck is going on. Look at how slimeballs and lawyers (potentially redundant, but hey, the world needs lawyers) are trying to take advantage of this hubbub. Look at how afraid people are to comment on any of this. Seriously look at how utterly flimsy some of these arguments are, on either side. Consider how this madness has given cover to those who would mentally abuse other human beings, other goddamn people.

I wouldn't want things to go back to how they were. How they were is at least partially why this thing was pounced upon and blew up, feeding off of tangential frustrations simmering for years. A situation like this can get people to really dig in their heels; each "side" only getting more and more incredulous as time wears down on their soles.

So for fuck's sake, talk it all out (and with sincerity).

@marokai: Just want to say thank you, during these days it's been a pleasure reading your level-headed posts

Did you read what Jim Sterling wrote about all this bullshit a while back? They could have someone like that on. Or Total biscuit. There are plenty of people out there they can have a conversation with who aren't frothing at the mouth imbeciles like that internetaristocrat guy or an idiot on twitter. And twitter has it's fair share of idiots on both side of the argument.

There are plenty of ways to talk about the whole situation without ever mentioning someone's private life, or invading anyone's privacy. The stance that "if we talk about this at all, the terrorists win" is a terrible fucking stance to take for a supposedly grown ass man calling himself a journalist.

And as an adendum to this. The trolls THRIVE on negative attention. Obviously it's too late to ignore the bullies, but neither are you going to win because fundamentally, as long as there is a way to be anonymous on the internet (which will be for a long time) there's no actual repercussions. There's nothing you can do to the trolls except say "Stop doing that" variations.

If they feed off negative response, (and they do) and they don't pay attention to positive response what's the only thing you can do?

I cannot stress this enough, so I'm going to go Geocities 1990s here for a minute, please forgive me.

turn the conversation away from them. Reduce their IMPORTANCE in the culture/conversation.

Right now !!!*** TROLLS ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN GAMING CULTURE ***!!!

and the !!!***GAMES PRESS IS HELPING MAKE THEM THAT WAY***!!!

For the love of god please stop doing that :< Or at least make some noises that imply that someone else's actions in the game space matters more then theirs. Right now they're the reason for every season in every article and every feed. They're dancing on the rooftops and it's our houses that burn. Put down the torch because you'll never hit them. it isn't possible on the internet because of anonymity. The street? Absolutely. Real names? Real personalities? Sure. But what are you really hoping to do that will stop someone who thought, and acted on sending a rape threat? We're shutting down more and more public roads because of bomb threats. Think about why they sent that bomb threat in the first place.

It was to get us to act exactly how we're acting.

Our primary effort and focus needs to be on generating more support for the people receiving not puffing the egos of the people dishing out.

@adoggz:

The problem here is the 99.9% of self-appointed "good gamers" are just as bad as the misogynistic assholes that, while small, have taken over the conversation. If these "good gamers" actually thought about the real issues that may or may not have arisen out of this mess, they would've brought them up years ago. Actually, if you pay even a modicum of attention, game journalist like Patrick and Jeff have been talking about these issues for the better part of the last decade. The idea that GamerGate is the first time ANY of these issues have been raised for discussion is hilarious. These are fair weather do-gooders who are trying hide their true intentions of misogyny by painting as some altruistic ethics mission and are doing a bad job of it (mainly because none of them know how journalism or indie game development works, which sort of a whole other issue).

There are genuine concerns when it comes to whether journalists and developers are too close (which, again, Jeff and Patrick and many other games writers have bought up before [IN THIS VERY VIDEO, AS A MATTER OF FACT]) and the clicky-ness of the indie dev scene, but that discussion can afford to be tabled until this current torrent has subsided. Anyone with a touch of tact can realize that the climate is far to hostile right now to get a decent debate out of it and if those 99.9% #notallgamers actually were who they all say they were, they would realize that and wait a week or two. As far as I'm concerned, anyone who raises a fuss about those issues right now is not nearly as decent as they think they are and in fact, may be as bad as the .1%.

@patrickklepek said:

The problem with this one-track-minded approach to these controversies is that it just frustrates everyone, even those who hate the harassment just as much. This attitude effectively turns every debate, every news item, into "you're either with us or against us." Any harassment that goes on, no matter how small the group doing it is, becomes the only thing we can talk about, and since those people never seem to go away, any separate debate by those of us who just want to discuss the original subject on its merits are told they can't be listened to in perpetuity. Any reasonable criticism can now be dismissed because of separate harassment. This is incredibly shortsighted.

I don't want good people like Jenn Frank being driven out of the industry because of trolls who won't leave her alone. I despise the chilling effect that harassment has on discourse, the discouragement that puts on diversity of opinion. But I fear the laser focus on the harassment has a similarly chilling effect.

I'm not asking you to respond to harassment by saying "put that aside, and these people have a pretty good point." When did this become so black and white? How are we, as grown-ass men, incapable of separating the people who are doing the harassment and the people who aren't? "We can't consider these otherwise understandable concerns while these other people are being so rowdy" wouldn't be acceptable logic in any other situation.

When Kotaku decided to revise their ethics policies several days back, a few people went ballistic because that gave the appearance of condoning the actions of the unreasonable. The fact that this has now become some sort of posturing war is part of the problem. Trying to be self-critical and trying to do the right thing should happen irrespective of how people perceive what you're doing. "We can't let them think they're winning" is a very immature reaction. It's like trying to have the last word in an argument because if the other person does, they beat you. By doing that, you're giving the trolls power over the conversation. You're letting them dictate how you respond.

It should be incumbent on the people who view themselves as more professional and more rational to lift up the conversation. Right now, all we've done is deadlocked ourselves into making everyone feel so shitty that hopefully the other "side" will break from feeling shittier before they do, and it's not helping. Someone has to stop the arms race, and it seems like the only people trying to have a dialogue are on YouTube.

Great video Patrick. I really liked hearing your thoughts on all that's going on right now. I'm glad we have people like you in the industry. Please keep doing what you're doing (as long as it's rewarding) and don't get discouraged!

@patrickklepek I touched on this though in a comment on your last worth playing, but I assume you were busy getting ready for Pax so you didn't have time to comment back. Or maybe you want to read and not respond to the suggestions? Let me know, and feel free to respond to it there but this will be more about probing your thoughts about you and what giant bomb will continue to produce.

I cease to be joyfully surprised with the content Giant Bomb in particular have been creating in the past two months. I'm not certain you had a rad huddle in a broom closet and made some death pact; the pact worked. Giant Bomb's relationships to game developers and hilarious personality is fantastic. And exactly why I'm driven to comment and send in questions. I want to interact with Giant Bomb because it has information, employees, and content that no entity competes with.

Question:

What is the critique you would give Giant Bomb's content?

What is the feedback coming from stakeholders of Giant Bomb?

Do view and subscriber counts effect both of your answers?

If they did not, what would be your answer?

Louie is incredible, some of the best uniquely-written comedy. Well worth a watch.

These harassers are the worst thing to happen to the industry in a long time. They're the direct reason why we're not getting Fez 2 and countless other games/articles from unique voices, and that's terrible for everyone. Gaming has gone down a dark road countless times before, but this is the first time where I'm legitimately fearful of where it goes next.

And I agree that this is the worst time to even bring up any discussion on the ethics issue. This "movement" was sprung up by people looking for any reason to justify tearing Zoe Quinn to pieces (and continuing to do so) based on information that's almost entirely fabricated by those same people. That is not a basis for a legitimate argument for more ethics, regardless of what side you stand on.

It's not that ethics shouldn't be brought up at all, but I can only imagine that these people complaining the most are the ones that only visit Metacritic and the other giant aggregate sites with no idea of who's behind the reviews. I generally only visit Giantbomb for videogame related stuff, and I have no concerns about ethics because I know and trust everyone involved here.

Hey Patricia, just try a little makeup. Lol, kidding ofcourse. The Russian skit from Pax was pretty good. Long live GiantBomb. Those Russian knock-off wannabes can just cry in their vodka.

Fun fact: Your opinion on It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia is just awful

Yo Scoops, I watched Twin Peaks all the way through a few months ago. Holy shit, it's so worth the watch.

Patrick, you're the best. I live in Lincoln Square so if I ever run into you at a bar, I'll buy you a drink.

(And for the record, misogyny IS more important than the perception of nepotism in entertainment journalism. One is ACTUALLY dangerous, the other is just jealous nerds.)

@marokai said:

If the conversation has been taken over by a vocal minority who only seek to tear people down, why aren't you trying to take the focus of the conversation away from them? You're a member of the media, you have a louder megaphone, you have the ability more than the rest of us to help steer the larger narrative; why haven't you tried doing so, then?

I saw a tweet from Alex pop through my feed earlier that complained about how the dialogue has been stolen by loudmouths and how much of a bummer that is; why has that been allowed to be the case? The only thing I've seen people try to do about it has just been to bitch back at them, which is counter-productive and in Patrick's Tedx talk was a big no-no. So what do we do about it?

We apparently can't change the topic, either, because some people are being too vile right now before the rest of us can have an adult conversation about something separate since... that totally makes sense and wouldn't be an invalid rationale against any other burning issue in history ever. "Police brutality? Sorry, we can't have that conversation right now with all these riots going on." I'm sure that's how we all think about that, right? In practice, the refusal to engage with any of the criticisms associated with the "GamerGate" silliness while any harassment continues, means that we never will, because there's always going to be some level of harassment going on somewhere.

So, we can't moderate these people out of existence, because it's real life and we're not Gods. We obviously shouldn't try fighting with them on our own because that only incites a mob. But we can't talk about anything tangentially related to it while any harassment goes on, either, so the topic can't ever change. I'm beginning to see why this isn't getting any better.

What's going on right now is basically the scene from Pokemon where Metapod fights Metapod.

If I had to provide an honest criticism of my own talks, it's that solutions are hard to come by. I try provide is a set of recommendations and general purpose tactics that are applied on a case-by-case basis. To say there are specifics that apply to every situation is unwise, as context is everything in these situations.

I'm not saying we can't change the topic, but when the topic changes are happening in the middle of people being pushed out of the industry, folks being chased out of their homes, I'm supposed to say "you know, put that aside, and these people have a pretty good point"? I just can't do that, and it's not reasonable. Even if there are some ethical concerns hidden in the forest, they're happening in the middle of a big ol' forest fire. In a forest fire, you're worried about putting out the fire.

Really great, insightful video Patrick. Thank you! I keep telling people this is where the arguments are balanced, thoughtful and informed. You never let me down.

It doesn't help that all the anti gamergate people sound as patronizing as Al Gore in August.

@marokai said:

If the conversation has been taken over by a vocal minority who only seek to tear people down, why aren't you trying to take the focus of the conversation away from them? You're a member of the media, you have a louder megaphone, you have the ability more than the rest of us to help steer the larger narrative; why haven't you tried doing so, then?

I saw a tweet from Alex pop through my feed earlier that complained about how the dialogue has been stolen by loudmouths and how much of a bummer that is; why has that been allowed to be the case? The only thing I've seen people try to do about it has just been to bitch back at them, which is counter-productive and in Patrick's Tedx talk was a big no-no. So what do we do about it?

We apparently can't change the topic, either, because some people are being too vile right now before the rest of us can have an adult conversation about something separate since... that totally makes sense and wouldn't be an invalid rationale against any other burning issue in history ever. "Police brutality? Sorry, we can't have that conversation right now with all these riots going on." I'm sure that's how we all think about that, right? In practice, the refusal to engage with any of the criticisms associated with the "GamerGate" silliness while any harassment continues, means that we never will, because there's always going to be some level of harassment going on somewhere.

So, we can't moderate these people out of existence, because it's real life and we're not Gods. We obviously shouldn't try fighting with them on our own because that only incites a mob. But we can't talk about anything tangentially related to it while any harassment goes on, either, so the topic can't ever change. I'm beginning to see why this isn't getting any better.

What's going on right now is basically the scene from Pokemon where Metapod fights Metapod.

Oh christ, Thank god someone's saying it and it's visible to someone with the megaphone and integrity to use it. Are you a unicorn? This is amazing.

Anonymous trolls have *thrived* on negative attention since the dawn of time. Since posting Mario appreciation threads in Sega forums. There's no consequences to their real life so long as the anonymity of the internet exists, so they are PUMPED when people yell at them. They love it. Having an entire industry write official letters that not only include them but tar the entire medium must have them in a pleasure vortex about now. It's been true since middle school bullies.

I won't ask you to ignore them even if I think it's the most effective path, (terrorism tactics) but christ, talk to someone else sometimes. Anyone else!

@marokai said:

If the conversation has been taken over by a vocal minority who only seek to tear people down, why aren't you trying to take the focus of the conversation away from them? You're a member of the media, you have a louder megaphone, you have the ability more than the rest of us to help steer the larger narrative; why haven't you tried doing so, then?

I saw a tweet from Alex pop through my feed earlier that complained about how the dialogue has been stolen by loudmouths and how much of a bummer that is; why has that been allowed to be the case? The only thing I've seen people try to do about it has just been to bitch back at them, which is counter-productive and in Patrick's Tedx talk was a big no-no. So what do we do about it?

We apparently can't change the topic, either, because some people are being too vile right now before the rest of us can have an adult conversation about something separate since... that totally makes sense and wouldn't be an invalid rationale against any other burning issue in history ever. "Police brutality? Sorry, we can't have that conversation right now with all these riots going on." I'm sure that's how we all think about that, right? In practice, the refusal to engage with any of the criticisms associated with the "GamerGate" silliness while any harassment continues, means that we never will, because there's always going to be some level of harassment going on somewhere.

So, we can't moderate these people out of existence, because it's real life and we're not Gods. We obviously shouldn't try fighting with them on our own because that only incites a mob. But we can't talk about anything tangentially related to it while any harassment goes on, either, so the topic can't ever change. I'm beginning to see why this isn't getting any better.

What's going on right now is basically the scene from Pokemon where Metapod fights Metapod.

Thank you. I tried to respond to Patrick's question similarly in the forum thread, but it got locked before I could finish writing it and as usual I have no way of getting back all those words I wrote (which was hard enough to figure out how I should go about responding to his question) so the best thing I think I can do is highlight what you said and say I agree.

I feel this discussion became heated because even though it's not intended as an attack it comes off as an attack to peoples beliefs and morals. This begets them feeling hurt. That begets them getting angry.

A lot of people don't know how to control their feelings on a topic and have to be right as well.

There's more to it, but that's basically how I feel about it anyway.

I can't write the whole thing again, ugh.

@marokai said:

If the conversation has been taken over by a vocal minority who only seek to tear people down, why aren't you trying to take the focus of the conversation away from them? You're a member of the media, you have a louder megaphone, you have the ability more than the rest of us to help steer the larger narrative; why haven't you tried doing so, then?

I saw a tweet from Alex pop through my feed earlier that complained about how the dialogue has been stolen by loudmouths and how much of a bummer that is; why has that been allowed to be the case? The only thing I've seen people try to do about it has just been to bitch back at them, which is counter-productive and in Patrick's Tedx talk was a big no-no. So what do we do about it?

We apparently can't change the topic, either, because some people are being too vile right now before the rest of us can have an adult conversation about something separate since... that totally makes sense and wouldn't be an invalid rationale against any other burning issue in history ever. "Police brutality? Sorry, we can't have that conversation right now with all these riots going on." I'm sure that's how we all think about that, right? In practice, the refusal to engage with any of the criticisms associated with the "GamerGate" silliness while any harassment continues, means that we never will, because there's always going to be some level of harassment going on somewhere.

So, we can't moderate these people out of existence, because it's real life and we're not Gods. We obviously shouldn't try fighting with them on our own because that only incites a mob. But we can't talk about anything tangentially related to it while any harassment goes on, either, so the topic can't ever change. I'm beginning to see why this isn't getting any better.

What's going on right now is basically the scene from Pokemon where Metapod fights Metapod.

Another thing that comes up is that people on any side of the argument are lumping way too many disparate people into the same groups together. You have legitimate concerns about how close Zoe Quinn is to certain journalists or how she's berated, slandered and harassed people that disagree with her? You must be a sexist misogynist and internet troll too! But then there's the opposite...people with concerns that paint all sympathetic games media people, even trustworthy decent folk like Patrick, as being in some kind of secret cabal with each other and should be boycotted. Neither of these helps things and neither paints an accurate picture of the bigger discussion going on.

I really enjoyed a lot of this article and how it paints these issues with a fairly moderate, middle-ground and level-headed approach. http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/03/gamergate-corruption-games-anita-sarkeesian-zoe-quinn

Also: nobody deserves to be treated the way they are on the internet sometimes (or all the time, as it is for some media figures). I've been "yelled at" and harassed on Twitter and Facebook because of my religious, conservative views and it does take a toll on your psyche when that happens. All voices have a place unless they are actively trying to shut other voices out and restrict others' freedoms.

If the conversation has been taken over by a vocal minority who only seek to tear people down, why aren't you trying to take the focus of the conversation away from them? You're a member of the media, you have a louder megaphone, you have the ability more than the rest of us to help steer the larger narrative; why haven't you tried doing so, then?

I saw a tweet from Alex pop through my feed earlier that complained about how the dialogue has been stolen by loudmouths and how much of a bummer that is; why has that been allowed to be the case? The only thing I've seen people try to do about it has just been to bitch back at them, which is counter-productive and in Patrick's Tedx talk was a big no-no. So what do we do about it?

We apparently can't change the topic, either, because some people are being too vile right now before the rest of us can have an adult conversation about something separate since... that totally makes sense and wouldn't be an invalid rationale against any other burning issue in history ever. "Police brutality? Sorry, we can't have that conversation right now with all these riots going on." I'm sure that's how we all think about that, right? In practice, the refusal to engage with any of the criticisms associated with the "GamerGate" silliness while any harassment continues, means that we never will, because there's always going to be some level of harassment going on somewhere.

So, we can't moderate these people out of existence, because it's real life and we're not Gods. We obviously shouldn't try fighting with them on our own because that only incites a mob. But we can't talk about anything tangentially related to it while any harassment goes on, either, so the topic can't ever change. I'm beginning to see why this isn't getting any better.

What's going on right now is basically the scene from Pokemon where Metapod fights Metapod.

@patrickklepek: great video and it was nice meeting and apologizing to you at PAX.

Kudos for the salmon pants.

@patrickklepek: try this http://goodgameswriting.tumblr.com/

#

I forth that comment! Podcasts are my medium of choice since I can always listen to podcasts, but my ability to watch videos is limited.

Hey Patrick. Thanks for the video. Your answer to the question about Ryan was so heartfelt and sincere. Obviously you knew the man a lot better than the majority of the users of this site, so again thank you for your perspective.

It is difficult to hear him brought up in the past tense, but I will always associate him with this site that I love. Long may it continue <>

I wonder if the individuals sending rape and death threats to Anita Sarkeesian have any idea of how well they're proving her point.

Great video @patrickklepek! I always enjoy your opinions and insightful answers to these questions. Keep up the great work dude.

I normally agree with Patrick but by virtue of being different humans there are little details that tend to differ anyway. This time, I couldn't have agreed more with @patrickklepek. That was wonderful, thank you Patrick.

Patrick, actually I think the way you are doing it now is perfect video + audio (same style as Jeff's jar videos). Keep up the amazing work. You rock!!!!!!! Thanks for being so awesome to us Giant Bomb community members.

Huh huh, root of the problem, huh huh...

Sorry watching by myself

Whoa, you weren't kidding when you said the audio quality improves after a few minutes. Nice. :)

@patrickklepek: Thanks for this Patrick. Good to hear your well considered words on the various hot button issues of the moment.

That's kind of where I'm at as well. Honestly, if there are people trying to have a legitimate conversation on the topic then stop using the gamergate hashtag. All that is doing is associating them with the hate and vile deeds that people are committing. Start a different hashtag group or something that can illustrate some distance from the garbage and maybe you'll be able to have that conversation (until it gets overrun inevitably as well at least). I just don't know why people saying "it's not all of us doing it" continue to use the tag they are trying to separate themselves from. It makes no logical sense.

great stuff as always patrick

two things:

adding vinny to the morning show seems like the natural progression, even if once a week, or with the caveat that he might have to leave if a baby starts crying, right?

the whole horrible stuff going on, i don't think i'm the only one to say it, but i'm sick of the apologists. the people who say 'yeah, they're going about it the wrong way but nobody has answered their questions'. screw those guys. the people carrying it out, they're obviously beyond saving, but if you think they're right but going about it the wrong way, then chances are you're just wrong.

I've read maybe three decent pieces you've linked. Most of it's been nonsense or worse. A lot of it makes me feel like I'm grading middle school papers.

Best thing I've read is probably killing is harmless by brendan keogh or masters of doom, but I was mainly thinking online writing and not so much books.

You're not trying hard enough to find good material. Worth Reading has it every week! And I also helped judge this games writing award, which is FULL of amazing stuff:

• http://gamesjournalismprize.com/2013-winner/

I'm sick of people trying to make excuses for the vile shit that's happened during this whole gamergate debacle. Regardless of whether the intentions or pure, the end result is that a significant segment of creators and critics have been bullied into silence. We are lesser as a culture as a result.

I would take a gamergate crusader seriously if I heard them state that they actually believe that feminist critique is a welcome or at least tolerated part of the non-corrupt games journalism culture they think they're advocating.

Bob's Burgers is great btw.

@edreedfan20 said:

It's different with live action. The X-Files will have been filmed on 35mm film, so the originals will be in widescreen already, and higher definition scans will be possible with a true increase in quality. It is not like cropping and up-resing an animation. But it depends how they framed the shots, the Star Trek blu-rays are still in 4:3, because keeping the full wide frames would have included stuff that was meant to be off the frame.

It's well deserved though. Name one good journalist that writes about games. I can't think of a single one. It's either opinion pieces, which are good, and important, if a LOT hard to read lately, or people copying and pasting press releases and doing nuts and bolts shit.

"the new 3ds will have a slightly better processor", that kind of thing. I haven't read a really good long form piece on gaming since I started playing games in the mid 80s.