Its because any one pro GG with be screamed down by you and your compatriots., People who are willing to designate any one you disagree with as terrorists at a time where a literal terrorist organisation literally came out and informed there supporters that the sexual slavery was A okay and they where okay to do that against there victims.......

I am on no one side in this case, but it is not possible to have any kind of conversation about this because as sun as you speak people like you shut down the conversation and through that every thing will only get worse.

Thank you for writing this up. No one deserves to have these things happen to them.

I wish more people would share this sentiment.

A few assholes do not represent a whole.

I made this comment before but it's like saying all Muslims are terrorists, all Christians are homophobic bigots, and all conservatives are racist. It's simply not true.

I'm afraid instances like the MSNBC article will only add fuel to the fire. When you demonize the opposition you only give them more reason to keep going. It's so easy to paint someone who disagrees with you as a misogynist, homophobic, racist, troll and wave away their argument with a sneer of ivory tower smugness. All you have to do is look in the past for examples of this behavior. History just repeats itself, over and over ad nauseam.

Bear in mind that I have no interest in being an internet activist for internet video game journalism and wasting my time tweeting #gamergate, but don't you think you're being dishonest here? A few people sending death threats and doing horrible crap doesn't mean they represent their whole group of belief. That's like saying you can't disagree and criticize Obama because a group of teenagers that happened to share that opinion went around rioting, breaking stuff up and assaulting people.

Twitter doesn't give a fuck. Their policy on stuff like this has been awful from the start. They are extremely slow to respond to harassment claims, always have been.

...why can't we just play games? Why do people have to get death threats, or have to take some sort of political side? Several games have rubbed me the wrong way, sure, but I don't want to be a part of anyone's agenda. I just want to play the games I like, and not play the games that don't appeal to me.

I love empty gestures, that's why I want GB to make their stance on this clear.

Still approve of this being written though.

I see a lot of people condemning the person who sent the threats (which is good) but are putting him on the Gamergate side... did you know the same individual sent threats about two weeks ago to a female GamerGate supporter?

@heftymadmonkey: This is a news and reviews site for gaming. This article is related to news in the industry. What do you expect?

Look, I'm not in the market for a house right now, but I don't demand that my local newspaper stop printing the Real Estate section. I just skip it.

@freecajunlove: Then you're fighting alongside people who condone this behaviour under a banner created and sustained by the people perpetrating it.

These guys get it.Extremists hide in every group.Labeling all of it as extreme just because there are a few crazies is dishonest and bad for the discussion that the majority are trying to have.

While I'm glad to see this covered, I wish it didn't always fall on Patrick, and to a lesser extent, Alex, to talk about this kind of stuff. It seems a bit unfair to burden one person with all this shit, especially when it's pretty much guaranteed to draw heat. If the crew were more willing to present a united front on occasion, people might be less likely to single Patrick out for talking about social or political issues.

This is such a deplorable situation. I can only imagine the bravery required to not only tolerate shit like that, but to speak out against it vocally and publicly. Brianna Wu is to be commended for that.

Secondly, to anybody who says that "GG isn't about that" and "only a tiny percentage of GGers are assholes" I say this: it STARTED as a hate campaign. The origins of GG have been traced back to coordinated attacks designed to stop women in games from having a voice. All the journalistic ethics stuff is gravy to the people that started this, because it gives them legitimacy and a smokescreen behind which they can keep doing their nefarious shit.

If you want to have a discussion about journalistic ethics in video games that's great - just don't do it in the name of GG. GG represents a vile, malformed subset of the audience who don't want anybody else to play with their toys. The faster we all disassociate ourselves from it and condemn what it stands for, the better.

If people who support GG wish to not be lumped with the worst aspects of that hashtag (id say movement but its a hashtag really), they need to understand that just saying things like "Not all GG supporters..." is not going to do much of anything. If they wish to not have these people associated with them, they need to ditch them and the term. Start something else named something else and join in heavily decrying these terrible people.

Thanks for posting this Patrick. The story itself utterly sucks but damn it needs to be spread.

This is just absolutely disgusting what was done to her. A small minority is hurting our favorite hobby and industry, and it's rubbing off on us for blame. I genuinely want to think that 98% of all video game enthusiasts are good, decent, honest people.

This makes me wonder if this person that wrote those tweets is found, could they legally be charged with a crime? I really hope so. You don't treat people like that. Ever.

@conmulligan: Or maybe the rest of the staff don't want to feed the internet drama and would rather just get on with producing worthwhile content for the site.

This have already been said in another thread but here we go again. First I would like to applaud her for her bravery to go on msnbc to talk about this because this will now get MUCH worst, for her and every single person involve in the middle of this. Talking/giving any attention to trolls/criminals/radicals do not work. I am sure the people being threaten have already got the authority involve and that is pretty much all you can do that is actually effective.

Trolls LOVES any and all attention, the more we talk about how despicable they are and how terrible they have made people's lives. You might as well send them food because they live off of that. If you dont believe me go on the extremist board. I am talking about 4chan/reddit (thats the crazy GG circle jerk) or neogaf (thats the crazy anti-GG circle jerk) and read how much fun the extremist from both side are actually having from this thing. While any sane people shake our collective heads and get the authority involve, those guys are busy planing doxx operations and yelling into their own respective echo chamber.

You want to clean up the community? STOP GIVING BOTH OF THOSE EXTREMIST GROUP A VOICE. And no, I will not support either side after having read comments from both parties, the only thing people should be against is harassment not censorship and the only thing everyone should root for is fair treatment for all not vengeance for all oppositions. Then we can talk about ethics or cleaning up sexism or w/e and btw we as a race actually have LAWS and CONSEQUENCES for killing people and a lot of assholes still do it. You people actually think that talking down to people sternly/denouncing these actions/calling it out, is going to stop harassment? Hell even if we manage to bring some of these assholes to court it still won't stop it completely.

Do not engage the troll, get the authority involve if you are harass (and pray you get the assholes) and get the fuck off social media. And I mean everyone to get off twitter btw not just women. I mean can you have a meaningful dialog with someone holding a megaphone in front of millions of people that are all also holding a megaphone and are just foaming at the mouth to chimp in with snide remark? Social media is that, 0 nuance and 100% theatrics. I wish Brianna Wu the best and I hope the authorities get every single one from both sides involve in harassment.

Wow this is absolutely disgusting to see. What is wrong with people these days.

@voysa_reezun: True, but Patrick seems to be the poster child for this liberal stuff in this site which is probably why he gets so much flack for it while the other guys of the team just wanna play games and have fun.

@customotto: A lot of people have been speaking out about the questionable direction games journalism has been heading towards (Doritogate). They are just now forming into one voice.

"hasn't made any progress" I would say The Escapist's new ethics policy is good progress.

So when this happens again in a week or two and the same people are again saying that Giant Bomb should do more, what is the response going to be then?

That's really shitty. This sucks. Sad to hear about this happening to Spacekatgal. I don't think I've ever heard of the game, but her nick is familiar, so I must've seen her around here.

at some point between the bomb threats and the making people leave their homes part, I think this stopped being dumb "internet drama" that's worth ignoring.

besides, it's not like talking about this on the Bombcast would prevent them from also making funny, dumb videos.

@ozmiander: So don't click the story if you don't want to read it?

I think it's fine that she called out the site as a whole. With the exception of Patrick and Alex, there hasn't been a lot of rhetoric by the guys on the site and with how big of a voice that they actually have within the community, should have been a little more proactive about it. Yes, this whole thing has transcended video games, but the more public condemnation from someone like Jeff, who is the figurehead of the site, the better. I want my favourite video game site to just be about video games like everyone else, but things have changed.

Nobody is forcing you to read any of it. Nobody is forcing you to navigate away from any of the other content here or the content on the many other sites that are covering this serious issue. If you're fine with being ignorant of a very serious issue going on, that's your call.

I'm really not trying to be a dick here so don't take this the wrong way, but is there a reason why this is essentially the first story about any of this Gamergate nonsense to be posted on the site? I know you guys have covered it here and there on Bombin' in the AM, but I can't help but agree with Brianna's criticisms from earlier. You guys are so often the voice of reason in not justifying the garbage this community too readily accepts with games and I cannot help but be disappointed that it took this long for there to be an official written comment on this stuff. I guess I understand the reticence to stick your neck out after all the nonsense that happened with the sexism in games posts from a couple years back and how the community threaten to rip itself apart every time Patrick posted a story to that effect, but I dunno. You guys have always been at the front line of the side of good in that regard, and I can't help but be kind of sad that you guys didn't take that torch again when no one else would either.

Still nothing but love for you guys, obviously, and I know y'all's hearts are in the right place. I just wish this article was written sooner, if for no other reason than what happened to Jenn Frank should have been the moment everyone should have been sick of this bullshit.

I know the idea of having a group to be the personification of everything terrible that happens on the internet is very attractive but please remember how awful generalization can be.

The fact that once the death threats hit Brianna Wu gamergate people immediately denounced, reported the threats to twitter and reported it to the FBI just makes the fact that they're this mythical big bad even sadder.

Well some of us did comment that Giant Bomb should have hired a woman gaming journalist to its staff. But I remember distinctly that we were told by Giant Bomb staffers that Dan was hired because he was qualified for the position.

This doesnt really remove the fact that Giant Bomb as a whole is a very male dominated gaming site. As much as Patrick is fighting for the rights of women to not be harassed it doesnt change the fact that Giant Bomb itself as a website isnt actively doing anything to change the current status quo.

Having said that I still dont understand how:

1) changing a hashtag will stop the death threats from individuals who are making these kinds of death threats (if i change the word "racism" to the word "hapmel"...does that mean that racism will suddenly stop because i stop using a certain word?)

2) how it is the fault of gamers that people are getting death threats (somehow we have the power to control how other individuals behave despite not having access to any kind of moderation tools other than the report button)

Gross.

Even grosser that they are pressuring Patrick and other members of Giantbomb to respond to this as if not responding means they are ok with it.

This entire thing is disgusting and that's why I am continuously attempting to not respond to the insane level of attention so many are giving it on these forums.

I may have to stop using Giantbombs comments/forums for a while. Both sides of this nonsense are disgusting (and several of one side of it are taking over the forums).

I have to say, though, it's not been hard to figure out where someone lives ever in my lifetime so acting like people can't easily find you is silly. If you put yourself out there on the internet it will be the same as being on TV- it's a spotlight. You can be found. Anyone can and it's not difficult at all. At one time it was just a phone book, or an operator, now there are websites where you can easily find people. Easily. That is not the real threat- nor is a child using bad words.

That's all I'll say of this. I'll stop now, before I say something actually offensive. I'll get enough replies attacking me telling me why I'm wrong as it is (which I'm going to ignore).

Both sides of this entire thing are gross people.

The difference is NOT that they're not female, as you put it. Just have a look at Milo's twitter page. He favorly retweets shit saying to Wheel Malala off, and writes articles about how she is boring. (The 2014 Peace Prize Laureate). He also claims Sarkeesian is making up new threats aimed towards her because she lost spotlight to the thing that this exact article is referring to. He then finishes off his lie about Sarkeesian with this:

Nobody deserves death threats! But the difference is that one side are simply being harassed because they are women, and your example of the other side being threatened is a guy like this. It's not the same thing at all.

I don't know why all these people who want... whatever they want for games journalism (lol) are banded together with this gamersgate campaign that started as a zoe quinn had sex fuck her campaign?

whatever's whatever, if you think it's that important to you than rail on games journalism but gamersgate started out shitty and is not getting any better

I don't want to put words in anyone's mouth, but if you think this is just Patrick and isn't something other Giant Bomb staff members are aware of and care about, you're probably wrong.

Watching babies cry for years about how Patrick is ruining the site by covering sexism (including GG) and then seeing someone go on TV and say that Giant Bomb specifically is ignoring this... I dunno, lol.

Am I right in thinking that people just want to see Jeff take a stance on this? I understand why he may be avoiding this, but I think a little something from him would be important. Especially now that his sites name was spoken on television

@ockman: Twitter wouldnt have to be used if every outlet didnt censor gamergate topics and banned users.

I swear some people don't even visit this site or something. The guys have repeatedly mentioned this stuff. They wrote up a piece condemning harassment and put it on their front page a few months back. What exactly do you want them to do?

No. This is incorrect.

Why do you think this movement are pushing the "Get off social media and don't tell anyone" angle?

Because they don't want their harassment to get publicity.

Publicise the shit out of your harassment; let everyone know that this movement is based on misogyny and scream from the rooftops that it's happening.

There's plenty of people out there to support you. Don't listen to this garbage.

Let's hope three is the unlucky number and this all stops soon. Two goddamn months of this nonsense.

Thanks for writing about this, @patrickklepek. Not just this article, but the other instances where you've spoken up about this. Wu is entitled to here frustrations, especially in light of current events, but it's a little unfair to compare GB with IGN when you are pretty much the only editorial editor and they have dozens. It is a shame that the Bombcast crew has yet to talk about this, though, but I'm sure they've got their reasons.

Anyway, keep up the good work, duder! You are a valuable voice in the industry and you're directing in the right places.

@madz: the entire GamerGate thing started because of bullshit personal drama that's no one's business. If people still want to affiliate themselves with the group, fine, but they've got to own all the negativity that's resulted from it. A real debate about journalistic integrity and how to improve games journalism would be great, and it's something people have been calling for for a really long time, but Gamergate was never going to be about that.

You're saying that "gamergate people" immediately denounced it like there are actual appointed leaders in the group. It's a crazy cause about a million different issues that tried to turn Adam Baldwin into a voice of reason. The generalizations exist for a reason.

This.

While its up for debate how to deal with these sorts of people. There has been research done lately into the sorts of people who commit these acts of harassment, and findings seem to point towards them not even caring if they get attention, just the act of harassing is what they enjoy. So "don't feed the trolls" may actually not be a viable way to get rid of them.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886914000324

for reference

@impartialgecko: Each side has their evil fringe groups. All I can do is condemn their actions, and continue supporting something I believe in.

@kid_gloves: It's too late, I haven't seen this linked in any way to the Gamergate hashtag or people critical of the role of games media. Any discussion on topics even remotely related to this could be labeled and dismissed, it doesn't actually matter if there's a connection or not.

Extremists also start extreme groups with extremist goals and methods. "Gamergate" wasn't some pre-existing group whose name is being sullied by a few bad apples who just showed up. It was started by those bad apples, to justify and whitewash their harassment campaign against Zoe Quinn, and the intense backlash in the gaming press that that harassment generated.

@zironz: I agree with just about everything you said. I do believe she took the rights steps by treating the threat serious and leaving her home, but I agree that maybe it should have been private.

I understand raising awareness, but the people getting attacked are giving the attackers credibility. They are getting off on this.

That is what sucks the most. I don't know what the solution is. I do think that some people have unrealistic expectations though on what should happen and when. Change takes time. That is why these things are called movements. Nothing is gonna happen overnight. Giant bomb posting a front page article denouncing gamergate is not gonna make everything better or go away any faster. I do believe there are many elements at work here that have to change first. Example being Twitter. They need to step up and get more serious about these things. As long as people have an easy anonymous way to contact people, its gonna happen.

Lead by example. This community, for the most part, does that and like I said before the mods have done a great job by making sure bad people stay out.

Everyone can do better. Everyone.