Anita Sarkeesian Forced to Cancel Talk Over Shooting Threat

This topic is locked from further discussion.

Avatar image for orangeladboy
OrangeLadBoy

86

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 2

When does poking the bear ever help your cause? It is a givin that they will be on the wrong side of history. The internet has made it possible for people to live in ever smaller worlds, where group-think and in-think get crazier and crazier. I wouldn't have believed this was real if not for swatting. The kind of person capable of swatting would certainly be capable of rape/death threats.

This did finally make me go watch her videos. The problem is that under this ugly set of circumstances one feels like they have to choose sides. Rather than see the heart of her content in shades of gray that it is, we feel compelled to make that black and white decision. However, it is a black and white issue when it comes to violence and threats. There is a more interesting narrative here somewhere but we are all hijacked by the "pick a side we are at war" crazy people.

Avatar image for ztf
ZTF

62

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

I know this isn't necessarily the focus of the article, but open-carry is the dumbest thing in the world.

Avatar image for goku13k
Goku13K

71

Forum Posts

52

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 3

@zironz said:

@billyok said:

@sleepydoughnut: sorry, but no. Sweeping these stories under the rug is the absolute worst way to address them.

Reporting on it just drives more people to make threats. It encourages copycats because they realize they can see stories about themselves and their actions in the media. Constant reporting on this isn't going to make the problem better, it will make it worse.

While I don't disagree that it does, there's a much darker side to keeping quiet you seem to be overlooking. If you stay quiet, they win. If you stay quiet, no one else knows what you're dealing with.

However, if you be loud and vocal about it, others see that. Yes, some will see that as it working. But, as we saw overnight, far more will stand with you as say fuck no, no more. Being quiet does nothing for you. Be loud, it's the only way anyone will ever know about any of it.

Avatar image for abendlaender
abendlaender

3100

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

@bevinsky said:

@abendlaender: It's a troll. I'm 99% certain that whoever sent this had no intention of following up on their threat.

But they've definitely succeeded in what they intended to do; make people upset.

It probably is, but you still have to a deeply disturbed person to write this.

Avatar image for ryoman
Ryoman

12

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Please just kill GG. Anything that it could have accomplished in regards to games journalism ethics has passed, and it's just became the boogeyman to blame insane people's actions on.

Avatar image for brandondryrock
brandondryrock

896

Forum Posts

43

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

The reaction to this shouldn't be "Anita is handling this wrong," or "this kid is just a troll, move along," or anything other than being disgusted by this.

This culture needs to go away as soon as possible. It is nothing but toxic, and divides a community that is about loving video games! FFS!

Avatar image for bakonon
bakonon

43

Forum Posts

45

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

So I guess the objectification and murder of millions of male characters in games and movies means nothing....

You're really trying to say that men are the real victim here? This isn't a serious rebuttal to what this woman is going through.

Avatar image for goku13k
Goku13K

71

Forum Posts

52

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 3

@tomservo50: Could not agree more. For 2 months they have been trying to build a narrative that there were two sides. GG and anti-GG, when in reality it was just GG and EVERYONE ELSE. I don't hide behind a banner. I don't need the support of trolls and the deeply disturbed to try and get my point across. All I need to do is speak up. And I'm glad others are realizing that as well.

Avatar image for bonorbitz
BonOrbitz

2652

Forum Posts

1

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 3

#113  Edited By BonOrbitz

And as someone else pointed out: this is why we need feminism and those that defend it. And reducing this threat to just "trolling" just to get people upset is bullshit and shouldn't diminish the severity of the thought (or wishful thinking?) behind it or the punishment handed out for it, hopefully. Unfortunately, demented right wing extremism like this, ISIS, and the Tea Party won't ever go away. What can be done?

Avatar image for agnosticwatermelon
Agnosticwatermelon

62

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

@abrasion said:

The vast majority of these kids typing this shit up are angry trolls, or just attention seeking trolls. I know, I used to say horrible shit, maybe no where near as bad, but there was always sport in shock value, or sometimes it was half trollery, half just having a dark sense of humour.

I'm not really condoning this stuff, totally 1000% not, I don't blame the girl for cancelling her tour thing either, - but these people doing this probably have something at least slightly wrong with them. If you were to sit them in a room amongst people they know and actually ask them, I'd wager 7/10 of them are depressed at least, you know? Something is missing, something isn't keeping them happy. They are bored or frustrated or feel slighted or something.

They shouldn't be doing this shit or encouraged but I just thought I'd explain what it's like to do that shit, I've still got a pretty dark / sinister sense of humour but far more,.. refined. There's lines that shouldn't be crossed. I hope all this eases down soon. I thought it had begun to ease up a bit.

I agree that the threats are probably from dumb trolls but all it takes is one idoit who doesn't get that for something serious to happen. 99.9% of the people who are making threats are just blowing smoke but take somebody unstable who doesn't understand that and someone could get hurt.

I don't give a shit about anita or quinn either way but something as extreme as a goddamn terrorist attack threat will only get more and more people (rightfully) on their side.

Avatar image for billyok
billyok

613

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

@zironz said:

@billyok said:

@sleepydoughnut: sorry, but no. Sweeping these stories under the rug is the absolute worst way to address them.

Reporting on it just drives more people to make threats. It encourages copycats because they realize they can see stories about themselves and their actions in the media. Constant reporting on this isn't going to make the problem better, it will make it worse.

That's the ugly tradeoff, but it's a better outcome than the press turning its back on a dangerous and significant story about people in its own industry. This stuff gets attention regardless because the victims themselves discuss it in a public forum. If the press ignored that discussion, all it does is discredit their concerns. That's a much bigger victory for these cowards, so let the dirtbags have their attention. Eventually, with more authorities watching and the increased likelihood that these folks get careless, it'll morph into the kind of attention they don't want.

Avatar image for goku13k
Goku13K

71

Forum Posts

52

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 3

Avatar image for deactivated-5c15a9c63664d
deactivated-5c15a9c63664d

190

Forum Posts

15

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

@grimmer said:

@angrighandi:

Anita is not the first person to recieve death threats. Jack Thompson, Brad Wardell(Stardock CEO), Max Tempkin are the ones just off the top my head. People have been getting death threats since the nineties.

True, but this specific incident is completely different. This is far more than ONE person making a threat against ONE person. This was a threat of an act of domestic terrorism against the public and thus the response will surly be greater. This will probably be investigated by the DHS and not just local authorities or the FBI. Again, this is over video games. What?

Avatar image for voysa_reezun
Voysa_Reezun

100

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

#118  Edited By Voysa_Reezun

@hippie_genocide said:

@voysa_reezun said:

@hippie_genocide said:

No matter what your opinion of Anita Sarkesian is or what she has to say, it's video games people, damn! You don't need to escalate to such a level that you are making death threats to people. This is supposed to be about entertainment and recreation, not something you take so seriously that you resort to vicious attacks over.

Video games are just a proxy for a larger fight about the roles of men and women (or the perception thereof) in our society that has been going on forever.

Yet they choose video games as the battleground to wage this war on? Even if I were anti-feminist, I'd choose a topic with a little more substance or weight behind it to get my agenda across. And I thought GamerGate was supposed to be about ethics in games journalism? She's not a journalist and has nothing to do with that. So, I guess it's not about that...

Video games are a representation of something that certain people like and are comfortable with. When they sense a threat from outside forces that might change that something, they react.

Look at what is happening to the video game industry right now. We're getting more voices from different backgrounds, cultures, genders, ethnicities coming in. When people come into something with an already established culture, they start to break down that culture, demand for changes that suit them, etc., and the people who are already a part of the culture and like it because they forged it to suit themselves fight back. It's a good old-fashioned culture war, but instead of forging it on a golf course or a baseball field or in dance halls, it's happening in video games.

Leaving Ms. Sarkeesian aside specifically, what you have is the perception from certain people, let's call them "Old Gamers" in the culture that the people coming in, or "New Gamers" want to change or take away certain things that the Old Gamers like: Booth babes, scantily-clad female characters, traditional methods of gameplay, etc. Whether or not this perception is correct or not depends, of course. Some people are critiquing video games in different ways to try and get gamers to think about what they are playing; others do want certain things to be cut out of gaming completely. Either way, Old Gamers are threatened by this. They don't like these newer gamers that are different from them and that have come into THEIR hobby demanding certain things.

The problem is that Old Gamers and New Gamers are often represented by figurative bomb-throwers (and at the rate some of these Old Gamers are deteriorating mentally, maybe some literal ones, too) who do less to advocate for their side and more to stir the pot. I wish we could just have a big tent where everyone is invited to make the games they want and everyone is invited to critique whatever they want, and if you don't like the games, don't play them, and if you don't like the critique or you disagree with it, politely critique the critique.

GamerGate, at this point, is a mass of folks with competing desires, many of them ones that I find personally reprehensible. I also think that the side for inclusiveness in games has some terrible reps, though of course not even remotely equal to the GG folks in their terribleness, so I'm not trying to draw a false equivalence here.

Avatar image for billyok
billyok

613

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

If only she represented her beliefs with real facts rather than subjective bias. I'd have no quarrel.

Surely you don't believe what's happened is justified? Because this post suggests you do.

Avatar image for athleticshark
AthleticShark

1387

Forum Posts

298

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

#122  Edited By AthleticShark

@jumbs: That first part is a really unfair statement. He could have explained more and elaborated, but its more then just dissecting games. She makes good points at times, but at others its just mind boggling. Still, these threats are just insane. The people doing them are just giving people like sarkesian a bigger platform and more recognition.

Avatar image for cairnsythebeard
CairnsyTheBeard

411

Forum Posts

447

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 6

User Lists: 22

Everyone has the right to free speech even if you don't agree with their opinions. Nothing is worse than trying to shut someone up, not only is it horrid behavior but it accomplishes nothing. Nothing is discussed and by trying to silence someones opinion you are acting worse than them for having a controversial opinion.

Avatar image for deactivated-5d000a93730da
deactivated-5d000a93730da

916

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 21

User Lists: 0

@bakonon said:

@spacecouncil said:

So I guess the objectification and murder of millions of male characters in games and movies means nothing....

You're really trying to say that men are the real victim here? This isn't a serious rebuttal to what this woman is going through.

When did I say that? My intentions are to show that objectification goes both ways. Death threats are terrible and unwarranted but her videos are in the wrong place to begin with. She does not even react properly to "real imminent danger" she should call the police and get off twitter. Her behavior is completely irresponsible for her own safety. $60,000 to make an hours worth of video. Of course not mentioning the any violence against male character. It goes both ways. https://t.co/t3QFQ4LZFz

Avatar image for brandondryrock
brandondryrock

896

Forum Posts

43

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

@hippie_genocide said:

@voysa_reezun said:

@hippie_genocide said:

No matter what your opinion of Anita Sarkesian is or what she has to say, it's video games people, damn! You don't need to escalate to such a level that you are making death threats to people. This is supposed to be about entertainment and recreation, not something you take so seriously that you resort to vicious attacks over.

Video games are just a proxy for a larger fight about the roles of men and women (or the perception thereof) in our society that has been going on forever.

Yet they choose video games as the battleground to wage this war on? Even if I were anti-feminist, I'd choose a topic with a little more substance or weight behind it to get my agenda across. And I thought GamerGate was supposed to be about ethics in games journalism? She's not a journalist and has nothing to do with that. So, I guess it's not about that...

Video games are a representation of something that certain people like and are comfortable with. When they sense a threat from outside forces that might change that something, they react.

Look at what is happening to the video game industry right now. We're getting more voices from different backgrounds, cultures, genders, ethnicities coming in. When people come into something with an already established culture, they start to break down that culture, demand for changes that suit them, etc., and the people who are already a part of the culture and like it because they forged it to suit themselves fight back.

Leaving Ms. Sarkeesian aside specifically, what you have is the perception from certain people, let's call them "Old Gamers" in the culture that the people coming in, or "New Gamers" want to change or take away certain things that the Old Gamers like: Booth babes, scantily-clad female characters, traditional methods of gameplay, etc. Whether or not this perception is correct or not depends, of course. Some people are critiquing video games in different ways to try and get gamers to think about what they are playing; others do want certain things to be cut out of gaming completely. Either way, Old Gamers are threatened by this. They don't like these newer gamers that are different from them and that have come into THEIR hobby demanding certain things.

The problem is that Old Gamers and New Gamers are often represented by figurative bomb-throwers (and at the rate some of these Old Gamers are deteriorating mentally, maybe some literal ones, too) who do less to advocate for their side and more to stir the pot. I wish we could just have a big tent where everyone is invited to make the games they want and everyone is invited to critique whatever they want, and if you don't like the games, don't play them, and if you don't like the critique or you disagree with it, politely critique the critique.

GamerGate, at this point, is a mass of folks with competing desires, many of them ones that I find personally reprehensible. I also think that the side for inclusiveness in games has some terrible reps, though of course not even remotely equal to the GG folks in their terribleness, so I'm not trying to draw a false equivalence here.

But games aren't changing like some old gamers suggest. Look at all the big games coming out soon. They are the same as any other year, they just look better.

I know you weren't suggesting that new gamers are changing it, but some that think games are changing are delusional. The rise of indie games has lead to more games being released on other topics that gamers didn't usually associate with gaming. But to say that traditional games are going away is just false.

Avatar image for ripelivejam
ripelivejam

13572

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

first off this is the fucking worst and regardless of the circumstances should not stand. i know i'm being obvious here but it seems like we can't stress enough how terrible these things are, and how much they backpedal whatever progress we make in gaming culture as a whole.

second, i understand pro-GGers here think there's a double standard in reporting here and refer to the numerous threats agaisnt pro-GGers. hopefully someone, maybe @patrickklepek can highlight this in an article as it is disgusting too, but i think with all the negative connotations GG has now that probably won't be happening, or at the best mention it as an aside in one of these articles so it is at least addressed. also two wrongs never make a right, and again i believe it is wretched in all forms, but considering the threats/harrassment against those generally criticized by GG came first it is more of a case of GG having brought it upon itself, which is a little harder to sympathize with.

@patrickklepek i appreciate all the reporting you're doing on this and bringing it to the limelight, but i hope you have something a little more... er, positive lined up in the future. i've always appreciated your human interest stories on smaller devs, and maybe you could do something more inspiring about the work women do in the games industry. just as a change from all this disgusting negativity, and maybe it would be the best way to fight these horrible people. keep on doing great work, patrick!

Avatar image for deactivated-583dfbc21c8a9
deactivated-583dfbc21c8a9

85

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

As terrible as these actions are, giving them attention only encourages unhinged people to continue doing it. If we keep giving these bullies, trolls, and troubled individuals exactly what they want, why would they stop? What do I know though, I'm just a guy on the internet trying to talk in an echo chamber.

Avatar image for benderunit22
benderunit22

1978

Forum Posts

9567

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 6

User Lists: 1

As someone who didn't follow GamerGate at all (thinking this can't possibly be linked to that Zoe Quinn thing I vaguely read about), it's pretty obvious these people don't have video games or ethics in mind, but are the worst kind of misogynist, immature assholes that hardcore feminists make all males out to be.

I'm not a fan of Sarkeesian (from what I've seen, she just cherry-picks examples that best suit her cause, which is a terrible way of statistical analysis), but I don't understand where all that hatred for her comes from. Let her have her opinion and say that opinion in front of people who already know they share her opinion. Insults, hate rallies and death threats are never justified and in fact, just help her prove her point. I hope the police can catch these assholes soon.

Avatar image for voysa_reezun
Voysa_Reezun

100

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

First of all, thank you @patrickklepek for this article and your previous one about Brianna. Glad to see Giant Bomb covering this more. Also, since the other topic is locked at the moment, my thanks to @alex for some really well-reasoned comments yesterday. And I've been happy to see a much improved moderation team at work so far, and @rorie has been doing a great job.

Also thankful that gaming still has voices like Brianna, Anita, and Zoe. We've already had so many quit due to this and similar previous harassment.

All I want is for my hobby to fun, for myself and for everyone else. That's all I want, and frankly that's all feminists and others pushing for change in games want. Fun games.

I'm tired of this GG entitled BS. You try to talk with them rationally, give them factual info, and none of it is accepted. There is no curiosity in their thinking, no empathy in their actions, and an utter lack of taking responsibility for the actions of their group that they refuse to divest themselves of. I really don't believe the narrative that most GGers are reasonable and only a few are fanatics. That's not been my experience at all. Maybe this argument was more accurate before Zoe released the IRC chat logs, but since then the reasonable people appear to have left the ship and all that are left are hateful, angry people who enjoy having a group as cover for their actions; lonely, angry people who enjoy belonging to a group; and rank opportunists like Milo. The Jezebel article on this is right, GG is nothing more than a hate group.

GG is poisoning our gaming community. We need to drive it out, now.

I wanted to bold that part specifically. I don't think that's what all or even most folks pushing for change want. They want games to reflect their social agenda first and foremost in many cases. I'm not putting a value judgment on that, but that's the truth, and for that matter, so do many of the GG folks.

I do agree that GG is just awful at this point, though the folks who do terrible things under that banner would have just chosen another banner to do them under without GG (and will do so under another banner in the future). You can never DRIVE OUT people like that, but you can try to minimize their voices. Shit, not every voice needs to be heard. Some voices suck and are terrible.

Avatar image for voysa_reezun
Voysa_Reezun

100

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

#132  Edited By Voysa_Reezun

@brandondryrock: Oh, I agree with you that the same games are coming out as ever. However, I think certain people see Ms. Sarkeesian (and other folks) as TRYING to get rid of those types of games, and therefore, they are pushing back.

The bitching about stuff like Depression Quest and Gone Home not being real "games" is related to that - you'll hear folks say "Is this what they want to turn gaming into?" when in reality, these are just different kinds of games that are sharing the tent with the more traditional types of games rather than replacing them.

Avatar image for babychoochoo
BabyChooChoo

7106

Forum Posts

2094

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 2

User Lists: 2

@hammondoftexas: I know how you feel, man. I know ya feel. All this bullshit is making me tired.

I'm going to go have some fun...by getting endlessly bodied in KI.

Avatar image for splodge
splodge

3309

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

@bevinsky: theres no such thing as shadowbannimg here, its not reddit and this is not r/gaming.

You are saying then that Anita is either lying or misrepresenting the information? Thats a pretty fucked up stance to take.

Avatar image for stryker1121
stryker1121

2178

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

#135  Edited By stryker1121

@bevinsky said:

Sigh. More of this.

I'm so tired of gaming press victimizing Anita Sarkeesian and other women and completely ignoring death threats sent to people who support GamerGate. What an utterly disgusting double standard.

I don't support harassment of anyone, and no one should ever have to receive a death threat or be harassed, but people are just using this as an excuse to call GamerGate a hate movement. Prominent GamerGate supporters have been sent death threats as well, but you don't see anyone reporting on that.

This is just the work of trolls who want people to get upset and sling shit at each other, and it's working. Congrats.

It's not the press who's victimizing anyone, or do you mean the press is falsely making AS and other women into victims?. Either way, it's the crazies emboldened by GG's anonymity and nebulous mission statement that are causing this...blaming the press is frankly ridiculous.

Just once I want a GG supporter to drop this 'both sides' false equivalency and point out the toxic elements the movement has attracted. I know good dudes like Boogie have gotten threats, and that's unconscionable, but people are getting chased from their homes over GG's questionable efforts to root out "corruption" in gaming. When you lie down with dogs...

Avatar image for legion_
Legion_

1717

Forum Posts

132

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

#136  Edited By Legion_

This has to be the final nail in the coffin for Gamergate. Whatever people claim the movement might have been, it's so deeply rooted in hate and threats at this point that one can't argue against it being a shelter for despicable people.

Break out. Make something new. If you really believe corruption is this wide spread in gaming journalism, you'd make the effort. The excuse of saying "Gamergate has a lot of traction, it would be hard to achieve similar levels with something new" just doesn't hold up. Make something new that has roots in the issue you talk about, and not in the romantic life of a developer.

The fact that pro Gamergate peoples first reaction is to defend Gamergate instead of condemning this horrible action is all the proof you that this whole movement is rotten.

Avatar image for gildermershina
Gildermershina

411

Forum Posts

361

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 5

I've been saying this multiple times, but reporting this is only keeping the ball rolling. All the anonymous assholes want is attention and perceived power. Report about it and you give them both. Don't report about it and you take it away from them.

This guy wasn't going to do anything. Who tells people they're going to bomb a school before they do it? This guy realized that a guy on twitter could make someone leave their house and then he realized he could change real life just by issuing a threatening letter, so he did.

Now that we know nothing happened, yes, it's completely obvious but A) the authorities can't not take these things seriously B) if something had happened, you wouldn't be able to say that.

This is the power of anonymous threats, there is no way to verify the veracity of their claims. It wastes time and money. I'm not sure not reporting this makes this stop either. What makes it stop is when somebody rats this asshole out and they face the consequences for their actions, and people realise the internet isn't a safe zone for perverse and harmful behaviour.

Avatar image for brandondryrock
brandondryrock

896

Forum Posts

43

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

@voysa_reezun: I know. And I think they are delusional to believe that. The market has shown that traditional big games sell a shitload of copies. And money rules the gaming industry. No company is going to be like "well, this game netted us $1 bil, but women don't like it, so we can't make anymore sequels."

Avatar image for anbilow
anbilow

272

Forum Posts

1

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

This all just makes me sad. What do we do to help? I'm just kind of lost and befuddled at the pure ignorance from which these cretins spew their hatred. They won't engage in discourse, so they espouse their small minded position from the comfort of anonymity with death threats. They are content to hide in their own vile corner of the internet. They are cowards.

Avatar image for flavbot
Flavbot

249

Forum Posts

10

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 0

#142  Edited By Flavbot

Some people keep saying "it's only a loud minority that is actually threatening people." So what? That's not the problem. Whoever is or isn't guilty isn't the problem. The problem is that this has been happening continually for way too long. Women are leaving the industry because they don't feel safe or welcome, that is fucked up beyond comprehension.

I don't blame them for leaving at all. I'm a 24 year old white male and even I have been genuinely considering if I want to dedicate my career to video games or not because of what has been going on lately, I can't imagine how it is to be a woman trying to make a life creating or writing about games. Do I want to be associated with a culture where this is going on?

Avatar image for athleticshark
AthleticShark

1387

Forum Posts

298

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

None of this is acceptable in any way shape or form.

The only thing I ask is for Sarkesian and the others to stop engaging with these groups. I am in no shape or form saying they asked for it or anything. I am not saying they shouldn't write articles or give speeches. All I am saying is putting, "Told 8chan to go fuck themselves and lived" on your Twitter bio is not helping anything or anyone.

The problem is now you are bringing in all sorts of people. Not just gamers, but genuine shit disturbers. People who don't care about games or feminism, just harassment. People that see an oppertunity to create chaos.

That is why whenever I see someone say, "I give up on games" or "I am embarrassed to play games" I just feel sad. At this point I don't even think the majority of people making these threats care about games. These are the same people who make threats about politicians or ethnic groups. These events are just the flavor of the month to these people.

The platform on which these groups make these threats and get away with them is what needs to change. Giantbomb writing a huge article is not going to stop anything. Twitter needs to. Unfortunately I don't think they will do much of anything until something bad happens and hurts their stock. That is what I am ashamed of.

This is all just awful

Avatar image for bevinsky
Bevinsky

189

Forum Posts

13

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

#144  Edited By Bevinsky
@legion_ said:

Break out. Make something new.

I'm just wondering; what exactly do you expect to come of that? If people who support GamerGate were to "realize" that the movement has been coopted and created a new one, what do you think would happen?

I know what would happen. People would just say "oh that new thing, it spawned from gamergate so it's just as shit as that is". It accomplishes nothing.

Avatar image for sylect
Sylect

114

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

#145  Edited By Sylect

This is from Total Biscuit and I think it applies to the comments I have heard from the GB staff:

"Everyone has room to improve. When you say "nope, nothing to see here", close ranks then start writing about the death of an identity, you cannot be surprised when that blows up in your face. Allying with mainstream media hackjobs to dodge bullets is little more than cowardice. You can condemn harassment in this industry without cynically using it to dodge responsibility for problems that games media has and needs to work on fixing. You can condemn it without flagrantly mislabelling millions of people, or perpetrating harassment of your own under the guise of "justice". When I look at these sites I don't see brave crusaders fighting for what's right, I see people trying to save their own skins and using whatever means they have to in order to do it and that makes me very sad. Has Games Media improved since Gerstmanngate? I'd like to think so, but it has a long way to go. The consumer should always come first. When you take to condemning innocent consumers over the actions of a few, closing ranks around developers whose games you will somehow have to try and review fairly in the future, I feel like you've truly lost your way."

99% of us are trying to have a real discussion and some assholes happen to be wearing the same t-shirts as us are throwing rocks. We are BOTH turning around and telling them to stfu. I don't know what kind of mystical power anti-gg people think we have over psychos that has also eluded them in the entirety of the internet. I think TB is right, the only avenue that games media has to win is to only acknowledge the harassment rather than take the advice that @patrickklepek has given us during his Ted talks or PAX talks.

@patrickklepek You are right, I think GG is important to talk about and I won't let the trolls win. Games media may want to ignore the actual narrative but I will continue to champion the things that matter while condemning this kind of disgusting harassment. I think it is a shame that outlets like GB who have the integrity and clout to be able to bring reason and sense to the discussion continue to choose to only acknowledge and feed the trolls but, oh well, maybe next time.

Avatar image for machofantastico
MachoFantastico

6762

Forum Posts

24

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 73

User Lists: 4

It's sad that we can't have these meaningful discussions without some disturbed minds taking actions like this. Whatever you think of Anita, harrasment and threats against a life is NEVER okay.

Thankfully I like to believe that the vast majority are respectable folks who have a fair opinion on the matters being discussed.

Avatar image for crazyleaves
crazyleaves

697

Forum Posts

15

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 8

@zggurat said:

This is awful and must stop.

#gamergate people: Your revisionist history is nonsense.

#gamergate is and has always been primarily a group of people harassing women in and tangential to the gaming industry. If you don't think that is true, you were not paying attention during the creation of the hashtag. You were not paying attention to the harassment targeted at Anita and Zoe and how that ultimately led to the creation of the hashtag. You have been deluded, and you need to free yourselves from the ideology that has enveloped you.

By asserting that you have legitimate concerns about games journalism which you associate with the hashtag, you lend support to continued harassment. Disavowals of the harassment can never remove the harassment from #gamergate. The harassment has always been there. It was the primary motivating factor. The original target of harassment was Zoe Quinn, and a false claim of a breach of journalistic ethics was just one weapon the harassers tried to use against her. They were wrong, and they are still wrong, and you are supporting them.

Stop. Free yourself.

Haha, no shit!

I have no idea how some people seem to think that "slut-shaming" and ethics in video game "journalism" are remotely the same thing.

Rationalization is a hell of a drug.

Avatar image for bakonon
bakonon

43

Forum Posts

45

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

She was asking for $6,000, not $60,000, but it was a Kickstarter, so she got ~$160,000 and she's in the process of releasing 12 videos (she's already released 7) that are about 30 minutes each. Get your facts straight.

Avatar image for dichemstys
dichemstys

3957

Forum Posts

16891

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 5

User Lists: 2

This shit is getting ridiculous, it makes everyone involved look bad.