Anita Sarkeesian Forced to Cancel Talk Over Shooting Threat

In a country which has pretty much removed every chance to be really anonymous on the internet for the (imaginary) reason of security, it shouldn't be that hard to find out who has send a letter threatening to massacre children! It's not as if this is some highly skilled Al Qaeda operative who uses an elaborate scheme to remain undetected. This is some asshole in a basement who thinks he's getting respect by threatening someone... If the authorities can't find the person responsible for an obvious terrorist threat what is all the surveillance good for? It shouldn't matter if they know it's highly unlikely that anything will happen, if you make a joke about bombs in an airport you also get in trouble. Find him, throw him in jail and make sure the internet knows all about it. The people making these threats are cowards, they'll vanish as soon as they realize their actions might have consequences...

That perception is why a lot of people are backlashing against the game journalism, and the immature responses is pretty much what fueled this whole thing into a full-blown shitstorm.

I believe the whole ethics thing wouldn't start this whole movement if a big group of people weren't so fed up with the yellow journalism portraying as real journalism, and selling opinions as facts.

People not liking certain stuff is fine, and I don't think hardly anyone is against more diversity in video games, that just leads to more creativity. But you don't get there by stating "This kind of game is objectively wrong, and this genre needs to go, and I don't like this artstyle so the game is bad", and that's the message a lot of people seem to be getting from this.

Wow only took 5 posts before NO TRUE GAMERGATER started again.

Thanks for the update @patrickklepek ! Please keep up the good work!

The objectification and murder of millions of male characters in games and movies means nothing when discussing actual bomb and gun massacre threats in the real world, no.

And where did I say anything about how it was ok for Jack Thompson to be attacked?

Anita Sarkeesian was going to go through with the talk, not giving them what they want, but the security wouldn't comply with her safety concerns. She did call the police and talk with them and campus security. Did you even read the story? Also, her increasing the visibility of these threats may give the specific trolls what they want, but in the long run will help push this violence and aggression against women further to the fringes of the culture, and allows other women who are victims to speak out about their experiences as well. So "shut up and get over it" may be your opinion, but she has the right to speak out about it if she wants.

Is this what I get for NOT accusing you of being a men's right activist? But continue to construct straw men to battle so you can avoid the fact that you think her speaking out about issues in gaming is as important as her life and the lives of women and students on that campus.

@spacecouncil Well if people here werent sure already, you have gone and exposed yourself. The old "60000 to make an hour of video" thing in reference to Anita is classic sexist bullshit that has been around since she first started getting death threats after her kickstarter. What circles are you running in that that is your train of thought?

@angrighandi: Clarify what these changes are please?

I've been enjoying videogames for over 20 years now and suddenly this GamerGate "movement" makes me feel the more embarrassed about being a part of the gaming community than ever before. Just as games were starting to become more a social norm, the vocal minority sweeps in to tarnish years of growth and progress. I may never understand the logic behind these threats, which is likely shaky at best, but I can only hope that as the next few months go on, the silent majority starts to drown out these people so we can all get back to doing what we love as a community.

The more stuff like this comes up, the more it feels like I should just stop reading articles about "games."

These threats are disgusting, but bringing attention to them isn't going to stop them. The more the gaming media and community cry foul about threats, the more fun they become for the teen trolls that make them. The number one rule of the internet is "Do not feed the trolls" but people seem to have lost sight of that.

"The exaggerated, hyperbolic, and violent responses to their work has only emboldened them."

We're in a vicious cycle, where people like Anita gain relevance and support when they are harassed, and so the harassment is brought out in to the spotlight, which serves to feed the trolls. Each side emboldening the other, again and again. It feels good to point fingers at the other side and sneer at how terrible they are, but it only makes them stronger. It's masturbatory and self-defeating.

For the harassers to be defeated, people just need to stop reacting. For the harassers to win, they need to stop providing ammo to their enemies. Basically, if everyone would just talk about games instead of each other, then everyone would win.

But that won't happen on our current course, because it requires people to stand up against their own sides, instead of against the 'enemy.'

Humans still suck.

@hammondoftexas said:

I just want gaming to be this!

You and me both, brother!

@hammondoftexas said:

I just want gaming to be this!

pc is the biggest #pcmasterrace

"Whatever legitimate concerns some members of GamerGate had concerning the industry have been drowned by threats of violence."

The threats against Wu didn't contain the hashtag at all.

Unless you know something else, you're basically saying that as long as women are being harassed, nobody can talk about anything else in games. Otherwise, using her as an example of the hashtag being used to threaten women doesn't contain any facts or proof.

The only reason it's being "drowned out" is because you continue to refuse to talk about anything. You've been writing about plenty of other things, other news while Gamergate has been happening. You've been more than capable of talking and discussing things other than harassment of women.

On the list of things not covered:

How about Quinn's massive manipulation of her 4chan screenshots?

How about Randy Pitchford calling people cowards for not sharing their personal info on Twitter while massive doxx'ing of Gamergate people was going on, including the firing of the guy who started #Notyourshield or how Pitchford doesn't seem to care about reviews being paid to be positive?

Just like Liana K has admitted to giving higher scores to help get developers bonuses?

The reason legitimate concerns is being drowned out in your head is your steadfast refusal to describe anything apart from threats to women (which has happened to Gamergate supporting women too, and a lot) as "whatever concerns".

That's the basest form of ignorance while you pretend you care at all or you acknowledge anything but threats against women on your side.

Are you honestly saying that the subject of an article making comments should not be included in the article? No where does Patrick say this was GamerGate, he says Anita says Via Twitter that one of the death threats she received about this appearance claimed affiliation with GamerGate. Exactly what is in bad taste about reporting the facts? Oh I'm sorry, the facts don't fit the narrative you're trying to build. Please do go on about how reporting the facts is in bad taste. Keep in mind the fact here is Anita saying there was a GG affiliated threat. Nothing beyond that. Anything beyond that is reading into it what you want to read into it, and not in fact what is published above.

I wonder if this new spurt of harassment was spurred on in any way by the tweets Anita made the day before about Bayonetta 2 and its intended audience. Not to say that it was her fault, mind you - just that she presented the exact kind of viewpoint that these people seem to hate so vehemently about a game that's a sequel to a cult classic franchise that no one ever thought would be made, almost wasn't made, and is now getting rave reviews. People who love Bayonetta are going to feel defensive about criticism of this game by its very nature, and given the impressions I've gathered on the chans and whatnot, it doesn't seem unreasonable to suggest that those tweets pissed some people off real good. Maybe they pissed someone off to an insane extreme.

I just wonder how aware people like Sarkeesian are of the mentalities of their abusers. Did she not realize that those tweets would piss off the GG folks (there was already a big disturbance in the force when Polygon's review dropped)? Was she intentionally antagonizing them? Or is she just going to say what she thinks regardless? It doesn't really matter, per se, but I wonder if she really knows what these people, that lurk about the naughty fringes of the internet, are actually like. They're real weird.

Just for clarity's sake - I don't agree with the vast majority of what Sarkeesian says. But there should never be any reprisal over critical disagreements. These are fantasy worlds we're talking about here. It seems absurd that so many people have even felt the need to disavow death threats. I don't think anyone, outside of actual lunatics, thinks that's an acceptable way to express your frustration that the lady was mean to videogames.

@ripelivejam: You know the PC has evolved so much. I remember being a 12 year old kid playing CSS a d when I talked all I got was people yelling me at me to shut up for being a kid, on top of other derogatory things.

I honestly don't notice that stuff anymore. I'm sure it exists and maybe its just the games I play, but it has really been a pleasant place online compared to consoles.

By the way, this isn't an arcane law that is being enforced now in a strange way. HB 276 passed in May this year giving people with open carry permits the right to carry around weapons without the police being able to give disorderly conduct violations to those people. It was passed in the Utah house with a 27-1 vote and was signed at the last minute of the legislative session and signed by Governor Herbert. This is the same legislature who controls gun laws and gives the Board of Regents no power to bar firearms on Utah University campuses.

Totally agree, but I'm also cynical enough to think that the focus on trolls is in no way accidental. The alternative is having a real discussion after all, and they've shown not to be interested in that.. It's much easier to just dehumanize the enemy, poison the well and claim moral victory..

This is so frustrating. What can be done other than to keep calling it out which in turn provokes these vile trolls' further? Sic the NSA and the FBI on them which in turn would then provoke even more nutjobs?

It's just. . .I don't know how to respond to this stuff anymore because nothing I can do can stop it. And not just this. I'm so tired of all of these "grievance"-based movements which only exist to stifle or reverse progress, especially those which resort threats like this.

An activist I admire instilled in me the idea that successful civil rights and social justice movements don't happen by convincing the opposition they're wrong; they happen by revealing how unseemly the opposition's opinions are. But with stuff like this, most people know these nutters are both unseemly and few and it's not enough. Knowing and showing that these people are vile and wrong isn't enough to protect the targets of their ire.

Where's Anonymous in all this? Vigilantism is hit and miss, but good golly I wouldn't feel the least bit of sympathy for any of these asshats if they were dragged into the light for their crimes.

I guess, at this point, I have just lost the thread on what both sides of these arguments want and are trying to accomplish.

Just like Zoe Quinn is so irrelevant you guys came up with "Literally Who" to continue to refer to her without using her name. Nobody is fooled.

I don't agree with much of what Anita says, but I do think she has the right to say it without fear of being harassed or threatened. I found it disingenuous when people tried to claim that there was no relation to GG and the threats made to Brianna Wu, since her information was posted on forums frequented by them. In this case, Anita has an unfortunate history of being threatened and harassed long before the advent of GG, so I don't think this is a situation of "coincidences...stacking up." While I do believe the culprit in this case has most likely joined GG, I wouldn't say the GG movement is behind it.

I don't defend the people doing this. I don't subscribe to the GG movement, but I won't agree with tar and feathering the lot, which includes people who aren't behind this egregious act. I don't ascribe a cause or motivation to a movement, I let that movement tell me what their beliefs are.

This is timely, @patrickklepek makes the case for why GameGate should continue:

"We can't control what other people do on the internet, you can introduce tools, but ultimately, we are responsible for what each of us contributes to the noise."

I would love to know why this advice is no longer valid

In the first place, that letter is genuinely sinister; that isn't someone blowing off steam in between Destiny sessions ... it's a deeply troubled individual.

Secondly, I wish people would stop threatening Sarkeesian because it completely plays into her hands and validates her entire argument. I mean: is anyone really surprised that on a day when Brianna Wu was getting the early press coverage, Sarkeesian manages to get the spotlight back by nightfall?

Thirdly, the BBC is reporting that "neither [IGN nor Giant Bomb] was able to comment when asked for a response". Seriously guys, that was lead-footed: you have nothing to hide and you made it look like you did. You could have pointed to Patrick's consistent work on this issue and said "we really don't know why Brianna mentioned us ... we're one of the few media outlets that's been taking this seriously."

the person who wrote that letter is the biggest kind of coward. he knows his ideas are shit and resorts to violence to stifle the discussion so he can have his way. the whining about feminization of men and feminism is fucking hysterical too. i guess unless you're a gun totin', cigar smokin', babe gettin', caricature of a male, you're not a real man. these idiots don't undesrtand that they're falling into the same gender traps people like Sarkeesian are talking about. how can you be this dense. how can you be this simplistic and cowardly?

Able to Comment sometimes means they didn't respond in time before the story was published.

Or CBS could've told them to not discuss it, but that seems less likely to me.

I wish Patrick had given some context in relation to the Lepine shooting. This shit is gross. I mean who in the fuck thinks that that is acceptable behaviour in any forum.

Well, to say that is kind of undermining what many equality fighters, like Anita, actually want. You're basically saying that they are fighting for a lost cause, because many of them would love for games like Bayonetta and Dragon's Crown to not exist.

There is no "ignore them and hope they go away" anymore. That doesn't work today.

"Why aren't they talking about spaceships in this analysis of medieval knights?!"

The videos are tropes vs women, not tropes vs everyone

As I see it there's generally the following:

1. GamerGate people who want the yellow game journalism to end and want game journalists to stop acting like a clique.

2. Trolls/misoginists who use the opportunity to attack people or to just make a general mess as trolls do (like making these shitty death threats)

3. Game journalists who attack GamerGate out of defense and focus only on these trolls

4. Sideline people who dislike the journalists personal attacks against gamers and side with gamergate (NotYourShield)

5. Other sideline people who mostly see the articles and trolls and obviously side against sexism (StopGamerGate2014)

6. Everyone else who is sick and tired of this shitstorm and just want to focus on games (including a lot of other game journalists who understandably don't want to touch this shitstorm).

@seraphslaughter said:

Well there's the issue. In your head, you're thinking "proscribed gender roles can act as traps that stifle the lives of both men and women." In this guy's head, he's thinking "proscribed gender roles are naturally or divinely-given, or both, and are the only thing keeping society from falling into dystopia." You're on two different wavelengths. This guy DOESN'T "know his ideas are shit." He thinks that his ideas are great and your ideas are shit.

They say that bullies are cowards, and in some cases that might be true, but I think the people doing this see themselves as Guy Fawkes, not as some cowardly chump that knows that his ideas suck who is hiding behind a computer screen.

@sergio: The movement has told me what their beliefs are. It's a vague mixed bag of ethical concerns that for some reason all involve female indie devs or critics. The one thing they have been clear about is that none of them have actually done anything to improve the industry. I have asked many times for links to all the good work that GG is doing to try root out unethical practises, but they all involve female indie devs or a couple of websites releasing statements.

I don't agree with much of what she says, but it really isn't relevant to the topic at hand.

Threats are awful.

But looking at this whole thing it's both hilarious and disgusting how both sides of GG are living in their own bubbles, shouting in their own echo chambers. If nothing else, this thing has made it crystal clear that it's not the gamers who have died but actual honest to god conversation.

"Conversations are over", Leigh should write an article about that.

"Not to say it's her fault but man she really should have thought before doing it"

Sweet hand wringing victim blaming bro.

@gnoltac: The very first tweet in the hashtag was by known homophobe and far-right wingnut, Adam Baldwin, linking to a video attacking Zoe Quinn over her sex life and suggesting she slept for reviews(a claim easily disproven). That's the first drop in an ocean of bizarre conspiracy theories and mob attacks on women, queer people and people of colour in video games. Are you going to continue arguing that this is all just a coincidence? Do you expect anyone to take you seriously?

Well if the FBI weren't on this already they probably are now right?

If you're wondering more about what GamerGate really is than browse through the Fuck NO Video Games account.

Here's an example of GG tactics: