The fervor with which the internet rages about supposed "corruption" in the gaming press will never cease to astound me. As if, at the end of the day, the amount of coverage or the specific number attached to the product review of a digital toy actually impacts our lives in any way. It's as if no one has any perspective whatsoever.
I don't blame the press and dev community for their reaction to the harassment/threats/hacking of Zoe and anyone defending her private life, or the blatant misogyny at its core. This is a woman that 80% of that particular den of toxicity already hated for daring to be a woman encroaching on their territory, making games that aren't game-y enough for them, and so they were more than happy to latch on to the notion that she would prostitute herself just to have her game mentioned.
The reason it's being "censored" is because it's her personal life, it's no one's business, and it doesn't deserve to be spread around like tabloid smut.
I think it is rather harmful to rational adult discussion to dismiss ethical violations in the press or game industry simply because what they cover are "games". The same goes for implying that anyone who is interested in stories of ethical breaches are only pretending to care about that, because they are secret misogynists. I agree with you that these accusations are baseless and should have been disregarded and the persons accused should be considered innocent and left alone, but that doesn't justify the sort of nasty label-bombing of people to shut them up. (I'm not accusing you of this, despite the words used in your post; just commenting on the frequency I've seen this happening in general this week).
That's the kind unproductive tactic everyone on "both sides" of SJW issues are always pulling and calling each other out for. They're all guilty of the same disgusting conversation tactics and bullying and accomplishing nothing for it.
My interest is in the vast disconnect between how all these people are reacting to the game creator being accused of something by an anonymous tumblr person this week, but accepted anonymous tumblr accusations as proof of guilt for another game creator just a month ago. The same people. Right down to the same game sites. This week? Defenders of the unjustly accused victims of internet trolling! Last month? Get the pitch forks and destroy this person, because they're clearly guilty -- an anonymous tumblr account said so.
Why does this matter to me? Because the inconsistency -- the hypocrisy -- signals other agendas at hand. If the principal of the matter is that people should not become internet fodder and have their lives ruined over anonymous tumblr accusations, then everyone should have treated both game creators the same, correct?
I don't think the anonymous libel is newsworthy, at all. No credible evidence and no credible source. I think the reaction of the gaming industry to it held up to the mirror of only a month ago is.
At one point this week, if you even mentioned anything nice about certain women in the games industry on Twitter, a massive group of cartoon (with cartoon avatars) misogynists and assholes would harass you. You don't see this level of disgusting, hateful shit in a TMZ comment section. I have little doubt that nasty hacking business was real as well given the astounding level of vitriol towards the victims. I don't give a fuck if someone's private life affects someone else's book report on a toy, they still deserve their privacy.
Unfortunately, that behavior isn't confined to just them. Anyone who doesn't perfectly adhere to the accepted line of discussion or response is likely to be labeled any number of awful things, like the words you used above to described that group, and harassed by large groups. One might call it bullying, too.
My only comment on this situation had been "I think it is irresponsible of people -- especially journalists and professionals in the game industry -- to take anonymous tumblr accusations seriously." The response to my statement has almost universally been favorable and agreed to. In almost this same situation with last month's accused game developer, I made the exact same statement and was attacked to the point that I shut down my twitter account. I was called a misogynist ignorant asshole who needed to be re-educated and sent countless links and statistics and blah blah blah. But all I said was the same thing I am saying in this situation. And it is just as applicable and fair.
See, the truth of the whole nasty situation is that almost everyone seems to have their own set of agendas and they all trump people's principles. Of course, like in politics, people on all sides are accusing each other of the same vile crap while each are behaving in similarly crappy ways and both dismiss anyone pointing it out with "yeah, but it's okay if we do it, because the other people are....blah blah justification blah".
@branthog: Oh, I don't mean that I honestly accept the accusations at face value. "that which can be posited without evidence can be rejected without evidence" and all that jazz. However, there is a sad part of me that always focuses on the negative parts of people, whether or not those parts actually exist. I don't act on those feelings (Oh god I would be a complete asshole if I did) or let it color what I legitimately believe, but they are there nevertheless.
Man, I can't imagine what would motivate people to behave the way they have so far in some circles. I even saw that someone on twitter acted really nasty towards Patrick without any provocation. It is all just so disappointing.
That's why I think the reaction from all sides has been gross in both incidents. One of the things I deeply believe in is that a person is innocent until proven otherwise. I want to be afforded the same benefit. Even if I don't always like you or agree with you (and in both of these cases, I do like the people -- I have supported their projects and financially supported both of them), I will presume your innocence until given considerable real evidence to the contrary.
But with accusations made this week and last month -- in light of how the modern world and media works -- once the accusations get some road under them, the damage is done. I don't want to use the words to describe what each person (last month and this month) will forever be known for in the minds and google searches of all humanity, but we all know the labels that will be applied to them. Simply because some anonymous twit did some muck-stirring. Some things are just so reviled by society that once your name has been remotely associated with them (even by an anonymous tumblr account), everyone will -- as you mention -- question if you're really guilty of it. Forever. Even just a tiny bit in the back of their brain.
That's why the responses to both stories (and not the stories themselves) have managed to enrage me so much. I wouldn't want this sort of shit to happen to me or anyone I know and it isn't right that it has happened to these two people (and it isn't right that the people playing the victims along with the accused this time were the same people attacking the other person last month).
All the sci-fi stories where human civilization is destroyed by nuclear war seem more quaint and naive with each passing year of the Internet's existence.
I've been online since 1988 and my entire career is founded upon a networked planet. I want for nothing more than a massive global electromagnetic pulse to wipe out all forms of modern communications and networking for a couple centuries. I might begrudgingly settle for a pre-internet-population-boom 1990s, with IRC, usenet, and enthusiast forums for a number of topics and no facebook, twitter, youtube, TMZ, drudgereport, etc, though.
Meh.
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