Click To Unmute

Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?

Sign up or Sign in now!

Please use a html5 video capable browser to watch videos.
This video has an invalid file format.
00:00:00
Sorry, but you can't access this content!
Please enter your date of birth to view this video

By clicking 'enter', you agree to Giant Bomb's
Terms of Use and Privacy Policy

Start
End

Bombin' the A.M. With Scoops & the Wolf!

Bombin' the A.M. With Scoops and the Wolf: 09/05/2014

It's been a hell of a week. Can you help us, Diablo III and Gods Will Be Watching?

Grab a cup of coffee, and catch up on the day's headlines with Giant Bomb guys that aren't in San Francisco.

Sep. 5 2014

Posted by: Patrick

581 Comments

Avatar image for mjhealy
MjHealy

2009

Forum Posts

17432

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 10

User Lists: 15

Gods Will Be Watching X Firewatch.

Coming to Steam in 2015.

Avatar image for r3d_zombie
r3d_zombie

85

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

had no idea what they were talking about for the first half, good show otherwise.

Avatar image for jrlyon
jrlyon

139

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

Awooo

Avatar image for devoureroftime
DevourerOfTime

771

Forum Posts

7079

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 65

Edited By DevourerOfTime

Alex and Patrick are way too kind on the harassing scumbags ruining the industry in the past few weeks/months.

Avatar image for hassun
hassun

10300

Forum Posts

191

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 2

Edited By hassun
Avatar image for patrickklepek
patrickklepek

6835

Forum Posts

1300

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

had no idea what they were talking about for the first half, good show otherwise.

I want to be you.

Avatar image for zolkowski
zolkowski

89

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

Hope Bit Bash pulls through. Looking forward to it!

Avatar image for bigwinnerx
bigwinnerx

405

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Tell em guys. Anyone holding up journalistic pitch fork false equivalencies in the middle of this other crap doesn't get it.

Avatar image for fear_the_booboo
Fear_the_Booboo

1228

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 3

This gonna sounds mean, but I'm disappointed at how vague you guys are treating the whole harassment subject. When you had problems with adblockers, you called them out. I was one of them, understood the problem, and now I'm a subscriber.

If gamergate is the problem (remember it started as an harassment campaign, regardless of the "level-headed" people that might associate themselves to it), call it out.

Alex being open about his problems on twitter was great, but the website seems to be mostly silent about it as many member of the community are associating themselves with harassment tactics. I don't know if you're afraid of alienating your audience, but a the end of the day this subset of people think it is OK to be a Gamergate apologist are alienating everybody, even those that are really concerned about ethics.

Avatar image for zolkowski
zolkowski

89

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

This gonna sounds mean, but I'm disappointed at how vague you guys are treating the whole harassment subject. When you had problems with adblockers, you called them out. I was one of them, understood the problem, and now I'm a subscriber.

If gamergate is the problem (remember it started as an harassment campaign, regardless of the "level-headed" people that might associate themselves to it), call it out.

Alex being open about his problems on twitter was great, but the website seems to be mostly silent about it as many member of the community are associating themselves with harassment tactics. I don't know if you're afraid of alienating your audience, but a the end of the day this subset of people think it is OK to be a Gamergate apologist are alienating everybody, even those that are really concerned about ethics.

I'm not sure on what level they would even want to get involved with this issue. With the amount of harassment coming from the issue while trying to maintain a "professional" atmosphere at giantbomb - it could descend that website and company into a temporary chaos. If I were in charge of any gaming journalist/news website at the moment I would be advising my editors to be as light and careful about the topic as possible. I am almost positive this has probably been discussed behind closed doors at giantbomb already.

Avatar image for jettpack
jettpack

142

Forum Posts

16

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 18

Edited By jettpack

Fuck, Alex. I am so glad you exist. GOD DAMN REAL TALK.

Avatar image for fear_the_booboo
Fear_the_Booboo

1228

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 3

Edited By Fear_the_Booboo

@fear_the_booboo said:

This gonna sounds mean, but I'm disappointed at how vague you guys are treating the whole harassment subject. When you had problems with adblockers, you called them out. I was one of them, understood the problem, and now I'm a subscriber.

If gamergate is the problem (remember it started as an harassment campaign, regardless of the "level-headed" people that might associate themselves to it), call it out.

Alex being open about his problems on twitter was great, but the website seems to be mostly silent about it as many member of the community are associating themselves with harassment tactics. I don't know if you're afraid of alienating your audience, but a the end of the day this subset of people think it is OK to be a Gamergate apologist are alienating everybody, even those that are really concerned about ethics.

I'm not sure on what level they would even want to get involved with this issue. With the amount of harassment coming from the issue while trying to maintain a "professional" atmosphere at giantbomb - it could descend that website and company into a temporary chaos. If I were in charge of any gaming journalist/news website at the moment I would be advising my editors to be as light and careful about the topic as possible. I am almost positive this has probably been discussed behind closed doors at giantbomb already.

I understand that, but as long as you don't adress the issue directly, it is gonna stay there. I feel like the hate against some developpers is here in this community (though you could disagree with me on that). If the head of the website is not calling them out, they're gonna stay there.

I obviously don't want to create a new debate here, as most of the thread talking about it have been locked rightfully. Maybe they don't feel their community is part of the problem like I do. Maybe you don't. I respect that though I disagree.

Avatar image for poobumbutt
poobumbutt

996

Forum Posts

40

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 4

User Lists: 0

@fear_the_booboo: I'm really torn on this subject. On one hand, I understand that involving themselves could result in loss of viewers/subscribers or temporary anarchy, and I totally get the logic if that's the decision.

On the other, I think there is a LOT to be said for a highly respected video game interest site like Giant Bomb coming out officially and saying, "Y'know what sucks? This garbage. We're against this behaviour. Stop it."

Avatar image for fear_the_booboo
Fear_the_Booboo

1228

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 3

@poobumbutt: Yeah it is an hard subject to tackle and my first statement may come accross as agressive, I totally understand why they're not as outspoken as I would like them to be.

Avatar image for beyondstrange
BeyondStrange

256

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

I am also in the dark about what is being eluded to here and though it is annoying to listen people talk about things in vague terms, I think ignorance may be bliss here. I assume the problems relate to the Gamer Gate nonsense, unless something terrible happened at PAX.

That Gamer Gate thing was so bad that I had to delete my twitter and finally swear off looking at that aspect of game news. Zoe Quinn is pretty great and it frustrates me to no end that people jumped on that nonsense. There is no evidence that games journalism is corrupt in anyway, but people want to believe it because that is human nature. People can really be poopy.

Avatar image for frytup
frytup

1954

Forum Posts

5

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

@r3d_zombie said:

had no idea what they were talking about for the first half, good show otherwise.

I want to be you.

As a "civilian", it's actually pretty easy to follow games but not necessarily the games industry.

Avatar image for wolfgame
Wolfgame

1168

Forum Posts

252

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Talking about people just enough to enrage them but not enough to engage them makes this whole thing so tiring.

Avatar image for mason
mason

280

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 2

I highly agree about Diablo 3. I went back to playing since the expansion and this time, gave Master difficulty a try. Doing so made it actually feel like a real game. Playing on Normal or Hard, I just used the game as a mindless distraction for listening to podcasts. On higher difficulties I'm feeling engaged, making interesting decisions on the fly, using my reflexes to get out of jams and getting rewarded for it.

Expert or Master isn't really that hard once you have decent equips. I might try to go even higher, but I suspect the enemies will get too damage spongey, and Master is already a nice meaty balance.

Also, taking a brand new character to level 20 in under an hour is pretty damn sweet. Especially when every level was hard won.

Avatar image for mooseymcman
MooseyMcMan

12781

Forum Posts

5577

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 13

I still don't think either Ghostbusters movie is great, but they're not bad.

Avatar image for bigd145
BigD145

299

Forum Posts

28

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By BigD145

Wait wait wait... that was all staged?!

/jk

Avatar image for seikenfreak
Seikenfreak

1728

Forum Posts

8

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 7

Edited By Seikenfreak

"Expert" in Diablo 3 is like Normal mode. Friend and I decided to make new Ladder characters with the new patch (PC version) and have been playing through on "Torment 1" and that has been manageable. We are already around level 50 near the end of Act 2 lol

It's interesting because a few of the Giant Bomb guys are enjoying D3 but haven't really got into the actual character building that can make it a longer term interest. The sort of stuff that made Diablo 2 so addicting. The meat and potatoes.

Once you reach the level cap then it's about taking all the available skills, figuring out a combination that is fun, is functional, makes tactical sense, and is effective in terms of damage for higher difficulty (Torment 1+). Then you go on the hunt for specific Legendary items that support that specific skill set you like. And at any point you might find a Legendary that doesn't line up with your current skill set but you end up changing all your skills to suit that one item.

That's kind of the hook of the game I guess. Don't get me wrong, it is absolutely designed to be a grind at that point, but that is the real classic Diablo experience. When you can slow down, think about what you are doing, experiment with different combinations of skills, items, and different party member class combos. When you figure out that perfect setup that suits you and you are cutting through monsters like a hot knife through butter and all your skills compliment each other.

Note: Just thought I should add that I don't consider myself addicted to it. By longer term I mean you have a character that you can come back to every couple of months or years and play the game for a week or two and have fun until it's time to play something else. I know the guys are busy and will say they don't have the time to get deep into games but you can absolutely enjoy the end game experience of D3 with not much time investment.

Avatar image for hammondoftexas
hammondoftexas

694

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

I still don't know what happened when they're talking about all the bad stuff going on in the game industry.

I'm just a regular guy who likes to play video games and watch dumb internet videos.

Avatar image for jaydubya
JayDubya

227

Forum Posts

80

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 7

Edited By JayDubya

MOTHERFUCKERS!

I completely agree, Alex. Oh man, does humanity have a rotten core.

Avatar image for csl316
csl316

17001

Forum Posts

765

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 10

Edited By csl316

I suppose I missed another games industry controversy, based on these comments.

Turns out if you don't engage in negative topics, you have better weeks.

Edit: After listening, it's far more personal to them than I thought. As someone that avoids conflict and negativity, I can sympathize with the dismay that getting pulled into this sort of thing can cause for Alex.

Avatar image for shadypingu
ShadyPingu

1857

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By ShadyPingu

Yeah... no idea what these new developments are, either. I certainly don't mean to cast my ignorance as a point of pride, but if your objective is to curb shitty behavior in the gaming community, it couldn't hurt to know that, I suspect, a large swath of that community is totally oblivious to what is going on. Not that dredging up shit under the auspices of informing people will help anything, but... I don't know. I'll just go back to la-la land. I like it there.

@seikenfreak: Totally. At level cap, D3 is all about, "Oh shit, I got some sweet Depth Diggers for my Monk with 2 sockets and good affixes, so now resource generators do 93% more damage. Now my weak-ass punches are my primary damage dealer, let's retool my entire build around that and and and blaaaargh."

Hearing the GB dudes approach the game from a decidedly more casual direction is not unwelcome, but it is strange because it doesn't reflect the game as I understand it, at all.

Avatar image for tr0n
tr0n

819

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By tr0n
Avatar image for rockyraccoon37
RockyRaccoon37

546

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 4

Edited By RockyRaccoon37

@tr0n said:

GamerGate is not all bad. It shined some light on our beloved industry and forced people on both isles to start talking about stuff more openly.

Gaming Journalism Is Over

It's not all bad, it's just rooted in a massive invasion of privacy that has so far only accomplished intimidating and bullying women out of the industry.

Real cool movement bros.

Avatar image for fishwitheadphones
fishwitheadphones

33

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

The QVC video for the interested QVC

Avatar image for estariol
Estariol

5

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By Estariol

Patrick and Alex - thanks for continuing to speak out against all the BS that's been happening recently. Whatever valid points people have about ethics and the developer-journalist relationship are being drowned out by, as you noted, unconscionable behavior that has to stop. People do need to get their priorities straight so any kind of constructive dialogue can happen. I know it's not easy since you personally know so many of the folks being attacked, but I'm grateful that you're not giving up. Giant Bomb's in a position to help direct this conversation and I'm glad you're both trying.

Avatar image for rockyraccoon37
RockyRaccoon37

546

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 4

Edited By RockyRaccoon37

Interesting that you claim minorities are pushing an agenda, when as far as I can tell they are merely trying to fend off harassers and muster up one good reason to stay in this industry.

Meanwhile people pushing the gamergate bullshit are actually pushing their agenda onto others. The goal of this movement is clearly to silence legitimate critical thought that is typically espoused by marginalized people in the game industry and press.

While it is clear that there are people in that movement who don't approve of the harassment and are legitimately concerned about impropriety in the relationship between the press and the industry, I personally could not care less about their questions. At best they are ignorant of the distinction between criticism and journalism and the role of the critic and at worst they are tacit supporters of the oppression of critical thought because it is viewed as a personal assault against a hobby that they identify too closely with.

Either way, I don't care about any of them. I do care about voices being oppressed, people being intimidated and threatened and critical thought being curtailed by anti-intellectuals.

The real conversation is about this oppression and your conversation about corruption is the one that lies beneath.

Avatar image for fyrtail
fyrtail

52

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

As a fellow "chill guy," I can sympathize with Alex's feelings of unexpected anger and not knowing what to do with it. Sad times.

Avatar image for yelix
Yelix

386

Forum Posts

583

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 2

User Lists: 4

It's great that Patrick and Alex address the harassment garbage in this video, but, like many others have said, there needs to be something written about this that non-premium members can see on the front page.

Avatar image for angrighandi
AngriGhandi

953

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By AngriGhandi

The events of the past few months have led me to believe that we just need to shut down the "2.0" parts of the internet for a while. You know, comments, blogs, twitter-- give everybody time to relax and come back down to reality a little bit. Nothing too crazy, just like a month or two! Or three.

Also, shut down 4chan, for like, 10,000 months.

This will solve so many of our problems.

Avatar image for wolfgame
Wolfgame

1168

Forum Posts

252

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By Wolfgame

@rockyraccoon37 said:

Either way, I don't care about any of them. I do care about voices being oppressed, people being intimidated and threatened and critical thought being curtailed by anti-intellectuals.

Oppression is fine as long as it is against those who share a different view than you I guess.

I see a whole lot of people that want to "talk" about making the gaming environment a better place, a whole lot of people that want a conversation to be had, but they can't seem to fathom that in ANY movement that conversation may come under fire from the lowest rung of the internet ladder. At that point we have many choices on how to proceed, so far we cower into a corner only to reemerge at the next controversy saying "This is a discussion that needs to be had." Only to repeat the process on a loop. I am only getting so involved in this lately because it's disturbing to see so many people who want to be congratulated for raising issues they evacuate at the first available chance. When the going gets tough it's time to throw the community to the wolves.

The crux of this movement is that the gaming community is complacent in behavior that it is inappropriate, that couldn't be further from the truth. The gaming community will continue supporting everyones right to play video games, they don't shy away from tough topics and they will condemn those who seek to disrupt a dialogue, this plays out day after day. The narrative focus of lone heroes standing against an army of misogynist gamers is fiction. It may break barriers and make certain people feel less special but I am strongly inclined to believe that given the chance gamers would prove they care about these issues and want to see progress made. Can that be done while a persistent effort is made to catalog them with the smaller evil of the internet? Absolutely not. It's painfully clear why this conversation has stalled, but if this just a vehicle to "play pretend" on social issues at least recognize what impact this has on all people when you suddenly decide you can't be bothered to participate anymore.

Avatar image for homelessbird
Homelessbird

1681

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

@tr0n: Interesting articles.

Avatar image for homelessbird
Homelessbird

1681

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By Homelessbird

@angrighandi: If anybody who thinks 4chan is a hive of internet villainy actually spent any time there, they would find that, since it's almost completely unmoderated and anonymous, it's actually a forum for a much more diverse array of people and viewpoints than almost anywhere else on the internet. It's certainly got a lot of assholes and idiots, but shutting down the site wouldn't actually stop those people from existing.

Avatar image for wolfgame
Wolfgame

1168

Forum Posts

252

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

@estariol said:

Patrick and Alex - thanks for continuing to speak out against all the BS that's been happening recently. Whatever valid points people have about ethics and the developer-journalist relationship are being drowned out by, as you noted, unconscionable behavior that has to stop. People do need to get their priorities straight so any kind of constructive dialogue can happen. I know it's not easy since you personally know so many of the folks being attacked, but I'm grateful that you're not giving up. Giant Bomb's in a position to help direct this conversation and I'm glad you're both trying.

Patrick and Alex - thanks for continuing to speak out against all the BS that's been happening recently. Whatever valid points people have about ethics and the developer-journalist relationship are being drowned out by, as you noted, unconscionable behavior that has to stop.

At this point I am in 100% agreement with what is being said and the intent of Patrick and Alex. A conversation is being drowned out by a vulgar minority that can't be reasoned with.

People do need to get their priorities straight so any kind of constructive dialogue can happen.

People who rely on death threats and such to get a point across don't even recognize they have "priorities" to get in order. A concept of right or wrong is going to elude these people. We can only attempt to do our best to both recognize and condemn these issues and try to connect with the reasonable people on both sides that want to have a constructive dialogue. We have more ways to communicate online at our disposal than ever before. If we are wanting to rally the respectful and productive input from the gaming community it's something we CAN do. Alternatively we can sit and hope that this is a conversation we can have when there aren't any more mean people on the internet. Maybe in someone elses life time they can see the return on all this hard work.

I know it's not easy since you personally know so many of the folks being attacked, but I'm grateful that you're not giving up.

giving up is exactly what we have done, if we aren't willing to engage further then we have surrendered the home front to a small group of toxic people.

Avatar image for time_lord
Time_Lord

793

Forum Posts

5499

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 9

The first 20 mins or so is really weird with out any context.

Avatar image for deactivated-6050ef4074a17
deactivated-6050ef4074a17

3686

Forum Posts

15

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 0

The problem I have with the "we can't deal with the deeper questions while there is ongoing harassment and viciousness coming from these other people" argument is that, while superficially understandable, in practice that's cop-out logic that never ends. This isn't as simple as, to use the analogy Patrick did in the comments of his Q&A, putting out a forest fire. We can't just call fire fighters, wait a couple weeks, and the fire's gone.

There are people out there that are always going to be harassing others and being stupid shits. If you're asking me about abiding by some sort of state of emergency lockdown of debate by using rationale that can be invoked in perpetuity, you are not being reasonable. I am capable, as an adult, of holding two competing thoughts in my head at the same time about certain topics and certain people. If the answer to "when can we be introspective about these other industry issues and get answers on them" is "when there's less harassment from people" a more honest answer would be "basically never."

At this point when I look on Twitter and see members of the games press talking about how awful certain people are being, a clip of Bill Maher's "The terrorists hate us for our freedom!" George Bush impression plays on loop in my head. This has become a fight about a fight about a fight and at this point everyone involved needs to revert back to step one and sit down at the table and listen.

It should shame certain people that the most stand-up folks throughout this whole mess have been a smattering of YouTubers and Kotaku.

@wolfgame said:

Talking about people just enough to enrage them but not enough to engage them makes this whole thing so tiring.

This is an excellent way to refer to the situation.

Avatar image for rekatil
rekatil

45

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

As someone who also is basically out of the loop from all of the events, it was kind of frustrating with them being so vague on the issue. From what I read, this is one of the biggest gaming stories in awhile and as a gaming journalism website (the best in my opinion) it would seem like they should be covering it at least a little.

The fact that Patrick and Alex danced around the issue was just mildly irritating is all.

Otherwise, Keep up the good work!

Avatar image for rockyraccoon37
RockyRaccoon37

546

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 4

@wolfgame said:

@rockyraccoon37 said:

Either way, I don't care about any of them. I do care about voices being oppressed, people being intimidated and threatened and critical thought being curtailed by anti-intellectuals.

Oppression is fine as long as it is against those who share a different view than you I guess.

I see a whole lot of people that want to "talk" about making the gaming environment a better place, a whole lot of people that want a conversation to be had, but they can't seem to fathom that in ANY movement that conversation may come under fire from the lowest rung of the internet ladder. At that point we have many choices on how to proceed, so far we cower into a corner only to reemerge at the next controversy saying "This is a discussion that needs to be had." Only to repeat the process on a loop. I am only getting so involved in this lately because it's disturbing to see so many people who want to be congratulated for raising issues they evacuate at the first available chance. When the going gets tough it's time to throw the community to the wolves.

The crux of this movement is that the gaming community is complacent in behavior that it is inappropriate, that couldn't be further from the truth. The gaming community will continue supporting everyones right to play video games, they don't shy away from tough topics and they will condemn those who seek to disrupt a dialogue, this plays out day after day. The narrative focus of lone heroes standing against an army of misogynist gamers is fiction. It may break barriers and make certain people feel less special but I am strongly inclined to believe that given the chance gamers would prove they care about these issues and want to see progress made. Can that be done while a persistent effort is made to catalog them with the smaller evil of the internet? Absolutely not. It's painfully clear why this conversation has stalled, but if this just a vehicle to "play pretend" on social issues at least recognize what impact this has on all people when you suddenly decide you can't be bothered to participate anymore.

Oppression is absolutely fine when it's directed towards people who only seek to oppress critical thought, progress, equality and inclusiveness. A dialogue can not be had with a person or group of people who reject the notion that the problem even exists. Those people must be shamed, ostracized and left behind to shout impotently at their loss of a homogeneous group in a culture that has predominately catered solely to them. And I'm not speaking solely to people in that group who are clearly misogynist and racist (of which there are enough that should make any person question the movement as a whole) but more specifically to those who claim they want equality, but only within their terms. Those liberals who are for equality, but don't want people in oppressed groups to be loud or angry or voice their criticisms in specific forms, ultimately requiring a form of assimilation in order to allow for equality.

"You can do and make whatever you want, so long as it makes us comfortable and fits within our terms of what is objective, what is journalism and what is criticism".

Gamergate, at every level of it's confused messaging is at it's core about only one thing: white, male men who identify themselves with a commodified product, are hurt and scared that they will lose control of a culture that has almost always catered only to them. In retaliation to that, we have extremists who are doxxing, threatening, and publicly shaming women in the industry and the men who stand at their side. We have Alex Jones conspiracy theory nuts who deny that any wrongdoing is occurring and if it is then it is entirely self-inflicted and part of some false flag campaign. And then we have the seemingly nice, calm liberal voices who don't agree with those crazies but ultimately still want to control the narrative of progress and are damning themselves (thankfully) by holding onto the gamergate name whose foundation is rotten to the core.

If you have questions about the relationship between the press and the industry, then fine (not really, it's dumb but whatever), but for your own sake don't associate it with this movement in any way. And don't attempt to suggest that the conversation must occur now, because it highlights your utter lack of empathy and reinforces the fact that you (consciously or subconsciously) want to divert attention away from real people who are being forced out of their homes and out of the industry because they have articulated thoughts that upset the status quo.

Avatar image for rockyraccoon37
RockyRaccoon37

546

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 4

@r3d_zombie said:

had no idea what they were talking about for the first half, good show otherwise.

I want to be you.

To be fair though, doesn't this response (and others here who have also claimed ignorance) show the need for this website and it's staff, along with the other large gaming websites, to come out and detail what's happening and to condemn it wholesale?

In some fashion I also wish I didn't know about what was happening, but ignorance is not bliss here. People need to know what is happening, why it's happening and where you guys stand on the issue. Not everyone here reads your twitter or tumblr pages, it's a significant gesture when it's posted on the website so everyone can see where you all stand.

Avatar image for christaran
ChrisTaran

2054

Forum Posts

-1

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 9

Edited By ChrisTaran

I love it when a vocal minority (in this case the GamersGate folks and the journalists) make something out to be far bigger than it is.

At most this is affecting perhaps, (and I'm being generous here) a couple hundred people, but both sides are more than happy to make it seem like it's the entire millions of gaming folk out there involved in this.

The gaters and the journos though love to drag the rest of us into their silly war that the vast majority of people want nothing to do with. They are in this echo chamber that makes this seem far larger than it actually is.

Avatar image for draxyle
Draxyle

2021

Forum Posts

2

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 0

Edited By Draxyle
@rekatil said:

As someone who also is basically out of the loop from all of the events, it was kind of frustrating with them being so vague on the issue. From what I read, this is one of the biggest gaming stories in awhile and as a gaming journalism website (the best in my opinion) it would seem like they should be covering it at least a little.

The fact that Patrick and Alex danced around the issue was just mildly irritating is all.

Otherwise, Keep up the good work!

I can imagine it's difficult to cover, because the core of this "movement" goes back to a group of people going out of their way to destroy ZoE Quinn's and her friend's lives over an incorrectly perceived threat to game journalism. It's a lot of TMZ-level stuff that goes far beyond this site.

There is a debate to be had for integrity in the industry, but the only reason the current one exists is because these bullies and terrorists (there's no better word for what these people are) on various social media sites are looking for targets to destroy for any reason they can find.

Jeff already had to put out a statement last month that harassment from the community is unacceptable under any circumstances, so I'm not sure what they would put on the front of the site that would be much different now.

Avatar image for amyggen
AMyggen

7738

Forum Posts

7669

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

@poobumbutt: If anyone knows my post history on the subject they'll know that I'm on the more diversity side, against #gamergate and think the whole "corruption in media" angle is bullshit made up without any proof. But still, I'm not decrying GB for not being more vocal about this. With the Letter from the Editor from June we all know where GB stand in terms of harassment on the internet, and you don't need a lot of imagination to know that that message still applies here. A new post would be "things still sucks," and we know that, right? Except for Patrick, GB has never really gotten deeply involved in these issues and has stayed pretty apolitical by design, so it's not like there's no precedent either.

Avatar image for amyggen
AMyggen

7738

Forum Posts

7669

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

Edited By AMyggen

My view on the whole gamergate bullshit is that it's clear that some games journalists have some disdain for their audience. No denying that. But as for the larger issues of corruption and such, that's largely a non issue. There's no smoking gun here, no evidence of any corruption of any note. As for the disclosure issue: Kotaku is free to implement a pretty draconian policy in terms of banning Patreon etc. But that shouldn't mean that every part of the games media that don't do that should be considered suspect, potentially on the take or whatever. The games media does by and large follow the same rules as the rest of the entertainment media in terms of transparency and disclosure of relationships etc.

This story is only "big" because of the harassment it caused, other than that it's just bullshit with some gaming journalists reacting way too harshly and generalizing "gamers" with a handful of dumb articles, and then a lot of people generalizing every part of the games media in order to show that they dislike generalizing.

Also, that Slate article is just a rehash of the old common knowledge about big games media dying with a dumb click bait headline, Slate style. Nothing to see there, we already knew that.

Avatar image for papercut
papercut

4200

Forum Posts

10068

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 9

I have NO IDEA what is going on. Guess I'll go watch that Q&A video.

Avatar image for gunsaredrawn
GunsAreDrawn

343

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

You guys need to take a chill pill and stop getting so mad about this stuff. I saw some of Brad and Alex's tweets and they both seem to let it get to them so easily and they aren't even the ones getting any hate.

Everyone's getting too offended about things nowadays, you just need to realize that the internet has become an outlet for people to say things they wouldn't normally say out loud, I bet a lot of them don't even mean what they say, they just know that it will get under your skin because you're taking things too seriously.