I don't like to bring up politics, but this is important. Especially with the false narrative hitting the mainstream media tonight on the Colbert Report. If you are a student and too busy in school to be aware, please, for the sake of your hobby, be aware. At the very least watch this 24 minute video regarding the general summary of events. If you are older and face people who are ignorant and hearing the media's forced narrative, be aware. Don't argue, don't make a scene, definitely don't ruin friendships over this stuff. Make at least an honest attempt to educate. This is complicated stuff. The world is ugly. There are champions fighting the good fight out there. Yes, I'm involved. About as involved as I can be, mostly focusing on mediation, cooling flames, building bridges, information sharing, and facilitating discussions. I haven't been since the beginning but certainly for several weeks now. I've stayed away from 4chan, 8chan, and reddit because they are cesspools of stupid, but am involved in the official forums of the community and have talked directly with many of the core members of the movement (depicted in the below image). My generation has worked our entire lives trying to end the stigma attached to the identity "gamer". We don't want 20 years of life effort wasted because an unethical group of journalists wanted to declare the "Gamer" dead. Thank you. P.S. Check out TB's shoulder guards. Best summary of the situation to date: This is the amazing image made by "The Elusive Swede": Another beautiful piece that puts me to tears: And for those who want to listen to Total Biscuit talk for 2 hours to editor in chief of Kotaku:
I've no audio, so I cannot watch the videos, but I have been paying attention to the gamergate stuff. Hopefully, we can get some more honest people making/reviewing games, and we can continue to enjoy the games just the way they are.
Polygon, Kotaku, and can't remember the 3rd site have been working with Total Biscuit on reforming their ethics policies. It's a step in the right direction for sure. Don't completely agree with Stephen Totilo's viewpoints, but I can appreciate his perspective at least (though some of it is kinda bullshit). He's at least playing ball. It's really up to whether he follows through on those new ethical standards or not. They will have to be proactive about gaining their reader's trust.
So this was my class today. So many peoplein class thinking its about women in gaming, had to explain it wasnt
Did Aenimalistic delete what he said? Anyways, I think that gamers SHOULD have spoken up about the corruption. If kept quiet, it may have grown without people noticing. I am confident this whole thing will be resolved.
Sorry, Yes I deleted it. After reflecting on it for awhile I figured it might start arguments that Cyber had asked to avoid. I do have some very strong opinions on the topic, and if you'd like to hear them I'll be happy to dialogue with anyone in private chat. =)
I agree with some of the things you are upset about. Unfortunately after reading your post twice, I think you misunderstand the greater purpose. We're more upset about multiple sites declaring that the identity "gamer" is dead. The reason why, if it was feminists or some other group which was pushing a political agenda to kill an identity, they would be fought just as strongly against. Never mind the fact that there are many, many other ethical concerns which we're fighting against unrelated to the "social justice" backlash. Just look at my discussions on GamerGate.Community There are indeed some GG'ers which are completely anti-"feminist movement", to be clear that's anti "the feminist movement" is different than anti-women or anti-equal rights. I would say the majority just want games journalism to be balanced and fair. They also don't want social politics in games affecting metacritic. The interview today with Total Biscuit I think reflects the CORE of GamerGate's wants and desires.
The ideas of one do not represent those of thousands. Especially WHEN I CANNOT HEAR WHAT HE IS SAYING.
Very interesting. Thanks for the video link, it does clarify a few things. In the interest of not having a forum argument I'll leave it at that. =) There are a few things I would ask clarification on: "There are indeed some GG'ers which are completely anti-"feminist movement", to be clear that's anti "the feminist movement" is different than anti-women or anti-equal rights." I'm curious as to how you see the feminist movement being anything but pro women and pro equal rights? Or am I misreading your meaning? Also, what is the feared fallout if the identity of gamer is dead? Thanks Cyber, very enlightening.
What irritates me are issues like this, but more-so companies/franchises repeating and copying the same things over and over. Fifa, Madden, CoD, etc; bringing us closer to the 2nd game crash.
Sorry to say something slightly inflammatory, but I believe that it is important. According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of feminism that best fits in this context is "organized activity in support of women's rights and interests". This definition is a loose one and can potentially apply to people who are trying to censor videogames for the sake of not offending some women. Still from Merriam-Webster, another definition of the word is "the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities". Personally, I don't think that modern, Tumblr-style "feminism" is truly working to better women, it is more done to hide things that offend people and anger for the sake of anger. It is not truly feminism. People love being offended and (especially on the internet) love banding together to dislike things, hence the sudden incredible amount of "social justice warriors" on places like Tumblr who seek only to censor and attack anything they are in the least offended by. Feminism is just wanting equal rights for both genders, which, while literally unrealistic, is something that I think all of us can agree is a good thing to work towards. I do not use "feminism" to describe the anti-male fear-mongers of Tumblr and similar places, and I think that doing so just makes the situation worse, making it seem (to people not well versed in the use of words on the internet) like a fight between people who want women's rights and people who want to oppress women's rights, which is something that I, and hopefully all of you, do not agree with. Using "feminism" in this way is only hurting the gamer identity. I agree that censorship of the game industry is bad, but misandrism (hatred of men) is being carried out by a vocal minority who few people take seriously. News reports in the United States are sensationalist and get over things quickly (i.e. civil wars in Egypt and Syria, #Kony2012), and a large percentage of the population are gamers. This storm will blow over and the "gamer identity" will be fine. My main concern and the main source of long-lasting damage that will result from this Gamergate fiasco is the harassment of several women in the game industry. Gamer identity matters much less than the murder/rape/bomb threats being received by women in the gaming industry who call themselves feminists because they truly want equal rights and opportunities for women. You can not possibly hope to change the mind of people like this, so don't try. Just educate those who truly are not educated on the subject. And for everyone's sake, never use the word "feminism" to describe "misandrism", and correct anyone who uses the former to describe the latter. Don't fear over the death of the gamer identity, it is going nowhere over something as ridiculous as this. p.s. the video game crash of the 80s happened due to a single company (Atari) monopolizing the console market and flopping because they remade the same awful games over and over. The crash did not in any way affect PC gaming, which is much proportionately bigger now than it was then, and gaming was much smaller and more vulnerable then than it is now.
What I'm saying is that a lot of games and companies are doing the same thing. I know about the gaming crash, Nav.
I am anti-"men hating feminists" or as Navarog puts it above, the "new feminists" as he describes it above. I am pro-equal rights for all whether it's gays, straits, all races, doesn't matter and yes that includes the rights of women including feminists who are simply pro-equality. I've got a consistent track record of supporting all people in all fair rights and equality. It really boils down to the difference between people like Anita Sarkeesian and people like Chistina "Based Mom" Sommers. Anita Sarkeesian says the label "gamer" is bad. The culture is bad. 99% of games are bad. You should feel bad about calling yourself a gamer. The only kind of real person who calls themselves a gamer is a heterosexual white basement dwelling, neck beard, virgin misogynist who loves shooting people and ripping their heads off... ewww gross, why would I want to do THAT? That kind of feminist is hard to agree with. Most women don't like the perspective of that kind of feminist. I am pro-equality and do my best to understand, talk about, and promote healthy dialog, debate, and understanding of women's rights issues and how SOMETIMES they are misrepresented obviously even in video games. Now my point I was saying is there are people who are more extreme than others. There are indeed some people who have become to anti-"women hating feminists" that they're so upset about these women attacking their hobby that they close their minds to reasonable debate on actual real issues. I'm one of those people who can not like Sarkeesian, but like at least some of the finer points of her message. Not all people in GG hold my same opinion on that, but the point I was making is that GG is not even about all that. It's a much broader issue of ethics, not just the feminist issue. The only reason why the feminist issue is part of the ethics discussion is because how goddamn lout those extremists are and how they are constantly on the offensive and they have effected the media in a negative way. No one has the right to disenfranchise whole demographic of people by stating the term they use to at least partially define themselves, that that term is dead. When multiple journalists at multiple news sites collude to release on the same day the same article about how we should "end the term gamer" then it's rather offensive. This narrative that the term "gamer" should die so it is more "inclusive" of others has bubbled up above the original 10 sites who did this and is now a narrative being spread outside games media. It's a toxic idea that could potentially unravel all the progressive work that has been done to end the stigma behind the word especially with all the bullshit attacks "feminists" are making at it, then the gamers passionately defend, then the "feminists" say "look see, the term is bad, people like that is why 'gamer' shouldn't exist".
Thanks for the in depth response Cyber, I really do appreciate the better understanding it provides. I don't necessarily agree with everything said, or definitions outlined, but as the focus of this post was to educate, I feel it's done that for me. Much appreciated.
I pretty much have 2 goals in the fight. 1. Get games media sites to have clearly printed ethical codes that most people agree with 2. Defend the right to call myself a gamer without ANY stigma being attached to it