Author Topic: GamerGate  (Read 139853 times)

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Offline Ultimate Paragon

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Re: GamerGate
« Reply #15 on: September 23, 2014, 01:45:29 pm »
OK, everyone who thinks GamerGate is its own separate topic: mind giving a quick summary of what it's about? Kind of pointless to have a thread to discuss a topic if apparently nobody can agree on what the topic is.

Well, it's really complicated, but here's the Cliffsnotes version.  Resentment against corruption in gaming journalism had been building for quite some time.  When Zoe Quinn was revealed to have slept with some Kotaku staff members who covered her game Depression Quest, it seemed like just another run-of-the-mill scandal that the internet would forget about.  The problem came from a lot of major gaming publications refusing to cover the issue, as well as outright censorship online.  Then some of Zoe Quinn's friends, including the controversial Fez developer Phil Fish began attacking her critics, adding still more fuel to the fire.

Things began to snowball out of control.  Gamers began to do research on Zoe Quinn and the skeletons in her closet.  She'd gotten into a dust-up with users from the Imageboard Wizardchan in 2014, who she claimed harassed her.  More important, however, was her suppression of The Fine Young Capitalists, a game jam/charity.  Quinn showed no remorse for accidentally DDOSing their website.  Then Wolf Wozniak claimed he'd been sexually harassed, and was bullied on Twitter for what he said.  Fish later claimed he was doxxed.  After this, the TFYC IndieGoGo was hacked and disabled, and the hackers pretended it was an IndieGoGo takedown.  Why?  Because /v/ started helping to fund it.  It has long been smeared as a gathering place for misogynists, when things are really much more complicated than that.  Thankfully, it was later restored.

This was when shit really started to fly.  Both Quinn and Anita Sarkeesian claimed to have been doxxed and threatened, but many found reason to doubt their stories.  And a lot of gaming sites began publishing "gamers are over" articles, claiming that the attacks on corruption were really a smokescreen for misogyny.  The fact that all these articles were being published at the same time started ringing alarm bells.  This, naturally, only made gamers angrier.  More breaches of trust being uncovered didn't help matters.  It began moving far beyond what it began as.  During this time, Adam Baldwin created the hashtag #GamerGate to refer to the movement.  #NotYourShield was created by pro-GamerGate women and minorities angry at Social Justice Warriors claiming to speak for them.

There have been massive developments as more and more big names started getting involved.  Everybody from feminist academic Christina Hoff Summers to conservative journalist Milo “Nero” Yiannopoulos has started helping GamerGate.  The Escapist has changed its ethics policy.  A secret gaming journalism mailing list was exposed.  WikiLeaks got in on the act, revealing that Reddit mods were shadow-banning pro-GamerGate users.  And then 4chan was taken over by SJWs, leading to the rise of 8chan.

And it's starting to look like the Social Justice Warriors have friends in still higher places.  For example, the Wikipedia page on GamerGate considers Cracked's article written by Quinn herself to be a reliable source, a blatant violation of the wiki's policy.  A more balanced Forbes article on the issue, however, was not considered valid.  This is a problem, because this blatantly biased entry is the first thing most people will see if they Google "GamerGate".

This is the flame war.  A war against corruption, against SJWs, and against censorship.
« Last Edit: September 23, 2014, 02:28:56 pm by Ultimate Paragon »

Offline Radiation

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Re: GamerGate
« Reply #16 on: September 23, 2014, 01:50:49 pm »
I really honestly don't see what the need is for a second thread on this, you could have asked a mod or Sigmaleph to change the Quinnspiracy title if you felt that it needed to change.
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Offline Sigmaleph

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Re: GamerGate
« Reply #17 on: September 23, 2014, 02:33:58 pm »
OK, everyone who thinks GamerGate is its own separate topic: mind giving a quick summary of what it's about? Kind of pointless to have a thread to discuss a topic if apparently nobody can agree on what the topic is.

~snipped for length~

You miss the point of my question. I know what happened with Quinn. I'm trying to figure out if you can define GamerGate as a movement other than as a reaction to Quinn and Sarkeesian.
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Offline Ultimate Paragon

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Re: GamerGate
« Reply #18 on: September 23, 2014, 02:36:29 pm »
OK, everyone who thinks GamerGate is its own separate topic: mind giving a quick summary of what it's about? Kind of pointless to have a thread to discuss a topic if apparently nobody can agree on what the topic is.

~snipped for length~

You miss the point of my question. I know what happened with Quinn. I'm trying to figure out if you can define GamerGate as a movement other than as a reaction to Quinn and Sarkeesian.

It's a movement against corruption in gaming and game journalism.

Offline Radiation

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Re: GamerGate
« Reply #19 on: September 23, 2014, 02:41:20 pm »
Which is what we are talking about in the Quinn thread and as much as you wish that she isn't part of the whole thing, she is, therefore the current thread is valid and there really was no need to create a thread about Gamergate as it is already being discussed.
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Offline WatermelonRat

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Re: GamerGate
« Reply #20 on: September 23, 2014, 03:38:33 pm »
Think of it like this: Keeping discussion on this topic in a thread titled "Quinnspiracy" would be a bit like having all discussion about the Ukraine crisis in a thread titled "Protests in Ukraine for EU integration." Obviously the two aren't remotely of the same scale, but my point is that the issues being talked about have morphed far enough from the original subject that a title that better encapsulates the current discussion is warranted. The Escapist (one of the main hubs of conversation on the subject) did the same thing, closing "Zoe Quinn and the surrounding controversy" in favor of "GamerGate discussion, debate, and resources".

Offline Old Viking

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Re: GamerGate
« Reply #21 on: September 23, 2014, 05:45:24 pm »
I haven't the vaguest idea of what any of this about.  Ask if this makes me happy.
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Offline Ultimate Paragon

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Re: GamerGate
« Reply #22 on: September 23, 2014, 06:10:32 pm »


I’m surprised Andrew Schlafly may have actually had some sort of point about Wikipedia.  Well, a stopped clock is right twice a day, I guess.
« Last Edit: September 23, 2014, 06:13:42 pm by Ultimate Paragon »

Offline davedan

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Re: GamerGate
« Reply #23 on: September 23, 2014, 06:22:38 pm »
Is it really surprising that Game Developers and Game Journalists might have romantic relationships? It is I would have thought a fairly close field where they would be seeing lots of each other. Hardly means that they are exchanging sex for good reviews.

From what little I know about this - I still think its the same topic. Even the explanation of the topic sounds the same to me.

Offline Eiki-mun

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Re: GamerGate
« Reply #24 on: September 23, 2014, 06:23:31 pm »
I'll ask the same question here I did in the last thread, then:

Are the pro-GamerGate types still trying to claim that games aren't/shouldn't be about fun anymore?

I think you mean the anti-GamerGate types.

Honestly, I don't even know which side is which anymore. I'm just trying to see if they're still trotting out that canard.
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Offline Ultimate Paragon

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Re: GamerGate
« Reply #25 on: September 23, 2014, 06:24:15 pm »
Is it really surprising that Game Developers and Game Journalists might have romantic relationships? It is I would have thought a fairly close field where they would be seeing lots of each other. Hardly means that they are exchanging sex for good reviews.

From what little I know about this - I still think its the same topic. Even the explanation of the topic sounds the same to me.

That would be like continuing to discuss World War I in a thread titled "Archduke Franz Ferdinand Shot".

Offline davedan

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Re: GamerGate
« Reply #26 on: September 23, 2014, 06:33:56 pm »
Really I still can't grasp what the widespread corruption is supposed to be. The only thing that sounds bad is the trashing of the FineYoungCapitalists but really what is the more sinister stuff.

By the way you and WatermelonRat comparing this to the WWI and the Ukraine respectively both need to lay off the hyperbole.

Offline Second Coming of Madman

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Re: GamerGate
« Reply #27 on: September 23, 2014, 06:46:14 pm »
The rest seemed to pass in slow motion.

Harry could hear Dumbledore
shouting after him.

He could see Ron and Hermione, standing at the lake
front, staring open mouthed up at his falling body.

The rest of the
student body pointed up at him waiting for his body to plunge into the
eternal darkness of the water.

But Harry's body skimmed the surface of the
lake and then, in a true blaze of glory, he transformed into a magnificent
phoenix.

And some say, as he soared into the sun set, that he yelled "IT'S
MY LIFE" before he retreated into the clouds to never return.
« Last Edit: September 23, 2014, 09:41:52 pm by Second Coming of Madman »
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Offline Søren

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Re: GamerGate
« Reply #28 on: September 23, 2014, 08:14:38 pm »
This whole thing is too complicated for me to care. Im just labelling it as uninteresting
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Offline WatermelonRat

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Re: GamerGate
« Reply #29 on: September 24, 2014, 06:41:43 am »
The image that was here was removed. It was a screencap of a pastebin document doxxing various people involved in GamerGate. While the actual information was whited out, it took me roughly ten seconds to find the original, unedited document based on the information available on the image. I'm aware this was not WatermelonRat's intention, but as a precaution I've decided to remove it anyway. Please be careful with these things

-Sigmaleph
« Last Edit: September 24, 2014, 11:08:16 am by Sigmaleph »