A clean analysis ; Gamergate.

[FireFish]

This is one of the many threads about this ordeal, but at least try to keep it decent...
It is better to keep this out of other threads where it does not belong. So here is my view
on this entire ordeal.

The name and location ;
Gamergate is not a sect, group, cult, or organisation. The name gamergate is a contraction of gamer
and gate to mimic the Nixon Watergate and janet Jackson Nipplegate scandals to give it a undeserved
sense of importance. It mainly originated on 4chan inbetween a user base known to shock, disturb, tempt
the law, and well... some of them could be called paranoid and borderline insane. they feed upon any
controversial atention they can get to maintain the status as daring, controversial, and law tempting.

It starts with the concept cheating ;
Supposably a man posted about a cheating girlfriend, this girlfriend had an unpopular unknown text game
about being depressed. Suddenly the 4chan userbase and another website started posting and berserking over
this woman claiming she slept with 'every' so called 'important' internet gaming journalist needed to get her
game greenlit on steam. 4chan /b users started to post photoshopped pornography images of the woman in
question, and started to make threats towards her game, and even life. basicly a whole bunch of people
suddenly went full tilt and borderless about a woman possibly cheating, or sleeping with a few article
writing gamers...

Attention, it gains attention ;
This ordeal started to gain attention under gamers but remained relatively oblivious to the entire world
outside of gaming. If people did not enocunter it by accident or by 4chan reader posting somewhere then it
did not exist for all they could know. More attention meant it would also attract people protecting the woman
in question. These came to be known as the feminist nazi's, or femnazi's in an attempt to ridicule them for
protecting a cheating woman. By now it was starting to became a general men versus woman fight, and without
doubt some people involved had litle to no common sense around sex, men, and woman. Enter the social justice
warior (S.J.W.) people who could care less about what they are supposably defending, they just act as if they
are human rights activists on the internet to gain popularity or feed their own ego...

It attempts to break lose ;
By now it could very well die out and dissapear out of the memory of everybody not personally insulted and
threatened by internet psychopats, but they are not letting it. Enter attempts to insinuate the existence of
a western and gamer based rape culture, a cruel men controlled woman abusing gamers journalism club working
favours for woman giving free pleasures, And woman plotting global anti gamer plots to destroy the gaming
industry. all this over the top insane rambling about such severe topics are now creating a self contained
wannabe scandal aptly named 'Gamergate' where people start to believe in a western rape culture where men
get abused by woman, and woman abuse men, while both toy with each other. These are the feminists, femnazi,
animalistic men, beast like game reporters, social justice wariors, and all men and woman worldwide...

Basicly it is becoming a self-sustaining wannabe scandal where people keep feeding it by acting as if it
is a big deal. But if you are not a gamer visiting gamer forums you would have never known it even existed,
and you would be stunned while gazing at ridicule like ; "western gamer rape culture femnazi pleasuring
social justice warior on some kind of channel where a game reviewer has a fake sense of importance instilled
by others after somebody's girlfriend cheated."

[Sokoro]

Stopped reading at "It mainly originated on 4chan"

I do not care about 4chan crap, I do not watch any silly anime and 4chan should be deleted from the internet.

[Blastfrog]

I originally posted the following in the "Hatred" thread, but after I saw this I figured it's a better place to stick it.
______________

I haven't been paying too close of attention to Gamergate, but I thought there was a legit side to it? Yes, there are the misogynists and harassers, but do they really make up the majority of it?

Tell me, if Gamergate really does consist mostly of scum, where are those that are legitimately concerned about the poor state of game journalism supposed to go? What label do we use? Will the public just stick the "hater" label on that entire group too as soon as one jackass dons the name of the movement even if he does not represent its majority?

While Zoe's ex was mostly just trying to get back at her (and he's an asshole for it), if his accusations are true I do think they're not to be taken lightly. Using one's "assets" to get ahead by appealing to base instincts really does harm journalistic integrity and it's not just something that should be handwaved away as "sexist" just because the person in question happens to be female. Those that are slut-shaming for the sake of it should be ignored and dismissed, but nothing happens in a bubble and everything has consequences - something that should be taken very seriously when it comes to those you expect to be trustworthy such as journalists.

As I said, I haven't been following it too closely, but from what I've seen, it does seem to me that some are denouncing the entire movement unfairly for the actions of a few - or at least not those of the majority.

Sokoro said:

I do not care about 4chan crap, I do not watch any silly anime and 4chan should be deleted from the internet.

Well, that's stupid. The site is about far, far more than anime (in fact at this point it's really not about anime at all), and it does have impact whether you like it or not. Pay attention to the things that have impact, because it may affect the things that you do like outside of those places that you don't like.

[Sokoro]

Then make a new website which does not let anyone from 4chan to participate in it.

Like some anti-4chan movement.

I can leave anime alone, but I do not want the human trash that is on 4chan to use the internet.

[Blastfrog]

Sokoro said:

Then make a new website which does not let anyone from 4chan to participate in it.

My point just flew over your head, didn't it? I'm saying that you should pay attention to the events, places and people that have serious influence in other areas for the sake of keeping a good picture of the world around you. But you'd rather ignore reality and pretend that anything you don't like doesn't exist, right?

Wow, already off to a great start, we're derailing a thread meant to prevent derailing. 4chan is a thing and it exists and it does stuff and that stuff has consequences and you don't like it. Let's go back to Gamergate, shall we?

[DoomUK]

I'd never even heard of this Gamergate thing until it popped up in the Hatred thread. Is it something important that I need to educate myself on, or can I go back to playing Legend of Grimrock II?

[Cupboard]

I live in the first world and nothing can ordain me to give three shit pebbles about anything regarding this. I find the "gate" suffix sufficiently lame and derivative. Why can't we give our controversies original monikers any more?

http://i.imgur.com/GfGiKEk.jpg

[Sokoro]

DoomUK said:

I'd never even heard of this Gamergate thing until it popped up in the Hatred thread. Is it something important that I need to educate myself on, or can I go back to playing Legend of Grimrock II?

Same with me, but I heard about 4chan and I heard it is full of trolls and I know that is it wrong to make someone die just because he is a troll, so I just want them out of the internet.

[chungy]

Sokoro said:

4chan should be deleted from the internet.

Disagree. You don't really want that kind of userbase seeping into the other parts of the Internet, do you? Think of 4chan as a convenient landfill for morons to flock to.

[Blastfrog]

TheCupboard said:

I live in the first world and nothing can ordain me to give three shit pebbles about anything regarding this.

I don't give a shit but only because I'm only casually into playing games and feel that I can find my own way just fine without places like RPS. It's strange, I care more about making games than playing them, but that's entirely unrelated to this topic.

TheCupboard said:

I find the "gate" suffix sufficiently lame and derivative. Why can't we give our controversies original monikers any more?

I couldn't agree more. What if in the future the word "gate" had devolved into being a suffix to indicate scandal and the original meaning of the word was lost?

Well, I do think it'd be fun if Logitech ever got themselves into hot water. We could call it "logic gate"!

Sokoro said:

I heard about 4chan and I heard it is full of trolls

You'd be surprised, there actually is intelligent discussion over there. It's anarchy, you're of course going to get the stupid shits but there's also people who can present a solid and civil argument (and any variation between those two types).

Sokoro said:

I know that is it wrong to make someone die just because he is a troll

But that would otherwise be your first option?

[Captain Red]

This video is probably does the best job of addressing the closest thing to a legitimate issue that GamerGate has:

Basically, game journalists and developers (both AAA and indie) have interests and life styles that often overlap when it comes to video games, and it could be cause for concern when friendships develop between the two groups. It's not a new problem, and *why* the discussion started is fucking retarded, but it IS and interesting discussion to have. Or it would be if it weren't for the fringe conspiracy theories and death threats.

[FireFish]

DoomUK said:

I'd never even heard of this Gamergate thing until it popped up in the Hatred thread. Is it something important that I need to educate myself on, or can I go back to playing Legend of Grimrock II?

Play Legend of Grimrock II.

TheCupboard said:

I live in the first world and nothing can ordain me to give three shit pebbles about anything regarding this. I find the "gate" suffix sufficiently lame and derivative. Why can't we give our controversies original monikers any more?

The fake sense of engineered importance by using the -gate suffix in the hopes of launching this everywhere.

Sokoro said:

I heard about 4chan and I heard it is full of trolls and I know that is it wrong to make someone die just because he is a troll, so I just want them out of the internet.

A user base out to mame, troll, meme, and shock, posting the most disturbing things possible. Mixed with
innocent people used as their shield attempting to have a decent topic and conversation in the wrong place.
victims, posting their photo and well meant topic in a rat-cage.


Three of the points in my analasys as already and unintentionaly shown by doomworld posters about how this
exists as a wannabe scandal still gaining. the only reason i posted this analasys is because it
is starting to apear everyhwere, even on forums about linux distributions...

[CorSair]

DoomUK said:

I'd never even heard of this Gamergate thing until it popped up in the Hatred thread. Is it something important that I need to educate myself on, or can I go back to playing Legend of Grimrock II?

My advice?
If you think you can't be critical enough for both sides and play devil's advocate...

Don't even bother to look into.


And Jesus, folks. If you don't know enough what halfchan (former 4chan) is in reality, DON'T comment on it.
RTFM of the idea of 4chan/8chan.

[geo]

We're still talking about this? Well I guess if we're still talking about how John Romero makes bitches... It'll be a bigger story when its revealed John Romero slept with all of those game reviewers... Sorry John I had to use your name for comedy.

No one figured out her aunt runs depression.com yet?

My married cousin once mentioned you can't cheat unless you're married.

I see the whole 'she cheated on me' as some sort of whinny bitch that has to take his problems to the Internet. Is it cheating when she already cheated once or is it more being a gullible chump?

Is something a 'video game' when its html pages?

Robin Williams died via suicide caused by depression and the game is greenlit on Steam, because people love awful games and greenlight shit and no one helped push it through but the public who also pushed through Rock Simulator, Air Flow and countless other shit games. Her fucking for 'good reviews' is irrelevant.

[Mr. Freeze]

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Gamergate

Kinda sums up the whole situation pretty well. And even as someone who plays videogames for multiple hours every day, I fail to see how corrupt journalism affects me. I play what I play, regardless of any other factors.

[Sokoro]

Sodaholic said:

But that would otherwise be your first option?

Probably not.

All I want is peacefull and cooperating society working together for survival in this universe. Some people do not, they think they are more important than me or anyone else. I am very sensitive to hostility, shown on me or innocent people, whenever it is physical, psychological, on eyes of public or hidden plots. So what is one supposed to do? You can not really defeat your enemy by hugging him.

[CorSair]

geo said:

Her fucking for 'good reviews' is irrelevant.

Because blowjobs for favorable reviews are none sort of corruption, in general? Get out.


Also, have a batch of videos explaining what is really happening behind the curtains, by Sargon of Akkad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJyU7RSvs_s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28D6_8KuIpc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51McaZrra7w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rouq-VdgXdo 7:09 the shortest, but it gives reason why those articles in 28th of August came out.

Also, alternative sites you should go:
Techraptor
Niche Gamer
GamesNosh

If you folks have other sites that are actually decent, post them away.

[geo]

There's nothing illegal about it.

What makes a good or favorable review?

Man guys you gotta play this game its the awesomest! I couldn't put it down! I played 10 hours its fucking awesome. The next Skyrim! 10/10

I like the thought of 'what's happening behind the curtains.'

Carn paid for an ad on Rock Paper Shotgun. Is his money corruption? Like her sex was corruption?

AAA games can just all hire hookers hotter than Zoey to ensure their game gets good ratings.

Why aren't people talking about how Shadow of Mouldor is paying for reviews or how Gauntlet paid Jim Sterling for a review or how Borderlands 2 paid Star for a review? GameTrailers had a full playthrough of Hyrule Warriors posted weeks before the game ever came out. Since a playthrough isn't a review.

Heck my friends on Steam are getting review copies of games to write good reviews. I see two of them play games before they ever come out for sale. Then when they post the reviews and see games out for 1 hour their Steam accounts say they've got 24+ hours in the game.

Games like Destiny and Titanfall become hit games long before they're released.

It is part of the industry. Who gives a fuck?

[geekmarine]

My take has always been that it just seems to me to be a cover story for people to be misogynistic on the Internet. The actual story is, well, honestly quite dull and uninteresting. I mean, who gives a crap? But that story gives trolls an excuse to troll, and any time they're called out on it, they can fall back on, "No, we're not just trolling, there's a REAL story here!" or, "You can't blame a few bad apples!" even though the bad apples were what this whole thing was really about. In a vacuum, what the trolls were doing is abhorrent. But as long as they can say just a few people took things too far, they can get away with it.

The real, underlying motivation here has always just been for trolls to act like dicks. It's human nature. It's just they figured out they could create a smoke screen to mask their actions, as those types often do. The problem is, many have a hard time seeing past the smoke screen, and get drawn into it. A seed of truth goes a long way to justify horrible actions, and help defend those who take part in those actions.

It's something we've seen time and time again throughout history. A real event is used to cover for people acting horribly. Take, for instance, the McCarthy hearings. You can't argue that Communism wasn't a threat, that there weren't real concerns, and yet fears of Communism permitted people to be treated horribly, and it was hard to argue against what was going on without looking like you were defending Communism. Same type crap is going on here. And yet, every single one of us knows how wrong McCarthyism was... but we're so easily blinded when it happens again.

[Captain Red]

Sodaholic said:

While Zoe's ex was mostly just trying to get back at her (and he's an asshole for it), if his accusations are true I do think they're not to be taken lightly.

Nathan Grayson has never written a review of depression quest and has only even mentioned the game two times, both before the time when the alleged affair took place.

[Quast]

Sodaholic said:

Tell me, if Gamergate really does consist mostly of scum, where are those that are legitimately concerned about the poor state of game journalism supposed to go?

Anyone "legitimately concerned about the poor state of game journalism" in any real capacity needs to eat a bullet and/or fucking go outside for a while. Every conceivable angle of this stupid controversy is beyond pointless and without merit worth discussing.

Why the hell is this even a thing?

[Bucket]

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Gamergate

I'll second this link. You can always count on RationalWiki for a fair and sane breakdown of any issue or ideology. Here are some choice quotes for the especially dense among us:

Literally none of Gamergate's advocates' claims of "what really happened" check out on closer examination — including claims that seem initially plausible.

In response to these accusations, Stephen Totilo, the editor-in-chief of Kotaku, released a statement explaining that the only article Grayson had written for the site about Quinn dealt with her appearance on the show Game Jam, not her game, and that said article had been written prior to the start of Quinn and Grayson's relationship.

It is true that Quinn criticized TFYC over Twitter, and a conversation between her and another Twitter user directed so much traffic to the TFYC website that it temporarily went down; Quinn tweeted that she "accidentally DDoS'd" them. However, she was not involved in doxing the group, as they themselves admitted in a blog post.

Gamergaters created sockpuppet Twitter accounts to push "#NotYourShield," fabricating user profiles and swiping pictures from places like Cheezburger.com for use as user images.

tl;dr version:

NO PROOF OF SEX FOR REVIEWS

NO PROOF OF DOXING FINE YOUNG CAPITALISTS

WOMEN FOR #NOTYOURSHIELD IS BULLSHIT

Of course, the wiki covers much more ground, including an (incomplete) account of the violent rhetoric being lobbed by Gamergaters. The "both sides do it" crowd have a long fucking way to go if they want us to believe anti-GG folks are as bad as they are. I want a list of all the GG proponents who have been forced out of their homes and jobs to escape rape and death threats. But of course, a few posts from now, someone will insist on spreading the same lies that have been debunked here, because Gamerghazi is about integrity. I'll be waiting with bated breath to see who the disingenuous fuckstain is.

[Phml]

Literally none of Gamergate's advocates' claims of "what really happened" check out on closer examination — including claims that seem initially plausible.

So the censorship of reddit never happened.

Oops. It did.

"Literally none"? That's rationality for you.

But of course, a few posts from now, someone will insist on spreading the same lies that have been debunked here

Last I checked, you essentially ran away from the discussion, cherrypicking one minor argument or two and dodging everything else. Your strawmanning was already outdated then, and that was one month ago.

[geo]

Is there a contract or something like sex 4 good reviewz? Or did they feel compelled? Did she have sex with them just for the good reviews or was there love and hormones behind it? I'd rather have the money so I can buy hookers to sex with.

So I've had this awful review on Steam... The devs have tried to debunk my review by calling me a monkey. Their friends have called me a monkey usually the 15th of every month since April I think. Finally one of their 'real life' friends tried to reason with me. The CEO's husband is a cool guy 'what's it gonna take for me to switch sides on my review?' I argue my review is favorable. Commenters even say why did you 'not recommend it,' when your review was favorable? Hence the problem with giving a simple number grade on a review instead of just reviewing with no grade. Forcing people to read rather than look at a number.

Can't believe no one brought up her nude modeling pics yet. TotalBiscuit has friends in the industry. He likes their games. I see nothing wrong with that. You know if the game is shit or not by gameplay vids.

[Bucket]

WHAT CENSORSHIP MAY LOOK LIKE

News flash: a website is not public property wherein you can freely exercise your First Amendment rights. When admins take a scorched earth approach to threads that are destined to devolve into shit hurricanes, that's not censorship.

[CorSair]

geo said:

There's nothing illegal about it.

Nope, there is not. But it sure as hell is unethical, and even more unethical, if you DON'T DISCLOSE that you had relationship. See Captain Red's video about it.

geo said:

What makes a good or favorable review?

Let's take an example: Wasteland 2 Review, in TechRaptor. Tells what is, the mechanics, graphics and audio. Personally, it is decent review of the game. And someone probably disagrees, and sees another review from somewhere else.

geo said:

Carn paid for an ad on Rock Paper Shotgun. Is his money corruption? Like her sex was corruption?

Advertisement is different thing than behind the curtains favors. You pay for space in site to get your name for show. How the site handles the review of game is different. Is it disclosed that they advertised in their site? Not probably necessary, but definitely good to have it shown there.

Had more to say, but time's a fickle.

[Phml]

You may want to read up on censorship. Here's a wikipedia link to get you started, I know using Google is hard: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship

Relevant parts bolded, seeing as reading comprehension isn't your forte.

Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication or other information which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, politically incorrect or inconvenient as determined by governments, media outlets, authorities or other such entities.

Governments, private organizations and individuals may engage in censorship.

The notion of censorship has nothing to do with First Amendment rights. I'm not even American, you xenophobic fat ass.

[geo]

Isn't a review an advertisement? Yeah I'm grasping at straws. I know I wouldn't know what games are out unless I read a review. Good or bad, you know about it now. I wish I didn't know about Depression Quest :-(

There is always Super Crate Box and You have to Beat the Game. Those are totally free video games that weren't made with simple html pages like Depression Quest.

Sony had a fake movie critic to give them great reviews.

[AkiraZXE]

Sure, I mean, if everyone and their dog claims GamerGate is nothing but a misogynistic nazi march with their legitimate excuses being a coverup, and you buy into it, what's going to change your mind? The largest centers for GamerGate discussion very clearly stating that any sort of harassment or doxxing is unacceptable? 8chan's /gg/ members shitposting their own board for hours to push somebody's attempt at a doxx off the board until mods woke up? GamerGate supporters funding programs to get women more exposure in the industry? Well, they all happened.

It's "gamers are violent" crap, now with the twist that we're misogynists instead. Nobody reports on the non-ass GamerGate supporters, who make up the majority, because what, clickbait shitholes like Kotaku are going to backpedal on their bullshit now? They wouldn't, you'd have to be an idiotic or dishonest to seriously consider it. Like they would ever do that, or not just outright lie about the claims that have been made and backed up, or even acknowledge that there are GamerGate supporters who haven't done a single thing wrong who get harassed, doxxed, and threatened by anti-GamerGaters.

The only reason I'm not active with it is because I don't have the willpower to deal with it on a day to day basis. I don't know how there are people who can.

[Nomad]

My favorite part of all this:

https://storify.com/MorganRamsay/how-often-do-video-game-journalists-write-about-fe

Tell me again about how feminists are taking over game journalism. Less than half of a percent of the results over the course of a year were about feminism/misogyny/social justice over the course of a year of data (about mid 2013 to mid 2014).