DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE: I'M A GAMERGATER NOW, APPARENTLY - BY MR BIFFO

DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE: I'M A GAMERGATER NOW, APPARENTLY - by Mr Biffo

12/4/2016

So apparently, I'm a Gamergater.

This is according to some Social Justice Warrior types on Twitter. They're very disappointed that I'm a Gamergater. Gutted, even. And it's weird to me, because I didn't even know I was a Gamergater. Heck... if anything, I thought I was anti-Gamergate...!

I guess there must be all sorts of other things I didn't know I was a part of. A member of ISIS, maybe. A senior officer in the Khmer Rouge, perhaps. A whimsy fartlord?

Admittedly, I didn't ever really identify with Social Justice Warriors either - I'm not a huge fan of labels or "sides" of any sort - but I at least felt that the aims of SJWs (hey, let's not be nasty to women, gay people, the trans community; that sort of thing) was much more my bag, than what I saw Gamergate as being about.

You know: being nasty to all of the above, doxxing, harassment, misogyny. That type of thing. Oh, and ethics in games journalism, or whatever it is they say they're after. I guess I was wrong though. I guess I must be a Gamergater, then. Whew. Blimey. Did not see that coming. Oh well.

FUNNY/NOT FUNNY
See, a funny thing happened yesterday. And by funny, I mean "not funny, but weird and tiresome".

You may be aware that I wrote an article about Nintendo's firing of Alison Rapp. I then spent the remainder of the day explaining myself to certain people who identify as Social Justice Warriors, trying to gently and respectfully point out that my intention wasn't to blame all victims as the root of their own misfortune.

While some of them, with a profound lack of self-awareness, attempted to draw me into precisely the sort of drama triangle I'd spent much of the article describing as proven to be a dysfunctional and toxic model of human interaction.

Madder still to me, I ended up getting a ton of praise on KotakuInAction - the infamous sub-Reddit forum, that's as close as it gets to an official Gamergater hangout - for what was seen as my even-handed and neutral approach.

So, good work there, everyone who contributed to that, because now I'm fighting hard not to think that all SJWs are mental. And - before you descend on me en masse... that's not me making light of people with actual mental health issues, because....

...Ohhh... what's the point? Frankly, whatever I say you're going to take issue with it, right? Yeah - look at me playing the victim there. Boom!

CONFUSE.COM
I was confused by all of the above. I read deeper into the Alison Rapp situation, Gamergaters, and Social Justice Warriors than I'd ever done before, and just came away even more confused. Neither side comes out of it looking good. There's so much spin and counter-spin that it's virtually impossible to find the truth in the situation. There are good points and dumb points on both sides.

Frankly, I don't blame GGers and SJWs: it's far easier to take a subjective side than adopt an objective approach to Gamergate, because it's so damn bewildering.

I also ended up muting some Gamergater fellers on Twitter last night, because they'd included me in on a conversation about where they might find nude photos of Alison Rapp. Plus, I somehow managed to trigger a Social Justice Warrior by using the word "trigger". Both of which are beyond parody, frankly.

Gamergaters and Social Justice Warriors are everything I ever feared they were... and they're also none of that too. There's a shocking lack of self reflection from huge swathes of them. And at the same time, there seems to be decent, balanced, people on both sides, too. Those who really believe in what they're doing, yet come at that from a sane, sincere and reasonable place - feeling their communities have been misrepresented by a handful of noisy and destructive zealots, who are damaging their real message.

<COUGH>Muslims<COUGH>

Although... and it seriously pains me to say this... it's mostly the Social Justice Warriors who take issue with me when I try to be balanced and neutral. That's just a simple fact: since starting this site, I've had more arseyness from SJWs than Gamergaters. How am I meant to interpret that, when I thought I was on their side?

I mean, to call me a Gamergater - with all the connotations that label has become associated with - is beyond the pale. For a start... I don't even know what somebody might mean by that. That I hate women? That I harass people online? I don't, and I never have. All I can really take from it is that anybody who doesn't blindly agree with whatever the SJW priesthood has to say is automatically considered a Gamergater.

To quote George W. Bush: "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists."

Uh... huh.

MAJORITY RULES
The majority of the comments I received on yesterday's story - not all of them admittedly (people who addressed me directly on Twitter were mostly pleasant and balanced), but the majority - were from these so-called Social Justice Warriors.

I was repeatedly accused of victim-blaming, while they tried their level best - whether they were aware of doing so or not - to draw me into Karpman Drama Triangle that I'd been writing about. It was textbook.

I desperately don't want this to be the case, but I'm so weary of the knee-jerk reaction that I get from some of these people, that I don't care anymore whether this piece offends them. They need a major reality check, frankly.

Well... I barely care. Of course I care a bit, otherwise I wouldn't be writing this. But not that much. My fingers hurt from trying to explain that I'm on the side of... well... people who don't enjoy the misfortune and unhappiness of others. And if I'm not on your side, then I am - at worst - neutral, because I accept that I don't understand the baffling nuances of both armies in this self-proclaimed "culture war".

It speaks volumes about how these "warriors" are fighting their "war" that my sympathies have turned almost 180-degrees over the last 18 months. Albeit... wavering in the wind, still, like a weathervane.

See, the messed-up thing is that part of why I brought Mr Biffo back is because I empathised with Zoe Quinn. I'd been through my own harassment, and I saw her putting herself out there and figured that if she could do it, so could I. Like others, I pretty much dismissed all of Gamergate as a campaign of harassment and abuse against women in gaming. An orchestrated effort to destroy lives.

I mean, I accept that I might've got the tone of yesterday's article wrong. Obviously, I got something wrong - I tried to be neutral, and ended up being told by Gamergaters that I was fair, and by Social Justice Warriors that I was unfair. I'm fine with that to a point, because sometimes when you're delivering a message of tough love it can be hard to hear, and you expect people to lash out when you challenge their beliefs.

At the same time, I've been left wondering just how much some people want Gamergate to end.

INFLEXIBLE
If Social Justice Warriors sincerely want this mess to be over, having an inflexible, knee-jerk, automatic response to moderate discussion is not the way to go about it.

A black and white view of the world is never going to solve anything. It lacks empathy, it lacks reason, it lacks in any ability to admit that we're not flawless beings. That we all get things wrong. Yes: even Social Justice Warriors...!

It's why I'm so tired of modern politics. It's why the world is so screwed up, and why I feel so removed from it. There's no fixing anything, when nobody will negotiate. When they come at things from the perspective that anybody who disagrees with them is always going to be in the wrong.

I get why the Social Justice Warrior movement has such support - because, again, I used to be someone who thought he supported it. People don't want to be seen as lacking compassion for victims, least of all me. I trained to be a psychotherapist because I care about people, and wanted to help. Too much frankly. I'm riddled with impotent guilt. However, part of that training made me aware that sometimes what we see as helping isn't helping at all.

I speak from a great deal of experience here when I say that there are, whether you like it or not, some people who are happy to remain "victims", and play to that. Calling that out, when it's apparent, is the moral thing to do, because people often aren't even aware they're doing it. It's not victim-blaming or shaming, or being a Gamergater.

Drawing attention to it is the compassionate thing to do, for the individual's benefit - and for the benefit of real victims, who really deserve the attention. And for the people who slip into the rescuer role.

Just like plants, people will never grow if you huddle around and shield them from the elements.

BILLIONTH
I say again, for the billionth time... there are victims, and there are "victims". You can't realistically tell me you've never met somebody who doesn't constantly complain about their life, yet never seems to do anything to fix it?

"Oh, I'm so lonely... I hate my life..."

"Join a gym. You might meet somebody."

"I don't like gyms."

"Go on a singles holiday."

"I don't like holidays..."

I know how hard it can be to turn a ship around mid-course, but if all you're doing to help is keeping a person's hands on the wheel, then you're part of the problem. You have to see through the surface to find the real victims. Stepping away helps more often than not. Don't tell them what they say they want to hear: tell them what they need to hear.

And look... that simply isn't victim blaming. That's "victim" empowerment. That's breaking a cycle of negative behaviour. We get locked into patterns, and sometimes we need help to break those patterns, - especially when there are those around who are facilitating and colluding and reinforcing those patterns. Not everyone who cries wolf has seen a wolf. Or they've gone and poked a wolf up the bum with a toothbrush. People have to take responsibility for their actions.

I get there are subjects which are virtually impossible to discuss without inflaming outrage, and that this is one of them. Just look at what happened to Stephen Fry yesterday, when he dared to suggest that self-pity was actually counterproductive to mental health. He's someone who knows more than a little about mental health, and how mollycoddling doesn't, ultimately, help anybody get better.

Fry's words weren't, perhaps, the most delicate, and consequently he was torn apart for daring to suggest as such. Because we all want to feel like good people, we all want to feel we're helping others. Yet often that help isn't help at all. God forbid that we don't wrap everyone in cotton wool, and pander to their pain 24-7. Yes, it's hard not to feel like a victim when you're being attacked... but it's hard not to act like a victim when you choose to perceive everything as an attack, outside of your control.

But, y'know... this doesn't matter. It's what I more or less tried to suggest yesterday, and it got me nowhere. Well, nowhere with the people it was actually trying to help.

ENDGAME
I want Gamergate to end, because it's a stain on what gaming should be about. It's a toxic whiff hovering above the history of this industry.

We all know how Gamergate started. We all know what some within the Gamergate community are capable of: the harassment, the misogyny, the homophobia, the abuse. I abhor it all. I'm sorry for everyone who has been on the receiving end of it.

Unfortunately, some within the Social Justice Warrior community have now succeeded in all but destroying what sympathy I had left for their cause by being so frustratingly militant, inflexible and oversensitive. And, likewise, some in the Gamergate community continue to adhere to the stereotype of being borderline, women-hating psychopaths. All we can do is change our own patterns, take responsibility for ourselves. Step away, if needs be. And stop seeing aggressors in everything.

Something that I have yet to see from Alison Rapp, and others. All it does is perpetuate a cycle of abuse that is destroying lives.

If I've learned anything over the past 18 months it's that I don't identify with either side in Gamergate, but that there are individuals - Gamergaters and Social Justice Warriors - who I've learned to have some respect and compassion for. Some of those are its advocates, and its moderates. And some are those who have been genuinely hurt through no fault of their own. The real victims.

I've learned that a situation like this is never as simple as black and white, and that there's good and bad in every community. I've learned that accepting everything at face value is only ever going to give me a distorted picture of the truth.

And I'm as surprised by that as anyone.

Now.. before you comment, I just want to ask a few questions: if you're a Gamergater or a Social Justice Warrior, what is it that you want to achieve? How do you think you are helping the situation, and what would you do to help bring an end to this rift? What would you do to heal the games industry?

FROM THE ARCHIVE:
ALISON RAPP, NINTENDO... AND THE ENDLESSLY REPEATING CYCLE OF ABUSE - BY MR BIFFO
VIDEO GAMES: A PRIMAL INSTINCT - BY MR BIFFO
WHAT DO THE BAFTA GAMES AWARDS REALLY MEAN? - BY MR BIFFO

224 Comments

Clive Peppard

12/4/2016 11:46:13 am

You went there again didnt you?

Mr Biffo

12/4/2016 12:00:09 pm

I'm my own worst enemy.

Euphemia

12/4/2016 12:15:15 pm

But but but ..... what about the ethics? In games journalism?

Which I suppose is like a hysterical person yelling "Won't someone please think of the children!"

Sockatume

12/4/2016 12:19:27 pm

Maybe you should just stop trying to "fix" a debate that you're not interested in and have made it your express intent not to engage with?

12/4/2016 12:22:50 pm

Which part of me writing two massive articles on the subject gave you the impression I wasn't interested in it and didn't want to engage with it?

12/4/2016 12:34:51 pm

It's more like half a dozen articles on Gamergate as a whole at this point.

You've simply not engaged with the underlying issues, and have repeatedly stated your hope that the discussion will go away. You're perfectly content to make arguments about the tone and nature of the debate, to criticise people for what they're saying, how, and why, but you're more interested in acting as an uninvited referee and debate chair than actually evaluating the merits of the issues at hand.

In fewer words, you seem more upset by the fact that this discussion is happening, than any of the issues raised by it. Your analyses of the situation are more interested in ending the discussion than in resolving it.

Your behaviours are becoming increasingly stereotyped to boot. At some point you're going to have to stop trying to shoehorn every interaction in this discussion into the same psychological model, or at least justify the model's suitability versus alternative analyses.

I mean for goodness' sake, you're still referring to everyone who dislikes gamergate as a "social justice warrior". That's like deciding to be fair to the animal testing controversy by referring to one side as "vivisectionists".

12/4/2016 12:49:21 pm

Very short version: wading into someone else's discussion, expressing your disdain for it, and saying "STOP DOING IT WRONG" is not productive.

12/4/2016 12:53:47 pm

Oh jeez... I'm certainly not applying one psychological model to every aspect of Gamergate. Merely one aspect of it. You just wait until I start barking on about group dynamics... You're going to LOVE it...!

Nah

12/4/2016 12:55:43 pm

Oh sockatune, get a grip. Leave the house, breath in some air from the real world and realise that Gamergate and all of the silly little other arguments perpetuated by teenagers on the internet with nothing better to do are not real issues in the world. The whole thing is frankly embarrasing.

amazingmikeyc

12/4/2016 01:02:19 pm

I don't think the underlying issues are the point at all now, to be honest. Like with Israel vs Palestine or whatever. The war is the point.

12/4/2016 01:03:18 pm

Please don't. Or at least run it past someone with some field experience. Your misuse of the Karpman triangle has been wince-inducing enough.

12/4/2016 01:06:58 pm

Gawd love you, Sockatume...

favus

12/4/2016 02:42:04 pm

the second one

12/4/2016 05:40:51 pm

By "engage with it" sockatume meant "submit to their viewpoint".

I'm sorry you got lumped in with or attacked by either side. I think the biggest thing to have learned from the GamerGate debacle is that it's sociopaths on each side, and that maybe the Internet was like the monolith to the monkeys in 2001. We've evolved an entire generation in a really odd, accelerated way and now they're smashing each other's heads in with jawbones.

"Horseshoe theory", innit.

Random Reviewer

12/4/2016 11:37:10 pm

Did you read either article? Because it sounds like ya didn't.

SomeGuy

13/4/2016 03:32:31 am

Maybe you should stop trying to fix someone who is trying to fix a debate, Mr. Uninvited Referee of the Referee.

Superbeast 37

12/4/2016 12:23:43 pm

Again - the only reliable study, one that has been peer reviewed, stated that the Gamergate hash tag was 99.4% NOT about harassment.

As to who is a member of said mystical group - its a mystery. It's an open hash tag for pitys sake used by mostly anonymous accounts!

Accusing someone of being a member (and lying about what the stats showed) seems to be being used as a tactic to silence or dismiss good arguments that are inconvenient to certain groups.

As a neutral I am interested in facts/evidence/statistics and couldn't care less about appeal to emotion fallacies.

In that sense I guess I more closely aligned to most of those I see "accused" of being Gamergaters as more of them seem to be interested in objective facts than those that seem to be opposing them. That said, I'm an individual and subscribe to NO ideologies or groups.

The industry does not need healing. It is a competitive free market. If there is a problem, it is anyone that attempts to stop the free market from delivering its natural outcome of providing products tailored to those who are prepared to pay for them. We have an oversupply in the market so everyone who slaps cash on the counter can have exactly what they want.

I am being asked to believe that the market is failing. That developers are choosing to go bust and lose their jobs rather than produce content for large numbers of people who allegedly have big money to bring to the table and spend on games.

Apparently developers are so prejudiced that they prefer the dole over catering to some groups of people.

Except for mobile developers for some mystery reason.

Do I think the market is broken due to prejudice and bigotry or do I think it's a load of BS?

I see no evidence of that given what has happened in the mobile market. I've seen no evidence of prejudice amongst developers/publishers and find that narrative suspect and not credible.

I smell BS. I'm sticking by the market.

People need to shut up, stop being keyboard warriors/activists and spend their money on what they like. STOP buying products they don't agree with.

Everything will take care of itself. Doesn't matter what people say or do on social media. Don't get involved in the wars and just focus on what you want to buy. More importantly stop buying stuff if you don't like it. That applies to both "sides" if clearly defined "sides" even exist.

Wicked Eric

12/4/2016 12:56:07 pm

"I subscribe to no ideology."

*semi-incoherent rant espousing the wonders of free market fundamentalism out of nowhere*

12/4/2016 01:04:27 pm

Free markets have been demonstrated over the past few centuries to be the objectively best system for matching supply and demand. That's not an ideology; it's a fact.

An ideology would be something like anarcho capitalism. I'm talking on a more micro level - the market for minor, non essential consumer goods. Just like whether producers should create lemon or chocolate flavored cakes.

Do you actually have a useful contribution to the discussion other than an embarrassing failed attempt at a "gotcha" that did nothing to address the issues?

Let's keep it mature please.

12/4/2016 01:38:06 pm

I'm sorry Mr Beast 37, but what you're saying is absolutely steeped in ideology.

eyeroll

12/4/2016 04:06:41 pm

So, no response. Gotcha.

Chorltonwheelie

14/4/2016 10:35:19 pm

Hey Superduperbeast....your going to have to explain why huge tracts of humanity are hungry, why I'm stepping over beggars in the streets of my affluent country and why 1% of us own 80-90% of the worlds wealth before you can make a daft claim like that.
Markets are demonstrably shit at getting most us what we need.

RayGillGumm

12/4/2016 02:26:33 pm

"Gamergate hash tag was 99.4% NOT about harassment...It's an open hash tag for pitys sake used by mostly anonymous accounts!"

I edited your opening comments a bit to make it more concise. DO YOU SEE?

ConejoSucio

13/4/2016 08:07:49 pm

Nice reply. I feel the same way.

Col. Asdasd

12/4/2016 12:29:54 pm

Welcome to the culture war!

Capcom

12/4/2016 12:33:52 pm

We're going to be writing a new beat 'em up: SJW v GG.

Actually, we're not. But someone should. Either that, or Mr. Biffo should write an article about a fake beat 'em up called SJW v GG, featuring many characters invented in his own inimitable style.

Bruce Flagpole

13/4/2016 10:25:27 am

haha...
i was reading through the comments and thought to myself 'maybe i should make a game called GG vs SJW' (not that i really could). maybe that would lead to fame/infamy and fortune/harassment!
i thought as far as the start, where you had to pick a side. to do this you pick from a random assortment of innocuous statements, until one side decides to take offence and allocate you to the other...

Darren link

12/4/2016 12:34:24 pm

It was better with teletext... Though I do remember that time a disgruntled female pensioner called me "Tony Blair's White Nigger" because the TV listings were a little scrambled at her end...

12/4/2016 12:37:08 pm

What the hell???

Da5e link

12/4/2016 01:00:04 pm

That's an Arghoslent song, isn't it?

Stoo

12/4/2016 12:35:44 pm

For all their faults I'm still going to agree with team social justice more often than not. Because, well, Social Justice is obviously a Good Thing.

But nah mr B you're not a gamergater, or some sort of sexist monster, and I appreciate your trying to be fair and even handed about all of this.

12/4/2016 12:37:20 pm

Cheers, Stoo.

12/4/2016 12:45:40 pm

Stoo - So do you believe in equality of opportunity with outcomes delivered by merit?

Or do you believe in equality of outcome by any means?

I dont belive that "social justice" is automatically a "good thing" because I've seen too many advocating the latter. I fundamentally disagree with the latter.

I am particularly concerned by a lot of the "any means" I've seen displayed. Exactly why I don't subscribe to ideologies - especially that one.

The Green Spurt

12/4/2016 12:50:41 pm

Have you really seen too many people advocating for "equality of outcome by any means"? Because I can't think of a single person who I have ever seen advocate that, nor can I imagine that anyone with any intellectual capacity would think that would be an achievable aim.

What I have seen is lots of people on the "anti-social-justice" side saying that they think this is what "SJW"s want. Funnily enough, like you, none of them ever actually provide any evidence backing up their opinions.

So I will challenge you here, sir, away from the riff raff and in the refined environment of Mr Biffo's comments board, to do so. Please present me with some evidence that there is any credible voice among the "social justice" side, which is, as you say, advocating for "equality of outcome by any means".
I will await your response keenly.

The Green Spurt

12/4/2016 01:27:16 pm

THE ENTIRE DEBATE IS ABOUT OUTCOME!

It isn't about what people want to buy.

It is about those who are constantly lamenting the outcome of the market in terms of how many products cater to demographic x.

That is the corner stone of one entire side of the argument. It would be easier to give a list of who doesn't take that position. All the big well known individuals and gaming publications (bar IGN and a few others) have been pushing for it.

Little is asked about how many people really are prepared to buy certain types of products (large AAA titles) and why they really do or don't buy them.

If it is NOT about equality of outcome, why are we debating the outcome?

The only thing stopping people in the West (aside from poverty) from buying what they want is their own free choice.

Instead I'm told "musoggyknee because reasons".

Evidence? None that I can see.

Same goes with career choices and so called "pay gaps".

I see evidence for equality of opportunity and the outcomes people choose for themselves.

Again I'm told "musoggyknee because reasons" but no credible evidence that can't be dispelled with five mins of googling and an economics degree.

Hell show me solid evidence of a lack of opportunity (eg deprivation and poverty) and I will be all over it. But I will address it at the source. Not the outcome.

12/4/2016 01:33:58 pm

Sorry should clarify...

"any means "

Doesn't mean murdering people!

By definition, if you force an outcome based not on merit but identity, you really are engaging in real discrimination.

12/4/2016 02:30:44 pm

I believe women are a part of gaming, and they should be made to feel welcome, along with the opinions and the changes that they bring.

Not particularly interested in debating the merits of the free market.

12/4/2016 02:56:13 pm

No you don't.

You can't post a load of wooly (that sounds lovely and all and is great virtue signaling) and just wave over the fact that it is a competitive, democratic market/business. This isn't the night garden, the world doesn't work like that.

What you, I or anyone "believes" doesn't mean a thing. It's worthless.

What will matter is what sells. What is popular. What is profitable. That's out of our hands as commentators.

So I don't know what that will be in future.

I do know what it has been up until now.

The market will decide what it will be in the future. Consumers laying down hard currency on the counter. Not virtue signaling, not culture wars. The loudest campaigners have no voice if they don't spend money or make good products.

Your religion or beliefs won't have a say because it can't conjure money out of thin air.

People of any demographic only have a place if they are prepared to spend money or create products that people want to spend money on.

No one has the right to a place.

Your mistake is I assume strawmanning that argument into thinking that people don't want various groups in the industry. Else why your big virtue signalling speech about women?

I've not seen anyone saying that x people shouldn't be in the market/industry.

I've just seen people saying that the "best" people should be in the industry and that should be based on how successful they are at producing profitable titles or spending money on them.

I couldn't give a flying F what genitals they have, skin colour, sexuality. I have no time for anyone that plays up that aspect of their identity.

Show me your money. Show me your product. Outside of that I don't care who you are. If your product is good I like you and give you money.

You can't just wave away consumer choice and the need for ROI/food/rent money and say "I don't want to deal with that, let's talk about the womyns".

tehy

12/4/2016 05:17:06 pm

The most concise definition of a 'social justice warrior' is a person who pretends to be about 'social justice' but is really about 'feeling good about themselves'.

Inevitably, they go too far and turn people against their cause, which damages the cause itself. You think Stephen Fry is going to be sympathetic to claims of 'rape denial' or w/e after what was done to him?

In general, this is the real problem.

SeveredHeadOfOrpheus

13/4/2016 02:24:18 am

"Social Justice is obviously a Good Thing"

Uh . . . not really? Moreover, it's not even a real thing.

Explain to me how "Social Justice" is supposed to be different than just plain old "Justice"?

The only possible explanation always comes down to wealth distribution, or more accurately, wealth redistribution, as for society to be "Socially Just" the money of the wealthy must be redistributed to the poor.

I'll tell you, there are a LOT of people who do not see that as an "obviously good thing." Most of them would call that communism, and point out that such thinking led to stuff like the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror. You know, events which were perceived as "obviously good things" of their time by people who believed in "Social" Justice.

Matty

19/4/2016 06:06:54 pm

The French Revolution wasn't about "the redistribution of wealth", it was inspired by the American Revolution if anything (see: Tom Paine, not to mention the radical Whigs in England); but republicanism in a nation-state surrounded by monarchies wasn't the same as republicanism in faraway colonies that had chased all the aristocrats and their armies back to a home nation in Europe.

Also, wealth-redistribution is more in line with socialism than communism. With communism, there's supposed to be no need to redistribute anything because, hey, everyone owns everything. Supposedly.

Timbo

12/4/2016 01:02:28 pm

I bet you never thought that one day you'd look back on the era of Amiga zealotry with wistful nostalgia, did you?

12/4/2016 01:05:24 pm

There's evidently something wrong in my brain, because part of me enjoys all this just as much as I used to enjoy the Amiga zealotry...

Kendall9000

12/4/2016 11:49:33 pm

I am personally very disappointed in the lack of Amiga coverage on Digitiser2000.

Haven’t you seen the AmigaOne X1000? Now fitted with a lightning fast Dual Core CPU and 1Gb RAM for only £2,125.00. Amiga OS 4.1 included free!

Rumour has it that in a few years the X5000 will have a CPU running at a full 2Ghz yet cost less than £4000!

You’re going to look very silly when the Amiga makes a comeback. Any day now. Just you wait…

Did you know that the Amiga was used to create the cutting edge effects on TV’s Sci-fi hit Babylon 5?

MrPSB

12/4/2016 01:04:24 pm

Fannies

12/4/2016 01:04:51 pm

What kept you?

12/4/2016 10:51:17 pm

Also fannies

Wiggins' Young Boys

12/4/2016 01:06:48 pm

It's time like this I feel happy of my ignorance of the whole situation

Hamptonoid

12/4/2016 02:06:52 pm

Aha ! So it's not just me, then!

Shay

13/4/2016 08:55:28 pm

Well here's a video to get you up to speed on the start of the kerfuffle at least! (bias warning, Gamergate is great m8)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipcWm4B3EU4

19/4/2016 10:43:31 pm

Didn't follow it at all. But the dancing was pretty groovy.

Keith

12/4/2016 01:08:25 pm

I think it's a real shame that even Mr Biffo's clearly genuine, clearly tactful attempts to engage in a reasoned, constructive way with what is a horribly toxic topic, have resulted in him being subject to being labelled and being implied to be on the side of the "persecutors"

For the record, I don't entirely agree with everything Mr Biffo has said on this; I keep going away, thinking, and then and agreeing with bits I didn't think I would, and disagreeing with others - my fundamental issue with the points made by Mr Biffo is that while it's absolutely true that removing oneself from the triangle, whether persecutor, defender, or "rescuer"(I can't get on board with that term) can obviously de-escalate, if you are in a position where someone is abusing/bullying a perceived "victim", being a bit supportive in an appropriate way is probably the best thing to do, most of the time, and that maybe the time to encourage a "victim" to try to move out of the triangle is away from a flashpoint (while also bearing in mind that for many people, just being online makes them a target)
But yeah, as I was saying, I disagree with Mr Biffo on that, but it's disgraceful to me that someone who is at pains to point out that he is thinking aloud and working through and revising his opinions constantly can be labelled so easily as the enemy just because his opinions don't entirely line up. He isnt the problem, far from it. At absolute worst, he offers a different solution. If one finds it unhelpful, just note it and approach it your way anyway.

Mentusssss link

12/4/2016 01:10:26 pm

And again... You don't pick a side: One is assigned to you.

Bah.

This constant rigidity of "If you're not 100% for us, you're against us" emanating from certain sections of both sides of this "war" is... tiring... to say the least.

What happened to us all being cool, funky fresh dudes, eh?

In a perfect world - everybody would have the freedom to criticise, then other folk could counter-criticise and you could have this backwards-forwards thing where people civilly discuss things. I'd call it "exchange of ideas". It'd be great.

But we're not in a perfect world. We're on the Internet, where name calling, harassment, accusation, counter-accusation, and general shit-hattery is lavished upon you if have a different opinion to somebody else. Because nobody's EVER wrong on the Internet and you certainly can't learn from somebody else. Evolve your thoughts, your point of view. No.

(...And before anybody assigns me a side for that gem of wisdom - don't start telling me that either side's shit don't stink. As my dear departed Nan used to say, "Opinions are like arseholes, everybody's got one". And she's right. Also, just like arseholes, there's probably a bit of smelly poo lingering about.)

That's what's feeding the triangle, innit? All the nastiness over a difference of opinion, rather sitting down with a nice cup of tea - maybe a biscuit, stroking each others chins, and having some civil discourse.

In my day, we used to hit triangles with a metal stick. They went "ting".

amazingmikey

12/4/2016 01:13:01 pm

I think a lot of people read that article as a critique/solution about harassment as a phenomenon not about harassment as a personal interaction.

also the drama triangle is a bit of "conservative" idea - self-responsibility etc - which automatically turns off more socialist-minded types (myself included) even though I think it's pretty a helpful way of looking at unhealthy interactions.

wat

12/4/2016 04:11:22 pm

The idea of taking responsibility for your life "turns you off"? Enjoy a life of being 100% owned by outside forces.

Amazingmikeyc

12/4/2016 04:38:25 pm

Well Mr Reading Comprehension, that's exactly why it's such a powerful metaphor, because it challenged my assumptions and has helped empower me. DO YOU SEE.

12/4/2016 04:43:36 pm

SO it helped me see that my depression and anxiety were in part because I felt powerless. This helped me see that I do have power over my own feelings and actions, which has helped me greatly.

huh

12/4/2016 06:08:45 pm

I think I have identified your problem: you are turned off by things that have helped you.

FlabbyBelly

12/4/2016 01:14:37 pm

Celebrity sjw's or gamergaters are the worst. A wise man once said, with great twitter followers comes great responsibility. Or something.

Professor Toblerone

12/4/2016 01:14:57 pm

I don't really have anything constructive to add, but I just wanted to say that I find these articles (and subsequent reactions) fascinating. Please do not be dissuaded by the nutters. Thanks, Biffo.

12/4/2016 01:17:59 pm

Oh heck - no fear of that. Don't you worry.

Merriweather link

13/4/2016 08:44:34 am

What he said!

Darcy

12/4/2016 01:15:56 pm

My motto for life is "be excellent to each other", but the militant wing of the "SJW" leave me feeling cold. In the end, it just looks like one bunch of smug narcissists jousting with another bunch of smug narcissists, using the banners of "equality" and "ethics" to rally the proles into taking sides.

As Jon "Bon" Jovi sang, "It's all the same, only the names will change".

I'm reminded of when, a couple of years back, Steven Moffat quit social media because he faced a continuous torrent of harassment from people accusing him of being a raving misogynist. There are even blogs out there, communities linked by this shared hatred of one person. It sounds eerily familiar...

"Equality".
"Ethics".

What a palaver!

CrossXMao

12/4/2016 05:49:11 pm

GG wasn't smug narcissists at first, it was mostly internet semi autists from 4chan. People from anonymous boards tend to dislike identity politics.

Too bad twitter turn a lot of people into ego-addicted beasts, especially nerds who aren't acclimated to social interaction.

Tuddy

12/4/2016 01:23:15 pm

I suppose that, because I follow both notable pro-GG and anti-GG people on Twitter, I'd be considered a "moderate" on the issues at hand, but both sides have good points - journalists should not be allowed to utilise their positions to give their friends and professional colleagues good press, be it review content or merely refusing to cover stories that could paint them in a negative light. Similarly, the depiction of women and minorities in gaming in general could do with a LOT of work, particularly when a lot of the highest-selling games nowadays have a white, musclebound male American protagonist gunning down nondescript people, generally of a different race or nationality to him. Oh, and it goes without saying that people, regardless of race, gender, religion or personal beliefs, should not be harassed out of the industry. I think that's something the overwhelming majority of people can agree with.

That said, I've never felt pressured to take "a side" by the proGG people I do associate with privately. Hell, to many, the fact you're willing to listen is a damn sight more courtesy than a lot of people have granted them, either accepting outright that their actual goals and interests are a smokescreen, or worse, outright claiming they are a worse threat to national security than ISIS, an actual terrorist group taking responsibility for killing probably thousands of people at this point. That said, some people do fully embrace that identity, similar to how some on the "SJW" side embrace the identity of hating the gaming community or being censorship-obsessed zealots that gets thrown on that side by a lot of pro-GG media and communities.

To make a long (nearly two years, Jesus christ!) saga short, by boiling it down into an easily misinterpretable talking point - both sides are mired in identity politics, though I'd happily say 90% of the involved people are perfectly reasonable and, I think, could easily meet in the middle and agree on a lot of points had both sides not turned each other into a boogeyman over 20 months(!) of hyperbole, memes and ad-hominem.

That's not to say everybody will agree 100% on everything, and I think that's perfectly fine. Disagreements are a natural thing to encounter, and accommodating for disagreement is not a sign of weakness or a lack of solidarity to some ambiguous "cause".

Cole Pram

12/4/2016 04:28:43 pm

You're not wrong here. The fact is 90% (statistic from ether) are reasonable and we DO agree on most things. The issue being pro-GamerGate and anti-GamerGate aren't even having the same discussion.

pro-GG people want to talk about censorship, the corrupt media and issues they see in the gaming industry

anti-GG people want to talk about equality, discrimination and social issues they see in the gaming industry.

The sides aren't mutually exclusive, but when pro-GG started out with the Grayson issue and talking about The Fine Young Capilist project getting tanked and the collusion from the gaming press the anti-GG side stepped in on the press' side to troll, belittle and derail the issues pro-GG people were concerned with. The media played on that and turned the concerns into identity politics, which frustrated the hell out of a lot of the pro-GG people who then started getting mad at the idiots defending the press, which eventually lead to the anti-feminist / anti-SJW mentality because the people standing up for the press and blatantly lying self identified as feminist and SJWs (I identify as a feminist BTW).

In short, here's a web comic (http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2939)

Harry Steele

12/4/2016 01:34:16 pm

Yeesh! I came away from your article yesterday thinking that it was (as usual) a well-written piece where you were attempting to un-pack your feelings about this topic. Anyone attacking you is clearly choosing to ignore what you were trying to do and instead went straight to the knee-jerk reaction.

But that is what the internet has (sadly) become, hasn't it? It started as place people came to celebrate stuff, but now I more often than not see people drawing battlelines, with an 'us v them' mentality. And when these nebulous groups start to label themselves, it is always the extreme members of these groups that cause the most waves.

The internet gives everyone an equal voice, even if those voices come from people looking for a fight. The art of debate seems to be lost on people - people don't care about understanding - they just want to win.

It maybe because I'm naive, but why can't we all just get along?

HJP

12/4/2016 01:36:20 pm

I guess part of the issue is this idea that there can ever really be an *end* to Gamergate. Obviously Zoe Quinn is an obvious *start* point, but that's just when the labels started coming out and people began self-identifying or (as the article above demonstrates) having positions assigned to them.

People on both sides have had these views for a long time, and games (for a myriad of reasons) have distilled them into two very silo'd groups. When people say "I wish it would just go away", what they're really saying is "I wish I didn't have to personally confront this anymore" - for people like Zoe Quinn, who suffered direct harm as a result, that's an understandable position to take, but when people on the sidelines express the same sentiment, it can come off as wishing these issues were swept away under a rug and not confronted *at all*. That's not to say that's their intention, but it's how they come across.

12/4/2016 01:41:28 pm

Yeah, that's not what I want either. I mean, realistically I actually don't think there's an endpoint. It's like hoping for an end to murder. It's naive to think that could happen. There are obviously big, big issues which I haven't addressed in these articles, because that wasn't the focus; for me, for my part, I wanted to suggest a way of identifying the real victims from the ones who might best best be served in another way.

Confrontation

12/4/2016 04:20:39 pm

Zoe Quinn has done exactly 0 to solve the situation and only continued to provoke its inflammation. Pretend I'm "blaming the victim" all you want.

The original Zoe Post was meant as a warning about toxicity in the social justice community, a warning about an opportunist exploiting "social justice" for personal ends, but that warning was suppressed and ignored. Toxicity has become lionized in the social justice community.

Ulysses

12/4/2016 05:12:15 pm

Zoe Quinn wasn't the *Start* point of all of this, it was just the straw that broke the camel back along with the gamers are dead article. It is an event in a long string of events that been brewing in the gaming industry, but i'm not here to debate the schematic on how it started.

I would wish for nothing more than GamerGate to go away, but each time i'm dragged back in because of people doing identity politic. I was called a terrorist just because I enjoy games, I was TOLD by gaming journalist that my voice doesn't matter because i'm dead and not their audience. I was told i'm a neckbeard manchild who lives in my parent basement because I like playing video games and WORST of all I was told i'm a sock puppet posing as a woman on the internet because I like gaming.

To me it is stupid to try and change sometime because it appeal to a certain demographic. best example of this is my little pony it is aimed at girls but males also enjoy it because it is a well written show and why is it so wrong for a male to like it? none. It the same with Video games just because it is aimed at a different demographic than myself doesn't mean I can't enjoy it. I don't need to know who made it or if it has diversity in it, i don't need to be represented in the game, just as long as it GOOD i'll enjoy it.

And before you ask not that it is important i'm a woman i've been playing video games since I was 6 years old i am now 36 years old. Video games whatever type they are and whom ever they appeal to mean a lot to me and I will always defend the hobby from people whom would control what get to be in them and who gets to play them.

Meeehh

12/4/2016 09:38:40 pm

Tbh I think your attitude is part of the problem, I am slightly older thrn you, started playing games as a toddler and also female.

However I do not passionately defend gaming and never would, gaming is just another string to the entertainment media sittar, it may well be a hobby that has taken up probably half my waking life but at the end of the day it is just a hobby and to feel your hobby is under attack and in need of defending shows a level of,.. I dont know arrogance, definitely a sense of childish petulance which is really what all this crap boils down to, childish idiots taking things far too seriously.

You would never have eastenders fans harassing a new actor to the ends of the earth with SWATing and hacking and so on, I dont think anyone has issued death threats over preferring keatons batman to bales But theres something about gaming that makes people behave like babies, well rabid baby hyenas.

Its a shame because it leaves gaming stuck in a loop of being considered childish because of the attitudes of gamers and those attitudes encouraging more gamers to be that way, its pure tribalism and is now turning fanatical as it has been left to fester in that tribalism too long.

The sooner people accept "its just a game" and find something important to have such passionate devotion too the better as then gaming will be allowed to be viewed with respect along side its bedfellows, film, tv and music.

Engelbert Humperdinck

12/4/2016 11:43:00 pm

The Zoe Post was published two weeks BEFORE Leigh Alexander's "Gamers Are Over" article, which was largely a direct response to the fallout from that. For all you go on about how the audience of video games is more than the unflattering stereotype presented in the article, that was literally the point: that developers don't need to pander to that demographic all the time.

12/4/2016 01:42:16 pm

I think it's important to look a bit more closely about what you mean by "being labelled" a Gamergater.
I haven't seen anyone on this site calling you that. I haven't myself said that I think you are a Gamergater. Over at rllmuk where your posts have prompted a bit of discussion, no one (that I can see so far) is saying you are a Gamergater.
Rather, what is happening is that people are pointing out that you are using some of the same arguments that are used by people who do self-identify on the Gamergate side.
I haven't been on Twitter for a while so maybe there is a whole hoard of people on there pointing at you and shouting "Gamergater".
But it seems to me that you are being slightly short-sighted by interpreting this as the whole "SJW" movement turning against you and declaring you the enemy - which is sort of the picture that you are painting with this post. Most of us are more than happy to discuss it sensibly and calmly with you, and you paint a misleading picture by seeming to suggest that we aren't.

12/4/2016 01:47:30 pm

"I can't be the only person to be gutted that Digitiser's Mr Biffo is a GGer, right?"

"his piece today was horrible "yeah, but she was a sex worker!", as if that somehow justifies everything"

Both of which felt like a misrepresentation. And are literal quotes. Nevertheless, you seem to be missing the thrust of this piece which wasn't that I was literally being dubbed a Gamergater, but that I was certainly being called out for victim-blaming, which that isn't what I was doing... and that Gamergaters over on Reddit seemed to be clutching me to their bosom, unexpectedly.

And beyond that... I honestly don't have the energy right now.

12/4/2016 01:49:59 pm

Though I will say that saying I've interpreted it as the whole SJW movement turning against me is - again - a misrepesentation of what I've actually said. I've gone to great pains to stress that it's just "some" who have, that I had reasonable feedback, mostly, on Twitter. But that - frankly - the ones who have "turned against" me (in your words) have been SJW.

Incidentally, I have been taken to task on Twitter today for using the term SJW.

12/4/2016 03:00:11 pm

That's probably just because no one (or very few people, if any) self identify with the term "SJW". It's generally a label which Gamergate (and like minded) people apply to anyone who they don't agree with. The only people who use that term sincerely tend to be Gamergaters (or other assorted and associated reactionary groups). So the fact you are using it appears to indicate that you are taking sides, even though you have made it clear that isn't your intention.

You have to remember that among the Gamergate ranks are people who genuinely believe that there is a conspiracy among academia, the media and the "liberal elite", and Wikipedia, to subjugate men. Push them to explain themselves further - why these conspirators would want to do this - and you will eventually get mumbled half-thoughts about how they want to keep us controlled and docile, and only men are strong willed enough to resist "the system", and its all psy-ops to destabilize the white race and turn us into docile cattle.

Go to KIA (which you are clearly familiar with) and among the comments you will see that this line of thinking is fairly common there, and goes largely unchallenged. Just as it is with all the "anti-social-justice" movements such as anti-feminism, and anti-black-lives-matter-ism.

Sin Vega

12/4/2016 04:22:00 pm

Ahoy!

I apologise if I came at you too hard for my dislike of that phrase. My feelings about it are more a personal pet peeve than a strong belief, and I certainly didn't intend to "take you to task". I certainly don't think it's immoral or invalidates anything you've said.

Also, fannies.

12/4/2016 05:06:12 pm

My wording - and I know it wasn't your intent, Sin. I think it's just showing me what a delicate issue it all is. However... I do want to understand. I mean, I want to understand both sides, equally. You pointing that out to me is another step towards that. I honestly never knew that it was a label that wasn't seen favourably by all.

Dotec

12/4/2016 05:26:10 pm

@The Green Spurt

I think you misrepresent what happens on KIA. To be sure, it IS reactionary and subject to the same sort of biases and misinformation as their detractors. But while many of the statements there regarding academia and journalism verge into tinfoil territory, the consensus is not that there's a "conspiracy" in the sense of some top-down hidden agenda disseminated from power players. The culprit, by and large according to most GG'ers, is groupthink and hermetically sealed intellectual bubbles.

You don't need a liberal Illuminati to make countless game outlets write the same thing, or to explain why universities (at least in the US) overwhelmingly lean left. There's no hidden leaders behind this. Peoples' natural inclination to engage in tribal thinking doesn't require a guiding hand.

Dr Kank

12/4/2016 01:51:41 pm

There's an old Gamergate saying which seems applicable - nobody joins Gamergate, you just get thrown in the pit with the rest of us.

And by old I mean probably a few weeks old. I think some kind of Panda came up with it.

12/4/2016 01:52:46 pm

Second time today I've heard that...

Pa-pa-par-parr-pedant

12/4/2016 01:59:00 pm

You gave the journalists name as Alison Parr here - backwardsing her surname. Not sure if its an smart piece of search engine camouflage or joke I missed, but in case its an accident, there you go, you know?

12/4/2016 02:01:43 pm

Oh gawd. See. I should stop commenting. My brain is dribbling out my ears, evidently.

okeyblokey

12/4/2016 02:28:47 pm

Difficult not to take sides here, but I'm with you vis a vis opinions, Mr.B. You're damned if you do, or you're a small barnacle on the hull of humanity. In dry dock.

12/4/2016 02:33:27 pm

"How do you think you are helping the situation, and what would you do to help bring an end to this rift? What would you do to heal the games industry? "

The truth is that there will be no end to this. Both sides of the argument are so entrenched in their own viewpoints and unwilling to cede any ground to their opponents that no progress is possible. No one is interested in actually listening to what the other side has to say and everything is automatically taken in bad faith.

The anti-SJWs see themselves as champions of free speech, fighting against what they perceive as an increasingly censorious climate in the gaming industry.

The SJWs meanwhile are unwilling to perceive the anti-SJWs as anything other than a harassment group and as a result refuse to even engage with any of their ideas.

But all of this is part of a much larger culture war that's going on right now. Other recent flashpoints include Rhodes Must Fall, the policy of No Platforming, the Yale University Halloween email + subsequent fallout, Black Lives Matter and most recently the Cory Goldstein Dreadlocks / Cultural Appropriation confrontation.

What people need to do is stop harassing each other and start listening to what each other have to say in a calm manner.

Personally I am anti-gamergate and broadly (but not fully) pro-SJW. But I can absolutely understand why people are lashing out at what they see as a tyrannical climate of enforced progressiveness and political correctness.

I'll finish this by leaving what I think are a few pertinent thoughts/questions for both belligerents in this war:

Gamergators: Why have Zoe Quinn, Anita Sarkeesian, Brianna Wu and Alison Rapp all been subject to extensive abuse and harassment and what have you done to distance yourselves from this? Why do you think SJW game-critics are pro-censorship?

SJWs: When certain points of view are considered unacceptable to hold or express then what are the implications of this for personal freedom and do you consider this a 'tolerant' attitude?

12/4/2016 03:29:10 pm

I was on the original IRC, so I'm a pretty hardline pro-Gamergate.

Quinn:She is frankly an horrible person. Treating her boyfriend like a dog, sabotaging a charity to promote their own, and falsely accusing a board of depressive virgins of harassement to promote a game about depression (That one was probably the real reason people hated her, nerds tend to be visceral about bullying). I will be clear, I can't condone rape and death threats, as they are crass and worthless, but don't expect me to feel any empathy for her.

Wu: She's a lolcow with ridiculous opinions (Game controllers are too hard for women,lel) and which is probably mostly lying about most harassement (Jace episode, inconsistent number of threats, that time when she blamed a prosecutor of doing nothing when she never contacted him). It's sad because she's obviously in need of therapy, but media encourage her because she help her narrative.

Sark:She's the feminist equivalent of a lying politician, and people tend to be angry at lying politicians, her absolute refusal of debating her theories don't help.

As for what we done , at one point , we tried to track the harassers of those people, (Particulary some brazilian "journalist", and some revenge porn site webmaster). We gave up when it was pretty clear the concerned people wouldn't even try to bring them to justice and the media was determined to paint us as the Internet Hate Machine.

As for SJW being pro-censorship, it's pretty clear that SJW in localisation teams are already censoring Japanese games. See also developper pushed to censor themselves, a la Street Fighter.

12/4/2016 03:53:19 pm

Games changing duration localisation is not a new phenomenon. Pick up an issue of Retro Gamer, besides it being an all round excellent magazine, they do a monthly feature on the differences between PAL / NTSC / JP versions of games. Cultural norms differ between countries and creative works are often adapted when released across multiple territories. This is almost always done for business reasons rather than because of some imagine pressure from social justice groups.

This practice is not new and doesn't constitute censorship.

In the case of Capcom, I don't understand how a developer exerting creative control over their own work is censorship.

As for the rest of you post, that would be an example of that bad faith I was alluding to earlier.

EverFaithful

12/4/2016 04:29:21 pm

How is pointing out the criticisms of the figureheads you have lionized "bad faith"? Do you need proof of ZQ sabotaging a women's charity to promote her own? https://i.imgur.com/6SVLxB0.png which I will also point out, never came to fruition and all donations were made to ZQ personal PayPal account. It was vaporware, just like up to the last month the Crash Override Network "anti-harassment" organization was vaporware, source: https://archive.is/http://www.crashoverridenetwork.com/ even after being promoted heavily in the media as a legitimate organization.

I'm going to go out on a limb and assume you have no actual proof of "GamerGate" harassing these people and have taken it all on the word of people who heard it from someone who heard it from someone who read it in an article written by a contributor to one of these people's Patreon accounts.

You call this good faith? Oh boy. You haven't even peeked down the rabbit hole and you fancy yourself a taxidermist.

12/4/2016 04:45:02 pm

I'm sorry to tell you but I've seen the harassment with my own eyes. There's no denying that GG has a problem with abuse and harassment, there is boundless evidence attesting to it.

I haven't 'lionized' any figureheads. I've expressed no opinion about those people. I'm asking what GG has to say about real harassment of real people and so far the response has left me entirely unmoved.

Lunar Archivist

12/4/2016 06:57:55 pm

Wicked Eric, you, quite frankly, are a full of crap. You're pretending to be reasonable, but all you do is ask loaded questions and treat unproven accusations as if they were verifiable facts. But I have a few minutes, so I'll humor you.

"Gamergators: Why have Zoe Quinn, Anita Sarkeesian, Brianna Wu and Alison Rapp all been subject to extensive abuse and harassment and what have you done to distance yourselves from this? Why do you think SJW game-critics are pro-censorship?"

To borrow an SJW phrase, this is problematic for several reasons.

First, you need to define what harassment is. What qualifies as harassment has become so boiled down by SJWs that legitimate criticism, disagreement, or a single unsolicited tweet qualifies as harassment. Take this past weekend, for example: I made a tweet with an image of a single post from a message board poking fun at the Alison Rapp case. The image mentioned her by name, but I did not. I didn't tag her. The pictured contained no identifiers, no personal information, nothing. But at least two Anti-GamerGate SJWs attempted to report me on Twitter for doxxing and harassment.

Second, there's a rule that generally applies as much online as it does offline: like begets like. If you're pleasant on the Internet, chances are you'll be treated nicely. Behave like a complete douchebag and you'll be treated as such. When the events that first led up to GamerGate broke out, specifically the appearance of "The Zoe Post", the two major individuals involved, Zoe Quinn and Nathan Grayson, had two choices: either keep a low profile and wait for this to blow over in a few days or weeks or engage their critics with anger and hostility. Grayson chose to do the former and Quinn the latter, which is why there was a difference in the responses they got.

Third, it's an act of supreme cowardice to throw the first punch and then run around crying foul when someone hits you back. Anita Sarkeesian has been attacking gamers for years. Brianna Wu entered GamerGate by posting images mocking the hashtag and then claiming harassment when people sent mocking images back. Alison Rapp's situation was similar; as far as I know, she, like Sarkeesian and Wu, inserted herself into the conversation by mocking gamers who were upset at the terrible localization of "Fire Emblem Fates". Rapp's situation is bizarre because her controversial views on child porn and pedophilia caught the attention of Neo-Nazis and white supremacists on the Daily Stormer, Jamie Walton, a friend of actor Kevin Smith who runs an anti-human trafficking organization, and at least part of GamerGate. Why? Blame Dan Olson, a notorious Anti-GamerGate member who, along with others, attempted to paint GamerGate supporters as pro-child porn and pedophilia for supporting freedom of speech on 8chan.

Fourth, you have yet to prove that GamerGate was responsible for this harassment. Take Anita Sarkeesian, for example. In an attempt to clear their names, early on, some pro-GamerGate individuals managed to track down a Brazilian clickbait journalist who was a serial harasser of hers. Even Kotaku had to admit that there substance to their findings:
http://kotaku.com/the-anita-sarkeesian-hater-that-everyone-hates-1658494441

Yet most people conveniently ignore this.

"I'm sorry to tell you but I've seen the harassment with my own eyes. There's no denying that GG has a problem with abuse and harassment, there is boundless evidence attesting to it."

Okay, then, let's see this harassment. Send some links. With proof that the people engaging in the harassment have a proven history of being GamerGate supporters. I'll be waiting.

"Create a new group, have a membership system and expel anyone who misbehaves. Protect your image. Appeal to people's sense of liberty and make supporting free expression your aim. Do not target individuals, do not harass and abuse people or try and get anyone fired."

You know, hearing "do not target individuals, do not harass and abuse people or try and get anyone fired" is rich coming from SJWs, who endlessly use that tactic. I don't recall all GamerGate supporters ever coming together and demanding someone's head. Unlike, say, SJWs, who, promoted by tweets making fun of them from Play-Asia and Protein World, attempted to get the people making them fired.

Also, your proposed strategy is bullshit, and I'll tell you why: BECAUSE IT'S BEEN TRIED THREE TIMES NOW AND FAILED. Proto-GamerGate used the #Quinnspiracy and #Burgersandfries hashtags, but switched over to #GamerGate to distance themselves from it and Quinn once things exploded with the "Gamers are dead" articles in August 2014. Did that help? No. GamerGate was accused of being "harassers of Zoe Quinn". When hashtag users jokingly switched over to #PizzaGate as a joke and more seriously to another hashtag to discuss an upcoming ethics in gaming journalism panel at SXSW 2016, you know what the immediate reaction was from SJWs? "DON'T BE FOOLED! IT'S JUST GAMERGATE WITH

Sacho

12/4/2016 06:58:33 pm

Hey Wicked Eric, can you give me a couple of examples of such harassment? I see a lot of claims of it never backed up by a source, it would be nice to at least have some gauge.

Also, have you tried comparing it to the harassment any other controversial figure receives(hopefully you agree that those figures are controversial)? Is it more/less? Is it GamerGate that has a harassment problem, or society in general? Do you think GamerGate harasses more than "SJWs"? Are you aware of any actual attempts of quantifying harassment online, or particularly regarding GamerGate? I am only aware of two - the WAM report( http://womenactionmedia.org/cms/assets/uploads/2015/05/wam-twitter-abuse-report.pdf) and the BrandWatch one(http://europe.newsweek.com/gamergate-about-media-ethics-or-harassing-women-harassment-data-show-279736?rm=eu). The first one does not provide any conclusive evidence that GamerGate "has a problem with harassment", neither does the second one(here's an analysis of the second one https://medium.com/@cainejw/an-actual-statistical-analysis-of-gamergate-dfd809858f68#.5pf9mxv92).

If you're interested in what GG has to say about "real harassment", well, I can provide you with the mission statement of the main board on reddit(KotakuInAction is a community that condemns willful censorship, exclusion, harassment, or abuse) or rules (https://www.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAction/wiki/rules - Harassing another user across multiple threads, including persistent /u/ mentions and/or replies.). Of course, just saying something doesn't make it true, but that's why we need analysis of some actual data on harassment and GG's relation to it.

12/4/2016 07:00:26 pm

Whoops, got cut off.

? "DON'T BE FOOLED! IT'S JUST GAMERGATE WITH A NEW COAT OF PAINT." You're full of it.

"This is almost always done for business reasons rather than because of some imagine pressure from social justice groups.

This practice is not new and doesn't constitute censorship.

In the case of Capcom, I don't understand how a developer exerting creative control over their own work is censorship."

It's self-censorship they were pressured into by SJWs making a lot of noise. Capcom made the changes "because they wanted to be as widely appealing as possible" or somesuch. Blizzard changed Tracer's win pose after a single person on the forum complained it was sexual and made the tired old "think of the children" argument. Koei Techmo didn't release "DOAX3" in the west and pretty much admitted said they didn't want to deal with the grief from SJWs. A character in "Star Ocean 5" was given granny panties to avoid offending perceived Western sensibilities. It's a hideously dishonest lie perpetuated by you and other despicable SJWs like you that using social pressure, threats of bad publicity, guilting, and shaming techniques to bend others to your will doesn't count as "real" censorship.

13/4/2016 07:46:57 am

Using this logic a balance patch is censorship, or changing a characters name during localisation. Unless someone has stepped in and said you cant release this game in thia state then its not cencorship.

What is the line that you are meant to be drawing here? As soon as a decision is made by creators based on outside influences, either by audiences or critics, even preemptively, then censorship has taken place?

This is untenable I'm afraid. Every creative work is subject to such concerns. In every example you have stated no one has taken creative control away from the developers in question and no one has been told that they cannot release their game.

I suppose every film that has had a test screening is comprimised now? Every book that was subject to a retcon in a later edition has been subjected to censorship? When they changed the ending to Mass Effect 3 based on the fanbases dissapointment where were the champions of artistic expression then?

The sorry fact is that people see GG not as an anti censorship group but as a group that resists and kicks back at any kind of moves towards a more progessive and inclusive game industry. One that repeatedly dogpiles its chosen targets.

You can try and convince me that GG has nothing to do with harassment, but the fact remains that every public opponent of GG has been subjected to serious abuse online and in some cases in real life.

Saying 'Not us guv' isn't going to cut it if you want GG to be seen as anything other than a harassment group. But i fear we are back where i started with entrenched positions and not budging an inch.

I really hope digi goes back to being good soon. :(

DD Curtis

13/4/2016 08:44:29 am

As seen here for any neutral, a charge declaring organized harassment on the part of GG was made by Wicked Eric, the charge was not substantiated .

This is how the gaming press attacked the consumer revolt and led to this whole mess in the first place. GG made and continues to make legitimate concerns visible and the other side nukes the concern into accusations of harassment and bullshit political charges of sexism and whatever else.

You want everything to go back to rainbows and butterfly's in the community? Wake up call, it never will because of people like you who have either fed into the gaming journo narrative that was used to distract from the original intent of GG or straight up make those arguments in bad faith.

Concerns were raised by gamers and consumers about Gaming Journalism, Games Journos hit Gamers and Gamers hit back. A culture war was started that now involves non-gamers on both sides, as a result, Gaming has been dragged kicking and screaming into the greater culture war and there is NO end in sight.

13/4/2016 10:18:55 am

http://femfreq.tumblr.com/post/109319269825/one-week-of-harassment-on-twitter

12/4/2016 03:32:47 pm

Just one point if I may.

No one, on either "side", has any obligation to speak out and distance themselves from a position because of a tiny minority, often unknown, hijacking that position to behave illegally.

In the same way Muslims are not obliged to speak out against terrorism or distance themselves from Islam or an RSPC person does not have to distance themselves from animal rights because some anti live testing activists literally murdered people.

An SJ activist doesn't have to say anything about bomb threats to the SPJ or dead animals sent to pro GG journalists, ethics campaigners don't have to say anything about what some 14 year old American kid tweeted to Quinn.

Trying to assign collective responsibility and smearing the innocent masses leads to exactly the pushback we are seeing.

12/4/2016 04:07:03 pm

I agree with what you're saying. I don't think everyone who maintains a anti-SJW position bears any kind of collective responsibility for abuse and harassment.

With regards to GamerGate, the public's perception is that it is a hate group and a harassment group. This is entirely due to the actions of people who self-identify as GG, it is not a construct of 'the media'. It is a consequence of the behaviour of GG. You don't need to look hard to find them doing something or saying something that people find abhorrent.

I personally think there is a valid and intellectually coherent, pro-free speech, 'anti-SJW' argument to be made. in my opinion the best way to get that argument heard and taken seriously is to do it entirely out with the gamer gate movement.

Create a new group, have a membership system and expel anyone who misbehaves. Protect your image. Appeal to people's sense of liberty and make supporting free expression your aim. Do not target individuals, do not harass and abuse people or try and get anyone fired.

That is the way forward here, be more reasonable than the other guy. That's how you will actually start to win the argument.

12/4/2016 05:52:44 pm

Ideally, I'd agree. Disassociating with the GG hashtag/group would seem like an obvious and excellent way to differentiate yourself from the "hate mob" label (regardless of how deserved that label truly is). I remember this being the call from a number of journalists at the height of this shitshow's furor: "If you want to discuss these issues, drop the hashtag" was regularly expressed.

Except... Well, it never worked out this way for those who tried. If you stopped calling yourself a GGer (or never even identified as one to begin with) and condemned harassment - but still thought the outspoken rash of progressive politics in gaming is unreasonable - you were still considered one. Legitimate attempts to break away from that movement were considered smokescreens for ill intent. I've always been an observer to this controversy and have never engaged in it any meaningful way; you will find no social media history of me harassing people or targeting women/minorities. But if I say something like "Maybe Allison Rapp wasn't cut out for a PR job at Nintendo" or "I think most of Anita's arguments are kinda simple and dumb", those are never statements evaluated or challenged on their own. I am inevitably accused of being a closet Gator or some right-wing hetero bro, implicitly and inextricably linked with a harassment group because *reasons*. I can only imagine that most people get the idea that there's no point in compromising or appeasing their foes if they're going to keep getting shit on any way. It's bad faith out the ass on that front. And I find it difficult to sum up any venom for those who have stuck with GG in light of this; because they're going to be hated any way, so screw you.

This is pretty much what Biffo was touching on. You have a guy who who was never part of Gamergate, who largely identified with the other side, and probably never entertained receiving a warm reception on KIA. And yet, one or two "wrong arguments" later, he's facing accusations of throwing in his lot with GG or committing some other kind of moral and ethical betrayal (HEY BUDDY YOU SOUND AN AWFUL LOT LIKE GG, I'D BE CAREFUL ABOUT THAT).

For what it's worth, KIA absolutely does stomp out legit attempts at harassment and doxing. Admittedly, this is only one of the many factions within this movement and other sections of it are totally unrepentant shits (don't see how this is different from the other side though). But you'd be hard-pressed to pick out any kind of pro-harassment viewpoints from that subreddit that have any widespread support. Now, some may still HATE the way they talk there and find their politics highly disagreeable. But "rude and juvenile" would be a much more reasonable charge for these people than making them out to be terrorists.

Reaper

12/4/2016 07:45:12 pm

"Gamergators: Why have Zoe Quinn, Anita Sarkeesian, Brianna Wu and Alison Rapp all been subject to extensive abuse and harassment and what have you done to distance yourselves from this?"

That's a leading question: What if I don't think they were "subject to extensive abuse and harassment"?
There are valid criticisms of each of these people, waving that away because they received some crass comments as well is not an honest way to engage with the situation.
Zoe Quinn has a well documented history of abusive behavior, Anita Sarkeesian and Brianna Wu are scam artists and Alison Rapp is a PR representative who insulted her company's fans and moonlighted as a hooker.
Harassing people is neither productive nor okay, but ignoring their wrongdoing just because they share your ideology isn't either.

"Why do you think SJW game-critics are pro-censorship?"

Because they have repeatedly tried to substantially change creative works or completely stop them from being published.
Stopping ideologues from strong arming creators into changing their art to reflect their favorite narrative was my primary reason for getting into GamerGate in the first place.

13/4/2016 12:23:29 am

In my opinion a lot of the things labelled as abuse and harassment are nothing of the kind. I've seen forum threads mocking someone called harassment, even though the target probably had to Google their name to find it. I've seen videos that simply challenged someone's argument labelled abuse and flagged on Youtube in an attempt to shut their author up. Then there's Sarkeesian speaking to the UN about the unacceptable abusive comments she's received, such as being called a liar and told she sucks...

By that standard a lot of the SJW hashtag activism would be considered abuse and harassment. When they pile on a wrong-thinkers like Richard Dawkins or Stephen Fry you'll find comments calling them nasty names, even wishing them dead. In their own minds SJWs may think they're "speaking truth to power" and "punching up", making it completely different from when one of their own gets the same treatment, but to me it just looks like hypocrisy.

Personally, I've tried to call people out when I've occasionally seen comments that do cross the line into genuine abuse, but of course most of that's anonymous and sent directly to the recipient. Apart from stating that I disagree with it, and that there's nothing to justify it, I'm not sure what else I could do to distance myself from it.

There's been some genuine abuse and harassment dished out by SJWs too, including smear campaigns aimed at getting people fired from their jobs. Your question could easily be turned around (what have SJWs done to distance themselves from that?) but if they didn't actually participate in it they aren't responsibly for it...

Meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhh

12/4/2016 02:39:27 pm

Well you keep saying its not a black and white issue, but you then go on about neutrality, thats 3 sides in all, when the reality is portioning anything out in such a manner is myopic to start with.

You're over analysing things and seaching for logic, this is humans we are talking about theres no logic here only rampant emotions.

Anyway stuff this most of these wrack jobs are American anyway just look at the state of that country, try to find some logic there.

12/4/2016 02:46:28 pm

I sort of disagree, though... in as much as I think we agree. I think people do try to turn it into a black and white issue, when it's no such thing. How many thousands of people are there involved? That's thousands of individual points of view.

And yeah, I do think that you can find patterns - which you might not define as logic - but behaviours that certainly adhere to certain cause-and-effect patterns. Normally when you trace things back to their underlying roots you can go "Oh... that makes sense."

And as for overanalysing... oh totally. It's what I do, I'm afraid! I'm fascinated by it, and I'm fascinated by exploring human behaviour. Totally one of my hobbies, alas.

Meehhhhhhhhhhhh

12/4/2016 10:00:09 pm

I knew you'd talk of finding pattens, the problem is when people look for patterns in research they try their best to find out what's going on in the background.

As theres no actual study going on you have no idea about the motivation behind anyone, you just know what they are shouting about in the moment, you dont know their motivation. What religion are they, did they get abused as a child, how old sre they, have they been diagnosed as mentally ill, what country are they in and what are the normal attitudes there.

Its just too broad a spectrum to even try.

And I still think a lot of them are not gamers just bandwagon jumpers if it clicks the right buttons, they remind me of football hooligans when football cracks down on em they just say they will start fights at cricket grounds instead, its not the subject that counts but the opportunity to vent on mass.

Leman

12/4/2016 02:39:38 pm

Mr. B I think you might find that there are a hell of alot of us in the exact same position as you find yourself in.

No one can come up with one correct answer and what you mentioned in this piece pretty much perfectly reflects my own experiences. I roughly agree with what the SJ side stand for but I just can't get behind the batshit knee jerking and refusal to be level headed about anything. On the GG side I hate that all of them get tarred with the same brush and dismissed whole sale when points are well put across, the minority are abhorrent and they really should do more to stamp them out. (From what I can tell most of the digging on Rapp was done by one single person that just seemed to hate her, I would not call that a concentrated direct attack by GG but its a simple easy thing to do).

I really hope this gets out to people and more read it because like I said there are lots and lots of us stuck in the middle trying to piece everything together. Or just rubber necking.

Pro GG

12/4/2016 07:59:24 pm

Most of the rapp stuff came from kiwi farms. They are the ones who did most of the digging, not kia

Damon link

12/4/2016 02:45:36 pm

I could write a lot about this but I'm just gonna say... I feel ya, bro on so many levels.

Paul Gravy

12/4/2016 03:18:30 pm

I like Chicken, I like Cheese
I like wanking on to Bumble Bees
Chicken n Cheese and wanking on Bees
A dibble dobble nibble nobble nong.

12/4/2016 03:20:33 pm

We all probably needed that.

Freshmaker

12/4/2016 03:20:51 pm

"You don't join #GamerGate. The opposition throws you in the pit with the rest of us."

ericb

12/4/2016 03:25:36 pm

The reason I became a gamergater was quite simple. You had one side saying "the media is corrupt" and the other side saying "gamergaters are just misogynist, transphobic and sexist homophobes". Where did the "other side" get its information from? Why the media of course!

So it was apparent that if I wanted to find the truth I had to go look for it myself. And in the end I chose to side with those who are open to debate, who aruges with evidence, who doesn't lie, who doesn't slander or libel to get their way.

A gamergater says: Don't agree with me? Well what evidence to you base that on?

An SJW says: Don't agree with me? Well fuck off you misogynist pig *blocked*.

12/4/2016 04:17:02 pm

Good post.

I personally just take those parts from Gamergate that I like.

They are mostly libertarians and when I've spoken to them they have been s**t hot with facts, stats and citations. I've met one or two jerks when I've expressed my love of Gone Home but they were a minority!

I didn't become a "gamergater" though because it's not clear what exactly that is, and some activities whilst legitimate (writing letters to the advertisers of gaming sites that promoted bullying) I just don't agree with (they should just stop visiting the site and let the market decide. They stooped to authoritarian SJ levels by trying to force a market outcome).

But yeah I agree with what you said. The "other side" just tried fallacious arguments and appeal to emotion stuff on me. When I probed further for real evidence they attacked me and accused me of being part of a hate group.

Needless to say that made me question how many other "members of a hate group" are anything of the sort or if indeed there ever was a hate group!

Then GG'ers showed me the WAM study and the penny dropped. But as I've said about ideologies, they are like your cable companies XXL channel package. You get a dozen good channels and fifty that suck.

So in this instance I take the channels I like and only those channels.

Morbid

12/4/2016 03:27:55 pm

You say you have seen a new side of the SJW movement. New light has been shown. But still you say they are on the side of progress and love for LGBT communities and people while spitting the same lies and rhetoric about GamerGate. "Violent harassing women hating machine". When? Where? Who? Its a hashtag. Is it because we wont take shit from Brianna Wu? Randy Harper? Alison Rapp?
You say its hard to find the truth about GG because of the spins. Then why, when you say its hard, almost impossible to find the truth...do you keep talking like we are evil horrible monsters?

Get educated. Then call us monsters if you wish. Or don't get educated. And realize that what you are saying is just repeated nonsense coming from the mouth of other people tricked by spin articles or professional victims.

If you want to hear about how some GGrs and even some ex-GGrs see it from the inside. Here's a link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvPyAcr9ppc

Iris Caldor

12/4/2016 03:34:55 pm

At least you're not a woman. I've been labelled "Uncle Tom" and "House Nigger for MRAs" due to my sympathy for and involvement with GG, and I only joined because they opposed the sex-negative, intersectional feminism and collectivism I'd come to hate after watching the Feminist Frequency debacle unfold. I mean, it hurts, but only because these are the people who are supposed to be my allies in feminism, and every day it feel more and more like they've subverted the idea and twisted it to their own benefit, to assist in their victimization narrative. Since joining the movement, I've encountered such unpleasantries as:

- A person who actually believed that just because whites once enslaved blacks in my country, that I should be shackled and whipped, for the sake of getting my just desserts.

- People who actively defend pedophilia and child abuse just because the perpetrator is "one of their own" and one of the loudest and most obnoxious parroters of their beliefs.

- People who told me I didn't "deserve" my vagina, or told me I "deserved" to be raped, because I advocate "trust, but verify" instead of "listen and believe" when it comes to sexual assault.

So you know I mean it when I say I understand how you feel.

To be honest, I don't even care about Zoe Quinn. Nobody deserves to be harassed, but her involvement is blown way out of proportion by both sides, and I only see it as a catalyst and as evidence of a much larger culture war being fought here. You yourself touch on it briefly; for further reading, look at an article by Mytheos Holt titled "The left's #WarOnNerds shows they're getting desperate" which despite being framed as a partisan issue, is actually a good read.

Denethor

12/4/2016 03:35:55 pm

Now you're starting to understand how the gamergate controversy works. There was always a small amount of nutters involved who fit the stereotype, but the trick the SJWs pulled was declaring that anyone who agreed with any part of GG, or even neutral people were the same as the idiots.

They'll even use terms like "fake neutral" since some believe anyone not on their side must be a GGer. Another one is "There are no sides, just GG and everyone else".

The news essentially parroted these people, which is why GG has a reputation as a homogenous horde of borderline rapists. Welcome to the club.

Anonymous

12/4/2016 03:43:45 pm

Gamergate has a saying: nobody actually joins gamergate, you just get thrown into the pit with the rest of us.

Look up what happened to Roberto Rosario, head of IGDA Puerto Rico. Ousted, his chapter shut down, and smeared for simply disagreeing with the wrong people.

Or Chris von Csefalvey, a data researcher/statistician who did actual scientific research on Gamergate on Twitter. He and his wife were harassed and threatened into deleting all of it...by somebody who champions for abuse prevention on Twitter!

If anything, Mr Biffo, you must now understand why this stupid Twitter hashtag has been raging on for almost two years.

12/4/2016 05:09:08 pm

Very much so.

Yuuichi_Trapspringer

12/4/2016 03:58:15 pm

Wow, so you got tossed into the pit with the rest of us by them. I can't say I have ever followed your work before seeing this particular article pop up on KiA.

The Rapp situation I am not familiar with what happened to bring her into the public spotlight, but I see that a UK tabloid posted about her college paper (that was linked to on her linkedin) on Feb 29, found the attention of an anti child sex trafficking 501c3 in early March, and fired at the end of March for holding a second job that Nintendo found against their corporate ideology.

Nintendo handled this with kid gloves, Mrs. Rapp knew exactly what her second job was and why she was fired over it, yet she chose to go on the attack, claiming that Nintendo fired her as a response to the Gamergate harassment, the gaming media and other sites all piled on echoing this narrative. A private person does more investigative journalism than any of the media who covered the story found her other website and used the data found there to confirm both via visual information and information imbedded in the files to confirm that they were the same person. How many gaming publications who attacked gamergate and defended Rapp have posted any updates on the story? 1, maybe 2? These self same publications who were lighting Microsoft on fire recently for hiring go go dancers at an event are bending over backwards to defend an adult escort working PR for a children's toy/game company.

The sad thing is, now that the issue was forced and she went on the attack after the firing, she pretty much has forever tarnished her name, I doubt the majority of companies would touch her with a 10 foot pole now.

I myself got tossed into the pit when I dared, DARED to comment on a post that hit the front page of Reddit where a youtube content creator was having a fight with channels who used his animation without paying him. Shortly afterwards (literally seconds) I started getting notifications that I had been automatically banned from several subreddits for daring to post in KiA. Prior to that, I had never even really paid attention to the whole Gamergate thing, after that I started to dig into it and what I found was quite troubling. The GG side, I don't see the harassment there that is claimed. When I tried to engage the anti side (gamerghazi) in honest conversation, I was instantly banned from the subreddit, if you don't fall in 100% lockstep with their narrative, you get banned. When one side will let anyone speak and the other bans you instantly, I fall on the side that will let you speak.

When the Rapp stuff broke a few days ago, KiA was banning anyone who posted any photos of her and deleting the content.

Some of the notable 'victims' of gamergate have also rode the harassment claims to quite lucrative careers or at least a nice healthy paycheck. Quinn who has produced no games since her free one still rakes in a few thousand dollars a month and recently spoke at the UN. Sarkeesian rode the harassment train to over a million dollars in donations to make videos that she has only completed a few of the promised ones in over 2 years and recently got another $200,000 to make another 6 videos. Wu, who constantly attacked gamergate senpai until they noticed her then ran with the harassment claims including outright lying about being forced from her house due to the death threats, despite giving interviews to television crews from her office that happens to be inside her house, and photos from the timeline show she never left. To this day she still rakes in upwards of $1500 a month and is over 6 months past due on releasing her game on Steam.

Frankly, if I never heard any of those names again or saw them pop up attacking gamergate on twitter, in the game press, or on television ever again, I would be one happy man.

MrMustacho

12/4/2016 04:03:06 pm

if anything against those "SJWs" gets called gamergate can you be sure those horrible things you ascribe to gemergate are true

or alternatively if gemergate consist of good and bad people would it matter if they called themselves anything would the bad people be bad with or without gamergate

why don't you take that final leap into the void visit KiA tumb down the bad stuff thumb up the good/interesting stuff and put in your own views on the matters, you don't have to use your real name if you're scared of the negative image just join us goobe gabbe we'll accept you

Heeden

12/4/2016 04:13:17 pm

Out of interest, what do you think the SJW cause is? I've been called one innumerable times to the extent that I just roll with it but I've never found the underlying ideology or tactics that are supposed to unite us. It seems to be more of an indicator of what you're against rather than what you stand for.

12/4/2016 07:17:23 pm

SJW is an insult(*). It's not meant to convey much besides a dislike for the person. If you wanted an overarching generalization though, attempts to force equality of outcomes through authoritarian means in order to achieve social justice are often branded as "SJW".(An example of that would be demands for equal representation of the genders in STEM via more programs, lowered standards for women or quotas). Trying to eradicate offensive speech via moral shaming or censorship will also get you branded as a "SJW"(Examples would be banning people for discussion, disagreement or harassment). Concepts like "punching up", "racism = power + privilege", etc are also associated with "SJWs"(as an example, most BLM activists would be called "SJWs").

Hope that helps.

* Interestingly enough, SJW was first used as a proud label for social justice activists. You could say it was appropriated by people critical of their approach, and now is most commonly used as a slur rather than an identifying label.

Voiced Asrai

12/4/2016 04:17:21 pm

Hello Mr. Biffo,

I don't have a reddit account at all, but I lurk KotakuInAction very often. I do declare myself a GamerGater and post as such on Twitter, and I would be happy to discuss anything you want to talk about, either here or privately via e-mail.

I'll answer your points at the end of the article as best I can.

"If you're a Gamergater...what is it that you want to achieve?..."

What I personally would like to achieve is kinda of a list that has grown since this whole conflict started, and everyone within GG kinda has their own personal end-goals as well. I'll list my personal ones below.

1: Have journalists act according to SPJ guidelines as much as possible. Most of this whole mess could have been avoided had Nathan Grayson made a disclosure that stated "I have a relationship with Zoe Quinn, one of the developers listed in this article." This also ties in to reporting events truthfully as much as possible. KotakuInAction and 8chan's Gamergate board (I think it's /gghq/, but it has changed so many times due to people burning it down I am not sure anymore) are open, there is no secret cabal or anything. What we are actually saying is right there, and the amount of articles I have seen just straight up lying about our positions has been mind-boggling. We even have open mod logs, so you can see which comments are removed and why.

2: An end to the moral panic. An end to the No-Platforming. This is why this conflict has dragged on for so long. In the beginning there were numerous attempts to bring in the AGG/SJW side to bring about an amicable resolution and actually talk about the issues. Airplay was supposed to be the end, and many of us were looking forward to it. But then bad news kept rolling in. No journalist would show up for the AGG side, even when urged on by Neutral third parties. Then we got not one, but 7 bomb threats to the venue. Our first meetup in DC was subject to bomb threats (which I was present at!). No one with mainstream (game or otherwise) press wants to hear our side, and constantly being silenced and told you are the worst scum of the earth is beyond frustrating.

3: A return to levelheadedness and fact-checking. Something that happens in the KiwiFarms is not GG. Something that happens on other boards at 8chan is not GG. An Operation stickied at the top of KotakuInAction is GG. Constant, aggressive, knee-jerk responses are not helping anyone (this is meant for both sides).

4: An end to automatic association of GamerGate with harassment, and just an apology from Games Media. Because #GamerGate is an open hashtag, there are no entry requirements and we decided to structure ourselves without leaders or official registries, it is VERY easy for trolls and third parties and even false-flaggers to commit harassment and have it be attributed to GamerGate. /Baphomet/ and GNAA and AyyTeam and GamerGateRevolt have all admitted to doing so multiple times, and NONE of these are a part of GamerGate. I recognize this as a weakness in our structure, but we also chose this because GamerGate saw what happened to the Athiesm community, to Comic Books, and to other communities before where someone knocks over a top community figure and the entire community crumbles. We didn't want that to happen to us, so we started a grassroots-style community to prevent that.

"...How do you think you are helping the situation, and what would you do to help bring an end to this rift?..."

The most I think we can do to help is to just keep telling the truth, whether that be our positions when they get misrepresented, or if journalists leave out key context or facts. We have to keep reporting harassment no matter where we see it. We have to keep backing up our claims with full context sources. And we have to keep being cordial. I don't think we'll ever be vindicated, but I that is how I hope we can end the conflict.

"What would you do to heal the games industry?"
You mean if I had absolute power over it (not that I in anyway, shape, or form want that sort of power)? Though I am pretty sure I am misunderstanding the question, please correct me if I am wrong. I would have the professional provocateurs and the disingenuous stop creating outrage where there is none (Examples would be Overwatch Tracer Butt and though in movies, complaints over female leads in new Star Wars movie (I have not seen ANY complaints, just complaints of complaints)). I would have community managers and PR stop insulting and taunting customers (Examples would be Dina from Might Number 9 and Mrs Rapp from Nintendo (both of whom called them entitled man-children and cunts and all sorts of things, so it can be taken the company themselves said these). I would see Games Media realize and correct it's nepotism and ethical problems.

Sorry about the lengthy ramble. As I said before, I am happy to discuss this with you Mr. Biffo if you wish to have a conversation. I hope you have a pleasant day.
~Voiced Asrai

Madlutian

12/4/2016 04:22:54 pm

I'm a GG proponent, and I appreciate your neutral position. I think that most GG proponents do. It was one of the requests we had from the media in the beginning. "Be fair / objective, stop putting extreme bias into what you write unless it's clearly marked as opinion". That's what you're doing, and that's why people at KiA have embraced your pieces.

As far as being labeled a Gamergater goes, you're not the first Neutral that's been labeled that. You have some good company:

Adrian Chmielarz (Former Creative Director from People Can Fly & he now runs new game studio The Astronauts)
Allistair Pinsof (Exposed corruption in the indie scene in a three part TechRaptor interview)
Bandai Namco
Becky Taylor (Former Marketing Director at 3D Realms who now works at Nkidu Games & Reboot Magazine)
Chris Roberts (Creator of the best selling Wing Commander series, he doesn't support either side of GamerGate but believes ethics are very important in games journalism & he now runs an indie studio called Cloud Imperium)
Christian Allen (Veteran game dev & marine that worked on a lot of triple A titles like Halo: Reach for example)
Danny Wadeson a.k.a Mad Quills (The Last Night writer)
David Jaffe (God Of War creator, was originally Pro-GG but now he thinks GamerGate is a waste of time & he calls out bullshit from games journalists who write hit pieces about gamers)
David Szymanski (Creator of The Moon Sliver, was originally Pro-GG until David Gallant encouraged his cronies to boycott his game & now he's neutral)
Derek Smart (Lead developer at indie studio 3000AD, spoke at SPJ Airplay as a panelist & has doxxed someone from GamerGate on the Something Awful forums)
Doug TenNapel (Creator of Earthworm Jim, offered his voice to Not Your Shield & he wants to remain neutral)
Edmund Mcmillen (Made some awesome games like Super Meat Boy for example, was featured in Indie Game: The Movie, on Twitch him & his wife Danielle talked about how bad the games industry has become in their view & they also mentioned on Twitch that the SJW clique in the indie scene are pathetic)
Ethan Petty (Watch_Dogs Bad Blood lead writer, sympathizes with GamerGate because of the amount of lies told about the consumer revolt & he wants GamerGate to end peacefully)
Garry Newman (Garry's Mod creator, allows GamerGate discussion on the Facepunch website & is anti-consumer)
Hideki Kamiya (Former Capcom & Clover Studio employee, game director for PlatinumGames, has had beef with Kotaku before in tweets & he wants nothing to do with both sides of GamerGate)
James Covenant (Made two viral videos on youtube, Is working on a game called Black-White & he wants everyone to get along)
Joey Andrews (The developer has a game on Steam Greenlight called B.LAST & he wants nothing to do with both sides of GamerGate)
Josh Olin (Former Call Of Duty community manager, former head of community & eSports at Turtle Rock Studios, former program manager for Riot Games & he currently works as the vice president of communications at 3D Realms)
Justin Xiong (Works On Game Design & Business at an indie studio called Gattai Games)
Mark Morris (One of the Introversion Software founders)
Matt MirrorFish (Screencaster at Unity Tech)
Michael Condrey (Chief operating & development officer + co-founder of Sledgehammer Games, supports Anita Sarkessian & he defended the gaming community on BBC Newsbeat)
Notch (Minecraft creator & he thinks both sides of GamerGate are stupid)
Paul Hart (Never talked about Gamergate but he was added to the GG autoblocker because of following Pro-GG people on twitter & he is recently working on a game called A Fistful Of Gun)
Paul Hubans a.k.a Phubans
Paul Walker (QA Analyst For Disney Infinity, Epic Mickey, Uncharted 3, God of War 3, God Of War Collection & he made his own game called Ruins of Rydos)
Rhianna Pratchett (Daughter of Terry Pratchett, Never talked about GamerGate much except for linking the Guardian articles, writer of amazing games like the Overlord series for example, supports Tauriq Moosa & questioned Jonathan Mcintosh's criticism of Tomb Raider on twitter)
Ryan Green (That Dragon Cancer creator & has mentioned on twitter that GamerGate never harassed him)
Sam Hulick (Mass Effect composer, originally wrote a racist tweet about #NotYourShield but apologized for it & he thinks both sides of GamerGate are stupid)
Shawn Layden (CEO & president of Sony Computer Entertainment America)
Spooky Fish Games (Never talked about GamerGate but the studio was added on the GG autoblocker because of following Pro-GG people on twitter)
Tynan Sylvester (BioShock Infinite developer & he recently worked on a game called RimWorld)
Zack Bell (His 1st game INK is on steam)
( source: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/GamerGaters/discussions/0/620695877337696082/ )

As many of them know, and as you're finding out; no one truly chooses to become a Gamergater, you just get thrown in the pit with the rest of us.

To your original questions:
if you're a Gamergater or a So

12/4/2016 04:41:10 pm

Oops, got cut off:

As to your questions:

I just want to ask a few questions: if you're a Gamergater or a Social Justice Warrior, what is it that you want to achieve?

I'd like all of the gaming websites to have well written ethics guidelines that they adhere to. I'd like all biased articles clearly marked as "Opinion", and have a roughly equal amount of counter articles with the opposite "Opinion" to maintain some sort of balance. I'd like all of the website involved in the infamous "Gamers are Dead" aticles to have a pinned article (one that stays up for several days) that apologizes for them and their disdain for a huge part of their audiences.

How do you think you are helping the situation, and what would you do to help bring an end to this rift?

I'm mostly signal boosting unethical behavior, and notifying advertisers when it's overt. I'm supporting those that are shamed / harassed by SJWs for expressing neutral opinions (such as yourself). And, finally, continue to fight on the side of logic until all of the lies / unethical behavior / corruption have been brought back to a manageable level.

What would you do to heal the games industry?

I'd suggest open communication between gamers, devs, and journalists without judgment. An actual conversation as to what needs to be fixed, and what needs to be left alone. I would ask that companies let their artists create art, unfettered. Let those that play DoA do so without being called "Basement-Dwelling Neckbeards", and those that play Walking Simulators that explore LBGTQ issues in depth do so without judgment as well. Never the twain need to meet. There's room for both, and more. But, first, the actual, sincere apologies to gamers need to happen before the healing can start.

Anymoose

"That I hate women? That I harass people online? I don't, and I never have."

Just like 99% of self-described gamergaters.

popehentai

12/4/2016 04:35:21 pm

as a GGer what i want most is to be left alone and not lied about. I want to be able to enjoy things without being told enjoying them means i "hate" a group of people. I want realistic things to be able to happen in a game without people crying -isms. I want reviews that tell me how a game plays, vs how it fits into the reviewers agenda. (sites like christcenteredgamer, for example are more that happy to tell me that a game is GOOD, they just disagree with some of the content). If someone WANTS to tell me this game is "___-ist" i want them to provide actual evidence, not 30 year old games and manufactured clips of someones butt while ignoring everything else around it. If someone writes a review or positively covers a game, i want them to tell me when they're listed in the thank you notes in the games code. (Nathan Grayson) I want to see people to admit when something happens instead of trying to blame everything on some big bad GG bogeyman, ala the Allison Rapp situation. I want well written characters, instead of hamfisted tokens thrown into a game for "representation" of less than half of a percent of the population.

RellikSan

12/4/2016 04:42:37 pm

Where do I stand on the issue:

The same as most people who have the facts I like to think at least:

Female and Trans representation in games is by and large hot garbage and needs to be fixed.... but you don't fix it by hiring people who have "lived experiences" you fix it by hiring quality writers.

I think characterising GG as spawning out of the Zoe Quinn thing is highly reductive, it's more like 3 or 4 difference but ultimately related in terms of timing things that broke the camels back:
1. The Quinnspiracy - The whiff of Journalistic impropriety abound.
2. GameJournosPro - Showing collusion in the way stories are covered and tone policing the entire discussion.
3. Anita Sarkeesian - Her ever growing brand of inflammatory and poorly researched content getting so much coverage.
4. Gamers are Dead - The gamers are dead articles is what turned the rabble from vocal fringe elements, into a horde by pouring gasoline and setting alight a majority audience calling them "near autistic losers" and "pathetic" and the like.

Gamergate prior to those articles didn't exist it was 3 or 4 seperate controversies... the "Gamers are Dead" articles was the final catalyst for it all, a spark thrown into a volatile mix that incensed what were previously people who didn't care or were leaving those outlets to go to youtubers like TotalBiscuit, Nerd3 and Super Bunnyhop instead... those articles made it personal you could say.

What do I want out of the whole thing? I want open transparency that if comparatively small youtubers can manage: I'm pretty sure huge multi-national companies like IGN and Kotaku can manage it. (Super Bunnyhop on youtube, someone who takes a largely neutral stance does a great video on this it's his Dragon Con video).

That if you're someone who wants big games to change, Unity, Gamemaker, Unreal can be used for free and have great tutorials now... make your own game and show devs there is an audience for it, after all more games is never a bad thing. If you think there aren't enough women in gaming, become a woman in gaming and write your own, hell even just writing a chose your own adventure book and uploading to the app store counts.. do something. Be the change you want to see.

Gustav

12/4/2016 04:46:01 pm

"We all know how Gamergate started. We all know what some within the Gamergate community are capable of: the harassment, the misogyny, the homophobia, the abuse."

If you could give some examples of this and pinpoint it to Gamergate it would be great.
Until then [citation needed].

12/4/2016 05:02:24 pm

You know what... you're right. Beyond the Zoe Quinn situation flashpoint... it's not as simple as boiling it down to something like that. I'm learning, gradually not to take everything at face value, just because I think it's in line with what I think I believe.

Ninj

12/4/2016 05:37:11 pm

Thanks for this Biff.

13/4/2016 02:36:24 am

If there's something i learned from this is to never accept everything at face value. Trust but verify.
There's an awful lot of things being said and misinformation can run rampant and i saw accusations (without any proof) being tossed around like candy.
Calling someone Gamergator is actually quite tame compared to other things i saw.

Damien

12/4/2016 04:48:43 pm

Great article. I'm with you on at least 90% of this. I'll personally try to avoid reading the other comments, though, as it's bound to be a toxic pool of shite.

ggdsf

12/4/2016 05:10:25 pm

What I want?

1. I want identity politics and the political pandering, shoehorning etc. to get the fuck out of gaming and other entertainment mediums.
2. I want the army of self righteous assholes to be known for exactly that, when they try to get people fired, or a game to be changed because some percieved moral wrong has been committed (IE no black people in witcher 3)
3. I want the media to tell the truth and not what they percieve as the truth, to stop jumping on a story before having all the facts and behave ethically.
4. I want reviews to be about how good a game is, not of he thinks something is sexist/racist etc. and judge it's game based on that, a games merit is not determined that way.

Those are some of the things just of the top of my head, all in all I just want to play video games and listen to metal, I like quality however, and when moral panic gets influence, quality falls, I'm not a fan of that.

H. Guderian

12/4/2016 05:13:59 pm

GGer, here. I didn't join up because i was super into game journalism ethics, but because these same intolerant agenda pushers would come after anime. And sure enough, they did, and still are. Changing translations for political gains. Heck one show inserted anti-Gamergate lines into a show that has nothing to do with it. But by daring to oppose shoddy journalism many of my "friends" just up and left. I could tolerate reflect on some of their SJW attitudes, but moment I seriously challenge them I was made out to be evil. Disagreement should be cordial, at least.

But Gamergate isn't going to go away. It isn't an 'event.' That's when those who oppose the SJW dominance in the media rose up and gave us a line in the sand. There are horrible people on both sides, and then there's people in th middle causing trouble for both sides. What needs to happen is that we've got to adapt to the new order.

Given how yor experience with SJWs has gone, don't think they'll leave you alone now. You're branded. Dirty. Speak out for neutrality, or against them again and they'll be back for your head. For disagreement. For neutrality.

I can't recall how many people signed onto GG for good because the other side was so blatantly intolerant. I hope you dodge the worst of it, but online culture will continue to divide down the line. Even if the word Gamergate was banned from the internet tomorrow, the polarization between SJWs and Free Speech has already begun. Look at all of those college campus stories. I'd prefer just to get back to my cartoons and have a fun afternoon, but SJWs just don't like others to be different.

12/4/2016 05:59:05 pm

Yup and upon researching I found that Gamergate wasn't the first instance of this.

Movies, comic books, atheism, science fiction writing, metal/rock music etc had all gone through an almost identical pattern of events long before Gamergate and to my surprise it was exactly the same narrative being peddled against the fan bases of those mediums as happened to gamers.

I think the difference was that Gamers due to their nature kicked back. As I've seen key GG figures point out, they had no reputation to defend. Everyone hated them anyway so they had nothing to lose and anyone that likes playing Dark Souls (not me!) is going to absolute love someone picking this type of fight with them.

I think the SJW's/Regressive Left/Progressives or whatever you want to call them might have made a catastrophic error attacking gaming. They have been bogged down in a grinding trench war ever since. A war that their opponents seem to relish - to them it is the best video game ever made. The "SJW's" seem unable to disengage and whenever they try to move to a softer target they find that their opponents come across too and bolster the community they are going after. Only a few of them are doing a nice patreon trade out of it, others are losing their jobs, businesses closing down, video games failing etc.

It's one thing bullying autists in the playground, but doing it online is a whole level of stupid and a fight you are guaranteed to lose.

I also think the Gaming Press played a far greater role than the press in those other mediums in terms of fanning the flames for personal gain. I think that was mainly because they were being accused of corruption so this whole "musoggyknee" narrative was a deflection dream come true.

I am sure Biffo is looking at his page views and seeing why some individuals might want to court controversy over this topic (no, I'm not saying that's what Biffo is doing) and even go out of their way to bait threats for the victim bucks.

If you can roll with the punches and don't care about the insults it can be a very lucrative business.

I'd urge Biffo to be careful though. It would appear that just allowing these discussions to occur could lead to him being blacklisted....not just in gaming but in his other media work.

Personally if it were my livelihood I'd have stayed well out of it. But then I am a coward and quite like having a roof over my head and food on my plate. Totalbiscuit just recently announced that he was refusing to discuss all the controversy anymore and would just talk about the positive side of gaming from now on. I think that's a good idea.

ArmyofWon

12/4/2016 05:15:09 pm

>We all know how Gamergate started. We all know what some within the Gamergate community are capable of: the harassment, the misogyny, the homophobia, the abuse.

I think we remember very different things. I think you know how you were told Gamergate started, but consider this. Now that you've looked into it and found reasonable people instead a hive-mind of ISIS-Hitler-Terrorists, maybe it would be worth it to go back to find out how others see how it started.

You mention Zoey Quinn, have you read the original "Zoey Post" yourself? Have you looked into Eron Gjoni's legal battle against his "Restraining Order" (Read: Gag Order) from Quinn (Chelsea Van Valkenberg)? Have you read the (in my opinion) vicious attacks leveled by the games "journalists" on the people that were disgusted at their conduct, declaring "the death of an identity" and that "Gamers don't have to be your audience"?

I urge you to revisit the beginnings of Gamergate. I urge you to find the evidence of the "the harassment, the misogyny, the homophobia, the abuse" that are so often attributed to the group.

(On another note, if you find them, please let us know)

12/4/2016 05:23:11 pm

Yeah, all the original Zoe Post stuff I have read. Unfortunately, I did see a lot of what happened to Zoe Quinn in those early days as being quite archetypical of what we've been told Gamergate is, and perhaps why GG now struggles to distance itself from what appeared to be quite brutal misogynistic abuse.

But as I say... I've got an open mind. I'm willing to have my beliefs challenged, and willing to try and learn and understand.

RisingFire

12/4/2016 09:49:39 pm

I want to touch on this as a female who was there from the moment Zoepost happened.

I have been in an abusive relationship, everything about the Zoe Post reminded me of the abuse I faced in a bad relationship and worse. Including the confusion, hurt and trying to understand what happened to you. Emotional abuse messes with you, because you believe your in love with a person who honestly doesn't exist, the other party just put on a mask that attracted you. But that's getting beyond the point.

Even at outset, the most people were guilty of actually doing was discussing the situation, their complex feelings. Because relationship abuse isn't honestly not a simple black and white affair. The additional issues also were interesting, was this a one off, or was there a slightly unfair gatekeeping situation with certain indies and gaming press?

But then every gaming site, every forum, even reddit started deleting threads on the subject. Even if you tried to discuss it in a civil manner you were banned. Only 2 places allowed discussion, The Escapist's forums and /v/ on 4chan.

I will point out also this came weeks before a massive Apple leak of iCloud photos including Jennifer Lawrence's nude pictures. Which certain owners of certain gaming sites saw no problem publishing and spreading. Consistency? What is that?

Mostly people were curious, who had been sleeping around? Was there more to this? It's not like this is the first time gaming press has been caught in the midst of failing to respect their readership and shilling for developers.

I can say with full confidence, nobody who actually followed gamergate in those early days attacked Zoe, it was generally considered not a good idea. As we already knew she had managed to form friendships that allowed her to control the discussion in a way nobody else could. It also came out later on that a lot of these Journalists colluded with each other behind the scenes to make sure the discussion was completely shut down. Months into GG we even took to calling her "litterally who?" if we did have to mention her - in part because we realized she would take any mention and twist it and the press would run with it wholeheartedly.

Ms Quinn had also falsely attacked and convinced a gaming journalist to write a piece on "wizardchan" prior to Gamergate. Wizardchan is a place for depressed men and shutouts who literally have nowhere else to go, nobody who actually did frequent Wizardchan ever had anything to do with Zoe Quinn. Greg Tito who wrote the article did eventually apollogize and retract the article has he had only sourced it on Quinn's testimony, rather than looking to see if it actually checked out. She had also singled out and bullied a Women's charity crowdfund charity initative called TTFC that was going to help women get into game development, simply because she didn't like it. Gamergate then helped get it funded when the gaming press refused to report on it lest they displeased their indie darling.

Funny to note also, Zoe once collected donations after she ruined that Pepsi Game Jam to make her own "Game Jam" - Yet "Rebel Jam" never happened. Where did that money go, nobody knows!

I used to know tons of gaming press on Twitter, I used to think of them as like minded people. Then they started calling gamers evil, horrible people, childish monsters. I am a gamer, I grew up almost surgically attached to my Mega Drive, I used to read Digitizer on my bedtroom TV, I remember vividly getting the issue of "Sega Saturn Magazine" that announced Sonic Adventure and reading each magical page over and over again. I grew up with UK gaming press, I supported various magazines with subscriptions over the year. Now the people I looked up to called me mean, evil and disowned me, because I didn't agree with them over a woman yelling wolf in san-francisco.

With that in mind, who are the real sexists? Gamergate allowed me to speak my mind and still be accepted. While the gaming community I once loved threw me out in the cold.

Kevin Womb

12/4/2016 05:19:29 pm

Hello, none of this dog shit has anything to do with gaming, we're all part of a wider community - the whole human community. If some of us can't live with others' differences and show respect then that's just them being COMPLETE DICK FACES. It has as much to do with games as football hooliganism has to do with football.

Basic version: A wanker is a wanker, whatever the weather.

12/4/2016 05:19:40 pm

'Madder still to me, I ended up getting a ton of praise on KotakuInAction - the infamous sub-Reddit forum, that's as close as it gets to an official Gamergater hangout - for what was seen as my even-handed and neutral approach.'

Biffo, the reason we praise neutral approaches is because we're right and we know it. The facts support us, so we respect those willing to report them.

I make my offer again : fucking join GG. The Social Justice Warriros are ultimately going to attack you, because, again, their primary interest is in feeling good about themselves. And if someone rationally points out that those things that make them feel good - being the rescuer, essentially - are ineffective, they will turn on that person, because he attacked the source of the good feeling. It's really not that complex.

12/4/2016 05:22:58 pm

GG isn't really something you join... it's something you kinda get lumped into as you the blinkers come down and you realise that perhaps... maybe... the mass media isn't reporting all the facts.

Tehy

12/4/2016 10:15:07 pm

Yeah, but you still have to actually cognitively align yourself. It's clear that he is being lumped in, so I tell him - stop resisting!

Agkistro13

12/4/2016 05:26:39 pm

Good read, and a familiar story. You've probably already done this, but there are a dozen similar articles out there to find if you go looking- people who were (and maybe still are) anti-GamerGate, but then they said that one innocent thing that set off the legions of SJWs against them, and it prompted them to take a second look.

Minglefingler

12/4/2016 05:30:43 pm

Now then Mr Biffo, I've usually avoided appearing in comment sections on mattters concerning this wonderful topic as they almost always degenerate into the sort of senseless squabbles that accounted for that eccentric teacher you had who had been doing the job too long for someone unable to control a class full of squawking children. I agree to a large extent with what you said yesterday however I don't believe that it's possible to write on this subject without enraging the enraged people who seem to dwell on all of this far too much and giving them all something else to shout at each other about.
Having said that, don't let the bastards get you down and write whatever the hell you like, your recent pieces have come across to me as written by a decent man trying to make sense of all of this and they are clearly sincere and compassionate.

12/4/2016 05:48:02 pm

Cheers, Mingu. Nothing got me down over this, but thank you for the sentiment. There's something to be learned from it, I think.

Ireyon

12/4/2016 05:37:12 pm

A very humorous post, if for all the wrong reasons.

"I want Gamergate to end, because it's a stain on what gaming should be about. It's a toxic whiff hovering above the history of this industry.

We all know how Gamergate started. We all know what some within the Gamergate community are capable of: the harassment, the misogyny, the homophobia, the abuse. I abhor it all. I'm sorry for everyone who has been on the receiving end of it."

And you know this because... the same people who now call you gamergater told you so. Marvelous reasoning. Arbitrary scepticism much?

Here's a little secret: You can't really "join" Gamergate, the social justice warriors will just assign you the label. As long as your opinion doesn't align with theirs, they will continue to call you a harasser, a homophobe, a rape apologist, a bigot.

It doesn't matter how many screeds to justify yourself you write, or how hard you tie yourself into a knot to placate them.

It's entertaining to me however, so do please continue to try.

If you really want to leave this mess, follow this handy dandy guide and I promise that SJWs will never harass you again.

- 1. Go on Twitter, apologize. For everything. Doesn't matter if you did it or not, or even if you heard of it before, just apologize over and over.

- 2. If someone is offended, they're right.

- 3. If you are a straight white male (I'll go out on a limb and assume you are, dear author) then you are wrong. Doesn't matter what the discussion is about. In the case of social justice, find a woman (only a feminist woman, ideally either a minority, trans or both) who you can nod along with.

- 4. Find a social justice warrior and/or feminist to kiss their ass. Randi Lee Harper, Anita Sarkeesian and assorted are usually very happy to show you the light. Don't forget to donate to their Patreon. Make a screen of your donation, put it on twitter, then gush about how brave/awesome/smart etc they are. If someone tells you that strong independent women don't need your praise, follow rules 2 and 1 again.

- 5. You should now be back in social justice's good graces. Never ever disagree with them about anything ever again and it might stay that way.

12/4/2016 05:40:15 pm

The above is meant to be sarcastic, by the way. Just to make that clear. Don't actually go on Twitter, please. It's a relatively worthless service except for those who crave attention and you'll have no end of grief.

12/4/2016 06:06:36 pm

I picked up the sarcasm!

On a serious note (and this has been said a lot!) there are five golden rules for dealing with these people.

1, NEVER apologise

2, NEVER apologise

3, NEVER apologise

4, NEVER apologise

5, NEVER apologise

Apologising won't stop them attacking you.

Apologising (in their eyes and those of neutrals) is seen as a confession of wrong doing and you become a dehumanised target against which "there are no bad tactics".

The best example I saw of dealing these people was that of Protein World and Play Asia. Text book stuff.

JetLagg

12/4/2016 05:44:02 pm

If I may paint you a picture, imagine yourself continuing down this path. You maintain your allegiance to the stated values of the SJWs (you donate to the relevant charities, write your representatives and all that), but you also attempt to reach across the aisle when you see the opportunity. You grudgingly admit it when your opposition has a point and suggest a coalition could be made.

Imagine (this part should be easy) that the response is increasingly to say you *are* the opposition, that you no longer care about the stated values of the SJWs and in fact actively oppose them. Imagine the accusations grow more vitriolic. Imagine mainstream media sources print these accusations uncritically (laziness is all that's required, no conspiracy). Imagine that, based on those media pieces, your wikipedia article is edited to reflect the fact you are a misogynist and a rape apologist actively harassing civil rights activists, and this is the first thing a curious soul learns about you when googling your name.

Imagine that goes on for years, and ask yourself if you might not get a little vitriolic in return. If you believe that story is at all plausible, I think it should go a long ways toward explaining the "psychopaths" you've encountered in GamerGate.

12/4/2016 08:08:42 pm

Realizing it wasn't polite of me to ignore your questions when commenting, so here goes.

"if you're a Gamergater or a Social Justice Warrior, what is it that you want to achieve?"

I'm GG obviously, and we've already achieved most of our goals. We sent a message by giving Gawker a bloody nose to the tune of 7 figures in lost advertising revenue. We played a hand in updated ethical policies in journalism (including the FTC's rules on hidden affiliate links). We raised thousands for feminist projects and other charities. All the while being shat on by the media.

What's left is a war of attrition, winning over neutrals such as yourself.

"How do you think you are helping the situation, and what would you do to help bring an end to this rift? What would you do to heal the games industry?"

I'm helping by participating in the conversation, and the GG Ops.

As for ending the rift and healing the game industry, it's never going to happen. For nearly two years now there have been attempts at dialogue from the GG camp and the response has been to double down on the insane comparisons to terrorists, the out right lies and libel, all the while claiming to be the voices of reason (and we notice when these people are just giving lip service to victims of harassment btw. Not one of the outrage junkies so horrified by Zoe Quinn's harassment gave a flying fuck that she cheated on Gjonji repeatedly, gaslighted him, emotionally abused him when he asked her if she was being faithful).

So this only ends when every last man woman and child on earth has a solid understanding of how corrupt, manipulative, and dishonest the likes of Nathan Grayson and Anita Sarkeesian are. Until then I'll be splitting my time between engaging neutrals like you and shitposting to trigger the SJWs. Fortunately, I'm a gamer and have a perverse idea of "fun" :3

Tom

12/4/2016 05:51:37 pm

I stand with Gamergate because there is a major issue with the current gaming press. There are no standards, no objectivity. If it's not blatant advertising it's attacking anyone who disagrees with the pushed narrative. Frankly I am sick of it, most gamers are. We are sick of being called terrorists, woman-haters, bigots, racists, and anything else under the sun.

12/4/2016 05:54:40 pm

I wouldn’t identify as a Gamergater, but I suppose I’ve been more of a supporter of that crowd than their opponents. To a large extent that’s because I think they’ve been unjustly smeared and demonised in the mainstream media, while the bad behaviour of the SJW crowd is ignored - people just accept that they’re the goodies and the victims, while anyone GG is a baddy and abuser.

For example, people tried to get a pro-GG leaning panel at SxSW cancelled by labelling the participants as misogynists, racists, harassers, and even comparing their attendance to inviting the KKK. I followed a couple of people invited, e.g. Mercedes Carrera, and looked into the behaviour of the others: all of them were moderates, people who’d tried to build bridges rather than burning them. None of them deserved to be treated like some kind of faceless evil (the articles written about it generally didn’t even name them, they were just called “Gamergate harassers”), and claiming that they were a pro-harassment panel was simply a lie. What was that about ethics in games journalism?

If I find out I’ve been lied to, I’m a lot less likely to support your cause, and more likely to see your opponents as the underdog and view them more sympathetically.

I’m also a pretty free-speechy libertarian type - if one side takes a stand against censorship, and supports freedom of choice, then obviously I’m going to be attracted to that.

I’m just about old enough to remember my local VHS store being raided by the police during the 80s “video nasty” moral panic. Many of the arguments I see from feminist critics like Anita Sarkeesian seem just as scaremongering and poorly supported by evidence as anything from Christian moralisers like Mary Whitehouse. Of course that doesn’t justify any actual abuse, harassment, and threats that are sent to her.

As for what I want to achieve… to be honest I’d quite like this whole kerfuffle to go away too. I can’t see this rift healing any time soon, especially considering the very different world view of the people involved.

12/4/2016 05:57:29 pm

"Nice blog you've got here... it would be a shame if somebody were to... accuse it of misogyny."

Invin

12/4/2016 06:06:31 pm

I'm a Gamergater. For me, I'm just tired of the moral panic. I'm tired of people on the far left using "we must protect the women!" to justify censoring everything they don't like the same way the far right used "think of the children!" to censor the same things. I'm seeing regressive, politically motivated people be offended by anything and everything, and I'm sick of it. I just want artists and developers to have the freedom to create what they want and let the free market decide what succeeds and what fails. As an artist myself, I'm constantly afraid of having my career damaged from offended too many and/or the wrong people, and this is true for just about anyone in the entertainment business these days. It's absolutely out of hand, and I don't think having all our creators operating in fear of the social justice lynch mob is helping anything. It's ridiculous that simply defending creative freedom gets you labelled as a misogynist or harasser when you've done nothing. It's pure tribalism and the reason Gamergate continues. People don't join it, they just get thrown into it and labelled the second they disagree with anything.

Techni Myoko

12/4/2016 06:09:28 pm

I didn't get a choice either. The gamers are dead articles insulted every gamer, then Gawker labeled everyone smart enough to realize that, as gamergaters.

william

12/4/2016 06:25:03 pm

GG supporter here. Others have already given a good rundown on what GG goals are. I instead would like to first provide some hints for you:

There are NOT 2 sides in this controversy. This is what many fail to see and the media deliberately ignores. The actual camps are:

1) ProGG regular folks who do not harass anyone and were sucked into this nonsense because of those stupid "gamers are dead" articles and/or had heard of the initial stuff about wizardchan & TFYC. This is the bulk of GG and numbers in the 10,000s (probably even 100,000s). Most are not very active because they are busy with their own lives. They just know what journalists and the media have been saying about games and the gaming community are ridiculous lies.

2) #NotYourShield, a subset of the above (though not all are innocent). This is the parade of women and minorities of all stripes who have been completely erased by the media's coverage of GG so they--like yourself--can say that GG is bigoted. Numbers easily in the 1000s or more.

3) GG trolls: There are actual trolls in GG. They are a minority in representation numbering in the 10s (and at the extremist extremes lower 100s). They enjoy causing chaos, making people upset and being cruel. What they seem to want is influence. When they are discovered they tend to be shunned by the larger community because that is the normal reaction of regular people. (This is what the media fails to recognize: gamers are normal people. This huge, imagined cabal of hateful bigots that all share a hobby does not exist.) They are difficult to spot because again people are busy with their own lives and additionally their worlds do not normally intersect. This includes groups like AyyTeam and GGRevolt as well as unaffiliated individuals. It should be noted that not all of the people associated with these groups are nasty and hateful. Some do not know and some have a high tolerance for their nonsense. The relationship these individuals have to GG is very complicated in some cases.

4) The extremists. A mixed bag here. Some are in it to troll, while some are sympathetic to GG issues. No idea how many of them there are because that is not my world.

5) The Gaming Press, the majority of which has been lazy, dishonest and antagonistic throughout this mess. Their behavior have only caused GG to grow in size.

6) The mainstream press, similarly lazy, dishonest and antagonistic. Similar effect on the growth of GG. Their biased reporting has taken intellectually indefensible positions because they wanted GG to be evil and right-wing: it is not. They have destroyed their credibility for those who have been following GG on the pro side. They claim that the discussion has moved on to "harassment of women" which is a blatant lie because that is all they ever talked about since August 2014. They also like use garbage lines about "empathy" which they only grant it to one side, ignoring the harassment that many innocent people have endured be they proGG, neutral or unaffiliated. Their other favorite bullshit reasoning is "GG is a tire fire, so I can not be bothered." What they do not recognise is that in their coverage of GG, they--modern journalism--has been revealed to be a much larger dumpster fire. GG, which is majority left-leaning, is watching Rome burn in horror.

7) Opportunists who seek to harness GG for political purposes or to spread of their ideology. Good luck with that.

8) SJWs. You already met these. This has to be the most shocking revelation for those supporting GG who were not previously invested in activism or internet culture. Remember GG is majority left-leaning, so to discover that these crazy people exist, are so vile, and are given a free pass by the pillars of press has been eye-opening. These people are much worse than you think. Cross your fingers that they lose interest in you. If you think their Twitter crusade against you was bad, their whisper campaign to destroy your reputation would make trolls sound reasonable. They LOVE to lie "for the greater good" and they have no shame. How do you think GG has gotten its unearned reputation?

9) Third-party trolls. These are there for the shits and giggles. They have the same modus operandi as the GG trolls and just like them they target both GG supporters and GG detractors. For the third-party trolls however, they wish to make the biggest splash and since the media has been so dishonest in their reporting, the trolls prefer to target GG's detractors because they end up making the most people upset. Even when they know these trolls to exist, the press blames GG anyway (though most of the time they just make stuff up). Some even egg on the trolls when they get something negative printed about GG. Thank you journalists.

What do I hope to achieve?
To restore some sanity back to how gamers and gaming are portrayed in the press; and to create an environment were all creativity has a chance to succeed, not just those have connections or kiss the ring. The

12/4/2016 06:27:11 pm

(I guess the last bit got cut off)

What do I hope to achieve?
To restore some sanity back to how gamers and gaming are portrayed in the press; and to create an environment were all creativity has a chance to succeed, not just those have connections or kiss the ring. The press has one job: to deliver the truth to the public. They have failed this and in doing so have put scammers and harassers in positions of influence; as well as put an extremist world view (which is based on lies) on a pedestal.

How do you think you are helping the situation?
I have been trying to correct the record since 2014.

What would you do to help bring an end to this rift?
I can do very little since the problem is with the farce called journalism. The rift will end when the actual truth is known and reported somewhere reputable. When you have the WaPo and the NYT spewing blatant garbage and Obama parroting them, you know the lying has gotten out of control. Journalists need to report facts and stop sourcing the work of other journalists. They have neither been truthful nor reliable.

What would you do to heal the games industry?
Tell the whole truth about how this started and stop shaming artists/developers because someone feels "triggered". The industry needs to know that they have been fed lies by opportunists, frauds, pseudo-intellectuals, and a good chunk of the gaming press. While their goals may sound noble, their entire premise is one based on some spectacular lies that fall apart with a little scrutiny. The industry and the public have been fleeced and deceived. This is why GG exists.

12/4/2016 07:15:39 pm

(Sorry, I forgot this important bit)

I would also like you to consider one key point. All of the stuff those who oppose GG claim to support (e.g. anti-harassment, equality, yadda, yadda).... You have yet to realize that the ring leaders who claim to support these goals only say so because it implies that GG opposes them. Have you ever seen anyone who supports GG not be immediately put on the back foot trying to defend against these libelous accusations. This includes the women, the LGBT contingent, the ethnic minorities, the non-European/non-American supporters, all the innocent straight, white men. ALL these people must bear a cross for something they do not believe nor have ever practiced. Why have they been always told what they believe and are never asked or directly quoted? How many interviews have GG's detractors gotten? How many interviews have those in GG who have been harassed or threatened gotten? (You do know that many of them exist right?)

You have been fooled. You instinctive humanity and compassion--mixed with a dash of laziness--has made you a pawn in one of the most out of control lies ever spun by the gaming and mainstream press, who should have just said, "Oops, our bad. Will do better next time."

J. Bissett

12/4/2016 06:26:53 pm

Good on you for stepping back and trying to take a neutral position. It's not so easy having been following the drama since day 1. It's good to see people not being cowed into apologising for their speech every now and again.

Rourke

12/4/2016 06:29:37 pm

Gamergate as an organized movement has never coordinated to harass women, and part of our battle is shrugging off this false stigma. There's no excuse for anyone to not be able to understand that gamergate is basically pretty normal, decent people who simply have a different way of looking at things, and feel like that point of view has been unfairly characterized by those who believe any dissent, any critical look at those claiming to be victims amounts to a deep hatred of perceived victims of society. Some of us are downright saddened that our fellow human being could act this way, that they could so easily label people they dont know as terrorists, and be complicit in the media doing so with such reckless abandon.

OrichalcumRoad

12/4/2016 06:35:21 pm

I've been a supporter of GamerGate since a few days after the inception, when I saw the discussion on the Escapist forums (and nowhere else) and looked into it for myself. I will admit that there are unreasoning people, and people involved simply to have a chance to cause problems. There are also people using it for shameless self-promotion, and these aspects tend to be the most vitriolic or blisteringly narcissistic.

I supported it then because there is clear evidence at the outset (not undeniable proof, simply evidence) of conflicts of interest in coverage. The response to this evidence was not to ask people to be calm while internal investigations were made, but to create a concerted effort to silence any discussion of the incident. This response included attempting to pressure the Escapist to shut down the discussion thread in the GameJournoPros e-mail list, where the editors and reporters of several sites discussed getting their friend Zoe a gift so she'd know they supported her.

This is not journalism; but that's what they sell themselves as.

My "end goal" is transparency and integrity. A better media for the largest entertainment industry in the world. Hopefully, to put a stop to "journalists" who go into the industry to network for voice-work or crowd-funding support. I'd like people to remember that anything can be criticized, regardless of the gender/identity/sexuality/race/religion of the creator. I'd also like people to remember that games can exist that they don't like, because people can also make games they do like.

As to the Alison Rapp incident; she was fired for breach of contract. It is abhorrent that people have harassed her over it, and I find the subject and content of her thesis deplorable; however, neither of these things prevents or requires her firing. She got caught breaking her contract, and got fired for that.

paulvw

12/4/2016 07:30:06 pm

It's a bit like a text version of EVE online really isn't it? Massive ongoing battles that achieve F. all. As always though a few people get really hurt, which is a sad fact in any human endeavour.

Kudos to you for trying to be even handed.

Starbs

12/4/2016 08:20:02 pm

Paulvw - the most relevant Comment here!

mittens

12/4/2016 07:45:06 pm

Biffo, your whole drama triangle thing is, frankly, kind of bonkers.
In your original post you claim "This isn't victim-blaming - as some misinterpreted my comments on the Jim Sterling issue - but victim empowerment." followed by "Attacking them is only going to lead to entrenchment, and fuel their power trip."

When pressed about how this implies silence from the purported victim, you claim "I'm not advocating silence. Not in the slightest. There are countless ways of supporting someone without making it worse". Is this supposed to be homework for the reader? Maybe this is some psycotherapy obviousness that is lost on me. I'm no expert on conflict resolution.

Further, is succeeding in driving people off the face of the Internet not, in of itself, an exercise of power? How is not doing anything (or the tacit psycotherapeutic way lost on me) any better than engaging? Serious honest question here. Isn't this doing exactly what the so-called Gamergaters want? To get rid of the people that disagree with them from wherever they are sitting? Isn't this what they attempted with Alison? It seems to me that even if Alison backs off, there's still plenty more victims to go around. Maybe Alison will be able to somehow break the triangle on her end, but I don't think people on the Internt will stop doxxing people and pestering companies to attempt to fire characters that, in their eyes, are detestable.

I mean, I never really trusted the sticks and stones mantra. I've never seen bullies stop being bullies just because you ignore them. If anything, they seem rather bemused by your unnatural lack of reaction and futile stoicism. Speaking personally, what you say just sounds extremely counter-intuitive to me. That feeling probably extends to other people. No wonder they resist the idea!

And that gets me to this article! I understand that not being able to get your point accross is frustrating, but seriously, automatically lumping them onto some camp and then accusing them of being beligerent and obtuse because they keep disagreeing with you? Seriously? Aren't you playing a wee bit into that triangle yourself? Look, I'm disagreeing with you right now, but I really don't think ill of you because of it. I know you aren't mysoginistic, much less a gamergater.

In fact, the people that decided that you were a Gamergater are not the so-called SJWs but KiA (you know, the Gamergate central hub, for the peope who claim Gamergate is not something you subscribe to, they're certainly suscribed to that subreddit) by virtue of featuring you . They are the ones who throw the GG or SJW labels and are the sole arbitrers on whose on what camp (they certainly were the first to use it against people who disagreed with them). According to them, you yourself were an SJW a year ago because you made fun of them! It's ironic that you find these label shenanigans completely stupid and then turn around and wink flirtatiously at the people who subscribe to and perpetuate the "us vs them" mentality. Or that you claim that this victim circle is dumb but invite the people who invented the term "crybully" to better fit as victims to sensible debate.

What I'm trying to say here is that lumping people on one camp kind of defeats the purpose of saying labels are stupid. And the people who keep yapping about how you should "NEVER apologize" or whatever probably aren't the calm, even-tempered beings you were looking for.

12/4/2016 09:37:18 pm

"They are the ones who throw the GG or SJW labels and are the sole arbitrers on whose on what camp"

Sole arbiters?!

Really?

Really man?

Bit of advice. People read that, smell one-sided unsubstantiated propaganda and then consider everything else you say to be highly unreliable.

Don't do it.

12/4/2016 11:13:41 pm

It is though. SJW is the new hipster. An insult with a nebolous meaning that gets thrown around as a way to "other" and dehumanize an opposition and speaks more of the person that uses it than of the person that it's being used against. Practically a 4chanism at this point, and only one side has a monopoly on its use. It's really unlikely that you will find someone who will, with a straight face, call themself an SJW.

It's been an insult since its inception, how can anyone interpret it as a "camp" is truly beyond me. No group self-identifies as an insult.

Commenter

13/4/2016 09:30:33 am

"They declared you GG by talking about you"

Have to say, that's a very frustrating idea. Is no-one allowed to say "this makes sense" without it being a political statement anymore? I don't visit KiA, but I'd wager the whole point and focus when it was posted was even specifically "hey look, someone being neutral", not "he's one of us now!".

Tinker's Cuss

12/4/2016 09:26:57 pm

I wish there was a Reveal-Me-Do at the start of the comments section with the little lass from Poltergeist doing the "They're heeerrreeee" bit in front of her telly.

And one at the end with a snippet of Zombie Dave's wisdom... ;)

JIKO27

12/4/2016 09:44:30 pm

Your article is compelling and I feel sorry for you.
I am on the GG side, and I'd like whoever reads to hear me out before calling judgement so swiftly. Keep in mind that there are many individuals that call themselves part of this "movement." I am one. It's easy to de-humanise people based on a label like "GG."
--Q1: What is it that you want to achieve?
I want Gaming Journalism to tell us when they are trying to sell something. When they get comissions for readers clicking links, and for their review scores to stop being ominously pleasing to readers. I want people with real opinions to have real opinions.
I want Journalistic Establishments to ignore EA when they ask them to fire someone who wrote a bad review. I want the Review Copy culture to stop, where expressing adverse opinion can get you "Blacklisted" from releasing reviews at a prime time.
I want KONAMI to stop being able to censor reviews, saying the reviewer can't mention Install times or cutscene length for MGS4. Or those MGSV reviews that didn't seem to mention the unfinished nature of the game or the repeated missions, describing the game as having "no filler." The Japanese "Famitsu" giving an incredibly rare 10/10 reviews for Peace Walker, a PSP game which is definitely not for everyone. I want Bad Games to be pointed out as such.
I want Videogaming to be fun. I want the people meant to inform me of the quality of a videogame, to inform me of the quality of a videogame. I want the use of negative language. I want opinions about videogames that don't fall into ideologies, but into Ludology. How it plays. How a game feels. Comparisons to other games. Rich descriptions about the controls, with texture, like a restaurant review, negative or positive.
Disclaimer: Many of those are idealistic goals for me as an individual. The goals of all people in the movement may see me as going too far in some areas, and overlapping with them in areas. But we all overlap at one point and that is for 'Journalists' to stop lying to our faces and making money from it.

--Q2a: How do you think you are helping the situation?

I am a strong believer in being the change you want to see, and privately I'm working on my language and reviewing skills, and programming skills to either 1) generate creative and on-point criticisms of games, as well as expressing what I love about them on a game-by-game bases, exempt from politics. 2) generate an independent game on a one-man shoe string budget that is simply a good, original, game.

--Q2b And what would you do to help bring an end to this rift? What would you do to heal the games industry?

It's a hard question. I do believe groups of people can incite change in other groups. But I also believe individuals in other groups must see the sense. But ultimately, peace will come if ethical boundaries are in place. Those who have strong, far-left, authoritarian opinions should have a platform. But they need to stop lying or withholding information to further their rhetoric. Nobody should be silenced for having an opinion, but that also means that journalists that do lie shouldn't play victim when they're getting shit for lying. That is a form of silencing opinion. When you do that, anyone who disagrees with your opinion, is a GamerGater. When a person lies about how they lost their job, when really they are a criminal, does that person deserve to act like a victim of a hate mob?
I suppose I want the lies to end.

CONCLUSION:

I'm sick and tired of GamerGate. I'm tired of having to defend that I like butts, and that doesn't make me a bad person. Those SJWs that boil women's personalities uniquely down to sex-parts then telling the Gamers they are sex hounds for thinking about those sex-parts, when sex is one asset of many multifaceted characters.
I'm tired of SJWs assuming the use of sensitive words like 'N!gger' is a sign of racism and not a sign of want to incite negative reaction by any means necessary. That anyone who says the word slut is a misogynist. It's called flaming. It's called being an asshole. Holding opinions that certain sections are inferior is a problem. Using big mean words isn't.
I'm tired of being attacked for wanting to enjoy videogames without having to dig through disgusting lies.
I'm tired of having to doubt everything I read (even the pro-GG stuff can be pandering and lies, it's so obvious).
I'm fucking tired of people in positions where they eminate information, handing out altered information and not cry wolf when they're wrong. I'm tired of people who are meant to bring information important to their readers, acting more like one facet of an ad campaign.
I'm tired of Japanese videogames coming over censored because our majorities don't understand Japanese culture.
I'm tired of being censored for not wanting to gas gamergaters.

But I am trying to be the change I want to see, I want to attempt to be an example. I read both Anti-GG and GG mantra, and I agree and disagree with both at times, but I s

CaptainWhoops

12/4/2016 09:53:10 pm

Things really did go downhill once SEGA stopped making the Dreamcast.

Nick the Gent link

12/4/2016 09:57:04 pm

Well said again, Mr. Biffo. You were never victim-blaming. But I'm afraid any nuance is bound to be misinterpreted in a zero sum game like this.

As a commentator said above, horseshoe theory.

Your take on it, from the point of view of your experience as a therapist, is spot on. It's not possible to help people who are determined to be victims, and unfortunately on both/all sides of this culture war there are some (thought not all) who are determined to take offence and stay angry.

Again though, the stakes in all this are so low. Video games, in the end. We're not talking about civil rights violations or something like that.

The Worst Person Ever

12/4/2016 10:09:13 pm

Biffo's stance on this (tossing around "Social Justice Warrior" as a catch-all pejorative, siding with a huge multinational against a beleaguered employee because she happens to be a sex worker) is even more depressing than the revelation that the Digi characters are dead. It's like Digitiser's died for a third and fourth time in quick succession :(

12/4/2016 10:21:35 pm

Social Justice Warrior is a title embraced by many and easily understood by most who use it. In fact, anyone who is ticked off by its usage, usually ends up outing themselves as a bona fide SJW later on. So what's your beef with it? Or just with its usage in this instance, on a woman who fits the description?

The multinational made the decision that was right for them - it is not required that they should continue to employ as their spokesperson and de facto voice of the company an obvious criminal who publicly espouses morally repulsive things. But oh wait, she is a feminist and a woman in gaming and all that dreck, so throw it all out the window I guess.

12/4/2016 11:09:02 pm

Now I'm being misrepresented about that too! No, they're not dead. You'll even get a Man's Daddy post this week. Full of jokes about Gamergate and Social Justice Warriors (joke).

A Concerned Citizen

12/4/2016 11:33:37 pm

I think it's pretty clear that Biffo didn't initially see that it was a term applied to the group, not used by them.

I also think it's pretty clear that engaging in this terrible mess is never worth it, ever.

13/4/2016 01:02:20 am

Did you ever stop to think Biffo might be right? That there might be more nuance to the story than you've portrayed here? Yes it's a multinational vs one person but the multinational is in the right here. If someone repeatedly tweets vile pro-pedophile things then that is grounds for sacking. The fact that her second job as a camgirl was illegal in her state was just the turd flavoured icing on a cake full of awful.Not to mention the unprofessional way she engaged fans on Twitter. A PR rep smack-talking her companies fans for goodness sake! Rapp should know better! How can you defend Alison Rapp on those points? At best she is willfully naive and terrible at her job. At worst she is a pernicious enabler of child abuse. Sorry, but that's just how it is. If you use your social media platform to espouse these ideas you are shaping the discourse for the worse. Am I sorry to see her sacked? I am not.

Myr

12/4/2016 10:41:16 pm

Speaking personally, I'm a scientist. I took a "side" in GamerGate when I interacted with the group directly and wrote that it's media portrayal was largely inaccurate. People often talk about wanting to "end Gamergate", presumably defining Gamergate as an organized harassment campaign, but the most prevalent behavior within the group by far is people protesting the media's ability to misrepresent things without consequence. Like, the fact that GamerGate's media portrayal DOESN'T match their statistical majority is ironically proof that their concern about media misrepresentation is valid.

Even the people who vocally oppose Gamergate recognize its portrayal as largely inaccurate, often taking the angle that its members should abandon the label because it has become inextricably associated with harassment. And like, holy crap, how how privileged and full of yourself do you have to BE to demand that people relabel themselves to fit your openly inaccurate view of those groups?

I contend that the media has a responsibility to accurately represent people, and that people have no responsibility to change their actions or labels to fit media lies. I had always thought this was common sense, and that the media's entire purpose was to provide accurate representation to people who lacked the power to earn it themselves, but apparently that is the most Gamergate position anyone could take.

Like you, I try to remain "neutral" and fairly assess everyone individually. Like you, this means constant praise from Gamergate and everything from vitriol to stalking from the people purporting to oppose them. The very act of spreading non-beneficial truths, e.g. "Gamergate is more feminist, liberal and transgender than the general population", is seen as betrayal, and backing these statements up with data is seen as an even greater sin. The fact is, the "right" person is selected ahead of time here, often going to whoever has the most privilege/connections, and evidence is expected to support their moral superiority—even if that support involves outright lies (there are actually articles out there that describe Alison Rapp as a "game developer", since I guess Gamergate is about taking jobs from female game devs). As a scientist AND as a social justice advocate, this is not something I can support.

I don't call myself a "gamergater". But if people are going to label me as such for trying to ascertain the truth, then at least I can identify those people as a definite enemy. I don't think the "social justice warriors" are malicious, but I think they are being unintentionally turned into a disconcertingly pro-privilege group.

Malkin

12/4/2016 10:47:42 pm

You're better off staying out of this than choosing a side. I doubt your politics align enough with either side to join.

12/4/2016 11:02:11 pm

Completely agree with this - the only way to win is not to play.

Ultra Ming

12/4/2016 10:53:49 pm

To be fair Mr. B, I knew you were a whimsy fartlord even if you didn't.

Jamie Wrangler

12/4/2016 11:02:59 pm

a social justice warrior is not merely a person who advocates for social justice. The term is far older than GamerGate.

It was created to describe people who "repeatedly and vehemently engage in arguments on social justice on the Internet, often in a shallow or not well-thought-out way, for the purpose of raising their own personal reputation." People who "don't necessarily strongly believe all that they say, or even care about the groups they are fighting on behalf of."

SJWs will cry about how it's wrong to be something because some other group MIGHT be offended, but then they'll be the most horrible and nasty imaginable people to those who they deem to be in the wrong. When GG started, they decided that it was about fighting women and being sexist when it was merely that the scandal started over concerns that an indie dev (woman) had sex with a journalist (man) and that the journalist didn't disclose that information when writing pieces about her for his publication. (which is the professional thing to do) They made it all about her and all about every other ill-informed woman speaking up on GG, yet they cried "internal misogynist" and "sockpuppet" to all women who came out in support of GG. They have practiced in doxxing and harassing GG and even neutral GG and HAVE OPENLY DEFENDED THESE TACTICS despite claiming GG uses said tactics without proof in attempt to show how evil we ALL are.

You were what we'd call neutral to GG, but to the anti-GG SJWs, you cannot be neutral. If you are not with them, you are against them. So good job, "shitlord". You're one of us now, I guess. I'm sorry it wasn't your choice but you cannot speak out against that crowd. They don't like people questioning the collective thought.

Dan de la peche

12/4/2016 11:35:26 pm

I like playing video games. Quite a lot. All this stuff is just weird bollocks from people with waaaay too much time on their hands and not enough real-life problems.

Give me a good game, that's the only requirement. I don't care about whether it's secretly mysogynistic or whether someone's censored some bits, it means nothing as long as I get to play some games. I hope both sides of this argument carry on forever so that everyone else spends more time writing on the Internet and planning 'ops' and stuff, and less time playing Titanfall so they stay rubbish at it and I can continue to get my precious MVP badges.

PS Titans are non-gender-specific if that's an issue for you.

Fluclear

13/4/2016 06:36:01 pm

You're still not Titan King.

12/4/2016 11:36:12 pm

160+ comments on a very contentious topic and no-one has brought up the Nazis yet.

I'm impressed.

A lot seems to be made over the tags everyone is standing by, but let's be honest - the real issue is anonymous harassment, primarily of women, by a disenfranchised minority, in a male dominated industry that lacks a genuine, transparent reporting mechanism. Yes, kids love their video games, but they are a juvenile escape from the real world, and you've got a media that reflects it.

Btw, I'm in neither camp because you're all cunts.

Quality article, Biff. Nice to see someone try to pick apart the power struggles that are actually boiling away under the whole problem, rather than lingering on the salacious details that everyone else seems to be stuck on. It's well refreshing.

Lunar Archvist

12/4/2016 11:50:14 pm

"160+ comments on a very contentious topic and no-one has brought up the Nazis yet."

I did. Though only to point out that Rapp managed to piss even them off.

"A lot seems to be made over the tags everyone is standing by, but let's be honest - the real issue is anonymous harassment, primarily of women, by a disenfranchised minority, in a male dominated industry that lacks a genuine, transparent reporting mechanism. Yes, kids love their video games, but they are a juvenile escape from the real world, and you've got a media that reflects it."

Yes, only women are victims and only GamerGate is responsible...that must be why pro-GamerGate reporter Milo Yiannopoulos received a dead animal in the mail and why GamerGate supporter Lizzy Ferguson was doxxed and had someone threaten her husband baby daughter.

Erasing minorities and women who don't fit your narrative. And GamerGate's supposed to be the sexist, misogynistic, and homophobic ones...

"Btw, I'm in neither camp because you're all cunts."

Oh, you've made it quite clear which camp you're in. I hope your delusions of being morally superior to both sides keeps you warm at night, because, quite frankly, here in the real world, no one's a bigger cunt in all this than you. :)

13/4/2016 12:01:17 am

You just argued my point, sir/madam. Anonymous harassment of women, regardless of which side of this they're on. Keep the fuck up.

13/4/2016 12:34:43 am

"You just argued my point, sir/madam. Anonymous harassment of women, regardless of which side of this they're on. Keep the fuck up."

Madam, you have that exactly backwards: You've just proven the point that I and several other other GamerGate supporters have been making. You waded into this comment thread and proceeded to:

- Proclaim your moral and intellectual superiority to everyone
- Hurl insults at everyone without provocation
- Make a series of false or dubious statements without offering any evidence or proof

And, when called out on your statements, you then proceeded to:

- Equate criticism, blowback (in the form of insults), and refutation with harassment
- Play the "woman card" and immediately claim sexism/misogyny

To borrow an SJW phrase, nothing exists in a vacuum. You seem to be under the delusion that you are free to go anywhere on the Internet, say anything you want (especially about men), but that no one is allowed to say anything in response simply because you're a woman.

If your behavior isn't the textbook definition of a false sense of entitlement, then I don't know what is.

13/4/2016 01:10:16 pm

Thanks for mansplaining where I went wrong, Lunar!

You're right, as a woman how dare I comment on an issue like this and not expect to be taken to task with this sort of misogynistic waffle, which says that as a woman this is what I should expect and put up with it.

In fact, your perception that I am female colours your entire screed in a very nasty way, which I found very illuminating. I'm not a woman, btw. But you are a shining example of the entitled, macho, scared little boy posturing that keeps this whole problem alive.

Over an industry based on toys for kids. But not for girls, apparently.

13/4/2016 05:09:23 pm

"Thanks for mansplaining where I went wrong, Lunar!"

Ah, mansplaining. As if any more evidence was needed to reinforce which side you were on.

"You're right, as a woman how dare I comment on an issue like this and not expect to be taken to task with this sort of misogynistic waffle, which says that as a woman this is what I should expect and put up with it.

In fact, your perception that I am female colours your entire screed in a very nasty way, which I found very illuminating."

Good lord, there's more projection going on here than in an IMAX theater.

Look back at my comments. Not once did I mention which gender I am, but you automatically assumed that I was male because it supported your biased view of events and you assumed that only a man would disagee with you. That colors YOUR entire screed in a very nasty way.

"I'm not a woman, btw. But you are a shining example of the entitled, macho, scared little boy posturing that keeps this whole problem alive."

And the projection continues. We're going to need a bigger screen, here. IMAX+, perhaps. You were assumed to be a woman because you made the following statement in response to my original comment:

"You just argued my point, sir/madam. Anonymous harassment of women, regardless of which side of this they're on. Keep the fuck up. "

If you're not a woman, then why bring up "anonymous harassment of women" out of the blue as a rejoinder if it didn't apply to you? Why did you try and seek to turn our disagreement into a gendered issue? Were you "just pretending to be retarded", as the Internet saying goes? Or did you just try and set up the lamest "Gotcha!"/kafkatrap in the history of mankind?

My original comment stands and the fact that you're not a woman, if that claim is true, just makes your own behavior worse. Because you attempted to use women as a shield to justify your bigotry and make a point. Pathetic and deplorable.

"Over an industry based on toys for kids. But not for girls, apparently."

The majority of gamers are between 18 and 35 years old, as I recall, so it's hardly "for kids".

Also, I never once claimed that women aren't welcome in gaming. They most certainly are. And they're entitled to "reasonable accommodation", for lack of a better word. However, no one, male or female, has a right to enter a hobby or fandom, act as if they own it, and demand that their whims be catered to by everyone. A comment section is insufficient to go into details about this since there's a lot of nuance, but the following interview I did with GamesNosh back in October 2014 explains my position on this quite thoroughly:

http://gamesnosh.com/princesses-people/

13/4/2016 02:00:34 am

I'd personally say that the real issue is getting the media to report on things accurately. Caring about harassment is good, but not when blame is pinned almost exclusively on a group that is statistically shown to account for very little of it. Meanwhile, people who are openly abusive and dangerous often go ignored or are even supported if they're on the "right" side.

What most of Gamergate wants is ultimately a media that is privilege-neutral and doesn't favor the opinions of well-connected people. This is what every true social justice advocate should want as well.

EscapeVelocity

12/4/2016 11:36:22 pm

I oppose SJWs in their quest to censor video games to comply iwht their ideological imperatives.

This is my reason for supporting GamerGate so enthusiastically.

Anti-Censorship
Pro Free Speech
Pro Open Civil Society
Anti "No Platforming"

Ethical Journalism is part of this fight as dishonest media is being used to slander and browbeat companies and people into compliance and submission.

Ill never stop until these SJWs give up and go away like Jack Thompson did.

SJW Party Planner

12/4/2016 11:39:19 pm

Well, today went well, let's all have an SJW party to celebrate! There'll be feminist poetry, reflective privilege checking, some appropriate jokes punching up at the patriarchy, but no alcohol for men in case rape happens.

Scott Malcomson

12/4/2016 11:48:14 pm

Every leaderless movement I have ever seen - whether GG, LGBT activism, issue-based political pushes, what have you - has attracted jerks looking for cheap entertainment. That's not an excuse, just an observation after about thirty years of political involvement.

I joined GamerGate in September 2014 not because of anything they had done - I couldn't verify squat, it all seemed to be he-said/she-said stuff - but because of the incredibly toxic response to its existence. It wasn't just claims of harassment which suddenly became taboo, but ANY form of criticism against "protected persons". Namely, anyone the SJWs thought was being victimized.

Thus, when I first became aware of Anita Sarkeesian, just as one example, it was because people were telling me GamerGate was evil for "attacking" her. How were they attacking her, I asked? "Educate yourself, shitlord!" was the actual response. So, I looked up her YouTube videos and found they came across a lot like the kind of conspiracy-nut rants I'd been merrily debunking since before there was even an Internet per se. Her material simply didn't stack up to cross-checking, although her presentation was certainly much better than the average Moon Landing Denier.

When I chimed in on a conversation about her work later, presenting my own views, I was called a "GamerGater", a misogynist, and someone who hated strong women in gaming. To which my reaction was much the same as yours. Were this just a kerfuffle or two I'd've ignored it, but that mentality reached critical mass and whole websites began banning all talk of anyone criticizing any female for any reason - as suddenly that meant they were automatically "GamerGate".

I am HUGELY against censorship, and said so. Whereupon I had people yelling that it's not "really" censorship because only the government censors (while even the dictionaries they would point to only gave that as ONE definition). "Freeze peach" became an insult to mock anyone defending this basic value of Western civilization. I was told that shutting down all legitimate discussion and debate was perfectly fine, only to see the same people smugly declare that they people they were defending had "started an important discussion on sexism in gaming".

I have to call it fascism, because as a student of history, that's how fascism actually began. With those kinds of arguments. I really recommend that anyone who's been listening to that sort of rhetoric read, at a minimum, George Orwell's "Animal Farm" to get an idea of why that kind of mentality shouldn't be tolerated.

So why am I in GamerGate and what do I expect to get out of it? It's about ethics in gaming journalism - because it's the journalists who signed onto that sort of fascism who've lent it social credence. THAT is social injustice, and it cannot be allowed to stand unresisted.

12/4/2016 11:59:26 pm

You are all fucking idiots. The only way to win is not to play.

WOPR

13/4/2016 09:42:49 am

One day I hope this dialogue is restored into "WarGames The Director's Cut".

Would you like to play a f'kin game? Crrrnnnnddddzzz.....

Twei Lim Lou

13/4/2016 12:27:40 am

The problem is people claiming they are the good guys but are extremists and irrational.

All they do is cry bully and pretend to be the victim and avoid /derail any talk about ethical bahaviours, accountability

Slandering everyone as conservative or whatever is insanity. Especially when always voted left / green / animal rights in europe and being anti misinformation, anti scammers, anti corruption, against antivaxxers, against creationism, against scientology and etc.

People believing the clickbait of the media clique are similar to believing all DnD players are satanists, gamers are the cause of violence! You are not moral! same as priests and cultists slandering / poisoning the well. The media too often want rage or easy clickbait moneys and or pedestalled all these scammers, modern day snake oil / cough syrup peddlers, holistic / alternative / quantum healing.

I could not believe that this could have come from the (apparently regressive) left and victimhood culture.
Guess there are extremists on the left too... this explains North Korea Democratic people's republic personality cult, I guess..

13/4/2016 12:44:58 am

Another excellent piece Mr B:

"A black and white view of the world is never going to solve anything. It lacks empathy, it lacks reason, it lacks in any ability to admit that we're not flawless beings. That we all get things wrong. Yes: even Social Justice Warriors...!" In one eloquent paragraph you've distilled everything I've been thinking about the current discourse around gaming.

I can't believe people are calling you the new Steven Fry as if that's some sort of insult - I'd see it as a compliment. I, too, agree with Mr Fry's views, even if his delivery wasn't the most delicate!

But I guess your article proves that it doesn't matter how sensitively one approaches certain issues, ya gonna annoy the hardcore within certain groups. Take heart - the young and impressionable are often slow to change once they have found their church, but an article like this could be the first step on a road to questioning some of their more dogmatic beliefs.

I read somewhere that human beings dislike complexity. They prefer simple narratives and and easy to grasp, reductive view of a situation. It's pleasing in that if you're tired you don't have to think much after getting home from your job/class/disco dancing. You know you're a good person because you believe the 'right' things. No effort required.

You follow the rules of this right way and seek to impose them on others, all to reaffirm your righteousness

So when someone says 'Never Blame the victim' any action that appears to be about apportioning blame to a victim sets off a primal response in the ideologues mind. Any message you are trying to relay gets nuked, no matter how pragmatic or helpful it may ultimately be. The ideological blinkers filter it out.

What is happening to you (though I think you'll have the strength of will to overcome it) is that the obnoxious, rigid and dogmatic behavior of some SJW's is turning you away from supporting a cause you would otherwise naturally be inclined to support.

it's telling that the hardcore SJW's wlll use the expression "You can't be neutral on a moving train" to try and get someone into wholesale adopting all of their views when that sort of absolutist claptrap was never the express purpose of the phrase in the first place. Do they realize that the man who popularized the phrase also wrote this:

“The power of a bold idea uttered publicly in defiance of dominant opinion cannot be easily measured. Those special people who speak out in such a way as to shake up <em>not only the self-assurance of their enemies, but the complacency of their friends</em>, are precious catalysts for change.”

Keep fighting for nuance, balance and human empathy in all your writing. And take heart that while many hardcore SJW's can't hear you and never will, many others can be swayed by your words.

ezralyte

13/4/2016 01:15:57 am

Eeyup. Pretty much all of the above.

I've been online since the mid-90s and have seen the switch from forums to blogs to social networks. And one thing I've learned is that people are going to naturally group together and make in-groups and out-groups. And that those are not in the "in" will always be the enemy regardless of an individual's views.

It makes me think of the Fandom Wank years (Anyone remember fandom wank? anyone?) except with the added viciousness that Twitter can dump upon people en masse.

Sometimes I am reminded that the best thing to do to get away from the Us versus Them is to step outside, walk around with my dog, and realize the world is way bigger than what goes on behind my computer screen. It's important to disengage every once in a while.

random_anon

13/4/2016 02:15:40 am

I'm don't consider myself a gamergater because I don't engage in any advocacy or activism for them, but I sympathize with the group. I do consider myself a gamer. I used to think of myself as being a progressive, until I really took the time to study what the core ideas of social justice were about. Now I think of myself as more libertarian or egalitarian than progressive.

What I want to happen, at least in the context of this culture war, is for the role of gender and race in the game industry (as well as the press that covers it) to become nil. For these aspects to be rendered utterly irrelevant, so that people and their ideas can be judged purely on their merit rather than their identity. Failing that, I would at least like to ensure that logical fallacies, false/misleading statistics and outright lies are immediately challegned and debunked as soon as they are uttered.

derram

13/4/2016 03:40:03 am

Maybe ask yourself which side lied more.

Iadagraca link

13/4/2016 04:33:24 am

I continue to be involved with KIA on Reddit simply because i think a topic so major, and so important shouldn't be ignored and worse, lied about. And so long as the media continues to lie about it, which ranges from half truths to complete lies. I'll continue to keep hubs like KIA close, a place where lies are shown, and self criticism within the sub is rampant for better or for worse.

Why don't I associate with Hubs like Ghazi? I don't see behavior I like there...But I do have people I follow that are reasonable SJW types, and I may disagree with them, and I may not converse with them often at all out of respect generally. But I do get to see under what context these lies get spread. And I see a well meaning person contribute to the problem. And i know what happens when you bring that problem to light directly.

And for me, the only way these lies get addressed properly is by out lasting the liars, if the media continues to have to lie because of it's previous lies. Eventually they'll have to face those consequences, and the loss of trust, when that ultimately comes crashing down as people learn the reality you've learned after being lied to for so long.

I don't want to continue my trek into my game art/game dev career being lied to and having false enemies, I want to know who was where, doing what at this important shift in gaming and nerd culture. And I want to decide for myself who's benefiting this culture, and who's hurting it the most. And hubs like KIA bring me the closest to getting the truth on this I feel, primarily due to it's self-criticism.

And one big part of that truth is that GamerGate, for it's good and bad, is not whats hurting gaming or nerd culture. Lying about it is. Lying about GamerGate helps it grow, keeps it alive, and keeps it's existence necessary. Lying about it is what allows the media to slander gaming, play the victim. Lie about nerd communities and their hobbies or their fans, men and women alike. Gamergate cannot end and let these lies become the truth, cause that may permanently damage gaming and nerd culture, and everyone involved recognizes this.

Gary

13/4/2016 05:05:44 am

Avoiding sides is probably the best way to stay. I experiences pretty much the same thing you did. A lot of crazy on both sides. I ended up slightly preferring gamergate because on balance, they're a bit less authoritarian.
I also found it funny that you thought SJWs were about "being nice to women". Lol. How much research did you do? They love women who agree with them, just as they love and worship any "marginalised" person who does. Because they use that to their advantage. I have never seen an SJW even remotely give a shit about a woman who disagreed with them.

13/4/2016 07:11:00 am

"I ended up slightly preferring gamergate because on balance, they're a bit less authoritarian."

Just curious...how did we end up seeming authoritarian? This kind of troubles me. o_O

Rui

13/4/2016 06:53:31 am

So, got death threats yet?
Kinda nice reading something from someone who has had a foot on both sides of the fence. Hope you're not harassed too much.

Joe Green

13/4/2016 07:23:38 am

Let's put it this way, Gamergate would have ended 2 years ago if gaming journalists/SJWs/Anti-GG didn't have such an inflexible, knee-jerk, automatic response to moderate discussion.

Azeral

13/4/2016 09:19:43 am

The mass comment blocks and the wave of "Gamers are dead" articles turned what would of been a minor gaming related news story into Gamergate.

13/4/2016 11:44:59 am

Indeed just months before, journos got busted having taken those custom Nexus 7 tablet gifts from Ubisoft and covering it up.

When exposed, they apologised, gave the tablets to charity and it came to nothing. I believe that was mostly British journos and not the Bay Area ideologues.

Blew over in a few days and was never that big a story.

A decade or so before, we had the Driver 3 scandal, that was far worse than Nexus 7-gate and Gamergate initially in terms of impropriety.

It had many things in common with Gamergate such as the initial attempts to delete posts/threads and control the narrative. That lead to an explosion but I guess back then there were still enough of the old skool journos that had brain cells around and they realised in time that they were fanning the flames and stopped. The fire immediately went out.

Ten years later you had a bunch of dumb political activists working in the industry. Many were apparently there (they publicly admit to it) to push an ideology in opposition to the free democratic will of the market. They weren't as savvy. End result is there for all to see.

asdf

13/4/2016 08:18:08 am

Gamergate cannot go away any more than social justice whining can go away. It is the de facto counterpoint to said extremism. GLHF.

Barcelona

13/4/2016 09:49:24 am

Reading this post has been super-frustrating. You seem to be reaching the verge of seeing beyond the veil of lies, of realising even if you disagree with GG, it (Ie the community identifying as such, not the event) isn't the mysoginistic toxic monster media paints it as, but then you recoil back because in the end... what? It's really, really, frustrating. If I had to guess, you've had so entrenched that GG is wrong that you're being unable to yourself do the leap of seeing them as anything less than villains, even if villains you're finding yourself grouped with. Just a guess, though.

"what is it that you want to achieve?"
I'm not even a gamer. I have to state this from the start, because to me, this isn't really about games. As mentioned above, it's one side to a general cultural war. What I saw wasn't games, it was journalists lying and people taking the side of an abuser because she was a woman. So what do I want from this? Media standards enforced, the end to "journalism 2.0" that's being pushed where what matters is emotions and bias, not facts. That's what opinion pieces are for. There's other things I want, but I think if THIS was granted, it'd help solve the other problems going on.
"How do you think you are helping the situation, and what would you do to help bring an end to this rift?"
I'm doing my best to bring attention to the lies being told. I'm doing my best to help multiple communities from various sides in the political and social spectrum understand the points of others. This rift will never be gone, because it's become emotional trenches. But if the media stopped lying, it'd help make it not as drastic.

"What would you do to heal the games industry?"
I don't know, really. I do believe that, once more, were media not lying and passing bias as fact, a lot of the problems would be gone. There'd still be a lot of problems left though. Big company money, people wanting to sneak agendas by, etc. How do you solve such a thing? It's the result of people's choices. And you can't alter that, just make sure that the negative actions taken are unbiased-ly presented.

Jareth Smith

13/4/2016 09:49:39 am

I've been playing games for 25+ years, but one thing which never ceases to astonish me is how cretinous a large sect of the gaming community is. It's continuously embarrassing for the industry. In this instance, it seems to be the puerile brigade with right wing leanings who are, essentially, just having a hissy fit for no reason.

What a wonderful time it is to be a video game fan - it's now a much more socially acceptable pastime (rather than being seen as the domain of nerds only), game quality is high, the indie scene is vibrant and wonderful, Steam is fantastic, Nintendo's output is exceptional, and seemingly almost everyone is catered for. Yet all we get are the spoilt gits raging on and on and on.

Tedious to the extreme. Try your best to ignore the little tykes.

Gamergate puppet of hate

13/4/2016 01:08:59 pm

I love how you guys continue to insinuate we're all right leaning. It's utterly baffling and been continually proven wrong.

The only change really is some of us have found us not 'blindly leaning left' we're now a little bit closer to the middle, because we'd HATE to be associated with the extremist left. With each aggressive act from the SJW types, each hypocritical act, we lean further and further away.

13/4/2016 04:09:42 pm

"In this instance, it seems to be the puerile brigade with right wing leanings who are, essentially, just having a hissy fit for no reason."

Yeeeeaaaaah...that's a bunch of crock. Brad Glasgow did a survey and most UK and Irish GamerGate supporters are left or left-leaning:

https://twitter.com/Brad_Glasgow/status/698231866986516481

Try again.

Ross

13/4/2016 11:22:47 am

I am not a gamer. I am a middle aged single Dad. I am a Gamergate supporter.

I do not know why people get "so confused" about what Gamergate is. I "got it " pretty easy and I am not a part of the gaming community. It is two general concerns that are interlinked by the cohort. One is the Progressive Games media and the Progressive elements in the gaming community trying to force a Progressive ideology into gaming. The other is the unethical collusion and conflicts of interests with these parties.

Blind Freddy can see that. Its happened in other spaces too. Atheist Spaces (Atheism Plus and its own "Elevatorgate"), Comics, Sci-Fi, Tech, etc.

This is how it works.

"Hey everyone, we are all Feminists and very Progressive and love diversity and being accepting to all people"

"Oh okay. Hi. Welcome"

"So we have specific values and we think there should be more of our values in your games/comics/sci-fi community"

"We don't mind you having those values"

"No YOU must have our values too and if you don't you are racist/homophobic/sexist/misogynist and we will seek to threaten/marginalise/shame/expose you as the worst of people. Cater to our whims now. We want the community to be in our image and we are not prepared to take a "No" as an answer"

They did this in Atheist spaces. They did this here. They are doing this in comic book spaces and have done it in Sci-Fi spaces. All aided by a ready army of outrage merchants and internet ambulance chasers, with professional victims. All promoted by a Progressive media.

The impact this has on a community is rather horrid. But here is the switch and bait. Naturally there WILL be a measure of resistance. So when the SJWs slowly termite and destroy an industry, what do they blame the terrible effect of their efforts on? Those resisting. See how that works.

The are awesome at being victims and selling a narrative. As many or more Gamergate supporters were doxed, threatened, swatted and more bomb threats and yet how many reports from Progressive media? Strangely silent and yet see what happens when any Progressive says that they were attacked,.

They also are happy to ascribe any untoward activity as "from Gamergate". Press them and they will say "anyone can be Gamergate". Press them for a name and proof that these people are an active part of the movement and you see you are now blocked.

Baphomet is not Gamergate. Neither is ayyteam. Nor GNAA. Nor is Bill Waggoner Crew. Neither is Something Awful. These are all troll groups that are not part of Gamergate and have attacked and doxed both sides. Guess who is blamed for their activities EVERY time?

Yes anyone CAN be Gamergate but these people are not, nor pretend to be. Anita for example shows all teh harassment tweets she gets in a short period in time and then states it is Gamergate, yet none of those peopel I recognise and I saw of the hundred or so tweets 3 accounts that had Gamergate in the hashtag. I saw each profile was an egg account with no interaction with people in the hashtag. YET that was enough for her to allude to the harassers all being part of Gamergate. It is dishonest and she is probably aware, as are the others who peddle this idiocy. Something bad happens to someone and they blame it on Gamergate.

The whole Zoe Quinn thing. Again correct me if I am wrong. When that started to blow up and some people paid out on her, it was on a IRC channel primarily and was a small group of anonymous individuals from the gaming community. It was invested primarily in exposing and gossiping about Zoe.
Okay so THAT is different to Gamergate which is mostly on Twitter with some a large cohort on Reddit. I understand The IRC BurgerandFries is still active but Gamergate is not on there. In fact the focus is not on Zoe. The cohort of people involved is different. The number are larger by many many times.
This is the same Zoe Quinn that trolled TFYC and Wizardchan right? the harasser? Just so I understand your position.

What do WE want? The SJWs to stop pushing their identity politics into the gaming community and stop outright lying. You want to make Progressive Games? Do it. HOWEVER you rise and fall on your own efforts. Want to make a game about an African Housemaid in South America? Sounds crap to me but go ahead and good luck. If you lose it big and your Sunset game crashes, bad luck.
Maybe you want to do a game about a little blue hedgehog that runs fast. Sounds like crap to me but good luck. Oh, its a success, well done.

Do your own thing but do not smear everyone else for not doing YOUR thing or having your values. Others should not have to cater or or be forced to conform to your thinking or vision of how things "should be".

This geek culture is bad, white is bad, men are bad, crap is worthless and poisonous to the community and it ALL comes from the Social justice Warriors.

Stopping these things will stop it BUT it is like the Puritans on the hunt for witches, they are beyond self-censor, sense,

13/4/2016 12:53:41 pm

"They are doing this in comic book spaces and have done it in Sci-Fi spaces"

Ah, is that why we don't have comic books and sci-fi any more?

13/4/2016 03:35:29 pm

Don't we? I believe we do and NO, that was not a claim I had made, alluded too, implied or inferred. Only an idiot would think that. So why DID you say that? Just curious.

Da5e

13/4/2016 04:24:16 pm

So if we *do* have those things, despite 'they' having made their terrible influence felt across that spectrum of media, doesn't it follow that computer games will be fine and you're whinging about nothing in particular?

13/4/2016 01:05:36 pm

Welcome to where many MANY gamegate people came from. Simply asking questions, staying neutral or not shunning people for something you haven't seen before, gets you labelled one of them "internet scum" "woman hater" "homophobe" the list goes on.

I'm not a gamergate supporter to hate on people, nor did I support it for ethics. I supported it because people started insisting I MUST hate it, when I asked "why" it was all too late. Now that I see some of the blatently appalling reporting on it, well, now I'm in it for some ethics.

More power to you, good luck staying right in the middle, it ain't easy, I tried.

AcidBeard

13/4/2016 02:00:47 pm

Can we have a list of the top 10 gates and top 10 warriors now please? All this reasonable discourse is tiring.

TobyC

13/4/2016 02:30:34 pm

I just want you to know that there are people that only read the first few lines before rushing either to this comment section or outside websites to immediately block and label you a GGer.

Last week as to the whole BaldursGate controversy, I suggested that "People buying the game out of spite to homophobes are no better than people sexualized games out of spite to GGers".
This got me banned from the forum I was on and told to go to KiA where "I belonged".

The simple fact that you posted this article and the previous one and dared to use the SJW acronym? You will be blocked, shut down, banned and kicked out from 90% of websites.
There is no discussion to be had. Criticism is not to be accepted even when addressing the most extreme of attitudes, because you're "part of them".

The idea that there's a shadowy leftist conspiracy controlling social media? It's silly, because there is no conspiracy. The extreme left have essentially openly and plainly co-opted all "discussion" by simply shutting down the other side. How and why you ask?

Mob mentality prevails, so what would people rather be part of, the white male mob or the progressive diverse mob? Clearly it is "better" to be part of the latter, and reject the former, no matter what the subject is, or whether it is approached scientifically, economically, psychologically, or otherwise.
Also you are automatically assigned according to American politics because that is the only nation and culture that matters in this world and all others are wrong and backwards.

Fact of the matter, there is no reasonable approach to this topic or solution until a straw breaks the camel's back and people become too extreme to tolerate. Given the increasing opinions of your kind, it would appear the SJW side is the one doing so.

Now I oh so await my regularly mandated accusations of being a "white american neckbeard rightwing jobless nut heterosexual homophobic misogynist". Just paraphrasing.

13/4/2016 05:13:48 pm

I have collected these links past few years
I am missing some links forget to bookmark or only shared on facebook

(am atheist, secular, voting european left parties, feminist, against puritanical third wave feminists that are overly politically correct, sex negative (all sex is rape / kill all men), extreme gender feminists always saying everyone else are not feminists
(equity feminists, elder generations of feminists, secularists and humanists.)

http://bullyonline.org/workbully/serial_original.htm

How Quackery Sells
http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/quacksell.html

Taking offense
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/how-do-life/201410/taking-offense

Where microaggressions really come from: A sociological account
http://righteousmind.com/where-microaggressions-really-come-from/

Giving feminism a bad name
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evolutionary-entertainment/201205/giving-feminism-bad-name

Victimhood Culture in America: Beyond Honor and Dignity
https://reason.com/blog/2015/09/11/victimhood-culture-in-america-beyond-dig

Rise of the victimhood culture
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/09/the-rise-of-victimhood-culture/404794/

Meet the Cry-Bully: a hideous hybrid of victim and victor
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2015/04/meet-the-cry-bully-a-hideous-hybrid-of-victim-and-victor/

The Euphemism Treadmill - replacing the "R-Word"
http://englishcowpath.blogspot.be/2011/06/euphemism-treadmill-replacing-r-word.html

Student protesters more akin to Puritans
https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2015/11/30/niall-ferguson-student-protesters-more-akin-puritans-than-activists/9NBPihtRXogY48D6izTa8I/story.html

Oops I joined a cult
http://jaredburrell.com/oops-i-joined-a-cult/

Whimpering students need to grow up or get out of university
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationopinion/12034288/Wimpering-students-need-to-grow-up-or-get-out-of-university.html?fb_ref=Default

Where are the women?
http://www.lar.net/2015/09/07/where-are-the-women/

The real victims of victimhood
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/12/27/opinion/sunday/the-real-victims-of-victimhood.html?referer&_r=0

Free speech is no diversion
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/11/race-and-the-anti-free-speech-diversion/415254/

The Pecking Disorder: Social Justice Warriors Gone Wild
http://observer.com/2015/06/the-pecking-disorder-social-justice-warriors-gone-wild/

***
Also been watching all south park episodes (>O_O) seems like cry bully / extreme P.C. / SJW was not that new....

***
Art Class Politically Incorrect
https://youtu.be/n1tFbZ5kaY8?list=PL6xGhCWdJRom4sI590D2tzLDZxn2BYLbE

Scatman John

13/4/2016 07:20:53 pm

I've been gaming for the past 35 years and read gaming-related websites on a daily basis and have a simple question to ask: what's Gamergate? No matter how hard I try to read these articles, my brain turns to mush, my eyes glaze over and I simply sigh like an asthmatic Zombie Dave.

Can't we just go back to playing games and have fun with our hobby, y'know, like the good old days?

Trigger

15/4/2016 08:43:49 am

Cultural Marxists Dave, Cultural Marxists...

Problem Raptor

16/4/2016 10:47:05 pm

Retired GGer here, and longtime Digitiser fanboy. Do you see?

It grieves me to see you dragged into this. You irreverent gits were heroes of mine in the pre-internet days, and I’ll always be grateful for the laughs you gave me - how you got away with half the stuff on your pages that you did I’ll never know! I trust you’ll handle this ludicrous conflict with equal humour, and that we can all have a good chuckle when WLW is accused of racism! I’ll try to answer your questions as best I can, and I apologize for being long winded.

I missed the Quinn drama that lit the fuse, so to speak, and came in following the explosion of “Gamers are dead.” I came in as a veteran of the atheism plus debacle, so I was primed to see through the “harassment” narrative because I’d seen it before. Hell, during the early days of atheism plus, I was one of those promulgating it, until I actually started looking into the situation a little deeper and saw that the people presenting themselves as blameless victims of a hate campaign were nothing of the sort.

As for why Quinn, Wu, Sarkeesian et al receive abuse, and I absolutely accept that they do, I echo the thoughts of another commenter here - as callous as it sounds, you reap what you sow. Quinn’s entire history online is rife with instances of abuse, doxing and lying. Wu is a troll who courted controversy to help market a game her own supporters know is trash, and Sarkeesian is a modern day Mary Whitehouse. That does not mean they deserve death or rape threats, doxings or swattings, and I sincerely hope that there is a genuine, good faith effort by the authorities to bring individuals who engage in such actions to justice. But they are not exactly squeaky clean either, and until I see some self reflection on their parts, and see them stop prolonging the controversy for monetary gain, they’ll get a little of my empathy, but none of my sympathy.

What I wanted, and still want, is honesty. Honesty about the circumstances that led to Gamergate, honesty regarding its actual goals and intentions, honesty about its reasons for opposing Quinn and co. I want the wider media to acknowledge that Gamergate is a little more nuanced and complicated than “misogynist hate campaign vs damsels in distress”, that it has genuine grievances, and that it’s supporters and neutrals have been the recipients of equal abuse - see the doxing of Liz Finnegan, the sustained campaign by Gamerghazi against Liana Kerzner, the threats to Boogie2988’s career, the nearly successful campaign to get the female author of Pleb Comics fired, the utterly vile abuse directed at Totalbiscuit even as he was undergoing cancer treatment. I don’t even want outsiders who dislike or distrust us to start singing our praises, I’ll settle for them applying the same scepticism to the other side, as you have.

As for what I can do to heal the rift, well, that’s the kicker, and one of the reasons I stepped away - I don’t know that I or anyone else can. Too many people are entrenched on either side, and too many are invested in prolonging the conflict. Add to that the wider culture war, of which Gamergate and atheism plus are but solitary skirmishes, and I don’t see this getting any better any time soon. Which is why I’m using this post to formally announce my retirement from active service. I have more than enough responsibilities, stresses and good, meaningful things to occupy my time, that I don’t need to engage in internet drama. So I’m not going to. I wish the best to all involved, pro, anti or neutral. I’d love for nothing more than, to quote Doctor Who, “for everyone to do what they were always gonna have to do from the very beginning - sit down and talk!” and for this to end. But for the sake of my own mental health, I’m stepping away.

Good luck. And bring back Teletext.

Blake

2/5/2016 09:28:24 am

I know it's a month old article, but I simply must express my deep disappointment that the site confuse.com doesn't exist.

DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE: I'M A GAMERGATER NOW, APPARENTLY - by Mr Biffo

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