My Stance on #Gamergate
By: Christopher “Synther” Wilson
I’m sure, by now, many of you have seen some “news” article
related to #Gamergate. The most recent,
being that Intel has pulled their ad support from Gamasutra (They’re not the first to pull ads, though
nobody seemed to notice until the big guns got holstered). To the uninitiated, it may seem that “Gamers”
as a whole are anti-feminist and a vile lot.
I mean, that’s what gaming journalism like Kotaku, Gamasutra, The Verge,
Engaget, and many others are telling you, right? Leigh Alexander has gone so far as to tell
you that the “Gamer” culture is over and not even a target market, any more.
First, I should let you know that I don’t consider myself a
“journalist.” I’m not a member of the
secret Gmail list GameJournoPros and I’m not told what to like, not like, what
to have an opinion on, or what to write.
And while I believe that men and women should have equal rights, I am
not a feminist. Feminism has taken an
ugly turn that is not about equality any longer. The pendulum has swung too far in another
direction and is no longer about what the movement it originally meant. For instance, I’m not ok with the idea that
a woman developer should get special treatment just because she had sex with a
game reviewer. That’s not feminism.
But, from what I’ve seen, it is evident that a great many
people are unaware of what the entire #Gamergate movement is about. It is not an anti-feminism campaign, as the
media would have you believe. It is about corruption involving the
gaming journalism industry, indie game developers, and what have come to be
known as “Social Justice Warriors.”
The story all begins with an indie game developer named Zoe
Quinn (not her real name, but unlike Leigh Alexander, I’m not douchey enough to
DOXX someone, even though her real name is easily searchable). Zoe isn’t the injured victim feminist you’ve
read about in the news. Zoe Quinn’s
claim to fame is a lackluster “game” called Depression Quest. I put “game” in quotes because it’s really
more like a Choose Your Own Adventure novella, but with fewer choices and a far
less interesting plot. And I say
lackluster because, it sucks. If you
don’t believe me, it’s now free on Steam. Please don’t download this game. Don’t.
Just stand back and agree it sucks.
But if you must, It is offered.
But the game is in the limelight because Zoe had sex with a
game reviewer from Kotaku. That game
reviewer gave her game a stellar review!
(SHOCKER) Zoe’s sexual exploits don’t stop there, though. In a week she slept with her boss, a
reviewer, and her boyfriend (unbeknownst to him at the time,
unfortunately). In a month, that number
jumped to a total of seven other guys, including a moderator for 4Chan. Zoe isn’t a feminist, she’s what we like to
call a “whore.” All of these sexual
exploits have led to Depression Quest getting stellar reviews and even winning
a gaming contest, regardless of the fact that, according to the contest rules,
Depression Quest didn’t fit the criteria required to be entered. But Zoe was sleeping with a judge.
A woman spreading her legs for weak minded idiots that will
elevate her substandard crap, passed off as “art,” is not feminism. Let’s make
that perfectly clear.
Along with this NOT
FEMINISM theme, Zoe Quinn started to back a group of feminists called the
Fine Young Capitalists. The Fine Young
Capitalists are a group of feminists that want to get young girls, with no
experience, into game development. A
very noble cause, indeed, and I urge you to support them!
Zoe decided that she didn’t like the idea that the girls
involved wouldn’t be getting paid for their development (let’s not forget that
it is a CHARITY and that they’re learning a trade). No, Zoe got pissed off that they were
stealing thunder from her own Rebel Jam feminist conference that she magically
came up with having, miraculously, the same idea. Zoe supporters (I say this because I doubt
Zoe could hack her way out of a paper bag with a Katana) hacked the Fine Young Capitalists website and
they lost all their donations. In an odd
turn of events, 4Chan’s video game channel /v/ came to their rescue and donated
a metric fuck ton of money (that is to say a lot, I don’t know what the end
result is but last time I looked it was well over $70,000).
But the story doesn’t end there.
In the process of digging through Zoe’s whorish background,
it was discovered that there was a collusion among all of gaming
journalism. Not just the elite, like
Leigh Alexander (which I chuckle at, while writing this because saying that she
is “elite” at anything is humorous), but all of them. It was found that there was an uber secret
Gmail mailing list called GameJournoPros.
On this list, gaming journalists were discussed, decided, and were
ultimately told what games, products, tech, or news to give press to, good/bad
reviews on, and to ultimately push or not push.
That is to say: There
has been no journalistic integrity in gaming journalism. You
are being told what you will read about, told to like, and what
games/tech/products will get press time.
There is no objectivity.
Again, I’m not a member of said list. I’ve never been invited because I’m a peon
and even if I was, I would have told them to go fuck themselves. I print what I want: The truth as I see it
and as I experience it. I won’t be told
what to write by anyone.
Through all of this, Anita Sarkeesian started her “Tropes
vs. Women in Video Games” series. A lot
of people, including the “news” agencies, will try to tell you they’re
connected. They’re really not. While Sarkessian is a “Social Justice
Warrior” with little to no merit in what she’s saying, she isn’t really a part
of #Gamergate, and if you make a connection it’s very, very peripheral. So, let’s not get deflected on what is going
on.
Breitbart.com of London released, and posted, all of the top
secret mails in the GameJournoPros Gmail group.
Publicly. As in, everyone can
see them.
So, you might ask yourself, “Well, it’s all out in the
open! How will gaming journalism react?”
Evidently, the answer is: In a completely shitty manner.
Rather than just shutting the fuck up and saying nothing, or
taking the high road and actually apologizing for being the douche communist
pieces of shit they are, they chose to actually attack gamers. They attacked the
very customers that had put them in business to begin with!
Seriously.
This is so
good I couldn’t possibly make it up.
Leigh Alexander, evidently via GameJournoPros, posted an
inflammatory article on Gamasutra proclaiming that “Gamers Are Over.” If the title doesn’t piss you off as a gamer,
you should read the whole thing.
There is so much wrong with this article that I, honestly,
don’t know where to begin. But let’s
start with the fact that all numbers she’s trying to push are incorrect and
that men still outnumber women gamers by nearly 7:1. And if you don’t believe that, physically get
off your ass and go to a computer gaming LAN and take a head count. But I digress in my literal revulsion and
disgust for Leigh Alexander….
On the same day that “Gamers Are Over” was posted by Gamasutra,
thirteen (13) other “news” agencies
posted the same exact article with only a few words changed, all by different
authors. That would mean that the
exact same article was put out by 14 different news agencies, all of which are
having you believe that there is no such thing as collusion. Nope…no collusion here! Nothing to see…that was a pigeon.
FUCKING reddit…I
know…I’m as disappointed as you.
Goddamn.
In response to this, Intel recently received a metric shit
ton (that’s a lot…in metric) of complaints over the article on Gamasutra. Intel’s response was to remove all
advertisement hosting from Gamasutra (FUCK YA!).
Now, to be honest, Intel had just released a press event two
weeks prior showing that PC Gaming was really strong with something like 711
(exactly 11. Me, you, and those other
nine guys) Million Gamers world wide.
Which I kind of use ironically because I think they may be a
part of the conspiracy. Maybe not. I trust no one.
Recently, among other whining articles proclaiming Gamers to
be “Misogynerds” and, actually, far less favorable epitaphs, Engaget ran an
article by Timmothy J. Seppala (Whom, I believe was a member of GameJournoPros,
but don’t quote me on that).
When I commented on the ridiculousness of the entire
article, I was shot down by the forum moderator Richard Lawler as if I was an
imbecile with no knowledge on the topic.
You can read that here:
I especially like this response when he had admitted to
being a member of a number of mailing list.
Whether or not this was taken as an honest question, this
was an over the top and ridiculous answer.
Really, Mr. Lawler, you want to go with the “Sky is blue” anology? Let’s do that.
The media continues to insist on telling us the sky is
blue. That’s fantastic, except that
the sky is actually purple. A small
group decides to tell the masses that the sky is really purple. The media decides to squash the purple rebels
by calling them misogynerds and hateful.
Actual scientists come in and tell the story of how the sky is really
purple, but the media squashes them by insisting that the sky is blue by
stating that the scientists are conservative tools. And regardless of what people say, the sky is
still actually purple.
But the media gruel
is continually tube fed to the masses (you).
Eat it up. Don’t complain when it
tastes like people.
-Synther
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