Over on 4chan, angry gamebros are organizing a vast wave of Twitter, er, ” activism” to SAVE VIDYA GAMES from the evil fake gamer girls and their Social Justice Warrior allies.
According to one anon, who’s been posting this message into numerous threads, the best way to fight “journalistic corruption” in the gaming world is to … set up fraudulent sockpuppet accounts on Twitter to make it look like there’s a groundswell of opposition to the evil game ladies.
If that’s a bit hard to read, here’s the text, with some bolding for emphasis added by me. The bits at the end are my favorite.
We campaigned against journalistic corruption; we were told that gamers are dead. Both lawfag and marketingfag told you to flood the pax hashtags as it would get the attention of their advertisers. You now have the opportunity to save vidya and get the average person on your side.
Why are you not doing shit /v/? GET OUT THERE AND FLOOD THE HASHTAGS. Here is a quick guide:
>1) Make a gmail throwaway if you don’t want it linked to your main email.
>2) Make a testing tweet and choose an appealing description of your account.
>3) Make a few tweets proclaiming your newness.
>4) Make a few tweets about #GamerGate.
>5) Increase your visibility by following people — search the #GamerGate tag and follow people you like. Remember, you’re legit new, so at least some should follow you back.
>6) FOLLOW THE PEOPLE WHO ARE FOLLOWING THESE PEOPLE. Chances are some of these are your fellow anons, so with luck we can increase our follow counts.
>7) Continue tweeting about the cause with the pax hashtags (#PAX #PAXPrime) with the #GamerGate tag.
>8) Seach the hashtag, favorite and retweet supporting tweets. That’s the star icon. Get your anons to the top.
>9) If you get stuck with zero followers. Reply to someone, chime in that you agree with them. But don’t argue on this step. Let them do that if they want to do that.
>If you are confronted, remain calm, don’t lose your spaghetti, and be the better person. Explain that this is not about girls being victimized, it is about the vilification of gamers and jounalistic integrity in the media.
>For extra class, present yourselves as normal people who sjws by their own standards should sympathize with, like an indian cab driver who can’t read traffic signs. (this requires extensive shitposting experience.)
So what’s got these dudes so enraged today? Aside from, you know, their normal misogynstic manbaby rage, there’s been a FLOOD of articles on gamer sites and mainstream media outlets alike arguing that “gamers” — as they’ve traditionally defined themselves — are about to take a plunge into the dustbin of history, and that if the game industry is to survive it needs to free itself from the clutches of the angry young dudes currently yelling at the top of their lungs against Zoe Quinn and Anita Sarkeesian.
Here are some of the articles that have really pissed them off:
‘Gamers’ don’t have to be your audience. ‘Gamers’ are over, by Leigh Alexander at Gamasutra
The End of Gamers, by Dan Golding, on his own blog
It’s Dangerous to Go Alone: Why Are Gamers So Angry? by Arthur Chu at The Daily Beast
The death of the “gamers” and the women who “killed” them by Casey Johnson at Ars Technica
A Guide to Ending “Gamers” by Devin Wilson at Gamasutra
This guy’s embarassing relationship drama is killing the ‘gamer’ identity by Mike Pearl at Vice
If you only read one of these, make it that first one by Leigh Alexander, which is awesomely blunt.
If this was aimed at me, the answer is no. I have better things to do with my time than read a point-by-point essay by an apologist for trolling.
I don’t think anyone advanced the argument that sockpuppet accounts are controlled by bots. I mean, they can be, but that’s not typically what is meant by the word “sockpuppet.”
If these people are totes on the up-and-up, why are they being told to create throwaway (not new, but throwaway) accounts for their twitters, and why are they being told to misrepresent themselves as racial stereotypes?
I will repeat that: why are they being advised to misrepresent themselves as racial stereotypes if they are not trolling trolls who troll? if you can come up with some kind of plausible explanation for why earnest people with earnest concerns about corruption, who aren’t in any way horrible people with rotten insides, should feel a need to pretend to be an Indian cab driver who can’t read road signs (but apparently can read the Internet), I will think about reading your essay. Otherwise, no.
@Belladonna993
What did you mean by the Shep/Traynor relationship being abusive? I went that way and I don’t recall anything like that happening. I was pretty wary about that because I felt the Shep/Jacob relationship in ME2 was uncomfortable.
@saintnick86
“It still doesn’t detract from the fact a significant amount of people from both 4chan and Reddit have been donating money to a women empowering project. But apparently we’re supposed to ignore all that ’cause a small percentage of them doxxed a particular person.
So, what, we can’t bring up good shit 4chan does for…reasons? Fuck off.”
Your post is entirely unreasonable and rude. I hope the above rewrite demonstrates that well. If it doesn’t I can write up something better, I guess.
Knowing how 4chan and similar sites are (TROLLS EVERYWHERE) it isn’t unreasonable to assume that it wasn’t actually Zoe making those wizardchan posts but some chucklefuck still angry about depression quest getting on steam. The sadsacks on 4chan/wizardchan have fucking weird ideas about depression and often believe that women can’t be depressed because cock carousel.
What better way to troll them than bring attention to a woman who suffers from depression and who made a game about it?
Liquid gold sperm! Best antidepressant ever. Except no.
Those guys need to put down the joystick, metaphorically and literally, if they want to see some real action. Of course, for that to work, they first have to learn that feeeemales…are HUMAN.
Personally, once someone starts talking about Indian cab drivers who can’t read road signs, I’m not inclined to give any weight to anything else they say. (If you couldn’t read road signs, how would you be able to read the internet, I wonder?)
@chaltab
Well, I’m not sure “abusive” is precisely the right word, but there was a weird power dynamic between them that ultimately triggered my “hey, Shepard is in her chain of command, this is kind of unethical” meter. And ultimately, it never felt like they were striving for any kind of depth in the relationship. I’ll admit that I didn’t finish that playthrough, so I didn’t see their final scene. Not that it’s not okay for a Lesbian relationship to be only sexual and playful in nature, but again, the power structure just triggered me, I think. Sorry, I’d have to go back and try to find some of the specific quotes that bugged me to give a better answer. Then there’s the infamous hot tub scene that so many people found titillating, and I couldn’t figure out how it was even interesting.
I never tried romancing Jacob, because I just always kind of hated him. 🙂
Good lord, looks like 4chan is still indescribably awful. My one 10-second visit (to what was supposedly one of the “less bad” boards, even!) many years ago was enough for me to know that, but if anything this is even worse than I what I saw floating around in the sewage there back then. Wow…
Fifth, this was never about women. The “misogyny” word gets also thrown around a lot, but since the start it was about bringing to light corruption and nepotism issues in gaming journalism, specifically in this case in the indie scene.
Uh-huh.
Look, I’m sure this stuff sounds like an argument when it’s a bunch of gamebros swapping evil-bitch conspiracy theories and convincing each other they’re playing some kind of real-life FPS. But it falls apart when you go out in the wider world and actually say, “Look at me, I’m a hero for joining a massive online campaign to make a video-game designer fear for her life because her bitter ex-boyfriend told us she’s a ho, and why would a bitter ex lie? Obviously for the sake of journalistic integrity this woman who made a video game needs to be raped and murdered.”
That’s when people start shaking their heads, and maybe quietly weeping.
Video-game fandom is the worst collection of misogynistic creeps I’ve ever seen, and I work in the comic-book industry.
Their feelings are genuine, but they’re not based in reality. They’re worked out about fantasy problems and directing their efforts towards the wrong source.
If somehow these bozos convinced themselves that this is an issue of corruption, then why attack Zoe Quinn and not the supposedly corrupt journalist or the venue that allowed the corrupt story to be published? Why haven’t they dropped the attacks on Zoe Quinn once the accusations were shown to be false? Since when are rape and death threats an appropriate response to, well, anything?
Slightly belatedly joining the WoW discussion…
I’m mostly a lurker here, but been lurking from the inception of the blog. And an avid WoW player.
My guild doesn’t really count as hardcore since we’re ranked exactly nowhere, but we have become a sort of retirement home for hardcore players who’ve had enough of the hardcore scene, so we tend to do pretty well when we have the numbers- 4 hours a week of raiding, but we usually finish content in normals before the next tier and dabble in heroics for a bit. (And when we don’t, it’s usually strictly because of roster issues.) I’m the guild’s main tank and raid leader, and unofficial co-GM. (My husband being the GM.) Rules for raiding include no snapping over Mumble or public displays of temper, no finger-pointing or other blame-shifting (actually the RLs’ rule is praise is public, criticism is private), and take conflicts or complaints about other players privately to officers. We range about 50-30% women on the raid team depending on who’s currently active in the game, and have a pretty damn good retention rate.
I’ve got all five tanking classes at ninety, and LFR with all of them- I usually step up and become the slightly benevolent, really not when dudebro’d at, default raid leader. (Thank God they gave tanks an automatic ability to use raid warnings.) My paladin is my main, but my warrior is geared enough for flex as well and I either roflcowpter or tank on alt raid nights. When I’m not tanking I play melee DPS.
One interesting thing I’ve discovered in the badger pit that is randoms is that it doesn’t matter a single bit what my toon looks like, my name is, or even if guildies in the group are referring to me as “she”- randoms always always ALWAYS assume I’m a man, and the assumption seems to be damn near impossible to shake. I’ve even had people who’ve raided with us from other guilds continue referring to me as “he” for a bit even after they’ve heard me over Mumble. (Granted, I’m a contralto with a deeper voice than some men, but still.) It essentially just plain lets me skate on the misogyny among the dudebros 95% of the time, and the guild is dudebro-free, so my experience is almost always pretty pleasant. Not to mention it was an extensive lesson on the gamer “ALL GAMERS GIVE EACH OTHER SHIT YOU’RE JUST BEING TREATED LIKE THE MEN” bullshit- it is, indeed, total and utter bullshit.
Also I would like to point out that these days several prominent non-healer, hardcore players are women- Sunny is generally acknowledged as The brewmaster source, Arielle is The bear tank source, and Anafielle is a big voice in theorycrafting for retribution paladins and raids with Something Wicked This Way Comes, with Theck, The protection paladin theorycrafter. Anafielle and Arielle both have loot named after them in-game.
Anyway. I’m LabRat#1355 if anyone wants to add me in B-net (WOULD YOU LIKE A TANK QUEUE?), I am totally up for a WHM guild to spend my alt time in if we get that going, and you can look me up in Reprisal on Steamwheedle Cartel. This is us: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5oA0-VkcBA
Oh, and while I’m musing, I have dabbled in healing from time to time, and a really interesting thing I’ve noticed is that the personality I present to the randoms changes some- I’m always very hard-nosed as a tank, but I’m somewhat softer and more “feminine” for lack of a better word, as a healer. Though still not exactly a cupcake- do stupid shit and I’ll let you die and ask “What did you learn?”
@Eetoo
Bullshit. This is a blog that mocks misogyny. We’re mocking misogyny. You’re trying to deflect our mocking of the rampant misogyny on 4chan by raising one good thing done on that site.
@Kakanian, I misunderstood your satire. You are just too good at it. Apologies.
Because it totally isn’t unreasonable and rude to deflect the issue of someone being doxxed and harassed, being an apologist for those who are doing so.
Maybe I wrote it that way because I’ve heard those excuses a billion times and am tired of individuals like yourself trotting them out, as if you came to that conclusion yourself and not reading from the same notes as others. It doesn’t help this blog has individuals like yourself who come around under the false pretense of being level-headed and objective, if only to espouse apologia.
“I hope the above rewrite demonstrates that well. If it doesn’t I can write up something better, I guess.”
It doesn’t because you are missing my point and being dishonest. I didn’t say there was anything wrong with the project itself – you’re insinuating that erroneously based on my sarcasm towards your “argument” – as much as the fact your excuse doesn’t somehow “make up” for the fact that, even if a small portion of 4channers contributed to it, doesn’t leave out all the ones who are quite clearly misogynistic, couldn’t give less of a shit about such projects, and tormenting someone based on allegations – some of which were pure obfuscation.
That’s why I brought up “No True Scotsman”: you’re claiming that people from 4chan couldn’t possibly be doxxing and harassing a female game developer…because some of them contributed money to a project that is crowd-funded. Except those people are simply part of the group, not an overall representation. The fact you ignore that point I made is telling.
Yeah, I saw Wizardchan “counter-claims” and it’s amusing (read: annoying) just how much they discount any online harassment – saying that it can’t be harassment if not done in person – only to then have this self-pity party about how people make fun of them for being virgins. Weird, so it seems online harassment does exist…when only they get mocked for their particularly misogynistic view towards women and depression. Along with that: they weren’t mocked for specifically being virgins as much as the fact they were being assholes. I mean, hey, they’re hypocritical enough to dismiss online harassment one moment and then accuse others of doing so to them the next.
The fact they think women are incapable of depression (though every professional psychologist and psychiatrist will tell you they are actually more prone to suffering from it) isn’t a misogynistic notion is pretty goddamn absurd. That and the fact they really believe certain gaming sites are ran by “radfems.” Jesus fucking Christ…
Well I fucked up my last post quite a bit. Mods feel free to remove it.
I like Monopoly. In fact, I’m going to boot up my computer Monopoly game, and play Monopoly
So, am I a “gamer”? Oh, NO! I can’t be a GAMER! I’m a GIRL!
It’s the end of times, isn’t it?
The blockquote monster strikes again. Most of this was unreadable, of course. As for the parts I could read, you are either as naive as you present yourself to be or you think I am. I tend to think it’s the latter since your tone is unrelentingly patronizing.
I happen to be a native English speaker who interprets and edits English text for a living. Why is it again that you think you have so much to teach me about how to read English? Am I the poor little girl with nothing but fluff in her head who needs heroic you to mansplain it all to me?
I will respond to this:
So, you’re admitting now that they are being instructed to create sock puppets? What was your argument again? Something about the title misrepresenting the intent? Really, you’re getting too boring. Fuck off.
This was the only part I could read:
I’d say that you don’t get it, but it’s clear that you don’t want to get it. You’re not interested in getting it, you’re not interested in a dialogue, you just want to push a point without having to receive or think about anyone else’s points.
Which is actually an example of the problem, the one you’re not interested in understanding. You make a good example for why this is a problem, for those who aren’t like you and want to understand.
More troll apologia. It’s a pity you’re not using all this creativity for something useful, like writing a novel. You could make it about how doublethink destroyed a cosmic empire. That would be straight up your alley.
http://badassdigest.com/2014/08/31/why-i-feel-bad-for-and-understand-the-angry-gamergate-gamers/
Devin Faraci has a really interesting piece up on Badass Digest, and I’m kind of conflicted about it. On the one hand, it’s basically “what about the menz?”, but on the other he has some really interesting insights into why the angry gamebros are so angry, and I agree with his point that we’re never going to get through to them without understanding where they’re coming from. What do you guys think?
Not that I agree with him, but he did address that: he said that the 4chaners want to avoid receiving ad hom arguments, and that they think the best way to avoid get ad homs from liberals is to pretend to a member of multiple oppressed groups.
Whenever someone says “but you should feel sorry for the gamers, they’re at the bottom of the social ladder, always put down for their hobby”, I think, “at least they exist on the social ladder”. Which is still a step up from how I feel. And those poor trod-upon male gamers are helping to make me feel non-existent, by labelling the games I play as “not real vidya games” and thus I’m just a casual and therefore trash.
I think it’s well-meaning but problematic. There’s the same “geeks are guys and only guys” rhetoric, which I think the author probably doesn’t believe but it’s just laid out there unexamined. There are a couple of other damaging stereotypes.
But mostly I am overwhelmed by not caring where these “kids” are coming from (they are not all kids, regardless of what this author thinks). Every generation of adults has thought that the current crop of kids is somehow lost, and needs to be guided, and is going astray or being led astray by bad influences. This goes back to fucking Socrates and probably even earlier. The kids (the actual kids) will eventually grow up and grow out of it, and they don’t need soft condescension from adults to do it.
They also don’t need to be coddled in the process. If a 15-year-old is doing something hateful and hurtful, and harming people, that 15-year-old needs to be shut down, not swaddled in empathy. How is that kid going to learn that society does not actually tolerate death threats if we just coo, “I know where you’re coming from, it’s so hard being you, I know, I was there once myself!” How is that helpful in teaching children that society does not tolerate death threats?
The ones who aren’t kids … what does empathy get us there? For real, what do I get by empathizing with hateful horrible people?
@childrenofthebroccoli
I wasn’t quite sure what the point was, really. I think I already have a great deal of empathy and understanding for the type of boys who might be drawn into this movement (and fear for them, too). But what the article doesn’t say is what to do about it. If I discovered my nerdy, gamer, 15-year-old son (and I really have one of these) was hanging out on Reddit or 4chan, we’d be having a few long sit-down conversations about whether or not women are people, too, over the course of a couple of weeks where his Internet privileges were suspended. And then I’d be monitoring his Internet usage for a long time to come.
Yeah, that’s indistinguishable from trolling. If someone is doing a thing that is indistinguishable from trolling, I’m going to call troll.
Yep, according to TownofSpain, if we stand far enough back, squint desperately whilst also twisting our necks as far as they’ll go and straining our credulity to the limit, we must admit that this could almost be someone explaining to newbies how to use Twitter.
Except that it plainly isn’t. It is plainly someone proposing to 4chaners that they create multiple sock accounts on Twitter, preferably whilst pretending to be pressed minorities, in order to deceive.
Go pull the other one, TownofSpain, it hath bells on it.