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Ah, sweet schadenfreude! The gamebros at 4chan have been insisting publicly that the whole #GamerGate campaign — you know, the vicious attacks on game developer Zoe Quinn and other women in gaming — has been a spontaneous grassroots uprising against corruption in the world of game journalism, not a targeted campaign by misogynistic 4channers and their allies to ruin the lives of Quinn and everyone even vaguely connected with or even just aligned with her.
Well, it’s just become a lot harder to make that argument with a straight face. Last night, Quinn announced that she’s been lurking in the IRC where 4chaners have been diligently and often quite deviously planning this “spontaneous” uprising. And she’s started posting screenshots that seem to offer pretty incontrovertible evidence of just how duplicitously 4channers planned every element of #GamerGate.
You can find Quinn’s tweets of these screenshots laid out neatly on this Storify page; it’s essential reading for anyone who’s been following all this.
But I thought I’d highlight some of my favorite bits.
Here, 4channers talk about trying to hack her email:
definitely no raids ever happen because of 4chan and I definitely hacked myself mmhmmm pic.twitter.com/3309AiQk3u
— zoë “Baddie Proctor” quinn (@UnburntWitch) September 6, 2014
Here they spout bizarre conspiracy theory — while conspiring to hack another website.
this has pure insanity AND some illegal shit in it pic.twitter.com/rRo5KVFBhZ
— zoë “Baddie Proctor” quinn (@UnburntWitch) September 6, 2014
In this screenshot — you can find the whole thing here — 4channers talk candidly about how they hope to ruin her career:
More of the same:
because this is about integrity. not revenge. not harassment. not hurting people. pic.twitter.com/rSSm4ZJG4T
— zoë “Baddie Proctor” quinn (@UnburntWitch) September 6, 2014
Here some 4channers talk about #NotYourShield, a supposedly spontaneous bit of hashtag activism in which people of color — and white dudes pretending to be people of color — attack “social justice warriors” for supposedly using them as “shields” for their attack on gaming. Notice the dudes at the end talking about showing up on Twitter “as a Latino” and “in blackface” to support the campaign.
Given how damning a lot of these screenshots are, it’s hardly surprising that they freaked out when Quinn started posting her screenshots:
https://twitter.com/MsMinotaur/status/508177920687210496
Too late, dudes. Too late.
Wow, lot of trolls and “neutral” newbies on this thread. Maybe one will eventually say something interesting!
I want to just plaster this all over the Internet. I don’t even follow the industry and I know that story. The trading of advance copies for good reviews has been SOP in games “journalism” for a while now, but one woman has sex with a guy who later mentions her game, and that’s when they get mad about “journalistic integrity”? Not buying it.
You could go all Braveheart and play a Barbarian or Warrior.
Oh geez, that interview with Gjoni. Basically summed up as: “I didn’t want anyone to harass Zoe, I just wanted to ruin her career because she cheated on me. Is that so bad????”
Also, I’ll be the Social Justice Discipline Priest. #HeresYourShield
@emilygoddess, in other words, “SJW” is the new “politically correct”.
And yeah, the pretense that this is a sudden surge of interest in neutral game journalism is hilarious. You know exactly how these little shits would react if a totally-not-invested-in-payola game platform dissed a blockbuster game title they loved.
Since nobody has called it yet I’m going to try out for SJ Monk. Gonna get some some solid saving throws.
I’d probably be more along the lines of a Social Justice Thief/Mage- always my favorite type of character.
pendraegon- Monks are awesome. I usually play one in Neverwinter Nights. Game is old but I still love it.
msdgee- Tragically my old laptop, which might as well be carved from wood and powered by squirrels on treadmills, chokes and dies on Neverwinter. 🙁
Pathfinder’s new sourcebook just introduced the brawler class which has all of the monk fun with none of the lawfulness. I’m itching to try one out.
Le Sigh, now I’m wishing I had a more regular game session going after all this.
Can my dwarf minstrel of social justice might moonlight as an artificer?
Is inverter/mechanic even a class? It should be!
http://www.polyvore.com/hello_kitty_as_ninja/thing?id=3679773
I’m going for Hello Kitty Ninja, cuz she’s cute and I just knw she’s a total Bamf!
Kittehserf: I love to knit also, sometimes for charity, so Social Justice Knitter sounds pretty cool, too.
Advanced Release Coipies, called ARCs in every other industry, is SOP. Everybody does this. DVDs, books, films, music, Why? For the purposes of generating reviews and publicity before the release of the item.
I call BS on this integrity and ethics argument, too.
contrapangloss – Unfortunately Artificer was abandoned with the switch to fourth ed. The new fifth ed doesn’t seem to be bringing it back either. Pathfinder has an alchemist class that’s sort of similar. Iron Kingdoms had a steam mechanic sort of class that made and maintained magic and steam powered mechs. Otherwise you’ll have to go old school.
They do realize that getting an advance copy doesn’t guarantee a good review, right?
Cassandrakitty – Since most of them do not really understand the purpose of reviews and criticism they really don’t. They equate the advanced release with being a prize because that’s how they’d view getting a game before everyone else. Since they tend to assume that everyone in the world has the exact same viewpoint as them, well then clearly the only reason to give the reviewers early access is to bribe them.
Least that’s my theory.
Yeah, I’ve run into that attitude in music too, with fans getting pissy about reporters having access to the bands that they don’t. “Why do you get to meet them and I don’t?” Um, they’re called “interviews” and magazines/websites/newspapers publish them for you to read?
It must be comforting to be so incredibly entitled that you believe every other person on the planet is succeeding only because they’re taking away what’s rightfully yours. Really let’s you baste in a stew of toxic, self righteous rage.
@Koralora
Oooh! Let me go find my Hello GoblinKitty umbrella!
@Phoenician
Only if you really want to decorate your body more than you want the possibility of a future epidural. After all a true Social Justice Warrior Woman is not afraid of pain!
Me? I just took another pain pill, so no tramp stamps for me. But I’ve seen some really pretty ones.
I have a friend who spends hours of his life watching gaming industry people stream their playthroughs of advanced release copies of games, especially when there’s a major video game convention going on, like PAX.
Somehow, that never seems to result in hyperbolic rage about journalistic integrity…
@cassandrakitty
Since you’re Scottish, I think you qualify to play the Prestige Class of Social Justice William Wallace Warrior, but only if your miniature looks like Mel Gibson.
Clearly, the zombies had no musicality.
I really enjoy bagpipes.
My sister asked, “How do you tell if a bagpipe is out of tune?” I just looked at her, like she was very silly, and said, “The same way you tell if any instrument is out of tune. Because it sounds flat or sharp, and is clearly not IN TUNE.”
Never tell me jokes when I’m on my pain pills. Apparently, I get very literal-minded.
BTW – sh’es SJ Sorceress.
Huh?
My sister just told me this:
“Ever hear of a poor person’s bagpipe?”
I shook my head.
“Heeeere, kitty, kitty, kitttyyyy!”
@hellkell – If your tattoo covers the spot on your spine where they will inject the anesthesia, you can’t get an epidural.
Too many women find out the hard way. I saw it on the news, years ago.
@hellkell – which is why it’s probably a good idea to avoid tattoos at wrists, and the insides of elbows, as well.
And it took me so long to type this, because my fingers are getting very floppily.