The latest brilliant plan by the GamerGaters to bring gaming industry corruption publications that say mean things about them to their knees?
OPERATION KRAMPUS, which is literally a plan to RUIN CHRISTMAS by … boycotting every game maker that continues to send review copies of games to the ever-growing list of game-related publications that the GamerGaters have decided aren’t sufficiently adoring towards the GamerGate Revolution.
No, really:
![OPERATION KRAMPUS The Leader of Gamergate 10/13/14 (Mon) 16:56:46 ID: 15d7f7 No.104068[Last 50 Posts][Watch Thread] OPERATION KRAMPUS Winter is coming, and with it the holiday sales rush. We are two months into #GamerGate, advertisers continue to withdraw, but the gaming websites have issued no apology and continue to survive. It's time to escalate. People have said from the beginning that if this drags out until winter, it will affect games sales and force the hand of developers. It is time to assure that. The operation is twofold: 1) A complete boycott of games made by companies who send review codes/copies to anti-gamer publications. Gamers are under attack by the gaming websites. The developers cannot support both, and anything done by developers that allows these websites to thrive is a show of support. Contact the PR departments of the game companies. Let them know that we are angry and offended. Tell them that we will not support companies who work with the websites that have attacked us. 2) Spread the word to holiday shoppers. Flood #BlackFriday and #CyberMonday with pro-#GamerGate messages. Let holiday shoppers know which companies advertise on anti-consumer gaming websites and that they should not buy from those companies. Provide alternative places for holiday shoppers to make their purchases. Continue contacting advertisers with OPERATION DISRESPECTFUL NOD as before, but spread the word to other customers as well. The message needs to be crystal clear: Support people who attack your customers and your customers will no longer support you. First step is to collect information. Compile a list of companies who send review codes/copies to Kotaku, Polygon, and the like and how to contact their PR departments. Then let the emails fly. This will be our winter campaign.](https://manboobz.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/krampus.png)
Happily, I suspect that the GamerGaters’ master plan is simply too ridiculous to succeed. Because, seriously? The ever-expanding list of publications and websites they want to destroy consists of a rather large portion of all gaming media, not to mention pretty much every other non-gaming publication that’s written about GamerGate.
Here’s an incomplete list of the websites and publications that the GamerGaters are trying to boycott:
Kotaku; Polygon; Destructoid; Rock, Paper, Shotgun; The Escapist; Motherboard; IGN; GameSpot; Gamasutra; Gameranx; PCGamer.com; Xbox 360: The Official Xbox Magazine; Total Xbox; Gameplanet; Gizmodo; TechCrunch; Ars Technica; VICE; The Daily Dot; Badass Digest; The Daily Beast; Raw Story; The Mary Sue; Salon; BuzzFeed; Uproxx; Paste Magazine; Wired; The New Yorker; Cracked; Mic; xoJane; The Verge; Gawker; Valleywag; Defamer; Lifehacker; Deadspin; Screamer; io9; Sploid; Jalopnik; Paging Dr. NerdLove; RationalWiki; TV Tropes.
Now, granted, Dr. NerdLove and The New Yorker don’t exactly publish a lot of video game reviews, but do GamerGaters really think they can stop game makers from sending review copies to IGN, Gamespot, PCGamer, the offical Xbox magazine, The Escapist, and Kotaku? That seems about as likely to happen as movie studion forbidding critics from the New York Times and Entertainment Weekly and the AV Club from seeing their films.
I guess the open question isn’t so much whether OPERATION KRAMPUS will bring the eeeevill game sites and/or companies to their knees — seems a tad unlikely — but whether the GamerGaters’ collective tantrum will throw a wrench in game sales this holiday season and basically ruin Christmas for everyone in the games biz anyway.
But hey, there’s no reason any of this has to ruin Christmas for me. See, for some reason I’m not on this GamerGate list of baddies yet, as far as I know, so I would like to encourage all game makers out there to send me all their extra review copies and codes. I won’t review any of the games in question, because that’s not what I do, and also I suck at most games, but at least it won’t get the GamerGaters mad at you.
Merry Christmas!
H/T — @EffNOVideoGames
The names of their operations – excuse me, Operations – are getting even more laughable. Krampus outdoes even Disrespectful Nod. It’s reminding me of the secret files in Charles Stross’s Laundry books – like Scorpion Stare and Bashful Incendiary. Maybe they think it’s cool because the games they like have things with names like that?
@Bernardo Soares
That game is awesome, though I think I spent more time picking out my outfit than was strictly necessary, but my flowing skirt, ballet slippers and tiara looked perfect together.
Also, if you haven’t yet, try using the toilet twice. I did it accidentally and found that you get a different message the second time.
I second that emotion. Because dead squirrels as intimidative measures are SOOOOOO fucking ethical!
LBT: Sounds cool, I’ll check him out. Give Jacksepticeye a shot – his personality is basically a very energetic Irishman with funny quips. He edits his videos in a way that delivers laughs one after the other and he plays more amusing/indie/unusual games than horror games. That said it is funny when he reacts to jump scares.
Also, more in GamerGate’s Totally Not Just Misogynistic Intimidation:
Utah State University student threatens a mass shooting incident if event featuring Anita Sarkeesian isn’t cancelled.
I don’t even know what to say. Misogyny begets harassment begets threats begets violence. This is FUCKED.
OH FOR FUCKS SAKE.
http://www.standard.net/Police/2014/10/14/Utah-State-University-student-threatens-act-of-terror-if-feminist.html
THREATENING A “MONTREAL STYLE” MASSACRE
THIS IS YOUR FAULT GAMERGATE.
THIS IS WHAT 2 MONTHS OF VIOLENCE LACED RHETORIC CAUSES.
YOU HAVE DONE MORE TO HURT GAMES THAN ANYONE ELSE ON THE PLANET.
Guffaw. They really ARE not the brightest lights in the Xmas tree string, are they?
Sorry for the all caps i’m just fucking furious
@LBT re TV Tropes: You’d be surprised at the kinds of strange politics you find on the Internet…
You have to remember, in their minds these guys are cartoon supervillains. That’s why they insist on giving their ops names that are Pure Evil.
… But don’t forget, Elliot Rodger had *nothing at all* to do with misogyny.
(Bloody hell, even I can’t be that sarcastic without giving myself a headache.)
anyone who associates with them now is a paskudnyak
@ej
niiice. As I just spent some days without running water trying to find the exact amount of water from a bucket needed to flush my waste down a toilet, I am looking forward to this future…
@Bina @strivingally
That reminds me of something someone once said: They are both evil and stupid. q.e.d., Bina, q.e.d.
I could be totally wrong but I suspect that these gg peeps may be just about to find out what a backlash is.
Just an FYI, if anyone else happens to be interested in writing to Intel, you can do it here: https://www-ssl.intel.com/content/www/us/en/forms/corporate-responsibility-contact-us.html
It took me a while to find the right site, so I thought I’d share. 🙂
And thanks for that link, strivingally. Now I have a reason to call my friend who teaches at USU and say WTF?
@ A Wolverine:
I’ve learned a beautiful new word today. I will use it gleefully, when appropriate. Thanks!
@ej:
I forgot to mention: the outfits are an essential part, of course. My only gripe is that I would like to have the sequin vest AND the tiara. My favourite are the Freudian Slippers.
What I find hilarious about this besides the fact that estimates show GamerGate has at most 10,000 active members (a.k.a. 0.06% of the sales Square Enix was eying for Tomb Raider in the United States and Europe in less than a year) and are thus statistically insignificant, the *chan circle of the internet this cesspool spawned from is infamous for rampant piracy. It would only take a minute for a game company to come to these same conclusions and laugh them off of their servers.
Correction for my comment: Square wanted 14.9 million sales for three games together. Reading comprehension! They still wanted ~6 million for Tomb Raider.
So you’re saying the gamergateguys call themselves customers cuz in their opinion stealing is the same as buying? Interesting point.
HuffPo tried to trick her into getting into a “debate” with the person who runs 8chan, which is right now the hub for gamergaters coordinating attacks on her and distributing the nude photos of her. She realized the trap just in time and backed out of it, and the gamergaters called her a coward and an ableist because the 8chan guy uses a wheelchair. (I — don’t — think — they quite grasp how that works?) Also, gamergaters are trying to harass the Patreon PTB into denying harassment victims from crowdfunding resources.
The threats totally make them look like rational, well-adjusted, mature individuals who only want to end corruption in gaming journalism. /sarcasm
I hope they find who made that threat, and I hope he enjoys his time in jail.
The bright spot in that article was the very first comment: “I’m with ya, brother. I too had my life ruined by a Youtube video asking that I think critically about a video game where you can beat a woman and lock her in your trunk.”
Seriously, I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time.
Ah, but they’re the only real gamers, the other 99.04% of people buying games are just fake gamer girls and/or white knight social justice warriors.
I remember one of the complaints at the core of gamergate (usually the one they pull out when they don’t want to say “we hate women” but have no way to complain about journalistic ethics and Anita sarkeesian in a connected way) is that gaming media is trying to kill off the “gamer identity” by declaring it dead, then accusing those who follow it of being misogynists, racists, etc….
Except what was happening was the opposite. Gaming was becoming a non-exclusive club, and many articles would examine how electronic games are the norm, it was being examined seriously as all other media is examined, and it was leading to a world where no one would say “I am a gamer” because electronic games were becoming as common as TV and no one says “I am a telly-watcher”
So in their quest to have an exclusive club of ever dwindling members, and maintain a identity which intentionally separates them from being mainstream, and preventing the games they claim to love from being more popular and therefore more profitable, they have succeeded in doing exactly what they set out to prevent-put a bad name on the gamer tag. Instead of a future where everyone plays games, so it’s not special or wrong to enjoy them, we’re heading to a world where people who like games will end up saying “I’m not a gamer, I just play games, I don’t like obsess, or abuse people because of them”
Oh gawwwwd, I’m dyyyyyin’ again!
But yeah. Let’s hope Anita’s talk goes ahead, but the threat-maker is caught well in advance of then, and frog-marched away in handcuffs. Then he can talk about how his life was ruined by a feminist…no wait, scratch that, HIMSELF.
Evil and stupid. Yes indeed.
Here is the part where I have to delurk. Now those GamerGaters are getting their Christmas mythology wrong. That is the last straw it seems. 🙂
Krampus is not about ruining Christmas. He’s not an evil Santa. He’s really one of the good guys, the Batman to Santa’s Superman! He was originally an evil monster, but he was defeated and reformed by Saint Nick. Now they are buddies!
Krampus exists as a threat, as a means to punish the wicked. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. But there is no way he’s really going to drag children off to hell. Saint Nick, the patron saint of children, is right there with old Krampus. Krampus was often more about working with Santa as a guardian against the OTHER monsters lurking in the woods. Saturnalia, which would be re branded as Christmas by Christians who wanted to subvert pagan traditions, was thought of as a time that the spirits were restless. Santa and Krampus were there to fight those spirits. I think that’s pretty awesome.
(And yeah, of course it’s all fictional, I know.)
Freaking #GamerGate has been ruining video games and now they are ruining Krampus! When will they stop? This is just spreading more Anti-Krampus propaganda! Oh and of course the constant harassment, misogyny and threats…
Oh and as a first-time poster I think I should mention that I am a Cis, Male and Heterosexual. Absolutely love the blogs and want to be a part of this awesome community of commentators.