#GamerGate, meet #Ferguson; #Ferguson, meet #GamerGate

I presume they meant the white “Hijacktivist” (what a stupid word) agitators that used the protests as an excuse to fuck shit up, knowing that the cops, media and racists would blame it on the protesters, and weren’t aware of the dogwhistle?

Comparing gamergaters who are taking advantage of this situation to bolster their cause is actually just as relevant to those who did loot in Ferguson the other night. That being said, they were both bullshit tactics that have nothing to do whatsoever with the heart of the matter.

I’m actually going to say I’m very proud of how about midnight or so, the protesters you could see in updated pictures and vines and other assorted media outlets were nothing but peaceful in their demands for justice. Even during the initial negative reactions of those who were not riot control officers out there, you could see unity even among gang members who hated each other by code: bloods and crips were blocking stores. There were people holding up and trying to take a woman to get medical care after she had a heart attack, even though they were still being hit by tear gas. And afterwards, they still had a quiet sit in by the police station.

That beautiful conviction in the ones I’m proud of probably should have been mentioned earlier, but I refuse to mix that with gamergate.

What I mean is, even if someone wanted to say that, OK, maybe some of the response in Ferguson wasn’t as constructive as it could be (and if so, that didn’t represent the majority of what was happening anyway), people there have a legitimate reason to be very angry. Gamergaters, otoh, are enraged because someone wrote a less than enthusiastic review of Jiggle Volleyball 7, and that being the case I’m inclined to going to judge them far more harshly than anyone involved in anything going on in Ferguson, even people whose actions I might not entirely agree with. Does that make sense?

Just two irrelevant messages using this situation to piggyback on for their cause, whatever that ignorant cause may be. (Insert a lot of eye darting and twitching, because I can’t figure out the importance of their causes.)

Cassandrakitty:

Don’t forget how the evil wimmens also made games that didn’t meet our Bro Code Standards of Vidya Games (patent pending) like Gone Home! How DARE reviewers give a game I didn’t personally like a ten out of ten! Misandry! Discrimination! [/sarcasm]

But I agree. I’m going to judge them far more harshly as well, simply on the fact that GamerGate doesn’t seem to be about anything other than people throwing a tantrum that games aren’t catering to their specific desires all while trying to fling shit at people who they think are far too Politically Correct for their tastes (you know, like those ess-jay-dubbyas who think women’s only place in gaming shouldn’t be simply killable, sexy background decor in games).

Meanwhile in Furgeson, people actually have a right to be angry and upset. A child was killed while the killer not only gets a million dollars (roughly half from donations and the other rough half from interviews), but gets married (which people think may be so that she doesn’t have to testify because she knows something). Their cause is far more legitimate to me than “Ethics in gaming journalism”.

All that aside (please excuse me while I rant a bit), If GamerGate was actually about “Ethics in Gaming/Gaming Journalism” then I’d be more behind it. As a gamer myself, I get tired of the constant stream of shit that AAA developers think they can get away with pointing at their consumers, and I am sick of indie developers constantly indulging in the Streisand Effect by trying to astroturf their reviews and forums and silencing any critic who dares talk shit about their shit game by waving YouTube video copyright claims around like a dog turd on a stick. There’s actually quite a LOT wrong with game *developers*.

And yeah, there are journalists out there who don’t disclose who they’re getting paid to do reviews by, and that’s also equally shitty. However, many reviewers and Let’s Players are stepping up and understanding that their viewers/readers think it’s important for them to disclose this information, so they’re doing it.

I personally feel like the problem lies more with the developers rather than the people who report on the games. I find that the biggest gripes that Gators have with the reviewers is “They said something that I don’t/do agree with about a game I like/don’t like! Bias!”

But Gators are so focused on harassing female indie developers who have literally done nothing beyond existing and making games that Gators personally don’t like that it’s impossible to say they’re about any sort of “ethics” at all that are good for gaming going forward. Especially with some of the company they keep, and the policies they want to enact.

Ah, they’re also focused on harassing people who dare say anything bad about gaming period. Case in point: Anita Sarkeesian.

I do think there’s a bit of “be a smarter consumer” in there too though. I read that Buzzfeed article someone linked to and that thing about the unfinished Assassins Creed game? Yeah, if the creators of an entertainment product won’t let anyone actually see it in full or review it properly before it’s released, that always means that they know it’s terrible. Works for every type of entertainment I can think of. If they’re doing that, don’t preorder it, because it’s going to suck.

Yeah, if the creators of an entertainment product won’t let anyone actually see it in full or review it properly before it’s released, that always means that they know it’s terrible. Works for every type of entertainment I can think of. If they’re doing that, don’t preorder it, because it’s going to suck.

Heck, I figured this out as a movie viewer in my teens.

“There’s none of this movie’s actual footage in this preview.”

“That means that they have so little confidence in it that they can’t even edit together it’s clips in a pleasing way.”

Here’s a good article on the issues with games journalism and why #gamergate gets basically everything wrong (y’know, assuming they actually care about ethics in gaming journalism): http://calmdowntom.com/2014/10/8-ways-gamergate-is-hiding-real-problems-in-games-journalism/

trying to read these trolls is exhausting. do they all really have the same “these are false flags” argument?

Honestly, when the only substantial difference between the trolls around here is whether they don’t understand adjectives or don’t understand verbs, can they really blame us for assuming that they’re one diarrhoetic dipshit under many thin socks?

As W.E.B. Dubois said “a system cannot fail those it was never meant to protect.”

Laws were made by the wealthy to protect the wealthy (as well as those who enforce those laws on their behalf). Since most of the wealthy rule makers in the US have been white cis male and straight, they system sometimes protects non wealthy people in those demographic categories as sort of a side effect.