Yesterday, I wrote about Vox Day’s extravagantly evasive — yet highly revealing — interview with David Pakman. But the interview also featured a few striking moments of candor. One of these came when Day — a sometime gave developer as well as the biggest asshole in Sci Fi — offered his answer to the question: “What is Gamergate really about?”
Suggesting that the issue of “corruption in game journalism” was little more than “the spark that set the whole thing off,” Day declared that
what Gamergate is fundamentally about is the right of people to design, develop and play games that they want to design, develop and play without being criticized for it.
Which is an. er, interesting perspective, as there is in fact no “right” to be immune from criticism.
If you write a book, if you make a movie, if you post a comment on the internet — you should be ready for it to be criticized. Because that’s how free speech works. That’s how art works. And that’s how ideas work.
Criticism — whether it is positive or negative — helps to sharpen ideas and make art less self-indulgent; it pushes creators to hone their craft and expand their vision of the world. And it helps the consumers of art not only to look at art with a more critical eye but also to appreciate it more fully, by helping to draw out the more subtle meanings of this art and to put it in a broader cultural (social, political) perspective.
Of course, neither the artists nor the consumers of art are required to listen to this criticism, but they have no right to demand that such criticism be eliminated.
But Vox is right in one sense: the elimination of criticism is in fact is what #Gamergate has been about all along — or at least the elimination of criticism aimed in their direction. Indeed, that’s what most #Gamergaters mean when they talk about fighting “corruption in game journalism” — shutting down those writers and publications that have dared to critique the prejudices of a backward portion of the gaming universe that is hostile to any challenges to the status quo ante — particularly from women with opinions different from theirs. That’s what drove the outrage over the “death of gamer” articles last Fall. And that’s what has driven “critics” of Anita Sarkeesian from the start.
Speaking of which: If you want to see how testy Gamergate types get when the criticism they lob at others gets turned back in their direction, even in jest, take a look at Jordan Owen’s new video responding to a post I wrote a few days ago gently mocking Owen’s recent plea for more money to fund The Sarkeesian Effect, the alleged “film” he and far-right Anton LaVey impersonator Davis Aurini are allegedly putting together.
Owen has devoted much of his life over the past several years to attacking Sarkeesian, a woman whose main “crimes” in the eyes of her detractors have been that 1) she raised more money than she asked for to produce a series of videos looking at sexist tropes in video games, and 2) that she’s taken longer than originally planned to put out these videos (which is largely because the extra money she raised has allowed her to research these videos more thoroughly and increase her production values, but never mind).
Yet Owen is outraged that anyone would even gently tweak him and his partner Aurini for going over budget and missing deadlines on their own film. Of course, Owen and Aurini are planning on charging their Patreon supporters more money at the end of the month unless these supporters specifically opt out; Sarkeesian herself never even requested any of the additional money she received.
In his video, Owen also compared me with Bill Donohue of the Catholic League which is, er, weird. But hey, it’s his right to criticize me, no matter how ineptly.
Here’s the video, if you’re interested. Alas, he did not film it in his famous bathtub.
Oh yes, the comparison of David with Bill Donohue of the Catholic League is entirely apt, because … er … um … hey look over there a three-headed monkey!
I admit to some relief that the bathtub does not appear in Owen’s video.
No bathtub, and Owen appears to have picked up the room a bit before filming, so I listened. Actually, I played it, but it’s hard to pay attention to “whine, whine, um, you were mean to me, repeat self, whine, self-justification, whine.” It going to take more than getting dressed and running the vacuum to make Owen sound remotely professional or appealing.
I’ve often been critical of the gaming journalism industry’s cozy relationship with devs and publishers, so when #gamergate started I was all for it. It did not take that long for the veil on that to fall away though. What on earth is wrong with these people?
His video needs more skulls. It’s only got one.
Whelp, at least Day’s being honest: “We just don’t want to be criticized!”
How long do you think it’ll be before he gets #NoTrueGator’d?
So Vox Day is saying life would be better if people would stop being assholes on the internet?
Oh, it’s just about the things that upset him personally. That makes more sense then.
Holy shit, I called it.
I’ve been pointing out that Gamergate is primarily a tantrum against criticism for a while. It grew out of gamers angry for being criticized about standing by while misogynist shitlords attempted to destroy Zoe Quinn, and is powered by the rage of Anita daring to point out elements of games as being sexist. You see it in the manifesto, where they call for “Objective” reviews, and demand that only fans of a genre should review a game. Or where Jim Sterling points out the piles of hate-mail when a game “only” gets an 8/10.
Gamergaters demand that they and the things they love be validated and praised, regardless of their actions or content.
Vox Day is very reliable at making the subtext of his buddies arguments explicit. With all-caps and exclamation points, even. But even then, I didn’t expect to see anyone validate my assumption like that.
@leftwingfox Yep. So much of #gamergate is yelling at women for being unable to take criticism in the form of sea lions, jaqoffs, rape/death threats and then screaming bloody murder at being called socially inept. The whole ethics thing getsbme too. They focus on Kotaku?! Not any of the scandals on AAA publishers and major review sites? The people saying its the culture wars coming to gaming have it pretty much nailed.
Reblogged this on iheariseeilearn.
I’m impressed that the video is under 12 minutes. Good job, Owen. And I mean that sincerely, because it seems that everyone else has to make hours and hours of video to pout about shit.
You know I still feel sorry for Owen about those Skype chats with Aurini. I hope after the film is done, Owen never has to deal with Aurini again. He absolutely needs to rethink about all this GamerGate shit, but he doesn’t deserve to be even in contact with the Devil Incarnate Aurini. No one does.
The right to design, develop and play games already exists.
Nobody has ever had to do anything without criticism.
The first part of the demand would be reasonable if it weren’t for the fact that they already have the right they’re demanding. The second part of the demand is completely ridiculous. It would be like saying “as a feminist, I demand the right to vote without candidates I don’t like ever being elected to office.”
But they also want de facto power to make sure any game they don’t like to never ever be made ever.
Or, they can be made, so they don’t look like total assholes, but everyone shouldn’t gush over them by, y’know, actually liking them. Gods above forbid that the newest Crime Simulator 38 get ONLY an 8/10, but some SJW bullshit like Gone Home gets a 9/10 or 10/10. It’s not even a game (based on some arbitrary standards that only “true gamers” would understand AKA “because I don’t like it”)!
Oh, and they want the power to shut down anyone (especially if they’re feeemale) who disagrees with them by whatever means necessary, also without criticism. Because anyone who doesn’t like what they do deserve to be put to the stake and burned (or at the very least chased out of the precious “male safe space” that the menz have so generously allowed them to exist in) for crimes against the most important bits of humanity, the cishet white male “gamer”.
It’s not different with a lot of comicbook fans. I mean, sure, they’ll claim it’s okay to have a negative opinion when you call them out on their hostility towards criticism – but they nonetheless fault you for expressing anything less than congratulatory towards a specific comicbook artist. It’s an all-or-nothing mentality with little inbetween.
It’s even worse when they tell you that, if you don’t like something, you should keep it to yourself. Weird given they don’t apply it to themselves when complaining about “SJWs” and “the feminists”…
Because those AAA publishers and devs make games they like, such as Call of Duty or Battlefield or one of the billion other military FPS games to come out. So of course they’ll completely ignore how Jeff Gerstman got fired for a less than positive review for Kane & Lynch, because the publishers provided ad revenue to the publication he worked on, while obsessing over indie developers (who don’t hold nearly as much power and influence as anyone at EA) because of some ex-boyfriend’s revenge porn.
I know, right?!
Similar has been going on in comics, albeit with various artists (almost all successful at one point or another), rallying together to stop…people from ever criticizing them or bringing up any issue pertaining to racism or sexism. ‘Cause “free speech” or something.
It’s like listening to a rich person cry over the fact, despite being at the top of the world, someone several classes below them mocks them for being avaricious or making the world a worse place. You’d think having everything that a person could possibly have would make them less bothered by having someone, with very little in comparison to them, say a couple mean things about them. But, no, they demand people – who have no reason to like them – appreciate them for “what they do.” Nevermind that is the reason why people don’t like them.
I find it amazing how the most privileged people on the planet will continually take things for granted, never giving anything a second thought, but suddenly gets defensive over it when someone from another group points it out. It’s like when hoarders attach special meaning to random objects they likely never use or interact with – but who’ll freak the fuck out the moment anyone tries to touch it, move it, or throw it away.
The ad that appeared when I pressed play was for toilet partitions. Glad to see Youtube’s adbot has a sense of humor.
Translation: “Waaaaa, why are all you uppity wimmin, non-whites and LGBTs being so mean and invading all our nice, clean, white, cis-het male spaces?”
Alternative translation: “We are all about the right to produce garbage, play garbage, and proclaim garbage to be king. How dare anyone call it garbage?”
Ok, Owen’s video had me laughing out loud. Probably the funniest (and easiest to watch) I’ve ever seen.
1. He reads David’s blog post off of a sheet of paper. The entire thing. And has to pause and restart a number of the sentences multiple times to say them correctly. Now I know how hard it can be to read some sentences out loud; sometimes they flow better on paper. But still… why even read the thing at all? Why not link to the post and just summarize the points? Which brings me to…
2. His “response” is to scan down the post, taking each topic sentence, and ramble about it for a bit. Dude, structure! It’s not just for essays! If you have an overall point, start with it and break it down into supporting arguments. It’s impossible to follow you if every other argument is an unrelated topic. It’s like he saw that the post existed and felt the urge to make a response, so he cleaned up, set up the camera, then read it for the first time. It was like he suprised himself with how there were some points in David’s post that he wasn’t offended at.
3. He never showed he got the point of the post. Addressing an argument sentence by sentence can make for some fun snark, but it doesn’t really get across that you understand the big picture. After the point-by-point, Owen makes the most forced non-chalant gesture I’ve ever seen, and pretends to be addressing the heart of David’s criticism, but it’s like he’s talking to random youtube comments or some straw-person. Even after reading the post word-for-word, it’s like he didn’t process it.
4. After a long, directionless monologue with the camera, full of misunderstanding of David’s position and bizarre comparisons, he ends with the greatest line of all time. Here’s a transcript, because my god.
Bravo, Mr. Owen sir, bravo!
So Owen made a SHORT video, in a tidy room, fully dressed and decently groomed, without an infestation of plastic skulls.
Looks like he LISTENED TO CRITICS, guys!
(How long will it takes for Owen’s apparent ability to *learn* to alienate him from MRAs?)
Owen, you mad bro?
I just realized what this whole goobergate reminds me of: Twihards. I was reading some Twilight snark on Tumblr, and I came across a lot of Twihards who didn’t understand that when one (Meyers) produces some kind of media, it’s open to criticism. Of course there was less entitlement and violent threats from those fans.
Anyway, I thought it would be amusing to justapose Gators with Twihards.
@kirby
You can at least admit he did a much better job than most MRA/GamerGate video responses. We have to give him that much credit. I especially liked how he was flattered by the parody MRAster Theater. He’s either really good at hiding his hate, he’s being sarcastic in a way I couldn’t pick up on, or he is genuinely flattered. If he was flattered, at least he has some humor about himself. For that, I think he’s the GGer I can’t hate* entirely. I just really can’t hate him. Of course, I’ve never seen any of his other videos so maybe he’s just as bad as Aurini, but it seems like the only thing about him that’s brought up is the whole “has a video of him talking in a bathtub” so he can’t be entirely bad, right? Right?
I wonder how Aurini feels about his muppet-self?
*Hate is really not the right word. It’s more of a feeling of disgusted apathy towards their existence and a loathing of their thought processes and actions, but I don’t think a word for such a feeling exists in at least English. Maybe German.
@Banana Jackie Cake:
Oh yeah, definitely. In fact, it was a lot better than even Owen’s usual fare.
Same.
It’s funny. He doesn’t take himself seriously at all when I see his comments underneath his videos. At times he even borders on charming. In his videos, however, he almost always has the air of an angry egotist who is 100% sure he is right and is prepared to spend an hour straight detailing everything you’ve gotten wrong.
He doesn’t have the straight-up evil aura that Aurini has going on, and between a white nationalist (on paper!!!) and a Randian libertarian I’d take the latter any day. However, if the only thing wrong with him was that he made… interesting… choices for his video framing, he’d be pretty harmless. The biggest issue is that he’s obsessive; apparently he’s been going after Anita for quite a while even before GG was a thing. That and the whole “I’m definitely objectively right so I don’t even have to understand your argument to refute it” thing.
I dunno. I kind of want to have a chat with the guy (and not have to sit through an hour long video) and see what he’s really like. It’d be interesting to see how is beliefs shift after the fallout with Aurini as well; one thing he made clear in the video was that he’s most likely going to cut ties with Aurini once the movie is done. Who knows, maybe that’ll get him to rethink other things as well.
Forgive me if I don’t hold my breath. Call me cynical, but I’m cynical that Owen will ever learn about, and think critically about, ethics in any kind of rigorous way. That’s what he needs, and what he will probably never do for himself.
@kirby
Yeah. I’d imagine Owen actually be alright to hang around with as long as he doesn’t start spewing GGer bullshit. IDK if he’s really that stubborn about the whole Anita issue–there’s a difference in reading a rhetoric or seeing a video of one and actually talking to someone face to face about their ideas, you know? It’s easy to write someone off as “The Other” when they aren’t sitting in the flesh in front of you, especially if you built a strawman view of who the person is in your head.
Of course, again, I’m not sure if Owen’s ever actually spoke to someone IRL about his views with someone on the opposite end. Maybe he really is as stubborn as he is online in face to face conversation? I wouldn’t know.
However, I was really happy for him that he wasn’t going to be hanging around Aurini after the movie’s done, although I’d be happier for him is he didn’t need to even think of Aurini at all. Owen didn’t deserve the shit that asshole pulled and is probably still pulling.
Also, Aurini sounds like the name of a high-ranking Thalmor Justicar, just saying.
@Policy of Madness:
Nah, cynical is fine. I’ll fully admit I’m being a bit optimistic. Owen might very well have dug himself too deeply into a cognitive hole to be able to get out. Still, sometimes I imagine I see the light reaching him just a little. Hell, he started out a video on the feminist jazz hands stuff saying that he sort of understood where they were coming from, having suffered from panic attacks himself.
Started out, anyway… it pretty quickly turned into telling people they need to grow up and deal with their own issues.