There are some who see the seemingly unlikely ideological romance between anti-bullying-activist-turned-bully-ally Candace Owens and Gamergate as a bit of a con-job.
In this view, the gullible Owens is being manipulated by cynical GGers and assorted far-right ideologues who’ve descended upon her en masse to assure her that her paranoid fantasies are true — particularly when they involve the very women that Gamergate has harassed most relentlessly. It’s a sort of cultic love-bombing, ironically based around hate.
There’s certainly an element of truth to this theory — and you can find plenty of examples of Owens’ gullibility in my previous posts on L’affaire Owens, or just by taking a look at her Twitter feed.
But Owens isn’t the only one here with starry eyes. Just as Owens has been seduced by GGers telling her exactly what she wants to hear, so GG’s True Believers have been seduced by her conspiracy theories. This isn’t, in other words, just a case of exploitation; it is also something of a folie a deux.
“This is probably THE BIG ONE!” an enthusiastic GGer called darkpowrjd gushed in a heavily-upvoted comment on the Kotaku in Action subreddit, the main GG hub on Reddit, several days ago.
Candace Owens, for all her faults, could be [the person] who vindicated GG for two YEARS of what they have been accused of doing en masse.
You’ll have to excuse darkpowrjd’s somewhat tangled language; they’re a little excited.
Yeah, this could be one of the most elaborate traps ever set up for GG to fall into, and I wouldn’t put it past any of the LWs to have THAT elaborate of a plan set up, but I don’t think Owens would seriously be that willing to be the cog in that plan.
With that little bit of butt-covering out the way, darkpowrjd explains why Owens is truly the woman of Gamergate’s dreams.
I’m still cautious, but I’m starting to think more and more that this is really a thing that’s going on, and this was the one person that we’ve been waiting for that has the pull, power, and connections to blow the entire lid off of what we have already known.
She HAS THE POWER
As darkpowrjd sees it, the evil anti-GG conspiracy has
more or less been doing this to the GG movement as a damn WHOLE for two years now. Never being opposed, always getting a free pass, and always getting sympathy by playing the feminist card. No one dared to question them because of how many people they ended up getting on their side.
But now …
Ok, ok, I’ll try to restrain myself.
But they ran into someone that they couldn’t influence, buy out, or convince that easily. They ran into someone that had connections, but also was smart enough to pick up on some things, and put two and two together when things happened that seemed too coincidental to be just a coincidence.
Forget what I just said about restraining myself.
The fact that media outlets tended to react to Gamergate with skepticism, if not outright hostility, couldn’t possibly be that it was obviously a hate crusade pushing perhaps the stupidest conspiracy theory the world has ever known. No, it must have been the fault of … the people Gamergate hates the most!
Now, think about this: how many media outlets do you think this team of Signal, Quinn, and Harper did this too? How many got this treatment, and were too scared (or just willing to play along or even agree with them on everything) to do anything or say anything? … Think about how LONG this might have been going on, or how many more people were caught up in this web, and how far along does this conspiracy actually go? How far down did this rabbit hole go?
I’m pretty sure the only holes that GGers have explored have been entirely self-dug.
All the “neutral = pro” comments, anyone who did so much as to try to get both sides of GG getting bitched at, the NeoGAF bannings that didn’t make any sense … everything that had ever happened that GG got blamed for because they EXISTED!
Or perhaps GG got blamed for a lot of things because it’s a movement made up largely of harassers and trolls that routinely does a lot of pretty awful things?
darkpowrjd accuses evil anti-GG “Journos” of an assortment of terrible misdeeds, including “continu[ing] to poke the bear every chance they got” and “gamedropping,” which Urban Dictionary defines as the sinister SJW “practice of dropping a #GamerGate mention into a totally unrelated article in an attempt to drive clicks and controversy.”
It is hard indeed to imagine a crime more horrific than the journalistic practice of occasionally paying attention to Gamergate.
ALL of that (and THEN some) could be exposed with one single person who might’ve not have even been aware of what she was about to do.
And quite the exposer Owens has been. So far her longest and most passionate “expose” involved a Washington Post story that never ran but that Owens was sure would have been full of libels against her.
Owens is saying that she isn’t a conspiracy theorist. But every theorist might be thinking they hit the damn jackpot when reading this and knowing how this has probably been going on for 2 plus years now.
In the sense that, yes, Gamergate has been energetically spinning conspiracies out of nothing for “2 plus years now” and Owens is now doing the same.
The reason Zoe’s group is running to try to get things under control is because Owens hit all 7’s here, and she wants to cash out.
Well, no. Quinn was concerned that Owens’ proposed bully-doxxing site could be easily abused by bullies.
Ironically, Gamergaters themselves were making very similar criticisms, at least until Owens started attacking some of Gamergate’s most-hated (and most-harassed) enemies.
It could be the beginning of the end for blaming Gamergate for everything.
And there’s Gamergate in a nutshell.
From the very start, even before it had a name, Gamergate has been a “movement” of gamers against criticism of games and gamers — and ultimately, of Gamergate as well.
Oh, sure, most Gamergaters don’t mind games criticism based on game mechanics, or whether or not a game is “fun” to play. But they don’t like any criticism that might in any way reflect badly on them. That’s why Anita Sarkeesian sent so many gamers into hysterics simply for noting that, yes, a lot of games are really pretty sexist — because by extension, this suggests that the gamers buying and playing these games in record numbers might just be an eensy weensy bit sexist themselves.
And that’s why the now infamous “gamers are dead” articles inspired such fury, transforming what had been a harassment campaign against “uppity” women in video games into a putative campaign for “ethics in games journalism” — with the main “ethical” failure of games journalists implicitly defined as “saying anything bad about us.”
The repellent fantasy author and sometime game developer Vox Day let the not-so-cute cat out of the bag in an interview with internet talk show host David Pakman last year, declaring 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.
Vox later walked this back a little, saying he didn’t really mean that gamers and game developers should be immune from criticism. But you don’t need to be a Freudian to suspect that Vox’s slip revealed what he actually thinks.
Owens is also easily offended by criticism, and seems to think so highly of her own opinions that she assumes anyone critical of them cannot possibly be sincere, and therefore must be part of some terrible conspiracy.
It’s no wonder she and Gamergate get along so well.
H/T — r/BestOfOutrageCulture
Since war games were mentioned, I feel obliged to recommend This War of Mine. It’s a resource management/survival sim about the less ‘spectacular’ side of war – that is, the day-to-day lives of civilians trying to stave off death by starvation/dehydration/illness/exposure/old-fashioned shovel-to-the-head in a besieged city. It won a bunch of awards, and is depressing in the best way possible. The expansion “The Little Ones”, focusing on child survivors, will be coming to PC soon.
@Furious Mouse
Hello! Welcome. You seem sincere about your love of games, so we have a lot in common! I’m even willing to buy the idea that there’s a faction of GamerGate which, from the beginning, *was* concerned about ethics in game journalism, and continues to be so. Your love of games is an important part of your life, and that’s great. We have issues, but hopefully we can at least come together on that.
I’m not going to get into how you’re being a “cover” for the trolls, because there’s something more important in what you said:
You’re right, that isn’t good in a moral sense. It’s the opposite of good in a moral sense.
You’re also right that video games should be judged on their merits. Merits are things that make them good for people to play. This includes gameplay, graphics, controls, story; this is certainly true.
See that word “story” in there? Video games have them. Frogger has a story – it’s a story about a frog trying to cross a road and a river. Not a great story, but you could call it a metaphor for life – you’re game is going to end, it’s just a question of what ending you get.
As a game gets more complex and involved, so too does its story – it says more. And those stories are valid to critique. It’s not “socjus” to talk about sexism in games anymore than it’s “socjus” to talk about racism in vaudeville plays, or to talk about the sexuality morals of greek plays. Or do you think criticism of any art needs to limit itself to an appraisal of technical skill?
Video games are a part of society. Millions play them. Millions love them. They’re art, and they’re worthy of critique. We critique them because we love them.
Tell us what the best and worst are.
What is the worst people seeking social justice have done? What is the best?
And the same for gg. Define the best and worst of their actions.
How do you think they compare?
@Furious Mouse: Can you PROVE you’re not Truth Bomb?
Can you PROVE it? Are they REAL GamerGaters? Can you PROVE that ONLY real GamerGaters care ONLY about judging games on their merits and not a single one of them has EVER claimed to be good and not a single one of them has EVER harassed ANYONE EVER?
WHERE’S THE PROOF!
Where’s the PROOF? I don’t see any proof of female GamerGaters or GG’ers of color. Can you PROVE they aren’t trolls trying to make GG look diverse? Can you PROVE they aren’t sockpuppets? Can you PROVE they like good games and not shitty boring games?
NO PROOF. Just baseless assertions.
Yeah? WHERE’S THE PROOF? Can you provide us with a single link? Can you PROVE that every single downvoter is a GamerGater and not a troll or an anti?
You’ll need to provide some PROOF here. Show your math that literally 50% or more WHTM posts tagged #GamerGate have NOTHING to do with GamerGaters, and furthermore, include your PROOF that the people in these articles aren’t REAL GG.
Not until you provide even a single scrap of REAL PROOF.
Telltale make some excellent storydriven games which make you make brutal decisions and have the occasional bit of action. Both Walking Dead games are amazing, the second one has a badass girl protagonist, who is only eleven! And The Wolf Among Us is great too, none of them require prior knowledge of the comics they span off from.
I’m currently enjoying Watch Dogs, because I love open world games with loads of distractions, and an obscure Euro-rpg called Risen 2: Dark Waters.
BWAHAHAHAHA! I love how these “dark enlightenment” dorks always talk like they’re enlightened masters descending from the mountaintop to share mystical truths with the plebs.
“I got a woikin’ lunch with da Great Cosmic Universal Oneness in twenny… but I like yeh moxie, kid, so I’ll trow youse a bone.”
Sorry, but having some supporters who are women, queer, people of color, et cetera does not prove that GG isn’t misogynist, homophobic, and racist. Those people are…
::Pocket Nerd puts on sunglasses::
… not your shield.
YYYEEEEAAAHHH
Oh, no, don’t be coy. I’ve already seen your Twitter account. Tell us all about how certain European bankers are behind it.
@Furious Mouse: to repeat what I said in my last post, Gamergate lost its right to claim it was always about “ethics” way back when it released the #burgersandfries chat logs. Thanks to Gamergate itself, everybody knows it was always about sending rape and death threats to women who say things you don’t want to hear.
And you lost your right to claim you’re not racist when you unironically wrote “dindu”. Not to mention your use of the “eeeevil arab” bogeyman.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution has its problems, to be sure, but it’s also a smarter commentary on classism and oligarchic corporatism than I ever expected to find in a video game. And it’s also fun to play. 🙂 Get the Director’s Cut, if you can — the original release occasionally forgets it’s a Deus Ex game and plays at being a pop-and-drop shooter for a while.
Did you write this article, @Furious Mouse ? Cause it sounds exactly like what you’re talking about.
Man Just Wants To Play Violent Military Shooter About Global Conflict Without Critics “Bringing Politics Into It”
@Furious Sock puppet
Oi, douche, trolls are only banned if someone requests it, and no one did, because your arguments are 4 yo and so lazy we are even sorry. Go back to mid-2014, where someone, somewhere still believed on your bullshit.
How pathetic of you. I mean, the arguments are pitiful, but I could sympathize, maybe you simply are reaaaally freaking naive. Now, this fake ban and sock puppet? That’s just… Up your game, son. Up your game A LOT.
@Chiomara, I’m sure the plan was “open with a short, horrible racist tweet to get a ban, but follow with something that sounds reasonable. That way people just skipping will think I’m the reasonable one and they’re just knee-jerk-reactionaries!”
Games! I like games. Here’s some of the cream at the top of my Steam list.
Kentucky Route Zero: I’m putting this first and separating it because it’s really special to me. You could technically call it an interactive story, but I view it more as an interactive piece of art that is story driven. Beautiful, often surreal, but in a way that fills you with wonder. No voice acting, so caution if you’re not into reading your way through your games. Also, small warning, it’s split up into 5 acts, but only 3 have been released so far, in case that kind of thing bugs you.
Stardew Valley: Nth’d
Super Meat Boy: Really polished, really difficult 2D platformer. If you’ve done the SMB thing and want more, go give I Wanna Be The Guy a shot.
Antichamber: Recommended for fans of Portal. Trades narrative for a straight focus on outside-the-box thinking. “Wait, what? The Game.”
The Stanley Parable: Also falls in the Portal/Antichamber box of “FPS that isn’t a FPS”, but goes the opposite direction of Antichamber and goes almost full narrative.
Undertale: Nth’d
The Swapper: 2D puzzle game with a really neat mechanic. Takes a lot of cues from Portal, but in a good way. Tried this one on a whim and was really surprised by how well the story developed.
Also, if any of you have access to a PS3, get Journey. Get it. Right now.
Edit: Ninja’d by Scildfreja on Antichamber. I’m kinda metaphor blind, so apparently I missed a lot of that part of the game, but I think it stands out regardless.
Its a bit old but I found myself really invested in Tales of Symphonia. The plot starts out seemingly rather cliched but after a few really well executed plot twists it really picks up. It has a super interesting and sympathetic main cast and a very cool main villain.
GG can’t be racist, everyone. It has a black friend. /s
I didnt expect to get SO many suggestions! I googled the titles and am interested in the huge majority! Damn, guys, thank you!
No, I didnt play New Vegas. But I will, because, honestly, Fallout 4 was SO FUN. I think I will play the whole series, cause I cant get enough of the story.
I had my eyes on Shadows of Mordor. Thanks for reminding me.
That game about war survivors, DAMN, what an interesting concept! I’m excited for that!
Thank you SO much, those are the best suggestions I got in a long while, seriously.
What about the Portal series? Would you recommend? I really like what i’ve seen of it, but I cant make it work in my crappy cheap PC.
Yes, Portal is great.
Portal: All the Yeses.
If you’d like to avoid combat, Firewatch might be up your alley.
I’d like to second The Swapper. It has the following qualities: a sci-fi atmosphere with a heavy philosophical bent, clever puzzles, haunting music, claymation graphics, a powerful ending, and a bunch of hidden text snippets enhancing the already lovely story.
And for another great game containing all of the above (except claymation graphics) but in 3D, try The Talos Principle.
/edit
The Talos Principle sountrack:
https://soundcloud.com/damjan-mravunac/sets/the-talos-principle-ost
The Swapper soundtrack:
http://store.carlocastellano.cc/album/the-swapper-original-soundtrack
The Fall is also a lovely puzzle platformer similar in atmosphere to the above two games, sadly it kind of ends on a cliffhanger as it’s the first part of a trilogy, and the others are not released yet.
@Chiomara, Portal is amazing. I only didn’t mention it because I was going for lesser-knowns. You should be able to run Portal 1, and…. nnngh. Portal 1. In many ways the superior game. Challenging, hilarious, thoughtful, very creepy. And there’s a lot of feminist literature on it as well – not only is the protagonist female; every single character is!
They do introduce some excellent main characters in the second one, and there are some great things to be said about it, but the puzzles aren’t quite as, uh, puzzle-y. Fabulous story, excellent mood. First game is about 4 hours, second game around double that. Worth devoting some evenings to, very much so.
Now I’ma go play Portal again.
@Chiomara:
Portal and Portal 2 are fabulous. Instant classics, both of them. I tried Portal Stories: Mel but I found the puzzles more annoying than fun, so I didn’t get very far through it.
And let me second Firewatch as well. You’ll probably finish it in just 3-5 hours, so if you’re budget-conscious you might want to wait for a sale… but I bought it at release and didn’t regret a cent of it.
Delurking just to say that Sunless Sea is SO GOOD, you guys. It has consumed most of my spouse’s and my gaming-together time lately. We both tend to like slow-paced, detailed, meditative RPGs, and this delivers big-time. There’s a huge amount of text by a number of excellent interactive-fiction authors (Emily Short!) and all kinds of Deep Mysteries in the lore that the fans haven’t come anywhere close to sorting out yet, and the score is amazing. If you liked Planescape:Torment, you should check it out.
There’s definitely a bit of a learning curve regarding how to make enough money on trade to be not totally screwed for cash all the time, and how to not get nailed by pirates and sea monsters.We’re on our…fourth? captain now (the third was the first one to retire instead of dying) and everything has gotten much easier. And there’s so much story that seeing it a second time isn’t annoying at all, but rather an honest-to-goodness chance to make different choices that actually affect the outcome.
@dlouwe
My reply has spoilers, so I’ve put it through a rot13 cipher. Go to rot13.com and paste the text into the top box if you want to decipher what I’ve posted:
Nagvpunzore vf n zrgncube sbe yvsr. Fgnegf jvgu vaibyhagnevyl snyyvat guebhtu n erq ghaary, sbyybjrq ol pbashfvba, fybjyl svthevat bhg jung gur urpx vf tbvat ba, naq frnepuvat sbe tbnyf gb nppbzcyvfu. Naq lbh pna bayl cynl bapr.
V fgbccrq cynlvat unysjnl guebhtu bapr V ernyvmrq gur tnzr nfxrq “vf guvf ubj lbh jnag gb fcraq gur gvzr lbh unir?” Gbbx n srj qnlf gb trg bire gur gubhtugf gung V jnf jnfgvat zl yvsr va jung V jnf qbvat. Nccyvrq sbe gur erfrnepu cbfvgvba V’z va abj n srj zbaguf nsgre.
Rot13 looks sort of odd outside of context.
http://i.imgur.com/kk5n6.png
@Scildfreja
Daaaaaaang. That went way over my head. I was just having fun playing a quirky game that played around with my expectations. If I ever feel like giving it another play, I’ll definitely have some different things to look out for.
The Portal games are frickin’ awesome. Portal 2 had me laughing so hard at various points (potatOS!) I had to put the controller down and collect myself. If you can get them to work, you’re in for a puzzling treat.