Vainamoinen

As I said, AAAs and 'youtubers' are invincible. And, of course, Jason Schreier scores nine c-trophies on the deepfreeze site. Not a source gamergate would want to draw on. But that is... spectacular. Just spectacular. That... is corruption. (Read the comments under the article. Do it. )

Seems like some nobody twitch gamer/streamer who looks like he's fresh from High School has chosen to tearfully detail his breakup (with another streamer) to his fans via stream. Seriously, it's all teenie drama. What's making this a big deal, of course, is gamergate, thanks again. I won't hand out details, no names or games or links at the time, no siree. We'll have that soon enough. The reaction in the usual sources shows how gamergate has taken away nothing at all from the Qspiracy disaster. This is all willingly discussed for one thing, with hardly anyone thinking it off topic in any way. Every other word seems to be "cheat", although in between sobs, the streamer seems to have explicitly said that his former girlfriend didn't cheat. Christ, does that sound familiar. Some voices are actually conveying "won't anybody think of the poor accuser, he's sure to lose his job". The most reasoned stances there demand to "hear her side". To which, of course, they are not entitled. Pray to god the guy's former partner is as intelligent as last year's primary mob target and never starts slinging deeply intimate shit back. Gamergate could grow up in a hurry and tell that guy to stick his personal problems where the sun doesn't shine before their left arm inexplicably starts pounding on the girl but... yeah, I'll dream on for a little while. Prepare for the mob and stand by the abused. /edit a few hours later: Seeing some really interesting developments. People actually questioning whether it's gamergate stuff, disassociating themselves right in those threads. Other people taking a teensy peek through the curtain of crap, coming up with things like "Looking back a bit further at the "other guy's" twitter, it's nothing but nauseating middle-school "I wuv you" barfy shit between him and this chick for the last few weeks, and ****** is claiming this chick said just last week she wanted to marry him?..."

That game collection struck me as fairly odd. It's a collection of 'casual' and 'pretty old', but then there's Portal in it... that's not supposed to be 'real gaming'? Why, is it too short or what? Not that I ever play Valve stuff.

A late addendum to BadHat's "bad joke" a few pages ago, which I won't quote so he doesn't get shit for it any more: Sarkeesian recently spoke on precisely this kind of criticism (the puppetmaster thing), and the video is now online. http://videos.theconference.se/anita-sarkeesian-hate-and-heroism

On the contrary, I hope they've done away with these telltaleisms altogether. I'm in the mood for some fan art. Who's with me?!?

Lest we forget.

Fair enough, of course we have these issues as well, and of course (now more than ever), they're in dire need of fixing, NOW. The scumbag opinions are definitely there. I see them daily now, and they scare the shit out of me. Still, in determining the political spectrum of different countries, I draw the circles quite differently. In fact, looking at our far too conservative government, I'm fairly certain that from an informed US perspective you could call it socialist.

I'm always amazed how it's possible that these beliefs cross the ocean and land in Europe, and Germany in particular. The gamergate strategy is to portray an extreme right wing political opinion as neutral and apolitical, and in consequence paint reasonable or basically philantropist stances as extremist. Germany doesn't have that kind of extreme right wing political opinion, and I'm STILL encountering comments on Sarkeesian's "radikaler Feminismus" that all sound like badly translated ralphretort. There's no German word for SJW, or rather the German term is connotated too positively/passive-peacefully, so they're just going with "SJW". It dumbs down the discussion even more... which is hard to believe until you've seen it.

Don't get me wrong here – "not really gamergate" is a running gag I have going (with myself mostly, obviously). Almost all the major gamergate ideologues don't identify with the movement, but there's no protest when they speak for it, that's what "decentralized leadership" means. (I'm seeing a fair bit of disassociation from some figureheads with recent embarrassing performances though – of course, in other places, they're still called "Master Milo" and "Lord Ro*sh)

Well, Auernheimer is Not Really Gamergate™, you know. But I'll quote this here anyway.

Just as gamergate has assured us that journalistic ethics was the name of the game. All right, that comparison gets us nowhere. Of course, it's hard to convince the mob to take action if you're not telling them that total victory is at their doorstep. And, sure enough, you can retroactively redefine your goals pretty easily. Said Beale: Cleansing, really? Sorry, but this sounds eerily like the "cleansing of the German spirit" Joseph Goebbels declared at a Book burning in Berlin. And that territory of the enemy Beale and his Nazis don't value? It's called Science Fiction. I still do think it was their victory. The Hugos will have to be reformed so that this doesn't happen again. /edit: Trying to find any James Gunn quotes on the matter for obvious reasons. Any links handy, anyone?

Still, this is depressing as hell. If their goal had been to 'win' the Hugos, sure, they failed. Yet – and this mirrors gamergate without distortion – their goal, from the get-go, was disruption and destruction. So, yeah, I'd call this their win. This is the only way they'll ever win, and that's why we'll likely see something similar next year (more covert op/chan-y presumably). This is, literally, why we can't have good things. Neo-fascist terrorists, the lot.

I wanted to talk about this elsewhere after looking into it some more, but honestly, it's increasingly insensible to talk to the few remaining gamergate supporters, so sorry for the thematic double post. This is a major case. In comparison, the 'corrupted journalists' according to deepfreeze do not nearly have this kind of audience, and not nearly as loyal an audience as well. We all know what power Let's Players wield as opposed to their typing counterparts; they are still allowed to be enthusiastic about games and game developers without being accused of "corruption". This is gamergate's cardboard house of violently called for disclosure soaked in gasoline and lit on fire. The reasons why these offenders are safe are clear enough: These youtubers didn't cross the hatemob. Didn't write about harrassment. Didn't talk about gamergate unfavorably. Didn't write reviews that dared to comment on cultural context. That's why they're safe from gamergate activism. That's why the industry corruption is safe from gamergate. That's why the actually corrupted love gamergate.

Well of course, it's about ethics in journalism after all. The case is discussed all over KiA, the Ralphretort has written four irate articles since Wednesday and John Bain hasn't stopped scolding his colleagues on twitter about it. Thanks for nothing, #gamergate. (I'll say it because I have to though: Kudos to Bain for his Target related tweets)

Yup. And they're doing their very best to reiterate the Central Gamergate Conflation in the clearest possible terms and the most colorful variations (my italics): In other words, the SJW are all crooks because they're SJW. Thanks gamergate for this perpetual, wonderful example of circular logic. I've seen the discussion continue right as before elsewhere as well. Gamergate's advice to listen to Airplay has obviously been heeded... but they themselves fail to understand what has happened there. It's too early to tell, but it seems to me that gamergate would rather not be reminded about what actually happened during Airplay. It's now that "bomb threat" monument to gg history. If this proves true, in the long run Airplay will have meant nothing to the movement – which might be a good thing, eventually. After all, more than a few gaters I've seen were convinced that the final solution for the SJW question would be found there.

Forbes covers SJP Airplay, surprisingly well and in some detail. Kudos, Mr. Griffiths. /edit: link corrected

...he/she, whatever, it's OK. If Koretzky really denied panelists the central gamergate conflation ("ethics in journalism MEANS exterminating SJW"), the guy needs a badge after all. But we'll see, we'll see. Maybe the ethical question is whether whitewashing of the movement's history should be allowed if the movement, then bereft of their ideological core, actually comes out clean and sober.

The 'lone apples' strategy will likely only go so far. As soon as you invite a bunch of exactly those lone apples to speak with authority on gamergate proceedings, things are looking a bit grim on gamergate's argumentative side. In that respect, Airplay might still serve as something good eventually. Someone out there will just plain have to wonder how, on the topic of a supposedly international problem in the gaming world, exclusively US right wing nutjobs with hardly an interest in gaming are taking the reigns of the discussion, and universally despised Early Access scammers pose as neutrals. Those brain screws will just have to start turning, particularly outside of the United States. Another argumentative problem for gamergate is the chosen topic, i.e. journalist ethics. Gamergate is, as everyone knows, about the fight against 'SJW', their "secret agenda" and the attempt to ostracize them from game culture. Everything else is tacked on propaganda to deal with the opposition. If Airplay indeed managed to focus on 'ethics in journalism', hey, good for them, good for us. Yet sooner or later, they'll come up with the "p.c. culture" conspiracy or whatever terminology they'll start using... at which point they sound like the wackos they are. Sincerely, if they do talk about ethics in journalism, it doesn't matter much that crooks are discussing it. But they'll get off topic soon enough, because gamergate is, well, gamergate. I intend to watch the entire panel, unabridged, in the coming weeks, to evaluate the debate's relationship between factual "anti SJW" agenda and "ethics in journalism" smoke screen. But I don't suspect many surprises. I'm looking for answers only e.g. to determine the bias of the organizer/presenter.

Using the sympathy gamergate supporters gained due to the bomb threat, polygon – with the gracious help of Airplay organizer Michael Koretzky – is making an attempt to whitewash gamergate history. The greatest part of this aren't just the crude omissions, but in particular the claim that gamergate had no leaders while naming two clear cut and initially formative ideological leaders in the very next sentence. This is how gamergate started, this is how it progressed, and it will be gamergate's history forever. Zoe Quinn has every right to feel extra fucked on the anniversary of The Eron Post's publication.

Now THAT should confirm the right 'cast'. :) http://www.theverge.com/2015/8/15/9160071/star-wars-force-awakens-movie-poster (promo poster, not the final movie poster!) CELEBRATE

No, doxxing and bomb threats aren't just "not cool". They're absolutely detestable tactics. Zoe Quinn spends her days preventing the first to happen to others; and I've experienced the latter employed to put my father out of business when I was ten years old. This is abysmal. This is not 'helping'. And please do smack everyone in the face who now adopts the days old gamergate stance on the matter (quote see above): Pointing a finger now is futile. I do wonder about why the terrorist waited so long with his bomb threat (there supposedly were two, but besides twitter snippets, the only source I find is the convincingly/allegedly Donald Trump bribed website from one of the 'pro' panelists, so no thank you). The entire segment in the morning went unharrassed, and a fair bit of discussion took place in the afternoon before the bomb threats. So besides not even silencing these people particularly much, the terrorist will even have given SJW Airplay (yeah, let's call it that) a fair bit of sympathetic coverage as well. This meeting could have been great, guys. This meeting could have been potentially helpful to the discussion. This meeting featured Derek Smart, a developer everyone in the gaming world hates with a passion and has been for a decade, posing as 'neutral' in the ethics in journalism controversy, just about two weeks after ... ...debating with an expressly 'pro gamergate' side that consisted of express non gamers! (Tweet was originally meant to address misrepresentation of gamergate in mainstream media, of course, making it doubly hilarious in this context) Instead, for the pro gamergate side they went with the embodiment of a yellow press extreme right wing journalist who wrote with utter disdain about 'gamers' in the years leading up to gamergate – and some woman who left her version of feminism in her homemaking oven so long that it came out totally ruined, and whose legendary ignorant interpretation of gamer demographics started out with the stated fact that she of all people wasn't in any way a gamer at all. As Kevin Bacon attests in "A Few Good Men": "Strong witnesses". And, really, from what I heard from gamergate supporters, Milo Yiannopoulos was going full Col. Nathan Jessup in this one. Yesterday morning, the story was that a bunch of ignorant and ethically challenged people were discussing the ethics of others. Yesterday afternoon, the story was that victims were deprived of their right to free speech by terrorist threats. This meeting COULD have served to bring more people disassociating themselves from gamergate as they disassociate themselves from the chosen representatives. This meeting could have served to make people see how gamergate supporters are posing as 'neutrals' in order to make reasonable stances on the matter look extremist. Instead... thanks, Obama.

Meanwhile in Miami, gamergate and "anti-gamergate" are having a soccer match. But when the match starts, not a single player for "anti-gamergate" has turned up. 65 minutes later, gamergate scores their first goal.

Gamergate pointers (1) Social outrage the way it actually looks: http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/man-poses-target-facebook-trolls-haters-its-gender-neutral-move-epic-replies-166364 (2) Author Anne Rice came out supporting... well, I don't quite know what she was supporting. It's interesting seeing this message among the KiA threads. At the time over there, there's a call for more 4chan style anti advertiser activism (vs Gawker of course), a call for Daryush V.'s freeze peach rights (he recently took a beer to his wig), organizing a 'raid' (literally) on one of Zoe Quinn's speeches, and here and there some slander of things and people they don't like, like Gone to the Rapture (obviously one of them dangerous EsJaybabbeljuh games). Characterizing KIA's efforts as 'anti censorship' would definitely require the kind of fiction writing Anne is so good at! 3.) Brad Glasgow interviews 'gamergate' Or at least he says he does. In a series of seven questions/threads on reddit, namely, and mostly just with the intent that it 'can be done'. His results are... well, at the very least, interesting. Not sure where he's going with a lot of all this, but I'll say this: A journalist who is able to write down this utterly condemning stuff and is somehow still liked by the gamergate crowd is a rotten genius. http://gamepolitics.com/2015/08/12/challenge-accepted-interviewing-internet-hashtag#.VczmOlLgwRA (Done a rough count. The term "SJW" is mentioned nowhere in Glasgow's article. On the seven question threads, the term "SJW" is mentioned more than 260 times [Firefox just gives me a 100+ in number 2]). So at the very least, Glasgow is still going at it in a bit of an euphemistic way. )

Obviously, taking the same user name as someplace else already is opportunity and justification enough for some people to stalk, call out and attempt to send harrassers on people's trail. I've no interest in enabling those situations in any way.

(Not CA-related) http://www.seattletimes.com/pacific-nw-magazine/game-on-women-are-developing-new-video-games-and-a-new-culture/