Gamergate Is About Harassment and Exclusion, Not Ethics (Op-Ed)

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RefresherDev

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I'm going to have to disagree with this. I'm not a women, but I am a minority, and I feel like my status is being used to shield a much larger issue.

Have I seen racism in gaming? Yes.

This is also really not about that at all.

GamerGate is not saying 'stop making games that explore issues.' It's saying 'stop insulting and censoring people for liking games that don't.'

I'll point to Leigh Alexander as an example:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BxdSZYhIAAAZ8hJ.jpg

She says we need to 'wrest control away from these nerd dudes and their nerd power fantasies.'

Nerd-shaming aside (because apparently finding an escape from your life is a bad thing,) what she says here is VERY worrying.

Why? She's literally saying: To enjoy AAA action games is a bad thing. To not play a socially aware game is a bad thing.

This is the equivelent of waiting outside a Star Wars movie premier and saying 'You guys shouldn't enjoy this crap! Go watch Brokeback Mountain you uncultured slabs'

The PROBLEM here, is that Leigh holds a lot of power. If she says cis white males are awful people, and she has so many times, then Time publishes that article.

And gamers have had enough.

You know who I feel sorry for? The neckbeards who diligently wait outside for the launch for the next console, JRPG, shooter, whatever. Who are you to tell them that they CAN'T play that?

The game media is actively discouraging people from liking certain things, and that's completely wrong. That's what GamerGate is about.
 

Jill Scharr

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Hi @RefresherDev, this is Jill, the writer of the piece. I don't ever discourage people from playing triple-A games. I mention Destiny and Skyrim in my first paragraph. This whole article is literally about how I think there's room for a diversity of opinions in gaming, and that it's OKAY to not agree with me. I feel like you didn't read the article on which you're commenting.

Also, I love Star Wars AND Brokeback Mountain :)
 

david6005

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Totally agree with RefresherDev - well put sir - GamerGate is about GAMES and the ones we want to play - Jill I don't agree with you and I know it's OKAY.

btdubs saying peeps didn't read the article is kinda insulting - you should leave your passive aggressive writing style at home.
 

OrionBlastar

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First off anyone can call themselves a gamer, all they have to do is play a video game, and there you go, you are a gamer. There is no secret handshake there is no clubhouse that excludes people, you just have to play video games.

Secondly there is corruption in journalism, this article being one of those. Where it bashes white CIS males and does nerd shaming. Not every white cis male or nerd was behind this harassment, and some of the harassments were later found to be hoaxes just to get attention and speaking gigs. It also ignores that females were part of the Gamergate movement as much as males, and female gamers are tired of the corrupt journalism.

Thirdly I have played Depression Quest, it is available for free or a donation. As a person suffering from depression I found it an insult to my intelligence. It totally misrepresents depression and paints depressed people as lazy bums you must take control of and force them to take care of themselves and 'snap out of depression' in which one cannot snap out of depression and we are not all useless and worthless that we need someone to help us take care of ourselves to do tasks.

Fourthly censoring critics is not the way to go. There were a lot of Youtube videos that were not slander and cited facts and examples and got taken down via the DMCA. In fact there are video game reviews on Youtube that get taken down by DMCA requests because they criticise the video game. Censoring your fans and critics only adds to the corruption of video games and journalism.

Fifthly, Wikipedia only accepts articles that are pro-feminism on this issue and reverts any article that criticized the feminists in this scandal. Feminism is sexist, it claims women are superior, if you want gender equality support humanism that is gender neutral instead.
 

whatwhat83

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"Why did this happen? Because Sarkeesian was challenging many people's definition of what is "normal" in games."

Nope, it happened because Ms. Sarkeesian likes to fabricate evidence to prove her specious points.
 

qrux

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GamerGate may claim to be accepting. But to many of its supporters, anything resembling a critique — whether it be a woman with opinions about gender in video games, or a video game in which you can't shoot people or score points — is met with hostility. The toxic elements of GamerGate often shut down any possible debate by claiming that, because I'm voicing an opinion with which they disagree, I'm the one being hostile.

This is rather unfounded. A woman having an opinion does not bother me. The problem with Anita Sarkeesian isn't the fact that she has an opinion. This is partially what I think is upsetting people. This is probably the 10th article I have read that has made this claim but it's just an assumption, nothing more. You say it's because she is a woman that this is happening. Please try and realize that when someone is being misrepresented it only further agitates them. This goes for both Feminist Frequency and articles like yours. I do have a problem with Anita's message and it has nothing to do with her being a woman. Here is one sample that bothered me from Anita:

Players are then invited to explore and exploit those situations during their playthrough. The player cannot help but treat these female bodies as things to be acted upon because they were designed and constructed and placed in the environment for that singular purpose. Players are meant to derive a perverse pleasure from descrating the bodies of unsuspecting virtual female characters. It's a rush streaming from a carefully concocted mix of sexual arousal, connected to the act of controlling and punishing representations of female sexuality
Anita Sarkeesian on Hitman: Absolution (Women as Background Decoration: Part 1 - Tropes vs Women in Video Games)

To be more clear, in the video, Agent 47 is shown punching and killing female strippers and then hiding their bodies. It's not necessary for the player to do so to complete the mission, not only is it unnecessary but it's simply not part of the mission, in no part is this celebrated, in fact in the video the player is being penalized for doing so. To those that have not played this game and do not understand the mission will take Anita's word for it and it is a problem. It's an outright lie, a silly assumption that has absolutely no evidence to back it up. It paints gamers as perverse woman haters. How you as a gamer can say Anita has been spot on is beyond me. I also find this puzzling:

Some GamerGate supporters, maybe even many of them, truly do support the call for journalistic ethics and wouldn't dream of sending threats online. I sympathize with those people. But the bulk of the GamerGate supporters have no such ethical concerns, and they are simply defending their own definition of gaming from criticism or diversity of opinion.

More assumptions, more generalizations, further agitation. Why is it that you find a mismatch of cause and intention of people you probably never given the chance to have a conversation with but when it comes to Zoe Quinn or Anita Sarkeesian you won't even question their actual intent? This is my problem with this article, with the other articles like it. It appears that you aren't willing to tell both sides.
 

OrionBlastar

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She is not the only one. Author of this article does the same things. So did Zoe Quinn.

http://www.returnofkings.com/42602/did-anita-sarkeesian-fake-death-threats-against-herself

In fact it is a trend to fake stuff:

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield/bill-ayers-fan-stages-fake-rape-threat-against-herself-to-protest-rape-culture/

http://news.yahoo.com/police-28-old-undergrad-threatened-herself-rape-facebook-144619851.html

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2013/05/02/liberal_student_caught_making_fake_rape_threats_306890.html

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanhatesthis/womens-rights-activist-charged-with-rape-threat-hoax-on-face#3jtqblr

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/05/01/Feminist-student-fakes-Facebook-rape-threat

These five feminists fake death and rape threats against themselves and got caught by the police.

Yet they get a lot of sympathy, support, and speaking gigs against the white cis males who harassed them?

 

RefresherDev

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I feel you didn't do your research on this matter. The video was mirrored here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Equc1QnQ9rw

As you can see, it does not use any of her pictures (any pictures at all) and isn't slander, first off it says 'IF' second off he is criticizing her actions in regard to journalism, he DOES talk about cheating but he brushes it aside pretty early on as irrelevent.



You also have a misunderstanding of what the vast majority of people in GamerGate think, this image is the most widely circulated on the hashtag for a while now.



Sarkeesian is in no way, shape, or form linked to the criticism of Quinn at all. The people who harassed her were not linked to GG. The harassment of Sarkeesian has to do as much with GamerGate's beliefs and values as the doxxing of jay3dfox has to do with Feminism.



Again, that's not why it happened. As for Saarkesian, criticism towards her has been mostly because she refused to acknowledge another viewpoint entirely, and websites never, ever, report on the counter argument.

Again, both sides are at fault here. However, the direct labelling of an ENTIRE movement as something it's not is just incorrect. In so many cases you referred to GamerGate as a single entity. Would you do the same for Feminism? Racial Equality? The Black Panthers exist. There are a lot of feminists on tumblr who would like you to know that all men must die.

Now I'm a feminist, and I'll tell you that's as far away from the goals of feminism as you can possibly get. I am also a minority, MLK is more of what I think Civil Rights are about too.

I am also in support of GamerGate. I'd request you stop making broad assumptions and do some of your own research before coming to conclusions. Remember, GamerGate, 4Chan, Reddit, ALL of these are living, breathing, human beings who are passionate about their games and don't want to feel kicked out of their hobby.

I have seen nothing from 4Chan to suggest misogyny, outside of the stuff that was deleted and condemned immediately ("shill" is the common term for a hateful asshole,) several sympathized with a transgendered teenager that was doxxed by so called "anti-GG." They also donated to a feminist group trying to get women into the game industry and later another seperate charity. These aren't some two-faced evil plots, these are sincere gestures aimed at making their community both diverse and progressive, they just want to trust that reporters are clean and fair, and that their community isn't being attacked by secret blacklists (which have been proven to exist, see Chris Plante's 1500 person blocklist as well as Boogie's posts about his emails.)

This isn't about exclusion, this is about inclusion. NotYourShield wouldn't exist if this was about exclusion.

So yea, the idiots exist, but they're as GamerGate as 'feminists' who sex shame virgins, both are wrong and not representative of their issue.
 

Scubasteve2020

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Notice how these articles never mention the sister hashtag #notyourshield. A group comprised up of minorities and females that support gamergate and refuse to have the name "Gamer" tarnished by these nerd shaming articles?

Any actual research done into this subject would easily show that Gamers don't want to silence anyone.

Any and all creative development should be left up to the devs with out influence from other parties for social standards.

If someone wants to make a video game with nothing but scantly clad women that is there own perrogative. If some Anti-white cis males group wants to create a game centered around head shotting white neck beards, they should have that freedom as well.

What gamer gate won't stand for though is the censorship of any game, because someone is offended.

Really glad, I came in here with adblock up and this site is quickly going on my blacklist.

The author came here to bash gamers, rather than have a meaningful discussion on the subject.
 

knowom

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Depression Quest...sorry, but it's been repeated my whole life that depression is not a game what's the expansion going to be called Suicide Quest?
 

amonkey

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I feel like any article written by this author should just be ignored. It was relatively well written by the conclusions reached are just awful.
 

thelittlegirl

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> But the bulk of the GamerGate supporters have no such ethical concerns, and they are simply defending their own definition of gaming from criticism or diversity of opinion.

You can say whatever you want about gender, but you don’t get to exempt yourself from criticism and pushback because you are talking about feminism. A lot of people don’t accept the legitimacy of the complaints being made by so called “Social Justice Warriors” and believe that their presence in the gaming industry and press is chilling discourse and artistic creativity. Gamer Gate’s continue existence is at least partially a result of those of us who dislike SJWs fighting their narrative and letting them know that we disagree with where their smug hipster clique wants to take the industry. We don’t want artistic expression to be limited because someone had their feelings hurt, and we don’t believe that art is bad because it doesn't check off neat little diversity boxes. The politically correct world SJWs want to live in is soulless and as long as they continue to argue that it would be good to embrace it they are going to meet with opposition.

> The toxic elements of GamerGate often shut down any possible debate by claiming that, because I'm voicing an opinion with which they disagree, I'm the one being hostile.

The pro-GamerGate side isn’t shutting off comments on their articles or trying to ban discussion of these issues on various forums. If the other side that is uninterested in having a real debate about these issues.

For the record, I applaud you for not disabling comments on this article.
 

Alex Clippinger

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Sep 16, 2014
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Oh goodness, here we go again.

Yes, let's just pretend the harassment is one-sided.

Let's pretend GamerGaters haven't been harassed, threatened, talked down to, accused, and even doxxed.

Let's pretend game journalists haven't posted vile, hateful, unprofessional messages on twitter, even threats.

Let's pretend that devs, gamer celebrities, and others haven't had their industry connections threatened for supporting GamerGate.

Let's pretend that indie developers, site moderators, and current/former game press members haven't come forward and cited examples of corruption, arrogance, hypocrisy, and double standards in game journalism.

Let's pretend that there are no developer or journalist cliques, and that these people are not terrified of them.

So come along, everyone. It's time to pretend.
 

wildkitten

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Sorry Ms. Scharr, but as a female gamer myself I am sick of this unquestioning support of these two women. Sarkeesian has made some very specious and unsubstantiated claims and refuses to back any of them up with evidence. Anyone who disagrees with her is automatically called a misogynist and it's getting tiresome.

Your adding to this just makes me question whether Tom's is the place for me. You can have all the opinions you want, but I have the right to choose where I want to go for tech information.
 

OrionBlastar

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http://www.returnofkings.com/42602/did-anita-sarkeesian-fake-death-threats-against-herself

http://www.reddit.com/r/SRSsucks/comments/2esvoe/recent_threats_to_anita_sarkeesian_may_be_a_false/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErGcBxMpgwA

Anita faked the harassment and death and rape threats to herself. She created a fake Twitter account, used Twilight and 50 shades of Grey references to act out her sexual fantasies, then 12 seconds after making the threat had logged out and taken a screenshot. Then logged back into the fake account and deleted all history and the account itself. The IP address on the account making the threats matched the same one Anita uses for her other Twitter accounts.

The threats and harassment are hoaxes, for Anita to use to prove her points that white cis males are awful. Notice that there is no way of telling that any Twitter account is owned by a white cis male it had no profile picture and used a fake name and throwaway email address. Yet clearly she states it is a white cis male. Instead of calling the police and reporting it, she moves out of her house instead, and no police report was filed. If she did file a police report they'd notice the Twitter account had the same IP as her account and file charges against her.

Instead she paints herself as a victim, gets speaking gigs, and people to donate more money towards her, and more attention.

In her research she never follows the scientific method, cherry picks the video games, never pays for a license to use video game content, concludes that all white cis males who play video games are awful, and get away with it keeping most of the Kickstarter money that was supposed to be used to license the video game content, and have someone peer review her research. Since she did not take random samples, did not get a peer review, was not neutral, hypothesis was not falsifiable, was very biased, it is not following the scientific method and should not be trusted. Yet it is trusted because she faked the harassment and threats as a hoax to get trusted.
 

OrionBlastar

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May 2, 2014
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Internet Feminist Bloggers described by one Youtube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t9ROdtVKMc

Look at all those thickens!

Making an incorrect statement, and then congratulating each other for making incorrect statements by claiming to be 'spot on'!

The facts and the truth don't matter, what matters is getting even with those white cis male people who seem to dominate in STEM and video games by studying hard, learning from mistakes and failures, admitting to those mistakes and failures, and then maturing as a person as they age.

The white cis males doing harassment are immature, and mostly under 18. Using their parent's Internet and basement to post their immature remarks to females. The He-Man Women Haters Club.
 
Sep 17, 2014
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There has been more harassment of pro-gamer women from the Anti-Gamergate side, which is primarily made up of straight white men. You should see how they treat Christina H. Sommers. What ever happened to Listen and Believe?
 
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