Over on 4chan, angry gamebros are organizing a vast wave of Twitter, er, ” activism” to SAVE VIDYA GAMES from the evil fake gamer girls and their Social Justice Warrior allies.
According to one anon, who’s been posting this message into numerous threads, the best way to fight “journalistic corruption” in the gaming world is to … set up fraudulent sockpuppet accounts on Twitter to make it look like there’s a groundswell of opposition to the evil game ladies.
If that’s a bit hard to read, here’s the text, with some bolding for emphasis added by me. The bits at the end are my favorite.
We campaigned against journalistic corruption; we were told that gamers are dead. Both lawfag and marketingfag told you to flood the pax hashtags as it would get the attention of their advertisers. You now have the opportunity to save vidya and get the average person on your side.
Why are you not doing shit /v/? GET OUT THERE AND FLOOD THE HASHTAGS. Here is a quick guide:
>1) Make a gmail throwaway if you don’t want it linked to your main email.
>2) Make a testing tweet and choose an appealing description of your account.
>3) Make a few tweets proclaiming your newness.
>4) Make a few tweets about #GamerGate.
>5) Increase your visibility by following people — search the #GamerGate tag and follow people you like. Remember, you’re legit new, so at least some should follow you back.
>6) FOLLOW THE PEOPLE WHO ARE FOLLOWING THESE PEOPLE. Chances are some of these are your fellow anons, so with luck we can increase our follow counts.
>7) Continue tweeting about the cause with the pax hashtags (#PAX #PAXPrime) with the #GamerGate tag.
>8) Seach the hashtag, favorite and retweet supporting tweets. That’s the star icon. Get your anons to the top.
>9) If you get stuck with zero followers. Reply to someone, chime in that you agree with them. But don’t argue on this step. Let them do that if they want to do that.
>If you are confronted, remain calm, don’t lose your spaghetti, and be the better person. Explain that this is not about girls being victimized, it is about the vilification of gamers and jounalistic integrity in the media.
>For extra class, present yourselves as normal people who sjws by their own standards should sympathize with, like an indian cab driver who can’t read traffic signs. (this requires extensive shitposting experience.)
So what’s got these dudes so enraged today? Aside from, you know, their normal misogynstic manbaby rage, there’s been a FLOOD of articles on gamer sites and mainstream media outlets alike arguing that “gamers” — as they’ve traditionally defined themselves — are about to take a plunge into the dustbin of history, and that if the game industry is to survive it needs to free itself from the clutches of the angry young dudes currently yelling at the top of their lungs against Zoe Quinn and Anita Sarkeesian.
Here are some of the articles that have really pissed them off:
‘Gamers’ don’t have to be your audience. ‘Gamers’ are over, by Leigh Alexander at Gamasutra
The End of Gamers, by Dan Golding, on his own blog
It’s Dangerous to Go Alone: Why Are Gamers So Angry? by Arthur Chu at The Daily Beast
The death of the “gamers” and the women who “killed” them by Casey Johnson at Ars Technica
A Guide to Ending “Gamers” by Devin Wilson at Gamasutra
This guy’s embarassing relationship drama is killing the ‘gamer’ identity by Mike Pearl at Vice
If you only read one of these, make it that first one by Leigh Alexander, which is awesomely blunt.
Again, why is the harassment targeting Zoe Quinn and not the journalist. Not a single apologist for this shit has been able to answer it and you’re not even addressing it.
As Stannis Baratheon says “the good doesn’t wash out the bad.” Also, it’s pretty ironic that you’re engaged in apologia for the harassment of a woman and yet when you come to troll in a feminist space and get some strident responses you take umbrage. You can dish it out but can’t take it huh?
Not only is this dishonest, but it doesn’t even work. Amongst most feminists, men of color do not get a free pass to be misogynistic because they are also in a marginalized group. That’s not how intersectionality works. For all the obsessive hatred you people seem to have for “social justice warriors” you certainly haven’t made the slightest effort to find out what we’re about and how we think.
Oh there is, is there? Please, mansplain to my poor little uncomprehending ladybrain…
You seem to have forgotten something: 4chan is notorious for its trolling raids, and has been for years. They’ve even pretended to be feminists in an ongoing effort to discredit them. That requires more than a little consensus if people embark upon them en masse. 4chan has the deserved reputation for being the trailer-park toilet dump of the Internet, which I guess is indeed “by definition chaotic”.
I don’t, however, see what’s “unfair” about criticizing a post telling other 4channers to masquerade with multiple socks as clueless Twitter newbies and start “shit-posting” (complete with racist allusions to Indian cabbies who don’t know how to drive — hurr hurr hurr oh look at us clever white men, we’re so superior!). That sort of behavior isn’t legitimate. It’s done only to confound and annoy and derail and generally waste other people’s valuable time. Why the hell are you defending even ONE call to do such a thing? Do you realize what that makes you? I’ll give you a hint: Neither fair nor balanced.
If I see a person defending trolls, I think I’m within my rights to assume that said person is a troll, too. As is the one calling for others to troll. It may be business as usual for 4chan, but elsewhere on the Internets, that’s not kosher. I’m amazed that you need this pointed out to you.
That’s funny, because Twitter itself has a FAQ (several, actually) and a TOS, and doesn’t need 4chan to tell others how to communicate using it.
Plenty. For one thing, their “genuine concerns and opinions” are based on bullshit. There is exactly ZERO evidence that Zoe Quinn engaged in “bribery” to get a mention of her game. There is also no rave review from anyone she’s alleged to have slept with to get one. And as far as “she had sex with X and Y and maybe even Z”, that’s hearsay and defamation of character. Not admissible in a court of law, and worth zero here, too. For all we know, her bitter little ex could have made the whole thing up…and by the general odor of things, it is highly probable that he did.
THAT is how it’s “artificial”. And that is “what’s exactly wrong with that”.
And 4channers trolling with multiple FAKE accounts per individual (that’s what sockpuppetry is) is supposed to help all this HOW? If anything, it amplifies unfair criticisms and is precisely intended to derail discussion, just as you’re doing here.
Well, ain’t that some shit. “Fine Young Capitalists” is kind of an oxymoron, considering that capitalism is neither young nor fine. It’s old and decrepit and should be tossed out. I’m sure they were only being ironic when they picked that monicker, though. Cute of them…and likewise, the development of that “feminist” mascot who conveniently spouts sexist shit at the behest of…drumroll please…4chan! Very Robert Heinlein, that. Guess they couldn’t cough up a real woman to save their lives?
And I really don’t give a damn how many women are spamming #GamerGate with carbon copies of the same old sexist same old. For all I know, they’re actually men too, socking it up with abandon, just as the asshole who posted the piece mentioned above said to do.
Even if they ARE real women, as you seem to think they are, the fact that they’ve internalized so much bullshit misogyny is not commendable, it’s fucking pathetic. It shows that they’ve abandoned critical thinking in favor of getting contrarian cookies from the boys. The same boys who would happily throw them under the bus the minute they put even one toe out of line.
And finally: What’s truly disingenuous is that you’re pretending that stinky game journalism is only a real problem now, when there’s a woman developer with a shitty ex-boyfriend in the mix. Exactly where were all you big, brave 101st Flying Keyboarders when big-name game developers have been relying on an all too compliant media empire to promote their shit for YEARS?
“In conclusion”? Oy, how pompous and pedantic. I feel like I’m listening to a bad lecture here.
Dude, the “strawman fallacy” you’re babbling about consists of quoting the offending idiot verbatim. Screencapping him, even. It’s kind of hard to “misrepresent” someone who is clearly presenting himself in the worst possible light already. (But kudos to you for trying, I guess.)
And all of us here have already heard the “other side” ad nauseam, too. It’s the one that keeps calling us bitches, cunts, sluts and whores, and keeps telling us to get out of the boys’ club that is gaming. Or anything else outside the kitchen and nursery, for that matter. You’ll have to pardon us all if we get sick of listening to the poor, misunderstood Other Side telling us to fetch them a sandwich, and start plugging our collective ears and going la-la-la-la-la.
Especially since it’s all coming out of some rancid Cheeto-dust-farter’s ass, anyway.
And yet, you managed to ramble on and on just fine, and as you can see, all the things I’ve criticized above are errors in your reading comprehension, not your orthography.
You’re welcome.
On reflection, I’m thinking that TownFromSpain’s disclaimer about not being a native English speaker was probably not true. He’s probably some white American dude trying to follow the “pretend to be a normal person” instructions in the OP.
That’s funny, I smell artificial curry, too! You don’t suppose he’s really an Indian cabbie, do you?
No, wait, that’s not even artificial curry…that’s…ew…DIRTY SOCKS.
@Bina
Well, judging from his ‘nym, I’m thinking maybe dirty socks and rotten paella. 🙂
LOL, And a side order of fermented green olives, no doubt.
We’ll have to give him a pass, now, though, ’cause, you know, downtrodden first-generation Spanish immigrants. Wait, what? I think possibly he missed the point of creating a “normal” person.
Thank you for saying that, titanblue. That was the first thing I thought of when I read the TowninSpain’s mansplaination. Pull the other one…
Am I correct in surmising that cis-male-cis-male romance is not an option in the Mass Effect series?
Whoever posted this complete bullshit:
“Second, the title and article is extremely misleading. The reason that this post exists is because a lot of people on that website aren’t too social and don’t have a twitter account. It’s just a guide for twitter newcomers to get used to it.”
You’re lying.We know you’re lying, and I guess you’re going to have to get through the rest of the day knowing that.
And the whole, “No seriously, we have a really good excuse for posing as minorities online!” Eeesh. Good god, man. You have such a really really good excuse for misrepresenting yourself?
You’re a bunch of cowards who don’t want to face the reality that gamer culture is being called on its misogyny. And yes, this is all about sexism not journalism. With some exceptions, most gamer reviews are barely disguised ads. You guys just want to burn a witch, I’m thinking because I don’t see anyone going after the reporter Zoe allegedly had a fling with with pitchforks and torches.
Looks like you’re going to have to deal with people outside of your demo in a civilized manner. **Sniff** Want a tissue?
@Michael McG
actually it is and it an interracial one too.
ignoring some issues with the two Gamasutra articles. There all a very interesting read.
@Michael McG Unfortunately, no cis-male, cis-male in Mass Effect 1 or 2, but in 3, maleshep can romance Steve or Kaidan.
You know what really kills the “It’s all about journalistic integrity!” fig leaf?
The fact that if Quinn had bought some ad space on Kotaku and asked them to write about her game like the commercial publishers do, not one fuck would have been given. But because she’s been accused of trading sex for publicity instead of money it’s some kind of humongous scandal worthy of public shaming, death/rape threats and dudebro rage.
I’ve played video games since the late 70s, owned every major console since the early 90s and self-identified as a gamer since the term came into use. But now I just tell people I like video games, because it’s gotten to the point where I’m embarrassed to be associated with these feces flinging assholes. I’m willing to bet I’ve been playing video games longer than most of them have been alive, yet they’d probably write me off as a “fake gamer” because most of my gaming is done on my smartphone these days.
My favourite part is that the 4channers seem to think that if they pretend to be minorities and then bring up “corruption” that’s just thinly-veiled gatekeeping, that anyone will be fooled. The problem is not identity politics, it’s that they’re talking crap. Like the allegation that a high review score for a game called Gone Home was the reviewer doing the game developer a favour because of one tweet a year before the game came out – and not because the game connected with her in a way that games about straight cis-male white protagonists with half a shirt tucked in never could.
Actually, no, my favourite part is that they’re calling it GamerGate, which implies that the scandal is about gamers. Which is absolutely true and totally not what they want to present.
No, wait, my favourite part is that this feels like the beginning of the end for this particular kind of bullshit. There was a visibility to this that’s unprecedented, and a viciousness to this that goes totally against the kind of narratives journalists and developers like to think about their medium.
I find it hilarious that some troll is actually trying to sell the bullshit line that this is about teaching naive 4channers how to use Twitter and not an obvious trolling campaign.
(One of) My favorite things is how they bash Anita Sarkeesian for being an outsider and not a real gamer, but flock to Christina Hoff Sommers who is a proud outsider to be their voice. It’s not about what you play, it’s about what you say, I guess.
So, apparently the Quinnspiracy theorists are now sort of endorsing the Honeybadgers. They have pretty much given up all pretense of not being MRAs at this point, I think.
I don’t understand. A gamer is just someone who plays and enjoys video games and it’s only really a minority who misogynists and harassers like the ones who attack Anita Sarkeesian. The majority of Anita Sarkeesian’s backers of her Kickstarter were gamers.
#GamerGate news: Lawyers against gaming corruption fundraising. They claim that they want to raise money to research if there’s any legal options.
Turns out that the lawyer being retained by “Lawyers against gaming corruption” is the wife of the the person who started the fundraiser, a little conflict-of-interest fact that the fundraising page doesn’t list.
@Jono I defended the term gamer up-thread, too. I don’t entirely agree with your definition, though. I know people I think of as gamers who only do tabletop RPG, CCG, or board games.
Anyway, if we want the term not to go down in history as referring to those guys, though, a whole bunch of gamers (preferably lots of male ones) who aren’t those guys probably are going to need to find a really loud way to say, “Hey, you douchebags don’t speak for us!” Probably a few hundred times.
@Belladonna993: Yeah, the gaming community has a lot to learn from how hardcore punk and black metal ejected neo-nazis to the absolute fringes. The community as a whole (including major leaders) need to speak up and say that these shit-stains don’t speak for use or represent us, and that they are antithetical to everything we believe in. We need an equivalent to the Dead Kennedy’s “Nazi Punks, Fuck Off”.