Devin Faraci - Guy who called us terrorists

[Loonyyy]

He explicitly compared people who harrass, bully, call swat teams on people, bomb threats, personal information sharing, hacking and stealing of credit card information to that. And explicitly described the whole "Not all gamers" bit. If you still think he's referring to you, then you're up to some seriously nasty shit, because you can't be literate and that unable to read (And reading actually means trying to understand what he wrote rather than getting bent out of shape and "Offended", you PC Police[See, we can do that too], about something you're doing your best to take the wrong way). The best way to show that "Gamers" aren't like that (And they are. Gaming is a vile cesspool, and it can take some real stomach to get through this shit. Apparently strict moderation of this shit makes something "Famously liberal". *Vomit*), is to cut out the scum that would do this.

Devin Faraci didn't call me a terrorist. He called out a bunch of scum sucking terrorists for exactly what they are, and in doing so, did more for gamers than a million homophobic, racist, misogynistic bigots could in a decade of living in their mothers basement's cultivating hatred. If you actually have a problem with gamers being noticed for the things that a fair number of them are engaged in, then you should get rid of the scummy ones, not the ones trying to get rid of them.

Yeah, this.

I'm not insulted because he's not talking about me. I don't engage in that kind of behaviour. Do you guys?

If no, he's not talking about you.

And anyway, who cares?

I've been told a million times `just ignore them`. What's up with people lately? Some gamers seem to be running around screaming like vampires burning in the sun. The whole place has gone loony.

I see what you did there.

Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and it'd be true of this, these people really need to be exposed, maybe it'd give them an idea of what it feels like for everyone else. Can't think of a mixed metaphor for skin thickness and sunburn, so pretend I said something clever.

 

[Something Amyss]

Several people have gotten threatened and doxxed for disagreeing with Anita and Zoe as well.

And I've already spoken about it, because people have been having tantrums about it for days now. See, that's kind of the thing. Even as you make a post saying "their critics get doxed, too!" they're the ones getting all the attention. Yes, the poor little doxed individuals who only have 30,000 mentions on the Escapist in various threads complaining about how Zoe/Anita/Phil are all lying bastards who faked everything.

The reason this is special is I've seen abso-fucking-lutely nothing on most of those people getting shit. The one exception is Phil Fish, which the "journalistic integrity" crowd immediately pooh-poohed as fake, disparaging or downplaying any such claim. Hell, you downplay it yourself.

Plus Phil and Zoe got "attacked"

I do not support attacks from either side, but there's more to the story than "These people are the only victims because they support Anita." To state that is bullshit.

Except I didn't state that, and I'm not sure anyone did. And while you might not "support" attacks from either side, you pretty clearly did pick a side. Don't try and flip this on me, either. If I applied the same sentiment you did in this post, I'd be questioning everyone who "allegedly" got doxed for disagreeing with Anita or Zoe. To the contrary, I haven't questioned any of them. I have actually accepted it as fact for the sake of these arguments, without so much as researching them to challenge their legitimacy. They could be lying for all I know. They could have been doxed for other reasons. Hell, they could have been doxed for criticisng Anita or Zoe in threatening ways for all I know. Following your example, I should totally go disparage them now.

But I haven't yet and I don't really have any desire to now.

I would finish this point by saying that their critics getting doxed doesn't make the gaming community less terrorist in nature. It makes it more so. That would further both the arguments presented by Kaize and Faraci.

 

[Cronenberg1]

Come on, that's just petty! He admitted to committing crimes in the past so he's a horrible individual in the present who's work you should now be ashamed of liking? I mean, did he advocate theft? Did he say he was justified in stealing anything? Would you prefer he keep it secret his entire life?

How is it petty?

Because you're pointing out shitty things he did as a teenager (I'd say pretty much everyone has done regrettable things in their life, especially their teens) which bear no relevance to the current situation in order to attack him now in the present. How is that not petty? In journalism we call that muckraking and it's generally frowned upon.

I provided a showcase of the man's conduct and character in a discussion that's all about conduct and character. If that's something you frown upon then frown away.

Oh, and I don't buy the ''He did that as a teenager'' excuse. Teenagers - 18-year olds especially - should be smart enough to know right from wrong. Besides, I dislike the ''Well, everybody makes mistakes!'' rationalization in general.

Not everyone is a great person when they are young. You also didn't post his next tweet where he said. Do I deserve to be shot? He was making a point about the Ferguson killing. He used that point to say why we shouldn't shoot young people for petty theft.

 

[AJ_Lethal]

When "gamers" act like monsters and threaten people, fake or not, the gloves come off. I'm with him. They have an extremist mentality and he's damn right to call them on it by comparing them to ISIS or the KKK. I mean these types of gamers are apparently willing to put people's lives in danger for a laugh. Sick and twisted individuals those are. As are the people who think its funny to send rape and death threats to Zoe, or Anita, or Phil, or, or Tim, or now even Joss Whedon himself for taking Anita's side. Even Yaya Han, the Queen of Cosplay, got backlash from people for sharing Anita's latest video.

I doubt those scumbags who drag the "gamer" name through the mud have any capacity of carrying out their threats. They are just a stupider breed of e-thugs.

People just should ignore/block and report them to management and/or the authorities. Is that simple.

They probably don't. Still the time is over for taking these threats "lightly".

Descending to their level is not the way to do it, mind you.

You can take this kind of shit serious without descending into into an asshole.

Sadly the internet forgets to do that.

 

[teh_gunslinger]

And his newest masterpiece "you must speak in simple, metaphor-free sentences to gamers" basically calling all gamers dumb.

Eh, if you read the general level of discourse on gaming websites, you know, he kinda has a point there.

Have you seen how anti intellectual gamers are? Just read user reviews for games like Dear Esther, Gone Home or Kentucky Route Zero. There are a lot of people playing games out there who will throw a fit anytime a game doesn't completely cater to their taste and decry it as pretentious shit and feminist/gay agenda bullcrap and what have. Read up on the reactions to Mountain.

Most of these people do indeed seem like people who wouldn't know a metaphor if it hit them square between their eyes. We're not, as a rule, very literate, it seems. Oh, to be sure, we'll fawn about Enders Game and other trite science fiction and fantasy but we sure don't like literary approaches to game or stuff like discourse analysis.

So, in short, yea, most gamers are dumb as door nails, myself likely included.

 

[Uriel_Hayabusa]

I provided a showcase of the man's conduct and character in a discussion that's all about conduct and character. If that's something you frown upon then frown away.

Oh, and I don't buy the ''He did that as a teenager'' excuse. Teenagers - 18-year olds especially - should be smart enough to know right from wrong. Besides, I dislike the ''Well, everybody makes mistakes!'' rationalization in general.

You provided a showcase for a man's conduct and character... if we were talking about the "man" he was however many years ago when he was 17/18. Unless he's still stealing, or acting like what he did wasn't wrong, or something like that I fail to see how this reflects upon his current character.

What should reflect upon his current conduct and character is that he's willing to openly admit to committing a crime instead of pretending he's absolutely perfect. And I certainly respect that more than "look he did something completely unrelated to this thread so many years ago, hate him and try to shame anyone who doesn't hate him too!" Especially when he's doing it to make a point about the horrible treatment people are facing due to their race.

Good point. You're right, that was underhanded of me.

 

[CaptainChip]

Several people have gotten threatened and doxxed for disagreeing with Anita and Zoe as well.

And I've already spoken about it, because people have been having tantrums about it for days now. See, that's kind of the thing. Even as you make a post saying "their critics get doxed, too!" they're the ones getting all the attention. Yes, the poor little doxed individuals who only have 30,000 mentions on the Escapist in various threads complaining about how Zoe/Anita/Phil are all lying bastards who faked everything.

The reason this is special is I've seen abso-fucking-lutely nothing on most of those people getting shit. The one exception is Phil Fish, which the "journalistic integrity" crowd immediately pooh-poohed as fake, disparaging or downplaying any such claim. Hell, you downplay it yourself.

Plus Phil and Zoe got "attacked"

I do not support attacks from either side, but there's more to the story than "These people are the only victims because they support Anita." To state that is bullshit.

Except I didn't state that, and I'm not sure anyone did. And while you might not "support" attacks from either side, you pretty clearly did pick a side. Don't try and flip this on me, either. If I applied the same sentiment you did in this post, I'd be questioning everyone who "allegedly" got doxed for disagreeing with Anita or Zoe. To the contrary, I haven't questioned any of them. I have actually accepted it as fact for the sake of these arguments, without so much as researching them to challenge their legitimacy. They could be lying for all I know. They could have been doxed for other reasons. Hell, they could have been doxed for criticisng Anita or Zoe in threatening ways for all I know. Following your example, I should totally go disparage them now.

But I haven't yet and I don't really have any desire to now.

I would finish this point by saying that their critics getting doxed doesn't make the gaming community less terrorist in nature. It makes it more so. That would further both the arguments presented by Kaize and Faraci.

Yes, because no one's giving poor little Anita, Phil, and Zoe any attention. None. Except for gaming journalist sites whose posts go out to hundreds of thousands of people and don't report both sides. But that doesn't matter. Poor them.

Please point out where I downplayed the doxxing against those named? Please. I want to know. And honestly, it's okay to doubt some of the harassment coming to this side as well. Like, the Jayd3Fox thing I'm not sure about. I'm thinking she's still in parody mode regarding Anita, but I have no way of thinking one way or the other.

Also, you didn't state that, but the guy above you who picked a side did. I'm trying to point out that he picked a side for those reasons, except the side he picked also does those things. Hell, the guy s/he very agreed with doxxed somebody himself for disagreeing with him, the example is the last post on the first page of this very thread. It's hypocrisy. That's what I'm trying to point out.

EDIT: Derp, I see where I downplayed. Disregard that part.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Okay... I've seen this thread grow and grow, and decided to finally look at the links posted in the OP. And I honestly can't for the life of me bring myself to give an inch of a crap. What is it I'm supposed to be insulted by again? This obvious hackneyed caricatured joke of a journalist comparing "us" (I don't even know what that's supposed to mean) to terrorists? By finding that this guy's approach to getting attention is on the level of Fox News? What is it that I'm missing here?

 

[Velventian]

@Zachary Amaranth

as she's related to the specific topic here

using that argument you could tie every single discussion even remotly in that area back to her since it was the shirtstorm surrounding her that started the whole thing. But the idea was to drop her since this isn`t about her anymore.

You're not condemning them. You're not having a constructive discussion. You're complaining that someone hurt your feelings. You're condemning Faraci. How many of your posts have you dedicated to that? How many to complaining about Zoe? How many have you dedicated to condemning gamers? The last one is by far the smallest, and given my limited search on your post history I'm guessing the number is 0

You have zero clue what i do besides the few posts here on this website so don´t go around and tell me who i condemn or not, thats just pretentious

Except Social Justice Warrior was coined as a pejorative, so even if you try and go back, you still can't claim equity. That still ignores the fact that saying people were offended by "SJWs" getting offended isn't a "who did it first" argument, it's a flat out argument that your claim is false. Even if they didn't get offended "first," your claim that people didn't get offended is flat our wrong and undermines the double standard you're trying to demonstrate. In fact, apply your own argument again and conclusively prove to me that nobody was offended. Hell, you just argued that maybe I didn't see the "SJWs" starting it, so how the hell could you know nobody was offended? You couldn't.

Maybe you should apply your own argument. The point i was trying to make that both versions are equally true and false. Unless you can monitor the entire internet you simply can`t prove which side got offended first and which side attacked first. Does this also mean that my statement about people having no problem with SJW being offended was not entirely correct? sure, which i did imply by saying it being "true too" which puts both versions on equal footing.

Except Social Justice Warrior was coined as a pejorative, so even if you try and go back, you still can't claim equity.

Sorry but for me that sounds like claiming victim bonus for "social justice warriors" because the term was created with mean intent...

Except you have no reason to infer such things. Not only did the posts before the ones you quote mine serve to be more specific, but you even posted him saying things like #notallgamers. And yes, you can talk about a group without talking about every member of the group.

I´m a gamer, someone runs around throwing insults at gamers in general, it hits me. So what throwing around a single hash tag changes everything? If he is so considerate to use #notallgamers then why didn´t he just avoid generalizing them in the first place.

"funny" she got brought up? Are you for real?

either this is a language thing or i don`t know why that word gets you that much, but i meant "funny" like "wierd" or "odd"

Right now, you've spent more time rationalising their behaviour.

How the hell do i rationalize their behavior?

I don't believe you. That wouldn't be the answer, either, but I don't freaking believe you. And one of the reasons is that even as you quote a guy saying #notallgamers, you have decided that he's talking specifically about you. About us.

Honestly, by now i don´t care what you believe...

Man, did you put words in my mouth to get that "irony." But then, you quote mined Faraci and tried to use lines of reasoning that would dismiss your own claims, so I'm not sure why I'm even surprised any more. Are you really so offended you have to resort to lying? If so, that speaks more to the problem than anything I could actually say on the matter.

I'm not offended or "ticked off" by you saying "us." I am refuting an inaccurate statement that there is an "us." I don't want to be associated with the "us" you're voluntarily associating yourself with. If anything, you're getting ticked off on my behalf.

You claim that you don`t feel associated to what you see as my definition of "us" yet you keep trying to prove something based solely around that definition.
----------------------
Just sifting through all that quote unquote took almost an hour and honestly my brain hurts.
By now i see 2 scenarios: Either you are trying to troll me in which case gratz cause i am done for today
or Scenario 2: Neither of us is trying to troll the other but our methods of communication inherently incompatible

I hope its scenario 2
Maybe you are right that i might be a tad thin skinned in that regard i don´t know.
But if i feel offended by him using the term gamer then i am offended by it.
If you don`t feel like he meant you when he used the term gamer then nice for you.

But as far as i see it the 2 of us discussing that is pretty much futile.
So i would say lets agree to disagree and call it a night.

As a sign of good faith i severely cut back on the "snappiness" of my responses

 

[Velventian]

Eh, if you read the general level of discourse on gaming websites, you know, he kinda has a point there.

Have you seen how anti intellectual gamers are? Just read user reviews for games like Dear Esther, Gone Home or Kentucky Route Zero. There are a lot of people playing games out there who will throw a fit anytime a game doesn't completely cater to their taste and decry it as pretentious shit and feminist/gay agenda bullcrap and what have. Read up on the reactions to Mountain.

Most of these people do indeed seem like people who wouldn't know a metaphor if it hit them square between their eyes. We're not, as a rule, very literate, it seems. Oh, to be sure, we'll fawn about Enders Game and other trite science fiction and fantasy but we sure don't like literary approaches to game or stuff like discourse analysis.

So, in short, yea, most gamers are dumb as door nails, myself likely included.

I have quite a different point of view on that, actually i think most gamers are above average intelligence.
But to clarify i am talking about 55-70 Percentile, sure gamers aren't necessarily geniuses but things like creative problem solving, pattern recognition, reactionary decision making and 3 dimensional thinking are prerequisites in many many games and get trained by games.

"We're not, as a rule, very literate, it seems."
To me that sounds a bit wierd :/ you might very much be in the right on that one though. Not everyone reads books all the time but usually when playing a game i come across dozens of things i read up on them, characters, worlds, technologies, magic. I spent about 10 hours every week on various wikis reading up on games, series, movies or comics. I just had hoped that would be the average.

 

[Padwolf]

Ok, I'm still very confused about everything that's gone on. Hell, I didn't even know this guy existed until this point in time to be honest. From what I can gather he is talking to people who have been acting like fools. He hasn't spoken directly to me or insulted me, so I don't feel insulted. I'm sorry I guess? I don't even know.

 

[KazeAizen]

When "gamers" act like monsters and threaten people, fake or not, the gloves come off. I'm with him. They have an extremist mentality and he's damn right to call them on it by comparing them to ISIS or the KKK. I mean these types of gamers are apparently willing to put people's lives in danger for a laugh. Sick and twisted individuals those are. As are the people who think its funny to send rape and death threats to Zoe, or Anita, or Phil, or, or Tim, or now even Joss Whedon himself for taking Anita's side. Even Yaya Han, the Queen of Cosplay, got backlash from people for sharing Anita's latest video.

I doubt those scumbags who drag the "gamer" name through the mud have any capacity of carrying out their threats. They are just a stupider breed of e-thugs.

People just should ignore/block and report them to management and/or the authorities. Is that simple.

They probably don't. Still the time is over for taking these threats "lightly".

Descending to their level is not the way to do it, mind you.

Sitting by and doing nothing is just as bad. Calling them out on it and exposing them though is what we need to do.

 

[Velventian]

Ok, I'm still very confused about everything that's gone on. Hell, I didn't even know this guy existed until this point in time to be honest. From what I can gather he is talking to people who have been acting like fools. He hasn't spoken directly to me or insulted me, so I don't feel insulted. I'm sorry I guess? I don't even know.

Apparently, from what I can gather by everyone in support of this thread and the Zoe Quinn thread and the "Moviebob insulted you" thread, if anyone uses the term "gamers" in an insulting way, even if they have established a load of context previously to establish exactly the type of "gamers" they are talking about, and those "gamers" being talked about are, in fact, horrible people who fully deserve to be insulted and called out for their horrible behavior, any and all "gamers" who even remotely feel like the word applies to them should feel insulted and outraged and stand against these horrible individuals for attacking any and all "gamers" (even though they clearly didn't, but just ignore that part and pretend that they did), all in the name of defending the objectively horrible individuals that were actually being insulted. Because a reckoning is coming to the gaming journalism industry, and after "gamers" are done, only the journalists who bow down and support the points of view of the horrible individuals being insulted will be left to write gaming articles.

I am not trying to start another pagelong argument here, but why choose "gamers"?
If those people who he tries to call out were so different that he had too "establish a load of context previously"
Why not just go with another term?

"In the 70s the mob started the Italian-American Anti-Defamation League to harass the FBI. Reminds me of these gamers against corruption."
"Gamers, you're like a dumb terrorist who blows himself up making his jihad video. Well done."
Most of his tweets might be debatable but those 2 are direct, no #notallgamers, nothing.
And "gamers against corruption" at least as i understand means all those who now stand up for better journalism.

 

[teh_gunslinger]

Eh, if you read the general level of discourse on gaming websites, you know, he kinda has a point there.

Have you seen how anti intellectual gamers are? Just read user reviews for games like Dear Esther, Gone Home or Kentucky Route Zero. There are a lot of people playing games out there who will throw a fit anytime a game doesn't completely cater to their taste and decry it as pretentious shit and feminist/gay agenda bullcrap and what have. Read up on the reactions to Mountain.

Most of these people do indeed seem like people who wouldn't know a metaphor if it hit them square between their eyes. We're not, as a rule, very literate, it seems. Oh, to be sure, we'll fawn about Enders Game and other trite science fiction and fantasy but we sure don't like literary approaches to game or stuff like discourse analysis.

So, in short, yea, most gamers are dumb as door nails, myself likely included.

I have quite a different point of view on that, actually i think most gamers are above average intelligence.
But to clarify i am talking about 55-70 Percentile, sure gamers aren't necessarily geniuses but things like creative problem solving, pattern recognition, reactionary decision making and 3 dimensional thinking are prerequisites in many many games and get trained by games.

"We're not, as a rule, very literate, it seems."
To me that sounds a bit wierd :/ you might very much be in the right on that one though. Not everyone reads books all the time but usually when playing a game i come across dozens of things i read up on them, characters, worlds, technologies, magic. I spent about 10 hours every week on various wikis reading up on games, series, movies or comics. I just had hoped that would be the average.

I'm not so much talking about literacy in games and the surrounding institutions and traditions as I'm talking about cultural literacy. A lot of people on gaming forums will go ape berserk if you mention contemporary art or poetry or various literary movements. The number of times I've seen gamers scoff at post modernism without knowing what it is is too damn high.

Outside of the sphere directly related to games (and fantasy and science fiction) my own anecdotal but comprehensive experience shows me that many if not most gamers are woefully under equipped.

You may well be right about the pattern recognition but not, I think, when it comes to other fields. I'm sure this is related to the general STEM elitism that is all round the internet, but gamers really do hate when people get 'pretentious'. They insist that games are art but whenever a game challenges them or conventions in any way they throw a missive fit.

In the case of Sarkeesian: what does it hurt to take a critical look at female representation in games? Nothing! But gamers are so entrenched in their own insular discourse that anyone taking a critical look at their toys are the enemy. At the same time the rail against Ebert for not taking games serious. Well, if games are art, then they will get picked apart and have their constituent parts looked at, female centered tropes included. But we're trying to have our cake and eat it. We're insisting that games are art while maintaining that they're just games and you shouldn't look at female tropes or make a game about a teen girl coming out in the 90s. That's bullcrap! And that, to me, is a sign that gamers as a rule are dumb. We're inflexible, ego centered and quite ignorant. And again, I'm not excluding myself here.

CAPTCHA: bad books. How wonderfully on point!

 

[KazeAizen]

Well he's not wrong. He's using hyperbole and a bit of an extreme version of it but quite frankly. He's not wrong. The bomb threats against Sony's CEO, the recent swatting of Kootra. Yeah those aren't pranks. Those are federal offenses and terrorist tactics. Also he usually never comments on this stuff because he's in the movie world and the video game world still has some kind of weird isolation thing going on. Not anymore.

When "gamers" act like monsters and threaten people, fake or not, the gloves come off. I'm with him. They have an extremist mentality and he's damn right to call them on it by comparing them to ISIS or the KKK. I mean these types of gamers are apparently willing to put people's lives in danger for a laugh. Sick and twisted individuals those are. As are the people who think its funny to send rape and death threats to Zoe, or Anita, or Phil, or, or Tim, or now even Joss Whedon himself for taking Anita's side. Even Yaya Han, the Queen of Cosplay, got backlash from people for sharing Anita's latest video.

Last I checked, we haven't had these people publicly behead innocents, or rape and enslave women. The two are not comparable.
Rape threats and death threats sent over twitter are not the same to actual murder or actual rape. They. Are. Not.

And lest we forget, he's not comparing these guys to ISIS; he's saying he has more respect for ISIS than them, implying that a group of actual murderers and rapists are better than something. He should try saying that to James Foley's family. I bet he couldn't.

So your telling me that you've never used extreme hyperbole to get a point across in your life? You seemed to miss the point. He's only saying he has "more respect" for ISIS than the monsters of the gaming world because ISIS isn't veiling their actions on some kind of misplaced pretense of justice or corruption or some other false flag.

I'm sure the man has no respect for ISIS. Meaning he has even less respect for the monsters that are gamers. Oh sure this isn't comparable to ISIS. A woman making a video is like the coming of the gaming anti christ and she must be abused and put down and threatened every day of her life. Yeah. That's totally a comparable and appropriate response to her making the videos. Honestly I'm with him though. Those people are incredibly dangerous and a threat to her life as well as others. I imagine those are the kind of people who do SWATting for fun.

 

[AJ_Lethal]

When "gamers" act like monsters and threaten people, fake or not, the gloves come off. I'm with him. They have an extremist mentality and he's damn right to call them on it by comparing them to ISIS or the KKK. I mean these types of gamers are apparently willing to put people's lives in danger for a laugh. Sick and twisted individuals those are. As are the people who think its funny to send rape and death threats to Zoe, or Anita, or Phil, or, or Tim, or now even Joss Whedon himself for taking Anita's side. Even Yaya Han, the Queen of Cosplay, got backlash from people for sharing Anita's latest video.

I doubt those scumbags who drag the "gamer" name through the mud have any capacity of carrying out their threats. They are just a stupider breed of e-thugs.

People just should ignore/block and report them to management and/or the authorities. Is that simple.

They probably don't. Still the time is over for taking these threats "lightly".

Descending to their level is not the way to do it, mind you.

Sitting by and doing nothing is just as bad. Calling them out on it and exposing them though is what we need to do.

Sure, if by that means "breaking down their posts with logic and facts" and not knee-jerk reactions to people insulting you.

He's only saying he has "more respect" for ISIS than the monsters of the gaming world because ISIS isn't veiling their actions on some kind of misplaced pretense of justice or corruption or some other false flag.

please tell me you're joking. because the amount of cognitive dissonance in that sentence just baffled me.

 

[KazeAizen]

When "gamers" act like monsters and threaten people, fake or not, the gloves come off. I'm with him. They have an extremist mentality and he's damn right to call them on it by comparing them to ISIS or the KKK. I mean these types of gamers are apparently willing to put people's lives in danger for a laugh. Sick and twisted individuals those are. As are the people who think its funny to send rape and death threats to Zoe, or Anita, or Phil, or, or Tim, or now even Joss Whedon himself for taking Anita's side. Even Yaya Han, the Queen of Cosplay, got backlash from people for sharing Anita's latest video.

I doubt those scumbags who drag the "gamer" name through the mud have any capacity of carrying out their threats. They are just a stupider breed of e-thugs.

People just should ignore/block and report them to management and/or the authorities. Is that simple.

They probably don't. Still the time is over for taking these threats "lightly".

Descending to their level is not the way to do it, mind you.

Sitting by and doing nothing is just as bad. Calling them out on it and exposing them though is what we need to do.

Sure, if by that means "breaking down their posts with logic and facts" and not knee-jerk reactions to people insulting you.

That's exactly what it means and that's exactly what I intend to do.

 

[Uriel_Hayabusa]

Well he's not wrong. He's using hyperbole and a bit of an extreme version of it but quite frankly. He's not wrong. The bomb threats against Sony's CEO, the recent swatting of Kootra. Yeah those aren't pranks. Those are federal offenses and terrorist tactics. Also he usually never comments on this stuff because he's in the movie world and the video game world still has some kind of weird isolation thing going on. Not anymore.

When "gamers" act like monsters and threaten people, fake or not, the gloves come off. I'm with him. They have an extremist mentality and he's damn right to call them on it by comparing them to ISIS or the KKK. I mean these types of gamers are apparently willing to put people's lives in danger for a laugh. Sick and twisted individuals those are. As are the people who think its funny to send rape and death threats to Zoe, or Anita, or Phil, or, or Tim, or now even Joss Whedon himself for taking Anita's side. Even Yaya Han, the Queen of Cosplay, got backlash from people for sharing Anita's latest video.

Last I checked, we haven't had these people publicly behead innocents, or rape and enslave women. The two are not comparable.
Rape threats and death threats sent over twitter are not the same to actual murder or actual rape. They. Are. Not.

And lest we forget, he's not comparing these guys to ISIS; he's saying he has more respect for ISIS than them, implying that a group of actual murderers and rapists are better than something. He should try saying that to James Foley's family. I bet he couldn't.

So your telling me that you've never used extreme hyperbole to get a point across in your life? You seemed to miss the point. He's only saying he has "more respect" for ISIS than the monsters of the gaming world because ISIS isn't veiling their actions on some kind of misplaced pretense of justice or corruption or some other false flag.

Except they sort of totally do...

And even then, it's hypocritical of you to defend Faraci's ISIS-comparison while waving your finger at anyone taking issue with it.

 

[Something Amyss]

Yes, because no one's giving poor little Anita, Phil, and Zoe any attention. None. Except for gaming journalist sites whose posts go out to hundreds of thousands of people and don't report both sides. But that doesn't matter. Poor them.

Except, you know, I was talking about the other people mentioned. Bringing up Phil as an explicit exception and talking about the others probably should have been a clue. I don't know how you can write what you just did and then have the go on to say "cool strawman."

 

[Velventian]

I'm not so much talking about literacy in games and the surrounding institutions and traditions as I'm talking about cultural literacy. A lot of people on gaming forums will go ape berserk if you mention contemporary art or poetry or various literary movements. The number of times I've seen gamers scoff at post modernism without knowing what it is is too damn high.

Outside of the sphere directly related to games (and fantasy and science fiction) my own anecdotal but comprehensive experience shows me that many if not most gamers are woefully under equipped.

You may well be right about the pattern recognition but not, I think, when it comes to other fields. I'm sure this is related to the general STEM elitism that is all round the internet, but gamers really do hate when people get 'pretentious'. They insist that games are art but whenever a game challenges them or conventions in any way they throw a missive fit.

In the case of Sarkeesian: what does it hurt to take a critical look at female representation in games? Nothing! But gamers are so entrenched in their own insular discourse that anyone taking a critical look at their toys are the enemy. At the same time the rail against Ebert for not taking games serious. Well, if games are art, then they will get picked apart and have their constituent parts looked at, female centered tropes included. But we're trying to have our cake and eat it. We're insisting that games are art while maintaining that they're just games and you shouldn't look at female tropes or make a game about a teen girl coming out in the 90s. That's bullcrap! And that, to me, is a sign that gamers as a rule are dumb. We're inflexible, ego centered and quite ignorant. And again, I'm not excluding myself here.

CAPTCHA: bad books. How wonderfully on point!

well that point is pretty much true, but to be honest the same can be said about movies and music.
The mainstream still is the mainstream. If one wants to appeal to the broadest possible audience one has to thin down the product so its not to strong for anyone.
The idea that "games are art" is something people need to let go by now.. maybe the were in the past when the target audience was smaller and games didn´t have to make millions back.
But right now they are not. Sure every now and again a piece of art crops up but thats what 3 maybe 4 a year...