Just a little food for thought as I give my two cents (as if anyone asked for it 
) on the current state of affairs in the gaming community. But first, a bit of comedy. I find that you really don't have to look very hard to find some comedian telling a joke that covers pretty much any given situation out there. The current round of "incidents" is no exception.
I'll try to keep this relatively brief.
I just read Bob's "And Rohan Will Answer!" article and I'd say it's a fair assessment of the current climate, but I think he's missing out on a key picture. Indeed it is a vocal minority that's sending out rape and death threats to certain internet personalities, but this has happened before. Cue the conspiracy theorists insisting that it's all a "false flag" hoax, just another way for attention-seeking people to get more attention. Cue the defenders of those internet personalities rising to the defense, let simmer for a few weeks, and it'll be forgotten by next month.
But as Bob pointed out, this time something was different.
This time a wave of industry folk crashed against the rising wave of disgruntled gamers...and this only served to make the gamers even more disgruntled, causing the "vocal minority" to swell and become a seeming majority. This encouraged further attacks from industry journalists officially denouncing the gamer (note I'm not saying gaming) community as a bunch of terrorists, claiming that "gamers are dead", and saying various other not-very-nice things about the gamer culture. This just amped up the toxicity another few notches.
But why are gamers so toxic to begin with? Yes, there are those who are just naturally toxic. This isn't the first time racial slurs have been slung, it wasn't the first time harassing death threats have been issued, and I doubt it will be the last. But this time around the toxicity began to spread, as more people who really couldn't care less what internet personalities have to say felt insulted by what journalists were saying about gamers. What made the toxicity spread like a virus this time? "Now there's two of them!" indeed.
Which brings us to the crux of the matter: I believe the developers can shoulder some of the blame on this one right along with the minority of naturally toxic players. Gamers are absolutely fed-up with an industry that seems hell-bent on screwing them over in ever increasingly creative ways. DLC that's already on the disc, consoles not living up to expectations, games falling drastically short of what was promised, and a whole list of other things prods against the gamer community has left it feeling rather bitter and jaded. Of course, this still only applies to a relative minority of the community, but quite simply with the state of the industry and the "mood" of the community, the whole thing was a powder-keg waiting to blow. Simply put: there is a strong sense of discontent throughout the gamer community and distrust of any industry professionals - be they devs, journalists, or what-have-you - is at an all-time high.
And blow it did when allegations started going around regarding a game developer with an already controversial reputation and a game journalist. This raised quite the stink as it started raising conflict of interest questions, and these questions are what led to people who would normally ho-hum these conspiracies away - regardless of their accuracy - to actually join in the discussion. For crying out loud, the Zoe Quinn Controversy thread is at 500 pages. FIVE FRICKIN' HUNDRED! O.O
Then Anita posts her latest video which I haven't watched and likely won't, but I can't help but doubt that it had little if anything to say about the Zoe Quinn controversy. I could easily be proven wrong on this since, as I said, I haven't watched this or any of her videos, but either say she basically became collateral damage in what was already a raging inferno of gamer outcry. This, in turn, caused the maelstrom to split into two with one crying out against apparently journalistic malpractice and the other was used by all the anti-feminists as an excuse to go on another rampage. Enter the so-called "SJW"s, that brawl explodes as it normally does, and then the whole "Rohan Will Answer" deal with people outside of the gaming community taking to the field as well.
In summation - and so much for keeping this "relatively brief" - I'd say that this shitstorm was more or less unavoidable. The toxic players are always going to be jackasses, but it was the "toxic devs" and their practices that provided the environment for the toxicity in the player community to start to fester and spread, like gasoline slowly spreading across the pavement. All that's needed is a single spark to set it off, and apparently Zoe Quinn was that spark.
And so the gaming community burned and continues to burn, all because - despite what I've said - a still vocal minority is raging like an inferno, getting angry over the fact that some random journalist on some random site said that "gamers are terrorists!" Fuel to the fire, and we get even more crazed gamers engaging in acts that only fuel further claims like saying we're all a bunch of terrorists. That's the problem with the vocal minority: often time it's the only thing that can be heard. Because just as Bill Burr said: "regular" people, for whatever reason, prefer not to do anything about it.
And with that, it's 2:00 in the morning, time to call it a night. Stay classy, my fellow Escapists.
) on the current state of affairs in the gaming community. But first, a bit of comedy. I find that you really don't have to look very hard to find some comedian telling a joke that covers pretty much any given situation out there. The current round of "incidents" is no exception.I'll try to keep this relatively brief.
I just read Bob's "And Rohan Will Answer!" article and I'd say it's a fair assessment of the current climate, but I think he's missing out on a key picture. Indeed it is a vocal minority that's sending out rape and death threats to certain internet personalities, but this has happened before. Cue the conspiracy theorists insisting that it's all a "false flag" hoax, just another way for attention-seeking people to get more attention. Cue the defenders of those internet personalities rising to the defense, let simmer for a few weeks, and it'll be forgotten by next month.
But as Bob pointed out, this time something was different.
This time a wave of industry folk crashed against the rising wave of disgruntled gamers...and this only served to make the gamers even more disgruntled, causing the "vocal minority" to swell and become a seeming majority. This encouraged further attacks from industry journalists officially denouncing the gamer (note I'm not saying gaming) community as a bunch of terrorists, claiming that "gamers are dead", and saying various other not-very-nice things about the gamer culture. This just amped up the toxicity another few notches.
But why are gamers so toxic to begin with? Yes, there are those who are just naturally toxic. This isn't the first time racial slurs have been slung, it wasn't the first time harassing death threats have been issued, and I doubt it will be the last. But this time around the toxicity began to spread, as more people who really couldn't care less what internet personalities have to say felt insulted by what journalists were saying about gamers. What made the toxicity spread like a virus this time? "Now there's two of them!" indeed.
Which brings us to the crux of the matter: I believe the developers can shoulder some of the blame on this one right along with the minority of naturally toxic players. Gamers are absolutely fed-up with an industry that seems hell-bent on screwing them over in ever increasingly creative ways. DLC that's already on the disc, consoles not living up to expectations, games falling drastically short of what was promised, and a whole list of other things prods against the gamer community has left it feeling rather bitter and jaded. Of course, this still only applies to a relative minority of the community, but quite simply with the state of the industry and the "mood" of the community, the whole thing was a powder-keg waiting to blow. Simply put: there is a strong sense of discontent throughout the gamer community and distrust of any industry professionals - be they devs, journalists, or what-have-you - is at an all-time high.
And blow it did when allegations started going around regarding a game developer with an already controversial reputation and a game journalist. This raised quite the stink as it started raising conflict of interest questions, and these questions are what led to people who would normally ho-hum these conspiracies away - regardless of their accuracy - to actually join in the discussion. For crying out loud, the Zoe Quinn Controversy thread is at 500 pages. FIVE FRICKIN' HUNDRED! O.O
Then Anita posts her latest video which I haven't watched and likely won't, but I can't help but doubt that it had little if anything to say about the Zoe Quinn controversy. I could easily be proven wrong on this since, as I said, I haven't watched this or any of her videos, but either say she basically became collateral damage in what was already a raging inferno of gamer outcry. This, in turn, caused the maelstrom to split into two with one crying out against apparently journalistic malpractice and the other was used by all the anti-feminists as an excuse to go on another rampage. Enter the so-called "SJW"s, that brawl explodes as it normally does, and then the whole "Rohan Will Answer" deal with people outside of the gaming community taking to the field as well.
In summation - and so much for keeping this "relatively brief"
- I'd say that this shitstorm was more or less unavoidable. The toxic players are always going to be jackasses, but it was the "toxic devs" and their practices that provided the environment for the toxicity in the player community to start to fester and spread, like gasoline slowly spreading across the pavement. All that's needed is a single spark to set it off, and apparently Zoe Quinn was that spark.And so the gaming community burned and continues to burn, all because - despite what I've said - a still vocal minority is raging like an inferno, getting angry over the fact that some random journalist on some random site said that "gamers are terrorists!" Fuel to the fire, and we get even more crazed gamers engaging in acts that only fuel further claims like saying we're all a bunch of terrorists. That's the problem with the vocal minority: often time it's the only thing that can be heard. Because just as Bill Burr said: "regular" people, for whatever reason, prefer not to do anything about it.
And with that, it's 2:00 in the morning, time to call it a night. Stay classy, my fellow Escapists.
