MathHamy said:
Bruce said:
What gets me is even after 4Chan booted them, these guys think that anybody out there thinks they are in the least bit reasonable or even vaguely likeable.
Even 4chan isn't having any more of their shit.
So in other words you think it's unreasonable to demand that gaming websites have a publicly displayed ethics policy?
To be honest, I find that most people are completely reasonable and agreeable if approached the right way.
I think that is perfectly reasonable.
I do not think, however, it is reasonable to expect such ethics to include a ban on commentary regarding a game's gender or racial politics, or a ban on reporting incidents where developers are harassed.
If a game review tackles a game's art style, expressing discomfort at the sexualised depictions of women for example, then it is a perfectly reasonable criticism of the game. That is information relevant to the reader.
However gamergate types don't want that. They want a nice little bunch of appeasers who will never challenge them, and never reward a game for being challenging. They are every slur they use against casuals, except as so applied to social issues.
A game is only allowed to challenge views - provided it is the views they personally oppose. The second a game has feminist themes, or hell is even developed by a woman well it is only a matter of time before the death threats start rolling in.
The gamergate crowd don't object to the fact that most gaming media is propaganda, they object to the fact that it is not their propaganda.
You can tell this is the case because you don't get nearly the same backlash when a gaming media house releases a fluff piece about why you should be exited about the next big AAA title, as when they point out something wrong with that title's messages regarding people who aren't comfortably white, male and middle class.
Games journalism is not supposed to be PR for gaming, it is supposed to be journalism - if that includes news that you personally don't like, if it includes facts you personally do not like, you do not get to call for it to be censored.
And you do not get to play censor by sending rape and death threats.
And no it is not all gamers. Most of us are getting increasingly pissed off at how these most likely 14-year-old pricks have poisoned just about every single hardcore game, especially the ones they aren't supposed to be playing yet. You know the funny thing about sexist, racist, homophobes? If you aren't there target they're still incredibly unpleasant to be around.
Here is how we used to think of ourselves, we used to be the guys who would arrange charities to get underprivileged kids into gaming. When Pax first launched - say what you like about Gabe and Tycho it was their initiative that launched the first serious discussions into sexism in the gaming industry.
Go back a few years before that, and we were Roberta Williams fanbois, we would happily play games with varied protagonists because they were different, they had different stories and ideas. We were about inclusion, we were gamers not because we didn't have lives, but because we chose to live many of them.
Now it is a debate as to whether threatening to murder somebody in such a way as to make it look like an accident, or threatening to bomb the Game Developer's Choice awards counts as free speech.
