well, the the escapist was just attacked.

[Barbas]

To anyone curious.

It goes even deeper. The "hardware failure" explanation was planted on the Escapist's twitter by the Illuminati. They've been behind the SJW agenda all along. The Shriners and the Reptoids from Zeta Reticuli are in on it too. No one is safe.

Archon confirmed that it's a DDoS attack. It's specifically going after the Gamergate thread.

You have no leg to stand on.

The simple fact of the matter is the world sees the Anti-GG types for what they are now. This hacking is because they disrespect the basic tenants of free speech. They hate, loathe, the loss of their control. They're desperate to silence the opposition and will use any means necessary to do so.

This is what the SJW side is truly like. This is what those who look at all the evidence and are still Anti-GG support.

Doxxing, Hacking, DDoS, these are the tools those who are against Gamergate. They can't win with logic. They can't win with the press. They're now trying (and failing) to win with borderline illegal methods and threatening those who support Gamergate into silence.

Yes, what happened here was pretty damn despicable. I'm still staying neutral in this whole mess though. Still way too much garbage going on on both sides. (Also, I have to say, are we certain that this was an anti-GG move? We sure it wasn't just someone trying to piss people off?)

I side with Jim, who sides with Ganondorf (Peace be upon Him) - The person who hacked represents only the person who hacked. We cannot currently say more.

when its one guy in the gamergate crowd, its the gamergate crowd's fault

when its one guy in the anti-gamer gate crowd, its the fault of that guy in the anti-gamer gate crowd

i wonder if jim will address this... no im sure he wont

You've just repeated what the last person said to me...are you surmising that I'm untrustworthy because I solely blamed the person who committed the deed and not a whole crowd of people? Does this mean you're going to label me as being "against" you now?

Come on now, Nuclear. This is ridiculous. It's not rational. We all want more from this industry, but this isn't the way to go about it. And Jim did address it on twitlonger [http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1s5bla7] (though he was reluctant to). After you just put words in my mouth, can you really blame the man for his reluctance? He sees what's happening here.

Do you not see it, Nuclear? People, human beings, have had their personal lives scrutinized. Strangers have rifled through their personal information and correspondences with all the gleeful abandon of a witchfinder general. They've found themselves put on all sorts of lists for things they have and haven't said.

Angry mobs aren't known for building edifices, they're known for rioting and tearing them down. That is not worth the change you are asking for. It cannot be forced. Calmer heads will prevail here.

ok i mightve jumped the gun here

but its just hearing about jim right now infuriates me, he has not addressed this properly, that tweetlonger was very half-assed and in none of his videos has he ever addressed the abuses of the anti-gamergate side, hell they probably just DDoS'd the very website he works for and he still wont talk about it

he wont address it, he will just keep refering to the abuses of the gamergate side, he will keep contradicting all of his previous statements...

jim is not a calm head, not by a long shot, he wouldnt have jumped into zoe's story like he did otherwise

im done with jim

You are writing off someone you respected because the only comments he made were against over-zealousness and harassment? I think he was warning against what you're doing now - partitioning people off into warring factions. And he said it calmly and rationally, rather than shouting at the wind as aptly put it. He's a lot calmer than a lot of heads in here have been and I think it's not only wrong but grossly dismissive to say that his response was a "half-assed" one.

...And as for the website being DDoS'd by "the anti-GamerGate side", such investigations are best left to the professionals:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/18.860762.21420364

Maybe you're simply gathering more and more damning evidence and firing more and more ammunition and gaining more and more ground...for nothing. Look around in this very thread alone at the people who are eager to call this a "war". Wars have casualties, Nuclear, and this one has already chalked up quite a few. For all those lost careers and threatened families, who's going to win? What's going to be left standing? What exactly do you think you're doing?

What are you achieving here? I mean you personally. All the meaningful words are being exchanged by calm heads higher up. You know that, because you've seen both their private conversations and their public words on the matter. All you're doing is jumping to conclusions and pouncing on anything that looks like it might be evidence and taking it anyway if it isn't. It's probable that we'll find out some unknown joker DDoS'd the site and you were all led along by your indignation.

This is a mob. These are not the actions of reasonable people. It's time to stop.

 

[Fappy]

Here's my conspiracy theory: pro-GamerGate script kitty staged the attack so that it looked like anti-GG people were trying to shut down the discussion by force!

 

[Random Gamer]

As others have said, we can only make uninformed suppositions, some being a bit more likely than others, depending on where you stand.
And I don't really expect mods, Greg Tito or Archon to point the finger; heck, must be hard to find exactly who orchestrates that kind of attack.
Whatever, I don't think the whole GG stuff needs any more provocation or escalation. Things are messy enough.

All we know is that Ben Kuchera was yelling at Greg Tito yesterday to censor his forums about that very thread.
People on Forbes are sharpening their pitchforks against Ben Kuchera. Oh and Randy Pitchford too.
He went after Forbes for covering the DDOS.

Kuchera was adivising Tito to close the GG thread when it began, a month ago.
Yesterday, we just ad alleged mails from Kuchera to the supposed leaker of the mailing list - we can only make suppositions because obviously the leaker isn't named in the mails. Kuchera is obviously livid.

Pitchford went afer Forbes, or was it Kuchera? Because I don't see why Pitchford would bother with this, he's producer, he shouldn't feel threatened or targetted in any way by all this.

 

[Eric the Orange]

snip

I haven't commented on any of this stuff, and I still wont. But I will say your getting into some serious tribalism "us VS them" territory here. Everyone, no matter their opinion, are people, remember that. And people are not just good or bad, They are varied and different. It's very easy to lump a group of people into a scape goat, "THEY are the problem", "THEY are all bad", "if THEY are gone, everything will be better".

I feel as someone who has purposely stayed on the outside both side look the same. Both side have some people who take things too far with harassment and fake evidence and whatnot. But most of the people on either side are not like that. Most people don't ddos sites, and doxx people.

If I were to give any suggestion it would be to have a calm rational conversation with someone of the opposite side, IN REAL LIFE. It is very easy to de-humanise someone over the internet. A real life calm discussion of events with the average member of the opposite side would probably help develop actual understanding. Which is a lot better than this shouting match and mud throwing that we have now.

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

All I can say is I'm glad we have Kross. The hamsters won't listen to anyone else.

Is he...human? He's like a Ringwraith. I'm glad he's on our side... >.>

[small][sub]oh Jesus, I hope he's on our side... o.o[/sub][/small]

All I can say is that Kross is Kross. HE is like an anomoly and an amalgam. An amalgam of what, even I am not sure, but I can say that what Kross does, he does so in greater mystery and mystique than even God.

Also, Kross is beyond such petty things as "sides". He is universal, and he is eternal.

However, I heard something way back during my lurking days that he is fond of S'mores... >_>

 

[renegade7]

Hold on, I just did some reading about gamergates. Why all this fuss about reproductively viable worker ants? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamergate

I mean, they're just ants. I'm not really all that pro or anti-worker ant. And what does it have to do with video games? I've never heard of ants playing video games. Someone should talk to an entomologist, he'll probably know.

I guess you can be pro GG, I mean, nothing wrong with working and raising a family...of ants, I guess. Or anti...I mean, I really don't know what you'd be against, in that case. Is it that they're worker ants, or that they're reproductively viable that's causing the controversy?

 

[PainInTheAssInternet]

I see 3 primary options.

1) Someone decided to attack the "Zoe Quinn and Surrounding Controversies" thread that reached about 800 pages (by the way, to hell with the person who started a new thread. I lost a bet on it reaching 1,000) even though the thread had died down. So it would be idiotic and achieve the opposite of their intent.

2) Someone who wanted more attention drawn to it shut down conversation in a false flag, successfully getting more hate on the Anti-GG crowd (comparing it to the impeachment of a president over espionage? Really?) and more support for the movement.

3) Someone's just a dick and wanted to piss everyone off. What better way to really ignite the shit firing squad than the one site where everyone from every angle is currently congregated and angry?

 

[Beliyal]

Still, in terms of general "badness" SJWs are at the far end of the scale. Right up there with the Westboro Baptist Church. Granted arguably a little worse since those idiots don't infringe on others' right to free speech.

Wow... just... wow...

With that, I'm officially done with this thread. The quote above was a fine example (perhaps THE finest example) of why I've stayed away from all the GG stuff and haven't wanted to associate with GG in any way, shape, or form.

Congratulations for enduring this long in conversing with that person. I read this comment you quoted and I am literally speechless.

I just came to see what happened to the site because it lagged terribly and of course, we end up in another thread about this. People need to calm down and stop acting like paranoid conspiracy theorists. Whoever attacked the site is a shithead. Unless it's an organized attack from some mythical secret society, I, for one, won't accuse any "side" for the actions of some shithead(s).

Captcha: do more sit-ups.
Yeah, I should. Maybe we all should just do some sit-ups to spend the spare energy we all apparently have, instead of unleashing it for internet arguments.

Edit: I just saw that Jim also called the attacker "a shithead". I'm watching too many of his videos, our insult-glands synced.

 

[Azure23]

I see you have absolutely no sense of irony with that last paragraph. Tell me, did you just described anti- or pro- gamergate side? Because I think you're self-projecting a little too hard. So, let me get this straight. It is the SJW who doxx, who harass, who bully, who shame people into silence and create a toxic community. It is clearly ONLY the "SJW" who does this and have been doing it. Wow. I mean, wow. Never, NEVER have I seen such a strong case of self-projected hate then in your post.

Let me guess, you guys NEVER did that. You guys are completely spotless in your innocence. It's always the fault of those "evil" feminists that are out to get you, right? All threats, harrasments, bomb threats are nothing but falsehoods because you threaten any who say otherwise Oh, I'm sorry. Because you started looking for evidence to fit your claims instead of trying to find the truth among the evidence.

As I said. We're hardly angels.

Still, in terms of general "badness" SJWs are at the far end of the scale. Right up there with the Westboro Baptist Church. Granted arguably a little worse since those idiots don't infringe on others' right to free speech.

Rather ironic that you mention "threaten any who say otherwise" considering that's what SJW punks have been doing for about three years. Criticize Anita? "YOU JUST -HATE- WOMEN!" followed by, as we've seen in thunderf00t's case, being suspended from twitter and censored.

Granted, it's not that shocking that the SJWs are getting desperate. After all, insult, demean, harass, and bully people for about three years then react to opposition by censoring all discussion on the topic leads to a shit storm of epic proportions. They started the war, and Gamergate is just putting an end to it.

Free speech, to quote a great man "I don't think that word (term, whatever) means what you think it means."

Free speech is not freedom from consequences, and it's even more hilarious that you think it applies to a forum with rules created by people who have the absolute right to moderate it in any way they see fit. You don't get free speech on a private forum, you get speech within the guidelines of the rules, rules that can be changed as the moderators observe the behavior of the forum users. Maybe they're tired of seeing the same dumb, cyclical arguments being trotted out ad nauseum from both sides. Those moderators have the absolute right (not your pretend free speech on a private forum right) to shut down the whole damn thing, And if you choose to see it as censorship well bully for you I guess, I see it as them opting out of a debate (actually that's giving both sides way too much credit, let's say argument) that isn't going anywhere.

Tell me something, what's actually being done to address corruption in games journalism? Because I go to IGN, to Kotaku, to Gameinformer, and they're still just chugging along fine, no announcements of anyone being fired, no charges of conspiracy, nothing. I'm actually curious, not malicious, I think the whole damn thing is hurting the medium, please convince me otherwise.

 

[Vault101]

They're bloody terrified of losing their power.

For about 3 years now, they've had the privilege to attack, patronize, and demean others. They could insult people sarcastically, insinuate that all attempts to disagree with them were based on "racism" or "misogyny" rather than logic. Now with Gamergate being more popular and them being shown for who they are, they are absolutely desperate to end the discussion.

They've been painting us as the harassers, us as the doxxers and the "hackers". You can all see now, that this is a lie. They're a group founded on hatred, a clique desperate to retain their power and trying to censor the opposing side's discussion.

Say what you will of us, but we haven't been attempting to bring down sites for allowing the opposing side to speak.

So the next time someone says "We aren't trying to silence you" or "we aren't trying to take your games or websites away!" just know that it is a lie. It happened to 4chan. It's attempting to happen here. We wont let them silence us.

and uh...who are thease people?...exactly?

 

[marioandsonic]

I was asleep while all of this was happening (thank you, night shift at work!), but yeah, things are getting really crazy now.

Anyway, I went and changed my password, just to be safe.

 

[Dante dynamite]

Wonder who did it. The escapist as a whole seems neither a bastion of gamergate nor fully against it. Unless there's some appearance we put across from the outside, that is. Seems like it'd be hard to believe that it'd be completely unrelated, but what side did it? Unless, of course, it's someone just doing it for fun, getting a kick out of the fallout.

All we know is that Ben Kuchera was yelling at Greg Tito yesterday to censor his forums about that very thread.

Today this happens and the thread is attacked.

Take that as you will.

People on Forbes are sharpening their pitchforks against Ben Kuchera. Oh and Randy Pitchford too.

He went after Forbes for covering the DDOS.

whoa where is this about Randy Pitchford and Ben Kuchera going against this source please?

 

[Flutterguy]

My first time reading a twitter page. So many @s, #s and pointless posts... can't say I plan on going back.

 

[Louzerman102]

My first time reading a twitter page. So many @s, #s and pointless posts... can't say I plan on going back.

On second thought let us not go to twitter tis a silly place

To everyone suspecting this could be an attack orchestrated by #GamerGate, I have only this to say:

Next time Anita or someone else on the other side screams about a threat, I hope you will also employ a healthy dose of scepticism and consider it could have been perpetrated not only by #GamerGate members, but also anti-GG, the victim himself/herself (even by lying about the existence of the threat) and completely unafiliated 3rd parties (a.k.a. trolls), because this is the exact same situation. I'm not talking only about the DDoS, by the way, but the other attacks that happened in a similar timeframe, like one that made a guy lose his job or the other that impersonated a twitter user after doxxing him and cancelled his contract with his ISP, cutting his internet access, amonsgt others.

Failure to do so will show your double standards on the whole situation.

Personally, I think scepticism is always healthy, and we should always exercise it instead of blindly believing on anything. I also hope this will curb some of the professional victims that continually attempt to derail the movement by sidetracking it to personal issues.

I know there is no possible way to find this out but I have always wondered how many people, who have no interest in videogames, say harassing things to Anita because it is a proven way to get attention from her and a rise out of videogame journalists.

 

[Tsun Tzu]

First of all...DDOS? Really? Dicks.

Second.

Snip

I advise a calmer approach and not jumping to conclusions without all of the evidence necessary to make said conclusions. We're asking for more substantive ethics and transparency on the part of the people we're engaging with, so it'd behoove us to attempt a similar level of calm discourse -

Evidence? Well for one Gamergate supporters have been getting doxxed on twitter often recently. Secondly a post was put out by a former 4chan mod implying that m00t and the remaining mods there are planning on doxxing folks, though they aren't sure what to do with people who have proxxies, finally yes, the gamergate thread was the one attacked here.

Ah, so that means, with 100% accuracy, that today's attacks came from the anti-GG side? Some people getting doxxed (by sources unknown), a post on 4chan implying that something might happen, and an attack on this site that's currently of unknown origin and motive?

That's a bunch of "if's" to me.

Granted, it's the epitomy of hilarity that the same group that screeches that gamergate has been attacking Anita and Zoe, all without evidence, is so quick to try and shut down the conversation and start saying "there isn't enough evidence" as soon as their side is shown for what it is.

So the attacks on Zoë had nothing to do with how this started and was merely something to laugh at while, simultaneously, a spontaneous uprising against the sorry state of game journalism came to a boil? What a fucking coincidence! I never thought of it that way before...

- Otherwise, you get responses like this...which only have to fall back on the simple fact that the evidence isn't currently available and make a point of glossing over previous infractions by the Anti-GG side concerning the making of claims without sufficient evidence.

To address you directly, Ten Foot, even though I have doubts that you'll reply here again:

It IS a bunch of "ifs." The frustration, however, stems from similar "ifs" being ignored by the Anti-GG group involving similar circumstances, namely the /V/ fiasco (not to be confused with /v/) and claims of hacks/doxxing by Pro-GG folks...again, without sufficient evidence.

Unfortunately, it just becomes a back and forth of "well you didn't x when y happened, so you can't z" from both sides. It's a bit of a clusterfuck.

As for the point about LitWho, she was a focal point at the beginning due to her and her drama being the flashpoint. Individual assholes have been harassing her, just as individual assholes are attacking Pro-GG folks. Point being, GG as a movement/group has not and does not condone harassment of her or anyone else. We've sort of made a point of that...

In regard to LitWho's involvement overall... the debate train left that station a loooooooooooooooooooooooong time ago, so perhaps its time to stop using her to obfuscate the issue?

Tell me something, what's actually being done to address corruption in games journalism? Because I go to IGN, to Kotaku, to Gameinformer, and they're still just chugging along fine, no announcements of anyone being fired, no charges of conspiracy, nothing. I'm actually curious, not malicious, I think the whole damn thing is hurting the medium, please convince me otherwise.

The Escapist, Kotaku, and a couple others have amended their ethics policies due to the movement.

If and when anything is found on IGN or Gameinformer, they'll be brought up. Kotaku's traffic took a noticable dip, but it's rising again, most likely due to Destiny and their articles lambasting GG. Gamasutra's (http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/gamasutra.com) traffic has absolutely tanked, as has RockPaperShotgun's (http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/rockpapershotgun.com).

It's a process, sir. Especially with all the shit flying around.

 

[Random Gamer]

https://twitter.com/JimSterling/status/513425805595406336

Jim Sterling
‏@JimSterling
The *only* thing I know for sure about whoever brought The Escapist down today is that it's a shithead with a head made of shit.

https://twitter.com/JimSterling/status/513426032561778688

Jim Sterling
‏@JimSterling
I don't care what "side" the shitheads are on, all I know that them fucking off would be grand.

So, yeah, he did address it. He did not accuse anyone in particular because, and yet again, as with so many stuff going on in all of this debacle, the fact-to-conjecture ratio doesn't really allow anyone to say who did what.

He's doing it perfectly right.
It would be unprofessional to point finger. He's not police or FBI, he's not IT, he's not Escapist's big boss.