AWKWARD ZOMBIE

That's how this whole situation's gotten out of hand, in my opinion. People wanting to know about game journalists' personal connections to developers (if that's what you mean by "private stuff") is seen by the anti-side as some sort of unreasonable request. People got angry, cherry-picked the few examples where individuals who are a part of GamerGate actually did harass people, and used them as an example of what it's " really all about".

http://i.imgur.com/ysWjUNq.png

classy

A huge portion of the issue, as far as I'm seeing, is that '#GamerGate' has wound up with what could very reasonably be called an undeservedly poor reputation.

First things first, it's a discussion taking place on the internet. Like has been said before in this thread, that guarantees there will be total jackasses jumping on board and being jackasses. For examples, see comments on YouTube, comments on news sites, comments on anything.

Second, no matter what you think of the movement, think about its stated goals: to hold video game journalists accountable for (perceivedly) sketchy industry connections and for (perceivedly) poor writing quality. If a movement like that exists, game journalists are going to try to shit all over it. It's what they need to do to avoid the trouble it will cause them.

Third, it is so easy to turn an argument into a social issue these days. I'm not saying this as a way to discredit the feminist movement (or any other) but it is simply mind-numbingly easy. Find that minority of assholes, pick out a couple misogynistic comments, and pass it along. Bam, feminists are (rightfully) outraged at these comments. There are certainly disgusting things being said by disgusting people involved in these movements, and all you have to do to turn feminists against the movement is point them out.

And this is exactly what game journalists have been doing. They're reacting to a movement that threatens their status quo.

I'm not going to state outright "gamergate is great" or anything, but people really, really need to look into the motion itself rather than just the worst individuals in its ranks. Base your opinion on that, not on what angry people tell you and certainly not on what the journalists tell you.

I don't see it as two hate groups yelling at each other, I see it as one rational group being manipulated into seeing the other rational group completely the wrong way.

((I am so tired so I apologize for typos, grammar, and poor organization))

This is a pretty good description of how things started going downhill, good post Ycobb.

Listen, I'm totally behind efforts to create a higher standard of ethics in gaming journalism. And Gamergate is not about that.

If it were, people who align themselves with the movement wouldn't be harassing people with suicidal thoughts, randomly targeting someone who isn't even a journalist, and having this shit as their hero.

This isn't a case of "a few bad apples spoiling the bunch". This is a group of hateful people who took what was essentially already an existing movement, took it as their "cause", and then proceeded to harass women, minorities, and anyone who dared to call them out on their horrible, misogynistic bullshit.

Gamergate is nothing but a hate movement. Plain and simple.

How can you prove these people actually align themselves with GamerGate and aren't jumping a bandwagon?

I hadn't even heard of this random lawyer. Who said he was the hero of anything?

Are you fucking kidding me? Are you?

Are you fucking kidding me.

fuck this. fuck all of you. i'm out of here.

Nice rebuttal. Also people were only praising him because they didn't know about the other things he's done, he's a guy who's very good at taking movements and doing bad things with them.

I can see where you are coming from but this is pretty hard to prove unless you can somehow do a headcount of what is probably hundred thousands of people involved and sort them by intention.

Honestly, I think it would even be more likely that the GG movement was created by the gaming journalism clique as a distraction from the already existing countermovement against them, than that somehow every one involved with GG (including people known not to be complete assholes like TotalBiscuit) is only in it to harass women.

Edit: Responding to a post in Funny pictures thread here to avoid derailment.

I agree, I was not aware that that guy was such a shitbag. That doesn't make Kotaku any less shit though.

Stuff like this. Don't do this.

You can all talk about gamergate like adults, or you can get mad at someone for having a different opinion and stop posting. Gamergate is doing nothing but bringing out anger in a lot of people and I'm frankly fucking tired of it. If you feel yourself getting irritated at someone, just walk away from it and come back later. I'm nearly going to move this to Taboo Topics but I'm pretty sure this thread would die if I did.

Please keep things civil, I'd like to think we're adults or at least mature people.

https://twitter.com/SafeguardKilly/stat ... 6588530688

News of webcomic artists' possibly being coaxed into supporting the harassment narrative that those games media supports.
I'm not exactly sure what I am to make of this. An explanation to the negative but rather shallow response from certain authors (CaslteVidcon, Katie herself)?

We should wait until evidence is presented before making conclusions.

Katie has been quite outspoken about the fact that she is not in support of Gamergate on her twitter. She (wisely) hadn't been saying anything about the topic before recently because she didn't want to attract the kind of backlash and negativity that others have been getting. She recently decided that she didn't want her silence to be seen as approval.

My guess is that these would be webcomic authors that are part of a group, like HiveWorks or Keenspot. "You want us to continue helping you? Then support this agenda."