AWKWARD ZOMBIE

Of course it's worth it, they're basically the faces of the industry. They do a large part to control what's popular.

But see control is an illusion. If you choose to not let it affect you they have no control over what you play ;o

Then again you have a point: youve got to hear about a game somewhere right? Though tbh I listen more to what my friends says is popular than journalists ^^"

It's easy to say that, but you'd be surprised at the sorts of things you don't realize get factored into your day to day decisions

Where do your friends hear it? Marketing is one of the most researched things, and if a company wants you specifically to buy a product you will.

Even if it doesn't affect you personally, it does affect what the mainstream audience buys.

I don't understand why people wouldn't be comfortable using a separate hashtag because even if gamer gate and notyoursheild are not meant to be a vehicle to attack a woman for doing something that is mostly not as big a deal as people have made it out to be, that's still the perspective of the opponent. There isn't really any reason to fight people over something that can more effectively be discussed, and trying to find common ground would be better then trying to just push the people you disagree with until they are out of the picture, so why even stick with the old tags when you can just use the new ones and act in a more civil manner and then actually discuss it instead of have a shouting match.

I mean, I guess if you did that you run the risk of the other side moving to goal posts again or something but if that happens then you have proof they don't want to actually talk about it so it's kinda win-win.

Also where did the narrative that Quinn cheated with those guys solely to advance her career because honestly I think she probably just did it because she wanted to sleep with people who weren't her boyfriend for whatever reason. If anything those events are mostly a symptom of everybody in the indie scene (including the one journalist, who at most would have called in a favor or two to influence people to have Quinn win the award for best free browser game.) being too buddy-buddy then her being some kind of grand manipulator or something. I mean, I don't think what she did was excusable necessarily, but also that most of it is largely irrelevant and got blown way out of proportion. And even if you don't feel it's an important part of what gamer gate is now you have to admit it was the lynchpin that set everything off when it probably shouldn't have been.

The focus seems to have moved on from Quinn and only refers back to her to show that there's a clique in the gaming scene who are dedicated to covering each other's backs. I feel this is for the better, she's definitely a terrible person but her personal ethics don't really reflect gaming journalism being corrupt. All these journalists and other indie devs coming to her side to defend her and attack the person who she cheated on so many times, on the other hand, definitely does.

This sentence confuses me because it seems to me that changing the place of discussion is exactly that, trying to push the people that disagree with you out of the picture rather than confronting them. And I say that as someone who really doesn't care what hashtag people use to fight their shitty cyberwars. Regardless, that did strike me as a dumb idea, do people believe certain hashtags give magic immunity towards asshattery or something? What's to stop the same thing from happening again?

I mean honestly if someone is so offended by "please use this hashtag instead" they may not be too productive in a serious discussion environment. I mean I dunno, maybe it just hit them the wrong way. Honestly I don't think a 180 character restricted messaging system is the best platform for discussion about the state of the industry anyway.

The reason I said that it would be e best if everyone dropped it now and cooled off for a few months is because everyone is too inflamed right now anyway so no headway is really going to be made one way or the other. I personally feel like nether 'side' has acted particularly great or even taken the time to realize that the situation is more complicated then a Us and Them situation. I have seen a few people who would seem to be interested in actual discussion get brushed off and every few hours some people feel the need to tweet a random string of "but really, fuck those guys" statements regardless of their alignment. It's just a loop with no progress, and it would be better if people took the time to be less emotionally invested and formulate stronger, more holistic arguments rather than random disjointed strings and insults.

And then the game journalists will take that "cooling-off" period as a message that they've won and that it's perfectly fine for them to continue doing shit like this.

again, why do gamergate need to change their hashtag? why is refusal to change from a brandname that has already gotten attention a sign that gamers aren't rational?

there's also no reason to let this whole situation 'cool down'. 'journalist' sites like kotaku are showing a notable decrease in hits because of this whole thing. if anything it makes more sense to strike while the iron is hot. sponsors are rustled and are demanding that sites cool this whole thing down, lots of gamers are rustled and are avoiding sites like kotaku and talking about how awful they are, more and more dirt is being dished out (such as the supposed indie games fest rigging)...

as for the petty shots people are taking at one another, those will always exist. if you resumed this whole debacle a month later, you'd go right back to this, the only difference being a lot of heat would've worn off.

I understand your rationale for wanting things to cool down, but unfortunately that would guarantee that nothing changes. Regardless of what your thoughts are on Zoe Quinn or who is to blame for this entire debacle, game journalism needs to change. The most vocal and influential players involved in it have grown way too comfy in their position of power to allow that to happen though. They're not actually interested in a constructive debate (that's not to say there aren't journos who actually are, but they're not the problematic ones I'm talking about), they just want to cover their asses and preserve a system where publishers curry them with favour while they shit out promotional pieces and clickbait articles with as low effort as possible. It's an old boys' club of sorts in the sense that all the major players are in on it and they will all gang up and start defamatory twitter wars on any one who speaks up about it.
If the momentum of the current outrage dissapears, things will just go back to status quo.

This article further touches upon this issue.

gaming community once again proves that it has no idea how much things cost

our indie game totally needs elijah wood and jack black right? right. we also need multiple kickstarters after our first kickstarter went way over our expected goals because we can't budget for shit.

It's not even an indie game, it's an established studio that's been around for a long time. Tim Schafer just wants desperately to make a repeat of Psychonauts.