AWKWARD ZOMBIE

XOXOfest is actually an "experimental tech conference" but yep, that picture does drive the point home pretty well.

So it is, but supposedly that picture was taken during a speech/conference by Anita Sarkeesian, who's videos according to their website are a free masterclass in gender studies.

Pfft.

This is an alright article, but even speaking as someone who takes the same stance as the author, it doesn't really say much of value. Its primary points are sourced from "we asked gamers how they feel about this and they seemed like reasonable people." It doesn't address the common argument that 'not seeing/caring about race/gender/etc" isn't a solution, also. Overall it fails to argue the viewpoint that it's presenting, I felt.

I agree with it, but if I didn't it wouldn't impress me at all.

You're right. Looking at it now, it does feel like it plays into confirmation bias rather than adding anything new or worthwhile.

It's an unfortunate trend I'm seeing in both sides of the issue. It seems inevitable, really, when I consider that one camp is probably mostly knee-jerk reactionaries and the other camp mostly gamers who also happen to have blogs. There's just not a lot of journalistic skills on either side of the fence relative to the size of the discussion, so most articles are well-intentioned but not persuasive.
I've found tumblr user Kazerad to be a decent exception to this rule, but I haven't looked around all that much.

The whole affair is great for people interested in social media's ability to [help or hinder] the discussion of issues.

It sickens me just as much as the fact that there are people who would threaten to harm someone over their opinion that there are also people who would generalize based on said threatening people or even fake being threatened to gain attention. There exists quite a bit of diverse characters, and if you don't think that is such, learn some fucking code and change that. Meanwhile, if you think someone's wrong, mocking or threatening them does not help your cause in the slightest and I suggest you fuck off and stop trying to represent other people when you are clearly not. That last statement goes for the other side as well.

Those are my final words on this issue until I am given enough reason to rethink or speak further. I wish to let this mockery of journalism, gaming culture and feminism alike end, as soon as possible. I seek only the truth.

It'll be around for as long as there's money to be made. Being a professional victim can be a very profitable career choice. The biggest figure heads in this whole ordeal rarely have any interest in "solving" the situation, it's in their best interest to perpetuate it indefinitely because naive fools who think they're making a difference are in no short supply. It's pretty close to how the medicine industry operates, except way less transparent.

TotalBiscuit discusses things that were said about him by James Portnow at the Extra Credits MAGfest panel. It's worth reading, in my opinion.

In other news, Joystiq is rumored/confirmed to be shutting down(I'm still not clear on exactly what's happening with that). Loltaku gave a sensible reason for this:

James too? I at least respected him, but this is just bad.

You know, the more total biscuit posts, the more I think he's the only sane voice amid all the shit flinging in gaming. And yet he still catches hell for nonissues. Gamergate is just so stupid. I can't even understand it properly with the sheer amount of shit flinging.

It's so bad that I've retreated to forums rather than deal with the mess that is most gaming sites.

As okay as TB is now, I can't help but smile or chuckle a bit whenever I remember when he first cropped up.

Why is that? I only watch his videos infrequently.

Because he went to SA and did this:

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showth ... id=2634792

My opinion of him went up a lot when he owed up to all the stupid shit he said in the past.

http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1s4rhtt