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Gamergate Factuality Question
blamo2000
Member RarePosts: 1,130
Wikipedia says nothing about this, and neither does any recaps from any sites you'd figure would be official/credible.
This is not political or political in nature. For some context on where I got the question I want to ask I'll have to have a tiny amount of politics in my next sentence but, again, I am looking for factual information and not political hot takes.
Due to lack of any game to play I bought a book from a guy called Michael Malice called, "The New Right." He is an anarchist and is a smarmy little ass but he hates both popular political "sides" so his stuff isn't slanted to favor either side.
A section of his book is on GamerGate, something I completely missed but have heard some recaps of since, mostly on this site when that Guild Wars 2 employee was fired. He claims, and this is absolutely huge since you'd figure any recaps would absolutely start with this, that the catalyst for GamerGate was the discovery of a mailing list for game journalists and developers used not (just) to coordinate reviews, but to push a clear overtly political agenda and even expunge/blacklist game journalists and developers from the industry who had wrongthink and did not adhere to their political ideologies like some sort of Orwellian gaming gestapo. It only briefly mentioned the lady who supposedly traded sexual favors for whatever.
I did a search as best as I am able with my old(er) brain and got nothing. Or, I got way too much about everything but this.
Anyone have any links to actual information on this specific question?
If this is true it would be the first actual sensible reason I heard about all the hubbub that fit the size and drama of said hubbub. But if true even me and my poor google skills should be able to find info on it. All I'm getting is info on the sexual favors lady as a catalyst and not even much of that, its like 99.9% mostly information about what came after, most of the coverage is heavily, heavily slanted and seems very biased. I don't want to be a GamerGate expert - I just want a clear answer or to clearly confirm or deny if this part of the book is correct.
This is not political or political in nature. For some context on where I got the question I want to ask I'll have to have a tiny amount of politics in my next sentence but, again, I am looking for factual information and not political hot takes.
Due to lack of any game to play I bought a book from a guy called Michael Malice called, "The New Right." He is an anarchist and is a smarmy little ass but he hates both popular political "sides" so his stuff isn't slanted to favor either side.
A section of his book is on GamerGate, something I completely missed but have heard some recaps of since, mostly on this site when that Guild Wars 2 employee was fired. He claims, and this is absolutely huge since you'd figure any recaps would absolutely start with this, that the catalyst for GamerGate was the discovery of a mailing list for game journalists and developers used not (just) to coordinate reviews, but to push a clear overtly political agenda and even expunge/blacklist game journalists and developers from the industry who had wrongthink and did not adhere to their political ideologies like some sort of Orwellian gaming gestapo. It only briefly mentioned the lady who supposedly traded sexual favors for whatever.
I did a search as best as I am able with my old(er) brain and got nothing. Or, I got way too much about everything but this.
Anyone have any links to actual information on this specific question?
If this is true it would be the first actual sensible reason I heard about all the hubbub that fit the size and drama of said hubbub. But if true even me and my poor google skills should be able to find info on it. All I'm getting is info on the sexual favors lady as a catalyst and not even much of that, its like 99.9% mostly information about what came after, most of the coverage is heavily, heavily slanted and seems very biased. I don't want to be a GamerGate expert - I just want a clear answer or to clearly confirm or deny if this part of the book is correct.
Comments
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
There is a huge, huge difference between young men maliciously attacking someone relentlessly for doing some sex stuff for good reviews (which makes me want to side with the young lady 1000%) and cultists trying to turn gaming into a theologically pure indoctrination tool (which any decent, not cult inductee would stand against and fight against and completely changes the narrative of the whole thing).
The issue still happens today. Something like Metacritic slants game development because a couple left wing activists write game reviews. Even if the writer didn't play the game. For instance giving Kingdom Come Deliverance a bad rating because you can only play a white male in it. There are some game review sites that don't even play games anymore and are just political activist sites like EuroGamer.
Specifically, was there a mailing list used by game journalists and developers to blacklist/purge journalists and developers that where deemed ideologically impure? If so, there has to be an origin or information regarding this. Specifically the post of the person making the claim (if that's how it came out), proof posted as evidence, etc. Something.
I believe it was the blacklisting that got the ball rolling.
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
It really shouldn't be this hard to find factual information. Every day the world makes less and less sense to me, and now I am really no better off wasting hours looking into this than I was when I started. When it comes to facts I don't want to pick a side or narrative and wade through spin - I want to just the know the fact.
People of normal capabilities are screwed when we try and find the truth. If the catalyst is as the book claimed the totalitarians won GamerGate because they have succeeded at controlling the narrative and removing the evidence from being accessed through normal means of people with normal capabilities.
Take for instance Battlefield 5 verse The Division 2. Battlefield 5 tried to win over critics with overt political statements and told it's customer base if you don't like it don't buy it. So... they didn't buy it and the game flopped given it's expected sales. On the other hand The Division 2 didn't make any political statements and refused to pander to critics. It sold very well.
In the age of e-commerce, the need to a professional critic is lost. If you go to Amazon you can see this dichotomy first hand with Chinese sellers. They will message you if you give them less than a 5 star review. If not enough people change their review, they will re-list the product.
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
Again, the premise/catalyst was a mail list from enlightened cultists used to expose and purge wrongthinkers from game development and game journalism. Review slanting/bias is a very, very small, unimportant and insignificant consideration compared to that.
I'm trying to figure out if this was a mountain or a molehill and you are explaining why molehills are bad or not needed. We may agree on molehills or not, but its irrelevant if the question is about the mountain next to it.
It does happen in tech with companies like Facebook and Google. But they also have more influence in the Silicon Valley.
The problem with such a practice is exactly as I said. Trying to force a narrative can alienate customers and drive you out of business. These practices in media publications and the tech industry are starting to create major losses. For instance every left wing media outlet in the US has been going bankrupt or losing influence.