Springtime for Geek Girls?

[erimir]

Well, before gamergate, maybe it would, maybe it wouldn't. But after, there's no way it wouldn't. Hand the gg folks exactly the kind of "exonerating" evidence they want.

[Ensign Steve]

But it's a fake?

OMG JOURNALISM ETHICS!!

[lisarea]

At last, we have achieved the ultimate goal of feminism: The corruption of games journalism.

[LadyShea]

Yeah I feel so powerful now. We can cause problems in a niche area of writing that few people give a flying fuck about anyway!

[lisarea]

I'm not totally convinced this is even real. I have seen lots of dramatic and overwrought MRAs and goobhammers in my time, but this is over the top. This just sounds like a badly done dramatic reading of a Reddit comment or something. I'm skeptical.

Skepticism aside, though, I just cried a big giant tear and there was the ghostly reflection of a brave American eagle in that tear and that eagle was crying a tear with a reflection of me crying that aforementioned eagle-tear in it.

This tribute to “the millions of gaming dead” is the most ridiculously overblown GamerGate video you may ever see | we hunted the mammoth

#GamerGate: For Those Who Stand and Fight -...

Wait. Did he say Labelmaker? ETHICS IN OFFICE SUPPLY JOURNALISM!

[Sock Puppet]

Reminds me of that X-Files episode with Charles Nelson Reilly as a journalist interviewing a doughy, painfully geeky conspiracy nut who managed to stumble on a "real" conspiracy.

"Why didn't you run away? Weren't you scared?"
"Well, I didn't spend all those years playing Dungeons and Dragons without learning a little something about courage."

[BrotherMan]

I listened to a couple of sentences and thought maybe for sure pea was correct. I remembered reading something about some overblown word salad thing related to the GG deal. It's not exact but the tone is p much the same.

[Janet]

Did we talk about the new word "mantrum" yet? Because it is one of the few good things Gamergate has inspired.

[lisarea]

Weird. I just searched and that was the FIRST instance of mantrum on this here Fartknockers' Forum.

I know I've used it in real life before, though, so I demand partial credit.

[BrotherMan]

God, why are men so testerical?

[Crumb]

Rose Eveleth on Twitter: "No no women are toooootally welcome in our community, just ask the dude in this shirt. https://t.co/r88QRzsqAm http://t.co/XmhHKrNaq5"

[lisarea]

How did this even happen? Is this your fault, Ensign Steve? I just feel like it's probably your fault.

Pamie » Barbie Fucks It Up Again

At first I was thinking, OK those guys are low-level programmers who are reporting to her, because that's who usually does the programming and testing and stuff, but this turns out to not be the case.

I did like the super-realistic touch with all the binary, though.

[erimir]

I read Andrew Sullivan's blog. Mostly because, like FF, it's a good place to get linked to interesting articles around the web, and to a lesser extent because I find his perspective interesting.

But Jesus Christ has it been painful to see him attempt to talk about these issues (GamerGate, internet harassment, sexism in gamer and atheist communities).

He knows shit about video games and geek or atheist culture.

Not to mention the problems with his perspective on feminism.

[Ensign Steve]

Originally Posted by lisarea

How did this even happen? Is this your fault, Ensign Steve? I just feel like it's probably your fault.

Pamie » Barbie Fucks It Up Again

At first I was thinking, OK those guys are low-level programmers who are reporting to her, because that's who usually does the programming and testing and stuff, but this turns out to not be the case.

I did like the super-realistic touch with all the binary, though.

I read the whole thing. I just don't even.

[erimir]

Randy Harper has created a tool to automatically detect and block GamerGaters. They don't like it.

[LadyShea]

Apparently some GGers are all at this game...about a boy with cancer*. That's enough reason to back it That Dragon, Cancer by Ryan Green & Josh Larson — Kickstarter

*This boy

Sorry if this is old news, but srsly WTF?

[Ari]

If you don't get to shoot him with an M-16 while beating strippers for health, it's not a 'real' game, duh!

[beyelzu]

Originally Posted by lisarea

How did this even happen? Is this your fault, Ensign Steve? I just feel like it's probably your fault.

Pamie » Barbie Fucks It Up Again

At first I was thinking, OK those guys are low-level programmers who are reporting to her, because that's who usually does the programming and testing and stuff, but this turns out to not be the case.

I did like the super-realistic touch with all the binary, though.

Review by jaylin on amazon

"
I found the sexist drivel that this book portays to be especially inflammatory, so much so that I've placed it near my fireplace for emergency use during a power outage. The demeaning words add extra fuel as they certainly come from the fire of hell itself.
Also wonderful for starting your backyard grill."

[erimir]

Originally Posted by LadyShea

Apparently the GGers are all at this game...about a boy with cancer*. That's enough reason to back it That Dragon, Cancer by Ryan Green & Josh Larson — Kickstarter

*This boy

Sorry if this is old news, but srsly WTF?

I hadn't heard about this. After some Googling, I'm having trouble finding any GamerGate people complaining about it. I saw some anti-GG people predicting they would have a problem with it, since it is similar to Gone Home and Depression Quest, SJW games that they hate.

ETA: With a bit more looking, I was able to find the evidence. Still, it does not seem to have been a big push, and it looks like they may have realized it was a very bad idea.

[LadyShea]

I saw it on Twitter under the GG hashtag

[Ari]

Speaking of predictions, I expect #gamergate to hate “Where the Water Tastes Like Wine” given that it's by one of the creators of Gone Home and is about story telling and not blowing shit up.


(This was totally not a promotional post for a friends new game company).

[LadyShea]

Twitter

BE VERY CAREFUL HOW YOU FAGGOTS DEAL WITH THIS

Seriously. You don't have to be a spin doctor to tell this could EASILY be redirected at us by the media.

"GAMERGATE IS ATTACKING A GAME ABOUT FIGHTING CANCER"

If there's legitimate corruption, make DAMN well sure you faggots are certain. Even then, treat it with care and respect otherwise they'll be able to gloat that we're literally worse than cancer. /gg/ - Possibly the next 10/10 Indyfest winner game Anita Sarkeesian aproved

To be fair, the developer said

Hey all, we have not received any direct harassment or threats from #gamergate or anyone else.

and a bunch of #GGers are offering money/backing the project, and saying the game will never be attacked stuff like that....so that's good

But, Anita Sarkeesian was asked what her cut is after praising the game and accused of never promoting anything that didn't line her pockets.

[erimir]

On a more positive note, StarCityGames (a prominent Magic: the Gathering website) fired a freelancer for being a bigoted asshat on Twitter. He then has a total Twitter meltdown, kinda demonstrating exactly why he should've been fired.

Alex Hinkley fired from SCG over hateful tweet : magicTCG

He was also trying to enlist #GamerGate to his aid. But he was mistaken if he thought the Magic community was the same as the video game community. From what I can tell (from, say, that Reddit thread), the reaction is "This guy seems like an asshole who StarCityGames had good reason not to want to be associated with."

I know first-hand that the Magic community has its own problems with some of these issues, and I've never been that deeply involved in it (even less so now than in the past) but damn if it's not a relief to see that reaction. Similar feelings when I've seen other gaming-related sites I've visited not buying into that.

Also, for rage, read this idiotic article from a religious libertarian: Gamer Gate: Three Stages to Obit

Three stages
1. bitter letter about Zoe Quinn
2. ethics in journalism
3. subsumed into eternal culture war between red and blue

Seems like a pretty shaky thesis, that GamerGate and anti-GG can be mapped onto monarchists vs. republicans, Union vs. Confederacy, etc.

Look down in the comments for a familiar name:

show spoiler

seebs

[Janet]

A friend retweeted this yesterday. A good take on what all this boils down to. You Aren't Entitled to Have People

Reminds me of the thing that bugs me most about Grosse Pointe Blank. There is that great scene where Minnie Driver's character tells John Cusack's hired killer that despite his plan to go straight and his return to woo her, "You don't get to have me." And then, of course, the film entirely goes back on it and they end up driving off together. Grrrr

[erimir]

I've thought a little bit about this... This is not specifically in reaction to that Lindy West piece, because cornering women on the subway is clearly not ok behavior, and if anything is indication that a guy is probably an asshole, going on 500 dates and not finding a long term partner has gotta be one. And other behaviors she mentions too, like the annoying coffee shop guys. I'm certainly glad I don't have to deal with that in everyday life. I don't often go to gay bars, and almost never by myself, but yeah, it is hard to get out of situations like that and the people who can't read your signals that you're not interested are annoying and can even be a bit frightening. The last time I went to a gay bar (I was actually with a friend), there was a (larger, well-muscled) guy who came and was basically harassing us while we were playing pool, mouthing "I want you" at us (apparently he didn't care which of us would go home with him), not-so-subtly brushing the back of his hand against my butt as he walked by, continuing to talk to us even though we were clearly not interested and generally behaving like a creeper. And I'm sure women have to deal with that all the time.

BUT... if there's a lesbian high school student and nobody will be friends with her because she's gay, the reaction would tend to be that the other kids in that high school are bigots and assholes.

You don't ever hear the unqualified response "Nobody owes you their friendship."

Or, one that I've seen many times, if a gay white guy says "Sorry, I don't date/have sex with black guys, I'm just not attracted to them" the reaction would tend to be that the guy is a racist. I've seen that brought up as evidence of the (white) gay community's racism many, many times.

What I don't see is people saying "Black gay guys are not owed sexual relationships with white gay guys" and leaving it at that.

Now, there are more nuanced reactions, such as saying your sexual desires are probably shaped by the racism permeating society, and you should make an effort to try to question your attitudes and so forth rather than seeing them as completely unproblematic, but you're not obligated to have sex with anyone you don't want to. That position, however, would seem to necessitate not denouncing any white gay man who doesn't want to have sex with black men as an unrepentant racist. But I don't see much pushback against that.

And maybe you can say that those homophobic students aren't obligated to be friends with the gay kid, but they're still assholes anyway.

Obviously I'm not saying that women are obligated to have sex with anybody. I'm certainly not going to have sex with any guy who thinks I'm only rejecting him because of his race or weight or age to prove I'm not a bigot or whatever. But I do see some tension between those things that is often ignored.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that people can get a real sense that they've been wronged when they're denied friendship, romance or sex. And maybe that should be acknowledged a little more often as being potentially a valid feeling even when it's a straight white male who's being rejected.

Of course, in many of these cases, there are good reasons why nobody wants to have sex with them (e.g. they may be an asshole who violates boundaries). The PUAs and MRAs and Wizardchan users aren't interested in whether women are rejecting them for good reasons, the fact that they're rejected at all is the problem in their minds. And if that guy at the bar complained about how we were white guys who rejected him (he was black) and it's not fair, someone ought to tell him otherwise.