Because I’m a straight white guy that plays a lot of videogames, and as such the experience and prejudices and privileges that come with that identity are going to be part of my life whether I like it or not.His problem..? Those bloody oiks just won't roll over and say 'You win!' and they have an actor who starred in a show he liked on their side.
Imagine! An actor dares to have an opinion of his own that differs from Chris Thursten's!
Oh, the humanity!
“Remember 2014?” Someone will someday say. “Remember when Jayne from Firefly teamed up with some anons, a couple of YouTubers and the odd opportunistic blogger to disrupt any form of reasonable discussion about the games industry for the better part of a year?”Hmmm, and what's Chris' idea of 'a reasonable discussion'?
Yet you, the Gamergater, and me, the journalist, can’t have that conversation anymore. We’re on two sides of a 'war' invented by people whose understanding of historical narrative comes from videogames, movies and anime. A conflict that impacts real lives, and real livelihoods, with frequency and severity far outweighing the scant justification offered in Wikis that have more in common with Wookieepedia than Wikipedia. Because I believe that Anita Sarkeesian has challenging but necessary things to say about the industry, we can’t talk. Because I believe it is important to defend the rights of the victim before the aggressor, we can’t talk. Because I believe that the biggest problem in games journalism at the moment is a lack of diversity—PC Gamer included—we can’t talk. I’m an SJW, you’re a ‘Gater, let’s have a big pointless fight.Oh. I see. It's 'You're wrong. I'm right. You need to admit that!'
We need new labels. If you’re the type to hound others until they’re unable to participate in online discussions, you’re not a 'Gamergater'—you’re a shitheel. If your targets are exclusively women in the industry, you're a sexist shitheel. If you’re the type to threaten violence, hack someone's email, or post their personal information—you’re a criminal shitheel. Those pro-GG shockjock bloggers, who until a month before Gamergate were writing off people who play games as fat, lazy, pointless and isolated? Manipulative shitheels. Those amateur documentarians, winning over teenagers by dressing like playboy hypnotists? Tragic shitheels. None of these people should represent you or the cause of better games journalism. And yet, through the Gamergate label, they have come to do so. At this point you can no more detach 'Gamergate' from these associations than you can save yourself from an oncoming truck by repeatedly and loudly declaring it to be a pillow.I really don't think 'shitheel' is going to cut it in, ummm, 'journalistic' terms, do you, Chris?
*With thanks to @allahcarte for reminding me of a sadly-underused descriptor the other day...
"Because I believe that the biggest problem in games journalism at the moment is a lack of diversity—PC Gamer included—we can’t talk."
ReplyDeleteNo it isn't. The problem with games journalism is that it's corrupt and rather contemptuous of its readers and has been for decades.
It's why most sensible people gave up on game journalism years ago. I'm more likely to trust the opinion of a programmer that plays games and recommends a game to me, or the reviews on Amazon of a game than those of a game journalist.
As it happens, I don't particularly care for barely clothed women in video games. I'd rather have more characters like Glados and Chell from Portal. But there are pretty much no women out there just downloading a copy of Unity 3D or Eclipse and making a successful game. And well, the people who build stuff defines how the world looks. You think there's an unserved market, make the game, get rich.
It's what irritates me about feminists in general. They moan about men, but they want men to fix the problem rather than being agents of change. Probably why they all hate Thatcher.
I saw the sainted Geoff Miller use that word to great effect once. Here he is, with his evisceration knob set to 5:
ReplyDeleteThe bottom line, you nattering little slobberdonkey, is that Ms. Hatch and I are quite simply beyond
you meager grasp. You can piss your knickers in indignation all
you want, but there it fucking is. You're completely *impotent,*
you puling little jerkoff. Can you grasp that? There's not a
goddam way in the world that you can hurt me, so you might as well
start getting used to the idea, little man. You pint-sized,
irrelevant little milquetoast.
As for Chris Thursten, putting away his hand wringing for a moment:
Yet you, the Gamergater, and me, the journalist, can’t have that conversation anymore.
This 'journalist' would not recognise the nominative case if his own mother dressed up as it, sat on his face and ground away to the beats of the hit band, 'The Nominative Cases', singing "I you he she it we you they'.
I can understand that some men, precluded from obtaining feminine company through the traditional means of being confident, humorous, wealthy and in possession of Rohypnol, resort to becoming fauxfags in the hope of attracting a coterie of fauxfaghags.
In theory, this sounds sensible - until you realise that you've sacrificed your masculinity on the altar of getting some very evasive, and not very highly prized, poontang.
The only masculine company you keep will be fellow fauxfags and the only competition you will have is in out-caring someone who's 'insensitive'. Wringing one's pink, unscarred little fingers with perfect nails.
You can tell he is a true believer though from the epic levels of projection he is doing. I do wonder what they have to do to not have their brains explode in rebellion.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand any of this at all - thank Fuck!
ReplyDeleteOver my head, this one.
ReplyDeleteYou are not the only one James. I'm off to have a lie down.
ReplyDeleteSeems I'm in good company for once!
ReplyDeleteMe too. I was vaguely aware of something called Gamergate and some people were getting terribly worked up about it, but I still haven't a clue what it's about.
ReplyDelete"It's why most sensible people gave up on game journalism years ago. I'm more likely to trust the opinion of a programmer that plays games and recommends a game to me, or the reviews on Amazon of a game than those of a game journalist."
ReplyDeleteSpot on! The rise of social media has eaten these people's lunch, and they don't even seem to realise it.
"... until you realise that you've sacrificed your masculinity on the altar of getting some very evasive, and not very highly prized, poontang."
And you can no longer look at yourself in a mirror!
"I was vaguely aware of something called Gamergate and some people were getting terribly worked up about it, but I still haven't a clue what it's about."
Be thankful.. ;)