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Escapist Magazine retracts article about ethics in games journalism

Dontero

Banned
Thanks for the link Dontero Dontero - pretty shocking stuff. Apologies for stupidity, there was genuinely stuff I wasn't aware of. Tbh the deeper into the rabbit hole I dig, the more horrendous shit I find from these journalists. I feel like things like that mailing list aren't enormously known outside of the more hardcore gg circles, probably due to Milo being involved, but also because of course the journalists aren't going to cover their own problems, and any who do presumably risk being blacklisted. It's a hell of a messy business.

I don't really know why you have to apologize in first place.
It doesn't even matter anymore.

in 2015 places like IGN/Kotaku etc mattered because their reviews shaped sales.
Now no one cares what they write or review. Most of people understand they are just opinions and it is better to find youtuber with similar taste and listen to his review than listen to "game journalist".

In the end by fighting with their own audience they drove them out to youtubers who don't give a crap most of the time about politics, most of them also live in very different places not in liberal hubs because that is where gawker, vox whatever is placed so they also don't give a crap about their politics garbage.

So "gamers are dead" articles essentially made "journalists are dead" happen. Which is ironic as fuck.
 
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hariseldon

Unconfirmed Member
Dontero Dontero - was mostly apologising because I felt bad about taking up your time. I'd be interested to see whether the journo scores do actually matter. I think dev bonuses are often tied to metacritic scores and big publishers use those in part to make decisions on whether to continue with franchises etc so presumably there's some impact.

I would agree that they're driving people away. The comment threads for these places are primarily a circle-jerk of the far-left (I hate calling them the left because they don't give a fuck about class but that's another matter) which hints that those not in that particular cult have left the building. I finally hit my point of "fuck this shit" in the tail end of 2018 after becoming increasingly dissatisfied with RPS output. I'm generally pretty progressive, I don't give a fuck if you're black, gay, disabled, trans or a horse, if you're a decent person I'll treat you decently and I expect your rights to be equal to mine (and if they're not I'll call it out and do what I can to fix that). RPS though.. I just couldn't stomach it anymore, the same shit being jammed into every article (which is a shame - back when I started reading there around the time the humble bundles became a thing and the likes of Braid, Super Meat Boy, etc were coming out it seemed like a fun place, albeit even then I could see that everyone kinda knew each other and it had me questioning how I'd go about releasing a game without those contacts - I am a software developer so I was thinking about maybe making a game).

The stuff in that link really was an eye-opener. I'd had my suspicions of a more organic thing where it was just a case that people got in and they knew about jobs and told their mates who of course leaned the same way, eventually leading to where we are today, but yeah that's a lot more insidious. That 'gamers are dead' happened in such co-ordinated fashion is now clearly an intentional hit by these bastards and that makes me fucking mad.

I have gravitated towards Youtube, as you say there are guys there who are more bullshit-free, though overall I prefer the written word to video, but you can't always get what you want. Now I have this place to hear about stuff I don't know about (the primary purpose of the journalists for me) and youtube to check out how the game shaped up. I have no idea what the numbers are of people who have abandoned ship. The increasingly aggressive advertising on RPS (including, hilariously, stuff from Taboola with scantily-clad women linked to clickbait about things which would almost certainly be thoroughly disapproved of by the increasingly puritan staff [weirdly puritan until it's gay at which point it's ok]) paints an interesting picture and I'd be very curious to see how they're holding up, and how much they're paying the revolving door of freelancers spouting press-release drivel straight to the CMS.
 
That 'gamers are dead' happened in such co-ordinated fashion is now clearly an intentional hit by these bastards and that makes me fucking mad.
Okay, now take that anger and imagine what it would look like if you were then banned from Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and every forum you visit (and even forums you don't) just for trying to discuss it.
 
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hariseldon

Unconfirmed Member
Okay, now take that anger and imagine what it would look like if you were then banned from Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and every forum you visit (and even forums you don't) just for trying to discuss it.

I reckon that could lead to the dark side...
 
I did have a chuckle at his "Of course you think this is all about you" tweet he sent to Zoe Quin, before he lost his balls and deleted everything :/

I wonder whatever gave him that impression?

toad-shuffle-head-edf77.png
 

Shai-Tan

Banned
While there is a clique of like minded people in game journalism that deepfreeze site is bathing in resentments that approaches conspiracy theory obsession with particular people who are disliked for mostly political reasons. Looking at the forums that post deepfreeze links regularly the concern for "ethics in journalism" doesn't extend to the rumor mongering stories that they frequently post. Cultural criticism produced by game journalists is frequently dumb and hyperpartisan but discussion about it shouldn't hide behind faux concern for ethical issues. Back channel discussion is a bogeyman. There is no need to coordinate articles when like minded people will have similar takes, follow and read each other on social media.

I thought Totalbiscuit had some good criticisms about game journalism getting coopted for exclusivity, early reviews, previews etc but he didn't use it to score political points.
 

Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
While there is a clique of like minded people in game journalism that deepfreeze site is bathing in resentments that approaches conspiracy theory obsession with particular people who are disliked for mostly political reasons. Looking at the forums that post deepfreeze links regularly the concern for "ethics in journalism" doesn't extend to the rumor mongering stories that they frequently post. Cultural criticism produced by game journalists is frequently dumb and hyperpartisan but discussion about it shouldn't hide behind faux concern for ethical issues. Back channel discussion is a bogeyman. There is no need to coordinate articles when like minded people will have similar takes, follow and read each other on social media.

I thought Totalbiscuit had some good criticisms about game journalism getting coopted for exclusivity, early reviews, previews etc but he didn't use it to score political points.


Deepfreeze is hardly bathing in resentments, nor does it approach conspiracy theory obsession. That would clearly be the gaming journalists who routinely bring up GamerGate as an excuse for: racism, sexism, harassment, Trump, far-right, transphobia, etc. Also, you do realize that there is plenty evidence of the the back channel "bogeyman", right? One that was used frequently during the whole "gamers are dead" scenario? I am not even sure why you would call it such when it actually existed and was used extensively.
 
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ROMhack

Member
I don't really know why you have to apologize in first place.
It doesn't even matter anymore.

in 2015 places like IGN/Kotaku etc mattered because their reviews shaped sales.
Now no one cares what they write or review. Most of people understand they are just opinions and it is better to find youtuber with similar taste and listen to his review than listen to "game journalist".

In the end by fighting with their own audience they drove them out to youtubers who don't give a crap most of the time about politics, most of them also live in very different places not in liberal hubs because that is where gawker, vox whatever is placed so they also don't give a crap about their politics garbage.

So "gamers are dead" articles essentially made "journalists are dead" happen. Which is ironic as fuck.

Yep, I find it hard to disagree with that. They still maintain that the old audience don't matter but give these guys a couple of pints and I think they'd be more honest.
 
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zenspider

Member
There are no valid points from opponents of gamergate.
From straight to finish it was smear campaign.

It didn't even start with Zoe.

It started because every major site BANNED talk about it which smelled hard and caused Baldwin to tweet #GamerGate which coalesced what was going on. Journalists/sites against gamers. So you had first Journalists sleeping with chick for coverage and then major sites banning all talk about it. GEEE what do you think happened ?

The point here is that it wouldn't even be a thing if story just died on its own on forums etc like every other story. It was already dying at that point. Neogaf also was the best place to cover it RIGHT and disarm it but evilore was in his sjw spell and also banned all talk about it which guaranteed Streisand effect not stopping. Even fucking 4chan banned all talk about it.

Guess no one learned anything from Barbara if they thought this will not backfire.

That banwave caused Baldwin to tweet #gamergate which started gamergate.

Then day later after Baldwin Tweet and Ban wave, string of articles "gamers are dead".
At that point people smelled that all of them are in cabal with each other because how organized it was.

Just few days later notorious Mylo provided proof. Old chat room when all of them talked about future of journalist who was let of from one site and how most of them decided to not hire him because of what he believed.

VOILA you have now powderkeg and proved gamergate right. There is cabal of journalist who dictate what is going to be topic of the day and they all decided to cover for themselves when Zoe post hit. It doesn't take einstain to connect two things and maybe some of those people contacted site owners etc to shut down discussions about it.

From that point on attention whores joined train in name of Sarkesian, Wu and other who tried to outcomepete each-other whom is the most herased. Obviously like fearful victims they were they shoveled shit on twitter proving everyone that their "victimhood" is all fake and they are just attention whores.

Since third wave feminists joined wave it also came out how many of them are in field and to surprise of many shitload of "journalists" turned out to be crazy feminists who would wish for death of white straight male aka titular gamer some of which wrote those "gamers are dead" articles.

From this point "enemies" were identified. Bloggers acting as journalists were just tentacle of bigger monster, the true name of the beast was "inter-sectional feminists". What started as some post of cheated guy who wanted to get back at his cheating girlfriend completely unmasked the ideology that previous hid itself in academia and took over it in past 10 years and creep out into parts of life.

This whole thing snowballed and soon even memes and people who used them were cast into teams.

What gamergate accomplished:
- forced almost every journalist gaming site to update their statement about ethics. ONLY thanks to gamergate sites were competed to not get swag etc from publishers.
- clearly identified intersectionalist ideology in media that oppose games as people like them. Not only for games but for everyone else too. Which is why gamergate didn't end with games and it rippled in comix industry, sci-fi etc.
- clearly thought everyone that gaming journalism is joke and no one should care about what they write anymore. Since gamergate most of people switched to youtubers, twitch etc to look for their news and reviews. While there are issues there like unannounced sponsoring of videos everyone hides with it because they know backlash will be huge so most don't even try it.
- broke neogaf in two thanks to emboldening of intersectional feminists and coming out of woodwork after GG which neogaf was main hive in forum space. Evilore ended up tasting its full medicine which caused split.
- games are fun movement. People now seriously watch what developers say and clearly see if developers priority is to give best fun they can make or to make political points in which case they imminently get shoveled shit at which causes bunch of drama but also cost sales.
- defense of games that don't want that ideology garbage in their games. Kingdom Come is best example of this.

Personally i wish Evillore would just allow for thread to go on back then so it would disarm but it would happen sooner or later either way. Because when you have ideology and you want to enforce it on others then there will be a pushback.

From everything you're saying I agree with you.

I guess I'm looking at it from the perspective of, when I didn't understand what Gamergate was, I opposed it for reasons I think are pretty fair and innocous: I don't think people should be doxxed or threatened, I think all people should feel comfortable in gaming qnd gaming development, and I think there is a place for political content in gaming, and politial discussion around the hobby and industry.

Understanding the reality - years later, mind you - I know those aren't positions that belong exclusively on one side or the other, but I think that there are people who also believe these things that oppose Gamergate wholesale because they don't know what it meant past the opposition's smear.

This is why I think it's so important to have a proper discussion about it. I think a ton of people who reflexively oppose Gamergate would be illuminated by your post, and Russ' article was a great place to start forming questions.
 
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Mercer_CAR

Banned
Reading some other stuff about this and I'm not really even sure what the "anti-GG" narrative is supposed to be.

Like, I am not going to believe that nerds just woke up one morning in 2014 and decided "you know what, there are women in videogames and online and that just won't do".

I get the ZQ scandal and I get that some of the responses and reactions were out of order. Definitely too many people went way to far with it and she was treated unfairly, in my opinion.

I don't know how that gets expanded out to "manbabies are just mad that there's women in gaming now". Suddenly it's not just "a developer and a journalist were involved in a scandal". It has grown to "people are trying to get rid of every single female in the industry".

Even Russ Pitts tweeted out "my wife was harassed and threatened by GG for simply being a woman in games media" but what does that even mean?
People just said "hey, we found ANOTHER one, a woman simply existing in games media, GET HER"?
Do folks not see how utterly ludicrous that sounds?

What was the absolute worst of the worst from GG, who did it and what was the motivation behind it?

Even going to the much derided "GG subreddit" KotakuInAction, a lot of it is just "meh". Boring. Uninteresting.
Certainly biased against mainstream media, games media and "SJWs".
However it is absolutely NOT the cauldron of anger and hate you are led to believe.
I was expecting some crazy stuff but it's just so... dull. Four years later, sure, but still.

The whole "gamers just don't want women in gaming" is a strawman. Always has been.
 

Shai-Tan

Banned
Deepfreeze is hardly bathing in resentments, nor does it approach conspiracy theory obsession. That would clearly be the gaming journalists who routinely bring up GamerGate as an excuse for: racism, sexism, harassment, Trump, far-right, transphobia, etc. Also, you do realize that there is plenty evidence of the the back channel "bogeyman", right? One that was used frequently during the whole "gamers are dead" scenario? I am not even sure why you would call it such when it actually existed and was used extensively.

Gamergate inclined people always seem to know "Gamers are Dead" was the product of collusion yet even deepfreeze, to their credit admit "no ties between the “Gamers are dead” articles and the mailing list have been found (it is not known if they were organized in the list, or at all". Back in reality, it's a bogeyman because what we might call "the narrative" forms out in the open, every day on social media. People who have similar beliefs, desires and interests have similar takes on issues and opinion articles form out of ongoing discussion. Anyone following journalists on Twitter can see the social dynamics behind it; many bad takes win the day

Meanwhile articles on that site have entries pointing out conflicts of interest like having a casual friendly acquaintance, almost like journalists have to talk to people to find leads. Or even worse ethically, 'wrote a review people didn't like (that got piled on because they're trying to take away our games)'or 'wrote an article we don't agree with and here's an equally tendentious alternative that we take as fact'.
 

Great Hair

Banned
All i remember about the name Zoe Quin is that she allegedly? let her purse be refilled by 4 married guys under stress, in an exchange for a positive score? If so, why do ppl. still give her any attention? She would do anything for money, positive yelp score, amazon score ... ; im too lazy to check up her name, if im wrong and it was someone else mea culpa on me.
 
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hariseldon

Unconfirmed Member
Deepfreeze seems to do a bad job of separating incidents out by importance, but its reporting of high-importance incidents, judging by what I've seen and a bit of google-fu, seems sound. No doubt they have an agenda to push, but so long as you understand that you can extract the useful information without the bullshit.
 

Mr Nash

square pies = communism
GG was also a chance for a purge in mainstream games journalism. All the reasonable and neutral people either left or became indie with their own funded blogs.

Do you mean actual written blogs rather than YouTube channels? If so, fire over some links. I much prefer written content over video given the choice, and would very much like some well-written video game articles.
 
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hariseldon

Unconfirmed Member
Do you mean actual written blogs rather than YouTube channels? If so, fire over some links. I much prefer written content over video given the choice, and would very much like some well-written video game articles.

#metoo
 

Petrae

Member
Well then... so much for Escapist Magazine and their false commitment to "no politics".

As I said earlier in the thread, Pitts— as well as most people in games media— is a shyster. He says what he thinks will give him and the site(s) he works for a traffic advantage. Then, when he goes too far or inevitably gets caught in a lie, he cuts bait and runs while beating himself up real good to win brownie points with those he offended.

Games media is a joke. It’s too bad, because it wasn’t always this way... but the fall from grace has been hard and fast, hitting more than a few fat branches on the way down. This is the just the latest example of why.
 

petran79

Banned
Do you mean actual written blogs rather than YouTube channels? If so, fire over some links. I much prefer written content over video given the choice, and would very much like some well-written video game articles.

I discovered this by chance but at least he provides coverage of Japanese games most mainstream sites would avoid. He also covers Atari games and has a Youtube channel. Even old arcade games and ero games are included. That independence would not be possible in mainstream sites and magazines

https://moegamer.net/all-games/

MoeGamer is a site about video games and visual novels, old and new. It is written and curated by Pete Davison, formerly of USgamer and GamePro.

MoeGamer’s aim is to provide comprehensive, interesting, positive and well-researched coverage of niche-interest and overlooked, underappreciated titles that often tend to get a raw deal from the mainstream press or are at risk of being forgotten by history.

The focal point of MoeGamer’s coverage is the Cover Game feature: a series of in-depth explorations of individual games or series from both yesterday and today. These special features are punctuated with one-off articles and ongoing series about other noteworthy games or phenomena.
 

Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
I discovered this by chance but at least he provides coverage of Japanese games most mainstream sites would avoid. He also covers Atari games and has a Youtube channel. Even old arcade games and ero games are included. That independence would not be possible in mainstream sites and magazines

https://moegamer.net/all-games/

MoeGamer is a site about video games and visual novels, old and new. It is written and curated by Pete Davison, formerly of USgamer and GamePro.

MoeGamer’s aim is to provide comprehensive, interesting, positive and well-researched coverage of niche-interest and overlooked, underappreciated titles that often tend to get a raw deal from the mainstream press or are at risk of being forgotten by history.

The focal point of MoeGamer’s coverage is the Cover Game feature: a series of in-depth explorations of individual games or series from both yesterday and today. These special features are punctuated with one-off articles and ongoing series about other noteworthy games or phenomena.

I like MoeGamer for the most part. Some of the writing is poor - but they do as they say. I just wish they would get better logos/graphic design. Not a huge fan of the Yandere Simulator/Illusion-level of 3D models.
 

petran79

Banned
I like MoeGamer for the most part. Some of the writing is poor - but they do as they say. I just wish they would get better logos/graphic design. Not a huge fan of the Yandere Simulator/Illusion-level of 3D models.

He also admits he is not a gaming journalist, probably for the better

I'm Pete Davison, former video games journalist (Kombo, GamePro, USgamer), amateur gaming historian and longtime gaming enthusiast.
 

Dontero

Banned
Gamergate inclined people always seem to know "Gamers are Dead" was the product of collusion yet even deepfreeze, to their credit admit "no ties between the “Gamers are dead” articles and the mailing list have been found (it is not known if they were organized in the list, or at all". Back in reality, it's a bogeyman because what we might call "the narrative" forms out in the open, every day on social media.

It was established that this group existed. Period.
One after another several gaming sites posted gamers are dead articles.
This group discussed openly gamergate there and what "actions are needed" etc

So while there is no direct evidence showing they in cabal wrote that garbage it doesn't take Einstein to see that this was in fact cabal.
Chance of any one of them writing one after another totally at random close to 0%.

People didn't care about what was written in those articles. That was not the point.
The point was that it was one after another similar pieces. And that mailing list is proof enough.

And no narrative didn't form out in the open but in that mailing list. Bunch of bloggers decided they are smarter and decided to attack literally their own public. They wanted to social engineer their public which backfired at them.
 

Mercer_CAR

Banned
Concluding that any of these publications like Waypoint, Polygon, The Escapist where initiated for anything other than:

A) cultural / political control of potential dissident groups
B) infiltrate a subculture which had gone almost unaffected by "progressive" ideas

Is naive.....
 

Dontero

Banned
Concluding that any of these publications like Waypoint, Polygon, The Escapist where initiated for anything other than:

A) cultural / political control of potential dissident groups
B) infiltrate a subculture which had gone almost unaffected by "progressive" ideas

Is naive.....

You need huge conspiratory hat to even think that.
 

Mercer_CAR

Banned
You need huge conspiratory hat to even think that.

Go and watch Austin Walker's NYU talk where he speaks about being heavily influenced by big hitters of the Frankfurt School (particularly Theodor W. Adorno) and how he wanted Waypoint to achieve similar things to Adorno's achievements. And if you think Quinn, Sarkeesian or the organisers at Emerald City Comic Con to name but 3 other cultural figures have no agenda to completely destroy the games industry as we know it, then no wonder GG seems like nothing more than geeks against women to you!

These people don't give a shit about your hobby, they only care that it's a space where they can utilise intersectionality to push a progressive agenda to a predominantly male sub-genre......how you can't see suggests you have no idea about the connections between politics and culture.
 

Doczu

Member
Oh my god that tweet and the responses. It's a Battlefield down there, and from the looks of it it's V.
 

lifa-cobex

Member
How the hell are people still bowing to the cult of Quinn in this day an age?

Furthermore, you're following the pattern of Male Allies who have recently been brought to light for their sexual assaults and it makes us all wonder what you're going to be caught for No one needs internet histrionics to like them this bad
oof
 

Dontero

Banned
Go and watch Austin Walker's NYU talk where he speaks about being heavily influenced by big hitters of the Frankfurt School (particularly Theodor W. Adorno) and how he wanted Waypoint to achieve similar things to Adorno's achievements.
Conspiracy you speak of needs willing agreement between all sides to conspire to do something.
Being inspired is not as following someone agenda.

Ideology you speak of is not centrally governed by someone but it is group think of similar minded people operating is similar locations.
It is like virus that spreads from person to person.
 
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hariseldon

Unconfirmed Member
Lol that quote... male allies are literally cuckold's who think passivity will get them laid.... when reality hits that it won't they; rape people....

Reality.

I believe they prefer the term Uncle Tom.
 

angelic

Banned
Lol that quote... male allies are literally cuckold's who think passivity will get them laid.... when reality hits that it won't they; rape people....

Reality.

Utter truth right there. I can't stand beta males, they hang around women, being all passive and soppy, hoping they can sneak in the back door at the most vulnerable moment. Then when the woman goes for another "bad boy", ie a man who doesn't give a fuck about pandering, the beta gets all bitter..leading to unpleasant stalking/rapey behaviour.

Alpha male types, or just standard men if you will, don't bother with any of that shit. They date people, break up, date again. It's the cuck beta nerds who perform all the creepy shit, especially as they're the more tech savvy. Also why they demonise "standard" men, because nerds write a lot of media. You just know that Gilette ad had some beta cuck hands in it.
 

Mercer_CAR

Banned
Utter truth right there. I can't stand beta males, they hang around women, being all passive and soppy, hoping they can sneak in the back door at the most vulnerable moment. Then when the woman goes for another "bad boy", ie a man who doesn't give a fuck about pandering, the beta gets all bitter..leading to unpleasant stalking/rapey behaviour.

Alpha male types, or just standard men if you will, don't bother with any of that shit. They date people, break up, date again. It's the cuck beta nerds who perform all the creepy shit, especially as they're the more tech savvy. Also why they demonise "standard" men, because nerds write a lot of media. You just know that Gilette ad had some beta cuck hands in it.

yeah the problem is that the video games industry is full of geeks who probably used to get beat up at school and as such are just lashing out with their shit tier ideology whilst calling anyone who disagrees with them misogynists and Nazis...
 

ROMhack

Member
Utter truth right there. I can't stand beta males, they hang around women, being all passive and soppy, hoping they can sneak in the back door at the most vulnerable moment. Then when the woman goes for another "bad boy", ie a man who doesn't give a fuck about pandering, the beta gets all bitter..leading to unpleasant stalking/rapey behaviour.

Alpha male types, or just standard men if you will, don't bother with any of that shit. They date people, break up, date again. It's the cuck beta nerds who perform all the creepy shit, especially as they're the more tech savvy. Also why they demonise "standard" men, because nerds write a lot of media. You just know that Gilette ad had some beta cuck hands in it.

Nah, that was Proctor & Gamble so typical ad men trying to take advantage of the exact people you describe. King of the jungle stuff.

Generally though I agree, male game journalists seem to be weirdly similar in terms of how passive they are. They could just ignore all the politics/gender crap but seemingly go right for it like they're trying to score kudos points. I know loads of ordinary, well-adjusted men who are sympathetic to the same causes but don't go out of their way to make sure people know how about it.

At the end of the day, he retracted his statement because he was likely worried about the repercussions from the social media hate mob, rightly or wrongly.
 
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Mercer_CAR

Banned
Nah, that was Proctor & Gamble so typical ad men trying to take advantage of the exact people you describe. King of the jungle stuff.

Generally though I agree, male game journalists seem to be weirdly similar in terms of how passive they are. They could just ignore all the politics/gender crap but seemingly go right for it like they're trying to score kudos points. I know loads of ordinary, well-adjusted men who are sympathetic to the same causes but the difference being they don't go out of their way to make sure people know how woke* they are.

At the end of the day, he retracted his statement because he was likely worried about the repercussions from the social media hate mob, rightly or wrongly.

*I'm loathe to use that word but it's perfect really.

Ad men, bankers, Hollywood billionaires these people have had a lot of names throughout the millennia.....
 

angelic

Banned
At the end of the day, he retracted his statement because he was likely worried about the repercussions from the social media hate mob, rightly or wrongly.

It's cost him his job by retracting it though, so really he should have stood by his work. He's made himself look a right mug in his statement too with all that "my powerful disrespecting words" crap. He sounds like a beta male himself, certainly someone with no integrity. A hate mob is by definition in the wrong, so he would have simply looked like a person being attacked for expressing his own views. Typical leftist stuff..free speech except the stuff we don't like.
 

Shmunter

Member
Welp, he got SJW’d hard and ran for cover like a bit of a wimp. Sad state of affairs that normal voices are not loud enough to combat this scourge.
 

petran79

Banned
yeah the problem is that the video games industry is full of geeks who probably used to get beat up at school and as such are just lashing out with their shit tier ideology whilst calling anyone who disagrees with them misogynists and Nazis...

One reason school bullying and video games are never brought to the forefront. Because there both boys and girls participate in beating and harassing. But it does not suit their constructed narrative.
 

TheSHEEEP

Gold Member
yeah the problem is that the video games industry is full of geeks who probably used to get beat up at school and as such are just lashing out with their shit tier ideology whilst calling anyone who disagrees with them misogynists and Nazis...
To be fair, depending on the geek you disagree with, you might also be called SJW or cuck...
 

Saruhashi

Banned
Welp, that’s it for ol’ Russ.



FFS.

You would think that calmer heads would prevail in a situation like this.

Normal people would surely just get in touch with each other privately and sort out their differences and come to a conclusion.

Really, what ought to have happened here is ZQ tweets out that her supporters need to stop harassing RP and that they have sorted it out privately.
RP can apologize to her for being too harsh in his reply to her and that's that.

Instead we get this "burn it all to the ground scenario".

The article gets deleted. A grovelling apology gets posted instead.
THEN the guy has to step down from a charity that he works for (how is this a good thing in ANY way?)
AND he has to step away from his actual job too.

All because he wrote and article that was basically "GG are a bunch of horrible cunts but also games journalism does have some issues".

RP: Consumers Deserve Better
ZQ: How dare you write this article without first consulting me.
RP: Fuck off, this isn't all about you.
...
...
RP: OH you guys I am so so sorry about my horrible awful behavior and ZQ let me just say your resilience is so admirable and I've now deleted the article about consumers deserving better and posted this big apology AND I'll be leaving my charity and taking time off work.

FFS.

I don't get why he didn't just own it.
His initial response to her was so dismissive that he obviously thinks she's a bit of an attention seeking arsehole.
So just own it. The article was nothing to do with her at all.

My personal opinion is that she would have charged money for a comment on GG and that's why she was annoyed at him for not asking her.
Wouldn't be at all surprised if he gives her a wee something on Patreon by way of apology.

There was nothing particularly egregious in the article.
I would have had sympathy for ZQ if the article was an outright attack on her or something but he explicitly goes out of his way to condemn GG.
Some would argue that he outright lies about GG in the article to be honest.

Oh boo hoo I am so sorry I hurt everyone, I hurt you and you and you and now I will go away and focus on addressing my own failings.

It's so pathetic.

You'd think in a sensible world ZQ would have contacted him and said "you know what, the article had nothing to do with me and I shouldn't have called you out but you were pretty mean so let's just move on from this". Then that's it.

If that's not possible then he should have stuck to his guns here.

I guess I'm not understanding why he ends up grovelling like this? Scared of being blacklisted or something?

I'm just not getting HOW exactly ZQ as this much influence in those circles. What is anyone getting out of it?
 
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H

hariseldon

Unconfirmed Member
S Saruhashi - I'd say blacklisting is exactly what he's worried about. I'd say that it's not necessarily that Zoe herself wields great power directly but her cult followers who run everything in games media will blackball anyone who speaks against her. The thing is, people have to pay their bills. People spend time and energy to build a career. Of course they'll be cowed by this stuff, and that's why it keeps happening.
 
Welp, that’s it for ol’ Russ.



While he's at it, he should also cut off his balls, drown his kitten, sell his kidneys on the organ market, get a divorce, ostracize himself from humanity, move to Antarctica, set himself on fire and commit Seppuku. It's just ridiculous how that guy is flagellating himself in the vain hope of reconciling with the social media outrage mob. Alternatively, he could just forego all that nonsense, grow a spine and own his words...

ZQ is one of the most toxic people I have ever seen. The simple reason why she reacted so hysterically to that article is because she has too many skeletons to hide in the closet.
 
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Saruhashi

Banned
S Saruhashi - I'd say blacklisting is exactly what he's worried about. I'd say that it's not necessarily that Zoe herself wields great power directly but her cult followers who run everything in games media will blackball anyone who speaks against her. The thing is, people have to pay their bills. People spend time and energy to build a career. Of course they'll be cowed by this stuff, and that's why it keeps happening.

It's almost funny when you think about it.

Games journalist writes about ethics in games journalism and the aftermath proves that the situation is FAR more dire than the initial article suggested.

I mean what we've learned from The Escapist I guess is that saying "we want to avoid politics" well attract criticism because "everything is political" and "we are not interested in politics" is pandering to the Alt-Right, one of the more extreme political groups out there.

That's right. "We don't want to talk about politics at all" is actually support for the most extreme political views.
So that was how they started out with this new "reboot".

Then this whole drama teaches us that if you want to talk about issues within games journalism then you'd better be damn sure you contact, and I assume pay, ZQ for her take on it. She isn't a games journalist but still you gotta clear it with her.

Don't clear it with her and you will be forced to shut that shit down and disappear for a wee while until you see the error of your ways.

No problem with ethics in games journalism though guys, honest.
Just, you know, don't talk about it... or else!

In a sense, the article did serve it's purpose.
It's clear as day there is an issue with outlets actually afraid to say anything out of turn lest they be forced to publicly back down.
The reaction to the article proves this.
The consequences of speaking out of turn are swift and damaging.
The reaction to the article proves this also.

So the answer to the question of whether or not The Escapist can talk about ethics is a resounding "NO".
The consequences of doing so are clear.
 

DunDunDunpachi

Patient MembeR
It's almost funny when you think about it.

Games journalist writes about ethics in games journalism and the aftermath proves that the situation is FAR more dire than the initial article suggested.

I mean what we've learned from The Escapist I guess is that saying "we want to avoid politics" well attract criticism because "everything is political" and "we are not interested in politics" is pandering to the Alt-Right, one of the more extreme political groups out there.

That's right. "We don't want to talk about politics at all" is actually support for the most extreme political views.
So that was how they started out with this new "reboot".

Then this whole drama teaches us that if you want to talk about issues within games journalism then you'd better be damn sure you contact, and I assume pay, ZQ for her take on it. She isn't a games journalist but still you gotta clear it with her.

Don't clear it with her and you will be forced to shut that shit down and disappear for a wee while until you see the error of your ways.

No problem with ethics in games journalism though guys, honest.
Just, you know, don't talk about it... or else!

In a sense, the article did serve it's purpose.
It's clear as day there is an issue with outlets actually afraid to say anything out of turn lest they be forced to publicly back down.
The reaction to the article proves this.
The consequences of speaking out of turn are swift and damaging.
The reaction to the article proves this also.

So the answer to the question of whether or not The Escapist can talk about ethics is a resounding "NO".
The consequences of doing so are clear.
How can you come to this conclusion?

It's all about incel males who don't want females to dare touch videogames or dare talk about videogames.

Right, everyone?

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