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GAF FOTY 2014-Fail Of The Year-Results- Winner of the 2014 shit sandwich goes to...

Haunted

Member
How did Ubisoft not win?
The shit Ubisoft has done this year would've been enough to win this award in most years.

But Gamergate happened as well and anyone objectively looking at the severity, the negative impact it has had on our hobby, the industry, the reputation and the place of videogames within our culture... fucking Gamergate is clearly the bigger failure.
 

Haunted

Member
For being the most embarrassing moment of videogame history that I've witnessed and being condemned by most of the gaming industry like Blizzard (video) for one example, glad to have voted.
That was a beautiful moment, hammering on gamergate on the biggest stage available to Blizzard.

The immediate reaction on twitter was great.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Okay, I wasn't sure what "gamergate" as a tag meant. I thought it was the feminist movement, not the misogynistic "backlash."

Nope, its all of the rape threats, death threads, spreading of personal information, borderline (and sometimes genuine) slander, etc, all of which is very oddly and very specifically aimed at only female members of the industry
 
Are you talking about Valve? What do they need help with in the first place?

I love how this entire award is dedicated to 'what should companies do in order to make us like them again/help the industry grow' and you're saying that it's not hurting the industry at all for these companies to keep quiet on real issues involving their players because it might upset the people they would be speaking out against.

And for the record, a few companies already have. Blizzard being the biggest.

Valve has GG already thinking it is pro-GG, when I'm pretty fucking sure they are not.
 

kyser73

Member
Did I say otherwise? I'm just pointing out how comical it is that millions of dollars get sunk into projects that end up being shit, that's all. Someone could be bummed out by something without needing to rank it in a linear fashion.

Clearly you don't have much experience with large-scale IT projects of various kinds, not just games, and if you do you're being pretty disingenuous.
 

Unicorn

Member
Nope, its all of the rape threats, death threads, spreading of personal information, borderline (and sometimes genuine) slander, etc, all of which is very oddly and very specifically aimed at only female members of the industry

Thanks for the clarification. Most certainly the fail of the year.
 

NEO0MJ

Member
And honestly, if you think buggy games are worse than the formation of a hate group based on games then you need to cleanse yourself in the waters of Lake Minnetonka.

They're not worse, but the fact there was something even worse than that is really sad. This industry is never gonna mature.
 

Renzoku

Banned
I'd have given it to broken games in general. GG is a shitshow, but it just lead to a cyclical argument on the internet. The broken games of 2014 signal a very, very bad trend in the industry as a whole.
 

MormaPope

Banned
I love how this entire award is dedicated to 'what should companies do in order to make us like them again/help the industry grow' and you're saying that it's not hurting the industry at all for these companies to keep quiet on real issues involving their players because it might upset the people they would be speaking out against.

And for the record, a few companies already have. Blizzard being the biggest.

Valve has GG already thinking it is pro-GG, when I'm pretty fucking sure they are not.

I'm bowing out, you aren't getting what I'm saying at all. I'm not talking about sales being potentially lost, I'm not against companies speaking out, I straight up don't think them coming forward would change the GG people and their fucked perspective or push them away. They'll still buy and play Valve games, they will continue to troll and make threats. I'm against GG 1000%, blindly inferring and not bothering to understand what someone is trying to say kills any drive for discourse.
 

RionaaM

Unconfirmed Member
Congrats GG, you did this all by yourself. This may not be the award you want, but it's definitely the one you deserve.

Now please go kindly fuck yourself.
 

keit4

Banned
Deserved first place. I don't get how MCC is way higher than Driveclub tho, both games share the same problems.
 

Markitron

Is currently staging a hunger strike outside Gearbox HQ while trying to hate them to death
My vote went to Ubisoft, mostly as I avoided Gamergate like the plague, any other year they would have run away with this award.

I wasn't on Gaf in 2010, can anyone briefly tell me what was wrong with the NBA game? Edit: NVM was on the first page

Deserved first place. I don't get how MCC is way higher than Driveclub tho, both games share the same problems.

I don't have either, but judging by the threads it's seems that Driveclub was in a more playable state than MCC and was improved much more quickly. The fact that DC is a new IP and MCC is a part of one of the biggest franchises ever probably doesn't help.
 

TheXbox

Member
Ubisoft and 343 be robbing folks and they're still not enough to "win" this award. I gotta agree with some of the sentiment on here, 2014 was a dire year for games. Fucking Gamergate. Broken games everywhere. What the fuck.
 

Savitar

Member
Ubisoft deserved it but GamerGate is definitely something that needs to go away. At this point I'm not even sure what it's suppose to be about anymore.
 
I agree with the results, but how is MCC higher than DriveClub? Even without Multi working you had 4 awesome games with a remaster of one of the best Single Player FPSs around. The whole mechanic that DriveClub was built around didn't work for the longest time, which is way more unacceptable.
 

Markitron

Is currently staging a hunger strike outside Gearbox HQ while trying to hate them to death
This, also fuck every asshole trying to make me read dozens of hours of material on it.

It's a hate movement, started by assholes using the Gamergate hashtag, to attack parts of the industry they don't agree with (mostly females in the industry).

I think this is what it is, like I said I avoided it like the plague. The thread here had a bit of a barrier of entry.
 

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
It's basically:

3d6ndnk69rh7.gif


with rape and death threats

Is it really though? From what I have seen of it, it is against feminism, not women in general. At least I've not read anything about attacks on "ordinary" female workers in the industry, but only about feminist activists or game developers who actively present themselves as feminist. That's not to say that it's fine to attack them (it's not fine to harrass anyone at all), but I think it's important to differentiate. If I'm wrong, and it's just an all-out attack against all women in the industry, I think this is not reflected well in the gamergate topic and I'd like to see the evidence.
 

Percy

Banned
I've tried to avoid everything to do with Gamergate, and I'm glad I have from the sounds of it. Awful business.

Destiny being on there is a bit of an eye roller for me, but whatever I guess. Would have imagined "broken games" would be lumped together rather than individual examples being counted seperately as well.

I agree with the results, but how is MCC higher than DriveClub? Even without Multi working you had 4 awesome games with a remaster of one of the best Single Player FPSs around. The whole mechanic that DriveClub was built around didn't work for the longest time, which is way more unacceptable.

Driveclub was a single game with a broken online component, MCC was four games with a broken online component. Four times the fail ;)

Seriously though, I'm guessing it would be a combination of more people having played (and been burned by) MCC than DC and DC having actually have gotten "fixed" before voting for this started, resulting in some voter leniency on that front while MCC is still a mess even now by all accounts.
 

Shaanyboi

Banned
I think we already have a nominee for next year's FOTY.

That escalated quickly

For being the most embarrassing moment of videogame history that I've witnessed and being condemned by most of the gaming industry like Blizzard (video) for one example, glad to have voted.

The funniest thing to come out of this with those Jordan Owen and fedora white nationalist Davis Aurini videos:

"The Sarkeesian Effect": A Measured Response

The turtleneck! Those toy skulls! $15,000! He moves the skulls between shots!

That Jordan Owen dude who visits strippers spent nearly an hour ranting about something in a bath tub XD
0.jpg
....man, the internet is fucking weird
 
Is it really though? From what I have seen of it, it is against feminism, not women in general. At least I've not read anything about attacks on "ordinary" female workers in the industry, but only about feminist activists or game developers who actively present themselves as feminist. That's not to say that it's fine to attack them (it's not fine to harrass anyone at all), but I think it's important to differentiate. If I'm wrong, and it's just an all-out attack against all women in the industry, I think this is not reflected well in the gamergate topic and I'd like to see the evidence.

If you've been keeping up with the things posted in the thread and still aren't convinced, you probably never will be
 
Actually, now that I think about it, a Ubisoft game about gamergate would be pretty amazing.

You wander around a huge map of twitter and harass/intimidate anyone your order thinks is involved in the massive SJW conspiracy. You stalk them around the map and attack their friends and coworkers until you take them down, and in a cutscene explain how it's about ethics in gaming journalism. And then you climb some cell towers. And then the map zooms out and you realize that nobody else gives a fuck

Is it really though? From what I have seen of it, it is against feminism, not women in general. At least I've not read anything about attacks on "ordinary" female workers in the industry, but only about feminist activists or game developers who actively present themselves as feminist. That's not to say that it's fine to attack them (it's not fine to harrass anyone at all), but I think it's important to differentiate. If I'm wrong, and it's just an all-out attack against all women in the industry, I think this is not reflected well in the gamergate topic and I'd like to see the evidence.

Felicia Day got doxxed for (ironically) writing a blog post about how current events made her feel unsafe in her own community, and I don't recall her ever being especially vocal about feminist issues.

You can also argue that creating a fictional character that epitomizes the ideal "gamer girl" as someone who is gender anonymous and "knows her place", and then adopting her as a mascot for your movement about ethics in game journalism, is offensive to women in general, but that's not direct harassment or immediately threatening.
 

$h@d0w

Junior Member
if you actually play games and ignore all the extraneous shit like adam orth, reggie fils aime, hideki kamiya etc etc. etc. - then you would for real see that -

broken games caused the widest, largest fail of the year
 

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
If you've been keeping up with the things posted in the thread and still aren't convinced, you probably never will be

I've read occasionally in the thread and I cannot recall a broad offensive against women based on their sex alone being depicted there, but an attack on outspoken feminists, both in journalism and development, in particular I remember Wu, Sarkeesian and Quinn as victims of severe attacks. However, I cannot remember reading about similar attacks (or harsh comments) against say Aya Kyogoku or Jade Raymond. So from my admittedly small sample and from what I've read was the content of the attacks, it seems to not be a general attack on everyone without a Y-chromosome, but an attack on outspoken feminists, which is not the same. Which also is disgusting, definitely.

But if it indeed is an attack against all females, then please, inform me, because the randomly selected samples from the gamergate topic do not leave this impression on me. And yes, I think it is a bigger problem if people get attacked not for their ideas, but for their biological features, even though it still is disgusting (and should be prosecuted) if people get harrassed based on their ideas or ideals.
 

AniHawk

Member
I've read occasionally in the thread and I cannot recall a broad offensive against women based on their sex alone being depicted there, but an attack on outspoken feminists, both in journalism and development, in particular I remember Wu, Sarkeesian and Quinn as victims of severe attacks. However, I cannot remember reading about similar attacks (or harsh comments) against say Aya Kyogoku or Jade Raymond. So from my admittedly small sample and from what I've read was the content of the attacks, it seems to not be a general attack on everyone without a Y-chromosome, but an attack on outspoken feminists, which is not the same. Which also is disgusting, definitely.

But if it indeed is an attack against all females, then please, inform me, because the randomly selected samples from the gamergate topic do not leave this impression on me. And yes, I think it is a bigger problem if people get attacked not for their ideas, but for their biological features, even though it still is disgusting (and should be prosecuted) if people get harrassed based on their ideas or ideals.

what does it matter? why does the distinction need to be made that sending death and rape threats to female feminists makes the group better for not outright sending it to all women? i haven't been following it much either, but i doubt male feminists have received nearly the same amount of death and rape threats, although i am aware certain people have been targeted.
 

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
what does it matter?

Accuracy. If you say what gamergate is, you should be accurate and not generalize. If it is an attack on feminists, or particularly female feminists, in games, state that. It's bad enough as it is and personal insults and threats are shit in themselves, but if you start being inaccurate, you are acting unfair yourself and give the attackers room for questioning your overall depiction of the events. Also, I think it's ehtically not fine to willingly depict someone's behaviour or motivation inaccurately, even if their intentions and actions are vile anyway.
 

AniHawk

Member
Accuracy. If you say what gamergate is, you should be accurate and not generalize. If it is an attack on feminists, or particularly female feminists, in games, state that. It's bad enough as it is and personal insults and threats are shit in themselves, but if you start being inaccurate, you are acting unfair yourself and give the attackers room for questioning your overall depiction of the events. Also, I think it's ehtically not fine to willingly depict someone's behaviour or motivation inaccurately, even if their intentions and actions are vile anyway.

i think an attack on people trying to fight for empowerment and elevate their standing within a society or subculture is an attack on all the people being represented in that attempt for empowerment. attacking feminists for fighting for equality in the representation within games and for equal treatment in the industry as peers is essentially saying that the people they represent should be happy with the way things are and should know their place.

and beyond that it is obviously a very deliberate attack on women plural as you put it in your previous post.
 

marrec

Banned
Is it really though? From what I have seen of it, it is against feminism, not women in general. At least I've not read anything about attacks on "ordinary" female workers in the industry, but only about feminist activists or game developers who actively present themselves as feminist. That's not to say that it's fine to attack them (it's not fine to harrass anyone at all), but I think it's important to differentiate. If I'm wrong, and it's just an all-out attack against all women in the industry, I think this is not reflected well in the gamergate topic and I'd like to see the evidence.

It's, ostensibly, become against "militant feminism" but their definition of "militant" and "feminism" is so broad as to include any woman in the industry who says anything ever that could be perceived in a negative way towards gaming or gamers. They also lump in anyone and everyone who disagrees with them into that category going so far as to lambast David "Two Girls At Once" Jaffe as being corrupted by "SJWs" simply because he finds them idiotic.
 
I've read occasionally in the thread and I cannot recall a broad offensive against women based on their sex alone being depicted there, but an attack on outspoken feminists, both in journalism and development, in particular I remember Wu, Sarkeesian and Quinn as victims of severe attacks. However, I cannot remember reading about similar attacks (or harsh comments) against say Aya Kyogoku or Jade Raymond. So from my admittedly small sample and from what I've read was the content of the attacks, it seems to not be a general attack on everyone without a Y-chromosome, but an attack on outspoken feminists, which is not the same. Which also is disgusting, definitely.

But if it indeed is an attack against all females, then please, inform me, because the randomly selected samples from the gamergate topic do not leave this impression on me. And yes, I think it is a bigger problem if people get attacked not for their ideas, but for their biological features, even though it still is disgusting (and should be prosecuted) if people get harrassed based on their ideas or ideals.

Is it really that big of a distinction? Just by virtue of all the primary targets of the movement being women (and none of them journalists, mind you), who were targeted because they expressed opinions about being women, it's fairly clear what the general subtext is. A movement that attacks anyone who speaks up about women's interests within the gaming space is trying to establish that women's viewpoints and needs aren't welcome, and that the community at large isn't going to be sympathetic to the "passive" levels of harassment and discrimination women face. I don't think "you can stay, but only if you accept all these terms" is that far off from trying to exclude women entirely, and it definitely fits very snugly in the general trajectory of misogynistic arguments since the beginning of forever.
 
Is it really though? From what I have seen of it, it is against feminism, not women in general. At least I've not read anything about attacks on "ordinary" female workers in the industry, but only about feminist activists or game developers who actively present themselves as feminist.

yeah. sure. they're fine with women that know their place in this man's world and don't dare to try to make waves. If you sit down and shut up they won't bother you!
 
GG definitely overshadows every single stinking hot garbage issue we've dealt with in the industry this year, and for the many years preceding it.

Shitty broken games may be bad, but it's absolutely nothing compared to having your friends & colleagues fear for their safety, receive harassment or rape/death threats in regards to speaking up against a hate movement. Fuck that noise.

I would have put broken games first. Why?

Because broken games affected nearly all gamers this year.

I shed a single tear of not caring. Physical safety of women in the industry is less important than a few games that may run janky at the moment? Awesome priorities you have.
 

Flappy

Banned
I would have put broken games first. Why?

Because broken games affected nearly all gamers this year. But Gamergate affected a select few people. Hell, I don't know anyone outside of Gaf who even knows what Gamergate is (Even people on this forum are asking).
 
I've read occasionally in the thread and I cannot recall a broad offensive against women based on their sex alone being depicted there, but an attack on outspoken feminists, both in journalism and development, in particular I remember Wu, Sarkeesian and Quinn as victims of severe attacks. So from my admittedly small sample and from what I've read was the content of the attacks, it seems to not be a general attack on everyone without a Y-chromosome, but an attack on outspoken feminists, which is not the same. Which also is disgusting, definitely.

Quinn was attacked despite her game having nothing to do with "social justice" issues or feminism.
 
I would have put broken games first. Why?

Because broken games affected nearly all gamers this year. But Gamergate affected a select few people. Hell, I don't know anyone outside of Gaf who even knows what Gamergate is (Even people on this forum are asking).

You think disenfranchising an entire gender within an industry is "just a few people"? And that that is somehow less worse than your broken toys?
 
I think that stetement is a gross hyperbole.

Then you haven't really been paying attention to GamerGate.

But that's all I'm saying on the subject because I've seen what happens to people who disagree on here.

Are you referring to where they get called out on their blatant nonsense and then fail to defend it?

Edit: And that question was hypothetical so don't bother answering it. There's a thread dedicated to GamerGate discussion already. Just pointing out how absolutely ridiculous and selfish it is to say broken toys from big greedy AAA developers who are notorious for crap is somehow worse than death and rape threats being sent to people for the simple reason that they happen to be a woman. This isn't some isolated issue that affects a "few people". This is a serious issue with the entire industry and those who consume from it. If you spent even a few hours in a female friendly place for gamers you would hear constant horror stories of the harassment they endure and GamerGate is the accumulation of all those that cause it.
 

hodgy100

Member
Too bad the industry at large is too chickenshit to deal with GG unequivocally

Thats because It doesn't really concern them. However the developers themselves. Those that work in the industry are doing things. Many gaffers are also devs (myself inclided) that do speak against these things where we can. Several work colleagues of mine do talks at conferences about women in games.
 

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
i think an attack on people trying to fight for empowerment and elevate their standing within a society or subculture is an attack on all the people being represented in that attempt for empowerment. attacking feminists for fighting for equality in the representation within games and for equal treatment in the industry as peers is essentially saying that the people they represent should be happy with the way things are and should know their place.
I don't think so, because it really depends on if said people want to be represented by this. Of course one could argue that it should be in their interest, but we're not talking basic human rights here, so different opinions on such things can happen and therfore I think the distinction even has a place if you are talking from a more high level point of view.

It's, ostensibly, become against "militant feminism" but their definition of "militant" and "feminism" is so broad as to include any woman in the industry who says anything ever that could be perceived in a negative way towards gaming or gamers. They also lump in anyone and everyone who disagrees with them into that category going so far as to lambast David "Two Girls At Once" Jaffe as being corrupted by "SJWs" simply because he finds them idiotic.
Yes, I agree, but this is typical for people who fight an idea all too extremely (and also a huge, unorganized group with necessarily some total dumbasses) and still does not make it right to overstate the goal of their attack.

Is it really that big of a distinction? Just by virtue of all the primary targets of the movement being women (and none of them journalists, mind you), who were targeted because they expressed opinions about being women, it's fairly clear what the general subtext is. A movement that attacks anyone who speaks up about women's interests within the gaming space is trying to establish that women's viewpoints and needs aren't welcome, and that the community at large isn't going to be sympathetic to the "passive" levels of harassment and discrimination women face. I don't think "you can stay, but only if you accept all these terms" is that far off from trying to exclude women entirely, and it definitely fits very snugly in the general trajectory of misogynistic arguments since the beginning of forever.
yeah. sure. they're fine with women that know their place in this man's world and don't dare to try to make waves. If you sit down and shut up they won't bother you!
Which is the nature of the ideal they are fighting for / against, but it is not outright trying to push away all women and it needs to be differentiated, because someone could also do precisely that.
 
So let me get this straight: Gamergate is supposed to be a movement in favour of fixing 'corrupt' games journalism, but due to the whole Zoe Quinn thing (where people wrongly believe she slept with people in order to get good press for her game?) it's got a whole influx of people who are basically sexist bastards attacking any feminists or women in the industry for no other reason than they're misogynistic pricks? For example, Sarkeesian from Feminist Frequency, despite making a lot of good points about the state of the industry, came under intense and disgusting sustained attack purely because of sexist douchebags who don't understand equality. I haven't really been following any of this, but is my basic understanding of the scenario correct?
 

Tom_Cody

Member
So let me get this straight: Gamergate is supposed to be a movement in favour of fixing 'corrupt' games journalism, but due to the whole Zoe Quinn thing (where people wrongly believe she slept with people in order to get good press for her game?) it's got a whole influx of people who are basically sexist bastards attacking any feminists or women in the industry for no other reason than they're misogynistic pricks? For example, Sarkeesian from Feminist Frequency, despite making a lot of good points about the state of the industry, came under intense and disgusting sustained attack purely because of sexist douchebags who don't understand equality. I haven't really been following any of this, but is my basic understanding of the scenario correct?
It sounds like you've been following it pretty closely.
 
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