"gamers are over" 3rd anniversary

[Dhrizzle]

Gamers are over?

Did we do something wrong to you? Cause, i've only been playing games. Nothing more, nothing less. D:

Leigh Alexander's caustic style aside, the main cut of the article (and an earlier blog post that inspired it) is gaming is no longer restricted to people who self-identity (and are marketed towards) as "gamers." It's not dissimilar to the various articles over the past few decades declaring "rock is dead," it doesn't mean rock is literally dead, it just means it's no longer a subversive or fringe part of the culture as it has been accepted or embraced by the mainstream.

[Saucexorzski]

Humans love to pretend that they're martyrs under duress even more than they love to hate. "First world problems" has an awful lot of truth to it.

That is just part of the hate as i see. X causes duress, gather round and lets hate on X. As to first world problems that just a symptom of success and progress. We has gone so far even slight pain or unpleasantness is seen to be the end of the world because most folks have no frame of reference for just how bad pain or unpleasantness can be.

[JohnBrown1917]

The Left collectively decided to self inflict a wound they didn't need and make enemies they really had no reason to make. If anything it was also a preview of the Clinton campaign. Arrogant, self-assured and believing it could do whatever it likes and endure no consequences.

But I think it is safe to say it was a pivotal moment that shifted online culture to the right. Particularly in the Chans, but filtering out beyond because much of Meme culture is Chan culture.

The left had anything to do with Clinton? They hate her, I think you're confused.

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More or less what I was thinking.

Just a reminder - this new "opposition" weren't conservatives, but moderates which wanted to distance themselves from the authoritarian SJW crowd.

But seen with SJWs glasses they might as well be nazis. :P

Which does not exist in politics in reality.

[Yarathir]

The left had anything to do with Clinton? They hate her, I think you're confused.

What do you call "left"? Bernie voters? Because most left-leaning mainstream media outlets were practically cheerleading Hillary and preemptively celebrating over the fact that the polls indicated that Trump had not the slightest chance of winning.

[Deleted]

Again, it's really cute that you imagine that ''MUH WANT BOOBIES IN ALLEGED JAPANESE GAMES'' is ''politics''. Which party, for the record, considered during it's convention to outright ban porn ?'

If you're talking about USA... both, sadly.
If you're talking about UK... both, sadly.

Seems like banning porn gets a lot of mom-electorate points. I learned that by playing Democracy.

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Which does not exist in politics in reality.

You don't have to sell that to me.

You should have sold that to the USA electorate about a year ago.

[JohnBrown1917]

What do you call "left"? Bernie voters? Because most left-leaning mainstream media outlets were practically cheerleading Hillary and preemptively celebrating over the fact that the polls indicated that Trump had not the slightest chance of winning.

Those so called 'left-leaning' media outlets are all clearly neo-liberals, so i'm still not sure what anybody is on about.
if anything, them choosing Clinton over Bernie only proves that they are not left leaning outlets.

[Dhrizzle]

Pushing for ethical journalistic practices is idiotic?

Labeling different opinions as unethical, then using unethical means like applying pressure through advertisers to silence those opinions whilst claiming to support all forms of free speech is idiotic.

[Theodarzna]

The left had anything to do with Clinton? They hate her, I think you're confused.

Your opinion has been noted, and filed. Thanks for the input.

[JohnBrown1917]

You don't have to sell that to me.

You should have sold that to the USA electorate about a year ago.

Which is why i'm glad its not my problem.

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Your opinion has been noted, and filed. Thanks for the input.

Opinion? These are facts, I know you hate those, but try to accept them.

[Zeth Hawkins]

Opinion? These are facts, I know you hate those, but try to accept them.

A claim unaccompanied by substantiation is an opinion. This is only moreso when involving broad general groups such as "the left".

[Jotaux]

After sites changed their policies to require disclosure when writers are friends or roommates with the subject they're writing about...
After sites changed their policies to disclose when the writer is financially invested in the game's success (or don't allow writers to write about them at all)...
After sites were required by the FTC to identify affiliate links...
After the Society for Professional Journalists said there were ethical violations in examples presented....

I'm surprised no one has come in with a snarky remark about Trump and Gamergate just "being tired of winning". Anything to link the two together.

[Danner]

There is an anecdote that I think fits what happened in Gamergate very well.

In the year 209 BC in China, heavy rain prevented two lowly officials from delivering conscripts to a garrison on time.
"What is the penalty for being late?" the first official asked.
"Death" replied the other.
"What is the penalty for joining the rebellion?" the first official asked.
"Also death" replied the other.
The dynasty fell to the rebellion three years later.

I followed what happened in gamergate in detail. I saw the article denouncing gamers as smelly neckbeards. I saw the ensuing rage. I saw the out-of-control stuff done by the lynch mob happening both before and after the articles. I saw the misrepresentation done by a collective media. I read the in-depth bickering, trolling and at times rage-inducing insanity posted online. I followed the broken mess surrounding the wikipedia article, and the scars it impaired on that site. I read about the bomb threats. I read about the death threats. I read about the collusion. I read about the zealots. I read about the nerd-hating bullies. I read about the actual misogynists. I learned about the attention-seekers. I saw the radicalization. I saw the seething hypocrisy, and I lost some sleep over that some people could be that vile. But most of all, I saw that the two sides weren't remotely discussing the same topic.

And I decided, very early, that I would not add anything to that mess myself. The entire debacle was a community-destroying shit-fest with almost no good people in it. It reinforced my view of online trolls. It destroyed what faith I had left in gaming media. They might be the side that got to write the wikipedia history, but they won a very Pyrrhic victory. It destroyed a lot of my faith in media in general, and I do not think I am alone in that.

But most importantly, "gamers" certainly did not die. It is the ray of light amongst all this hate. I can to date say that as far as Gamergate goes, I am pro-TotalBiscuit: "Calm the fsck down!". We should enjoy games, not fight culture wars. Gaming is, and has always been, apolitical and open to everyone. But from what I have read the last 3 years, this stance clearly makes me a pro-gamergater, regardless of my personal feelings about it. Thus why I think the anecdote is so fitting.

Ask again in another 7 years and I might be able to give my actual summary on it. Until then, I am more happy if this entire sordid mess is forgotten.

[Simca]

Despite having tried several times to understand the topic over the years, I still barely even comprehend what it is.

Some people got mad over some random news article from a website nobody cares about (the one linked in the OP I guess), and there was some girl dev (Zoe something) who slept with some journalist. I assumed then it was about ensuring the integrity of gaming journalism and stopped paying attention because gaming journalism is rarely professional anyway. When I next noticed it, months later, it seemed to be a movement about... tweeting a lot, using the acronym 'SJW' roughly six to eight times per sentence.

Even if Trump kills someone personally, as long as he makes the MSM and SJW left mad, I will still vote for him. I don't care about the country as much as I care about triggering the other side, and there ain't a damn thing you can do about it.

You're probably joking, but there are quite a few people on Twitter who actually think this way. It's ironic because those people are actually worse then the people they hate. The pushback against 'SJW' and 'PC' is so extreme in these warped individuals' minds that they think those phenomena are literally going to end the world unless they tweet angrily about it. They go through their day to day lives interpreting every negative event that happens in the world as a result of those two concepts, which then compounds their hatred for those concepts. It's some sort of mental delusion but on a broad scale.

It's like what happened in the Cold War with communism. Lost your job? Communism. Marriage fell apart? She was probably a communist. Kids not doing well in school? Oh, well that one is surely communism, corrupting our youths. Or similar to how the media has recently blown the white supremacy thing up out of proportion, making you think there are tens of millions of extremely racist hatemongers plotting racial domination, when the reality is their population is probably a fraction of a percent.

Some days I wake up and think to myself: am I the only normal person in the world left? It seems like everyone else is feverishly obsessed with seeing the downfall of a specific group of people or a specific way of thinking. Maybe I'm the crazy one.

[Faroth]

Labeling different opinions as unethical, then using unethical means like applying pressure through advertisers to silence those opinions whilst claiming to support all forms of free speech is idiotic.

One side wasn't allowed to voice an opinion and were continuously smeared. They applied the only pressure they could. Almost like fair and balanced reporting would have negated this. It wasn't "they say things we don't like about the games, get their advertisers!" That advertising email campaign came much later.

The media handled the whole mess in the most fumbling way possible every step of the way, to be honest. They could have calmed the issue fairly quickly and the whole thing should have fizzled in a month.

I'm just glad MMO-Champ's thread on the topic remained self contained and never got any outside attention. I was pretty impressed with how most of our posters handled their discussion and with the mods in that forum handling moderation.

[NoiseTank13]

Despite having tried several times to understand the topic over the years, I still barely even comprehend what it is.

Some people got mad over some random news article from a website nobody cares about (the one linked in the OP I guess), and there was some girl dev (Zoe something) who slept with some journalist. I assumed then it was about ensuring the integrity of gaming journalism and stopped paying attention because gaming journalism is rarely professional anyway. When I next noticed it, months later, it seemed to be a movement about... tweeting a lot, using the acronym 'SJW' roughly six to eight times per sentence.

When the Quinn revelations were first revealed (by her ex-boyfriend) it was more along the lines of "Yeah that sounds about right for gaming journalists."

It was the DMCA takedowns on Youtube of people talking about it that were allegedly done on her behalf as well as Reddit crackdowns on it that was the catalyst for the rage.

Apparently if there's one thing gamers hated more than women (being sarcastic there), it's being told you can't talk about a subject.

I'm just glad MMO-Champ's thread on the topic remained self contained and never got any outside attention. I was pretty impressed with how most of our posters handled their discussion and with the mods in that forum handling moderation.

It is probably the most shining example of moderation I've seen. Outside of a couple posters on both sides, it was pretty reasonable from both sides in that topic.

[Toogoodman]

Some days I wake up and think to myself: am I the only normal person in the world left? It seems like everyone else is feverishly obsessed with seeing the downfall of a specific group of people or a specific way of thinking. Maybe I'm the crazy one.

Unfortunately, what started with gamergate has spawned into what we see now. I feel the exact same way when ever i look at social media, am i the only normal person left? Why is everyone so vocal about an event the media said is racist and against everything SJW's stand for, but when something else, that's even worse, but doesn't fit their narrative, they're dead silent.

Its pretty crazy that something happened involving gamers ended up being this huge political swing among the moderate population, the left really started a fight that didn't need to be started, and it cost them dearly. People looking for something to be upset about eventually shoot themselves in the foot, as we see here. Unfortunately, it still reverberates to this day, but its spawned fringe groups that are scattered everywhere now.

The funny thing i remember the most was all the hate people were spewing on social media, people that i had known my entire life, who never played a single video game, were all of a sudden extremely upset about how the industry was being ran. It absolutely blew my mind how badly people wanted to be upset about something, which obviously still continues to this day.

[Faroth]

Some days I wake up and think to myself: am I the only normal person in the world left? It seems like everyone else is feverishly obsessed with seeing the downfall of a specific group of people or a specific way of thinking. Maybe I'm the crazy one.

The only hill I die on is fending off pineapple from my pizza!



(Careful now)

[Moralgy]

How little did the leftists know at the time that bullying a bunch of nerds would lead them turn into their biggest political opposition group.

Delightful.

I would swear people once said that GG was an a-political movement with people from every side of the spectrum joining together, not just right vs left. Did something change suddenly or was I lied to?

Really though, was a thread celebrating this really needed? Just bump the gg thread instead.

[Toogoodman]

I would swear people once said that GG was an a-political movement with people from every side of the spectrum joining together, not just right vs left. Did something change suddenly or was I lied to?

Really though, was a thread celebrating this really needed? Just bump the gg thread instead.

GG was more about everyone banding together to fight against authoritarianism, the fact that people just got sick of being shit on by the gaming publications, and it had a ripple effect into the mainstream and showed how bad the media in general is.

Milo actually has a good piece on it, where he talks about how false claims against an entire group of people, and how they weren't going to sit by and let them slander them. That gamasutra article was a fucking disgrace, and there a bunch of pro Zeo articles by people trying to white knight her, and it failed miserably.

[Remilia]

Use this thread please.
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/1577712