Corruption In Games Journalism, or "Five Guys Burgers and Fries"

[Gahars]

TW: E-celeb drama/shenanigans

So King of Pol, the guy behind that Nick Denton leak? All of what he said was bullshit. (The post was written by Hotwheels himself, explaining the entire situation)

After people called him out on his shit, KingOfPol apparently hosted a LiveStream where he lost all his spaghetti and claimed that Reddit "shills" created a Skype group to control GamerGate or something along those lines. This is pretty much as good of a TL;DR there is.

This is why you don't want leaders here, ladies and gentlemn.

On the brighter side, Gawker has lost yet another sponsor.

#GamerGate has surpassed 3 million tweets and is still going strong.

And how could I neglect to mention Big Man Tyrone's latest video?

 

[DCG]

I read that as well this morning (9 AM here) :/
This is indeed the main reason we don't want/need/have any leaders, if they come down the entire pyramid will fall, but since we don't have any real leaders this shouldn't be anything too serious.

And apparently IA also had a fuckup yesterday or so?
I read something on KiA that he was having sex with his GF during a stream? quickly looked trough some twitter posts, but I couldn't find any mentions in those, so I don't know if it's real or not.

 

[Gahars]

Arthur Gies (coincidentally the guy behind that Bayonetta 2 review) engages in empty posturing on Twitter... until Brad Wardell calls him out.

"You gotta pretty developer going here. It'd be a shame if somethin' were to... happen to it."

In case you missed it, Brad Wardell is the chief executive for Stardock. His career was almost ruined after an employee falsely accused him of sexual harassment; sites like Kotaku and The PA Report (under Ben Kuchera) ran with the details, smearing his name. Milo wrote an article on the subject two months ago.

If you're wonder why we should even worry about these so-called "journalist" and what they can really do... well, here's yet another example.

Some emails from DiGRA members have leaked, and man, the pseudo-academics are in full force.

Spoiler: How can I approach the issue without letting my students think there's two sides?

DiGRA, if you've forgotten, is basically the academic counterpart of the SJW strain of games journalists we're dealing with. Their entire goal is to circumvent the traditional standards of peer review, with members approving each other's work without actual scrutiny to create the illusion of review.

And apparently IA also had a fuckup yesterday or so?
I read something on KiA that he was having sex with his GF during a stream? quickly looked trough some twitter posts, but I couldn't find any mentions in those, so I don't know if it's real or not.

Yup. He started dating Jay3d (or however you spell her name), he got drunk on a stream, and... well, yeah.

It's worth remembering that a lot of people in GamerGate, from the many writing emails to the megaphones and mouthpieces, are, at their core, spaghetti-spillers. I'd certainly say I fit the bill. It doesn't mean these people aren't smart, or helpful, or worth listening to, but it's only inevitable that every now and then some people are going to lose their grip on their spaghetti and it's just going to go flying everywhere.

 

[FAST6191]

So I made it through that PDF
If I was funnier I would try to undo some of the redactions; a lot of people have their names redacted but leave positions, articles they wrote and more left open. Beyond that the pen did not seem to be that accurate and I have always wanted to try my hand at word lengths, tails/loop analysis and ascender analysis.

Back on topic that was an odd read, though the taking of a default position on the matter and then maybe considering branching does rather seem to be at odds with what I was always brought to understand academia was about. I had always described the state of games academia as something along the lines of ramshackle ivory tower, that would seem to then risk something of a odd feedback loop should it be combined with the lesser, and sadly more numerous, types of game journalism.

 

[Gahars]

Ryulonger, the top contributor of Wikipedia's totally "fair and balanced" article on GamerGate, is continuing to ensure that coverage remains comprehensive and accur-

Ah, good. Can't let facts and dissension disturb the circlejerk, can we?

Never forget that there are still smart, rational people in this industry. Case in point:


TotalBiscuit recently held an interview with Rhianna Pratchett, a writer for games, television, etc. (and, fun fact, daughter of Terry Pratchett), about diversity and representation in games. I don't agree with her on every point, and I think she gets some things wrong, but she approaches the subject in a reasonable, thoughtful manner, and TotalBiscuit definitely asks some good questions. It's well worth a listen if you have the time.


In Happenings: Yet another sponsor, Dyson, has pulled out from Gawker.

My fire rises, how about yours?
Gaming's reckoning isn't a bore.

 

[Gahars]

Sorry for the double post, but here's your daily dose of drama:

It all began when Mattie Brice, a judge for IGF (which you might remember has been implicated in some shady dealings with indies in the past, particularly with Phil Fish and Fez), tweeted this. People were naturally taken aback and critical.

Then the sphincter seepage began. All of these tweets were made in a twenty minute span.



The IG finally got involved and simply asked her to refrain from making such comments. She decided to step down completely.

The calls of "GG scares away another woman!" are already coming out in full force. Truly we were only dealing with master trole 2014 right here.

Also: I don't know if this is confirmed yet, so treat it with some skepticism, but apparently there's a new push for internet censorship laws in the guise of "protecting women online." Because, you know, muh harassment and all that.

Good thing we have General Patton in the war effort.

 

[DCG]

This just in:
WAM! banned Milo from twitter :s

 

[Foxi4]

He's been unbanned:
https://twitter.com/Nero/status/532133683210510336

 

[Gahars]

About that Mattie Brice thing, people jumped on the IGF for... asking her not to make sexist statements. This got to the point that IGF was forced to apologize to Mattie Brice... for her choosing to resign her position.

Several other judges threatened to step down if concessions weren't made to Ms. Brice. Several of whom, like Christina Love and Brandon Keogh, support her on Patreon. The hip indie gaming scene is nothing if not incestuous, huh?

On the topic of Milo, it looks like some troll sent him an animal carcass in the mail. I guess roses are too cliche. On the bright side, at least he has his account back; agree with him or not, outright censorship is just the worst way to respond.


"Just leave me alone! What did I ever do to you?"

Spoiler

 

[DCG]

Apparently radical supporting gamergate now gets you physically attacked by woman :s
https://twitter.com/RevueMage
Tweets are from around this time https://twitter.com/RevueMage/status/533985375866191872

 

[Gahars]

Apparently radical supporting gamergate now gets you physically attacked by woman :s
https://twitter.com/RevueMage
Tweets are from around this time https://twitter.com/RevueMage/status/533985375866191872

Trust, but verify here. If it is legitimate, though... man, wouldn't it be bitterly ironic that the only threats that came to actual violence happened to someone in support of GamerGate? Wonder how many outlets will report on that.

Speaking of that... An ABC reporter admits they chose harassment angle over corruption (that's the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, if you're wondering)

This is another really strong piece by William Usher. If you don't recognize the name, he's the guy who leaked the GameJournoPros list to Milo, and he's been dropping great stuff left and right. Definitely a good guy to follow.

And now, aboot those Canucks... the CBC published a report on GamerGate, which was a typical smear piece calling its supporters harassers of women. Worse, though, it filed people like Milo and David Pakman under that same label.



First he's a white supremacist, then a dead gay teen, and now an agent of misogyny? Damn, Pakman fever is rough.

Finally, you might want to look into BasedGamer. The stranglehold of Metacritic on the industry is definitely felt by developers, and it's partially what makes review scores so contentious (Obsidian devs lost out on their bonuses for Fallout: New Vegas because it got an 84 on Metacritic, just one point shy of the needed threshold). What exacerbates this, as people like TotalBiscuit have pointed out, is that gaming lacks any sort of RottenTomatoes equivalent or other competitors. BasedGamer appears to be an attempt to fill in that gap.

There's no telling if it'll succeed or fail yet, but at least we're seeing an attempt. Hopefully it amounts to something good.

(Also, thanks DCG. I feel so awkward double posting in my own thread. If there's ever a lull in posting here, and you don't want to dip your toes in 8chan, r/KotakuInAction is a great source of news, updates, sensible chuckles, and the occasional freak outs)

 

[Veho]

Spoiler

Reference.

 

[Gahars]

Hey, Veho, you know, speaking of Leigh Alexander...

It turns out that she used Gamasutra to promote a friend and an organization that she was a member of, and all without any disclosure whatsoever. (Archive just in case, you never know with Reddit)

Gee, Miss Alexander, it looks like you have quite a big dog in this fight against ethics reform. Like, we're talking Saint Bernard-sized. Are you sure you're just "the megaphone" here?

Also from Reddit: A good recap of the previous week's happenings, habbedings, and hip-hoppenings. (No Archive here because... I'm lazy)

And finally...

 

[DCG]

I've been reading on KiA a lot lately, it's more open than twitter etc.
Good and new stuff come floating up by its own, when a sufficient ammount of people respond or like it.

There seems to be a nice script someone developed, it takes sites from the blacklist and automatically archives their pages when you try to vistit them and redirect to the archives and it seems to look if a page has been archived before to prevent duplicates XD

Edit.
And lets not forget KYM and the steam group

 

[Gahars]

A Blizzard engineer calling for an actual, honest-to-God blacklist. Good thing that's not illegal as meth-encrusted shit, right?

It seems that someone told him, because here he is backpadeling fast enough to win the Tour De France.

On a more positive note, TotalBiscuit wrote a little TweetLonger regarding "social justice" and "privilege" and how American-centric it all is. It's not anything revolutionary for most posters here, I'm sure, but I'm glad that more and more people are recognizing this nonsense for what it is. It makes you think that maybe, just maybe, we might some day get over all these petty identity politics and actually make some actual progress. Providing adequate social services for the poor, enriching our schools and providing better educational opportunities, all that utopic stuff.

I know, I know, I'm a dreamer, but let me have this, damn it!

And finally, a file from the "Totally Unconfirmed and Unverified but Habbedings will be Habbedings" folder...

Spoiler: ...Bane?

 

[FAST6191]

A Blizzard engineer calling for an actual, honest-to-God blacklist. Good thing that's not illegal as meth-encrusted shit, right?

It seems that someone told him, because here he is backpadeling fast enough to win the Tour De France.

So as well as potentially having to reveal facebook passwords I may also have to share twitter info.

This could get interesting for some, hopefully me being too antisocial to have such accounts does not hinder me.

 

[Gahars]

MOUNTAIN DEW CODE RED ALERT: Jack Thompson lambasts Anita Sarkeesian



This must be what going mad feels like.

 

[Foxi4]

I thought I'd never see the day... Yes, Thompson is being reasonable, or at least more reasonable than our dear Anita. I am shocked.

 

[DCG]

Even though the SJW's are mainly a USA problem, if they get what they want, the EU countries will follow :/ (they always do with the weird shit)
And The Netherlands are rather quick with these things :s
So that's what at stake for me.

 

[DCG]

Since this is EOF, I'm not ashamed to double post.

KiA is watching digimon XD
And ghazi was complaining about it XD