If you seriously care about gaming, you better pay attention to #Gamergate and its damage.

[Are_grits_groceries]

Once it descended into threats and people having to leave their homes, it STOPPED being about ethics among gamers and journalists. Now it's about people in fear for their lives because somebody has a problem with their ethics?

Gamers can claim that the threats are from a minority. That may be, but now the whole lot of them are tarred with the poison from those groups.

Some posts are a great example. Not ONCE do they address the threats and very real problems created by this so-called ethical cleanup. People have had to leave their homes, but some are going to ignore that and insist it's about ethics and journalism. It has gone waaaay beyond that now and it's a question of the moral compass of gamers.

No matter how this started out, it's a brush fire of hate that every gamer better try to stop. I know of nothing in years that has damaged the gamer community this much in the public mind. Good luck convincing anybody that it's a harmless activity now.

Gamers better get off their asses and push back hard against the brutal mysogny and hate or you will never be taken seriously again.

I can't hear the gamers' complaints about ethics and journalism over the death threats and neither can a lot of other people.

[Prophet 451]

1. I am paying attention

I'm just buggered if I know what to do about it.

[Are_grits_groceries]

3. It is a quandry.

Once a firestorm starts it just may have to burn itself out and then gamers can pick up the pieces if there are any.

[Prophet 451]

4. Which leaves one feeling so bloody impotent

If you care about the future of gaming and/or about getting more women into gaming (both of which I do) then this lunacy makes one feel an urge to do something but also a realisatioon of how powerless one is to affect anything. The only think I can do in my own life is shout at people who make rape jokes over TeamSpeak.

Incidentally, I love the gifs in your sig, especially the third one.

[Are_grits_groceries]

5. I'm going to get a beanbag chair and see what my kittens do.

They may just want to shred it so I will keep a close eye on it.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

7. it may seem that you can't do much, but in my opinion, doing something in your own life

Is the most important thing. If you do that, if you make it your standard, (live that way consistently) and it gives an example of "the right behavior" to someone else, you've made an impact.

I guess it's slow (certainly slower than I'd like--patience isn't my strong point), but I think that's how it works.

....Hope that made sense, i haven't had coffee yet.

[KittyWampus]

10. you "care about getting more women into gaming"? What does that mean? Why?

Why would you want to get more women into any hobby at all?

Do you mean you want women to get into any computer game including time management like Diner Dash?

Or you want more women to get into first person shooters like Grand Theft Auto?

You want women to get into games that normalize graphic violence… maybe the reason more women don't want to do that is they already are subjected to enough violence in real life.

[Skeeter Barnes]

11. GTA is third person.

[KittyWampus]

14. Still graphic violence though. AND > “Grand Theft Auto V” Is Now A First Person Shooter*

with the right mods….


http://www.buzzfeed.com/josephbernstein/grand-theft-auto-v-is-now-a-first-person-shooter#1bhlflp


http://www.google.com/url?url=http://www.polygon.com/2014/6/24/5837984/grand-theft-auto-5-first-person-shooter-video&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&sa=U&ei=7GtCVIjID9TCsAT0gIK4Aw&ved=0CBoQFjAB&sig2=oFhcavLzpFusENaqBuSHjA&usg=AFQjCNE5wNFzfN6j9r5UARDBBJiBXAkSIQ

http://www.google.com/url?url=http://kotaku.com/5626212/grand-theft-auto-iv-looks-great-as-a-first-person-shooter&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&sa=U&ei=7GtCVIjID9TCsAT0gIK4Aw&ved=0CCYQFjAD&sig2=rGufOc1Ib_rhe-Y6-OhLRw&usg=AFQjCNFujW636LCgjUGZWYtXcZko63Sviw

[Skeeter Barnes]

15. Of course it's violent. Just like an R rated movie.

[Prophet 451]

13. Wow, did you break something jumping to those conclusions?

I want more women to get into gaming, any sort of gaming, because I think the single gender concentration of gaming is bad for the hobby.

And GTA isn't an FPS, it's a sandbox. And, for the record, I haven't playing it since the first edition. I prefer RTSs and management sims.

[KittyWampus]

17. Do you play any games that don't require a console? I will join and try.

Maybe I really just so out of touch not having a console.

Some DU'er suggested I try Minecraft.

[NutmegYankee]

20. I play dozens of games without a console.

I'm a PC gamer. You can play games like Civilization V, Rome 2: Total War, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Assassins Creed, Etc on the PC. I built a very high end liquid cooled PC for this, but you can play them on most of the currently available desktops.

I tend to play single player games But I have played some online. When it comes to FPS, the best gaming is on PC because servers will often have 64 slots, allowing for massive teams. This makes games like rising storm very enjoyable.

[Prophet 451]

21. Minecraft is really good

It's difficult to explain but think of it as Lego with monsters (although you can turn the monsters off). Beware that you will need the Wiki to get anywhere. The crafting is incredibly deep and complex but there's no tutorial and much of it is counter-intuitive. You can find servers everywhere, I play on the PC Gamer server.

I would also recommend Introversion's Prison Architect. You run a private prison and have to do everything from build the place to staff it to organise supplies. The catch is that you can run the place however you like. If you want to do a prison that specialises in healing, rehabilitation and education, you can do that. If you want a fascist prison that keeps the inmates in line through fear and intimidation, you can do that too. Despite both approaches being viable, it's very, very hard to keep the place running properly and profitable (which may be a meta-comment on private prisons generally).

If you have a joypad (game controller) for your PC (you can play them with keyboard but it's more difficult), I'm a huge fan of Traveller's Tales franchise of Lego games. The basic premise is that they recreate popular movie series with Lego characters. Any violence is just done to Lego bricks who fade out. They're designed for kids but epitomize "fun for the whole family". I'm 38 and love them to bits. The third installment of Lego Batman is out soon.

The venerable Civilization series is now on it's fifth edition and more complex, time-sinky and maddening (in a good way) as ever. You pick a nation, covering everything from the Aztecs to the Iriquois, each with their own bonuses. You start out with one settler, who can found a city. Then you guide the nation to it's future, controlling everything from what gets built (will you concentrate on public education or build a huge army?), political policies, diplomacy, resource harvesting and religion. You can pursue a path of peace through diplomacy and mutual regard, you can raise armies and conquer your way to victory (although it's incredibly difficult to do the latter).

Finally, I'm a huge fan of the Thief games. You play a snarky criminal called Garrett who lives in a weird medieval/steampunk city. You steal things. You do this because it's the only thing you're good at and you need to pay the rent. Now, it is possible to kill everyone in sight and loot their corpses but Garrett is not much of a fighter and the game penalizes you for taking that route. The gold standard is the "ghost run", where no-one sees you or detects your presence and people only know you've been there when they discover their valuables missing.

There's five for you. All except Minecraft are available on Steam (huge online game store/community) for reasonable prices. Hope that helps, and have fun!

[NutmegYankee]

22. Keyboard isn't more difficult.

It just depends on what you learned on and what motor skills you developed. I'm terrible at game controllers, but can play anything on Keyboard because I never owned a console.

[Prophet 451]

28. Keyboard is more difficult for the Lego games

They were originally designed for pads and haven't been very well ported to keyboard.

[jwirr]

42. My little great grandson plays Mindcraft and plays it with his sister. And I think it is a good game

because it allows creativity.

It is interesting that the games carry over into real life. He is one of the only boys in the family with a whole bunch of girl cousins and his two sisters. When he was playing some of the more violent games with his dad he always wanted the girls to play some kind of shooting game when they came over. Invariably he would come in to complain to me that the girls did not want to play. What he was really saying was that they were tired of playing army or cops and robbers.

So those of you who do not want to play with the women sound kind of familiar to me.

[Prophet 451]

69. Most of us are fine playing with women

There's that annoyingly loud section of misogynists that are ruining the hobby's public image but they're not representative of most gamers.

[jwirr]

70. Yes, I know. The boys in our family are all gamers and if they were misogynists I would be the one

slapping the up along side the head! I am the one who helps the younger ones learn the rules and define words they do not understand. They all started with me.

[JaneyVee]

2. Adam Baldwin sent his twitter troglodytes after Wu.

He's scum.

[Android3.14]

6. "...but now the whole lot of them are tarred with the poison from those groups."

Does this mean it's now okay to attack, criticize and label an entire group based on the behavior of a minority?

Like muslims? Or Israelis? or poor people?

Or is that just thoughtless hypocrisy?

[BlancheSplanchnik]

8. see, this is the thing....you'd sound a lot more sincere if you did one thing first....

Acted like you cared about what's happening to women, the violence that's becoming some kind of Cool Thing among certain identity-groups of guys, enough so that it's harming --threatening, intimidating, tangibly destroying lives of all women who try to function in their vicinity.

After you act like a human being with a conscience, then we'll talk about your linguistic critique.

[Android3.14]

46. Looks like hypocrisy is the thing

Your response indicates that the only time a member of a segment of the population can defend himself or herself from a broad attack at an entire segment of that population is if he or she acknowledges that their community is the problem.

I guess that means the only time a black/female/gay/muslim/male/punk rocker/etc person can provide a defense against a broad characterization of black/female/gay/muslim/male/punk rocker/etc people is if he or she first acknowledges that black/female/gay/muslim/male/punk rocker/etc people are the cause of the problems.

As Guy Fleegman said, "Did you guys ever watch the show?"

[BlancheSplanchnik]

49. you seem to believe that mentioning a serious prroblem--which is acknowledged asa global epidemic --

precludes caring about another?

That's a false premise, you know.

[NaturalHigh]

53. Wait. Seriously?

"Gamergate" is now a global epidemic? With all due respect, I think you might be giving video game people a little too much credit.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

55. violence against women is a global epidemic. gamergate is merely

One iteration.

[NaturalHigh]

56. I obviously misinterpreted your previous post.

I didn't read through the entire thread and wasn't paying enough attention. My fault.

Please accept my apology.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

60. thank you very much!

Thanks NH...I really respect people who aren't afraid to apologize, cuz it's kind of rare.

[NaturalHigh]

64. .

[Android3.14]

62. Please allow me to clarify

What I believe is irrelevant, and your characterization deflects from the essential complaint I have with the OP.

What is a fact is that a progressive demanding members of a subgroup of the general population acknowledge that they are the problem before any member can even enter the discussion of said problem is hypocrisy.

That's like saying that followers of Islam cannot defend themselves against the characterization that all muslims are members of a violent religion unless they acknowledge that muslims are members of a violent religion.

Violence against women is a global problem, but gamers are not the ones promoting it. Certainly some persons who provoke violence against women happen to be gamers, but the same is true for bankers, feminists, rape counselors, WWF fans and left-handed dentists. There are people who commit violence against women in all segments of the population. Gamers just happen to be the target du jour.

I'd bet a nickel that rap music, movies, and other culturl expressions all have strong elements of violence against women, but I don't see folks demanding lyricists and script writers STFU until they acknowledge they are the problem.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

66. ok, there's a basic miscommunication going on here.....right now, I just

Dont have the brain cells to pick apart this tangle, though....it's past my bedtime.

I'd really like this to be about understanding each other, rather than hostilities, if possible. Hope I can make myself more clear sometime tomorrow, if I have a chance.

[Are_grits_groceries]

67. Wait? Wut?

The subgroup isn't the problem. It's some members of that subgroup who have hijacked the message with their threats.
I am saying that pushback will be needed to counteract that message. Demand? No. Strongly suggest? Yes.
Any discussion about ethics and journalism in gaming is now drowned out by the threats. Comment all you want about the ethics and there probably should be a discussion. This has become a firestorm.

AND you really want to start discussing gaming and people who have connections that affect their views?
You will have to include a whole spectrum of writers and others. Developers aren't the only ones with conflicts. One woman was said to have been given a good review because of a relationship that her ex claimed and she gets death threats?

[maced666]

12. Bingo

[Are_grits_groceries]

24. No.

I never said that.
I know there are many decent gamers. There are many more good people in the communities you mentioned among others.

However, the general public has little idea about the gaming community. The look they are getting isn't pretty by any stretch. Unfortunately, people lump people together if there is nothing that seems to separate them into groups. That's why you hear others point out differences in Muslims and others. They are trying to break through the noise.

[Android3.14]

47. Then I respectfully ask that you refrain from adding to the noise

You are right. You never said it was okay to make broad generalizations about groups of people. It is unfortunate that you promoted the practice by doing exactly that.

[KittyWampus]

9. When and how did "gamers" come to mean first person shooters & graphic violence?

I have a huge library of games.

Not one first person shooter.

I play various online games with communities.

Not one involves shooting people.

It is sort of like how corporate media seems to think Christian means rightwing Fundamentalist asshole.

When I feel like shooting something I play a "marble popper".

[Nativechef]

16. As a Gamer

myself I can tell you that people like Baldwin are the minority and hold no weight in the gaming community. We refer to people like him as TROLLS, which is what they are. I am part of a global gaming community and we DO police ourselves and our community for these trolls. We ban them from our gaming servers when they rear their ugly heads and make sure that that are recognized through out the gaming communities as the TROLLS they are.

Remember that in today's climate there are little to no consequences for ones online actions and comments. We all want a regulation free internet in order to keep the information and ideas flowing, unfortunately TROLLS are a part of that. I'm not condoning the actions and words of a small few, but short of hunting them down and holding their feet to the fire for their words and actions, all we can do is call them out publicly when they start TROLLING........

As far as gamers getting off their asses and pushing back...... I say to you that we have and we do, you just won't hear about it. As a community, gamers aren't looking for publicity, we are a primarily quiet under ground entity. As many outside the gaming community refer to us as "those that still live in Mom's basement". Our greatest weapon is our consumerism and we flex it regularly when we receive a faulty product or are unnecessarily regulated.

In the end you need to see these people for who and what they are. They crave attention and are empowered when you react to their bullshit, hence this is why we have labeled them as TROLLS and treat them accordingly as such. When you refuse to react to their bullshit you take away their power, so in the end ignore the TROLL and they either slink off on their own or they flame out for all to see trying to get you to react to them. Lesson is don't feed the TROLL and they die........

[KittyWampus]

19. you just strengthened my analogy to how media refers to Fundies when Christianity comes up...

never leftwing social activist Christians.

And people are always going to expect you to decry the actions of the most hideous participants.

So maybe in communities that are well moderated troll damage can be limited but…. they will find ways to get themselves into the spotlight. And there will be people with an agenda happy to provide trolls with a spotlight.

Maybe some sort of educational push is in order then?

Are there better moderated communities/games?

Then people need to know where to look for them, how to tell they are etc/

[Skittles]

36. worthy of its own thread

welcome to DU, Nativechef

[LawDeeDah]

41. Excellent post, thank you and hope to hear more from you.

[alp227]

44. so how do the "trolls" become the outspoken majority of gamers online?

that's the consequence of nice people knowing how to shut up, i guess.

[Nativechef]

52. Their not the majority

and they don't speak for the gaming community. Give anyone a soapbox and watch them transform into the loudest voice around. It's not about "nice people" shutting up, we police our own and we for the most part hold them to a given standard. It's those that make a conscious choice to be the one that screams "look at me!" that tend to create the problems. Remember that the internet provides a certain amount of anonymity and sadly TROLLS are an inherent part of it. What they do, the choices they make, and how they get their point across is detrimental to everyone, unconscionable if you will, but unfortunately they are a part of the greater global community of the internet. Sadly as a community you can only do so much to deter these deplorable actions it's ultimately up to the individual to use some common sense (and that's in short supply) and make the right choices, that is unless you wish to advocate for the "internet police" and in that case you open a Pandora's Box that will never be shut.

[AngryAmish]

18. Why is it the obligation of a grandma who plays Farmville to stop the assholes?

Why is it their job?

And why do you feel comfortable ordering people to do things you want them to? Why did you assume this priviledged spot in society? Who appointed you?

[Are_grits_groceries]

23. Nobody.

Have at it.
Let the nasty gamers continue unabated without a word from others in the community.
Unfortunately, everybody gets seen through the lens of the harmful rhetoric. There needs to be push back from sensible gamers.

If there comes a time when gamers need more widespread support for something that touches their community, don't expect a lot of help. There may be nothing now that seems to fit that bill but there will be.

AND as a human being I had hoped there would be those who would be alarmed by the threatening rhetoric emanating from a corner of the gaming community. Instead, there are people like you who apparently don't care. That's as as sad as it is alarming.

[AngryAmish]

25. I'm not a gamer. According to you I have no obligations of any sort.

And you still have not explained how you assumed the lofty position to tell tens of millions of random strangers what they must do with their time. Have you offered to pay them for their time to do things you want them to do? Why should they work for free? To please their assumed betters who give them orders or face some yet unsaid consequence?

[dionysus]

58. what defines a gamer in the community? i get where you're coming from; these "people" are scumbags.

but I don't play any games online. I'll be playing MLB 2012 single player later on tonight. Other than give moral support, and personally loathe these sexist, stalking assholes (which I do), what could I do to help?

I play games, but not online, so I don't take part in an online gaming community. I prefer single player modes, they have plot lines (well, not golf or baseball, but the type of games I play have movie like plotlines)

[antiquie]

27. Why do YOU allow trolls on DU?

Why don't YOU stop them before they post?

[cherokeeprogressive]

45. 4-3 to leave this post. Me... leave.

ALERTER'S COMMENTS

Disrespectful, rude, loaded questions at the end that intend to personally attack a user and accuse user of being self-appointed and bossy.

You served on a randomly-selected Jury of DU members which reviewed this post. The review was completed at Sat Oct 18, 2014, 11:25 AM, and the Jury voted 3-4 to LEAVE IT.

Juror #1 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: Utterly worthless and ridiculous whiny ass alert. Alert is for not for vanquishing opinions you do not agree with or cover the ass of positions when you don't really have a rebuttal and would rather just dispose of any inconvenient truths or points of view.
TheKentuckian
Juror #2 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: anyone who make such a ridiculous alert is being self-appointed and bossy
Juror #3 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #4 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #5 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #6 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #7 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: No explanation given

[gater]

26. From a good article about all this...

"The real reason for gaming’s poor image is the aggressive, hateful people complaining about Social Justice Warriors in the first place. It is the Ayn Rand-loving pustules who spend their days ranting on message boards or Youtube about feminist conspiracies. It is ONLY THEM. Gaming will never be "taken seriously" when its self-styled bannermen are such vile cretins. When the media coverage - as it does, and it should - focuses on the behaviour of an amorphous minority group bent on online abuse, that is the image of gamers projected to the world. Because of these people, all gamers are painted with the same brush as cowardly, sociopathic losers."

Good read. It's from: http://badassdigest.com/2014/08/26/video-games-misogyny-and-terrorism-a-guide-to-assholes/

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

31. In other words, we should consider the media the arbitrar of who constitutes 'gamers'.

When the media coverage - as it does, and it should - focuses on the behaviour of an amorphous minority group bent on online abuse,

Because every group should be judged and reported on as if it was the same as an 'amorphous minority group' therein.

[gater]

32. Ummm, I take it you did not read the article then. That's cool.

Just posted the link to try and help folks understand what's going on, not to debate who decides what about who. Now I remember why I have been a DU member (who donates) for well over a decade and do not post much.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

33. Ok, now I read the article.

Basically a giant diatribe about the same small group of 'gamers' who are being total asses, with nice little thrown in lines about everyone being part of the problem. The reality is, in some games you simply don't see any of that crap. Probably because games in which you don't attack other humans' avatars don't appeal to the jerks, so they stick to the derpy games that are all about shooting other people's characters and talking trash.

[Coventina]

29. Here's the thing about #Gamergate that I really don't *grok*:

Are the "old guard" games really in jeopardy?
Are games like GTA, Call of Duty, Halo, etc. really in danger of disappearing?
I thought they were wildly popular?

Plus, there have always been very popular non (or less) violent puzzle games:

Myst, the Gabriel Knight series, Shivers, 7th Guest, etc.

Those types of games have never posed a threat to the shoot-em-ups, so why all the outrage and death threats now?

I don't get it.

[nomorenomore08]

57. You're right, it's made-up bullshit. An excuse to attack women in gaming. n/t

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

30. Take it to the police.

If people are 'having to leave their homes' due to violent threats, that's a matter for the police. The people making threats need arrested.

I game to game. I have no desire 'to be taken seriously' because I game. I don't read gaming magazines, I don't hang out in 'gaming forums', I don't have any politics tied to my gaming. In fact, I rarely even talk to anyone when I game, apart from saying 'Guten Tag' or 'Guten Abend' to my kinship members when I log in or out. And the game I play has very little open misogyny, except for the occasional asshat who wanders in after having played 'WoW', and gets slapped down fairly quickly for their stupidity.

So no, I'm not paying attention to '#GamerGate'. (I also don't use twitter, which is why I assume it has a hashtag.)

[Comrade Grumpy]

34. Second that. If people are making death threats or terroristic threats, that's a crime.

Has there been any of that? I mean criminal charges pursued?

[freshwest]

35. Thanks, grits. Lives are more important.

[NaturalHigh]

37. My daughter bought me this little Atari device...

several years ago with old school Atari games. It cost like ten bucks, I think.

I don't even know where it is now, so I think I will just go back to playing solitaire and ignoring this stupid gamergate thing.

[LostOne4Ever]

38. I care as a liberal and a mild gamer

I think that gaming needs to start taking more female gamers seriously. They need to create more female centered games, listening and producing more games that both are created to directly appeal to female gamers, and reduce sexist attitudes and tropes in mainstream games.

I want to see more women in executive and higher ranked positions in gaming companies. I want them to listen to women more. I don't want to hear about another game where they got feedback from women about what they wanted to see in a game and then ignore it. I don't want to hear about another game where adding female characters to a game would be "too much work."

AND I REALLY REALLY DON'T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT ANOTHER WOMAN BEING FORCED FROM THEIR HOME DUE TO DEATH THREATS!

Being a gamer is nothing but a hobby to me. Being a liberal, on the other hand, is an entire world view. One that has no place for such misogyny.

[ZombieHorde]

40. Great post.

It's about how we treat each other more than the entertainment media we consume.

[ileus]

39. Gamers do need to get off their asses.

get out and enjoy life outside the darkened room. Learn to socialize, make friends.


I really got into gaming when I was dating/married to a girl that worked second shift, 8 hours on the top of a 1.5hr each way drive.

Eventually I stopped gaming and she went days...Now it's all I can do to play an hour or so a week with my 10yo son.

[99Forever]

43. I care seriously about threats...

... but "games"? Not so much.

People who spend most of their life staring at pixels on digital screens baffle me.

Call the police, maybe they will actually do what they are sworn to do in this case. I wouldn't bet on that tho.

[chrisa]

48. Gamergate was never about the industry. It's sexist MRA / SJW bullshit.

Where were these people when Gerstmann was fired during the Kane and Lynch debacle? Since it didn't involve a 'woman who needed to be put in her place,' nobody cared.

This is about an industry which some people feel that women should not be a part of. They're raging misogynists who joined together in an obnoxious social justice warrior-ish movement. It started with attacking some woman who slept with some other guy (which, despite insisting otherwise, Gamergaters have a creepy obsession with) and graduated into sexist / threatening attacks on every woman in the industry.

This has nothing to do with gaming. This is more an anti-woman movement than anything.

[SomethingFishy]

50. +1 it just shows there are assholes in every community..

I work on the road so I had no idea there was anything going on in the gaming community, but it doesn't surprise me at all. You put thousands of people together and there are going to be some assholes.

And while I understand the concern of the OP, gaming has become a multi-billion dollar industry and it's still growing fast. There is no chance of it slowing down now.

[MicaelS]

51. The type of men doing this shit will not listen to anyone.

There’s a fundamental lack of empathy or understanding for other human beings at play here. These people live in a fucked-up alternate universe where everything is done for the lulz, or to win points in some kind of psychopathic game of one-upmanship. What we’re seeing is the gamification of a social struggle. It’s not about making salient points for these people (not that they had any to begin with) - it’s about winning. It’s the result of decades of seeing everything as a win/lose scenario, only now the no-holds-barred competition of Street Fighter is being manifested in the real world. These people will do anything they can to win, regardless of whether it’s morally or even legally acceptable. And they get away with it!

[nomorenomore08]

59. If the ones driving people from their homes are arrested and charged with making terroristic threats

then maybe that will serve as a warning to the rest of them. Otherwise, I agree - they're beyond anyone's reach.

[Shankapotomus]

54. Of course, threats should be taken seriously

in any activity.

But how does the word "gamers" and the phrase "taken seriously" even find their way into the same sentence? "...the moral compass of gamers..."? Are you serious?

Gamers play games to have fun, not to worry about whether they are being taken seriously or to be threatened into joining an anti-misogyny crusade.

"...the whole lot of them are tarred..."???

It sucks that women are subjected to that shit. Everyone has battles. If you don't fight my battles but only wish me well can I tar you with guilt and blame too?

If some idiot gamers give their money to misogynists game developers, how is that every gamer's fault?

Is porn the fault of all movie goers?

[BlindTiresias]

61. Yawn

Gamer gate: Two sides of self righteous assholes false flagging each other and engaging in character assassination over fucking video games, of all things.

[brooklynite]

63. Would it offend you to say I have no idea what you're talking about?

Would it hurt to provide a short intro for the uninitiated?

[LostInAnomie]

65. 60 second intro

&feature=youtu.be

Here's a comprehensive rundown: http://www.historyofgamergate.com/

[PorridgeGun]

68. I love gaming and I'm paying no attention whatsoever.

Reason? The people at the centre of the hoopla aren't real dev's at all. They're peripheral bit players, failed dev's (depression quest.. lol) and social commentators rather than real movers.

The gaming industry was built by primarily by young men, for young men, and as long as young men are willing to fork over whatever it takes to fund the next FPS or edition of GTA, we will never be short of vidya.