The MadRobo

[thespectacularspider-girl]

Milo Is Digging Into Sarah’s Backstory Now

He’s contacted Dana’s parents.  In his words

“I am utterly horrified”

[themadrobo]

I am more horrified that there are people defending this person.

[thespectacularspider-girl]

An interesting breakdown of the “Gamers are Dead” concept and why it is pushed so hard to remove the term “Gamer” in some circles.

The “Gamers are Dead” articles link to this study, or rather a Tumblr post summarizing and working off said study.  What does it say?

Gamers don’t care about representation because they see themselves as the character, regardless of the character in front of them.  Female gamers pick the character they’re best with in fighting games, not female characters, for example.

This is, in part, the entire justification for the ‘war on video games’.  Watch this, it may be a little dry but it is extremely enlightening.

[themadrobo]

Sometimes I wish he had some bg music when he plans on not adding snark to his videos. The British accent gets me through the dry bits.

[nerdcubedactually-deactivated20]

Polygon and Stupid Things

There was an article on Polygon today that just said utterly stupid things.

Let’s talk about the things.

Read More

[thespectacularspider-girl]

Did something happen to your blog last night? I just noticed I wasn't Following you this morning, but I didn't click the button.

I think that happens randomly, I’ve had it happen too.

[themadrobo]

Tumblr glitches when you fight the hugbox. If it oppresses you a little bit, it may hope you will develop a taste for it.

[alexandra-erin]

Well, the publicly promulgated mythology of gamergate says that Gjoni didn’t go to 4chan for sympathy, they found his post and he reluctantly went to them to try to curtail any abuse that it might have engendered.

This is, of course, B.S., along with most of the rest of what he says.

[…]

[kazerad]

Forgive me for snipping the rest of the conversation thread above and below this, but I’ve seen the “Hateful Boyfriend” article come up before and there are a number of things about it that bother me. In particular, I feel like it takes a lot of Gjoni’s statements and actions and interprets them in a very malicious way - occasionally almost to the point of being humorous. The best example, I think, is this tweet, presented as proof that Gjoni “even wanted to break [Zoe Quinn] psychologically”:

You could take this as a villainous declaration that he is trying to slowly take everything away from Zoe before finally taking her own sanity. Alternatively, though, you could take it as him genuinely believing that she is a danger to herself and others and would benefit from treatment - something much more in line with the rest of his claims. In a way, the whole Hateful Boyfriend article reminds me of this amazing Key & Peele sketch emphasizing how much communication is lost via text. Her interpretations of his words are very negative, but they are also not the only ones possible.

I don’t want to say the author’s interpretation of Gjoni is wrong, since language can be interpreted many ways and I am no more informed than she is, nor do I want to play Gjoni up as being some paragon of morality who can do no wrong, since regardless of what I say he is still a lanky hipster social justice warrior with positive feelings about San Francisco. However, below the cut I would like to look at the evidence the author brings up in her article and analyze it under the assumption that Eron is telling the truth. In particular, I want to hold it up against three claims of his:

His primary goal is to warn people about Zoe Quinn so that they cannot be harmed by her.

He does not hate Zoe or want her to come to harm.

His interactions with 4chan were primarily geared toward reducing the harassment Zoe would receive. 

Read More

[themadrobo]

So I have to ask... Where do people get all these gifs?

[radicalduck]

UGH my old dance teacher posted that article “I’m a mom of two and I’m against feminism” on Facebook and I just had to unfriend her goddamnit. “I can’t support feminism as long as it suppresses masculinity” good god what kind of drugs have you been…

[radicalduck]

^are you fucking kidding me? Get the hell off my blog.

[hematite2]

what? someone supporting women making their own decisions? No no no, can’t have any of that around here.

[radicalduck]

Feminism isn’t about women doing whatever the fuck they want. It’s about liberating females and being critical. Being anti-feminist obviously and clearly isn’t feminist. Don’t come into my post acting like a sarcastic smart-ass prick when you don’t know the first thing about what feminists (particularly radical) are achieving in women’s lives. Kindly show yourself the door. I am not up to dealing with dumbass anti-feminists who simply want to harass me and nothing more tonight.

[hematite2]

I never said being anti-feminist was feminist lol. I said that the WHOLE ORIGINAL FUCKING POINT of feminism is making sure women can do what they want with their lives, which news flash, involved being against the now-toxic movement that is third-wave feminism, instead of just blindly conforming to something they don’t agree with.

'Feminism isn't about women doing whatever the fuck they want'.  We know, it's been made abundantly clear by modern feminists that feminism is about everyone, men and women alike, blindly conforming without question to what feminism says, regardless of how incorrect or outright disgusting the movement is

[radicalduck]

You’re talking about liberal feminism. I am a radical feminist. Do you know the actual differences or do you just think we’re meaner, uglier versions of lib fems?

[hematite2]

I know you’re talking about radical feminism. That was the entire second paragraph there. That’s exactly WHY i’m making fun of this post, because it’s supporting radical feminism’s backwards bullshit.

[radicalduck]

You haven’t the slightest idea of what radical feminism is. Good day.

[hematite2]

You wanna go ahead and provide some actual argument was to what ‘radical feminism’ is, instead of just saying ‘you’re wrong, shut up, you need to believe what I say’?

OH WAIT. That’s basically the entire point of radical feminism.

[radicalduck]

Radical feminism is the liberation of females from oppression.

[hematite2]

Well, see, that’s supposed to just be the point of normal feminism. You know, equal rights and all that. Radical feminist, however….

Would have me shouting biased, false statistics at the top of my lungs.

Would have me substitute ‘patriarchy’ for any actual argument.

Would have me fake murders and rapes in order to scare people into listening to them.

Would have me believe that….

I’m a piece of shit for not wanting to demonize half of the population.

That only women suffer from eating disorders

that, in fact, women are the only ones who have any type of issue with body image.

that a woman who doesn’t agree with them is a dumb slut who should get raped until she believes in feminism.

That simply stating you’re a male rape victim is ‘distracting from the real issues’.

That only men ever commit domestic abuse.

that anyone who wants to do something about the enormous male suicide rate is ‘scum’.

That it’s all right to send rape and death threats to feminists who want to help men as well as women.

That men shouldn’t be allowed to be single fathers.

That only men hurt their children.

That by virtue of being born a gay man, I’m automatically a misogynistic pig.

That the only reason men are gay is because ‘they hate women so much’.

That, as a gay man, my only role in life is to support feminism and act as a prop.

That, in fact, I’m inherently hurting women simply by wanting to support gay rights.

That the only reason a woman would ‘choose’ to be straight is because she’s been brainwashed with ‘internalized misogyny’

That ‘guilty until proven innocent’ is a good justice model.

That even if you never stop saying yes, it’s still rape if you didn’t like the sex.

That, in fact, a man having sex with a women is automatically rape.

That trans men are gender traitors

That trans women are simply men trying to invade women’s spaces.

That it’s ‘empowering’ to abuse your boyfriend/husband

That female rapists/murderers should be praised instead of punished.

That rape victims should be forced to pay child support

That fathers should have no rights to their children

That it’s misogynistic to think that women shouldn’t bleed in public places.

That it’s all right to burn books.

That it’s all right to silence, censor, doxx, threaten, or cause harm to those who disagree with them.

So yeah, I’m gonna go ahead and assume that your dance teacher made a very intelligent decision to not associate with your movement.

[themadrobo]

Signal-boosting as anti-GamerGate attempts to drive women from gaming...

[icyarguments]

Don’t worry little feminists™, mommy’s here.

[naughtynerdess]

Christina Hoff Sommers vs. Other feminists. Yeah it’s kind of like that.

[thespectacularspider-girl]

Leigh Alexander on Vacation in Indonesia

Because y’know. Male privilege or something.

[discovergames-blog]

I’m sorry, is this supposed to be an argument? Or an insult? Or what? People you disagree with aren’t allowed to have time off? A woman goes on vacation,...

[themadrobo]

Poverty can and does affect everyone regardless of gender, race, religion, or sexuality.

You know who's not affected by poverty? Rich people.

[thespectacularspider-girl]

Jim Sterling is that Moviebob guy, right? Has he done anything of note that isn't GG related?

Jim Sterling is not Moviebob.  Sterling is an Escapist (now ex-escapist) reviewer and pretty much blasted Escapist for even letting GamerGate discussion happen.

[nietzschesghost-deactivated2014]

He’s still publishing stuff on escapist unless he left in the last week,

[dicktator-cain-deactivated20181]

The jimquisition show is off escapist and now he’s trying to raise money via patreon. Last I saw he didn’t have much.

[thespectacularspider-girl]

If I remember right, he actually has a solid income through patreon now.  The issue is that a few women have no come forward saying he’s a sexist asshole who should be giving them money because he doesn’t need so much.

[themadrobo]

You can go back about 2 years ago and see them calling for his head for things he said while at Destructoid. Then he had a revelation or some-such via his wife. I honestly think that Jim Sterling does what is best for Jim Sterling and while he likes to crow about ethics and pro-consumer bilge while crapping on AAA, he's more than willing to polish his armor up for the white knight brigade.

http://m.imgur.com/a/hHLaP

[thespectacularspider-girl]

This is my surprised face.

[themadrobo]

Wth is readergate?

[genocidershodan]

What does “not your shield” actually mean?

[themadrobo]

Basically, there have been attempts to paint GamerGate as a group of cis white men, when actually it's a diverse group. The tag was created as a pushback on the white washing narrative, because journalists and SocJus tried to claim the moral authority.

[pixiepayton]

Lol I love it people are pissing themselves because GamerGate supporters are making tumblr profiles to talk to each other and have a dialog promoting GG.

[kazerad]

This excerpt from a 4chan post really sums up what bothers me most about this whole GamerGate situation.

Like, I keep seeing people pushing the idea that GamerGate is some kind of attack against female developers, or that it’s driven by a bunch of sexists or racists trying to…

[oatsmalone]

No. Very no. Very very no.

Point A, released today: https://storify.com/strictmachine/gameovergate

Points B-Z: Gamers haven’t suffered shit. Gamers, those people, haven’t endured a goddamn thing. Do you know who has? People I know and people I admire. People whose work I care about. People who, seeing the harassment of their peers, speak out against it, and then become so harassed that THEY LEAVE. Games writing lost some fantastic people this week because of asinine group think and rampant misogyny. GamerGate became different things to different people, but it STARTED as a way to attack Zoe and Anita from behind cover. Hundreds of people had it as their aim to personally wound them and whomever else supported them and their work via hacking and harassment. Proof is ample up above.

I have personally met, and was very impressed by, the work that Zoe has done to make games more inclusive. She did not attack a feminist org, she openly questioned their trans* policy, which was in fact pretty dumb. She’s a goddamn hero in my book, to survive this. She gives away her Steam game FOR FREE. She has nothing to gain from manipulating this shit, and you’re SO WRONG if you think ANYBODY wants harassment. You’ve been manipulated, yo.

[kazerad]

This is kind of the attitude that confuses me, though.

Like, Point A: it’s not a secret that /v/ is strategizing. Like I said in the actual post you replied to, they are being completely open about it. Zoe Quinn didn’t crash some secret meeting, she literally just joined a public chatroom. She should have been in there from the very beginning. I mean heck, if she’s concerned about this, she should’ve been talking to them, like “hey, is there any way I can smooth this over quickly and peacefully?”. They’d help her. This would’ve lasted a day.

What in these screenshots is even incriminating? It’s not a secret that /v/ came up with #NotYourShield. I mean, these IRC logs even have someone saying “Hey, I’m not white. Can that be used to help you guys”. Do you even realize how much agency that removes from these people, saying that they were “unknowingly manipulated”? 

Or how about that log of her ex-boyfriend “coaching them on how to fuck over indiefriends”? The log literally shows him saying “I can’t give you guys too much info because some of you will misuse it”. Or how about that log proving “The Fine Young Capitalists were nothing but a pawn”, where they commend TFYC for remaining neutral and professional, and acknowledge that them doing so helps GamerGate? Or look at this log proving the GamerGate people are “sock puppets with ulterior motives”:

This is literally them saying that they should call out people on 4chan who encourage harassment, and take pictures of the responses as proof that they as a group do not condone it. They’re saying that rather than attacking people who slander them as harassers, they should show evidence that it’s not true. The only thing in these logs that is even mildly incriminating - the only thing from these highlights she felt were strong enough to post to her Twitter - is pictures of one blackhat hacker, “Rogue Star”. And the logs even show someone else calling him out, saying that he’s “not getting it”. 

And I really want to know: what does she expect from people who disagree with her? They’re encouraging eachother not to harass people or call them names, they’re refusing to share info they think will be misused, they’re discussing how to play their strengths while remaining respectful to one another, and they’re even discouraging people who want to cross legal boundaries. Is she berating them for being intelligent and planning PR out? Because that isn’t a bad thing - it’s the thing she direly needs to do herself.

As for points B-Z: yeah, people are pissed off at Zoe Quinn. That’s not a secret. I wrote an entire post on why I’m pissed off at Zoe Quinn, and how uneasy I was to admit it. This all started because people were pissed off at Zoe Quinn. It got worse - it became GamerGate - when the press started trying to defend her, and joined in on her attempts to spin this as misogyny.

Do you remember a few months ago, when animator Skyler Page was accused of sexually harassing a co-worker? Skyler Page lost his job because of this. Cartoon news outlets were running the story before proof had even emerged. Skyler Page made one of my favorite short animations ever, and I didn’t want him to be guilty, but people looked into the situation and it eventually became very clear that he had actually groped this woman. Seeing the support shown to her, other female associates came forward and admitted the same. 

Do you remember a few weeks ago, when game designer Zoe Quinn was accused of sexually harassing a co-worker? Nobody fucking talks about it, and the guy who stepped forward about it was attacked and called gross until he apologized for “being mean to Zoe”. How does this not bother people?

As far as The Fine Young Capitalists go, if Zoe wanted to ask questions about their transgender policy she could’ve emailed them. This is a thing that normal, functioning people actually do. Instead, she publicly posted to all her Twitter followers that TFYC’s trans policy was regressive, they were exploiting their winners, and that they were probably a scam. These tweets are still there; you can look at them if you want. According to TFYC, she never responded to their offers to discuss it privately. If you’re going to acknowledge TFYC is a feminist organization, why not listen to them when they blame Zoe Quinn for all the problems they have been running into? 

And Zoe released her game for free on Steam? Big deal. I’ve made text-based games before too, and like Zoe, I didn’t charge money for them. The difference, of course, is that she does get paid for her work via Patreon, where her number of patrons depends on how many people want to support her. You know, support her because they like her work… perhaps because they think she is a victim who needs help.

The thing that kind of gets me the most, though, is you saying that I’ve been manipulated into supporting GamerGate. Like, I’ve been following this as best as I can. I’ve been writing essays all week outlining my thought process. 4chan and the other GamerGate people have been presenting their case in the open, and I support it because I think they are right. And yet, somehow you have the audacity to accuse me of being manipulated into supporting them, presenting these highly-incriminating photos of 4chan discussing how to best gain support. 

Like, this is it. This is the final evolution I can see GamerGate’s opposition taking. First, they attacked GamerGate as being misogynists. Next, they attacked GamerGate for being gamers. And now, they are attacking GamerGate for tactical thinking. You have this game developer who throughout this has expressed the PR ability of a peanut, she posts photos of people discussing PR tactics, and declares “look at these people! They are doing something bad!”.

And, like, this is really it. The angle used by Zoe Quinn and her supporters literally cannot get any dumber than this. She is implicating 4chan for thinking ahead. You are telling me that I am being manipulated against my will because I agreed with a group that tried to get people to agree with them. Zoe Quinn has realized that she is so bad at PR that she has decided to paint the very act of PR as evil. 

What I’m saying is: don’t fall for that. Like, this is the dumbest possible defense she could be relying on. It should not be working on you, or anyone. Please don’t let it.

EDIT: whoops, just realized there was a second page to the article Oats linked. Among a bunch more pictures telling people not to harass and clarifying misconceptions Zoe Quinn is not actually guilty of, there is also one more blackhat hacker plotting to look into a company she’s associated with. 

[pixelated-patriarchy]

Reminder that Zoe Quinn’s sex scandal was only a catalyst showing the corruption in gaming journalism and indie development. 

This is not about a sex scandal. This is about fraudulent conduct within the industry. 

[oboewan42]

HA HA OH WOW

(this just reaffirms my belief that we need to destroy games journalism and the entire Indie Games Scene (TM))