Are you concerned about ethics in video game journalism?

[TNF]

[PPT Spiral]

who cares

[Deus Naturae]

No, nor am I concerned about how the portrayal of Princess Peach is sexist.

[traininthedistance]

No, nor am I concerned about how the portrayal of Princess Peach is sexist.

That's fair as far as it goes– but it might just be a good idea to care about harassment and death threats.

[bedstuy]

I think most journalism is basically just a tool of the PR industry.  When it comes to journalism covering a specific hobby or industry be it cars or music or video games, journalism is synonymous with PR.  But, in the grand scheme of things, the biased PR driven nature of journalism on a hobby is not worth worrying about for a second.

[Lief 🗽]

I think it's resulted in some terrific memes, so in that sense yes.



Obviously the gamergaters need to be swiftly and decisively droned though, and I hope President Obama and the top brass at the Pentagon/CIA are working on how to most effectively carry out the mission.

[RI]

Not really as I don't play many video games. However, Quinn and Sarkeesian et al are pretty much the worst, making the entire situation something best avoided.

That's fair as far as it goes– but it might just be a good idea to care about harassment and death threats.

Death threats via the internet are some of the least credible things out there. You get death threats if you post something against the circlejerk on Reddit or against an SJW on Tumblr, for example, but you'd be a paranoid idiot to take either seriously. It's also hard for me to take internet harassment seriously (especially from strangers) compared to real life harassment as it's so incredibly easy to avoid it on the internet.

Now, it's certainly not a good or nice thing to do, but it's not really notable.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

To be fair, these death threats went beyond a few casual "omg i will kill you". These were specific and targeted threats that have forced multiple people to leave their homes; and serious enough for the police to be involved.

As for "ethics in journalism", it's further proof that the public collectively will pick up any old stupid cause if it means the joys of self-righteous anger.

[Bigby]

I think the journalists who are being grilled are unethical, but it's far from the primary thing that I think about.

Besides, they're just like most other journalists.

[Cory]

The poll is a false dichotomy.

Yes I don't like how gaming media is largely a farce that exists to parrot projects for personal/economic favors but I don't and wouldn't affiliate with the so-called "Gamergate" crowd.

[Mordecai]

No. Video game "journalism" (yeck) is a cesspool, even without sexual favours issues.

The whole drama just makes me glad I stopped following it in high school.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Video game journalism (like most journalism) is obviously awful and corrupt, though clearly the Gamergate crowd doesn't care about ethics as much as they have led themselves to believe. At best it's a somewhat understandable (though very much misguided) reaction to seeing social criticism and analysis of their hobby, at worst it's blatant misogyny.

[ElectionsGuy]

who cares

[Goldwater]

No, nor am I concerned about how the portrayal of Princess Peach is sexist.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

No, nor am I concerned about how the portrayal of Princess Peach is sexist.

Yep, I couldn't give less of a shinks over this as well.

[Sol]

Obviously it is an issue. But in contrast to the ultra-misogynistic, quasi-fascist GamerGate movement, its small potatoes. It's like comparing an amoeba to a Blue Whale, although that may be an understatement.

[traininthedistance]

Not really as I don't play many video games. However, Quinn and Sarkeesian et al are pretty much the worst, making the entire situation something best avoided.

That's fair as far as it goes– but it might just be a good idea to care about harassment and death threats.

Death threats via the internet are some of the least credible things out there. You get death threats if you post something against the circlejerk on Reddit or against an SJW on Tumblr, for example, but you'd be a paranoid idiot to take either seriously. It's also hard for me to take internet harassment seriously (especially from strangers) compared to real life harassment as it's so incredibly easy to avoid it on the internet.

Now, it's certainly not a good or nice thing to do, but it's not really notable.

Dude, people like Brianna Wu have had their personal details exposed and have been forced to flee their houses for months because of this; Sarkeesian had to cancel a talk because of a shooting threat that the authorities certainly took seriously.

You're comfortable dismissing that as "not credible"?  You think that's equivalent to even the strongest words coming from Redittors or SJWers or any other community?  Look, I'll gladly grant that a lot of these folks can use sloppy logic and be kind of a hive mind, it's okay to dislike them, but there's just no legitimate comparison between them and Gamergate and it discredits you to pretend that there is.

As for Sarkeesian... no matter how much "the worst" you think she is, surely you can agree that she has the right to engage in her critiques without fearing for her life?  Surely you can agree she isn't worse than Stormfront?  Look, while I'm sympathetic to her general project, I don't necessarily think she gets all the details right; there are some overgeneralizations and uncharitable readings there that I'd certainly quibble with.  But these Gamergate f**ks aren't poking holes in her logic, they're reacting with blind fury at the idea that how dare anyone engage in cultural critique.  That's something different.  And, well, they're doing more to prove her right (or at least, on the relative side of right) than anything she could say or do herself.

[BaconBacon96]

Yes I suppose so.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Obviously it is an issue. But in contrast to the ultra-misogynistic, quasi-fascist GamerGate movement, its small potatoes. It's like comparing an amoeba to a Blue Whale, although that may be an understatement.

The GG movement is far less powerful than you think it is.

[Wake Me Up When The Hard Border Ends]

No, nor am I concerned about how the portrayal of Princess Peach is sexist.

[New_Conservative]

There probably is not an issue less important to me than ethics in video game journalism.

[Beet]

That's fair as far as it goes– but it might just be a good idea to care about harassment and death threats.

Death threats via the internet are some of the least credible things out there. You get death threats if you post something against the circlejerk on Reddit or against an SJW on Tumblr, for example, but you'd be a paranoid idiot to take either seriously. It's also hard for me to take internet harassment seriously (especially from strangers) compared to real life harassment as it's so incredibly easy to avoid it on the internet.

Now, it's certainly not a good or nice thing to do, but it's not really notable.

That's not the issue. This is the best thing I've seen on it so far.

[Mechaman]

lolvideogamejournalism

I wasn't aware that this was a thing until Snowstalker brought it up one time in IRC chat.  Really, most of the people involved in video game journalism are kind of self-embarrassments but that should be obvious to anyone.  While I don't agree with the hyper-feminist crowd that insists that we need to get rid of the hooker scenes in Grand Theft Auto games, Princess Peach needs to wear coveralls, or that Lara Croft needs to wear a professional business suit and be put in a game where she is the new Human Resources Director at a corporation that sells excavation equipment, it's clear there is a pretty obvious MRA element in the "ethics" movement (like the fact that they bother to attack such ideas so thoroughly in the first place).

So yeah, not really.  Bring up ethics where it actually matters.

[Marokai Backbeat]

The poll is a false dichotomy.

Yes I don't like how gaming media is largely a farce that exists to parrot projects for personal/economic favors but I don't and wouldn't affiliate with the so-called "Gamergate" crowd.

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

I have a British-American friend that I served in the Navy with that is deeply involved in this saga as a long-time Internet denizen (he'd been part of 4chan's /b/ army forever before they moved on).  He sent me some youtubes on the subject that said at the very least would show me what an interesting saga it has been.  I've yet to watch them, but he claims to have some extremely disparaging evidence against this Zoe girl.