Female Game Developer

[GodPlayedByJamesMason]

I'm a frequent lurker here but never really post but just felt I had to after reading this article about a female game developer and the threats she receives just for doing her job, I don't know what response I want really, just someone to talk through with me how horrific this is/how brave she is for refusing to break/what can we do, you know?

[TunipTheUnconquerable]

Horrendous.

I don't know what we can do. This is presumably taking place in America? The sort of threats she's getting sound pretty similar to what Caroline Criado-Perez got, but at least the perpetrator here was imprisoned for it. I don't know what American law is like in cases like this, given what a fetish they make of free speech.

[YonicScrewdriver]

Ugh

[BriarRainbowshimmer]

It used to be bad but this shit is getting really extreme now. I don't know what to say really.

[FruitBasedDrinkForALady]

I was reading about this on HuffPo earlier and was horrified too. I have absolutely no way to understand how anyone can be so hate-filled. It terrifies and saddens me in equal measure that women in supposedly civilized countries doing their normal jobs are seen as utterly inhuman by anonymous lunatics.

[Zazzles007]

This sort of thing really saddens and angers me, that these misogynists think they can send death and rape threats to women in prominent situations and its somehow a 'joke' or something. I am glad that the authorities are taking this and other such incidents seriously.

As to what can be done, I think the more that we talk about it, and the more that we discuss how unacceptable this behaviour is, and condemn those who take part in it, then the wider the discussion becomes. When you call out crappy behaviour by people, it highlights to them and to many others, what is acceptable and unacceptable in a rational and reasonable society.

[Monkeytrousers101]

These people are lone nutters and nothing to go with #GamerGate. Gamers are people of all genders ethnicities. And they too report harassers. twitter.com/sanc/status/521206513130799105 .

[Monkeytrousers101]

Here is a good overview of what is happeing techcrunch.com/2014/09/25/gamergate-an-issue-with-2-sides/

[Monkeytrousers101]

I agree. But there is plenty crappy behaviour on both sides from people who have an interest in misrepresenting and, indeed, lying, leaving the real gamers who are not harassers to fight for themselves. That's what gamer gate is about. The first link I posted showed gamers exposing a harraser as an reporting an anti- gamergate journalist, creating controversy as click bait. The 2nd article I posted is very measured and explains both sides. But it's only useful only if people are interested in actually knowing the complexity of what is going on of course

[juneybean]

Wow I didn't realise this was a thing! I am a female gamer and know many other female gamers.

[Monkeytrousers101]

These are normal, male, female, straight, gay gamers fighting back against journalistic and gamer corporate corruption. This is the real face of #gamergate not what you read in the games journalism. It's only 3 mins long.

[Bifauxnen]

jezebel.com/gamergate-trolls-arent-ethics-crusaders-theyre-a-hate-1644984010

Gamergate is an anti-feminist/woman campaign hidden behind an unconvincing facade.

[Monkeytrousers101]

Yes, all those women in the video. all the female gamer gate supporters are victims of false consciousness. They must be socialised to embrace their weakness and victimhood

[Monkeytrousers101]

and "feminist" does not = "woman". So anti feminist does not = anti woman.

Egalitarians embrace equality and human rights for all. They just don't believe in building barricades between men and women, but breaking them down. Shocking stuff, I know.

[Bifauxnen]

My favourite quote on gamergate by an editor of cracked after the site had been bombarded - "A few weeks ago our message board and general inbox were bombarded with demands we address something called the "GamerGate Scandal", posts written with the urgency and rage one would associate with, say, discovering that Chipotle burritos are made entirely from the meat of human babies. It's apparently a big deal in some circles, so we followed the links and read the piles of data presented, and had to stop and take a deep breath just to grasp it all. "Gentlemen," we said amid the stunned silence, "do you realize that if what they're saying is true, then this is still the most pointless fucking bullshit anyone has ever forced us to read?"

There may be a minority who are genuine in their concern over ethics but they are being used by those with a hateful agenda.
Another article arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/09/new-chat-logs-show-how-4chan-users-pushed-gamergate-into-the-national-spotlight/

[Bifauxnen]

The misogynists involved see no difference between women and feminists. Any woman doing something they don't like is labelled a feminist and therefore a valid target.
And I see through the 'egalitarian' bullshit.

[BriarRainbowshimmer]

Gamergate is an anti-feminist/woman campaign hidden behind an unconvincing facade.

YY. And I would say, anti-gaming and anti-fun. They are giving gaming a very bad name. I don't feel like going on gaming sites with this shit going on.

[PetulaGordino]

i don't understand why posters on this thread really need to understand gamergate at all. fundamentally a woman is the subject of misogynist threats and that is not acceptable. so i agree with zazzles

[PetulaGordino]

i'm not saying it shouldn't be discussed btw. just that an understanding of the complexities is not required to condemn the attack faced by the woman in that article

[YonicScrewdriver]

Agree, Petula.

[slug]

Ethics my arse It's a case of a man who got miffed that his girlfriend dumped him then made yup lots of stories to discredit her.

It's the same old story of men who can't handle women being visible

[BriarRainbowshimmer]

"Let's be real for a second. #gamergate is the new name for a group that has been harassing me for 2 years. All the same users are involved."

A recent Tweet from Anita Sarkeesian.

[BoulevardOfBrokenSleep]

Wow, that techcrunch article was way long and explained nothing. Let's step away from who posted what, and who tweeted whose address...

When you say, 'fighting back against journalistic and gamer corporate corruption, monkeytrousers, what would said corruption look like?

What are we talking here, some sort of financial shenanigans with a big games publisher? Since gaming coverage is tiny in mainstream press, I assume we're talking gaming mags? Or IGN et al? I have missed the start of this, so feel free to take it from the top.

[Monkeytrousers101]

"i don't understand why posters on this thread really need to understand gamergate at all. "

Because the person in the OP is not accusing one person of sending the abuse but a group of people. Millions of people who call themselves gamers. She used the hashtag #gamergate. One person sent her those messages. The gamergate hashtag is a grassroots movement of people who are just gamers, that is people who enjoy playing games a lot!

No one deserves to be abused or harassed. I myself have stood up for Sarkeesian against the minority of people who abuse her, even though I disagree with her and know the stuff she writes about games is rubbish.

In every group of 100 people there is statistically going to be one who fits the description of a psychopath. So in the millions of gamers there are going to be a few bad eggs. Letting a minority of psychopaths who enjoy the attention they get from frightening people, dictate the terms of the debate, is a race to the bottom and in no one's interest.

Sarkeesian is an ideological radical feminist who see's harm in video games when there is zero evidence to support this. That's what people legitimately argue with her about, but she directs peoples attention to the psychos. Sarkeesian appears to think legitimate challenge in the theatre of free ideas and free speech counts as harassment. It doesn't. As in the video, gamers are categorically anti-harassment and they themselves stamp it out where they find it. As you will see in the first link I posted, it was a journalist sending abusive tweets to manufacture outrage.

It might surprise you to know that a huge amount of men receive death and rape threats too. And also that many women on the internet don't. I am a very vocal person on the internet and Twitter and Ice received zero threats of this sort. I've been threatened (or attempted) by radical feminists for not following party lines. But not by anyone else.

I'm pretty sure most of the people lurking on here will have the intelligence to see the difference between real people fighting for the right to have a dissenting voice against powerful ideologies.