can we talk about "gamergate"

[vrtra]

Wtf are they angry about
and why does it involve threatening to blow up Anita Sarkeesian?

Not for the gamers who haven't threatened anyone either.

But there are enough idiots on both sides that we now see rape threats, death threats, release of personal information, and a whole host of other unpleasantness flying both ways. Feminism on one side wondering "why are all these gamers suddenly misogynising all over the place?", and on the other games wondering "Why does feminism have such a problem with the fight against journalistic corruption?".

This website is generally pathetic, but if you fancy some Friday afternoon indignant rage, then I suggest you use this link:

www.returnofkings.com/46346/gamergate-why-feminists-want-to-destroy-gaming

(DISCLAIMER: Return of Kings are cunts. That is all.)

Isn't that website run by a man who complained about having to wipe his own bum?

Something that hasn't been said on these threads about gamng and sexism so far: my dh says that these are not grassroots movements as has been suggested implied (by the gamergate tag people I mean), but they are actually a deliberately orchestrated and planned campaign initiated by a small group of people. This arstechnica article links it to 4chan. arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/09/new-chat-logs-show-how-4chan-users-pushed-gamergate-into-the-national-spotlight/
He's mentioned these people before in other areas as people who - I don't get this - just like to insult people over the internet, for 'fun'. Their modus operandi is to set up multiple fake accounts and make it look like a general grassroots opinion when in fact its a concerted attack.

There was a thread ages ago on here about some fancy ribbon layer cake recipe - I think - that had for some reason attracted really vitriolic comments, and that was linked to these 4chan people too.

I don't understand the mentality, I really don't. There are some sick people out there. But hopefully not quite so many as gamergate suggests.

Haha!!! Really? I haven't heard that. It would not surprise me though.

Who else did he think was going to do it?!

Maybe off topic and maybe a stupid question. But the rape and death threats, women have always dealt with fear of stalkers or crazy people..but there seems to be a new breed of scary misogynist. And as mentioned by a PP they're the lonely pasty saddo type. DO you think they've become so vile because these men are actually on the computer for hours a day? I mean if you spend hours "killing" women for entertainment what a rape threat over twitter?

I'd also not hesitate that their hours online in their parent's basement are also frequently spent watching hideous amounts of porn. This won't help either.

Lemon I'm not sure

MEOD I haven't seen threats going both ways, despite what some GGers claim.

And, FWI I've been following this since it first started. Also, it's not a case of gamers on one side and feminists on the other; plenty of people fall into both camps.

Here's a post about the reluctant bum wiper wehuntedthemammoth.com/2014/10/02/why-pickup-guru-roosh-v-resents-women-for-forcing-him-to-clip-his-fingernails-and-wipe-his-own-ass/

But there are enough idiots on both sides that we now see rape threats, death threats, release of personal information, and a whole host of other unpleasantness flying both ways.

Explain who the idiots on both sides are. Are you saying that those women somehow are responsible for being attacked? Has people like Anita and Zoe sent rape/death threats to misogynists?

i guess misogynists can just reach more women now

AsAMan - I'm not sure about the influence of games. Porn, yes, I think a lot of porn could warp someone's opinion of women generally.

Saying that - threatening to rape and assault women who disagree with you isn't new. About ten years ago one of my writers was stalked across the internet by a white supremacist because he so strongly disagreed with something she wrote. Sadly, after several weeks of threats and harassment she quit.

No the threats aren't going both ways. The only people getting threatened with rape/death/rape and death are pesky women who point out what the GGers are doing.

Yes, it's linked to 4chan and 8chan, and there was a really interesting blog post linked on here I think about how there's a hard core of sociopathic men stirring the pot, while their disaffected followers make the threats etc. it's very similar in tactics and set up to the MRM.

Saskia that is indeed him! Douche V!

I thought it was him, that kind of oddness tends to stick in the mind

Games can influence but it's part of a whole, if a young man spends his time wanking to porn, playing videogames with crap portrayal of women, watching dudebro action movies, listening to misogynist music, hanging out with sexists male nerds online, obviously it's going to influence his thinking and behaviour.
If you aren't exposed to "women are humans with feelings and opinions and worth like me" but constant media with the opposite message, then it will easy to be led by the people who started gamergate.
I believe that the most viscious attackers are not just men who has consumed a lot of crappy media but people with personality disorders like sociopathy.
Gamergate wasn't started by someone who cared about games, but a man who wanted to attack his ex.

"Gamergate wasn't started by someone who cared about games, but a man who wanted to attack his ex."

I don't think that can be repeated too often.

This bollocks about journalistic integrity was tacked on later to give the 'movement' an air of legitimacy. At it's heart GG is about the hatred of women, and many of the main protagonists are not even gamers, they are MRAs who have jumped on the bandwagon to further their own agenda.

MEOD, they claim it because enough of the drones believe it, they repeat it and shout it and eventually, even when there is no evidence, the simple minded believe it.

NONE of GG has ANYTHING to do with journalistic ethics. Anyone who suggests it is is either deluded or lying.

This is solely about the shouting down of women in gaming and anyone who supports them, because, well, mostly it seems, they can.

And yes NAMALT, but enough of them are for the FBI to be taking it seriously and investigating several of the really very credible threats to various women.

From the Guardian article:

"What developed was an unprecedented flame war. The two sides pulled out all the stops sock-puppeting (creating fake IDs to harass people), doxing (digging up people’s personal data and posting it online), and all the other techniques of online warfare. Of course, each side claims vigorously that the other side is worse, kind of like in the Spanish Civil War, the Russian Civil War, or any of the famous right-left battles of the 20th Century. "

I'm not taking sides because I consider myself both a gamer and a feminist and NOTHING good will come out of this.

This really isn't an equal "flame war".