And it's because of Devin's comments that I believe anyone trying to cover up the gaming corruption or turn it around back onto us gamers is, and I'm not gonna sugarcoat this, a complete and utter scumbag.vallorn said:
Devin Faraci on what is driving the #gamergate gamers
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What corruption are you talking about? While I know that people have been saying a great deal about corruption in game's journalism, I can't find any real evidence that it's worse than what we thought it was. And come on, it's an open secret that gaming websites are in the pocket of publishers because their ads are their only source of revenue. They're the one's people should be mad at, not the journalists. And even IF what the gamersgate people were saying was true, what's the worst thing that happened, somebody slept their to success? That's hardly implausible in an entertainment medium. And besides, it was ONE PERSON.Gone Rampant said:
For the record, I've never heard of Devin Faraci until reading this article and judging from the comments here he seems like a pretty controversial figure.
So, without any contextual knowledge about the author colouring my reading of this article I thought it was a really thought provoking and convincing article. If you are, or were, one of those "outsiders, losers, weirdos and freaks" in high school- or an adolescent white male who feels marginalised by their peers and the opposite sex, I think it's very understandable that someone like Anita Sarkeesian would tick you off. The feminist rhetoric of white men being "privileged" just does not correlate with your own experiences of life where you spend most of the time feeling quite the opposite. So you take solace in gaming and nerd culture where there are other people like you who understand you but if the likes of Anita Sarkeesian appear to criticise your way of life by saying the games you love are sexist then it's going to piss you off.
As Faraci mentions, all Sarkeesian does in her videos is a fairly standard academic critique of gaming from a feminist perspective. She could have done a marxist critique or a postmodernist analysis of gaming and her videos would have barely caused a stir, but her problem is she marches into the world of video gaming armed with her master's degree in gender studies and applies her academic skills to gaming without really considering how it would impact on her audience. She doesn't deserve all the hate and vitriol she has received for her videos, but I would criticise her for not properly considering how the way in which she communicates her views may be perceived by her audience. A bit of empathy and sympathy and recognition that those awkward video game nerds do face a lot of challenges in life would go a long way. Tell someone who's faced bullying in high school and rejection from the opposite sex that their hobbies and passions are sexist and enforces the "patriarchy" and you're just baiting an angry response.
And as for Zoe Quinn...The real news there is really proof of corruption in video games journalism, but because gaming culture has this long-standing issue with feminism it's been inserted into the whole controversy. I would tell anyone who identifies as a feminist that it would be prudent to re-examine the experiences of young men and rather than focusing on the ways in which they are privileged look at the ways in which they are disadvantaged. If you understand that, I think you're going to make much more headway in understanding that problems that men as well as women face in society- because the two are very inter-related.
So, without any contextual knowledge about the author colouring my reading of this article I thought it was a really thought provoking and convincing article. If you are, or were, one of those "outsiders, losers, weirdos and freaks" in high school- or an adolescent white male who feels marginalised by their peers and the opposite sex, I think it's very understandable that someone like Anita Sarkeesian would tick you off. The feminist rhetoric of white men being "privileged" just does not correlate with your own experiences of life where you spend most of the time feeling quite the opposite. So you take solace in gaming and nerd culture where there are other people like you who understand you but if the likes of Anita Sarkeesian appear to criticise your way of life by saying the games you love are sexist then it's going to piss you off.
As Faraci mentions, all Sarkeesian does in her videos is a fairly standard academic critique of gaming from a feminist perspective. She could have done a marxist critique or a postmodernist analysis of gaming and her videos would have barely caused a stir, but her problem is she marches into the world of video gaming armed with her master's degree in gender studies and applies her academic skills to gaming without really considering how it would impact on her audience. She doesn't deserve all the hate and vitriol she has received for her videos, but I would criticise her for not properly considering how the way in which she communicates her views may be perceived by her audience. A bit of empathy and sympathy and recognition that those awkward video game nerds do face a lot of challenges in life would go a long way. Tell someone who's faced bullying in high school and rejection from the opposite sex that their hobbies and passions are sexist and enforces the "patriarchy" and you're just baiting an angry response.
And as for Zoe Quinn...The real news there is really proof of corruption in video games journalism, but because gaming culture has this long-standing issue with feminism it's been inserted into the whole controversy. I would tell anyone who identifies as a feminist that it would be prudent to re-examine the experiences of young men and rather than focusing on the ways in which they are privileged look at the ways in which they are disadvantaged. If you understand that, I think you're going to make much more headway in understanding that problems that men as well as women face in society- because the two are very inter-related.
In a word, this is a problem with journalism in gaming. There are a lot of emotions attached this adolescent (in both the age of the industry and the general age of the fans) hobby. I think he (Faraci) does an ok job of profiling the people who are mad about this but the true telling statement is that he has no idea how to reach them. This is perhaps the more relevant statement and I think the underlying problem here and with the game press in general. They correctly identify sexism as a problem in this industry, and a lot of what is said here is not wrong. But the miss here is the comment found at the bottom of his rant.
A disclaimer that reads:
I think it's deplorable what happened to Anita in the wake of this, and I've openly voiced support for Jenn Frank as she was savagely driven from twitter in 2 weeks of fierce argument over twitter. I think it's a shame that there are women who feel excluded from gaming and I think we are worse off for it.
Look at what happened here. A complete freak out of all the sides involved. Zoe Quinn's falling out showed a lot of the cracks in the system of journalists and the relationship with indie developers. These were the people we were supposed to be taking our industry back. And I'm not saying it's representative of the whole system, and hell Zoe Quinn's business is none of my business, and I don't even know what is true. In fact personally speaking, I don't really even care. Nintendo Power used to be OWNED BY NINTENDO and no one ever complained about journalistic integrity.
If it seems like I'm going back and forth, I would probably sum it up this way. We have to co-exist with people whether we like them or not. Gamers with non-gamers, women and men, Feminists have to co-exist with sexists. So even if you want to advance a cause and change peoples minds, you still have to live with those people in the world the next day, and the day after that. So we, and this means everyone, should start conducting ourselves in a manner that reflects this reality. You don't change peoples minds by screaming at them until they agree with you, and if you ever did somehow force someone into submission in this regard, you will never quite get to a point where you're really changing minds.
So why don't we instead of fighting each other, lets play together and figure out how to play together cause unless one side is planning some sort of genocide. Then I don't really see another option.
A disclaimer that reads:
When these people talk to you, they talk down to you. They look at you as an enemy until you come to their side. I don't side with GamerGate, I don't think there is a case to be made for less inclusiveness being good for gaming on the whole. But I disagree with a lot of what Anita Sarkeesian says and I think what Zoe Quinn did if true, was to damage the trust of those who believed in her and give ammunition to those that don't. If the allegations raised against her are true, it hurts the image of the gaming press and sets them back if it is their aim to be taken seriously. Now I'm reluctant to voice those opinions, and on twitter I flat out don't bother, because the gaming "elitists" like Devon Faraci have made it so that my voice is treated with utter contempt as if my holding the above opinions is somehow condoning the harassment and over all sexism in the industry. That's what Elitism gets you. That's the result. So yes I don't count myself among those in "gamergate" but I certainly don't feel like going to bad for Faraci or anyone else that might otherwise be involved in this cause.Devon Faraci said:
I think it's deplorable what happened to Anita in the wake of this, and I've openly voiced support for Jenn Frank as she was savagely driven from twitter in 2 weeks of fierce argument over twitter. I think it's a shame that there are women who feel excluded from gaming and I think we are worse off for it.
Look at what happened here. A complete freak out of all the sides involved. Zoe Quinn's falling out showed a lot of the cracks in the system of journalists and the relationship with indie developers. These were the people we were supposed to be taking our industry back. And I'm not saying it's representative of the whole system, and hell Zoe Quinn's business is none of my business, and I don't even know what is true. In fact personally speaking, I don't really even care. Nintendo Power used to be OWNED BY NINTENDO and no one ever complained about journalistic integrity.
If it seems like I'm going back and forth, I would probably sum it up this way. We have to co-exist with people whether we like them or not. Gamers with non-gamers, women and men, Feminists have to co-exist with sexists. So even if you want to advance a cause and change peoples minds, you still have to live with those people in the world the next day, and the day after that. So we, and this means everyone, should start conducting ourselves in a manner that reflects this reality. You don't change peoples minds by screaming at them until they agree with you, and if you ever did somehow force someone into submission in this regard, you will never quite get to a point where you're really changing minds.
So why don't we instead of fighting each other, lets play together and figure out how to play together cause unless one side is planning some sort of genocide. Then I don't really see another option.
This in a weird kind of way represents perfectly what I've been saying about this whole thing. and that is that simply, gamers are good people, are there bad apples? sure, but hell there's bad apples in every community there are members of every hobby who are just belligerent assholes. and this has nothing to do with them being gamers it has to do with being assholes. meanwhile the SJWs are saying "don't sully SJW we're not all crazy." that same kindness is not being extended to gamers even by their own journalists. the "gamers are dead" thing is basically all the proof you need that games journalists have turned on their base to preach from on high and call us scum. it's one of my favorite quotes I've heard from tons of places so I can't name just one. "when someone calls you racist what they're really saying is "I'm not racist"." this dickwad faraci got himself a pretty strong high from calling gamers losers and terrorists and it's clear from his writings that he still thinks we're losers and misogynist, no matter how often he claims to be an asshole he's just saying he's not as big of an asshole as we are. I don't want an apology from this tool and nobody else should either he's a tool and his opinion of me and my hobby maters less than a fly's fart. I didn't know who he was before all this and I care even less about him now. he can get bent for all I care.