How did The Escapist's culture change so much?

[megs1120]

I just assuming the site change according with the times (internet news and social etc) since a few years ago there was no such thing as "gamergate", Mass Effect 3 wasn't made and Anita Sarkeesian was setting up her kickstarter.

In saying so I do know alot of people left during the Extra Credits controversial.

Pretty much this.


The landscape of the internet has changed. there were fewer polarizing politics in gaming 5 years ago. The most heated debate was.. XBox vs Ps3

Now.. yeah.. politics done got worked up in here and one politics get involved things turn very nasty very quickly. To this day I still can't figure out what GamerGate is because dear god it seems to be an umbrella term these days.

Ha, yeah, if you'd asked me in 2013 what gamers would be fighting about in the next few years, I'd have said PS4 vs. Xbone. The spirits of those who fought in the SNES-Genesis and PS3-360 console wars are looking down on us in shame.

 

[Pr0]

I haven't noticed any difference in the culture really.

The Escapist has always been a fairly diverse place and it still is. I'm not sure how its unsafe just because people are allowed to speculate on whether SJW's are opportunistic trolls or not...and thats pretty much all SJW's, not just female ones, they're all a problem.

Gamergate is, for all intents and purposes, over. At least to the people that really only had issue with its core principle of journalistic ethics.Disclosure has become the norm for all major sites and some of the heaviest offenders in regards to fighting the tide have had some serious changes to their ethics policies as well as major shifts and changes in the journalistic landscape.

People still arguing "Gamergate" in reference to sexism and racism and all the other "ism's" they want to fight against are basically arguing about entirely different problems under relatively dishonest circumstances.

But...to be fair, everyone that argued about Gamergate in the name of an "ism" that wasn't "journalism" was doing so in a dishonest manner.

Gamergate wasn't about women. Its never been about women. Just because there were a few women involved in the whole shit storm doesn't mean Gamergate was about women.

Gamergate is over, the argument has largely been won for the betterment of games journalism and gamers alike. Anyone continuing to wave the "Gamergate" flag around either didn't get the memo...or has another agenda entirely.

 

[MiskWisk]

Well, since everything else has already been said and considering my own lack of eloquence when it comes to expressing my points without sounding like a tosser, I will instead just quote a video that my secondary school was obsessed with to the point we saw it at least three times a year for five years.

[HEADING=1]SHIFT HAPPENS[/HEADING]

Nothing remains the same forever and expecting it too is the height of absurdity. As the community ages it will change as people come and go. Outside events will affect traffic in and out and shape the continued evolution of the site. Attempting to change this will either force a death of the site or cause the site to become so insular it will be an irrelevant cesspit.

 

[Scars Unseen]

You know, looking back, I'm not so upset about the whole GamerGate thing. It's provided a welcome break from the pro-pedophilia and furry threads we used to get.

 

[IceForce]

You know, looking back, I'm not so upset about the whole GamerGate thing. It's provided a welcome break from the pro-pedophilia and furry threads we used to get.

My Little Pony was really big on this forum as well, some time ago. But now you scarcely ever see it mentioned.

It seems most everything has its time in the limelight, before it's replaced with something else.

 

[IceForce]

Gamergate is, for all intents and purposes, over. At least to the people that really only had issue with its core principle of journalistic ethics.Disclosure has become the norm for all major sites and some of the heaviest offenders in regards to fighting the tide have had some serious changes to their ethics policies as well as major shifts and changes in the journalistic landscape.

.

Gamergate is over, the argument has largely been won for the betterment of games journalism and gamers alike. Anyone continuing to wave the "Gamergate" flag around either didn't get the memo...or has another agenda entirely.

Well yeah, that's why GG has mostly dropped the "It's about ethics in games journalism" angle, and have instead turned it into something of an "SJW" witch-hunt.

 

[BrokenTinker]

I haven't noticed any difference in the culture really.

The Escapist has always been a fairly diverse place and it still is. I'm not sure how its unsafe just because people are allowed to speculate on whether SJW's are opportunistic trolls or not...and thats pretty much all SJW's, not just female ones, they're all a problem.

Gamergate is, for all intents and purposes, over. At least to the people that really only had issue with its core principle of journalistic ethics.Disclosure has become the norm for all major sites and some of the heaviest offenders in regards to fighting the tide have had some serious changes to their ethics policies as well as major shifts and changes in the journalistic landscape.

People still arguing "Gamergate" in reference to sexism and racism and all the other "ism's" they want to fight against are basically arguing about entirely different problems under relatively dishonest circumstances.

But...to be fair, everyone that argued about Gamergate in the name of an "ism" that wasn't "journalism" was doing so in a dishonest manner.

Gamergate wasn't about women. Its never been about women. Just because there were a few women involved in the whole shit storm doesn't mean Gamergate was about women.

Gamergate is over, the argument has largely been won for the betterment of games journalism and gamers alike. Anyone continuing to wave the "Gamergate" flag around either didn't get the memo...or has another agenda entirely.

It is indeed over for the most part (there are still quite a bit of stuff around, but that will be finished up eventually, might take a year or two, until people forget. Kinda like how ppls were free from the moral panic in the late 90s and early 00s before the current feminist version of the moral panic, at least satan isn't involved this time, just white cis shitlords \o/), the problem, like with every movement, is the creeping goal line. With its primary goal completed, it's trying to do more than its original goals. GG is really nothing more than a watchdog at the moment for the game journalism industry, except that the MSM crept in and repeated the fabrication story almost word for word earlier in the fiasco and gotten themselves tied into it. So instead of just being focused on games journalism, it started to mission-creep into looking into the MSM as well (using the CalExpo, their earlier reason for expelling HBB was based on a factually incorrect marysue article that intentionally misquoted something, this is on top of the report by the metro where even some expo attendees were questioning, as well as a "miscellaneous complaint" by the expo in regards to them meeting in a public park, yes, you can phone the calgary police and ask about the incident as it's on record).

It's the same way how 2nd wave equality feminism won the battles in the 80s and died off in the 90s due to reaching their goals. Now the 3rd wave feminism is using outdated and even dis-proven theories from the shunned intersectional feminists from the 70-80s that went into education as opposed to fighting a losing battle with the equality feminists (do note that quite a few of these equality feminists ended up founding MRA orgs. since they saw that their goal for equality for women has been reached for the most part at that time, but the other side of the equality equation, being male, were under represented. This is often ignored and slandered, funniest being the claim of internalize misogyny) . I'm still not sure how the "2nd surge" of GGers will be like as their ultimate end goal will be shifting like feminism did, it could be bad like what we see now with feminism (or worse, SJW bigots using minority issues as a shield to commit crimes - recent case being Berkeley protest), or it could be good in promoting public discourse which is actively being attack by claiming "safe space" from "foreign ideas" and "triggering victims" that flies in the face of psychology and belittling actual PTSD victims. Only time will tell at this point really.

 

[MonsterCrit]

I just assuming the site change according with the times (internet news and social etc) since a few years ago there was no such thing as "gamergate", Mass Effect 3 wasn't made and Anita Sarkeesian was setting up her kickstarter.

In saying so I do know alot of people left during the Extra Credits controversial.

Pretty much this.


The landscape of the internet has changed. there were fewer polarizing politics in gaming 5 years ago. The most heated debate was.. XBox vs Ps3

Now.. yeah.. politics done got worked up in here and one politics get involved things turn very nasty very quickly. To this day I still can't figure out what GamerGate is because dear god it seems to be an umbrella term these days.

Ha, yeah, if you'd asked me in 2013 what gamers would be fighting about in the next few years, I'd have said PS4 vs. Xbone. The spirits of those who fought in the SNES-Genesis and PS3-360 console wars are looking down on us in shame.

See, how it works? To be fair, gaming media consumers have goten a lot stupider as well. I mean from what I can tell one of the big issues of gamer gate was that people were surprised by the idea that some games journalists may be 'on the take'.

Which really kind of shocked me , because in my era,that was sort of the standard assumption. Even now I assume Yahtzee is getting some lovely kick backs from his reviews, though I still listen to him. He's funny and since I assume he's biased financially in favour or disfavour of some games I give his statements proper weight.

 

[megs1120]

I just assuming the site change according with the times (internet news and social etc) since a few years ago there was no such thing as "gamergate", Mass Effect 3 wasn't made and Anita Sarkeesian was setting up her kickstarter.

In saying so I do know alot of people left during the Extra Credits controversial.

Pretty much this.


The landscape of the internet has changed. there were fewer polarizing politics in gaming 5 years ago. The most heated debate was.. XBox vs Ps3

Now.. yeah.. politics done got worked up in here and one politics get involved things turn very nasty very quickly. To this day I still can't figure out what GamerGate is because dear god it seems to be an umbrella term these days.

Ha, yeah, if you'd asked me in 2013 what gamers would be fighting about in the next few years, I'd have said PS4 vs. Xbone. The spirits of those who fought in the SNES-Genesis and PS3-360 console wars are looking down on us in shame.

See, how it works? To be fair, gaming media consumers have goten a lot stupider as well. I mean from what I can tell one of the big issues of gamer gate was that people were surprised by the idea that some games journalists may be 'on the take'.

Which really kind of shocked me , because in my era,that was sort of the standard assumption. Even now I assume Yahtzee is getting some lovely kick backs from his reviews, though I still listen to him. He's funny and since I assume he's biased financially in favour or disfavour of some games I give his statements proper weight.

I always think back to Gerstmanngate because if there was ever any event that called for a movement for ethics in video games journalism, it was when Jeff Gerstmann was fired from Gamespot for giving Kane & Lynch an inadequately-positive review after Eidos spent to plaster Gamespot with ads for the game.

Why couldn't Gamergate have started there, where everyone agreed that Gamespot and Eidos were making a mockery of objective coverage, instead of starting with something that may or may not have happened in the indie scene?

 

[SweetShark]

And once again I fail to understand what the heck happening with the whole gamergate thing, because I guess I am Brain Dead.
It is so uninteresting it make me to create a Thread about how can we live in a planet which artists create a manga which you can see a Salmon get molested by shrimps:

BUAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!
YES! I JUST HERE TO HAVE FUN!!!!!

 

[Pirate Of PC Master race]

It is so uninteresting it make me to create a Thread about how can we live in a planet which artists create a manga which you can see a Salmon get molested by shrimps:

BUAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!
YES! I JUST HERE TO HAVE FUN!!!!!

Interesting spin on the traditional japanese theme indeed!

I for one think that high school girls getting in to action with tentacle monsters with *** ****ing *********s and *****es.

 

[Akjosch]

Gamergate is over, the argument has largely been won for the betterment of games journalism and gamers alike. Anyone continuing to wave the "Gamergate" flag around either didn't get the memo...or has another agenda entirely.

Oh, I was from the beginning supporting it primarily due to my opposition to media synchronisation and censorship, no matter where it comes from. That's no secret, and neither did it change.

 

[SweetShark]

It is so uninteresting it make me to create a Thread about how can we live in a planet which artists create a manga which you can see a Salmon get molested by shrimps:

BUAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!
YES! I JUST HERE TO HAVE FUN!!!!!

Interesting spin on the traditional japanese theme indeed!

I for one think that high school girls getting in to action with tentacle monsters with *** ****ing *********s and *****es.

Nah, I prefer.........wait for it........BUTT WRESTLING!!!!

Above we can how HARD LIKE MY.....they train to be ready for the TOURMAMET OF BUTTS!!!!!!!!!
I REPEAT!!!!!
A TOURNAMET WHICH YOU USE YOUR ASS TO WIN YOUR OPPOMENTS!!!!!!!

 

[Erttheking]

Topics came up, people formed opinions about them, people are very passionate about their opinions and most people view admitting any flaw in what they think or what people like them think is admitting defeat, so they attack the other people saying how wrong they are, and those people view admitting any flaw in what they think or what people like them think is admitting defeat so they attack back even harder and then the first side attacks again.

It's a vicious cycle.

 

[Tsun Tzu]

Gamergate is over, the argument has largely been won for the betterment of games journalism and gamers alike. Anyone continuing to wave the "Gamergate" flag around either didn't get the memo...or has another agenda entirely.

Weeeeeell, that depends on what your goal was.

Some folks just want to tear it all down. Not that they don't have some sense of reason for wanting that after the months of unabashed crap, but eh.

Me? I'm pretty sure we won. Leigh's out on her ass, ethics policies are in place for most sites, Ben Ku-SAYITTOMYFACE-chera has disclosures up, Polygon of all fuckin' places wrote a neutral article on the subject...

Hell, sounds like victory to me. Doesn't mean we all need to rest on our laurels or anything, since these people have proven they're not worthy of trust.

 

[Tohuvabohu]

Gamergate is over, the argument has largely been won for the betterment of games journalism and gamers alike. Anyone continuing to wave the "Gamergate" flag around either didn't get the memo...or has another agenda entirely.

Weeeeeell, that depends on what your goal was.

Some folks just want to tear it all down. Not that they don't have some sense of reason for wanting that after the months of unabashed crap, but eh.

Me? I'm pretty sure we won. Leigh's out on her ass, ethics policies are in place for most sites, Ben Ku-SAYITTOMYFACE-chera has disclosures up, Polygon of all fuckin' places wrote a neutral article on the subject...

Hell, sounds like victory to me. Doesn't mean we all need to rest on our laurels or anything, since these people have proven they're not worthy of trust.

Will it ever really go away, is the question? I think, probably not, at least not for a very long time.

While it seems that the initial goals of GG may have been in the interest of things like disclosures and the betterment of Game's Journalism, which has been achieved, I think the broad sentiment among the movement as it is now - is in line with your final point. And has become a sort of watch dog group ensuring that disclosures and ethics are maintained.

But more importantly, is that the GG movement seems to also be a constant pushback response against "SJW" ideology which has been working it's way into the medium for years now. In that sense, GG is a political ideology of it's own. I think that's what is going to keep this movement going for quite a long time to come.

And I can't say I'm surprised that things have evolved in this direction. Once Politics began to be introduced into game discussion, it was only a matter of time before it really caught fire and grows into the battleground it is today - As is the case with anything else involving differing socio-political points of view.

 

[Pirate Of PC Master race]

Topics came up, people formed opinions about them, people are very passionate about their opinions and most people view admitting any flaw in what they think or what people like them think is admitting defeat, so they attack the other people saying how wrong they are, and those people view admitting any flaw in what they think or what people like them think is admitting defeat so they attack back even harder and then the first side attacks again.

It's a vicious cycle.

Well, I am fine with that. It is essential part of any forums.

What I do detest is how it all got political.

And they only talk about 3 topics all the time. It's boring.

Nah, I prefer.........wait for it........BUTT WRESTLING!!!!

I for one do not find it interesting. Especially after music videos got their hands on it.

 

[rcs619]

I posted a link to an Escapist article on my facebook wall and got a response along the lines of "eww, the escapist is a bunch of gamergate creeps" and it got me thinking. I've been coming to this site since back when it was an online magazine, I've been a paying subscriber for years, but somehow I'd missed the transformation taking place.

I felt that it was a safe place, where we weren't like the people on Joystiq or PC Gamer, we were more civil, more considerate. The Escapist was a place where a comic like WHITE GUY DEFENSE FORCE GO! ( http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comicsandcosplay/comics/critical-miss/10597-WHITE-GUY-DEFENSE-FORCE-GO ) could be run with a minimum of controversy, where there were people like Movie Bob who could give more analysis to a movie than just "EXPLOSION GOOD".

Now I look at the list of popular forum posts and they're all about how men are oppressed, how women are stupid, exactly the sort of stuff that I'd loved this site for avoiding. How did the site's culture change so fast? Is it a coarsening of the gaming community at large, or is it just the new people? Was I wrong to think that this site was ever any different than all the others?

My first thought is that gaming these days is just dumb, but that's not exactly fair. It's just, kind of the times we live in. Society, overall (in the US at least, since that is my only real frame of reference) is generally leaning center to center-left on social issues. Gays are more accepted than they've ever been, women are going to college (and universities, for you euro folk. In the US we use both basically interchangeably) more than ever before and are working their way into more and more traditionally male fields (like gaming, to keep on topic), science is more accepted and popular than it's ever been, and overall (once again, in the US) religious numbers are dropping. Any time there's a big shift in a society, there's always going to be a huge, loud, reactionary protest from the side that is afraid of change, or has a vested interest in keeping things they way they were. This is especially true when that side knows they are losing. That's why, in the US, we've seen religious fundamentalists and hardcore social conservatives get so much louder, and just... nastier. They know they're losing and they're scratching and clawing to accomplish whatever they can before they become completely irrelevant or have to substantially change their positions in order to avoid becoming so.

In terms of the escapist... it's just going through a phase where it's not that great. Jim Sterling, Extra Credits, Moviebob, Miracle of Sound, and a bunch of other names I can't remember, they're just... gone. What does the escapist even have any more? Well, Critical Miss is usually fun, Yahtzee still graces us with two posts a week, and I like Experienced Points. But, besides those three, there really isn't much left.