What would you have done to prevent this divide?

[Pogilrup]

These last two weeks are just so saddening.

One person got her career wrecked, several sites are no longer seen as trustworthy, and an entire community of enthusiasts getting trashed by hostile news articles.

What would you have done to prevent all of this?

 

[Elfgore]

What could one do? Prevent human nature? Prevent people from being dicks and assholes to people they no little to nothing about? I'll admit, I am pretty bummed out. I've noticed it's gotten really bad just over the past few days, for no fucking reason. It's kinda sad really. I should make a happy thread, cheer things up a bit.

Edit: Neronium brings up a good point about ignoring it, but nothing bums me out more when I click on gaming discussion, only to see very little conversations I want to participate in. Selfish sure, but you know.

 

[Roxas1359]

...Ignore it and continuing playing video games that I enjoy, not caring what people think of me when doing so. See, there are problems in the industry, but all the negativity being spread around is only making things worse, and by just ignoring it I've managed to avoid all the drama involved, and been having a rather fun time playing my games. Well the games I'm not doing for my summer block, but that's different.

Heck, I'm happy because I managed to repair my PS2 so I can play my imported games again. I also managed to snag myself the Metroid Prime Collection with the tin case for a good price, as well as a new copy of Ape Escape with the manual. I'm having a blast ignoring all the drama, because getting worked up over it doesn't make things better and makes video gaming seem more like local and world news which is depressing.

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

Yeah, I don't see how you could prevent it. It's just a shame that only massive clusterfucked shitstorms cause such large gatherings on the internet. Why couldn't we have a 400+ page thread about something fun or interesting? Why one about pathetic bullshit like this? A shame really, but you really can't prevent. Just do your best to stay out of it and well clear of it.

 

[crypticracer]

I don't think we could have stopped it. It's been building up for over two years it has to come to a head at some point, hopefully this one. I can't even play WoW or Last of Us multiplyer anymore.

 

[Pogilrup]

Snip

Snip

I'll tell you what I would've done.

If I were in charge of Kotaku and picked up the rumors on 08/17, I would issued this statement on the same day.

Currently there are rumors circulating on the Internet about a developer have been in a relationship with one of our writers who may have written an article about that developer.

As a result we have contacted all relevant parties in a effort to resolve this issue. We have chosen not disclose any names for the time being in order to protect their privacy.

We like to stress again that these are rumors and should not be taken as fact, nor should this statement serve as a confirmation of those rumors.

Kotaku takes conflicts of interest very seriously and would investigate and/or resolve any possible cases as soon as possible.

A statement like this issued sooner could've prevented this escalation.

It might not satisfied everyone, but it doesn't need to satisfy everyone. It just needs to make sure that things don't get out of hand.

 

[crypticracer]

But that may have only killed the beginning of this current brunt. Anita would still have released her new video so all of that would still be happening.

 

[Elfgore]

snip

That might cut off one head, but your forgetting this is a two-headed affair. Zoe Quinn did cause a big controversy, but so did Anita with her whole death threat thing.

Just to mention few on the first page of gaming discussion that barely anything to do with Quinn.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.859450-Gamer-Girl-Jayd3Fox-Bullied-off-web-by-Feminist
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.859263-Anita-Sarkeesian-driven-from-home-forced-to-go-into-hiding
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.859466-What-if-a-major-publisher-was-controlled-by-SJWs
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.859363-Women-in-games-are-not-systematically-oppressed-a-vertical-slice

The other few mention her more so.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.859454-Poll-Gamers-no-Longer-Have-the-Right-to-Exist
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.859456-None-of-you-are-changing-anything

Kotaku issuing that wouldn't have changed much either. This is the internet. Knee-jerk reactions rule the damn place. A well-written statement wouldn't have changed much.

 

[crypticracer]

My hope, thin though it may be, is that this will all blow over... at least for a little while after the release of Destiny. Cause I am going to play the hell out of that game and not pay attention to all, of this!

 

[Pogilrup]

But that may have only killed the beginning of this current brunt. Anita would still have released her new video so all of that would still be happening.

Sarkessian's videos are seasonal and predictable, thus wouldn't have the same impact.

The thing with Quinn was that it seemed to have come from nowhere.

 

[Baron von Blitztank]

Nothing. I'd just sit on the back row watching the spectacle with a bucket of popcorn beside me, playing some Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate on my 3DS while occasionally looking down, observing the carnage and letting out a sigh of disappointment.

So basically what I'm doing now.

 

[Caostotale]

I wouldn't have done shit. I adhere to the Prime Directive and these are the growing pains that any art form would have undergone. Books, movies, and music dealt with the same turbulence, just without the characteristics imparted by gaming being a phenomenon coincident with the internet's unique levels of public participation.

Ugly and jarring as this situation has been for a lot of people's faulty ideals, it's life and it's truth and I'm pretty sure that a large majority of people who noticed it at all will come away from this situation knowing a little more about humanity. True, portions of those most-vocal and most-stalwart Internet creatures on both sides of the issue will end up more polarized, but the actions and attitudes of that 99% of us in the middle will most certainly amount to progress.

 

[briankoontz]

This site has a lot of Drama Queens. "Quinngate" is much ado about nothing - it changes very little and the OP is way overblowing the situation.

The underlying issue is Progressives vs. Conservatives in gaming - that's a real divide that's not going away any time soon. Progressive forces are strengthening and conservatives feel threatened, but if the content of mainstream games is any indication conservative gaming forces very much rule, for now.

 

[FFMaster]

Its very simple, and I said this about 2 weeks ago when it all started with the female dev and her Ex.

If the press had actually talked about it, made any official statements (i.e ones that didn't take 48 hours to come out, only after there was a lot of outrage) it would have been a flash in a pan and over in a day or so. However the press decided it wasn't an issue (counter to how they have acted before with this sort of thing), and actively tried to make sure it wasn't talked about, with some members of the press acting a bit bad on twitter.

This fact then became the issue, the censorship of the Reddit thread, the shutdown of thread on places (even here until Greg opened it up again, something I still make sure to commend him for as even if i don't agree with him, he was sensible enough to let the discussion happen) and the NeoGAF own quite frankly being a tit when he did reopen discussion over there (in a way designed to get the convo going how they wanted).

Then the week after happened and everything seemed to go back to normal press behavior wise with regards to anitas videos and some members of the press started the same generalization they were rallying against the week before, as normal anitas videos bring out idiots who you will always have in a anonymous environment, but this time the reasonable people were being caught up int he generalizations. this started the discussion of "if your not with us your against us", and helped further the flames. This could have been stopped if the gaming press talked about her videos,but stopped generalizing actual criticism of the points for not seeing the points.

Then we had the "gamers are not your audience/being a "gamer" is bad" stuff, all within a short time period, talking about how the moniker of being a gamer is a bad one. This again was a terrible idea as it inflamed even more people as now some of the press were grouping gamers together and deciding that how we define ourselves is bad because of some stuff that as happened.

And yet, from all of this, there has only been limited talk (kotaku spoke up, Jim etc) on the core ethics issue, with most of it being swatted aside on twitter with talks of "squiggly lines on pictures doesn't count as evidence" etc. Still the core issues have not been properly covered, instead tehy have managed to make the situation worse.

This could all have been sorted had the press actually covered the worries and the story 2 weeks ago and not going into head in the sand mode, i honestly believe 3 days later everyone would have found something else to be distracted by.

(trying not to mention names or "controversies" and give an overview, will make it more confusing but should avoid moderation based issues )

 

[Elijin]

In what sense? Like the how would you have personally handled this, or 'if you could change something in time' sense?

Because I would have not spent the last 80 years telling children one set of toys is for boys, and another for girls. That toys are toys, and toys are for everyone. Physical and electronic.

 

[Isalan]

Ways to prevent this kind of thing happening again.

Scour the planet of all sentient life.

If that idea remains unpalatable, then I guess we're just gonna have to put up with people acting like people until some giant rock comes motoring out of the sky and puts our many petty, tiny dramas into a stark perspective.

Seriously, if there was one immortal human being left on Earth his/her inevitable multiple personalities would split into factions eventually.

 

[Casual Shinji]

...Ignore it and continuing playing video games that I enjoy, not caring what people think of me when doing so. See, there are problems in the industry, but all the negativity being spread around is only making things worse, and by just ignoring it I've managed to avoid all the drama involved, and been having a rather fun time playing my games.

Yeah, pretty much this.

Maybe I'm a coward for not getting involved in this whole affair, but it doesn't seem to be doing anyone who is any good. So I'll just be over here playing my games and commenting on threads that revolve around them.

Why couldn't we have a 400+ page thread about something fun or interesting? Why one about pathetic bullshit like this?

Same reason we don't have news broardcasts about puppies wearing hats.

 

[Danny Dowling]

Let's just be clear here; there is no real divide occurring because of what's happened here.

there is a divide between journalists and gamers yes, but that's always been the case whether you see it or not. We're different sides of the same coin. Sure, some gamers move on to journalism but that just means that their place in the industry has shifted and they now stand on the other side. This isn't to say the divide was from hostility, but there was always that divide.

And a divide between those gamers backing the journalists and those that aren't? Well, the gamers that are backing are the ones that are reading into the story, which happen to be the same gamers that don't really frequent forums or watch a lot of YT vids. There was always that divide.

What it has done though is brought together our community far stronger and banded us properly. That's a good thing, it's the team work that makes the dream work.

The only game divide I ever see is on YT videos announcing games were ignorant fools talk about their platform being the best. god that crap pisses me off.

 

[Norithics]

I wouldn't prevent it at all. We're feeling the growing pains of coming to terms with each other by hook or by crook. You don't get change without a whole lot of teeth-gnashing. People are making it about big righteous concepts, but really this is a deeper look into the psychology of the people involved.