On panel 3: You *really* don’t want to attract that crowd overhear. Trust me.
(I planned on starting a gaming blog someday when I’m both “not lazy” and “have money”, and I already dread the day somebody asks me to cover the subject.)
Why not? Being afraid of internet blowback just gives the douchebags power. They deserve to get called out, and they deserve to get ignored or mocked when they arrive to complain about getting called out.
I totally did. It’s because GamerGaters are almost entirely misogynistic permavirgins who dwell in basements playing their little games and crying about people being mean to them. Total man-babies.
That’s the price for going to war with corrupt media. Your representation in said media will always be one sided and negative. But as long as Kotaku is burning to the ground (which it is) and there is meaningful change in the media landscape (which it also is, disclosure has never been as prevalent as it is today, thanks to the clarified FTC guidelines which they stated were the direct result of GG’s email campaign) I’m completely fine with that. I don’t care about reputation, I care about results. And those speak for themselves.
There is was revealed the “close relationship” between the games press and developers to shill crapware. Awesome walking simulators or twine based ebooks were suddenly games. Not liking them was “problematic” and you must be sexist.
If you are so certain gamers don’t have to be your audience, start a game company and test that theory. Put your money where your mouth is.
I have been following GG since well before it got its name. I’m well aware of its origins (dating back to well before The Zoe Post with earlier stuff like the Mass Effect 3 debacle and how the games media reacted there). The current divide between games “journalists” and their audience goes back years. One does not need to look any further than the 20k+ comment graveyard on reddit that linked to TotalBiscuit’s initial post on the false DMCA claim by Quinn or the concerted media Blitz that were the “gamers are dead” articles to see that there is something rotten to the core. All the revelations of impropriety that have been revealed and documented since (for example on deepfreeze.it) have only further reinforced that initial impression.
Aaaaand we have record comments:D It’s good that people on the internet can recognize humour, and when subjects are used as vehicles for parody. Right…?
For years, gamers have cried, “Take our games seriously! They’re art.” So finally, folks started applying the exact same criticism that gets leveled at books and comics and movies and music and theater and TV–basically every other form of art out there. And some folks pointed out that there’s some examples of pretty bad treatment of women in games. The sort of hard-core gamers who are socially retarded and don’t get out much and had never gotten criticized before went completely and utterly apeshit and started howling about how people were being mean to them and oppressing them.
But then, some guy’s girlfriend cheated on him, and instead of most people who just move on with their lives, he sperged out and pooped out a 10,000 word essay complete with numerous color glossy jpegs giving proof of all the ways he was done wrong. And as part of this drippy, whiny essay of crybabyness, he mentioned that his ex girlfriend made a video game, slept with some guy who writes about games, and he gave it a good review. Where by “good review” they meant “mentioned it as being a game in a couple of sentences in a longer article that mentioned lots of other games.”
Now the GamerGaters, who, again, are pretty culturally retarded, had never noticed that movie reviewers sometimes get invited to Hollywood parties and magazines that review cars have ads from those same companies. They saw people writing about video games and banging developers as some Brand New Phenomenon which demonstrated the lack of ethics in video game journalism. Also, they pretend that “video game journalism” is an Important Thing, as though people writing stuff like, “I found Blaghur’s Revenge IV: Errand of Blood to have far superior replay value to such brawlers as Chainsaw Tit Loppers 7: Tits and Blood, although it suffered from a lower frame rate and controls that were somewhat difficult to use,” in any way improves the human condition.
So you have gamers who are mad that their games are finally getting the EXACT same criticism that other art forms are getting, and dovetailing that with their irritation that women don’t generally look at “can reach level 42 with all their health intact on Butt Blood Brawl 24: Beach Butt Bloodbath” as being a particularly desirable quality in a mate. Hence, why cesspools like 8chan have thread after thread after thread complaining about women and which one’s a slut and which one’s a tranny and then occasionally claim, “But it’s about ethics in journalism” in an effort to pretend it’s not really about harassing women.
Fortunately, nobody outside the gaming community takes them seriously. They’re a fun punching bag, like furries or Trump supporters.
Not defending any side here, but your “in a nutshell” is more of an incoherent rant.
Game Journalism, during the early days of GG, basically gave the same treatment to games and gamers as comics got during the Cold War. It was a “pot calling the kettle black” going back and forth and both side came out with a loss in the end.
With that said, you can’t really use “So finally, folks started applying the exact same criticism that gets leveled at books and comics” & “Also, they pretend that “video game journalism”is an Important Thing” in the same entry. It’s a bit contradictory, don’t you think?
Putting everything under the same umbrella is just as wrong as dismissing either side because you don’t agree. There are good reviewers/game journalists and bad ones. And the bad ones usually get called out.
And at least one thing GamerGate achieved is that the good reviewers started mentioning their sponsors, which was *not* really practiced before in game journalism or let’s plays, unlike in other magazines you mention.
Also: “in any way improves the human condition. ” – Neither does reviews of books, theater or any other criticism for the matter, other than for the artist, yet people *do* take those seriously. I wonder why.
The industry is still relatively young, and probably needs a decade or more until people really start to take it as seriously as films or books, but you just raging about it mindlessly, calling everything names is not helping.
You don’t think games are more than mindless entertainment? Fine, that’s your opinion. But at least try to not act so smug about it, like it’s something you should be proud of, because it’s really just embarrassing.
Eh, they’re two different things. Video game “journalism” is the magazines with reviews of games and discussions of platforms. Criticism is like the stuff Anita Sarkeesian does–the stuff that makes the GooberGobblers sad.
It’s almost incomprehensible that there still exist some GamerGaters who still do not admit that the misogynistic harassment campaign it began as and continues as is what it’s always been about. An excuse for horrible, spiteful people to pretend that some nominated hate figure or other deserves the hounding and threats.
On panel 3: You *really* don’t want to attract that crowd overhear. Trust me.
(I planned on starting a gaming blog someday when I’m both “not lazy” and “have money”, and I already dread the day somebody asks me to cover the subject.)
Why not? Being afraid of internet blowback just gives the douchebags power. They deserve to get called out, and they deserve to get ignored or mocked when they arrive to complain about getting called out.
Holy crap, it *did* bring them out of the woodwork! I can’t figure out what’s more hilarious now. =)
Making fun of those man-baby gamergaters is fine with me! I’m going to donate just for that.
Did you just use man-baby unironically? You need help. Take an internet break. Have a human relationship.
Hey now. Be nice. Maybe you two could go into couples counselling together?
I totally did. It’s because GamerGaters are almost entirely misogynistic permavirgins who dwell in basements playing their little games and crying about people being mean to them. Total man-babies.
That’s the price for going to war with corrupt media. Your representation in said media will always be one sided and negative. But as long as Kotaku is burning to the ground (which it is) and there is meaningful change in the media landscape (which it also is, disclosure has never been as prevalent as it is today, thanks to the clarified FTC guidelines which they stated were the direct result of GG’s email campaign) I’m completely fine with that. I don’t care about reputation, I care about results. And those speak for themselves.
Oh look, Mikaru86 is one of GG’s “useful idiots.” Never looked into where it actually originated, huh?
It started here: https://thezoepost.wordpress.com/
There is was revealed the “close relationship” between the games press and developers to shill crapware. Awesome walking simulators or twine based ebooks were suddenly games. Not liking them was “problematic” and you must be sexist.
If you are so certain gamers don’t have to be your audience, start a game company and test that theory. Put your money where your mouth is.
I have been following GG since well before it got its name. I’m well aware of its origins (dating back to well before The Zoe Post with earlier stuff like the Mass Effect 3 debacle and how the games media reacted there). The current divide between games “journalists” and their audience goes back years. One does not need to look any further than the 20k+ comment graveyard on reddit that linked to TotalBiscuit’s initial post on the false DMCA claim by Quinn or the concerted media Blitz that were the “gamers are dead” articles to see that there is something rotten to the core. All the revelations of impropriety that have been revealed and documented since (for example on deepfreeze.it) have only further reinforced that initial impression.
What bothers me isn’t what he is implying, but seeing seemingly talented and intelligent people spouting this kind of misinformed anti-GG propaganda…
Aaaaand we have record comments:D It’s good that people on the internet can recognize humour, and when subjects are used as vehicles for parody. Right…?
GamerGate in a nutshell:
For years, gamers have cried, “Take our games seriously! They’re art.” So finally, folks started applying the exact same criticism that gets leveled at books and comics and movies and music and theater and TV–basically every other form of art out there. And some folks pointed out that there’s some examples of pretty bad treatment of women in games. The sort of hard-core gamers who are socially retarded and don’t get out much and had never gotten criticized before went completely and utterly apeshit and started howling about how people were being mean to them and oppressing them.
But then, some guy’s girlfriend cheated on him, and instead of most people who just move on with their lives, he sperged out and pooped out a 10,000 word essay complete with numerous color glossy jpegs giving proof of all the ways he was done wrong. And as part of this drippy, whiny essay of crybabyness, he mentioned that his ex girlfriend made a video game, slept with some guy who writes about games, and he gave it a good review. Where by “good review” they meant “mentioned it as being a game in a couple of sentences in a longer article that mentioned lots of other games.”
Now the GamerGaters, who, again, are pretty culturally retarded, had never noticed that movie reviewers sometimes get invited to Hollywood parties and magazines that review cars have ads from those same companies. They saw people writing about video games and banging developers as some Brand New Phenomenon which demonstrated the lack of ethics in video game journalism. Also, they pretend that “video game journalism” is an Important Thing, as though people writing stuff like, “I found Blaghur’s Revenge IV: Errand of Blood to have far superior replay value to such brawlers as Chainsaw Tit Loppers 7: Tits and Blood, although it suffered from a lower frame rate and controls that were somewhat difficult to use,” in any way improves the human condition.
So you have gamers who are mad that their games are finally getting the EXACT same criticism that other art forms are getting, and dovetailing that with their irritation that women don’t generally look at “can reach level 42 with all their health intact on Butt Blood Brawl 24: Beach Butt Bloodbath” as being a particularly desirable quality in a mate. Hence, why cesspools like 8chan have thread after thread after thread complaining about women and which one’s a slut and which one’s a tranny and then occasionally claim, “But it’s about ethics in journalism” in an effort to pretend it’s not really about harassing women.
Fortunately, nobody outside the gaming community takes them seriously. They’re a fun punching bag, like furries or Trump supporters.
Not defending any side here, but your “in a nutshell” is more of an incoherent rant.
Game Journalism, during the early days of GG, basically gave the same treatment to games and gamers as comics got during the Cold War. It was a “pot calling the kettle black” going back and forth and both side came out with a loss in the end.
With that said, you can’t really use “So finally, folks started applying the exact same criticism that gets leveled at books and comics” & “Also, they pretend that “video game journalism”is an Important Thing” in the same entry. It’s a bit contradictory, don’t you think?
Putting everything under the same umbrella is just as wrong as dismissing either side because you don’t agree. There are good reviewers/game journalists and bad ones. And the bad ones usually get called out.
And at least one thing GamerGate achieved is that the good reviewers started mentioning their sponsors, which was *not* really practiced before in game journalism or let’s plays, unlike in other magazines you mention.
Also: “in any way improves the human condition. ” – Neither does reviews of books, theater or any other criticism for the matter, other than for the artist, yet people *do* take those seriously. I wonder why.
The industry is still relatively young, and probably needs a decade or more until people really start to take it as seriously as films or books, but you just raging about it mindlessly, calling everything names is not helping.
You don’t think games are more than mindless entertainment? Fine, that’s your opinion. But at least try to not act so smug about it, like it’s something you should be proud of, because it’s really just embarrassing.
Eh, they’re two different things. Video game “journalism” is the magazines with reviews of games and discussions of platforms. Criticism is like the stuff Anita Sarkeesian does–the stuff that makes the GooberGobblers sad.
I always wondered when I would stop reading this comic. Looks like that day is today.
Oh no.
I Told You About the Stairs Bro!!!!! I Warned you Dog!
(Also fitting because I heard Homestuck just ended recently.)
I believe this may be the first Optipess comic that serves as its own meta-joke. (Also, Kristian, you badly need an upvote feature on comments:P)
It’s almost incomprehensible that there still exist some GamerGaters who still do not admit that the misogynistic harassment campaign it began as and continues as is what it’s always been about. An excuse for horrible, spiteful people to pretend that some nominated hate figure or other deserves the hounding and threats.
Its almost incomprehensible that morons like you exist.
Good comic. Good grief. Good . . . ::donated $10:: :-D
Level 4 is just this comic looping back on itself.
Gasp!
Gotta love all the Gamer Gaters showing up here to defend their ideals with their war cry of “Well, AKTCHUALLY…”
It’s ironic that they’re some of the thinnest-skinned people around.
Keep up the “misinformed anti-GG propaganda.” (Read: Light satire that they happen to disagree with)
This really blew up for you.
I can stand the shit stains on either side of the issue. There is no rationality.
26 comments = “blew up”?
GooberGobbler-like typing detected.
I forgot the Gamergate crap also drew in the trolls.
For a site that averages 5-7 comments per comic 26 is blowing up.
he failed level 3
You rock, Kristian!
Also, I 100% agree with every comment.