Feminist Gamer Journalist Targeted For Terrorist Attack

[repoman]

When it comes to questioning the death threats/severe twitter harassment (not just criticism of the work) against Sarkeesian and Wu...

I think it is ok and even good to try to find out who is sending them, but to call into question the woman as false flagging or highly overplaying them who have to be extremely careful before you go down that path. You better have enough evidence that it would be like betting half of your assets on a horserace.

Anyone flippantly challenging that the death threats are false flags done with tacit knowledge of these women or their supporters may be right (I give it a fleetingly low chance) but the down side of being wrong on it is terrible. What the fuck is going on with Thunderf00t?

 

[Enigma]

What's the difference between a King and a Queen in chess? Just a few different abilities and a different skin.
Also it's the only female piece in the game, and an obvious "Ms. Male" piece of the King, that the rules say is less important to keep alive and uncaptured than her male counterpart.
Heck, there's even a mechanic where your pawns are to rush to the opposite side of the field to effectively "uncapture" a queen which sounds like a "Damsel in Distress" scenario if I've ever heard one.

I think anyone defending games has to admit at this juncture that Chess is horribly, horribly, sexist and that if you enjoy it as strategy game (especially if you enjoy it as a white male nerd) you should feel bad for doing so because it promotes sexism and misogyny.

I didn't realize that castles in chess had genders.

I didn't realize that I made any statement concerning the gender of castles/rooks other than that they weren't female. I am progressive enough to acknowledge the inappropriateness of binary gender designations for buildings.

Your analysis ignores that the Queen is the most powerful piece on the board and the King is the weakest. So, it is difficult to take your conclusion seriously.

Indeed, and Ms. Sarkeesian ignores that the most versatile/useful of the playable characters in DKC 2/3 is the female character and the least versatile/useful character is the male character.
So it is difficult to take her conclusions seriously.

 

[Enigma]

What's the difference between a King and a Queen in chess? Just a few different abilities and a different skin.
Also it's the only female piece in the game, and an obvious "Ms. Male" piece of the King, that the rules say is less important to keep alive and uncaptured than her male counterpart.
Heck, there's even a mechanic where your pawns are to rush to the opposite side of the field to effectively "uncapture" a queen which sounds like a "Damsel in Distress" scenario if I've ever heard one.

I think anyone defending games has to admit at this juncture that Chess is horribly, horribly, sexist and that if you enjoy it as strategy game (especially if you enjoy it as a white male nerd) you should feel bad for doing so because it promotes sexism and misogyny.

OK, now your are comparing chess to Donkey Kong. Now that is new.

I believe in the value of finding and making use of any weird synergy bonuses that I come across.

A king and a queen in chess seldom look like a king and a king in drag, and that is what I think Sarkeesian was talking about.

No, she says that women characters are built after male characters and look (and function) like male characters but have various "gender signifiers" that indicates that they are female.
One could consider the queen's smaller, less blocky, yet more ornate and curvy crown design to be that gender signifier.
It's not a "king in drag", but given that chess was invented ~1500 years ago, I think it's a reasonable hypothesis that what counts as "gender signifiers" may have changed through that duration of time.

Also given that chess was invented ~1500 years ago, it's not surprising that it happens to be horribly, horribly misogynistic.

 

[Arctish]

Indeed, and Ms. Sarkeesian ignores that the most versatile/useful of the playable characters in DKC 2/3 is the female character and the least versatile/useful character is the male character.
So it is difficult to take her conclusions seriously.

So you disagree with Sarkeesian's assessment of Dixie Kong, and that's reason enough for you to dismiss her conclusions about the death of Max Payne's wife and daughter being an overused trope of the dead girlfriend variety?

Also given that chess was invented ~1500 years ago, it's not surprising that it happens to be horribly, horribly misogynistic.

Also given that chess was invented ~1500 years ago, it's not surprising that Sarkeesian never mentioned it in her examination of tropes in video games. Also, given its age, if it does embody tropes that's probably because it started them.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

No, she says that women characters are built after male characters and look (and function) like male characters but have various "gender signifiers" that indicates that they are female.
One could consider the queen's smaller, less blocky, yet more ornate and curvy crown design to be that gender signifier.

In other words, men and women are the same other than outward gender appearances.

 

[AthenaAwakened]

No, she says that women characters are built after male characters and look (and function) like male characters but have various "gender signifiers" that indicates that they are female.
One could consider the queen's smaller, less blocky, yet more ornate and curvy crown design to be that gender signifier.

In other words, men and women are the same other than outward gender appearances.

I see what you did there

and

uh

no

 

[AthenaAwakened]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/10/...actor-felicia-day-threatened-for-speaking-up/

Gamer and actor Felicia Day has had her personal details posted online just minutes after making her first public statement about Gamergate – in which she expressed fear about saying anything at all, in case she was targeted as a result.

The publicising of her details was fiercely criticised by a former American football star Chris Kluwe who also criticised the group in the strongest possible terms this week, who pointed out the gender imbalance among those targeted.

 

[Starr]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/10/...actor-felicia-day-threatened-for-speaking-up/

Gamer and actor Felicia Day has had her personal details posted online just minutes after making her first public statement about Gamergate – in which she expressed fear about saying anything at all, in case she was targeted as a result.

The publicising of her details was fiercely criticised by a former American football star Chris Kluwe who also criticised the group in the strongest possible terms this week, who pointed out the gender imbalance among those targeted.

One of the things that pisses me off about both the GG and anti-GG crowd, is that they seem to want to ignore the bad behavior going on, on their side. GG's get doxxed, threatened and harrassed, but mums the word amonst the anti-GGs, or they positively support it! The GGs meanwhile, get offended that they get tarred with the actions of a few, and generally refuse to actively work against the bad elements in their own midst. They excuse themselves by saying "It wasn't me, and I don't see why I should have to constantly denounce such behavior, it should be obvious!". Well, you still should denounce such behavior when it is done in the name of a movement you are a part of. The same goes for the anti-GGs.

Overall I am more sympathetic to the GGs, probably because the abuse they are receiving is coming from those in positions of relative power, and is actually somewhat organized, but I don't think either side is particularly clean.

 

[ksen]

wat

 

[Togo]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/10/...actor-felicia-day-threatened-for-speaking-up/

One of the things that pisses me off about both the GG and anti-GG crowd, is that they seem to want to ignore the bad behavior going on, on their side. GG's get doxxed, threatened and harrassed, but mums the word amonst the anti-GGs, or they positively support it!

Hm.. I've not heard about that. Source please?

 

[Starr]

One of the things that pisses me off about both the GG and anti-GG crowd, is that they seem to want to ignore the bad behavior going on, on their side. GG's get doxxed, threatened and harrassed, but mums the word amongst the anti-GGs, or they positively support it!

Hm.. I've not heard about that. Source please?

Harrassment is mostly my impression from social media, watching GGs and anti-GGs argue back and forth, I tend to see a lot more in the way of personal attacks coming from the anti-GG crowd. I'm not going to go digging through Reddit, Twitter, and Facebook for examples though, so you are free to disbelieve me. There have been multiple reports of doxxing, here is one from some GGer named boogie: https://twitter.com/Boogie2988/status/522156760623484928

Perhaps the most disgraceful though were the bullying comments by Sam Biddle. I'm sure they have probably been covered in this thread already though (I haven't read through most of it). Saying "I was joking/messing around/not serious" is exactly what bullies say when they are called out on their crap. The lack of condemnation when he made those comments are pretty much what tilted me on the fence so I was leaning toward the GGers (the comments were made about a week ago on his Twitter account).

I decided about a week ago that I'm not on the side of GamerGate, nor am I against it. My position was very well summed up by Dodger in this post:

http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sd0v77

I agree with pretty much everything said there. Both sides of the debate have reasonable things to say, but it gets drowned out by the assholes.

 

[RavenSky]

One of the things that pisses me off about both the GG and anti-GG crowd, is that they seem to want to ignore the bad behavior going on, on their side. GG's get doxxed, threatened and harrassed, but mums the word amonst the anti-GGs, or they positively support it!

Hm.. I've not heard about that. Source please?

I second the request for any source showing the GamerGate people being threatened with death, rape, etc.

 

[Enigma]

Hm.. I've not heard about that. Source please?

I second the request for any source showing the GamerGate people being threatened with death, rape, etc.

If only there was a site that posted harassment made against GamerGaters.... oh wait, there is.
It was incredibly easy to find.
It's almost as if a link to that site was posted earlier in the thread which labelled it as such. Fascinating.

Meanwhile, we have a few odd side-effects along the lines of an online gaming retailer that isn't involved in the controversy whatsoever and a random fruit seller in Europe being accused of misogyny and sexism. Those pesky GamerGaters and their darn tendency to label anyone who dares disagree with them sexist.

 

[RavenSky]

Oh boo hoo, their "opinions" were "attacked". Which "opinions"? The ones where they were threatening to rape women?

Again, I requested evidence that "anti-GG" people are threatening to rape or murder any GGs.

 

[GenesisNemesis]

Oh boo hoo, their "opinions" were "attacked". Which "opinions"? The ones where they were threatening to rape women?

Again, I requested evidence that "anti-GG" people are threatening to rape or murder any GGs.

Where's the evidence that the people on that tumblr were threatening to rape women?

 

[Enigma]

Seriously, this isn't that hard.

Third one down on the site:

If this isn't a death threat, then WTF is?

 

[RavenSky]

Oh boo hoo, their "opinions" were "attacked". Which "opinions"? The ones where they were threatening to rape women?

Again, I requested evidence that "anti-GG" people are threatening to rape or murder any GGs.

Where's the evidence that the people on that tumblr were threatening to rape women?

Are you claiming that all of the GamerGate dudes who have been quoted threatening rape never actually did that?

My objection is to this attempt at a Moore-Coulter. When anyone can show me evidence that any GamerGate individual has been threatened with violence and rape for nothing more than expressing an opinion on this topic, then I will reconsider my position. So far, all I've seen is the GamerGate people (at least some of them) acting like misogynistic bullies who apparently don't understand the difference between "attacking" an opinion and attacking a person.

What I find particularly enlightening is that their violent rape threats simply support the other side's point.

 

[Starr]

Hm.. I've not heard about that. Source please?

I second the request for any source showing the GamerGate people being threatened with death, rape, etc.

Did you not see the tweet by the guy called Boogie that I linked?

What does it even matter? Rape and death threats are wrong regardless of which side they come from. Do you honestly think that the majority of GGers support that? Have you gone to places they gather like /r/KotakuInAction and read the discussions they have? I have read through many threads there, and most people seem quite reasonable. Overall I have seen it to be a group of people with a wide diversity of opinion, generally just pissed off at the game media treating them like crap. Now whether that subreddit is a good sample of the GamerGate community I don't know, but it is frankly the only such community I know about that they have (maybe 8chan, but any spawn of 4chan is somewhere I wouldn't go in a hazmat suit).

 

[RavenSky]

Seriously, this isn't that hard.

Third one down on the site:

If this isn't a death threat, then WTF is?

From an Erik?

Yeah... Ok. If you are seriously going to maintain that the misogynistic GamerGaters are justified in their violent rape threats against women who question misogyny in the games themselves because some dude named Erik gave the GGs back some of their own medicine... whatever.

There is the football player who has called them out too. Has called them every name in the book, then rubs their noses in the fact that none of the GamerGaters have dared "dox" or threaten him. Yeah, if you want to act like that means the GamerGaters are justified, I will simply have to disagree and say that you've totally missed the point.

- - - Updated - - -

I second the request for any source showing the GamerGate people being threatened with death, rape, etc.

Did you not see the tweet by the guy called Boogie that I linked?

A guy named Boogie...

Uh huh

How many specific women gamers, journalists and/or actors have been directly threatened with rape and violence? By whom? What did any of those women say or do to generate those threats of violence? Have any of them threatened any gamer anywhere with any sort of violence?

 

[Starr]

A guy named Boogie...

Uh huh

How many specific women gamers, journalists and/or actors have been directly threatened with rape and violence? By whom?

Oh, right, screw him, he isn't important enough for you. Or it is just a numbers game for you? It is OK to threaten men as long as more women are being threatened?

That is absolutely sick.

edit: Of course if you had actually clicked the link, you would see that his wife was the one threatened. So that counts right!!
edit2: My second line may have been a little harsh before, implying you were sick, rather than the view I inferred you held was sick. I'm sure you don't actually hold that view, it is just how your reply sounds.