Lately there has been a series of attacks by journalists from game review outlets claiming that “gamers are dead” and that anyone who disagrees with them is a misogynist/racist/manchild/etc. in response to a scandal that revealed some journalists taking bribes from an independent game designer named Zoe Quinn. In response various gamers started #gamergate to respond to these attacks.
forbes.com/sites/erikkain/20 … deo-games/
As the people behind Automation are small-time game developers, I express concern that #gamergate and the fallout of it will hurt the reputation of small-time game developers such as this group and I ask how do they stand on this issue. I don’t know whether or not they wish to remain silent because of unawareness to this event or if they are afraid of being blacklisted by game review outlets.
If the people behind Automation are being silenced out of fear, I beg of you: Don’t let these journalists and their fanbase antagonize the entire gamer culture and paint all of us as bigots and sexists. Please bring attention to this issue regarding problems in gaming journalism and fight against the censorship and mudslinging that has been going on at those trying to expose the scandal.
I would also like to hear what anyone else thinks of this issue, since I feel that I haven’t heard enough opinions regarding this issue.
Thank you for listening.
Game reviews are subject to bias, and always have been, nothing new has happened here in that respect. The solution as a consumer is always to look at reviews from a wide variety of sources.
In all this, people I know personally have suffered a lot of abuse, personal information being leaked, and it’s caused them a lot of hurt.
I’m very disappointed in everyone involved in any kind of personal attacks or digging through people’s personal lives in this whole shitstorm, and I think everyone needs to grow up and start treating each other with respect.
That’s all I’ve got to say about it, and I’d prefer if this didn’t turn into a thread of justifications for tearing apart people’s personal lives in service of “Integrity”. This is not Watergate, it’s people saying if they liked a game or not…
Also - escapistmagazine.com/videos/ … Corruption
I condone the backlash towards the people who attacked and “Doxxed” Zoe Quinn and other journalists. While I personally don’t like her games and her business practices, I do think that the attacks on her were uncalled for and the rage towards that is understandable and one I do support.
What I DON’T condone is several gaming journalist websites badging being a “gamer” as someone who is misogynist or racist, as this Escapist article links to (links on paragraph 5)
escapistmagazine.com/article … amergate.2
I know that there are trolls in gamer circles that harass and doing malicious things to people, but don’t go writing off an entire culture of various people as bigots just because of the actions of some rabblerowsers.
I only want an apology from these outlets for insulting much of their reader base, but I feel that due to all of the mudslinging many people on both sides are doing that those who aren’t being malicious will not receive any.
Frankly, at this point that’s so much the lesser of the evils here that I really don’t care…