How and what has she been criticized for except maybe sleeping with some dudes?
Who provides these cards? Can I print one a home? And what does it have to do with Ms. Quinn?
Why should anything be leveled at anyone? As Adults shouldn’t we all understand that when someone starts airing their, or other peoples dirty laundry the only adult thing to do is back away slowly?
Does that honestly seem likely to you?
She’s certainly practicing what she preaches. She has a remarkable amount of empathy for her abusers. More than I would.
I think a lot of it is actually about ethics in games journalism. Many gamers just don’t like the idea that ethics can be discussed in games journalism, and they’ll attack people who do (especially when the people discussing it are women).
Is there a <sarcasm> tag whooshing over my head here? Seeing as BB has at least two regular games journalists plus @beschizza, who used to be one?
Seriously, that comment gave me whiplash. Well done.
I should know better than to read comments before coffee. 
It kinda ends up like that anyway. Post about an internet harassment-type thing, they turn up.
I’m not really on-board with sharing IPs of bad posters, though. I care a little bit about their privacy, and a lot about unforeseen consequences.
The thing you’re maybe missing here is that these were the most powerful men in the world, at least arguably responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and certainly for initiating a war of aggression that led to these deaths.
Zoe Quinn made a twine game about depression. And maybe was a bit mean to a stalking ex-boyfriend.
Adults don’t look at the these two scenarios and see the same thing. They just don’t. You might even say the attempt to cast them as the same thing does most of the work in establishing that point. It’s almost comical! Does it really need elaboration?
P.S. I don’t think anyone has any objection to criticism of so-called “SJW” games ‘n’ theory. Shutting down “trolls” (there’s that word again!) isn’t tantamount to shutting down criticism. I’m bored of that suggestion, too – it’s more often than not just an excuse heard from people who want to be nasty.
I think there are good critiques of Anita Sarkeesian’s videos buried in the mountain of shit, for example. But, you know … that’s quite the mountain of shit there, guys.
I think the utter insignificance of Zoe Quinn before this whole debacle is the most important point. I loved Depression Quest, but it was her only notable success, costs nothing, and was hardly a blip on the radar of the larger games world. Before GamerGate, nobody knew who Zoe Quinn was.
You posit the obvious, condescending point that
I like to think adults understand that “this person had something bad happen” shouldn’t be a Shut Down All Criticism card.
But you ignore that Zoe Quinn wasn’t up for criticism by the entire world in the first place! Until her ex frothed up the internet hate machine that is 4chan/etc. nobody knew anything about her. It’s VERY disingenuous to compare her to a politician, or even the most minor of celebrities.
When you say “criticism” I don’t think you understand what you mean. Do you think any random person should be subject to having mobs of hundreds of thousands of people suddenly watching their every move, berating them for any imperfection, generating reams of lies and slander about them that needs to be constantly disproved? Zoe Quinn has never been “criticized” because there is nothing to criticize - she’s just a normal, unimportant human being! Even if she did all the things GG alleged that she did, the utter insignificance of her actions and their impact cannot be emphasized enough!
I think there are good critiques of Anita Sarkeesian’s videos buried in the mountain of shit, for example. But, you know … that’s quite the mountain of shit there, guys.
I mean, at least Anita is a public figure of sorts, making the very idea of criticizing her views at least plausible. Zoe Quinn went from being a nobody who made one game to running a network dedicated to fighting harassment because of the way she was (and still is) treated on the internet.
But yeah, in the case of Anita Sarkeesian, the mountains of disingenuous attacks and “criticism” that stifled real dialogue were unconscionable anyway. At this point, it’s pretty much impossible to actually engage with her ideas critically on the internet because of the background toxicity that inevitably infects any discussion. Also any legit criticism would be instantly lost in the torrents of abuse.
I had to deal with harrasment (non-online) and looking back I can’t work out how I survived it. I do know I nearly didn’t. If anyone else is in a good enough state of mind to record what works it would be a very good thing. All I can remember was having support from friends helped.
Back then I was guessing just as much as anyone else. Sorry.
I think the thing to understand here is how art/entertainment journalism works in general.
When it comes to reviewing art, there is no subjectivity. Enjoyment or quality are entirely subjective - different people enjoy different things, art is unavoidably political (especially when it tries not to be), and people’s biases are fundamental to how they experience and enjoy art/entertainment.
Add to that equation the fact that the only real source of money to pay for games journalism is from the game companies themselves, and you get a situation where most games journo is just advertising.
Yeah, most games journos are “unethical” in the sense that they are in the pockets of the companies making the games they cover. But you never see GG rally against Game Informer or IGN. Their beef is 100% political, and the outlets they rally against are ones which wear biases outside the games industry on their sleeves.
This!
Even if she did the sexors with everyone she is supposed to have sexed… so what? Why on earth are people upset by this? Unless, and here’s a theory… its not anything to do with games at all?!
Funny, Zoe Quinn actually wrote a very brilliant post about ethics in games writing -
https://medium.com/@zoequinnzel/lets-talk-about-ethics-in-games-journalism-6a2fd89069ae
Not to mention her ex-boyfriend actually posted that shit on multiple online forums and then treated the reaction as if it were a complete accident.
And yet, despite my negative opinion of him, I still don’t feel like devoting any of my time in harassing him.
That seems a fairly apt term to describe the GamerGate dumb dumbs… It’s the modern equivalent of torches n’ pitchforks. “Hey, I heard there’s a witch woman who trades sex for good reviews in town! We only have the say-so of a jilted ex, but let’s go burn her dox her, harrass her, and threaten her any way!”
And again, even if we took them at face value, their claims still come out as blatantly sexist. If a female were to use sex to get good reviews, she’s slut-shamed and harassed. If a guy seduces multiple women to get what he wants, especially if it’s in the course of doing his job, he’s James fucking Bond and the GGers would cheer him on as a total badass. Ethics indeed.
(edit: It really loses it’s impact without the music >.<)
