Gaming discussion #2

[robsblubot 3,595]

For the record, Elden Ring is a great game. No, it's not a win/win from dark souls, and the open world aspect does not entirely mix with the souls model of sleek level design and tight leveling.

I'm mostly a PC gamer -- it's not only about the GPU/CPU but also mouse and keyboard and/or gamepad/joystick + keyboard -- but would love to get my hands on a ps5 for Demons souls and Spiderman. Ghosts of Tsushima look good too... so many great games... so little time.

[Vesper 30,119]

end of an era

the last ever EA Sports Fifa just dropped and Chelsea made the cover (Kerr) along with PSG (Mbappe)

FIFA 23

 

[twinmark 0]

Any one who play 2.3.1 FIFA 10 game?

[YorkshireBlue 3,268]

4 hours ago, twinmark said:

Any one who play 2.3.1 FIFA 10 game?

Told u already stop playing that shit 🤣🤣

[KEVINAA 129]

Guys you can now play SM 24 - SOCCER Manager 2024.

The official icon is Mikel Arteta face. 

Only download it from Google Play store.

I just started my Chelsea save.

https://www.soccermanager.com/

https://x.com/SoccerManager

 

Edited September 28, 2023 by KEVINAA

[Fulham Broadway 17,306]

Looking good

 

[TheHulk 2,425]

On 08/12/2023 at 22:27, Fulham Broadway said:

Looking good

 

Hope the trailer delivers unlike the embarrassment and scam The day before is.

[Fulham Broadway 17,306]

13 hours ago, TheHulk said:

Hope the trailer delivers unlike the embarrassment and scam The day before is.

Rockstar in a different league to Mytona - they've reputedly spent over a billion quid on development for GTA VI alone so far

[Vesper 30,119]

Female Lead in Video Game “Ghost of Yotei” Triggers Misogynists

https://globalextremism.org/post/ghost-of-yotei-triggers-misogynists/

Warning: This post contains offensive language.

Misogynistic and anti-LGBTQ+ bigots are fuming at the idea of a woman having the lead in a new video game. At this year’s State of Play livestream, an event hosted by Sony that showcases new video games for the Playstation game console, a trailer for the sequel to Ghost of Tsushima, titled Ghost of Yotei, was released. The trailer garnered positive reactions, albeit with some on the far right, specifically misogynists, targeting the game for including a woman as the main character, and using Erika Ishii, a member of the LGBTQ+ community as the lead actor.

An ongoing trend of attacking women in the gaming industry was re-kindled this year by “Gamergate 2.0,” a follow-up to the hateful #GamerGate campaign in the 2010s which included virulent antisemitism, misogyny, racism, and calls for violence against those seeking to improve inclusive and positive representation, particularly of women, in gaming. Over the past several months, gamers have been targeting game production companies which encourage representation of women, LGBTQ+ people, and people of color as “woke” or “pro-DEI,” terms often used as replacements for, or in conjunction with, slurs. The trend continues with every new gaming announcement, most recently  with the inclusion of a Black woman in the recent Minecraft movie trailer. When hatred in gaming spaces goes unchecked, it can lead to relentless harassment and even influence targeted violence, such as several mass shootings, and a recent stabbing at a mosque by a Turkish neo-Nazi, who utilized several gaming references in his manifesto.

While the usual fringe platforms like 4chan, the Fediverse, and Telegram saw sexist comments flourish, increasingly, common acceptance of hate speech by mainstream social media platforms meant that plenty of gamers took to Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram to express their discontent at a lead female character and direct slurs at Erika Ishii.

Across fringe platforms, several users expressed disdain for having to play as a female character. On 4chan, commenters said the new game’s lead character is an “ugly tr***y,” and an “ugly female.” On the Fediverse, a decentralized group of online forums, users called Ghost of Yotei a “DEI” game and disparaged the decision by Sucker Punch, its developer, to make the main character “some random woman.” Neo-Nazi Telegram channel Alt Skull’s Charnel House made a post decrying Ghost of Yotei for “destroy[ing]” the franchise by “shoehorning in an ugly, masculinized female as the protagonist.” Sexist attacks against “masculinized” female characters are common with misogynist gamers, with other games like Horizon Forbidden West’s main character, Aloy, “flamed by sexist gamers for being made too ugly.” In the comment section of Alt Skull’s post, users claimed the main character of Ghost of Yotei “looks like [a] dude with boobs,” attacked Ishii for being a “dyke,” and called anyone who wants to play the game “f*****s…buying woke trash.”

On Telegram, a large neo-Nazi channel targets Ghost of Yotei and Ishii as “shoehorning in an ugly, masculinized female as the protagonist” (Source: Telegram)

On Twitter, YouTuber “Endymion” posted several tweets in a rant about both the inclusion of a female character and Ishii’s casting in the role. He starts his string of tweets by claiming video game developers “can’t help themselves until every franchise that was built on masculinity is replaced by women” before expressing how “sick” he is “of the forced girlboss narrative.” Other commenters supposedly had “no problem” with Ghost of Yotei’s protagonist being a woman, but were worried about the off-chance that she is a “Mary Sue,” a derogatory term often incorrectly used by misogynists against powerful female characters in fictional media. Several other commenters criticized the game’s inclusion of a woman by calling it “Ghost of Woke,” “Woke of Yotei,” and claiming the decision was fueled by Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs. One tweet used a screenshot showing Ishii’s identity as queer and pansexual as proof that the game is “cooked,” which is slang for describing something in a negative way.

YouTuber Endymion makes a post talking about Ghost of Yotei being part of a larger conspiracy to “replace” men with women in video games (Source: Twitter)

On YouTube, several videos were posted following the State of Play event. Videos attacked Ishii for their activism, calling it a “major problem,” and calling them “woke and unhinged.” Accusations of women as “unhinged” are directly related to age-old attempts to undermine women as “hysterical” or “crazy,” at times used in contemporary politics. Many of these videos took issue with a female lead character being able to “take down armor-clad soldiers twice her size,” citing “immersion” as a primary reason for their concern. “Immersion” is often used as an excuse by the far right and misogynists when justifying the exclusion of women or people of color from video games. Other videos cited Sucker Punch’s hiring of Ishii, who identifies as genderqueer and pansexual, as a sign that “studios change over time,” raising “question marks” about the quality of Ghost of Yotei. YouTube’s Community Guidelines prohibit the publication of any videos “that targets someone with prolonged insults or slurs based on their physical traits or protected group status, like age, disability, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or race.” Many content creators, in an attempt to evade moderation, have adapted to these guidelines, avoiding outright slurs in favor of “DEI” and “woke” as masks for derogatory insults against people of color and the LGBTQ+ community.

A thumbnail from a YouTube video targeting Ishii as “woke and unhinged.” Accusing women for being “unhinged,” “deranged,” and “crazy” are age-old attempts to undermine women (Source: YouTube)

The comment section of Sucker Punch’s Instagram post announcing the game was full of the same misogynistic rhetoric, with many disparaging comments about a female lead character and calling the game “woke.” In some cases, commenters’ intentions are overt, saying “nobody wants to play as a woman,” while others are thinly veiled, saying the “woke agenda came after Ghost of tsuashima (sic)” and insinuating a larger “woke” conspiracy by claiming “a female for protagonist was pushed by Sony.”

Instagram users target Sucker Punch and Erika Ishii in a post showcasing the new game’s trailer (Source: Instagram)

As the far right continues their bigoted tirade against the gaming industry’s attempts to be more inclusive, in many cases being able to normalize their hatred on social media, major social media and gaming platforms must adapt to this evolution and change and enforce their content moderation practices accordingly.

Edited September 27, 2024 by Vesper

[Fulham Broadway 17,306]

Anyone played Quarry PS5 ?

I want to know why the dodgy cop is a dead ringer for JT 😡

Obviously made by Liverpool/Man Utd fans

[Vesper 30,119]

15 minutes ago, Fulham Broadway said:

Anyone played Quarry PS5 ?

I want to know why the dodgy cop is a dead ringer for JT 😡

Obviously made by Liverpool/Man Utd fans

[robsblubot 3,595]

I have no problems whatsoever with female protagonists both in movies and video games. It can be disingenuous, and often a defense mechanism, to simply reduce everything to that narrative.

I'm going to use extremes to showcase my point: (Alien's) Ripley was a fantastically written female protagonist, while Star War's Rey is horribly written. Of course, we've got a lot of other examples between those two extremes.

It does bother me when there is obvious and blatant preaching going on; it can take you out of the immersion these medias provide.
----
I've finally picked up Cyberpunk with the Liberty DLC, and it's still not my cup of tea, but finally now a solid game. It's still very linear, and feels "on rails" which is SO different from Witcher 3 (one of my all time fav).

[Vesper 30,119]

1 hour ago, robsblubot said:

It does bother me when there is obvious and blatant preaching going on

that would be from the incel/RW misogynist haters

Gamergate kicked it all off over 10 years ago

Gamergate (harassment campaign)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamergate_(harassment_campaign)

Gamergate or GamerGate (GG)^[1] was a loosely organized misogynistic online harassment campaign and a right-wing backlash against feminism, diversity, and progressivism in video game culture.^[2][3][4] It was conducted using the hashtag "#Gamergate" primarily in 2014 and 2015.^[1][5][6][7] Gamergate targeted women in the video game industry, most notably feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian and video game developers Zoë Quinn and Brianna Wu.^{[8][9][10][11][12]}

Gamergate began with an August 2014 blog entry called "The Zoe Post" by Quinn's ex-boyfriend, which falsely insinuated that Quinn had received a favorable review because of Quinn's sexual relationship with a games journalist.^[13] The blog post was spread to 4chan, where many users had previously disparaged Quinn's work. This led to a campaign of harassment against Quinn, coordinated through anonymous message boards such as 4chan, 8chan, and Reddit.^[14][15] The harassment campaign expanded to target Sarkeesian, Wu, and others who defended Quinn, and included doxing, rape threats, and death threats.^[16][17][18]

Gamergate proponents ("Gamergaters") claimed to be promoting ethics in video game journalism and protecting the "gamer" identity in opposition to "political correctness"^{[19][20][21][22]} and the perceived influence of feminism and so-called "social justice warriors" on video game culture.^[3][23] Proponents alleged there was a conspiracy between journalists and video game developers to focus on progressive social issues such as gender equality and sexism.^[24][25][26] Such claims have been widely dismissed as trivial, baseless, or unrelated to actual issues of ethics in gaming and journalism.^[27][28][29] Several commentators in the mass media dismissed the ethics complaints as a deliberate cover for the ongoing harassment of Quinn and other women.^[30][31] Gamergaters frequently denied any such harassment took place, falsely claiming it to be manufactured by the victims.^[32][33]

Gamergate has been described as a culture war over cultural diversification, artistic recognition, feminism in video games, social criticism in video games, and the social identity of gamers.^{[27][34][35][36]} Supporters stated that it was a social movement. However, as a movement Gamergate had no clearly defined goals, coherent message, or official leaders, making it difficult to define.^[37][38][24] Gamergate led figures both inside and outside the gaming industry to focus on methods of addressing online harassment, ways to minimize harm, and prevent similar events.^{[39][40][41][42]} Gamergate has been viewed as contributing to the alt-right and other right-wing movements.^[43][44]

History

Zoë Quinn and Depression Quest

In 2013, Zoë Quinn, an independent game developer, released Depression Quest, a text-focused game designed to convey the experience of depression through a series of fictional scenarios,^[45][19] based in part on Quinn's own experience with the illness.^[46][47] The game received positive reviews in the gaming media and from mental health professionals, but faced backlash online from gamers who disliked its departure from typical game formats emphasizing violence and skill^[20][48][49] and who opposed "political" intrusions into gamer culture.^[48] Quinn was subjected to several months of harassment after its release,^{[16][25][17][50]} including rape and death threats.^[19][20] Quinn documented the harassment they^[a] received and spoke openly to the media about it, which led to more pronounced abuse against them such as the posting of their home address online.^[9] They cancelled future public appearances and ultimately fled their house out of fear for their safety.^{[47][52][53][54]}

 

The controversies and events that would come to be known as Gamergate began in August 2014 as a personal attack on Quinn, incited by a blog post by Quinn's former boyfriend, Eron Gjoni.^[55][46][49] Called "The Zoe Post",^[b] it was a lengthy, detailed account of their relationship and breakup^[57] that included copies of personal chat logs, emails, and text messages.^[50] The blog falsely implied that Quinn received a favorable review of Depression Quest in exchange for a sexual relationship with Nathan Grayson, a reporter for the gaming websites Kotaku and Rock Paper Shotgun.^[13][58] Gjoni later said that he had "no evidence" of a sexual conflict of interest on Quinn's part.^[59][c] Grayson never actually reviewed any of Quinn's games, and his only Kotaku article mentioning them was published before their relationship began.^[59][60][61] Nonetheless, as reported by The Daily Dot, gamers online used Gjoni's blog to accuse Quinn, without evidence, of trading sex for professional advancement.^[62][17] A link to the blog was posted to 4chan, where many users had previously been highly critical of Depression Quest, which led to renewed attacks on Quinn.^[63]

After Gjoni's blog post, Quinn and their family were subjected to a virulent and often misogynistic harassment campaign.^[18][64][32] Online attackers of Quinn at first used the label "Quinnspiracy",^[60][65][66] later adopting the hashtag "#Gamergate" after it was coined by the actor Adam Baldwin on August 27, 2014,^[d][52] whose nearly 190,000 Twitter followers helped the spread of the hashtag.^[70] Right-wing journalist Milo Yiannopoulos popularized the hashtag on Breitbart News, becoming one of the most prominent voices of Gamergate and the antifeminist movement more broadly.^[52] Harassment of Gamergate targets was coordinated via Internet Relay Chat (IRC), spreading rapidly over imageboards and forums like 4chan and Reddit.^{[71][32][72][73]}

Less than four months after Gamergate began, Quinn's record of threats they had received had grown 1,000-fold.^[69][56] At a conference Quinn said, "I used to go to game events and feel like I was going home ... Now it's just like ... are any of the people I'm currently in the room with ones that said they wanted to beat me to death?".^[74] One anonymous 4chan user threatened to give them "a crippling injury that's never going to fully heal".^[75] Commentators both inside and outside the video game industry condemned the attacks against Quinn.^[17][60] The attacks included doxing (researching and broadcasting personally identifiable information about an individual) and hacking of their Tumblr, Dropbox, and Skype accounts; they were again subjected to rape and death threats.^[16][17][18] Quinn again fled their home to stay with friends.^[76][56] Quinn wrote that "the Internet spent the last month spreading my personal information around, sending me threats, hacking anyone suspected of being friends with me, calling my dad and telling him I'm a whore, sending nude photos of me to colleagues, and basically giving me the 'burn the witch' treatment".^[77][60]

^snip

 

Sexism and video games

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexism_and_video_games

 

Sexism in video gaming is prejudiced behavior or discrimination based on sex or gender as experienced by people who play and create video games, primarily women. This may manifest as sexual harassment or in the way genders are represented in games, such as when characters are presented according to gender-related tropes and stereotypes.

Since the 1980s and 1990s, video game culture has veered from its original perception as a space for just young men. Women make up about 50 percent of all game players as of the 2010s.^[1] However, many video games condone instances of sexism against women through not penalizing users who demonstrate this kind of behavior, or weaving themes of sexism against women into their storylines. The growing presence of women in the gaming sphere, and subsequently publicized incidents of harassment towards women in this field, has pushed industry professionals to pay attention to sexism in video gaming.

Harassment

Form

Harassment can involve sexist insults or comments, death or rape threats, demanding sexual favors in exchange for virtual or real money, or criticism of the presence of women and their interests.^[2] In some cases, female players are also stalked, whether online or offline.^[3]

Women are sometimes marginalized as "intruders", as it is assumed they do not play video games that aren't associated with female players such as the Sims, music video games or casual games. Conversely, insults towards men focus mainly on their alleged lack of manliness for playing "girl games" or disliking violent games.^[4] As a result, women may face offensive behavior at conventions, competitions or in video games stores. It may affect female gamers, journalists or game developers, even when they are invited to talk at a conference or to present a game.^[5][6][7][8] Since the release of the NES, video games advertisements have been accused of strengthening this tendency by targeting only men.^[9][10] In the 1980s, women stopped being represented playing video games in advertisement and scantily clad women started being used on game covers and ads.^[9] Some women saw their non-sexualized female character designs rejected, and others reported sexual harassment in the workplace.^[11][12]

In 2014, the International Game Developers Association conducted a survey that demonstrated some of the lack of professionalism women in the game developing field were met with. Firstly, women reported defiance from their subordinate male colleagues. The study also showed that white males were favored for positions of management and all throughout the hiring process.^[13][14] Female developers from the survey also revealed that they were not taken seriously in the field and instead were met with inappropriate behavior from male colleagues, such as being mislead into attending dates.

Online video games can be host to extreme sexism towards women, with 65% of women reporting an instance of sexual harassment in this setting. In comparison to their male counterparts, women are subject to three times the amount of derogatory or offensive remarks, which can be made anonymously by gamers.^[15]

Video games conferences have been criticised for using sexualised advertising such as 'booth babes', creating a demeaning image of women, and for failing to stop harassment of female attendees. This has led some to adopt or share codes of conduct for managing these issues.^{[16][17][18][19][20]}

One form of harassment involves perpetrators changing their username to include sexist or racially charged language when they leave comments during live-streams, according to gamer Amira Virgil.^[21]

Frequency

Insults are frequent in online gaming. According to Stephen Toulouse (moderator of the online gaming service Xbox Live), between 2007 and 2012 women were the most frequent target of harassment.^[3] However, data from Riot Games lists racism and homophobia as the top problems.^[22] Furthermore, derogatory words for homosexuality are used almost constantly in online gaming.^[23]

In 2012, a study of the Ohio University showed that the same person playing Halo 3 online with a male and a female profile using recorded voice messages received three times more negative comments with the female profile, despite similar game scores. Even welcoming everybody at the beginning of a game could lead to sexist insults against the female profile.^[7][24] A 2015 study of Halo 3 player interactions found that less-skilled male players display a tendency to make frequent, nasty comments to female gamers.^[25] The researchers suggested that the poorly performing males "attempt to disregard a female's performance and suppress her disturbance on the hierarchy to retain their social rank."^[26]

In an ethnographic study of Xbox Live, Kishonna Gray wrote that a lot of the racism and sexism experienced in the gaming platform is facilitated by linguistic profiling. Linguistic profiling is comparable to racial profiling or gender profiling, but is based on voice and speech rather than appearance. It is common in gaming spaces that rely on voice communications rather than text.^[27] There are certain linguistic stereotypes that maybe associated with one's voice, making women more vulnerable to discrimination just based on how they sound.

A study from 2006 showed that 83.4% of gamers had seen the words "gay" or "queer" used as derogatory names, and that 52.7% of gay gamers perceived the gaming community as "somewhat hostile" while 14% perceived it as "very hostile".^[28]

According to Lucy Waterlow, there appears to be a deep history of sexual harassment in the video game industry and women who play video games on online forums such as Call of Duty are often told they should "return to the kitchen", along with other slurs. However, the changing demographics that have been seen in the video game community (an increasing proportion of people who play video games are, as it appears, female.^[29]), have led to certain consequences. The largest change in terms of who plays video games has been that of gender proportions. This translates to more women playing video games than ever before, “almost reaching parity” with the number of men that play video games. The most visible and immediate ramifications of that have been the resistance of men and even some women within the industry.^[30]

Critics have stated that there is an increasing pervasiveness of the sexual harassment of women in the video game community. A study conducted by Kate O'Halloran in 2017 found that women receive an almost amplified amount of harassment in the setting of online video games than they do in real life, whereas preferential treatment is given to men by other men. The difference in the treatment of women further diminishes the desire of women to participate in video games, or, as O'Halloran found, to completely conceal their gender identity and allow other players to assume their gender. Liliana Braumberger, a participant in O'Halloran's study, states that this stems from the fact that the men who engage in this form of sexual harassment have the invisibility and anonymity that comes with participating in an online server, and that men have a certain sense of entitlement that leads to the invisibility of women. She feels that this discrimination and erasure potentially have the same effects on other people who do not identify as men, not necessarily just women.^[31]

The #MeToo impact on the video game industry

In October 2017 the #MeToo movement highlighted sexual harassment allegations against several important and high-profile figures from predominately the entertainment industry.^{[32][33][34][35]} In response to a growing number of claims of harassment, several important figures in games media or publishing made public statements outlining their thoughts on how more needed to be done within the industry to do better when dealing with harassment including Jennifer MacLean, Executive Director of the International Game Developers Association, and Kate Edwards, the former director, Joe Smedley of Sony Online Entertainment and Mike Wilson of Devolver Digital.^{[36][37][38][39]} The IGDA meanwhile published a public statement criticising "The prevalence of sexual harassment and assault in our community" and demanding "action from every game developer to ensure the safety and support of all of our colleagues and community members. We all must do a better job of welcoming, and protecting, all game developers so that our community, craft, and industry can thrive."^[40] While some commentators called for action throughout the industry to call out toxic behaviour, Brianna Wu, who had been one of those targeted during the Gamergate controversy, argued from her experience that the video game industry did not have a system in place to support those women that came forward, thus favoring silence on such matters.^[37][38][39]

In January 2018 following a public outcry the Game Developers Conference rescinded a Pioneer Award to Nolan Bushnell after revelations about early Atari meetings being held in hot tubs, amongst other claims.^[41][42][43] While the decision was criticised in some parts, including by some of the leading women at Atari during that period in time, Bushnell himself supported the decision and applauded the "GDC for ensuring that their institution reflects what is right, specifically with regards to how people should be treated in the workplace".^[44]

In a January 2018 an opinion piece in The Guardian, journalist Keza McDonald speculated that the video game industry would have a similar "#MeToo moment", but was not currently ready.^[41] McDonald highlighted a few instances of action being taken but noted that "there has been no mass movement of women coming forward with their stories of workplace harassment", and suggested that the harassment of individuals associated with #1reasonwhy and #Gamergate deterred women from opening themselves "up to further harassment, victim-blaming, and unpleasant professional ramifications".^[41]

In August 2019, following Nathalie Lawhead coming forward with sexual assault accusations against Jeremy Soule, several other women brought additional accusations of sexual assault, harassment, and abuse against members of the industry, including some whose reports had been generally overlooked in the past.^[45][46] A number of industry members established a "Times Up" group to encourage other women to speak up about events in their past. Anita Sarkeesian stated that this may be the expected #MeToo moment for the industry.^[47]

A similar wave of sexual harassment and misconduct accusations occurred in June 2020.^[48] Initial claims were made against one of the popular Destiny 2 players on Twitch by several women on June 19, 2020, accusing this player of inappropriate conduct in both online and offline behavior. This led to at least seventy women involved in the industry to speak out on other Twitch streamers who had engaged in similar inappropriate behavior, including one directed at Omeed Dariani, the CEO of Online Performers Group, a talent agency that represents many Twitch streamers. Dariani apologized for his past behavior and subsequently stepped down. Twitch was also criticized for allowing such behavior to occur, and the service said it would begin to evaluate all reported incidents and work with law enforcement as necessary.^[49] The event led to other accusations of past misconduct to be raised against various members of the video game industry and other closely related markets, including freelance writer Chris Avellone (later retracted),^[50] CEO of Cards Against Humanity Max Temkin (who resigned following the allegations),^[51] Wizards of the Coast artist Noah Bradley (who was terminated following the accusations),^[52] and Ubisoft creative director Ashraf Ismail (who stepped down from his position to deal with his personable matters).^[53] Both Ubisoft and Insomniac Games also addressed additional claims of their employees being accused of sexual harassment and stated they would take these accusations seriously and investigate the matters internally.^[54] Charges were made toward the CEO of Evolution Championship Series (EVO), Joey Cuellar, who was subsequently let go. Multiple publishers that had backed the event had pulled out on this news, and the EVO event, which had already been reworked as an online event due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was subsequently cancelled.^[55]

However, the #MeToo movement has partially made its way to the gaming industry, starting from the audience's demand, and is currently moving its way up.^[56] More and more gamers are looking to expand their gameplay to play protagonists of different identities, allowing them to see the world through somebody else's eyes. Hence, the #MeToo movement is starting to seep into the gaming industry itself.^[56]

^snip

[robsblubot 3,595]

1 hour ago, Vesper said:

that would be from the incel/RW misogynist haters

Gamergate kicked it all off over 10 years ago

Gamergate (harassment campaign)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamergate_(harassment_campaign)

Gamergate or GamerGate (GG)^[1] was a loosely organized misogynistic online harassment campaign and a right-wing backlash against feminism, diversity, and progressivism in video game culture.^[2][3][4] It was conducted using the hashtag "#Gamergate" primarily in 2014 and 2015.^[1][5][6][7] Gamergate targeted women in the video game industry, most notably feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian and video game developers Zoë Quinn and Brianna Wu.^{[8][9][10][11][12]}

Gamergate began with an August 2014 blog entry called "The Zoe Post" by Quinn's ex-boyfriend, which falsely insinuated that Quinn had received a favorable review because of Quinn's sexual relationship with a games journalist.^[13] The blog post was spread to 4chan, where many users had previously disparaged Quinn's work. This led to a campaign of harassment against Quinn, coordinated through anonymous message boards such as 4chan, 8chan, and Reddit.^[14][15] The harassment campaign expanded to target Sarkeesian, Wu, and others who defended Quinn, and included doxing, rape threats, and death threats.^[16][17][18]

Gamergate proponents ("Gamergaters") claimed to be promoting ethics in video game journalism and protecting the "gamer" identity in opposition to "political correctness"^{[19][20][21][22]} and the perceived influence of feminism and so-called "social justice warriors" on video game culture.^[3][23] Proponents alleged there was a conspiracy between journalists and video game developers to focus on progressive social issues such as gender equality and sexism.^[24][25][26] Such claims have been widely dismissed as trivial, baseless, or unrelated to actual issues of ethics in gaming and journalism.^[27][28][29] Several commentators in the mass media dismissed the ethics complaints as a deliberate cover for the ongoing harassment of Quinn and other women.^[30][31] Gamergaters frequently denied any such harassment took place, falsely claiming it to be manufactured by the victims.^[32][33]

Gamergate has been described as a culture war over cultural diversification, artistic recognition, feminism in video games, social criticism in video games, and the social identity of gamers.^{[27][34][35][36]} Supporters stated that it was a social movement. However, as a movement Gamergate had no clearly defined goals, coherent message, or official leaders, making it difficult to define.^[37][38][24] Gamergate led figures both inside and outside the gaming industry to focus on methods of addressing online harassment, ways to minimize harm, and prevent similar events.^{[39][40][41][42]} Gamergate has been viewed as contributing to the alt-right and other right-wing movements.^[43][44]

History

Zoë Quinn and Depression Quest

In 2013, Zoë Quinn, an independent game developer, released Depression Quest, a text-focused game designed to convey the experience of depression through a series of fictional scenarios,^[45][19] based in part on Quinn's own experience with the illness.^[46][47] The game received positive reviews in the gaming media and from mental health professionals, but faced backlash online from gamers who disliked its departure from typical game formats emphasizing violence and skill^[20][48][49] and who opposed "political" intrusions into gamer culture.^[48] Quinn was subjected to several months of harassment after its release,^{[16][25][17][50]} including rape and death threats.^[19][20] Quinn documented the harassment they^[a] received and spoke openly to the media about it, which led to more pronounced abuse against them such as the posting of their home address online.^[9] They cancelled future public appearances and ultimately fled their house out of fear for their safety.^{[47][52][53][54]}

 

The controversies and events that would come to be known as Gamergate began in August 2014 as a personal attack on Quinn, incited by a blog post by Quinn's former boyfriend, Eron Gjoni.^[55][46][49] Called "The Zoe Post",^[b] it was a lengthy, detailed account of their relationship and breakup^[57] that included copies of personal chat logs, emails, and text messages.^[50] The blog falsely implied that Quinn received a favorable review of Depression Quest in exchange for a sexual relationship with Nathan Grayson, a reporter for the gaming websites Kotaku and Rock Paper Shotgun.^[13][58] Gjoni later said that he had "no evidence" of a sexual conflict of interest on Quinn's part.^[59][c] Grayson never actually reviewed any of Quinn's games, and his only Kotaku article mentioning them was published before their relationship began.^[59][60][61] Nonetheless, as reported by The Daily Dot, gamers online used Gjoni's blog to accuse Quinn, without evidence, of trading sex for professional advancement.^[62][17] A link to the blog was posted to 4chan, where many users had previously been highly critical of Depression Quest, which led to renewed attacks on Quinn.^[63]

After Gjoni's blog post, Quinn and their family were subjected to a virulent and often misogynistic harassment campaign.^[18][64][32] Online attackers of Quinn at first used the label "Quinnspiracy",^[60][65][66] later adopting the hashtag "#Gamergate" after it was coined by the actor Adam Baldwin on August 27, 2014,^[d][52] whose nearly 190,000 Twitter followers helped the spread of the hashtag.^[70] Right-wing journalist Milo Yiannopoulos popularized the hashtag on Breitbart News, becoming one of the most prominent voices of Gamergate and the antifeminist movement more broadly.^[52] Harassment of Gamergate targets was coordinated via Internet Relay Chat (IRC), spreading rapidly over imageboards and forums like 4chan and Reddit.^{[71][32][72][73]}

Less than four months after Gamergate began, Quinn's record of threats they had received had grown 1,000-fold.^[69][56] At a conference Quinn said, "I used to go to game events and feel like I was going home ... Now it's just like ... are any of the people I'm currently in the room with ones that said they wanted to beat me to death?".^[74] One anonymous 4chan user threatened to give them "a crippling injury that's never going to fully heal".^[75] Commentators both inside and outside the video game industry condemned the attacks against Quinn.^[17][60] The attacks included doxing (researching and broadcasting personally identifiable information about an individual) and hacking of their Tumblr, Dropbox, and Skype accounts; they were again subjected to rape and death threats.^[16][17][18] Quinn again fled their home to stay with friends.^[76][56] Quinn wrote that "the Internet spent the last month spreading my personal information around, sending me threats, hacking anyone suspected of being friends with me, calling my dad and telling him I'm a whore, sending nude photos of me to colleagues, and basically giving me the 'burn the witch' treatment".^[77][60]

^snip

 

Sexism and video games

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexism_and_video_games

 

Sexism in video gaming is prejudiced behavior or discrimination based on sex or gender as experienced by people who play and create video games, primarily women. This may manifest as sexual harassment or in the way genders are represented in games, such as when characters are presented according to gender-related tropes and stereotypes.

Since the 1980s and 1990s, video game culture has veered from its original perception as a space for just young men. Women make up about 50 percent of all game players as of the 2010s.^[1] However, many video games condone instances of sexism against women through not penalizing users who demonstrate this kind of behavior, or weaving themes of sexism against women into their storylines. The growing presence of women in the gaming sphere, and subsequently publicized incidents of harassment towards women in this field, has pushed industry professionals to pay attention to sexism in video gaming.

Harassment

Form

Harassment can involve sexist insults or comments, death or rape threats, demanding sexual favors in exchange for virtual or real money, or criticism of the presence of women and their interests.^[2] In some cases, female players are also stalked, whether online or offline.^[3]

Women are sometimes marginalized as "intruders", as it is assumed they do not play video games that aren't associated with female players such as the Sims, music video games or casual games. Conversely, insults towards men focus mainly on their alleged lack of manliness for playing "girl games" or disliking violent games.^[4] As a result, women may face offensive behavior at conventions, competitions or in video games stores. It may affect female gamers, journalists or game developers, even when they are invited to talk at a conference or to present a game.^[5][6][7][8] Since the release of the NES, video games advertisements have been accused of strengthening this tendency by targeting only men.^[9][10] In the 1980s, women stopped being represented playing video games in advertisement and scantily clad women started being used on game covers and ads.^[9] Some women saw their non-sexualized female character designs rejected, and others reported sexual harassment in the workplace.^[11][12]

In 2014, the International Game Developers Association conducted a survey that demonstrated some of the lack of professionalism women in the game developing field were met with. Firstly, women reported defiance from their subordinate male colleagues. The study also showed that white males were favored for positions of management and all throughout the hiring process.^[13][14] Female developers from the survey also revealed that they were not taken seriously in the field and instead were met with inappropriate behavior from male colleagues, such as being mislead into attending dates.

Online video games can be host to extreme sexism towards women, with 65% of women reporting an instance of sexual harassment in this setting. In comparison to their male counterparts, women are subject to three times the amount of derogatory or offensive remarks, which can be made anonymously by gamers.^[15]

Video games conferences have been criticised for using sexualised advertising such as 'booth babes', creating a demeaning image of women, and for failing to stop harassment of female attendees. This has led some to adopt or share codes of conduct for managing these issues.^{[16][17][18][19][20]}

One form of harassment involves perpetrators changing their username to include sexist or racially charged language when they leave comments during live-streams, according to gamer Amira Virgil.^[21]

Frequency

Insults are frequent in online gaming. According to Stephen Toulouse (moderator of the online gaming service Xbox Live), between 2007 and 2012 women were the most frequent target of harassment.^[3] However, data from Riot Games lists racism and homophobia as the top problems.^[22] Furthermore, derogatory words for homosexuality are used almost constantly in online gaming.^[23]

In 2012, a study of the Ohio University showed that the same person playing Halo 3 online with a male and a female profile using recorded voice messages received three times more negative comments with the female profile, despite similar game scores. Even welcoming everybody at the beginning of a game could lead to sexist insults against the female profile.^[7][24] A 2015 study of Halo 3 player interactions found that less-skilled male players display a tendency to make frequent, nasty comments to female gamers.^[25] The researchers suggested that the poorly performing males "attempt to disregard a female's performance and suppress her disturbance on the hierarchy to retain their social rank."^[26]

In an ethnographic study of Xbox Live, Kishonna Gray wrote that a lot of the racism and sexism experienced in the gaming platform is facilitated by linguistic profiling. Linguistic profiling is comparable to racial profiling or gender profiling, but is based on voice and speech rather than appearance. It is common in gaming spaces that rely on voice communications rather than text.^[27] There are certain linguistic stereotypes that maybe associated with one's voice, making women more vulnerable to discrimination just based on how they sound.

A study from 2006 showed that 83.4% of gamers had seen the words "gay" or "queer" used as derogatory names, and that 52.7% of gay gamers perceived the gaming community as "somewhat hostile" while 14% perceived it as "very hostile".^[28]

According to Lucy Waterlow, there appears to be a deep history of sexual harassment in the video game industry and women who play video games on online forums such as Call of Duty are often told they should "return to the kitchen", along with other slurs. However, the changing demographics that have been seen in the video game community (an increasing proportion of people who play video games are, as it appears, female.^[29]), have led to certain consequences. The largest change in terms of who plays video games has been that of gender proportions. This translates to more women playing video games than ever before, “almost reaching parity” with the number of men that play video games. The most visible and immediate ramifications of that have been the resistance of men and even some women within the industry.^[30]

Critics have stated that there is an increasing pervasiveness of the sexual harassment of women in the video game community. A study conducted by Kate O'Halloran in 2017 found that women receive an almost amplified amount of harassment in the setting of online video games than they do in real life, whereas preferential treatment is given to men by other men. The difference in the treatment of women further diminishes the desire of women to participate in video games, or, as O'Halloran found, to completely conceal their gender identity and allow other players to assume their gender. Liliana Braumberger, a participant in O'Halloran's study, states that this stems from the fact that the men who engage in this form of sexual harassment have the invisibility and anonymity that comes with participating in an online server, and that men have a certain sense of entitlement that leads to the invisibility of women. She feels that this discrimination and erasure potentially have the same effects on other people who do not identify as men, not necessarily just women.^[31]

The #MeToo impact on the video game industry

In October 2017 the #MeToo movement highlighted sexual harassment allegations against several important and high-profile figures from predominately the entertainment industry.^{[32][33][34][35]} In response to a growing number of claims of harassment, several important figures in games media or publishing made public statements outlining their thoughts on how more needed to be done within the industry to do better when dealing with harassment including Jennifer MacLean, Executive Director of the International Game Developers Association, and Kate Edwards, the former director, Joe Smedley of Sony Online Entertainment and Mike Wilson of Devolver Digital.^{[36][37][38][39]} The IGDA meanwhile published a public statement criticising "The prevalence of sexual harassment and assault in our community" and demanding "action from every game developer to ensure the safety and support of all of our colleagues and community members. We all must do a better job of welcoming, and protecting, all game developers so that our community, craft, and industry can thrive."^[40] While some commentators called for action throughout the industry to call out toxic behaviour, Brianna Wu, who had been one of those targeted during the Gamergate controversy, argued from her experience that the video game industry did not have a system in place to support those women that came forward, thus favoring silence on such matters.^[37][38][39]

In January 2018 following a public outcry the Game Developers Conference rescinded a Pioneer Award to Nolan Bushnell after revelations about early Atari meetings being held in hot tubs, amongst other claims.^[41][42][43] While the decision was criticised in some parts, including by some of the leading women at Atari during that period in time, Bushnell himself supported the decision and applauded the "GDC for ensuring that their institution reflects what is right, specifically with regards to how people should be treated in the workplace".^[44]

In a January 2018 an opinion piece in The Guardian, journalist Keza McDonald speculated that the video game industry would have a similar "#MeToo moment", but was not currently ready.^[41] McDonald highlighted a few instances of action being taken but noted that "there has been no mass movement of women coming forward with their stories of workplace harassment", and suggested that the harassment of individuals associated with #1reasonwhy and #Gamergate deterred women from opening themselves "up to further harassment, victim-blaming, and unpleasant professional ramifications".^[41]

In August 2019, following Nathalie Lawhead coming forward with sexual assault accusations against Jeremy Soule, several other women brought additional accusations of sexual assault, harassment, and abuse against members of the industry, including some whose reports had been generally overlooked in the past.^[45][46] A number of industry members established a "Times Up" group to encourage other women to speak up about events in their past. Anita Sarkeesian stated that this may be the expected #MeToo moment for the industry.^[47]

A similar wave of sexual harassment and misconduct accusations occurred in June 2020.^[48] Initial claims were made against one of the popular Destiny 2 players on Twitch by several women on June 19, 2020, accusing this player of inappropriate conduct in both online and offline behavior. This led to at least seventy women involved in the industry to speak out on other Twitch streamers who had engaged in similar inappropriate behavior, including one directed at Omeed Dariani, the CEO of Online Performers Group, a talent agency that represents many Twitch streamers. Dariani apologized for his past behavior and subsequently stepped down. Twitch was also criticized for allowing such behavior to occur, and the service said it would begin to evaluate all reported incidents and work with law enforcement as necessary.^[49] The event led to other accusations of past misconduct to be raised against various members of the video game industry and other closely related markets, including freelance writer Chris Avellone (later retracted),^[50] CEO of Cards Against Humanity Max Temkin (who resigned following the allegations),^[51] Wizards of the Coast artist Noah Bradley (who was terminated following the accusations),^[52] and Ubisoft creative director Ashraf Ismail (who stepped down from his position to deal with his personable matters).^[53] Both Ubisoft and Insomniac Games also addressed additional claims of their employees being accused of sexual harassment and stated they would take these accusations seriously and investigate the matters internally.^[54] Charges were made toward the CEO of Evolution Championship Series (EVO), Joey Cuellar, who was subsequently let go. Multiple publishers that had backed the event had pulled out on this news, and the EVO event, which had already been reworked as an online event due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was subsequently cancelled.^[55]

However, the #MeToo movement has partially made its way to the gaming industry, starting from the audience's demand, and is currently moving its way up.^[56] More and more gamers are looking to expand their gameplay to play protagonists of different identities, allowing them to see the world through somebody else's eyes. Hence, the #MeToo movement is starting to seep into the gaming industry itself.^[56]

^snip

Nah there is a lot of cringe shit coming from Hollywood; intentions may be good, but they sometimes can negatively affect the final product.

I find it very ironic when anime and video game female characters often have very broad shoulders which is likely the most evident physical characteristic of the male physique. This is absolutely a trend -- cousin is a contract worker for Marvel and confirmed.

One obvious example is on of the cringiest scenes of all time: "Female Avengers Unite Scene" in endgame; that scene united all couples at the movie theater with synchronized eye rolls. 🙂 So many other cases like the above that would take quite some time to list; especially changes in expensive established IPs.

Working in the video game industry is a different discussion as it is more about employment conditions.
The video game industry is notoriously harsh for software engineers. Have quite a few colleagues from the game industry and they say it's quite brutal esp when approaching deadlines.

[Vesper 30,119]

33 minutes ago, robsblubot said:

Nah there is a lot of cringe shit coming from Hollywood; intentions may be good, but they sometimes can negatively affect the final product.

I find it very ironic when anime and video game female characters often have very broad shoulders which is likely the most evident physical characteristic of the male physique. This is absolutely a trend -- cousin is a contract worker for Marvel and confirmed.

One obvious example is on of the cringiest scenes of all time: "Female Avengers Unite Scene" in endgame; that scene united all couples at the movie theater with synchronized eye rolls. 🙂 So many other cases like the above that would take quite some time to list; especially changes in expensive established IPs.

Working in the video game industry is a different discussion as it is more about employment conditions.
The video game industry is notoriously harsh for software engineers. Have quite a few colleagues from the game industry and they say it's quite brutal esp when approaching deadlines.

You do not get to say, to paraphrase, 'no, it doesnt happen' (the raw open women hating and misogyny) when I just gave you dozens of examples of it, nor that it is somehow ok or justified in any way.

Sorry, but I am not going to accept gaslighting and the attempted diminishment of harm.