While some of their language has changed, the sentiment of this latest aggressive movement is just as distressing. It’s time for the games industry to stand up to it

  • J.P.
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    10 days ago

    Gamergate was one of the first online instances that showed how easy it is to spread lies and misinformation through social media in order to manufacture outrage and weaponize it against specific targets.

    The same exact tactics have been used by the far-right since. Gamergate felt like a testing chamber, before the full blown nazi propaganda plan that’s getting far-right politicians elected in many places. I live in one of such places, and the online tactics used by literal nazis against progressive politicians are 1-to-1 the same used in gamergate.

    Those issues with social media have never been dealt with. If anything, social media has become more mainstream since, and now these tactics of lying and manufacturing outrage have become more powerful.

    Traditional media seemed to have some semblance of accountability (although not really), but in social media, anyone makes up shit, people will take their word for it, if they like what they hear (or aligns with their beliefs), and it doesn’t matter if it’s debunked, because no one listens to that part.

    The only solution is, and has always been, a zero tolerance policy against any kind of hateful or bigoted behaviour, by the people who control these online spaces. No one expects 4chan to moderate their content at this point, but when someone makes a new online space for conversations, those same people shouldn’t be welcomed, or they’ll shit all over the floor, turn it into another gross place, and you’ll have to start over.

    These new complaints about “wokeness” in games, that happen with every game announcement, aren’t even dog-whistles at this point. They’ve been straight up howling for a while. The follow-up attacks, threats, lies, the dismissal that “none of this happens, it’s all made up”, and the support of fellow misogynists (like the companies with a history of sexism mentioned in the article), are all just part of the program.

    And of course, you can see them in some of the comments in this very thread.

    • Chloyster [she/her]M
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      3910 days ago

      never targeted by harassment

      Sweet Baby Inc found themselves at the center of attention at kiwi farms, a website known for harassment and driving people to suicide. I find it very far fetched to believe they received no harassment.

      Ubisoft being in bed with SBI is also not a lie

      Unless I totally missed it, I see nowhere in this article that said they didn’t work with SBI?

      Everything I have seen points to Yasuke being a samurai. Lots of reading on it sourced in this reddit comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1css0ye/comment/l4bghbu/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

      How is the game disrespectful to Japanese people?

      There are so many outlandish claims in this comment with basically nothing backing it up

      • @FarceOfWill@infosec.pub
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        3210 days ago

        There are so many outlandish claims in this comment with basically nothing backing it up

        This 100%

        I deleted my reply because it was too much but the original ign article on wukong is very tame. I can’t see why they’re so worked up to harass the author off the internet.

        Some days beehaw not having downvotes is a real issue.

    • T (they/she)
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      3410 days ago

      Never did anyone in this steam group go out of their way to harass anyone involved with the company.

      Never was it “a bunch of sexist and racist white people being upset about diversity in videogames”.

      Very bold statements in favour of people that I know myself are extremely “anti diversity / anti woke”. Do you even know who the creator of the Steam group is? Guy is known for being the scum of the Brazilian WoW community.

      • @TheMalWare@lemmy.ml
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        410 days ago

        One extreme doesn’t justify another, plus what matters here is the information. Couldn’t care less about who runs or frequents the group, but I’m glad it brought awareness to SBI and their influence.

        • @SkyeStarfall
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          1810 days ago

          The “extremes” here being “social justice” and “anti-social justice”

          …I’m gonna side with the social justice side here.

    • @TheUnicornOfPerfidy@feddit.uk
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      10 days ago

      Defensive much? I find myself being very suspicious of this opposing narrative. I’m not up to speed on this these days, but I remember Keza MacDonald being generally outstanding in her betrayal portrayal of events in video games culture.

    • @CaptainBasculin@lemmy.ml
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      710 days ago

      7 million dollars? You could get multiple professional historians, mythologists or whatever expert your game’s theme is focused on to review and revise your entire game’s story for less than that.

      • T (they/she)
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        1010 days ago

        Imagine when they learn about executives. Also it is funny that no one mentions BG3 when talking about DEI consultancy groups.

  • Chloyster [she/her]M
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    2310 days ago

    So that was a thread huh?

    Sorry to have to lock the post and clean up some comments, but I think it’s safe to say that gamergater apologia is not cool on the gaming community here.

    Please do not downplay death threats, especially when they come from a site absolutely known for sending them out. Think what you want about SBI, but to deny Gamergate and other harassment campaigns and the damage they have caused is dangerous and also absolutely does not contribute to making beehaw a safe place.

    Thanks ❤️

  • kbal
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    10 days ago

    [false claims that] journalists gave the recent PS5 game Stellar Blade (pictured below) bad reviews because its female characters are too hot

    That seems an inadequate way of summing up the Stellar Blade controversy which on the whole was considerably more ridiculous than that.

    • SilverserenOP
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      1910 days ago

      The Gamergaters really wanted the game to get bad reviews so they could use it to fuel their self-victimhood.

  • PrivateNoob
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    10 days ago

    Tbf I have never looked at Assassin’s Creed as a historically accurate game. It can really be only called accurate in broad terms probably. (Only played Black Flag and Odyssey tho).

    She seems to bring up pretty great points, like harrassing her, complaining about not hot enough greek god girl, but I’m interested about the other side.

    Also she worked at Kotaku in the past, so listening to these gamergate people too could help to make a throught decision overall

  • xep
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    10 days ago

    If it’s a small but loud group of unpleasant people on the internet, can’t we just do what we’ve always done and ignore them?

    • SilverserenOP
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      2810 days ago

      Those of us who aren’t being harassed and sent death threats by them can, sure. But that’s kind of the problem.

    • PenguinCoder
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      110 days ago

      they only attack people

      Ironic.

      Attack the problem, not the person. Yet here we are. YEET.