Gamergate Goons Can Scream All They Want, But They Can't Stop Progress
10 years, 5 months ago

Gamergate Goons Can Scream All They Want, But They Can't Stop Progress

Wired  

Games aren't very fun these days. There's a reason "gamer" has become a singular term in a way "comic book fan," "movie buff" and "TV viewer" aren't. An Existential Threat Forged in the fires of multibillion-dollar corporate interests, the modern notion of the "gamer" revolves centrally around young, middle-class men and their hobbies. But this image is increasingly at odds with the demographics of the people actually playing games: According to a recent study by the Entertainment Software Association, not only are 48 percent of people playing videogames today female, but there are more adult women playing games than boys under 18. Ultimately, the anti-feminist movement in games has a great deal in common with the religious right; in both instances, their fixations on "ethics" and "values" come down not to a desire for a pluralist culture with a wide array of perspectives and values, but one where anything less than the absolute dominance of their own perspectives and values is perceived as "oppression."

Games Gamergate Goons  games  cant  developers  cultural  gamergate  goons  progress  stop  playing  women  female  threats  perspectives  scream  videogames  values

History of this topic

Gamergate’s Aggrieved Men Still Haunt the Internet
55 years, 2 months ago

Gamergate’s Aggrieved Men Still Haunt the Internet

Wired  

Ten years ago, a flood of gamers attacked developers Zoë Quinn and Brianna Wu and media critic Anita Sarkeesian. In many ways, says Adrienne Massanari, an associate professor at American University’s school of communications, Gamergate presaged a broader reaction on the right toward real changes happening in American society. Meanwhile, the people doing the harassing saw themselves as trying to …

Anita Sarkeesian Hates Talking About Gamergate—but She Has To
55 years, 2 months ago

Anita Sarkeesian Hates Talking About Gamergate—but She Has To

Wired  

If you’d like to debate Anita Sarkeesian about whether or not male privilege exists, we’ll make this easy for you: She’s not interested. But there has also been fallout, like when Obi-Wan Kenobi star Moses Ingram started receiving racist messages on social media following the show’s launch, or when Kiki Farms users organized stalking campaigns. “Moments when pop culture and …

Tech Companies Want to Tackle Harassment in Gaming
3 years, 9 months ago

Tech Companies Want to Tackle Harassment in Gaming

Wired  

Competitive CounterStrike: Global Offensive player Adam Bahriz will probably kill you in-game. “I simply want to have a fun time playing a game—but a speech impediment that is beyond my control makes it difficult.” Bahriz says that eventually the toxic teammates kicked him from the game, and although “most of the time people are toxic, it is rare to actually …

The dark threats and sexual abuse women gamers endure
3 years, 9 months ago

The dark threats and sexual abuse women gamers endure

The Independent  

Sign up for the Independent Women email for the latest news, opinion and features Get the Independent Women email for free Get the Independent Women email for free SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. I don’t sit or stand right.” Sunpi, who lives in the Midlands, said she regularly discovers …

Toxicity in video games: Analysing cause and effects of abusive online behaviour
3 years, 10 months ago

Toxicity in video games: Analysing cause and effects of abusive online behaviour

Firstpost  

It is hard to say what would be the most effective solution to removing or reducing toxicity in gaming. One of the most important points to keep in mind would be that most misbehaving players are only doing so because they have been exposed to abusive behaviour while gaming. Looking at the results, 59.4 percent of the people admitted to …

Retro Gaming's Misogyny Is Brought to Light After a Violent Tragedy
55 years, 2 months ago

Retro Gaming's Misogyny Is Brought to Light After a Violent Tragedy

Wired  

In 2015, record-breaking retro game champion Rudy Ferretti made a homebrew game for the Atari 2600. Fuck no it’s my game it’s hard.” In a video of the game, preserved on the YouTube channel of “Rudy Ferretti aka the console player of the century,” Ferretti's character navigates a pixelated castle killing “evil” pigs. Longtime members of the retro and arcade …

Harsh realities of being a professional 'girl gamer'
6 years, 11 months ago

Harsh realities of being a professional 'girl gamer'

BBC  

Harsh realities of being a professional 'girl gamer' Getty Images They endure everything from subtle jabs to full-on death threats, but these women are not deterred from pursuing their passion for professional gaming. Canadian Stephanie Harvey – or missharvey as she's known in the gaming world – is a video game developer and e-sports player who’s played for female teams …

Can online gaming ditch its sexist ways?
7 years, 4 months ago

Can online gaming ditch its sexist ways?

Salon  

A huge online community has developed around the increasingly diverse world of video games. Online streaming systems like Twitch let people watch others play video games in real time, attracting crowds comparable in size to traditional sport events. Toward more open online communities The trends our research identified suggest that objectification and harassment may be a problem for female streamers …

Girl gamers: The women who earn six figures playing consoles on camera
7 years, 9 months ago

Girl gamers: The women who earn six figures playing consoles on camera

The Independent  

Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about …

Women gamers battle misogyny, violence: Will they breach gaming industry's gender divide?
8 years, 5 months ago

Women gamers battle misogyny, violence: Will they breach gaming industry's gender divide?

Firstpost  

The next time you think of gamers, perhaps you should be thinking of college girls. One commonly cited reason for the high numbers of women gamers is that the very definition of gaming has expanded to include games played on multiple devices, including mobile phones. One employee at an Indian gaming studio who asked to remain anonymous, says that within …

Sexist video games make you less empathetic towards gender violence
8 years, 11 months ago

Sexist video games make you less empathetic towards gender violence

Hindustan Times  

Male gamers who are used to playing sexist video games are less sensitive towards violence against women in real life, finds a recent study. They found that males who played “Half Life 1” or “Half Life 2” games — violent games sans sexist component — did not show the same lack of empathy as those who played the “Grand Theft …

If you're a male geek who acts out macho sexist fantasies with video games, you've become a mainstream jock
8 years, 11 months ago

If you're a male geek who acts out macho sexist fantasies with video games, you've become a mainstream jock

The Independent  

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy As white …

Girls keep out: Female video gamers face vile abuse, threats
9 years ago

Girls keep out: Female video gamers face vile abuse, threats

Associated Press  

NEW YORK — Nico Deyo, a 33-year-old e-commerce specialist from Milwaukee, used to enjoy mixing it up with players from around the world in the popular online fantasy game “World of Warcraft.” Then a stalker began harassing her on the game’s forums, impersonating her in the game and, later, sending her barrages of Twitter messages, some threatening her with graphic …

The Player: Geeks are the new overlords. Great. Now can we get over ourselves?
9 years, 8 months ago

The Player: Geeks are the new overlords. Great. Now can we get over ourselves?

LA Times  

There was a time when liking video games was seen as some sort of abnormality. “Pixels,” this weekend’s Adam Sandler vehicle, pits a bunch of schlubby losers against a battle of real-life video game characters. “Armada,” a new book from “Ready Player One” author Ernest Cline, pits a bunch of schlubby losers against real-life video game characters. Still, “Pixels” is …

Men who harass women online are losers in real life: Study | IndiaTV News
9 years, 8 months ago

Men who harass women online are losers in real life: Study | IndiaTV News

India TV News  

Men having problems in their personal lives are more likely to harass women online, according to a new study conducted in UK. Michael Kasumovic and Jeffrey Kuznekoff, researchers at the University of New South Wales and Miami University, respectively, used video game as the medium to observe the men's behaviour towards their female counterparts. As per researcher Michael Kasumovic, “video …

Twitter Targets Trolls With New Rules On Abuse
10 years, 3 months ago

Twitter Targets Trolls With New Rules On Abuse

NPR  

Twitter Targets Trolls With New Rules On Abuse Enlarge this image toggle caption Twitter Twitter Saying it wants to build "a safer Twitter," the company is announcing changes to two areas: how it handles harassment and the tools that let users block people who've sent abusive messages. Twitter announced the changes in a blog post Tuesday, which reads in part: …

Gamergate's infuriating myth: Why searching for common ground is a big mistake
10 years, 4 months ago

Gamergate's infuriating myth: Why searching for common ground is a big mistake

Salon  

Aware, no doubt, that election season is about to end, the Universe reminded us this week that U.S. politics is hopelessly broken by giving us an essay so riddled with one of our signature neuroses, it could only have come from America itself. Yet because Auerbach’s piece is largely devoted to how opponents of Gamergate can peel off the group’s …

Gamergate's fickle hero: The dark opportunism of Breitbart's Milo Yiannopoulos
10 years, 4 months ago

Gamergate's fickle hero: The dark opportunism of Breitbart's Milo Yiannopoulos

Salon  

A recurring theme of the Gamergate movement is that it's not about harassment or misogyny, and that the harassers are a minor fringe in the movement, or even false flag conspiracies by anti-Gamergate trolls. Here he is in May of this year saying that video games “attract damaged people.” He made a link between the Isla Vista, California, sexist killer …

Online Misogyny Levels Up as Gamergate Targets Gawker
10 years, 5 months ago

Online Misogyny Levels Up as Gamergate Targets Gawker

Slate  

Gamergate, a diffuse but relentless online anti-feminist movement aimed at drubbing feminist women out of game development and criticism, continues to expand the scope of its attacks. First it started as a traditional anti-feminist campaign, targeting individual women in hopes that they’d quit the industry rather than suffer any longer. That’s what makes it so confusing to see companies like …

Pew: Gaming Is Least Welcoming Online Space For Women
10 years, 5 months ago

Pew: Gaming Is Least Welcoming Online Space For Women

NPR  

Pew: Gaming Is Least Welcoming Online Space For Women Enlarge this image toggle caption Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images As the ongoing, harassment-fueled controversy known as Gamergate rages into its second month with no sign of dying down, the Pew Research Center is out with new numbers on online harassment. As Pew notes, "the second category of …

Twitter is broken: GamerGate proves it.
10 years, 5 months ago

Twitter is broken: GamerGate proves it.

Slate  

From mere faux pas to outright harassment, Twitter increasingly acts as a pressure cooker for the worst of humanity. Alexander’s Twitter stream is arguably even less temperate, with remarks such as “it’s funny how dudes who are ‘aspiring games journalists’ tweet bullshit at me as if I cannot instantly kill all their dreams” and “maybe mean of me to burn …

GamerGate Fights Corruption in Journalism By Encouraging Corruption in Journalism
10 years, 5 months ago

GamerGate Fights Corruption in Journalism By Encouraging Corruption in Journalism

Slate  

The Benghazi of the video game world, the GamerGate movement is a baffling mess of accusations and anger that started over the summer when a man named Eron Gjoni, angry about his failed relationship with an indie video game developer named Zoe Quinn, created a webpage and used it to accuse Quinn of infidelity. Upon the outside world discovering GamerGate …

Gamergate controversy reveals ugly side of gaming community
10 years, 6 months ago

Gamergate controversy reveals ugly side of gaming community

LA Times  

This column is usually dedicated to discussing video games, but in the past week and a half, you’d be forgiven for not having the stomach to play one. These “social justice warriors” are seen as capable of destroying the very essence of what some players love about video games: violence, fantasy and scantily clad women. Her most recent supposed offense …

GamerGate explodes: Gaming journalists declare the gamers are over, but they are.
10 years, 6 months ago

GamerGate explodes: Gaming journalists declare the gamers are over, but they are.

Slate  

Slate readers are over, declining—a dead demographic. The attacks on the press have ranged from well-reasoned to offensive to paranoid, but the gaming journalists unwisely decided to respond to the growing, nebulous anger by declaring that “gamers” were dead. A good number of them link to an obscure blog post by academic Dan Golding, “The End of Gamers,” which argues, …

Zoe Quinn harassment: A letter to a young male gamer.
10 years, 6 months ago

Zoe Quinn harassment: A letter to a young male gamer.

Slate  

There are a lot of jerks on the Internet. I write to you about the ongoing gaming scandal that’s inflamed the Internet concerning game designer Zoe Quinn and gaming journalism. When I hear that 4chan gamers raised $13,000 for the project, I thought, “Fantastic!” Some people will say that male gamers are just doing it out of spite, that the …

No More Helpless Damsels: One Gamer's War on Sexism
11 years, 7 months ago

No More Helpless Damsels: One Gamer's War on Sexism

Wired  

Hair and Makeup by Tricia Turner/Artist Untied | Photo: Mathew Scott Sarkeesian has played her way through hundreds of videogames to identify tropes like Women as Reward.Old-school gamers remember the Star Fox franchise, in which a vulpine space pilot, later joined by his love interest, Krystal, defends the universe. She's just one of dozens of female videogame characters who've gotten …

Art imitating life: How sexism in video games mirrors real-life gender imbalance
12 years, 3 months ago

Art imitating life: How sexism in video games mirrors real-life gender imbalance

The Independent  

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Women suffer sexualised violence Several games …

Discover Related