Today in Woke history a look back at a battle in the culture wars a lot of people are completely unaware of, GamerGate
Grab a coffee, it’s a long one.
The dynamic is both obvious and predictable (just like it played out in the New Atheism Movement). Article after article appeared, weaving a bogus narrative of an “overwhelmingly male” gamer identity that felt “threatened” by the inclusion of women into their sphere. Male gamers just didn’t want to change themselves or the gaming-community “status quo,” as though they’re afraid of being decolonized, if you will. Alongside these, others argued in contradictory fashion that most gamers are women anyway.
The gaming and gaming-community “status quo” is the most relevant of their targets, however. Part of this has to do with the way (male) gamers behave with each other and with (or around) female gamers. Another part of it has to do with the content of the games themselves.
Even less well known was the “Sad Puppies” attempted critical theory takeover of science fiction awards.
Sad Puppies -objected to- the critical theory SJW takeover of the Hugo award.
That takeover is now complete, the Sad Puppies campaign forced WorldCon to change the rules to exclude us. If you look at the Hugo nominees this year, it is painfully obvious that they were chosen on SJW cred as the main criteria. Chosen by the author’s politics, gender, skin colour, and orientation.
The stories themselves are checklist propaganda. One or two feature the glimmerings of a fun idea, ruined in each case by SJW boilerplate themes and plotting. I’d be more disgusted if we hadn’t predicted this result in 2016, the last year of Sad Puppies.
The author who created Sad Puppies is Larry Correia, creator of Monster Hunter International. Go buy everything he’s ever written, you will enjoy it. Hunting monsters with huge guns. He actually specs out ammunition loads for vampires and werewolves.
Apropos, I have also written a book in a similar vein. https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0848PX3TC “Unfair Advantage” by Edward Thomas. (A nom de plume, of course.) Giant tanks, fabulous robot girlfriends, and guys with huge guns hunting down nanotech zombies and evil aliens. It will be more fun to read than any of the Hugo nominees this year. That’s not really a brag, the phone book will be better than a Hugo nominee.
Thanks, I’ll check it out. For now, I’m binge reading a bunch of Peter F. Hamilton books.
I do miss the days of Phillip Jose Farmer, Roger Zelazny, Keith Laumer, Jack Vance, and the like.
Peter F. Hamilton is great. Tried Neal Asher?
Try my book on Kindle. Keith Laumer figures prominently. ~:D Megatons per second, baby!
Never heard of Neal Asher. I’ll look him up, too. Some of the fights in Hamilton’t books, from hand-to-hand combat that brings down buildings to nova bombs lighting up stars. Epic. I kinda like well done space operas.
Hey Phantom is your book available from Kobo?
Nope, just Amazon. There’s no point in putting it up on Kobo, I might sell three copies. Then Amazon won’t keep it in the Kindle Unlimited library anymore, which sells more than three copies. Working on a paperback version, but not ready yet. Kindle for your phone/tablet/desktop is free, btw.
Gotta say, thank God for Amazon or it would never have seen the light of day at all. It’s exactly what the publishers won’t touch these days.
Just bought it. Got to finish a couple more books before I give it a try.
The bigger question is why would anyone still care about the Hugos when the con bar is still open? You can sit in the main hall listening to the names of otherwise unknown fan fiction creators, or stay in the bar and get hammered. (spoiler – I spent my last WorldCon legally unable to drive the entire four days).
Last time I bothered trying to read Hugo nominees was 2019. Yeah… Actually, Space Opera was fun. The rest were dull woke rubbish.
The only pleasure I get from occasionally being involved with the Hugos is being able to vote ‘No Award’ in each category.
I rented a suite to a gamer gal who did that for a living. Good tenant, paid the rent, nice and quiet.
I rented a suite to a gamer gal who did that for a living
That wasn’t what she was doing for a living.
GamerGate has to be the most ridiculously overblown non-movement in modern Twittersphere history. Founded on multiple lies by both sides, it achieved nothing and changed nothing.
Gamers of all types are possibly the most rabidly entitled and socially dysfunctional customer base of any market segment. GamerGate was just a faction split amongst them over whose ridiculous demands game publishers were going to continue ignoring.
Sure Daniel. Did you read the article? Here’s the part you should pay attention to:
“The video game industry is currently outpacing every other creative medium, with more than 2.5 billion players and the industry set to reach a worth of $256.97 billion by 2025. What non-gamers may not realize is the sheer breadth and depth of creative quality that has been available in video games for decades, and the resilience of the gaming community to previous ideological demands for censorship and moral panics.”
Or, as noted elsewhere in the article, being socially awkward is not a crime. For some of us it is an everyday thing, and we do not appreciate Normies like yourself talking sh1t about us.
Proof.
https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/nvda-stock?op=1
Graphics chips have gone stark wild!!
Compare and contrast …
https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/Stock/INTC
Do not cite the deep magic to me, witch. I was there when it was written.
Of course the video game industry is huge, but what hikkikomori and aging fatbeards don’t want to acknowledge is that most of the profit is in mobile and casual gaming, not the AAA PC/console space. AAA blockbuster gaming has been absolutely cratering, with publishers folding and getting acquired at a disturbing rate. This is an industry segment in decline. It’s your wine aunt playing whatever the latest version of Farmville is that’s driving the industry, not whiny little autists in their mom’s basement.
And the publishers know this. It’s why they don’t listen to the whiny autists, because the whiny autists have been unremittingly hostile, stupid, and entitled since the beginning of the industry. Why would BioWare listen to the autists about Mass Effect: Andromeda when the rum lot of them were such little bitches about the ending of Mass Effect 3?
Like I said: founded on multiple lies on both sides, achieved nothing, changed nothing. It wasn’t about ethics in game journalism, it was about a pathetic soyboy whose girlfriend was cheating on him. “Gender representation” has never been a problem in video games that needed solving. We still got Mass Effect: Andromeda, The Last of Us II, and Dragon Age: Inquisition despite all the autistic shrieking. CD Projekt RED, Warhorse, and Volition went on making the same politically incorrect games they’ve always made and refused to apologize for it.
being socially awkward is not a crime
No, it’s not. Being an asshole is, and AAA publishers know their fans are, by and large, assholes. So they don’t listen to them.
Normies like yourself
I’ve worked in the industry in the past, have multiple friends who still do (like the lead gameplay designer for the Mass Effect series and one of the original devs for the Wizardry and Jagged Alliance series), and have an impressive collection of consoles. Remember Alan Moore’s The Killing Joke?
talking sh1t about us
…maybe don’t be shit then?
You just can’t stop gaslighting people, can you Daniel? 1st you lie about the cause and effect nature of how gamergate started, then go for victim blaming because they take exception to your insults. The reason the sector is in decline is the same reason that Hollywood and comics are in decline, ie because of the SJW critical theory preaching pervading the industry, and apologists for same, such as yourself. You are a real piece of work.
“Being an asshole is, and AAA publishers know their fans are, by and large, assholes. So they don’t listen to them.”
A winning strategy, just look at EA and their smashing success with Battlefield V. Similar examples aplenty.
“Why would BioWare listen to the autists about Mass Effect: Andromeda”
Maybe if they did the game wouldn’t be a flop?
“No, it’s not. Being an asshole is, and AAA publishers know their fans are, by and large, assholes.”
Last I checked, being weird, wrong and loud was still legal. The “free country” thing, you know. They’re trying their best, but so far, still legal. Also interesting to hear that all those millions of Nintendo gamers and little girls playing Hatsune Miku rhythm games are “@ssholes” Daniel.
We’re starting to see SJW pressure on entirely benign games like Mario Kart. We’ve seen them going after Dr. Seuss recently, it isn’t like they’re going to ease off if we appease them.
“…maybe don’t be sh1t then?”
You think people are socially awkward and neuro-atypical as some kind of stunt? Not surprising, a lot of people think that.
Personally, I’m going to be the way I am. The nail that sticks up. The square peg that doesn’t fit nicely into the regulation round holes. I’m not able to be any other way. If somebody decides they’re going to hammer me down, jam me in the round hole, well, many have tried. But here I am, still sticking up.
“…collection of consoles…”
So not a PC Gamer then?
There’s a lot of testosterone in the gamer bunch and it expresses itself in violent game play. In person most of them can be pushed away with a palm to the forehead and a ‘ gid outta here ‘ , but online they’re rabid weasels.
I’m not a gamer and I don’t care about this story one way or the other, but this statement leapt out at me.
“Male gamers just didn’t want to change themselves or the gaming-community “status quo,” as though they’re afraid of being decolonized, if you will.”
If gaming is a majority male activity, which was created by males and then a bunch of girls decide they want to play, and after they have decided they want to play they don’t like the existing environment created by the male players, and demand that it be changed to suit them, wouldn’t it mean that the women were “colonizing” the male space, rather than “decolonizing” it? If the concept has any cultural meaning at all, it sure looks to me like the women are “colonizing” it, not “decolonizing” it.
What the Media think GamerGate is about: – Evil men (probably white) abusing and harassing female gamers because they see them as a threat.
What Gamers think of GamerGate: – talentless Thots trying to play the victim card after everyone mocked their shitted games.
What the rest of the population think GamerGate is: – ‘Those save point things your wizard has to go through??’