fuzzy post-it

zachsrpblog:

I see some of your points here but let me tell you something else, the people on the other side don’t have clean hands either.

me: “gamergate is ineffective at the one thing it claims to fight for, and is actually working against its own goal”
you: “ok yeah but people who AREN’T gamergate have ALSO done bad things which i will now list”

ok but what does that have to do with anything?

the “other side” is practically an illusion, dreamed up by people who are used to settings with two clear sides. (like, you know, in games.) but there is no organized banner under which opponents of ethical journalism (lol) are rallying. and i haven’t identified myself as a member of any particular group of people here, so what group do you think you’re criticizing? i don’t even follow most of gamergate’s nemeses.

Like for example, if you go out and search for a bit you’ll find that people who claim to support social justice have been doing nothing but tarnishing the reputation of gamers as basement-dwelling scumbags. Now this wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t do the same thing they do on tumblr and basically sweep anyone who plays games under the “Gamer rug” as it were and saying that everyone who plays games is like that.

i’m gonna guess you’re referring to the original “gamers are over” article, which was written by a gamer and was saying that we should stop pandering to the basement-dwelling scumbags as though they were the only people who play games.

then gamergate came along and did its damnedest to prove that gamers really are as awful as the stereotype, which i totally appreciate

Another problem that was prevalent at one point where people like anita sarkeesian were claiming that games like Saints Row, GTA, and Hitman were misogynistic and such other things, despite the fact she did things to make it look like they were misogynistic, in GTA I can ride an airplane to 5000 feet skydive into a granny at the speed of sound because it’s a sandbox game and if anything many of these games have powerful female characters that take no shit from anyone.

err, yes, that’s how critiquing media works. she says some things she thinks about it; you reflect on those things and agree or disagree or do whatever you want.

and btw as far as i’m aware, the protagonists and the vast majority of characters who actually do anything significant in all of those games are all dudes, so they are not exactly poster children for gender equality

i haven’t watched her videos but fyi, saying something is sexist doesn’t mean it’s actively and pervasively evil. sexism is a common pattern in our culture that takes effort to avoid; pointing it out just means “hey, this fits the pattern, maybe we should make more effort.” it doesn’t even mean games like GTA shouldn’t exist at all. but something is kinda messed up when games like GTA dominate an entire type of media.

My final point being that I may go back to just being neutral on the subject, because both sides have done fucking horrible things and a lot of the time the ends don’t justify the means.

i am extremely confused as to how criticizing video games’ portrayal of women is a “fucking horrible thing”

or in any way comparable to anything gamergate has done

By ethics I mean I believe there should be more reviews where the person just gives their honest, straight, opinion on the game like for example Yahtzee Croshaw. If there were more reviews like that then the gamerx themselves would be able to form their own opinions instead of having to trust someone who’s trying to pass off opinion as fact. “This game is awesome and you have to buy it, no if’s and’s or butts.” is a lot different from “This game is quite good in my opinion and if you’re into this type of thing you should go give it a look.” An Unbiased, honest, matter of fact review is the type of goal i’m shooting for when it comes to ethics in gaming journalism.

reviews are biased. they are informed by the reviewer’s experience. that’s the whole point of them. there is no way to give an unbiased review except to, like, list the system requirements and read the plot summary off of the back of the box. people listen to game reviewers because they trust the reviewers’ opinions.

you can take the big obvious parts of your bias into account, e.g. probably avoid reviewing genres you just don’t like at all, but expecting a completely objective description of whether something is fun doesn’t make any sense.

your two example quotes are basically the same thing, really. no one reads a review expecting anything but the reviewer’s opinion, so it’s a complete waste of time to guard every sentence with “this is my opinion btw!”.

Anyways, have a nice day and all.

ok sure you too.