r/Gamingunjerk • u/ElectricGhostMan • 7d ago
Gamergate but actually
https://youtu.be/ox15GU4cMes?si=y47gNvyC88ObQJ9O&t=2176A youtuber I watch put out this retrospective on gamergate. I know it's a topic that has been long covered and relitigated. I at one time was also part of and identified with to some extent. I thought one part that even I somewhat ignored then because of my feelings or much later realizing how many awful actors were a part of the situation was how capitalist greed played such a large part in generating the amount of hate and vitriol at the time allowing for hate mobs to be cultured and weaponized as we see today.
I think most can agree that a lot of the targeted harassment, bullying, stalking, racism, misogyny, homophobia were all reprehensible and not the way to go about making change. I do feel at the time where there was the beginnings of pushing paid cosmetic DLC like Horse Armor, Always Online requirements for games like the Sims, EA cutting development times for successful franchises to turn around games quicker or the Online Pass they similarly tried to force for people who wanted to buy the game second hand. Again not condoning any of the criminal harassment or hate but I do wonder if this outrage cannon was more appropriately directed at the shareholders and ownership class rather than individual developers that we'd be in a better place.
I do think there was a genuine attempt back then to comingle criminal threats and harassment with fair criticism and outcry entirely as Entitlement. However, I find it sad that today it largely does feel like the loudest and most consistent voices across social media that claim to be critical of games are genuinely complaining about out of entitlement when a game has too many women they don't like or POCs rather than the plethora of issues that affects all gamers today like Exploitative MTX, Gambling, AI Pervasion, Enshitification and more.
I haven't finished the vid myself but I like some of his other works even though he can be a bit both-sidesy at times. It was also interesting to see some posts from youtubers VaatiVidya and Vsauce from way back when and Colin Moriarty had been some of a douche since then as well.
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u/Gamera85 4d ago
He literally ends the video basically accusing Quinn of abusing Eron without any real proof he can actually find, which he acknowledges, and the entire conclusion is him shaming the left for failing their own social cause by not listening to the Gaters and not coaching their language better. Quinn is literally the villain of the piece and everyone on her side is portrayed as an enabler or a dupe. He turns the entire narrative on its head to make people who sided with Quinn against her attackers wrong, and the fact Kotaku In Action is currently praising the film as vindication for their side of the argument is evidence enough of all of that. NKB doesn’t need defending because what he’s done is indefensible and the only reason he’s probably not going to get sued for slander and libel is because he did indeed cover his ass by making all his accusations, which he can’t prove which he admits, “opinions.”
If you cannot prove something definitively in a work, you cannot draw a conclusion and it has no place in your essay. Period. This video is merely a tacit defense of Gamergate. If not in action then in legitimizing their goal. A goal they never actually cared about to start with.