I'm not an MRA and I've never posted here before. However, after the recent gaming drama I don't know where to ask this: Are journalists and other figures self-censoring at all costs to avoid potential social justice backlash?

Ultramegasaurus · 2014-08-20T11:17:15+00:00

Yes, gaming journalism is a bastion of social justice, political correctnes and feminism but also general (financial) corruption and greed. It's outright cringe-worthy. As a gamer, I'd say just stay clear of this whole cesspool of drama and play your games in peace.

Kuonji · 2014-08-20T12:07:20+00:00

That seems like a dark road for journalism to go down if they start kneeling to anyone who could crush them under accusations of misogyny.

It happens outside of gaming journalism as well, it's one of the reasons the MRM gets such a bad reputation, any criticism of the actions of women or feminists is conflated with misogyny. It's a common tactic with joirnalists, switching from "feminists" to "women" mid-article, then proclaiming misogyny.

questionnmark · 2014-08-20T10:22:57+00:00

Hostile, self-serving feminism(SJWs) has a huge presence in social media and subsequently online journalism, it is cancerous and authoritarian in its nature and actions. Part of its prominence has to do with the fact that it's a charged topic and generates a lot of clicks. Another part is indeed that people are simply too fearful of this internet hate machine, they've ruined a lot of lives for minor infractions and baseless accusations. It is cult-like in attitude and dependent on a lot of cronyism and disinformation. I believe it truly to be a generational social problem. It really is not going to go away until it gets to the point of boiling over, then comes crashing down in consequence.

urection · 2014-08-20T12:18:51+00:00

dude these are the people that made Ru Paul apologize for using the word "tranny"

SJWs are very real, their influence is enormous, and they're completely out of control

burningbezier · 2014-08-20T13:04:39+00:00

I've found the drama over the last day or so to be quite funny actually. I don't give one rumbling fuck about a girl cheating on her boyfriend - she can sleep with whoever she likes, whenever she likes and more power to her. It's a private matter for her, her ex, and the people who were dating the guys she slept with. I don't even have a problem with her sleeping with the guys in question and then, all of a sudden, getting the implicit support of their massive websites despite making a shitty game. Women sleeping to get ahead? That happens in the real world. Not every woman's at it, but it does happen.

What's funny though, is the dissonance between being a feminist SJW and this self same behavior. The two would seem completely at odds, especially given ZQ's past pronouncements. This creates a confluence of hypocrisy that's too delicious for most people to resist. This sense of a massive GOTCHA only increases when Reddit, 4Chan and multiple other sites go running at the thought of risking the outrage of the SJW Twitter crowd and DELETE everything.

Zoe Quinn should be getting blown the fuck out by feminists for compromising feminist values for personal gain, they should be on her case for using feminism and false flag harassment to enrich herself and raise her profile. They should be using their outrage machine to out her as a fraud, a liar and a damaging factor to women in the industry. Prominent feminist gamers should be outraged at her "do as I say, not as I do" behavior. Instead, they're lock step behind her. Why? I can't help but feel it's because they aren't whiter than white either, and they don't want to risk being BTFO by each other.

What this incident shows is how powerful online feminism is. A prominent SJW was caught with her pants down and massive, multi-million user websites went into full DELETE MODE to protect her and try to bury the story. Websites were shut down just for reporting on it.

That's power. That's privilege.

That's something we're told women don't have by the very ideology that caused this media blackout.

Obligatory Post Gold Edit: You're too kind and no need for it. Thanks!

thedevguy · 2014-08-20T12:20:44+00:00

Two things about this are newsworthy:

the conflict of interest. She received publicity, favorable coverage, and a distribution channel (steam) that she wouldn't otherwise have had.
the unfair silencing of competition. Zoe tried to start an organization to help women in the games industry. I don't think anything ever came of it. But at about the same time, a group called The Fine Young Capitalists proposed essentially the same thing. Zoe used her contacts in the industry to have the FYC "game jam" as it's called, stopped.

But here's the thing: even though there is amble evidence of both of these facts, no reputable media is reporting it. It will never be on a site like wikipedia either, since one of their rules is that a fact must be reported on before it can be included there.

To answer your question, it definitely seems that SJWs have enormous power, so yes, I would expect even more of this from journalism in the future.

baskandpurr · 2014-08-20T11:33:38+00:00

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evil-doer · 2014-08-20T13:17:08+00:00

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toblotron · 2014-08-20T10:51:53+00:00

Gaming journalism seems to be a very attractive target for feminists - maybe because it's easily accessible? No qualifications are needed, just that you attract an audience, which they seem to be able to do by invoking the usual threat-against-women narrative.

Sadly, I've decided I can't buy the local gaming rag anymore, as it has become too infected with feminist "analysis".. chissake - the last issue had a frontpage devoted to the fact that the new assassins creed didn't have a female protagonist to choose from.. bluergh...

-I don't think people should stop playing Assassins Creed because it's not "ideologically correct"; I think they should stop playing it because it is "boring on-rails crap". (in my not at all humble opinion :))

5th_Law_of_Robotics · 2014-08-20T12:31:01+00:00

Seems like it. Being accused of bigotry or insensitivity seems to be a greater concern for journalists than accusations of being unprofessional or inept.

Keiichi81 · 2014-08-20T15:12:09+00:00

Anita Sarkeesian leaps in and backs Zoe, mocking all who would raise concern about the issue as sexist harassers. Her followers are unleashed believing this narrative.

The same Anita Sarkessian who rages about female sexualization in video games is defending a woman who sexualizes herself to get favorable coverage and connections in the video game industry? But that would make her a hypocrite, would it not?

This is my shocked face.

Sir_Fancy_Pants · 2014-08-20T12:27:40+00:00

Ill save you a lot of time son and give you a very useful piece of life advice:

In any hobby or interest that is populated by socially awkward and isolated individuals with low social status, they will pander and give significance to SJW purely to either use as a platform to give themselves significance over others or to win affections of the SJW,

SJW and SJWP (social justice warrior panderer) basically form a mutual alliance where both give each other attention/affection/prominence to raise each others "worth" in the group.

This only works because the social dynamics of these hobbies/interests/cultures are "alternative" so there is a premium on people seen as "new and progressive"

If you try pulling SJW shit at a windsurfing convention or skydiving competition, people rightly call you out for fuckup you are and you commit social suicide, but nerdy communities pander to it, so they naturally are riddled with it.

Aethiesm/colleges/gaming they are harbours of inexperienced socially awkward and naive nerds. That is why this problem will forever be here.

Gstreetshit · 2014-08-20T11:55:20+00:00

Are we not allowed to shame people for infidelity anymore? Can not even the victim of that infidelity shame the unfaithful? For christ sake.

blacktridenttv · 2014-08-20T12:54:56+00:00

I've just finished scripting a video about the real issue at hand-- not her infidelity. That doesn't matter to me. People cheat all the time. But more importantly, raising the question of journalistic integrity in gaming journalism. I'm even going to attempt a call-to-action on the creation of a group dedicated to ensuring integrity in games journalism. (Keeping politics and ideology OUT of it entirely. Not just on SJ issues, but across-the-board.)

We'll see how it goes.

yoduh4077 · 2014-08-20T11:43:14+00:00

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zephyrprime · 2014-08-20T14:18:53+00:00

This really all just demonstrates that women have a privilege that men don't: pussy and the power to dispense that pussy. Pussy is used to bargain for and trade for economic and social gain. I'm tired of hearing feminists point out all the supposed privileges that men have without even mentioning the huge benefits that women get like pussy and having a man provide for them for the large majority of their lives.

Karma9999 · 2014-08-20T13:59:54+00:00

Gamers as a stereotype are young males, usually insecure over a bunch of things with quite low self-esteem. They are naturally considered easy pickings for feminism, easily brow-beaten or shamed into toeing the line. They due to their age are also an easy source of quotable material/outrage for mainstream feminism. The backlash recently against Anita Sarkeesian and now Zoe Quinn is of the woman bites dog kind of news.

It's important to feminist journalism to maintain the previous relationship rather than let the power slip, hence part of the reason for the flood of response. Losing the moral high ground, with one feminist ripping gamers off for vapour-ware and the other getting very friendly reviews in exchange for sex is showing that the whole feminist movement are not made up of angels with harps of gold but rather frail humans with rather muddy feet of clay. In other words, they are the same as the rest of us, or possibly worse considering these two examples. To the feminist movement this is disastrous, if feminists are not the ideal moral example then their beliefs and policies would come under serious scrutiny, and then the cracks would really start to show.

Consider your target audience. These feminists aren't buying games, a few are trying to sell them. In the end who cares what they think? The hordes of SJW's don't really matter because they aren't interested in buying your products. I would suggest make your point, that corruption in journalism is to be condemned, and to keep on making it time and time again. Don't get drawn into trying to defend strawmen, you aren't attacking anyone's sex life, you're calling out a developer who slept with a reporter to get good reviews, and reporters who couldn't keep it in their pants. There'll be a ton of bad publicity, but someone once said there's no such thing as bad publicity. After all, it didn't hurt GTA.

warspite88 · 2014-08-20T11:19:29+00:00

the SS will be at your door next

theskepticalidealist · 2014-08-20T16:55:24+00:00

Yes feminists, keep upsetting communities like this so people end up fed up with you. And please keep calling everyone misogynists so it loses all meaning.

giegerwasright · 2014-08-20T20:07:47+00:00

This whole event is a cross section. It cuts very close to and exposes a rotten rotten core or deceit, manipulation, propaganda, opportunism, and hypocrisy. It is a potential revelation, unequivocally and provably, of what hypocrites, liars, sadists, manipulators, and villains SJWs and feminists are. It is a mens rights issue, btw, because it shows how deep the corruption of our media goes, and how our opponants are the wood boring beetles that have gnawed that media.

SlootShamer · 2014-08-20T13:10:10+00:00

Neo-bolsheviks are hysterical liars and gaslighters. Of course significant segments of the new media are afraid of them.

SJWs will play all sides - including taking advantage of the basic decency of normal people through misrepresentation. Hence why you see so many SJWs willing to selectively court social conservatives when it suits them. Odd bedfellows indeed!

Fortunately, I actually see this kind of loopy far-left identity politics business beginning to fall out of fashion, and not just on the feminista front. A lot of politically correct "conventional wisdom" that specifically gained cultural ascendancy during the 90's is starting to bleed out.

That is probably not how it seems to many, but having lived long enough to see this whole "story arc" play out, this is what I have noticed. So don't despair.

Samurai007_ · 2014-08-20T14:15:50+00:00

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BBQ_HaX0r · 2014-08-20T16:40:23+00:00

I kind of got wrapped up in this whole issue yesterday and spent good time discussing it with some smart friends of mine. I was somewhat surprised this didn't turn up here sooner.

I think the issue OP highlights has more to do with political correctness particularly people taking advantage of situations with political correctness. People are so worried about 'offending someone' or being labeled something that is not true (sexist, racist, bigoted, et al.) which hampers discussion and speech. I think back to how many people who dismiss legitimate criticisms of Obama as simply being racist. Or how everyone kept trying SO hard to look for racism as an excuse to dismiss the Tea Party (instead of focusing on legitimate ones). I think this is a tactic mostly used by left-leaning people (journalists, intelligentsia). However, the right uses it when they can as well. Think of their portrayal of Rand/Ron Paul as some crazy/racist/wingnut. Mislabeling people can have serious implications. This also highlights how progressive/tolerant as a society we have become. We know sexism/racism is wrong and look to remove it. Sometimes we look too hard and use it as a crutch against our opponents.

That type of stigma is easy 'to prove' and near impossible to disprove. I've been labeled a racist and punished for it. I was forced to go to 'sensitivity training' as a result of innocuous comments I made on Facebook. Mind you, no slurs, simply stated a fact which involved race and it offended someone, ergo punishment. Once you are publicly known as something like that it can be quite damaging and used to dismiss you future/past/present actions. It's almost impossible to combat once you've been accused. It is completely disarming and frankly an affront to the notions of liberty and progress. It's censorship through fear. And, feminists (and others -- focusing on feminists because of this subreddit and the incident yesterday) take advantage of this. They are quite proficient in getting support for their cause, and a key part is using fear of censorship/accusations to stymie criticisms. Political correctness does nothing but limit the ability of discussion and progress out of some fear of 'offending.' As if being offended is somehow the worst thing in the world and is never warranted. Journalists are no different in this respect.

Think about how 'MRA' has essentially become a slur. Granted this place can overreact and be too sensitive at times. However, a majority of the posts here provide great arguments and opinions on issues facing men in society as well a place for men to vent and find support. Men face issues in society as well (just like everyone). Just because we had the right to vote sooner, or men were the primary people in power does not mean ALL men have had it well off (or still do). It's not men v. women but people struggling against oppressors. Just because women were 'more oppressed' in the past does not mean the majority of men were not as well. Those in charge have always oppressed people, men and women alike. Issues like feminism and men's rights are the fight for the same thing and should not be opposed. Yet, here we are. Another example of how accusations can be used to silence and disregard an entire movement. MRA's are all white-sexist-male-neckbeards. Sure.

Zoe is a public figure in her community. The accusations of impropriety with journalists is a matter of public concern. It's not about 'bringing down a vocal feminist' or 'get the liberated sexual woman.' There is this huge issue of potential corruption and bias which the public ought to be aware if true, and this is of course getting pushed to the side by cries of victimization. It's sexism why we're upset she was potentially 'buying off' journalists? Her responsible was predictable and sad. To believe that you're exempt from criticism and thereby dismissing all criticism as sexist/racist/bigoted truly takes a special level of absurdity. I could careless that she was a hypocrite or cheated on her boyfriend. I must say, however, that I'm shocked that an outspoken moralist turned out to be a hypocrite, truly, that's never happened before!

This ended up being long-winded and I bounced around a bit, but I needed somewhere to share these thoughts. I do believe political correctness and huge overarching fears of not offending anyone are threats to progress and freedom in this country. It limits discussions including journalism. How can we expect to solve anything if we're not allowed to discuss it honestly? If there are problems with minorities, sexes, religion, et al.;how can we, as a society, EVER be expected to solve or try and fix these if we're hampered by our concerns about offending people? That's the issue here, and it's hugely problematic going forward. In the name of progress, we are regressing.

Journalism has been in trouble for a long time and the issues that were highlighted yesterday have been long ingrained in it's downfall. Favoritism, favors, bias, corruption. We were hoping the internet would help liberate (and it has, to some extent), but it's not immune.

BlackMRA-edtastic · 2014-08-20T15:00:10+00:00

" A woman should be able to engage in sexual relations with her peers and not be publicly smeared for it."

Astounding hypocrisy from the motherboard article considering men have been savaged for doing the exact same thing usually followed with claims of sexual harassment. I do wonder how people are even supposed to do this when so much as a sexual advance towards a coworker or person in the industry is considered a firing offense.

twiitar · 2014-08-20T17:05:27+00:00

Zoe Quinn is a prime example of gender inequality and somebody giving their best to push it

Just check out how she treats an event that wanted to help women make video games http://i.imgur.com/Gy2n50g.png

yummyluckycharms · 2014-08-20T19:06:22+00:00

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OrangeBananna · 2014-08-21T03:51:00+00:00

Her metacritic score for her game has been destroyed. http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/depression-quest

2014-08-20T10:38:18+00:00

Of course journalists self-censor. Internet journalism is still pretty much the wild wild west, I hope it stays that way. What happens in gaming journalism and in gaming is up to the readers and users.

IShouldNotTalk · 2014-08-20T13:01:52+00:00

I could give a shit about who fucked whom, the issue is the apparent breach of journalistic integrity. Video game journalism has a shit reputation as it is, and if there was an exchange of sexual favors for good reviews then that should be the issue. It's not outside the realm of possibility that all parties involved are trying to hype the situation as some kind of misogynist crusade against a woman in order to shift the focus away from what, at the very least, is a breach of ethics by the developer and the journalists. If people should be pissed about anything, it's the fact journalists may have taken anything in exchange for a positive review.

polysyllabist · 2014-08-20T18:32:03+00:00

Men's Right's is wrong. This is a truth so obvious that when discussing it, it's often expressed as a given. No evidence is provided because it's self evident. It's a hatred filled movement, with no point in existing, and it therefore follows unsurprisingly that every follower is some woman hater afraid of real equality.

At least, that's the general thought process of someone who approaches the world through a confirmation bias. When the conclusion is a fixed point, the evidence becomes the variable. You either have to rationalize with mental gymnastics, or bury and ignore it.

In this case, it's an act of denial, and it's not uncommon. It generally requires a confirmation bias in order to be opposed to a men's rights movement on principle, so it's not uncommon to encounter.

Instead of seeing this gender-neutral as a shitty person doing a shitty thing because they could get away with it (due to beneficial sexism constructs), it's feared as something the MRM can use to trick people into thinking they're existence isn't completely invalid. And that's unacceptable. Why? Because we started with the premise of it being unacceptable.

Replace feminism, the MRM, and gender with pretty much any two sides of a similar coin and you could pretty much use what I wrote as a copy-pasta. Too many humans approach their perspective in such ways.

2014-08-20T20:41:08+00:00

This is just the direction that online journalism is going.

Any comment about POCs will lead to calls of racism.
Any comment about Israel will lead to calls of antisemiticism.

Anything that is outrageous enough to get people to click is going to reign as king. It's a product of how journalism works in a setting like this.

For what it's worth, I think it's pretty shitty and slutty for someone, regardless of gender, to sleep with someone in a professional manner for advancement like this. It has nothing to do with their personal life at all, and nothing to do with cheating that's going on.

I hope she gets crucified on the internet and her game gets thrown off of steam, although I'm sure that that's not going to happen.

brankinginthenorth · 2014-08-20T13:56:43+00:00

Journalism in general is dead/dying. Journalism is supposed to be telling things people in charge don't want told and everything else is public relations. At this point nearly everything is public relations.

-Fender- · 2014-08-20T14:03:02+00:00

The interesting thing here is that this seems to be a very public scandal, with very obvious proofs that SJWs and feminists are controlling large chunks of the media and censoring people.

I hope that this gains even more traction, that they get even more enmity from the various communities unfortunate enough to have been caught in this. Because it's making something we have been saying for a very long time become even more obvious to the public.

duglock · 2014-08-20T15:54:37+00:00

The issue is larger then just the feminists and this game lady. The past few years we have seen a McCarthy like turn from those that follow an ideology that promotes political correctness. Don't have the right thoughts, you should lose your job/business/etc. Redskins, Paula Dean, etc are all good examples. The people that need belong to these ideologies need to take a step back and closely examine the actions of the groups/politicians they support and just not listen to the words they say on Ellen.

2014-08-20T16:33:06+00:00

I've never realized how powerful these SJ people are until today. holy shit

yangtastic · 2014-08-20T16:50:45+00:00

Hey, welcome to the subreddit.

I don't post here much these days because although I'm fairly outraged at the things I see here, I don't have a ton of energy for activism since building positive things in my own life consumes much of my energy. I can tell you that I'm engaged, in a relationship with inverted gender roles, and that my fiancée and I are helped vastly more by what we've learned here (and what we learned in our neuroscience and other courses) than what I learned in my WS studies. I consider myself an egalitarian, and I consider the current egalitarian move to be a backing of the Men's Rights Movement.

In the spirit of giving you a higher order of discourse than you find in SJW circles, as has been my experience here, I can highly recommend a book on this topic that I think you'll find enlightening. Trust Me, I'm Lying by Ryan Holiday. For example, he was the former press guy for American Apparel and planted many, many of the stories you now associate with Dov Charney. The SJW machine came up with more, and now the man's out of a job. Is he probably a sleazeball? Sure. Would I want him to date my daughter? Definitely not. Does he belong on a sex offender registry for the rest of his life? I seriously doubt it.

The book contains more than just his personal stories, as Holiday has done his homework on journalistic history and business and so on. But from what I can tell from his book and my observations elsewhere, the answer to your question appears to be a solid yes.

I heartily recommend you stick around here. There's a lot of anger and pain, sure, but you will learn a fuck ton of useful shit.

DavidByron2 · 2014-08-20T17:45:13+00:00

Yeah if the feminist get a bug up their ass about a topic they can bring a lot of censorship. That's their thing. They are also good at poison pen letter campaigns just like the WKKK used to run. I guess that's running to their strengths as women (for the most part they are women).

SoldierofNod · 2014-08-20T18:05:39+00:00

In chaos, there is opportunity. I'm hoping that something like this will spark a conversation about feminists, and SJWs in general, censoring the opposition. As it stands, attempts to stop discussion of this issue are just completely backfiring. It's blowing up all across the internet and everyone's flipping out. Pretty hilarious, to be honest.

More and more facts about how deep SJW control goes are coming to light. Hell, what she did to Wizardchan is becoming well known, and that place is absolutely microscopic.

As I see it, the worst case scenario is that websites start allowing discussion of this and it peters off in a week or so. Best case scenario is that they continue to ban it, leading to the Streisand effect in absolutely monumental proportions, and it goes on for around a month. Hopefully, it'll cause some long-term change in the current disgusting state of games journalism where the prevailing attitude is, if you're male, play video games and spend more time playing than cowtowing to everyone's hyperleftist sensibilities, you're literally Hitler.

Of course, my predictions in the past have been overly optimistic, so don't take my word for it.

Hateblade · 2014-08-20T18:41:08+00:00

Turn the tables on them. I refuse to do business with a feminist. They want to destroy companies just because someone didn't exactly cater to their specific belief system? Go make your own company then, cause you won't be part of mine. I'd rather suffer losses by not working with feminists than go out of business getting screwed by one.

warspite88 · 2014-08-20T20:16:53+00:00

you have seen just a small piece of the feminist empire and how it swarms like locusts around anyone trying to present facts against one of their wymyn. you can do the study's yourself and see that no matter how legit a claim is against a feminist (key that she is a feminist supporter) woman, her cult will back her up and the machine of intimidation, harassment to shut up any detractors is big money and big stakes.

as long as white knights (who refuse to hold feminists or women accountable for their actions as much as they do men) factor in, you wont see a positive change in this situation. it will only get worse. from a very small nerdy situation to a very real situation where women who murder get off scott free or who ruin men and childrens lives for their own selfish gains..as well as cost tax payers billions.

mentalentrails · 2014-08-20T20:23:39+00:00

I have noticed this sort of censorship across the board. It is a plague on journalism and free speech. Why is it that people can try and tell me that feminism is about fighting for EQUAL rights when it is clearly about anti-male propaganda? If it weren't propaganda both sides would be equally represented in the media, it's not undebatable scientific data. Both males and females commit what the general public deems immoral acts. If you are going to be a leader of a movement you should be held to a higher standard, you shouldn't be the movement's leader if you can't be.

Discrimination and harassment are highly subjective matters. Whether a person feels harassed or discriminated has as much to do with a person's experience and perspective as any other factor. I don't feel it should be left to the public to decide the morality of acts committed between two people unless those acts have a significant effect on others not involved. The censorship, to me, is far more atrocious than Zoe's unethical behavior.

seego79 · 2014-08-20T23:23:33+00:00

its in the interests of the gaming press to make this a "slut shaming" problem because it focuses attention away from all the nepotism, sexual favours and the incestuous nature of the business.

basically its better for business for the gaming press to make this a sex issue rather than a corruption issue because being outed as corrupt screws them a lot harder.

inc0gn3gr0 · 2014-08-21T03:46:43+00:00

It all boils down to the simple fact that once something becomes sacred, it will become corrupt.

guywithaccount · 2014-08-20T15:08:54+00:00

You wrote all that shit, and you never told anyone what the game was she made.

This chick made a game about depression. It is designed to show someone without depression what life is like for someone with depression.

I might be mistaken, but I think it got a greenlight on Steam lately (for those that don't know, this means it is on track to being available for purchase on Steam at a later date).

Here is the thing. The meat of it if you will. I haven't played it (I might, as a depression sufferer my interest is up) but word on the street is that judging it as a game it comes up pretty seriously short. It is just a chose your own adventure narrative. But, as a utility to demonstrate to those who don't suffer it does a pretty good job.

As for how all this ties in and what the truth is behind these shenanigans - beats the shit out of me.

Having said all those words. As someone whose suffering over the years has been significant, I will tell you here and now that getting other people to understand what I go through is a difficult problem made impossible by the common misconception that depression = sadness.

Screw this thing as a game. If it really does get the point across, I am in. I will take any tool I can get my hands on to work through this. Cause right now I just shrug my shoulders, think 'might as well explain 'green' to a person blind from birth' and agree that depression equals sadness.

2014-08-20T15:54:47+00:00

They want to cover it up because it it gets out, their careers are gone. Ironically, them trying to cover it up made it more noticeable. They all participated in an unethical journalism practice, nepotism, bribery, and cheated on their SOs.

2014-08-20T16:19:09+00:00

I honestly think people are scared shitless of her commiting suicide.

kami232 · 2014-08-20T19:46:33+00:00

I sell life insurance. If I went around saying "I'll sell you a $1,000,000 policy if we have sex" I might very well sell a fuckton of policies, but it's unethical because the sale is conditional on sex.

I'm legally bound by ethics laws. If I did shit like that, I'd not only lose my license before I could say a damned thing, I'd probably end up in prison for a long time.

First: I'm not saying ethics laws should be bound to all careers. I understand that life insurance has ethics laws to protect clients, companies, and agents from scummy clients, scummy companies, and scummy agents. We're talking about an industry that bets a lot of money on the inevitability of death, but all sides are hoping for a long life. So should we need ethics laws for journalism? - probably no, because it's their job to report news, not invest multi-billions of dollars for clients. Video game developtment? - Probably yes, because of some of the shit devs have pulled (/cough The War Z).

What I am saying is we in the insurance industry are bound to ethics laws in order to protect our own integrity as agents, protect the integrity of the companies we represent, and to protect the clients we serve.

So, let's say Ms. Quinn did sleep with guys to get good reviews, or to get ahead with game development... that there is dishonest, and it's really unethical because it has the potential to mislead the clients who read those reviews!

That's the story everybody should be focusing on, but it's sad to see Feminists defending her with straw man attacks and red herrings against all who criticize that form of unethical behavior.

TL;DR - it's extremely disappointing to see people miss the point and focus on sex and women's empowerment while intentionally twisting the words of people who criticize unethical behavior. Because that's what the issue is - is it ethical to sleep with somebody to get ahead in the business world?

To answer my own question: I say no, it's not ethical.

But to paraphrase a great Tom Clancy quote (IIRC it's from Bear and the Dragon): "If you have to make your own ethics laws, you've already lost."

edit: a word

Nephanor · 2014-08-20T19:57:30+00:00

This whole debacle is shameful. Shameful on her for using people to get herself ahead instead of her own merits, and shameful for the men involved who compromised their ethics. This has one huge good thing come out about it. The gaming media has been proven to be unreliable and corrupt. And as such, it is time we #BoycottCorruptVGMedia, it is time we take the hobby we love back from the social justice warriors and feminists who want to remake it in their image.

2014-08-20T21:28:44+00:00

I don't get it. What's the big deal about video games?

CornyHoosier · 2014-08-20T21:58:55+00:00

What sort of field is Game Development that calling a spade a spade means your career is tanked?

If you have to do unethical things to achieve any sort of success you've failed at your craft. It is a very damaging concept in a STEM career.

Zosimasie · 2014-08-20T22:10:44+00:00

If you're a journalist, you are a public figure. You banging some dude on the side qualifies as news. It's gossip news, like celebrity stuff, but it's still legitimate news. It creating a conflict of interests and unethical practices, it becomes highly relevant.

2014-08-20T22:41:48+00:00

Feminism is a cancer of the mind. They literally ruin everything they come in contact with.

typhonblue · 2014-08-21T00:39:29+00:00

Is this what is to be expected from journalism in the future? People desperately trying to keep their heads low when negative news breaks about individuals who happen to be feminist icons?

I wonder how far they'll take this blanket immunity.

Feminists certainly don't mind rubbing elbows with those among their number that talk about a Final Solution.

Chad_Nine · 2014-08-21T01:54:25+00:00

Events like these are a boon to the MRM. As the social justice types use overt means to silence dissent, people see that shit, and if they don't completely go MRM, at least they become anti-social justice.

shinbreaker · 2014-08-21T03:22:03+00:00

Is this what is to be expected from journalism in the future?

No, this is the result of the new gaming press that has taken over.

I've been writing about games for years and I've been reading game sites for a long time, and it's been the past few years that sites are being slowly taken over by SJWs. A lot of these people weren't so gung ho about social justice early on but when certain people started criticizing these writers, they began to change.

For example, I interviewed a porn start about video games back in 2009 and almost all the major gaming sites used it including sites that are run by major SJWs. If I did the same thing now, they would be disgusted.

See these people that are high up there in the gaming press are so scared of offending people that they go to the extreme. They're like born again Christians who lived a depraved life but then found Jesus and that's all they want to talk about. That's the same with these people. There's one writer, Leigh Alexander, who wrote about how she loved Bayonetta and said she's an inspiration and then a year or so later, now she's not sure if Bayonetta is a respectable character. Hmmm I wonder who got to her? Could it be the sex negative feminists?

It comes down to this: support the sites and Youtubers that aren't trying to shove their viewpoints down your throat and make you feel bad for just being a rational person. Let these dummies in the gaming press live in their own echo chamber until they decide to actually debate the points rather than focus on the feels.

2014-08-21T03:47:34+00:00

Well politicos have been doing it for years...

KillJoy575 · 2014-08-21T04:23:19+00:00

Goddamn, dude. This whole thing is ridiculous. If you had your project get all this support before you had sex with all those dudes, it would be your business. But the way it stands now, it seems like she did to get a favorable position.

rogerwatersbitch · 2014-08-21T04:26:14+00:00

Did anyone catch the Vice article where the author defending Quinn states:

males have taken to accusing Quinn, not ironically, of creating "a negative image for all current and future female game devs with her actions" and "[setting] back women in the video game industry."

When in fact, she is quoting the FEMALE gamer who broke the whole drama on Tumblr.

Misgendering...I wonder why the author would do that..Im sure it was a typo, a careless mistake, and nothing to do with the fact that she was trying to make Zoey more sympathetic by saying she was criticized/attacked by a man.....

FloranHunter · 2014-08-21T05:23:02+00:00

The amazing thing about feminist-enforced censorship is that not only must it eventually produce a massive backlash but that the MRM is going to ride that backlash into the mainstream. We're one of the very few (only?) progressive movements outright refusing to offer fealty to the feminist movement's dominant narratives.

HaberdasherFetishist · 2014-08-21T09:11:34+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5-51PfwI3M

2014-08-21T09:39:42+00:00

well maybe, just maybe those guys need to climb over the fence and stop giving the benefit of the doubt to the other side to abuse.

Plays-in-the-rain · 2014-08-21T02:12:30+00:00

Feminism = sleeping around with multiple people for personal enjoyment and material gain.

noodleworm · 2014-08-20T14:58:02+00:00

I don't think this deserves the attention its getting. Its become way to big a deal, based on something one dude said?

I think the feminists aren't going to back anything that can be called slut shaming.

I think people are going to get defensive because for all we know, a lot of it is slander. We can expect some of the things said by angry ex's to be a little biased.

The allegations don't hold much evidence. I guess we don't know what went on in her mind, we don't actually know for sure who she had relationships with, or why. Its very likely the whole social circle would have been a mix of people involved in games, so its perfectly plausible to have friends/boyfriend in the industry.

Can a person really use sex to for a career in such as easy way? How does that even work? "I wrote this favorable article about myself, We can do it as soon as you upload it" Maybe it made people like her better, but the same can be said for making friends? I kind of want to give the dudes more credit than assuming they were hypnotized by her magical vagina... and if they did publish articles because she slept with them, isn't it those guys we should be mad at? The people who are actually shitty sleazy journalists?

The censorship sucks. But I kind of understand that it might be a shitty way to stop a witch hunt. Aren't people already trying to already posts her addresses and phone numbers? Once the rape and death threats fly MRs will likely get some blame as usual, and it makes gamers in general look really bad.

I'm really failing to see how this is a big deal with gaming. This is only a big deal on the internet. Games themselves are not affected by this shit.

As long as there has been gaming journalism there has been developers in bed with journalists, if not always literally. But its not uncommon for writers to have a developer buddy. Of course there's is going to be bias!

Also I'm fairly sure the main reason the game got big was because its about depression. It was praised for being a good depiction of depression. SO social justice squad did have a hand, but I think it was the mental health awareness people, more than feminists.

romulusnr · 2014-08-20T17:14:51+00:00

We interrupt your regularly scheduled anti-feminism to point out that the overarching paradigm is no different here than it has been in "journalism" for centuries if not millennia.

In the 50s, for example, no media outlet wanting to stay alive would have ever criticized Joseph McCarthy for his witchhunting. (Yes, Edward R Murrow did, eventually, well after McCarthy was in decline.) In the 40s, no media outlet would have ever criticized an act of the President or the armed forces. Same was true in the 2000s. In the 1770s, no esteemed printer would have released anything critical of King George (the ones that did, did so knowing full well they were committing lese majeste and at great risk if discovered).

There's no such thing as a non-censored journalism or a non-censored society. It's worse, perhaps, in an era where public acceptance dictates sales of papers, and of ad space in such papers, and thus both predicators of a paper's continued existence, but it's not actually a new thing.

TL;DR: The problem isn't journalism censoring itself, because journalism always has censored itself. The problem, as has always been, is the source of the imperative to do the censoring in the first place.

Karmamechanic · 2014-08-20T23:59:27+00:00

Ahh. Gender Feminism at it's finest. Equality Feminism enjoys the penetration of scientific method. Gender Feminism is a frigid bitch and abhors penetrating discourse.

PerfectHair · 2014-08-20T12:37:46+00:00

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