To be fair, the gaming journalist attacks started against Brad Wardell long before there was a Gamergate and its no surprise that the usual suspects tried to pin him to the wall, Kotaku, Polygon, etc. He's been attacked from these groups since about 2010.

You do know the sexual harassment case was dismissed with prejudice and Alexandra Miseta was forced to apologize. A lot of the "facts" came from Ms. Miseta going to every favorable journalist she could find and they started writing hit pieces against him. I wouldn't consider Gamasutra a very objective source. Read the article, does it appear they sought comment from Mr. Wardell for that article? Doesn't it seem just a wee bit one-sided? Elemental, War of Magic is the title with the bad launch.

Yeah, it seems it didn't hold up in court and she probably only played the sexual harassment card in retaliation
On the other hand it seems Stardock sued a marketer over a game that failed because it was a buggy mess - what's THAT all about? So shady goings on on both sides, as far as I can tell

What was the press's angle on Brad back in '10 then anyway? There surely wasn't even an Anita to defend back then was there?

Actually reading old articles it seemed rather civil. It wasn't until Kotaku and 2012 when the opinions started turning against him.

Seems all the dissent I can find all came from that first article about it. And I noticed a very curious thing. With the lawsuit ongoing, apparently Alexandra Miseta provided some of the documents to Kotaku. That part is very interesting. That may explain the dismissal with apology and prejudice more than anything else. The courts really hate people using media like that during a lawsuit...

To tell you the truth, if you're a leftie and you've been reading the leftie gaming press for years and you agree with their stances and opinions you kind of assume that they are accurately representing the gaming community and everything is lovely, you don't even notice it IS leftie, it just seems, y'know, normal and common sense and sane
To suddenly find that all you GG types even exist out there is.. a bit shocking really!
Well that was dumb on her part and was really disrespectful to the judicial process buuuut.. puts Brad less in the clear IMO - I mean it sounds like her case was thrown out more because she acted stupid during the trial and less because of what Brad did or didn't do beforehand...

@Fever: yes. mechanics and writing are what's good in a game; if a good game is what you're looking for.

I find this very interesting, I always considered myself a "leftie" (in a let's say international internet sense), I didn't agree with it 100 of the time, but on the whole i was a leftie; especially when on the other political side of the spectrum there where some pretty retarded things going on, let's just say Bush for example.

In the past half year or so personally I found that the "left" (again, not specific to any country) radicalizd a lot too, in fact it seemed to be the exact opposite of the retarded right I enjoyed making fun of, yes it's the complete opposite but but also completely retarded in its own way.

The main problem is that yes bible thumpers have been silenced and ridiculed so much that they their opinions don't count anything anymore, but now the average tumblr snowflake seems to just take their place.


"The more things change the more they remain the same" is one of the sayings i think holds the most truth right now.

Interesting stuff.
Damn, there is some serious soap opera going on everywhere in the gaming world.
I noticed the same thing. Printmedia had higher educational standards and you had to work a lot to get into it which had serious down- but also upsides, it wasn't enough to write a blog to become one of the press.
I hope actual references get more important in internet media over time. Some real journalists who actually learned this stuff professionally would be a good foundation although I think the self-made people are still a good counterweight, they just shouldn't be the main source.

I read gaming magazines when I was a kid (although I prefered to play the demos) and some of them were quite good, have gotten worse with being paid by companies over time and at some point I stopped. I don't take reviews in the net seriously at all atm.

There seems to be consensus amoungst we the people that online harassment is largely apolitical degenerates and "kidiots". But just think of some of the msm stories circulating, you would not hold that belief if all your info came from msm and for millions thats still the case - we all know what they are trying to do to gaming, destroy it. Its just that some of us are more able to face this reality. And sure you hear all sorts of horror stories but really? How many are true or accurate and even if they are real one needs to ask how frequent?

Liana K has a new article up.

http://metaleater.com/video-games/feature/moot-vs-gamergate

I found it interesting. While moot doesn't say it specifically it sounds like he is leaving 4chan due to gamergate. Of course by the sounds of things he is also just tired or running the site for little to no pay.

Group think. It's a sad reality for every single demographic of homo sapiens on planet Earth. We tend to speak, act, and think like those around us. As controversial and insulting as you might think it is, there's still plenty of places around the world where people do and say things everyday that might sicken, offend, or enrage you. Why? Because that's the way they do things there and they suffer from exactly the same condition. I guess it's part of human survival, to group together and think and act alike for the 'common good', which is why true rebels are so rare. It's not because necessarily that they have a better way of living or thinking, it's just that they have the skills and the courage to do so differently even within their own social order. Telling off your own people, at the risk of your own status, career... or sometimes physical health... that's very rare.

And that's part of the danger of political correctness, if you ask me. It forces consensus through a combination of guilt-shaming, media manipulation, and the determination of undermining long-held traditions and social constructs... simply for the purpose of creating enough chaos so they can build a new society of compliant worker bees (conformity via diversity. Ironic, isn't it?). There's not a tyrant or demagog in history who hasn't had that same goal... working within groups in order to OWN the group.

Wait, now you're saying that online abuse in online gaming IS a serious problem (albeit not confined to misogynistic slurs)?
I.. I.. don't see how any of that directly relates to what we were just saying...

You said something about being surprised that so many GG-types existed out there in internetz land. I just find it amusing when cultures/ideas clash and something that could be held so true and 'normal' to one could be considered so outrageous and controversial to someone else. That was what my group think comment was about. Just an observation, really.

Maybe you're right, maybe it doesn't directly relate to what you were saying, but within the context of the conversation as I understood it, my observation made perfect sense to MYSELF. I was hoping that you would feel the same and we could hug out our problems through communication and mutual understanding, but I guess we'll just have to settle for a rematch at arm wrestling or pea-knuckle, or whichever sport you feel best and competing in. You know the one thing that really is missing from text format communication? CON-TEXT. Something so many write about, yet have so little appreciation for.

Ah yeah, that part - that makes more sense - I thought you were replying to the whole Stardock debacle...

Radicalize any group on most spectrums and you get the same results. "Resistance is futile" or "Our way or the highway". When you go to that length you tend to become authoritarian more often than not.