David Futrelle pays attention to Vox Day so that the rest of us don’t have to. That’s a service. He finds him admitting something about GamerGate.
[T]he interview also featured a few striking moments of candor. One of these came when Day — a sometime gave developer as well as the biggest asshole in Sci Fi — offered his answer to the question: “What is Gamergate really about?”
Suggesting that the issue of “corruption in game journalism” was little more than “the spark that set the whole thing off,” Day declared that
what Gamergate is fundamentally about is the right of people to design, develop and play games that they want to design, develop and play without being criticized for it.
Which is an. er, interesting perspective, as there is in fact no “right” to be immune from criticism.
Ok maybe not a right to be immune from criticism in general, but criticism from feminists who think women shouldn’t be omitted from huge swathes of the culture? That’s a whole different story. Or to put it another way, artistic criticism, fine, knock yourselves out, but political criticism?? KILL IT WITH FIRE.
But Vox is right in one sense: the elimination of criticism is in fact is what #Gamergate has been about all along — or at least the elimination of criticism aimed in their direction. Indeed, that’s what most #Gamergaters mean when they talk about fighting “corruption in game journalism” — shutting down those writers and publications that have dared to critique the prejudices of a backward portion of the gaming universe that is hostile to any challenges to the status quo ante — particularly from women with opinions different from theirs. That’s what drove the outrage over the “death of gamer” articles last Fall. And that’s what has driven “critics” of Anita Sarkeesian from the start.
Yup. How dare anyone try to expand our private fiefdom? It’s corruption to try to do that? Our private fiefdom should remain tiny and ours forever!
Monsieur Futurelle is made of sterner stuff than most, I figure. Bionic stomach, or similar, I figure.
(/How do I get one of those installed? Do I _want_ one of those installed?)
“what Gamergate is fundamentally about is the right of people to design, develop and play games that they want to design, develop and play without being criticized for it.”
How incredibly childish.
It’s obvious, really, that that’s what it’s about. That’s what it’s always been about. How dare you criticize us everythings fine here shut up you don’t belong here
It’s the sine qua non of the Status Quo Warriors, including the Slymepit, as well, of course.
And with the psychological projection of abusers everywhere, they claim they are fighting for Free Speech.
Nevermind that nobody has suggested their precious games be prohibited. No, they want to silence their critics–and they call that fighting for free speech.
People like Christina Hoff-Sommers and her buddy Richard Dawkins, who support and enable them, also claim to be on the side of Free Speech. Conveniently, they never seem to notice (or notice far too late) the harrassment their champions engage in.
And his wit can make the bugshit he exposes funny. It takes a toll, though. There are times when it gets him down and he has to take a break.
His blog is well-deserving of support.
Nobody is immune to critique.
Ultimately, if they don’t respond to critique, the “invisible hand of the market” may correct them, anyway. Don’t anyone break it to the gamer geeks but half the gamers in the world are women, now. Sure, there is a smaller market for ‘hard core’ (i.e.: guy) gamers but it risks being marginalized out of the mainstream, which will mean that those games won’t be very well-funded or good. Sort of like how cis porn split off from the Hollywood mainstream and maintained its ‘independence’ in return for acquiring an unenviable cachet. I thought these guys liked the “invisible hand of the market” since so many of them are libertarians!? Candy Crush has 93 million people playing it every day – a bit more than half of which are women. 8 million people play Farmville. Those are big numbers. They’re right up there with big ‘hard core gamer’ franchises like Call of Duty (100 million) and then there are the mega-game franchises like World of Warcraft that held 12-20 million gamers for 12 years paying $15/month. The point is that it doesn’t matter at all what the gamergaters think: the market is going to change in spite of them; they are nothing but the sound of defeat. Interestingly, Vox Day appears to have decided to savor defeat on two fronts: feminism in gaming and feminism in science fiction — both markets that are undergoing inexorable change at the hand of the libertarians’ own god. It’s the invisible hand of the market slapping them; the same hand they kiss so fervently.
What’s extra irritating about gaters, for me at least, is that we gamers have argued, for decades, that games deserved to be treated as a legitimate artistic medium. But now that we’re actually being critiqued seriously, these assholes want to whine that they’re “just games” and “they don’t mean anything”? Fuck that! Being a legitimate artistic medium means having to handle legitimate, serious criticism, even/especially when it’s “just dumb fun”.