"GamerGate" - The call for transparency and ethics reform in game industry media

[ArcadiaGP]

June 7th 2015: University of Alberta datasets from research presented at the 2015 Canadian Game Studies Association conference (CGSA2015) show that the Gamergate movement is virtually completely about ethics in game journalism. (This counters the SJW/RadFem claims that GG is a harassment group.)

Summary and findings in this Reddit thread, I'll copy the pertinent information below.

University of Alberta datasets from research presented at the 2015 Canadian Game Studies Association conference (CGSA2015)

From the page about the research presented during the actual talk: (https://archive.is/XtHjc[1] ) (philosophi.ca : Congress 2015[2] ).

We will see that the datasets which research authors Geoffrey Rockwell and Todd Suomela have uploaded are Gamergate data-February-2015 and December-2014.

Those datasets have been uploaded by the University of Alberta - Humanities department Dataverse at: (https://dataverse.library.ualberta....tudyPage.xhtml?globalId=doi:10.7939/DVN/10253[3] ) [Rockwell, Geoffrey; Suomela, Todd, 2015, "Gamergate Reactions", http://dx.doi.org/10.7939/DVN/10253[4] V3 [Version]] - click on DATA & ANALYSIS.

On to the findings: analysis of the dataset and whether it's fit to draw any conclusions from. Only two subsets of data were. Those subsets, briefly said, show the most frequent #gamergate tweets, provided that they contained a link.

* The data (annotated-links-december-2014.csv and annotated-links-february-2015.csv), which has been scraped from the Twitter API for months, is actually quite easy enough to analyze with freely available software and most importantly: it's unambiguous: check the derived spreadsheet over at TinyUpload.com - best file hosting solution, with no limits, totaly free[5] (mirror: http://www.filedropper.com/thirdpar...setsfromgeoffreyrockwellsuomelatodd2015-final[6] ) which shows that NONE of the links that show up with 1000+ tweets contain ANY characteristics attributed to the movement by some, such as death threats - revealing personal information that the person in question wanted to keep secret (dox) - misogynistic behavior etc.

* Rather, the datasets unequivocally show that Tweets with the #GamerGate hashtag are virtually completely about ethics in game journalism from December 2014 - February 2015. [and going by the ethics disclaimer below, this must have been to the authors' surprise]

* No other conclusion can reasonably be drawn from the released Rockwell & Suomela dataset. Any other conclusion is either based on the unsuitable and/or as of yet undistributed subsets (NB: 'random with unknown no. of iterations' and 'samples as chosen by the authors' instead of the clear descending frequency list that the above is based on) or simply a fiction originating from the authors.

* Their "ethics" disclaimer (which is not part of the dataset, nor does it draw any conclusions therefrom) is kind of interesting in this regard as one of the explicit purposes of the release of this dataset is to "lessen the victimisation of "Wu" and "Anita" ", and:

Given that we are sympathetic to the anti-gamergate reading of the controversy, we need to attend to concerns about exposure of personal information.

Just throwing this in here because it's another winning point for the movement. There's still plenty of GG-related goings-on, but without active discussion on the topic, I'd just be talking to myself in here :P

On a side note, I did get one compliment on my GamerGate T-shirt recently. So that's a plus.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

As GamerGate celebrates its one year birthday today... the creator of the moniker, Adam Baldwin, reflects

Happy Anniversary #GamerGate, Love Adam Baldwin | The American Spectator

 

[HoughMade]

As GamerGate celebrates its one year birthday today... the creator of the moniker, Adam Baldwin, reflects

Happy Anniversary #GamerGate, Love Adam Baldwin | The American Spectator

Read it this morning. We can only hope the movement spreads beyond the gaming media culture to the MSM

 

[ArcadiaGP]

Read it this morning. We can only hope the movement spreads beyond the gaming media culture to the MSM

Gawker Media is probably the largest target of GG that isn't purely a gaming outlet. I'm glad to see them suffer, and I will heartily celebrate the day of their downfall. There does need to be a similar movement for general outlets like Vox, MSNBC, et al...


---

Someone made a GamerGate: Year One video. Not bad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX_mqibwfUQ&feature=youtu.be

Salty text, won't embed.

 

[Woobie]

This is my first time seeing this thread, and the subject matter, actually. I game casually, and don't really follow the culture, but I'm glad this has happened. Like HM said, this would be great if we could shift it into the larger media, and not just one segment. Gun media probably suffers from a similar malady if you were to dig deep enough to find it. And let's not even get into political media.

 

[HoughMade]

There is always a tendency to "go easy" on someone you like. That's to be expected and something that we consumers should have in our minds when we read anything. However, out and out suppression of information to protect certain people and then false attacks to silence the opposition? That is reprehensible in any context....but also common, especially by the left.

People on the right are not fully innocent, but being conservative usually coincides with a more developed belief in moral absolutes like: lying to win doesn't make it right. The liberal mindset has more of a "end justifies the means" mindset such that lying and promoting false stories in pursuit of the "greater good" is more readily accepted, and even lauded.

The media, all levels, even the sports media, is full of left-leaners...if not not outright leftists. There is a pervasive "what happened isn't as important as what 'social good' we can do if we tell the story the 'right' way." I will readily admit that as the left has gotten traction with this technique, some on the right have obviously become jealous and started shade stories and using not-quite-accurate-but-sensational language to move people. I don't like that and hope I'm not guilty. Honestly, I'd rather lose honest than win with lies.

 

[Woobie]

There is always a tendency to "go easy" on someone you like. That's to be expected and something that we consumers should have in our minds when we read anything. However, out and out suppression of information to protect certain people and then false attacks to silence the opposition? That is reprehensible in any context....but also common, especially by the left.

People on the right are not fully innocent, but being conservative usually coincides with a more developed belief in moral absolutes like: lying to win doesn't make it right. The liberal mindset has more of a "end justifies the means" mindset such that lying and promoting false stories in pursuit of the "greater good" is more readily accepted, and even lauded.

The media, all levels, even the sports media, is full of left-leaners...if not not outright leftists. There is a pervasive "what happened isn't as important as what 'social good' we can do if we tell the story the 'right' way." I will readily admit that as the left has gotten traction with this technique, some on the right have obviously become jealous and started shade stories and using not-quite-accurate-but-sensational language to move people. I don't like that and hope I'm not guilty. Honestly, I'd rather lose honest than win with lies.

I agree with everything you say. It would appear, based on the remake Recoil Magazine had to go through, that the lib "journalists" had worked their way into gun media as well.

 

[17 squirrel]

So, I guess I should not have bought my son when he was 8 Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars for his DS ? His mom was pissed at me when he asked her what a condom and a dild@ were. It did not fair well for me that night after work.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

How Gamers Transformed The Culture Wars - Milo Yiannopoulos

 

[rw02kr43]

Wasn't this whole thing turned into an episode of Law and Order SVU? I'm sure I remember seeing Ice-T at a gaming convention trying to protect a woman with a bad game that slept her way to the top.

Jason

 

[ArcadiaGP]

Wasn't this whole thing turned into an episode of Law and Order SVU? I'm sure I remember seeing Ice-T at a gaming convention trying to protect a woman with a bad game that slept her way to the top.

Jason

SVU did do an episode about harassment related to gamers, around the time GamerGate was becoming bigger.

A week or so ago, Ice T learned more about GamerGate, and had some comments on it

Ice-T to gamers: "The press will always be the enemy" - Breitbart

 

[ArcadiaGP]

This dude is trying to retcon characters for political points... trying to say Samus Aran (and many other gaming characters) are trans.

Is summarily taken down by others, including Brandon Morse:

No, Samus Aran Is Not A Trans Woman

 

[PaulF]

Ugh...

First they (Wu and Fem Freq) try to claim that there aren't any strong female characters. Now they want to claim one of the oldest female characters in gaming is actually a...


....transgendered man.

Progress?

 

[T.Lex]

How Gamers Transformed The Culture Wars - Milo Yiannopoulos

This is an awesome piece.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

GamerGate: A Year in Review - Breitbart

 

[ArcadiaGP]

Canada really has elected the first Prime Minister with a clear anti-gamergate policy. Just an SJW through-and-through.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

The Gaming Press's Diversity Warriors Are All Talk and No Trousers - Breitbart

 

[451_Detonics]

this much drama over video games?

 

[ArcadiaGP]

this much drama over video games?

Actually, has less to do about video games specifically, and more to do with corrupt and unethical practices that have co-opted the hobby. The controversy spans a wide variety of subjects... from modern day feminism, social justice warriors, entertainment conventions, freedom of speech and expression... It involves some of the larger players in the Internet "news" world, too... like Gawker Media, Salon, Vox, MSNBC, ABC, and others.

While it sparked from malpractice and unethical video game journalists... it has grown to cover a spectrum of political hot points.

To date, some gaming news outlets have succumbed to the sweet taste of ethics... and started to include notes and disclosures in their pieces... rather than promote the work of friends, et all... and not disclose such information.

It's pretty easy to see the parallels of GamerGate to the fight against any biased media when it comes to politics, gun ownership, etc.

So.... no, not all over video games... but gaming journalists picked on the wrong group of people. Would be nice to see a similar movement start and weed out some of the more unethical and trashy biased media outlets.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

Gawker president: 'More likely than not' we'll lose Hogan case

Gawker president: 'More likely than not' we'll lose Hogan case | POLITICO


When this happens, I will mark it down as a holiday. I'll celebrate with a very expensive bottle of single malt, a very expensive cigar, and I'll enjoy reading every damn word of that breaking story.

If I could do anything more to attribute to the demise of Gawker, I would.