The Four Color Media Monitor

I haven't paid as much notice as I could've to the GamerGate topic of the past month or so, probably because video games today are not something I really care for any longer outside of Tetris, though I did read a few items by a blogger called Cranky T-Rex, who's probably one of the better on this along with a British guy named Milo Yiannopoulos. But, upon seeing a couple comics writers weigh in with rather predictable wording on Twitter about this issue, I decided I'd have a go at it. First, here's another screenshot of a retweet by Kurt Busiek of one by a former writer for Comics Alliance:
I went to research deeper into the news they talk about, and Utah State Today said:

“USU police, in conjunction with several teams of state and federal law enforcement experts, determined that there was no threat to students, staff or the speaker, so no alert was issued… Throughout the day, USU police worked to assess the level of threat with other local, state and federal agencies, including the Utah Statewide Information and Analysis Center, the FBI Cyber Terrorism Task Force, and the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit. After a careful assessment of the threat, law enforcement officials determined that it was similar to other threats that Sarkeesian received in the past.”

If what they're saying is correct, then it sounds like some kind of fakery was at work here. I have no doubt there are cases of misogyny in the game industry, but if this is correct, it sounds like she let selfish agendas get the better of her, under the confidence the leftarded press wouldn't give a clear picture on anything. Actor Adam Baldwin also found these claims disputable. And the Inqusitr's noted the Gamergate movement also happens to include minorities who've also come under attack:

The Gamergate movement has largely been described as being while males. While no one knows the exact demographics for certain, Gamergate supporters say there is a good percentage of fellow members who are female, non-white, and LGBT. The oddest accusation of all is that one of the Twitter handles run by the ISIS terrorist group even started tweeting in opposition of Gamergate. In addition, it’s claimed that at least 30 individuals have been harassed in various ways, and Gamergate supporters accuse the media of ignoring their plight.

For example, a transgender person named Alexander Wuori was outed publicly and called over the phone. Wuori describes the experience, saying, "I was pretty much shaking in my boots at this point." Then a specific threat was made by the unknown caller.

Read more at the link. I'm not surprised there could be blacks, Latinos and Asians involved in the movement; they play plenty of games too. Besides, so many games are designed in Japan, it only figures they'd make up a sizable portion of players. Here's a woman writing for Maryland's Diamonback who additionally notes it's not a male-only movement. As for Sarkeesian, here's something else bizarre:

She was on campus to speak against the way women are depicted "as damsels in distress or background decoration in many video games."

What?!? Is this serious? As someone who grew up in the Pac-Man era, I may not be as big on video games as I used to, but I am well aware they've evolved a long way since Ms. Pac-Man became one of the first female video game protagonists. Since then, they gradually expanded to add more to the action, like with Ninja Princess, Flashgal, Athena, Psycho Soldier, Devil World, Gate of Doom, Wizard Fire, a game based on GI Joe, another based on Sailor Moon, Tomb Raider, and the list goes on. Even comic book games count. It's been anything but a window dressing issue for over a quarter century now. I've got a feeling even Sarkeesian doesn't believe a word she's saying. Just like everybody into video games knows Pac-Man, they also know all about Ms. Pac-Man. And if Sarkeesian's got a problem with hot women in games, I think it's time to quote Yiannopoulos:

There's an assumption in these feminist critiques that this is somehow a cause for shame or outrage. It is not. There's nothing unnatural about male gamers enjoying attractive female characters. What's unnatural is trying to police it. Feminist campaigners such as Zoe Quinn and Anita Sarkeesian won't like this comparison, but what their mission represents is a new kind of sexually dysfunctional authority clamping down on the sexuality of the great unwashed, like politicians and some churches throughout history.

And not all women have a problem with that either. In fact, that wasn't really the problem with some of the worst comics from the 1990s. It was that they had very weak storytelling, like Scott Lobdell's worst work on X-Men. One woman who clearly doesn't have a problem with T&A is Gail Simone, interestingly enough: she just told how she's fond of the Dead or Alive series from Tecmo-Koei (and movie). I wonder what her male counterparts who're opposing GamerGate must think of her now. Boy, it must soooo embarrassing one of their fellow leftists won't side with their cause here. But it does prove there's more than enough leftists out there who play the very same games rightists do, and aren't happy when nutcases come along and make petty arguments about all the wrong things. Indeed, this is hardly a political divide issue at all.

On that note, here's some items by a few others, like Ron Marz:

So a woman gets a very specific death threat, and Utah State was like, "Well, gosh, we sure can't ask people not to bring guns!" That right?
— Ron Marz (@ronmarz) October 15, 2014

As noted above, it wasn't.

What an absolute, despicable child. At 24 years old. #GamerGate (Link via @EricDSnider) http://t.co/cVhVPe7jpl
— Ron Marz (@ronmarz) October 16, 2014

Hey, maybe it wasn't a great idea to start telling all about her, but she did cause a development group a lot of aggravation, and that was bad.

"Grow the hell up" seems like the one-size-fits-all answer for the #GamerGate babies. Pathetic.
— Ron Marz (@ronmarz) October 16, 2014

Somebody else needs to grow up as well.

"#GamerGate is about ethics in gaming journalism!" is the new "Trickle-down economics really works!"
— Ron Marz (@ronmarz) October 17, 2014

So he doesn't think J. Jonah Jameson and Bethany Snow were about journalistic ethics? What was the point of reading Spider-Man and New Teen Titans then?

Heh. Now I'm getting tweets from dudes (weird how they're all dudes, huh?) defending #GamerGate AND trickle-down economics.
— Ron Marz (@ronmarz) October 17, 2014

And I linked above to a college reporter who pretty much did the same by noting there's women who've supported Gamergate too.

Better analogy: believing #GamerGate is about ethics in gaming journalism is like believing you're really reading Playboy for the articles.
— Ron Marz (@ronmarz) October 17, 2014

And I suppose that means he sides with the positions espoused by J. Jonah Jameson and Bethany Snow in the Marvel and DC worlds years ago? Again, not sure why he'd read Spider-Man and New Teen Titans years before if they portrayed journalism so negatively.

What the #GamerGate dudes need is Jonah Takalua's dad to set 'em straight. Um ... very NSFW language. http://t.co/FcFWSjZieH
— Ron Marz (@ronmarz) October 17, 2014

What Marz needs is to just let the subject go. Besides, isn't he writing a comic based on Skylanders now?

And then we have Dan Slott:

I want arrests. I want to see the people making death threats to Anita Sarkeesian go to jail.
— Dan Slott (@DanSlott) October 15, 2014

As the info I provided tells, it's uncertain there ever was any credible evidence to back that up. Now I know why I can't find much of anything Slott says very credible either.

Twitter, FB & social media sites need to work harder not just to suspend accounts, but to help authorities arrest those making death threats
— Dan Slott (@DanSlott) October 15, 2014

I've seen only 2 kinds of tweets about #GamerGate 1. Horrible sexist comments & threats. 2. People saying "That's not us! We don't do that!"
— Dan Slott (@DanSlott) October 17, 2014

If Slott really cares, then does he find this a concern?

More death wishes from anti-#GamerGate folks to add to the pile. http://t.co/sWswttWKWP pic.twitter.com/3j4fyTyW1F
— Peter No One (@PeterNo0ne) October 19, 2014

The language seen in that screencap by a dissenter with Gamergate is very horrific. Has he by any chance seen that before? What business does a guy who wrote a story where Dr. Octopus commits sexploitation of Mary Jane Watson have commenting on this issue? Even women who don't support Gamergate could feel disturbed when they realize what Slott spent the past year writing in Spider-Man. Here's more tweets he wrote:

#GamerGate posters please stop sending me tweets saying "We don't do that!" Whatever you say your cause is, it's been co-opted by creeps.
— Dan Slott (@DanSlott) October 17, 2014

It's long past mirror time for a man who's got causes of his own, and not good ones at that. Next up:

RT @royalboiler: This article has some good points on where the ethics of journalism stand in all this gamergate mess http://t.co/CjwDDbD81H
— GeneHa (@GeneHa) October 20, 2014

Look who's talking! The same man who gave free ad space to Brad Meltzer. I don't think most women would be very happy if they knew he was supporting a "novelist" whose credits include a misogynist screed. As for Raw Story, oh, are they ever a great source to consult about "ethics".

So in Utah you can’t prevent someone with a concealed carry permit from entering a public building, even if there have been death threats.
— Matthew. Sturges. (@matt_sturges) October 15, 2014

Think about how stupid it is that there is a law that makes it impossible to keep guns out of public places regardless of circumstances.
— Matthew. Sturges. (@matt_sturges) October 15, 2014

I like guns, but I really don’t see the need to carry one EVERYWHERE I GO NO MATTER WHAT. That sounds stupid and crazy to me.
— Matthew. Sturges. (@matt_sturges) October 15, 2014

Well does he also think it's ludicrous and harmful to stuff political agendas into one's reviews of video games and falsify accusations, if any such thing was done? And most innocent people who own guns usually carry them for personal and family protection. All that aside, I think Sturges, a guy with questionable work in his portfolio, might want to consider whether he's qualified for commenting on this. Jazz Shaw at Hot Air addresses the subject a lot better than I could.

I wrote about the harassment of @femfreq @Spacekatgal and the general bullshit of GamerGate. http://t.co/X9md8WgQwp
— Janelle Asselin (@gimpnelly) October 17, 2014

Whatever point she's trying to make is dampened when she parrots the same lines Sarkeesian used, saying "The sometimes blunt misogyny of video games—a fantasy realm where female characters have often been pigeonholed as prostitutes, helpless princesses or pinups" without acknowledging any of the kind of games I cited, not even how Simone is writing a comic based on one of them for Dark Horse. Asselin featured a screenshot of some threats that were made against one of the developers, but there's something strange: the user's name reads as "chatterwhiteman". It seems rather odd whomever committed obscenities would use that kind of a name, since misogynists would surely be capable of committing racism too and using name handles to that effect. Do I sense some kind of deliberateness took place? Good question.

Also, a note about Hudson. I just remembered that 3 years ago, after Frank Miller condemned the Occupy movement, she wrote the following item that's pretty vicious:

...let’s get real: the problem here is Miller and the things he has said and done, not the fact that other people have failed to protect him from the consequences of his very public and deliberate actions. Millar’s defense confuses the symptom with the disease, and the sadness of seeing a very gifted creator’s reputation dragged through the mud with the even sadder truth: that he did it to himself, and that it has made many people realize he is not the man they thought he was.

Not only is it crude, what's really puzzling is why somebody who's siding with the anti-Gamergate bunch turned her back on victims of serious crimes at the time. So Miller's the problem, but not the Occupy thugs who caused only so much pain and aggravation for everyone? What would she say if they drove people away from her favorite restaurant and it had to close down? It's a shame, because I recall Hudson rightly panned Identity Crisis at least 4 years ago, and now, she's unfortunately letting her leftism get the better of her again. Too bad.

I'm sure there is hostility to women in gaming, but if anything in this affair was trumped, that does not help women's causes one bit. And being a journalist doesn't make you a saint. I don't care much for video games now, but I do care about honesty in the journalistic profession that isn't based upon politics, and any so-called reporter who twists things up like pretzels doesn't help their industry either. Also, as Noah Dulis says, supporting Gamergate doesn't make one a bully. I think most of the people involved would do better to take a look at the comics medium, because it's a lot easier for misogyny to find its way into an overlooked industry where nobody has any clue how to research the effects. Just don't expect any knee-jerk comics writers to avail in asking for better journalistic integrity for comicdom.

Labels: misogyny and racism, moonbat writers, msm propaganda, politics, technology