Gamergate and the great world wide web war.

[Hydra009]

Rational Wiki on Gamegate

Rationalwiki has long been taken over by the Atheism Plus crowd and unsurprisingly gives the SJW take on things.  This slight bias has a tendency to result in drastically different wiki entries regarding people they like and people they don't like.

The pro-gamergate timeline is just a tad different from the SJW version.

[mauricio]

Rationalwiki has long been taken over by the Atheism Plus crowd and unsurprisingly gives the SJW take on things.  This slight bias has a tendency to result in drastically different wiki entries regarding people they like and people they don't like.

The pro-gamergate timeline is just a tad different from the SJW version.

the gamergate timeline mainly lists events and provides the links , you can make your own mind on the issue by reading that.

[Sargon The Grape]

Rationalwiki has long been taken over by the Atheism Plus crowd and unsurprisingly gives the SJW take on things.  This slight bias has a tendency to result in drastically different wiki entries regarding people they like and people they don't like.

The pro-gamergate timeline is just a tad different from the SJW version.

I don't remember when I discovered RationalWiki, but it has always raised red flags with me for reasons I couldn't quite put my finger on until you mentioned Atheism Plus. Well, that and I always thought its name was a little pretentious.

[mauricio]

Seriously rationalwiki has no standards just read the extremely subjective and outright insulting article about thunderf00t obviously the subjective parts have no citations , they clearly don't give a fuck about neutral point of view a fundamental principle of an encyclopedia.

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Thunderf00t

Ongoing crusade against feminism

For a point-by-point breakdown of his response to Anita Sarkeesian, see Criticism of Tropes vs. Women.

Rather than move on gracefully, Mason has continued to make ill-informed comments on feminism within the skeptic community, to air his grudges, and to display the same immature attitude to criticism, churning out of a series of bitter and increasingly unhinged videos attacking feminists within the atheist community, typically full of strawman stereotypes and anally literal misinterpretations of their comments.

At the end of 2012, he posted a video entitled "Why 'Feminism' is poisoning Atheism."[29] This was followed a few days later by a follow-up video, which responded to one vlogger's reply. [30] In both videos, Mason attacked feminists (namely Rebecca Watson, Amy Roth, PZ Myers, and the unnamed vlogger he was responding to) who had raised issues over conduct at skeptic conventions and had instigated or supported anti-harassment policies. The videos are heavy on strawmen; they misrepresent feminists' arguments to an extent that is either grossly naive or wilfully disingenuous, and propagate stereotypes of feminists as frigid, joyless "professional victims". To underline this point, the second video contrasts footage of Watson and others talking seriously about their concerns, with a montage of party photos showing Mason and his pals larking around in silly costumes, drinking and hugging. Victory!

In March 2013, he released a video creatively entitled "Feminism versus FACTS", focusing on Anita Sarkeesian's "Women vs Tropes in Video Games" series.[31] This was followed by a second and third "Feminism versus FACTS" video,[32] and then by a third "'Feminism' is poisoning Atheism" video.[33] Then, as if perhaps he thought his audience hadn't got the message yet, he put out a video in November 2013 entitled "Why 'feminism' poisons EVERYTHING",[34] yet another cranky tirade against the likes of Anita Sarkeesian and Rebecca Watson.

While he has released another video in the series,[35] the videos are somewhat scattershot. He tends to go off on a tangent, repeat points previously made in other videos about other people and quote mine them, taking things out of context. The primary point he keeps going back to is that of sexual dimorphism causing most phenomena we see today about what is different between the sexes. He means to say that if we try to break out of traditional roles for men and women, then all we are doing is going against our own physiological trends. A second point implied by that is supposedly that different trends in physiological suitedness have naturally resulted in men and women being treated differently and thus we shouldn't call that sexism. Aside from committing appeal to nature, Thunderf00t is generalising too much here, implying that appropriate distribution of work in terms of military comes down to the same principles as the distribution of, say, corporate management positions.
[edit]

Conspiracy Theorist

On October 16th, 2014 Mason posted a video which purported to show that Sarkeesian's latest threat was actually perpetrated by either Sarkeesian herself or one of her army of minions to discredit GamerGate. His reasons include an unsourced audio clip from a university spokesperson (who had terrible communication skills), the fact that she joked about an army of supporters and the fact that somebody from the same university has done the same sort of threat against herself. In addition, Mason goes into plenty of victim blaming and nonsense claims about slut shaming. So much for logic or "seeing through delusion", then.[36]
[edit]

Further criticism

Mason is often criticised for overstepping boundaries. Some comments below his videos suggest he should stay out of politics â€" he ventured into a lot of Sarah Palin bashing during the 2008 US election â€" and stick with criticizing creationism. Sometimes the Thunderf00t channel gets a bit... "preachy"... with respect to the beauty and wonder of the universe and how technology is fan-fucking-tastic-at-everything. Although there's nothing wrong with this exactly, it can get a bit much.

His videos in May 2010 that criticized Islam alluded to a "sleeping giant"â€"clearly a reference to Isoroku Yamamoto.[citation needed] Some have interpreted this as condoning genocide of Muslims, particularly Dawahfilms, who was responsible for making an alleged "death threat" against Mason, as claimed by the latter. Dawahfilms insisted that no death threat was ever made and that it was a statement of self-defense.[37] However, Mason saw fit to characterize his statement as an "attack on free speech".[38] Dawahfilms later apologized for letting his temper get the better of him after being pressured by the YouTube community,[39] and also asked that Mason make a clarification video condemning genocide, later challenging Mason to another debate.[40] Mason responded to it by saying Dawahfilms needs therapy and continued to use DawahFilms words out of context for the sake of his anti-Islam campaign.

Mason did a six-hour stint on BlogTV answering critics following the Dawah episode, with what was claimed to be 1000 people in attendance â€" including "shredderisalive" and "Coughlan616," both critics of Mason's. The attacks on Coughlan616 that followed this reached levels of hot-headed, tl;dw drama that even Encyclopaedia Dramatica might have had trouble keeping up with.[41]

After Mason mouthed off about the so-called "Ground Zero mosque", a number of critics called him out on his Islamophobia.[42][43][44][45]

He also seems to have fallen into transphobia. [46]

typical bullshit of "oh hes calling this feminists out then he must mean all feminists are like this!" and "oh hes talking about biological imperatives and refuting people who think it is all due to socialization, so he must think it is all about biology!"

[drunkenshoe]

Guys, ThunderfOOt's opinions are not facts. They are his opinions. Thinking that Thunderf00t is neutral or objective about something is the same thing as people clapping Anita Sarkeesian's slide "Fact: I am an expert on something". You cannot condemn one for that, but claim that the other is point zero. Well certainly you can, but it is not intellectually honest. Not to mention it's just supporting a team. And objectivity or being neutral on something like this. Pffft. Don't be daft.

As most of the regulars know I am an art historian and I have spent all my adult life with that academic bullshit for a decade since finally I literally ran away. Analysing, interpretation images is the big part of that ancient bullshit.

While analysing and interpreting images and pieces of visual culture is NOT consisted of looking at a series and a 'set' -important- of images and fit them in various patterns in certain contexts to define them in one sort of interpretation, the counter argument for this approach is NOT producing another set of independent conflicting images to 'refute' it. 

This is nothing more than a rat race. There is a side offering something and another side is reacting to it. The important point about the reaction is that -a condition someone would have to take into an account if this was some sort of study- the material is something very important in life for the reacting side. As we know, gaming is not just a hobby or something people do just for fun...or even not just a job for people who makes video games, but a part of that person's identity; her/his world. It's an identity itself in many aspects. I have to say, this point is working against gamers. It's natural bias.

If this was a real study, just the part of collecting -not choosing- the correct images and their background in production would take years. And academically speaking, it is not a valid study as long as it is not tied to a text of its material and historical evaluation of that material in it is own field. Also as no image or text is independent from countless others that precede them, there is also need of another tie there.

Plus the part of that study which is supposed to estimate the negative OR positive influence of these images in any way on groups of people of various age, gender, race, sexual orientation, culture is just fucking crazy. It would be so interdisciplinary and a crazy field study I can't think of the motivation to do something like this, unless there is a big catch. It's an interdisciplinary group study to begin with and it is not like there is some big accumulation of knowledge and information ready on this. It's new.

[This is why I believe anything in the near future that will attempt to change video games or any real impact will come from politics, where this could be turned into something beneficial and profitable for some side.]

Having said all that is it impossible to make a study of that scale? Nope. Not at all. There are more insane stuff done with the less than half the technology we have now. Ekman and Friesen's study on universality of human gesture is a good example. I had to study and use it in a study, I can easily claim that those people are insane and should be locked up just for attempting at such a thing which humanity will always be grateful and stay in their debt. Fuck I love people who can channel their insanity into scientific research so much.

But neither Thunderf00t, nor Antia Sarkeesian can be a part of something like this if it ever will be done. They are internet celebrities. That's it and that's all. This goes for the feminist and anti feminist vloggers and bloggers too. You are giving social media too much credit. Don't. It doesn't serve anything else than get your blood up -this goes for the other side too- and load on you unnecessary negatvity, it narrows your world down severely. Most importantly, when you watch those internet rat race videos of vloggers, you carry that experience as if you have lived it in real life.

I am not saying, people shouldn't watch them. I am saying people need to learn to alienate themselves from these characters and their videos designed to create conflict and sensation. Otherwise, are you mad that you are owning up and take everything other people say about your gender, race, sexual orientation, politicial tendency and opinion and sit in front of the computer hatred in frustration. It's their experiences and outburst, NOT something about YOU. Yes you could agree and disagree, but there is a healthy scale of following a vlogger AND then becoming zealot together with one OR a zealot against one.

No wonder that most of you respond to me and other female posters in every gender thread with projecting some vloggers hatred and anger OR any kind of negativity that he/she feels about whom and why. Something doesn't belong to me or you.

[mauricio]

Guys, ThunderfOOt's opinions are not facts. They are his opinions. Thinking that Thunderf00t is neutral or objective about something is the same thing as people clapping Anita Sarkeesian's slide "Fact: I am an expert on something". You cannot condemn one for that, but claim that the other is point zero. Well certainly you can, but it is not intellectually honest. Not to mention it's just supporting a team. And objectivity or being neutral on something like this. Pffft. Don't be daft.

As most of the regulars know I am an art historian and I have spent all my adult life with that academic bullshit for a decade since finally I literally ran away. Analysing, interpretation images is the big part of that ancient bullshit.

While analysing and interpreting images and pieces of visual culture is NOT consisted of looking at a series and a 'set' -important- of images and fit them in various patterns in certain contexts to define them in one sort of interpretation, the counter argument for this approach is NOT producing another set of independent conflicting images to 'refute' it. 

This is nothing more than a rat race. There is a side offering something and another side is reacting to it. The important point about the reaction is that -a condition someone would have to take into an account if this was some sort of study- the material is something very important in life for the reacting side. As we know, gaming is not just a hobby or something people do just for fun...or even not just a job for people who makes video games, but a part of that person's identity; her/his world. It's an identity itself in many aspects. I have to say, this point is working against gamers. It's natural bias.

If this was a real study, just the part of collecting -not choosing- the correct images and their background in production would take years. And academically speaking, it is not a valid study as long as it is not tied to a text of its material and historical evaluation of that material in it is own field. Also as no image or text is independent from countless others that precede them, there is also need of another tie there.

Plus the part of that study which is supposed to estimate the negative OR positive influence of these images in any way on groups of people of various age, gender, race, sexual orientation, culture is just fucking crazy. It would be so interdisciplinary and a crazy field study I can't think of the motivation to do something like this, unless there is a big catch. It's an interdisciplinary group study to begin with and it is not like there is some big accumulation of knowledge and information ready on this. It's new.

[This is why I believe anything in the near future that will attempt to change video games or any real impact will come from politics, where this could be turned into something beneficial and profitable for some side.]

Having said all that is it impossible to make a study of that scale? Nope. Not at all. There are more insane stuff done with the less than half the technology we have now. Ekman and Friesen's study on universality of human gesture is a good example. I had to study and use it in a study, I can easily claim that those people are insane and should be locked up just for attempting at such a thing which humanity will always be grateful and stay in their debt. Fuck I love people who can channel their insanity into scientific research so much.

But neither Thunderf00t, nor Antia Sarkeesian can be a part of something like this if it ever will be done. They are internet celebrities. That's it and that's all. This goes for the feminist and anti feminist vloggers and bloggers too. You are giving social media too much credit. Don't. It doesn't serve anything else than get your blood up -this goes for the other side too- and load on you unnecessary negatvity, it narrows your world down severely. Most importantly, when you watch those internet rat race videos of vloggers, you carry that experience as if you have lived it in real life.

I am not saying, people shouldn't watch them. I am saying people need to learn to alienate themselves from these characters and their videos designed to create conflict and sensation. Otherwise, are you mad that you are owning up and take everything other people say about your gender, race, sexual orientation, politicial tendency and opinion and sit in front of the computer hatred in frustration. It's their experiences and outburst, NOT something about YOU. Yes you could agree and disagree, but there is a healthy scale of following a vlogger AND then becoming zealot together with one OR a zealot against one.

No wonder that most of you respond to me and other female posters in every gender thread with projecting some vloggers hatred and anger OR any kind of negativity that he/she feels about whom and why. Something doesn't belong to me or you.

Yes, you are so enlightened keep on your patronizing tone while refusing to actually engage any argument, just keep spouting your useless opinions on how you think we think rather than engaging the actual arguments. You failed miserably to deal with my argument of semantics completely distorting it into me calling you nazi. You also completely failed to understand my criticism of the RAINN page mermaid cited. And it seems you also fail to understand thunderf00t is not proposing an equally but opposed theory to sarkeesian, he is just taking her ideas to task and being skeptical. He is not a biological determinist and he ,as any other scientist, won't buy the games make you sexist argument until compelling evidence is produced. From the papers I have read there's a link between gaming and momentary tension and anger (which makes sense when you are in an intense competition) but then there's no links of enduring effects on anger, violence or sexism (there's papers searching for them and failing to find them). Thunderf00t is merely countering this disinformation with simple skepticism hes not making any paper on it. Obviously there's a lot of polarization and ''in group out group'' biases flying around on the internet and everywhere else, but you claiming that we fall in that category as zealots without even refuting the specific arguments we have raised towards you is simple pedantry to the point of being laughable. Get the fuck off your high horse.

[drunkenshoe]

I never use/used rational wiki. Is it really that bad? Most of the editors I work/ed with don't even accept wikipedia which is a bit of a hype considering the books I deal with is academic research. It's ridiculous. But I use it for footnotes of course, as a pointer. And they are not paying membership for article databases either. Myeh.

[mauricio]

But neither Thunderf00t, nor Antia Sarkeesian can be a part of something like this if it ever will be done. They are internet celebrities. That's it and that's all.

Actually thunderf00t , unlike anita, has published various successful papers on his field of chemistry working with international teams on experiments on nuclear reactors and with extremely high fps cameras.

This goes for the feminist and anti feminist vloggers and bloggers too. You are giving social media too much credit. Don't. It doesn't serve anything else than get your blood up -this goes for the other side too- and load on you unnecessary negatvity, it narrows your world down severely.

This only happens if you are intellectually lazy and don't constantly criticize your thoughts and expose yourself to dissenting opinion. Also if you understand how in group out group bias works and do not fall in the fallacy of thinking you are right simply because the other side is wrong. Always search for new perspectives and do not close yourself in an echochamber.

Most importantly, when you watch those internet rat race videos of vloggers, you carry that experience as if you have lived it in real life.

Those internet videos are actually more representative of the current widespread believes and ideological discussions of the population than more niche and granular academic arguments. In that aspect they are actually closer to real everyday life than more authoritative sources.

Now hopefully you not do your usually shitck of inferring my intentions to deduce I must be a thunderf00t zealot , just cause i point out your inaccuracies. Just because i do that it does not mean i must hold a diametrically opposite position.

[Sargon The Grape]

[drunkenshoe]

I thought about reading on Gamergate and see what is this trivial funny scandal. I wish I didn't. This is the summary given by wikipedia. Did I say zealot before? I take that back. This is bordering on domestic terrorism and looks like sooner or later it will end bloodshed in life loss. And when it happens, you are going to tell me that this is not an indicator of the characteristics of the American culture because the perpetrators are mentally ill; that the psychopath kills and the stupid dies. And it will turn in to some gun control rate race.   

No it is NOT mental illnes that creates mass murderes. It's anger, rage, with intense frustration they cannot deal with that truns into normal law abiding people to monsters. And considering the gun issue it is ready a recipie for a disaster. 

THIS GAMERGATE BULLSHIT IS EXACTLY THE SAME THING WITH FUNDAMENTAL MUSLIMS THREATENING AND KILLING PEOPLE FOR MOHAMMED CARTOONS, CREATING VIOLENCE AND ABUSE PEOPLE FOR CRITICISING THEIR RELIGION.

It's disgusting. It's religiously violent AND organised. There is nothing trivial with that. And you are talking about Anita Sarkeesian lying about being a gamer and that she never picked up a controller and how these women don't enjoy gaming or don't know how to lose themselves in a fantasy world. What the fuck are you talking about. Are you aware of the list of crimes commited against these women? For what? Bsiacally speaking out their opinion, having an opinion; criticising a specific branch of the pop culture in their culture.

The more I read about American culture, the more I get how good at it is at burying its head deep in the sand.

The very sad part is that when you guys bring up this issue, NONE of you even mention the scale of harassments and threats, discuss or even question its scale and coordinated massive nature, but  just ignore it with 'it is just a bad apple's attitude' and that it is nothing. There have even been implications along the line that 'if she -Sarkeesian- or they -others like Rebecca Watson- do that this is inevitable and natural'. And you are reducing this bullshit to Thunderf00t vs Sarkeesian squabble without even trying to question what the fuck is happening in the big picture.

-These women have been 'punished' because they commited blasphemy against a group dominated by men. There is no difference between threatening a woman with rape because of what she said about the hobby of a group of men who find it as blasphemy in a country like United States of America and women being sentenced to rape 'punishment' and have to flee their home in India IN PRINCIPLE.

-It's also a very good demonstration on how the American freedom of speech is just a hyped up bullshit and nothing more, but just stands with everyone talking about its name rather than any ground of practise. It's a fucking myth.

And I am trying to speak of how men and women are oppressed together by fucked up norms of a fucked up system with people who don't show one tiny bit of uncomfort about the scale of harassment in something like this, but scream their heads off "bitch bitch bitch biiiiitch, miserable biiiitch". Bravo. Clap clap.You are supporting a side one step backwards from killing and raping people for their critical opinions. What you call that again? Being sensitive, right? Why? Because nothing happened yet to this people! A lot of things happened to these women. And highly likely the worst will happen at some point. I wonder how would you react, if you got less than half the treatment they got. 

And you are overwhelmed with feminists getting angry and find their reactions are extreme, because its hateful, are ya? You are surprised and annoyed by groups like Atheism Plus occuring, are ya? WOOW. An interesting level of stupidity this looks like young padawans but unfortunately, it is just good old hypocrisy sauced with blindness producing hatred.

You know that feeling, when you are speaking with a very religious person about atheism, there are moments you cannot decide that if he is literally too stupid to survive or too blinded by religion and that makes you go a combination of emotions? You stop at some point,  it feels like you are harrassing the person because he is flying over the clouds and getting frustrated over unicorns and magic although you are just speaking plainly of a picture he can't just see through? That's exactly what I am feeling right now.

I don't hate men. I don't hate anyone. I am not capable of hating. My hatred is a flash in the pan limited with "You fucking moron, stupid, I despise your guts for saying that go fuck yourself"...blah blah for ONE fucking moment. And I certainly don't hate any of you. On the contrary, I like this community with everything it has bad or good. I love gaming and video gmes very much. And I have no problem with adult games either.

But about particularly this subject -and most gender related ones- you are just a bunch of angry children that is scared somebody is going to take your favourite toys from your hands and you are not even aware of it. You don't want to acknowledge what is really happening while you turn around and talk about blasphemy, freedom of speech, gender equality, how extremism fucks everything up till your heads explode. Get honest. To yourselves first.

Wikipedia:

The Gamergate controversy began in August 2014 and concerns sexism in video game culture. It is most notable for harassment against several feminists in the video game industry, including game developers Zoë Quinn and Brianna Wu, and cultural critic Anita Sarkeesian. The campaign of harassment was coordinated in IRC channels and online forums such as Reddit, 4chan, and 8chan by an anonymous and amorphous group that ultimately came to be represented by the Twitter hashtag #Gamergate. The harassment included doxing, threats of rape, and death threats as well as being related to a mass shooting threat in protest of an invited speech featuring Sarkeesian.

Gamergate has been described as a manifestation of a culture war over gaming culture diversification, artistic recognition and social criticism of video games, and the gamer social identity. Some of the people using the Gamergate hashtag allege collusion among feminists, progressives, journalists and social critics, which they believe is the cause of increasing social criticism in video game reviews. Some hashtag users have said the goal for their actions is to improve the ethical standards of video game journalism. These concerns have been widely dismissed by commentators as trivial, based on conspiracy theories, unfounded in fact, or unrelated to actual issues of ethics. Users of the hashtag launched email campaigns targeting firms advertising in publications of which they disapproved, asking them to withdraw their advertisements.

Further harassment
Gamergate supporters subjected others to similar harassment, doxing, and death threats. Those who came to the victims' defense were ridiculed as "white knights", or "social justice warriors" (SJW);[17] and this characterization was intended, according to Heron, Belford and Goker, to neutralize any opposition by questioning their motives.[17] Shortly after the Gamergate hashtag was coined, video game developer Phil Fish had his personal information hacked and publicly posted in retaliation for defending Quinn.[26][27] The attack also exposed documents relating to Fish's company, Polytron.[28] As a result, Fish sold Polytron and left the gaming industry.[2][29]


Feminist and cultural critic Anita Sarkeesian faced death threats after releasing a Tropes vs. Women in Video Games video.
The campaign expanded to include renewed harassment of Anita Sarkeesian, who had been a target of earlier online harassment in part due to her award-winning YouTube video series Tropes vs. Women in Video Games, which analyzes sexist stereotypes in video games. Sarkeesian's attackers took her critical commentary as unfair and unwarranted, and considered her an interloper.[30][31][32] After a new episode of Tropes vs. Women was released on August 24, 2014 Sarkeesian received rape and death threats, and private information including her home address was leaked; she was compelled to flee her home.[33][34] At the XOXO Festival in Portland, Oregon, she said, in regard to the accusations that high-profile women were making up the threats against them, that "one of the most radical things you can do is to actually believe women when they talk about their experiences." "The perpetrators," Sarkeesian went on to say, "do not see themselves as perpetrators at all.... They see themselves as noble warriors."[35]

Sarkeesian canceled an October 2014 speaking appearance at Utah State University (USU) after the school received three anonymous threats, the second of which claimed affiliation with Gamergate.[36] The initial threat alluded to the École Polytechnique massacre, a 1989 mass shooting motivated by antifeminism.[37] USU's President and Provost released a joint statement saying that USU, in consultation with state and federal law enforcement agencies, had assessed that there was no credible threat to students, staff or the speaker.[38] However, requests for additional security measures were declined because of Utah's open carry laws, leading to the cancellation.[8][39][40][41] The threats drew the attention of mainstream media to the Gamergate situation.[42] Wingfield of The New York Times referred to the threat as "the most noxious example of a weeks long campaign to discredit or intimidate outspoken critics of the male-dominated gaming industry and its culture."[8] The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) actively investigated the threat to attack Sarkeesian.[43]


Video game developer Brianna Wu suffered Gamergate-related harassment from late 2014 into 2015.
In mid-October Brianna Wu, independent game developer and co-founder of video game studio Giant Spacekat, saw her home address and other identifying information posted on 8chan as retaliation for mocking Gamergate. Wu then became the target of rape and death threats on Twitter and elsewhere. After contacting police, Wu fled her home with her husband, saying she would not allow the threats to intimidate her into silence.[8][44][45][46][47][48] Wu later announced an US$11,000 reward for any information leading to a conviction for those involved in her harassment, and set up a legal fund to help other game developers who have been harassed online.[49]

Harassment related to Gamergate continued for several months after the onset of the controversy. Two critics of Gamergate have been targets of attempted "swatting"â€"hoaxed reports to emergency services intended to provoke a SWAT team response at the target's home. The Guardian reported that both swatting attempts were coordinated through the "baphomet" subforum of 8chan.[50][51] Since the initial rush of threats that caused her to flee her home, Wu documented receiving roughly 45 death threats by April 2015; Silicon Valley investor Marc Andreesen has offered up to a $10,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of those who have issued these threats.[52]

Wu's studio, Giant Spacekat, withdrew from the Expo Hall of PAX East 2015. Wu cited security concerns, lack of confidence in the management and their failure to return calls.[53][54][55] A man calling himself "Jace Connors" threatened Wu in a YouTube video that was later found to be a hoax comedy performance by members of the group Million Dollar Extreme. One of the members later reported receiving threats and harassment himself after which he stated, "I didn't take this situation seriously, but I see what it means now to be in the other person's shoes."[56]

Coverage of the Gamergate controversy has heightened public awareness of Wu's work and increased sales for Giant Spacekat's first game, Revolution 60, though Wu has said that the time and money to combat the harassment has outweighed those financial benefits.[52] Gaming-related conventions in 2015, such as a Canadian Games Studies Association meeting and the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2015, have seen ongoing harassment from Gamergate hashtag users.[57][58]

Actress and gamer Felicia Day wrote a blog post about her concerns over Gamergate and her fear of retaliation if she spoke against it. Almost immediately her home address and phone number were posted online, leading to harassing letters and phone calls.[59] Actor Wil Wheaton and former NFL player Chris Kluwe also posted criticisms of Gamergate, the latter widely noted for Kluwe's use of creative insults.[15][60][61][62][63][64] Stephen Colbert questioned why men like Kluwe had not been threatened by Gamergate, stating that "it's almost entirely women being threatened in Gamergate".[65][66]

Various people, some of whom requested to remain anonymous, have also been harassed for supporting Gamergate.[67] One Gamergate supporter said he was instructed to leave his home after he reported threats to police.[68] Another supporter said that she had experienced repeated harassment, including hacking attempts and threats to break her windows.[19][68] YouTube personality Steven "boogie2988" Williams, remarked that a comment on one of his videos included his address and a threat to his wife's life.[67][69] Mike Diver wrote in Vice that threats against Gamergate supporters had been neglected in press coverage.[67] The BBC reported that "misogynist abuseâ€"and vitriolic messages in generalâ€"is not limited to either 'side' of the argument".[70]

Bomb threats have also been made towards events attended by Gamergate supporters. A May 2015 meetup in Washington D.C. arranged by Christina Hoff Sommers and Milo Yiannopoulos was a target of a bomb threat made over Twitter, according to local police responding to information supplied by the FBI.[71] During "Airplay", an event run by the Society of Professional Journalists in August 2015, multiple bomb threats were made. This led to the evacuation of the building and the neighborhood around it.[72][73]

Coordination of harassment
There has been considerable discussion of self-policing and the responsibility supporters of Gamergate share when the hashtag is used for harassment. A number of websites have blocked users, removed posts, and created policies to prevent their users from threatening Quinn and others with doxing, assault, rape and murder, and planning and coordinating such threats.[2][5] 4chan's founder, Christopher Poole, banned all discussion of Gamergate on the site as more attacks occurred, leading to Gamergate supporters using 8chan as their central hub.[74] Shortly after banning Gamergate from 4chan, Poole announced that he would be withdrawing from the site.[75]

Ars Technica reported that a series of 4chan discussion logs suggests that Twitter sockpuppet accounts were used to popularize the Gamergate hashtag.[76] Heron, Belford, and Goker, analyzing the logs, found that early Gamergate IRC discussions focused on coordinating the harassment of Quinn by using astroturf campaigns to push attacks against her into mainstream view. They also describe how initial organizers deliberately attempted to cultivate a palpable narrative for public consumption while internally focusing on personal grudges against Quinn and aggressive sexual imagery.[17]

Gamergate supporters have responded to accusations of harassment in a variety of ways. Many have denied that the harassment came from Gamergate, or falsely accused victims of fabricating the evidence.[17][34] Gamergate supporters have used the term "Literally Who" to refer to victims of harassment such as Quinn, claiming they are not relevant to Gamergate's goals and purposes. Commentators have decried the use of such terminology as dehumanizing, and noted that discussions on Gamergate forums often center around those referred to as "Literally Who."[11][77] Some Gamergate supporters have denounced the harassment, arguing that the perpetrators are in the minority and do not represent them, and have reported threatening or hateful comments.[68][67][78]

By September 24, 2014, over one million Twitter messages incorporating the Gamergate hashtag had been sent.[79] A Newsweek and Brandwatch analysis found more than two million Twitter messages between September and October 2014.[80] Software developer Andy Baio also produced an analysis of #Gamergate tweets showing a discussion that was polarized between pro- and anti-Gamergate factions. One quarter of the tweets sampled were produced by users new to Twitter, most of whom were pro-Gamergate.[81] While the number of Gamergate supporters is unclear, in October 2014 Deadspin estimated 10,000 supporters based on the number of users discussing Gamergate on Reddit.[82]

In an interview with NPR's Marketplace, voice actress Jennifer Hale called on the gaming community to improve the self-policing of its small and vicious fringe, and said race and gender barriers persist in the industry.[83] Developer Peter Molyneux considered that the Internet's instant accessibility of social media allows for people to express of-the-moment opinions without thinking about their consequences, leading to a "whole Pandora's Box" of both good and bad issues that society must consider in terms of freedom of speech.[84] Todd VanDerWerff wrote that the Gamergate supporters' message was lost in the vitriolic harassment, frequently directed at women.[22]

[mauricio]

I thought about reading on Gamergate and see what is this trivial funny scandal. I wish I didn't. This is the summary given by wikipedia.

>wikipedia

HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA if only you knew... check the talk page of that article.


also https://xkcd.com/978/

[mauricio]

I take that back. This is bordering on domestic terrorism and looks like sooner or later it will end bloodshed in life loss.

jesus christ...

how about this go to kotakuinaction and tell me if the movement you see there matches what the wiki article said.Seriously do some first hand investigation go talk to the actual members of GG hear and read some of the hundreds of hours of material recorded by them.

[mauricio]

Frankly if you're just gonna take the wikipedia article at face value without knowing anything about gamergate about the gaming community or about the chan community or the youtube community involved. You know the actual people that participated in this ordeal since the start and have been members of those groups far longer than that. You simple have no idea what you are talking about. That wikipedia article is extremely biased for a number of reasons that i could link you a post about it if i find it, but it was mainly because the news outlets that gamergate attacked are the ones that are considered reliable sources even when they are implicated in the scandal themselves, the gaming media simply took a united stance to slander gamergate and the mainstream media lazily simply copied articles and pushed the same narrative. Due to wikipedia mechanisms for reliable sources a group of random anonymous gamers posting on image boards and forums cannot do shit against the media and the biased editors to change that article. That is what is so outrageous about gamergate, the narrative they constructed based on them citing each other like an incestuous cabal of lazy, corrupt and ideological biased journalists. The threats and the doxxing did happen, from both sides (mind you most of them were anonymous so we don't really know who actually made them), but they were not representative at all of what gamergate was about and were completely blown out of proportion to slander all of gamergate and stop the discourse.

[Munch]

Basicly, wikipedia is a convoluted source of "information" that can be edited anytime and its moderators not even bothering to fact check the information. Don't use it as a reliable source, but instead check multiple sources of information.

[mauricio]

for starters check this out. This is a database created by GG about journalistic ethical breaches. It was the collective effort of hundreds of members to compile all  this information. This shows the ethical concerns are real.

http://deepfreeze.it/journo.php