{"id":14897,"date":"2024-06-19T16:41:07","date_gmt":"2024-06-19T14:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/19\/the-disturbing-online-misogyny-of-gamergate-has-returned-if-it-ever-went-away\/"},"modified":"2024-06-19T16:41:07","modified_gmt":"2024-06-19T14:41:07","slug":"the-disturbing-online-misogyny-of-gamergate-has-returned-if-it-ever-went-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/19\/the-disturbing-online-misogyny-of-gamergate-has-returned-if-it-ever-went-away\/","title":{"rendered":"The disturbing online misogyny of Gamergate has returned \u2013 if it ever went away"},"content":{"rendered":"

While some of their language has changed, the sentiment of this latest aggressive movement is just as distressing. It\u2019s time for the games industry to stand up to it<\/p>\n

\u2022 Don\u2019t get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

A few months ago I wrote about a consulting agency, Sweet Baby Inc, that found itself at the centre of a conspiracy theory<\/a>: aggrieved gamers on a Steam forum had erroneously concluded that this small agency was somehow mandating the inclusion of more diverse characters in games. Depressingly but unsurprisingly, the result was a tremendous amount of targeted harassment towards the people who work at Sweet Baby and every journalist who reported on it (particularly the women). It was a disturbing echo of Gamergate<\/a>, an online harassment campaign 10 years ago that initially sprung from the wild accusations of a game developer\u2019s vindictive ex-boyfriend.<\/p>\n

The language has changed a bit in the past decade: they used to be upset about \u201cSJWs\u201d, or social justice warriors, and now they\u2019ve taken issue with a different acronym, DEI (diversity, equality and inclusion), or just good ol\u2019 \u201cwoke\u201d. But the sentiment from this group is the same: games are for us, and for us only, and if you want games to change, or to tell stories outside the straightforward male-oriented power fantasies that we grew up with, then, well, that\u2019s not allowed. We won\u2019t stand for it. In fact, we will try to aggressively harass you out of this space entirely.<\/p>\n

Continue reading…<\/a>
\nWhile some of their language has changed, the sentiment of this latest aggressive movement is just as distressing. It\u2019s time for the games industry to stand up to it
\n\u2022 Don\u2019t get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up here
\nA few months ago I wrote about a consulting agency, Sweet Baby Inc, that found itself at the centre of a conspiracy theory: aggrieved gamers on a Steam forum had erroneously concluded that this small agency was somehow mandating the inclusion of more diverse characters in games. Depressingly but unsurprisingly, the result was a tremendous amount of targeted harassment towards the people who work at Sweet Baby and every journalist who reported on it (particularly the women). It was a disturbing echo of Gamergate, an online harassment campaign 10 years ago that initially sprung from the wild accusations of a game developer\u2019s vindictive ex-boyfriend.
\nThe language has changed a bit in the past decade: they used to be upset about \u201cSJWs\u201d, or social justice warriors, and now they\u2019ve taken issue with a different acronym, DEI (diversity, equality and inclusion), or just good ol\u2019 \u201cwoke\u201d. But the sentiment from this group is the same: games are for us, and for us only, and if you want games to change, or to tell stories outside the straightforward male-oriented power fantasies that we grew up with, then, well, that\u2019s not allowed. We won\u2019t stand for it. In fact, we will try to aggressively harass you out of this space entirely. Continue reading…Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While some of their language has changed, the sentiment of this latest aggressive movement is just as distressing. It\u2019s time for the games industry to stand up to it \u2022 Don\u2019t get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up here A few months ago I wrote about a consulting agency, Sweet Baby Inc, that …<\/p>\n

The disturbing online misogyny of Gamergate has returned \u2013 if it ever went away<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":14898,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14897"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}