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Post by Pharcellus on Dec 8, 2014 20:12:31 GMT
So, going on for nearly 4 months now.. doesn't appear to be abating at all. Actually seems to be gaining steam.
I've been following it all pretty intently, and it is amazing the spectrum of people involved overall, from extremists to moderates on both sides. I tend to stick with the moderates as much as possible, and have found some really knowledgeable and reasonable people on the pro-#GamerGate side, including a psychologist who is a social worker named Cainejw. He writes on his blog deconstructing and dismantling Anita Sarkeesian's works, as well as other narratives of "third-wave" feminism.
However, over the weekend, some very troubling information has come to light with respect to the indie game dev scene. It now appears that the collusion between certain developers, certain members of the games media, and certain PR people runs far deeper than originally suspected. It appears that the last few years of the Independent Games Festival and Indiecade contests may have been more or less "rigged".
This is very disheartening. I had hopes that, perhaps, we might enter one of our games into some of the indie game contests, but with this, I am not sure I want to even bother, especially since you have to pay to participate.
This whole thing is turning into a fucking nightmare, and at the worst possible time. It is demotivational in the extreme to see such corruption in an industry you're personally trying your damnedest to participate within.
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Post by Pharcellus on Mar 6, 2015 2:27:39 GMT
Well, so GDC2015 happened. I was kinda expecting some stupid shit to come out of it, but what happened last night really took the cake: www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/gamergate-developer-tim-schafer-provokes-rage-with-joke-about-online-gaming-activists-at-industry-awards-10089124.htmlTim Schafer, creator of Grim Fandango, Psychonauts, Brutal Legends, The Secret of Monkey Island, and the ill-fated Kickstarter disaster Broken Age gets up and tells an incredibly stupid and tasteless joke, essentially erasing the identities of minority gamers with a sock puppet. The top end of the game industry is going into the shitter, and these fucks don't even care. If people expected #GamerGate to die off and blow away, that single act of utter stupidity ensures that it will last well into next year at this point. Indies are the future of gaming, not only in terms of success, but also diversity.
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xaeris
Apprentice of Rant
Posts: 462
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Post by xaeris on Mar 6, 2015 5:42:42 GMT
Of course the Triple A industry is fighting it tooth and nail... while continue to put out utter shit.
Just earlier, after watching Yahtzee's Evolve video, I did some fact-checking for a response I typed up. At the time...
Evolve: $60+ (with DLC), 4800 (roughly) people playing simultaneously on Steam, a game that gobbles 25GB+ of HDD space, 67% of 9,000 reviews are positive. Terraria: $10 (with FREE expansion updates), 9,900 (roughly) people playing simultaneously on Steam, a game that uses ~300MB of HDD space, 97% of 68,000 reviews are positive.
Terraria has existed for years, Evolve *JUST* came out, and it is dwindling already and it was touted by video game journalism to be the "next level multiplayer game". Obviously, said journalists were paid (something indies don't do) to say that.
So... yeah. New "awesome" Triple A titles... just don't hold up these days unless they come from Bethesda or some-such.
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Post by Krald on Mar 31, 2015 21:17:46 GMT
Well, I think part of that comparison is just down to price. If Evolve was the same price was Terraria, it would likely garner very positive responses. Of course it isn't mostly because it took a lot more money to develop and they're seeking a return on that ivnestment.
I still think there's a place for both indie and big-budget games.
Although it's easy to argue some companies are losing their way, but I suppose that's another subject entirely.
As for the whole gamergate thing, ridiculous is all I can say, sounds overblown and crazy. Glad I wasn't exposed to a great deal of it due to be not really following gaming and social media greatly.
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Post by Pharcellus on May 4, 2015 18:53:32 GMT
It may sound overblown and crazy, but it is a natural response to authoritarian oppression against freedom of expression. People fight for it. No shock or surprise there.
If you use any of the major game media sites (Kotaku, Polygon, RPS, Gamasutra, etc), you have been exposed to it. They are the reason it started and has been going strong ever since.
Of course, shitty clickbait pretend "news" sites have been a problem for far longer than #GamerGate has existed; for more than a decade, in fact. It is just that the previously growling sleepy bear has been poked with the cattle prod and is now in the process of eating their collective face over it.
Toxic radical feminism is just a side dish.
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