Menu

«Previous post | Next post»

I find it somewhat disturbing that video game devs aren’t allowed to speak up their mind about things anymore. At least not without the risk of losing their jobs, customers and business.

And funny enough, that was something which the video game media, the SJW and anti-GamerGate movement just recently requested from the video game devs (to clear up the “toxicated” air in the industry).

So when “some” game developers finally chose to speak up about the current situation in the video game industry.

Things turned ugly really fast. I could be wrong now, but i think Mark Kern (CEO, MEK Entertainment) was the one that got the ball rolling (he had to pay a very high price for doing so though. As he became something of an “outcast” for doing so).

And just like always, someone has to lead the way so that other´s dare to follow as well (which Mark Kern aslo did). And Chris Mancil (the current director of digital communications at EA) chose to speak up as well, or at least he tried to (via a post on his blog).

Mancil was however silenced by Polygon’s Ben Kuchera (or to be exact, via a anti #GamerGate mob. Which he controlled). So Mancil had switch his blog from public to private (because of this blog post).

That´s just the half of it though. Because when Mancil retweeted a joke by Millo Yiannopoulos. He lost over 2,500 Twitter followers in less than 24 hours.

And it was all done with the help of the Anti-GG blockbot (which was created by Sue Randi Harper Aka “FreeBSDgirl“).

Yep, Mark Kern is on the GG block bot list. And so are we…

And speaking of the Anti-GG blockbot . A man called James Desborough is suing Randi Harper (the creator of the Anti-GG blockbot) for substantial damages do to loss of business opportunities.

So that´s a hot topic at the moment. As the Anti-GG block bot list has thousands and thousands of names on it (the last time i checked it had +15K names on the list).

Could Randi Harper be facing a even more lawsuits in near future?

“You are allowed to play with us as long as you hold the right opinions”.

Then we got the part that concerns GDC 2015 and the so-called “blacklist”. This is something which got under the radar at the time (mainly because of Tim Schafer sock puppet show).

Anyhow, the GDC 2015 blacklist was a list of devs that´s been marked for life for supporting #GamerGate. And that was something which created a lot of anger amongst devs, as their livelihood was literally at stake because of that list.

The IGDA/Intel and GDC relationship is a separate story on it´s own…

And things didn´t get better when IGDA (International Game Developers Association) had their mouthful of say on this subject (see the picture above).

I don´t know about you boys and girls, but all of this made me think about High School.

Bullies, popularity contests and divided groups that´s based on what kind of person you are (either it´s an label that you have picked out of free will, or it´s been forced up on you).

So you´re just welcome if you think, act and hold the “right” sorts of opinions and thoughts. Otherwise you will face consequences and repercussions.

Is this really the kind of climate that we want to have in the video game industry? Well, i sure don´t. As it´s hard to breath, exist and create something great in an environment like that.

But hopefully enough. Mark Kern might be able to clear some of that toxicated air with his new blog.

Source:
Dailykos

Robin “V-Act” Ek
The Gaming Ground
Twitter: @TheGamingGround