SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
We have received three submissions pertaining to an unfolding story.
It all started in August with a controversial editorial by Leigh Alexander at the gaming news site Gamasutra. It was followed by Intel pulling their RealSense ads from the site. This, in turn, led a Linux Dev to claim he'll no longer make any kernel updates for Intel.
Intel Pulls Ad Campaign from Gamasutra
The war of words over misogyny vs. political correctness in the video game industry continues, with Intel pulling ads from the gaming news site Gamasutra for its RealSense gesture interface platform in response to an email campaign organized by a grassroots 'Gamergate movement'.
The latter group mobilized in response to an editorial by Gamasutra's Leigh Alexander, who listed a series of misogynistic incidents involving masses of anonymous gamers, then argued: 'We still think angry young men are the primary demographic for commercial video games — yet average software revenues from the commercial space have contracted massively year on year'. Alexander concluded: '"Gamer" isn’t just a dated demographic label that most people increasingly prefer not to use. Gamers are over. That’s why they’re so mad."
Posters at other gamer sites, as well as reddit, expressed satisfaction at the news.
And then things got even more interesting... [more after the break.]
We then received this succinct summary:
Linux Kernel Developer Strikes over Intel's Withdrawal of Ads on Gamasutra
Yesterday, Intel withdrew their advertising campaign on gaming news website Gamasutra, over recent changes to editorial position in opposition to #Gamergate. Today in response Linux Kernel developer Mathew Garrett announced on his blog that he would no longer be using unpaid time to work on patches for Intel in the kernel.
Intel's decision to withdraw support came after Gamasutra blogger Leigh Alexander's controversial remarks sparked a firestorm of outrage among gamers. Alexander declared in her article that "gamers are over" and that the industry needs, and would be forced into, a feminist, "social justice", direction. Outraged readers began a campaign soliciting Gamasutra advertiser to withdraw support from the site, and were successful in the case of Intel.
The campaign by Gamasutra's readers is part of the larger #Gamergate movement to expose corruption in gaming journalism.
And, for those who would appreciate some more details:
Linux Kernel Developer Refusing to Update Linux Kernel over #GamerGate
This is a double whammy,
Apparently the #GamerGate controversy is spilling over into the IT world.
Yesterday Intel decided to pull it's ads from the Game site Gamasutra over comments made by Leigh Alexander who wrote in August an article titled “gamers are over.”
From the article:
“Traditional ‘gaming’ is sloughing off, culturally and economically, like the carapace of a bug,” Alexander wrote at the time. “This is hard for people who’ve drank the Kool-Aid about how their identity depends on the aging cultural signposts of a rapidly evolving, increasingly broad and complex medium. It’s hard for them to hear they don’t own anything, anymore, that they aren’t the world’s most special-est consumer demographic, that they have to share.”
Today a Linux kernel dev felt this was Intel showing support for a consumer revolt steeped in misogyny and has vowed not to make any kernel updates for Intel
Here's a direct link to the dev's post
Excerpt from the post:
Recently, as part of the anti-women #GamerGate campaign[2], a set of awful humans convinced Intel to terminate an advertising campaign because the site hosting the campaign had dared to suggest that the sexism present throughout the gaming industry might be a problem. Despite being awful humans, it is absolutely their right to request that a company choose to spend its money in a different way. And despite it being a dreadful decision, Intel is obviously entitled to spend their money as they wish. But I'm also free to spend my unpaid spare time as I wish, and I no longer wish to spend it doing unpaid work to enable an abhorrently-behaving company to sell more hardware. I won't be working on any Intel-specific bugs. I won't be reverse engineering any Intel-based features[3]. If the backlight on your laptop with an Intel GPU doesn't work, the number of fucks I'll be giving will fail to register on even the most sensitive measuring device.
It has been said that the internet routes around breakage. Is this a tempest in a teapot that will blow away and be forgotten? Or is this a canary in a coal mine bringing attention to a deep-lying problem that will keep arising until properly solved? And how could that be achieved?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 06 2014, @10:36PM
So show me a post where she says she slept with somebody, and then a review written by that person dated immediately after the date she slept with him.
People are people, we have relationships with each other; sometimes people up hooking up with people they know from work; there's nothing wrong with that. If there is actual impropriety going on, I'd like to know, but from what I've seen the guy she supposedly fucked for a good review didn't even review her game.
So, lets see it. A review written by somebody she admitted to fucking within a week - or hell, make it a month - of fucking them.
(Score: 2) by keplr on Monday October 06 2014, @10:45PM
there's nothing wrong with that
Actually, there's a lot wrong with that if you handle it poorly. He needs to disclose their personal relationship if he ever writes about her, even a passing mention. The easier solution is to just not mention her or her games ever.
I don't respond to ACs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 06 2014, @10:57PM
The alleged review doesn't even exist, so that's covered pretty well. There's a review by Adam Smith, but I thought it was Nathan Grayson she was fucking for reviews?
(Score: 2) by keplr on Monday October 06 2014, @11:02PM
It's not a review. Stop moving the goalpost. It was a MENTION. That's bad enough.
I don't respond to ACs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 06 2014, @11:23PM
Ah, so he did mention her, I didn't see that. But wait, you're telling me that people are pissed off about her allegedly fucking some guy for a mere passing mention? That's even worse. Trading sex for a good review is impropriety for sure and would deserve some outrage if it was true, but a passing mention? Come on now, that's beyond childish.
(Score: 2) by keplr on Monday October 06 2014, @11:36PM
You're right, it would be a rather small thing to fixate on. That's why Gamergate isn't about that, or about her. The pro-GG side has moved on from talking about it. We don't care. Look who keeps bringing it up. It's the people who don't want to have a discussion about the direction the industry has been moving. It's the people who want to hijack gaming to serve a political agenda.
I urge you to watch this video. [youtube.com] This whole thing is much bigger than the simple story they're making it out to be. I bet you've never heard of DiGRA, but it's what everyone should be talking about.
I don't respond to ACs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 06 2014, @11:54PM
So, that's not a massive moving of the goalposts, at all. But I'll give it to you nonetheless. The whole complaint in that video is over a deluge of editorials claiming the word "gamer" is outmoded. I am not impressed. Its about one step above complaining that the same stories are submitted here and on slashdot. Is that really the most damning complaint here?
(Score: 2) by keplr on Monday October 06 2014, @11:59PM
So inspiration to write an article like that just independently struck a dozen people, with no connection between them, all at once, on the same day? Do you expect me to believe that? This wasn't one story being reposted, or one starting a chain reaction. They all came out with the same message at the same time. There's a political agenda, an entire movement, behind it.
I don't respond to ACs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 07 2014, @12:06AM
So inspiration to write an article like that just independently struck a dozen people, with no connection between them, all at once, on the same day?
Of course not, reading through some of the stories they are all rooted in the quinn / sarkessian stuff that had been going on for months. It is not particularly surprising that the authors all talked to similar sources and so their stories shared common themes. But even if it were a big-ole conspiracy, so what? An "entire movement" to redefine a word? Big deal.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 07 2014, @12:27AM
I agree, so fucking what? If anything, it looks like this, "Oh noes! We might lose our label in the media (who fucking cares what they think though)" is just a smokescreen to distract from the extreme abusiveness and misogyny coming from these fucktards. As far as I can see, that is the real problem here.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 07 2014, @12:06AM
So in other words, its about a bunch of self-centered shitheads throwing a temper tantrum. Just like the whole systemd retardation.
I don't give a fuck if the "gamer identity" or "gamer label" is gone, I'm going to continue playing video games. I don't need some stupid label to enjoy my games.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 06 2014, @11:31PM
Wait, I'm sorry, its not even a mention, its a fucking list of games Greenlighted by Steam. The game was greenlighted, so he HAD to mention it. Seriously, THAT is what people are pissed about, that it was greenlighted by Steam and he included it on a list of other games greenlighted at the same time?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 06 2014, @11:03PM
Since when is pussy a binding contract? So maybe he didn't reciprocate.
God knows how you could write anything positive about that turd she produced.
Still doesn't change what she did and why she did it.