JMessun

Jamal Messun · @JMessun

6th Oct 2014 from TwitLonger

How #GamerGate's campaings differ from actuial censorship


Boycotts have very little in common to do with censorship.
Journalists have a certain ethical responsibility before society, and more importantly, their readers. By practicing poor journalism - spreading misinformation, colluding, taking money or favours for reviews - they are influencing society in a very direct way.
Developers and cool-headed journalists are afraid to stand up to the major magazines for fear of being slammed.

https://medium.com/@oliverbcampbell/when-a-black-game-journalist-spoke-up-on-gamergate-a1f36421022
http://www.nichegamer.net/2014/09/real-gamedevs-sound-off-regarding-the-gamergate-controversy/
http://techraptor.net/content/indie-developers-toughts-on-state-gaming-industry/
http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sbqg58
http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sakrnh
http://www.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAction/comments/2g0nyi/a_developers_open_letter_to_gamergate_please_dont/

https://imgur.com/a/qt6Es/

Censoring is prohibiting certain information to be published, or seen by many. What the magazines have done on their websites,
http://i.imgur.com/nhCDkIE.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/jfWtl7M.jpg

on reddit,
http://ogeeku.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/banhammerexplodesreddit.png.jpg
http://rgz.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/6AFyFxl.png

on 4chan,
http://imgur.com/a/NkevG

among others
http://i.imgur.com/TCJgHVD.png
Try going on neoGaf and posting a dissenting opinion - see where that goes.



On the other hand, emailing advertisers and business partners with your concerns is not censorship. The journalists and their websites are still free to publish whatever they want, and they still have their usual userbase (save for the part that decided to boycott it). They are free to seek sponsors, investors, and partners who share their views and ideologies. Gamers are a large chunk if Intel's, NVIDIA's and many others' customers. I don't see why they would want to do business with someone who insults their audience, especially in such a childish and unbacked way..

Besides, look at The Escapist. Once they issued an apology, and published new guidelines, they boycott against them stopped. It's that simple.
Now, certainly many won't be satisfied until the likes of Miss Megaphone are fired, so this situation is a bit more difficult, but in no way unreasonable.

And it is reasonable to want to eliminate these journalists form the scene, unless they want to change. They are influencing games in a negative manner, hindering freedom and developers. They're not covering anything that goes against their narrative (look at TFYC? and https://twitter.com/DanielVavra/status/517978392109805568 - moreover, earlier they were under fire for having "too many white people," in a game set in medieval Europe (!)...). If these journalists are so poor, indeed, why would you want them covering your games?

But we're not taking their sites down. Not blocking them from discussion. We're only using fair business tactics and leverage. And that's why they're so mad.

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