>>331560
lol, I fucked up my formatting. I can't into 8chan.
For posterity's sake, I'm gonna recommend these future topics to look into (if I don't get around to posting about them later), because I think they're relevant:
- #1reasonwhy (START:
https://archive.is/Er4wa)
- #1reasontobe (START:
http://archive.is/quYCD,
https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1018080/)
- The "Why So Serious?" panel at PAX Aus 2013
Going through this, and having had more sleep since my last dig post, I'm seeing that the ideological conversion of the gaming press was a gradual thing. It was attempted back in 2007 when SA made the comic about Jade Raymond promoting Ass Creed, with some in the press trying to blow it up (notably, people have largely forgotten about it, because it was a non-issue). Dickwolves (the first time) was probably the origin point of when these ideologies got injected. Hell, I remember that was the first time I'd ever seen the term "rape culture." Then came the Jennifer Hepler incident (
https://archive.is/xB32b), which added to the pile. And a few months later, Anita Sarkeesian's Kickstarter happened (of note, Sarkeesian already had some media connections, through promotion of her OG Tropes vs. Women series by outlets like Feministing [
https://archive.fo/1fcoc] and LA Weekly [
http://archive.is/6lVPh]).
The way the press closed ranks around Anita, was something that we wouldn't see again until Dickwolves came back up, and in the aftermath of that, we saw PAX make some changes, like the addition of the Diversity Lounge, and the more bullshit panels about "inclusion tactics" and "Jesus God, being a woman in the industry is literally the worst thing ever." Which is kind of funny, because the press blasted PAX for being "tone-deaf" after it was first announced, and they see it as essential to PAX today. But there was a clear consensus at that point: the gaming community was "toxic," and it needed to be browbeaten a few more times until it respected women more. And then GamerGate came, and once again, we saw the press circle the wagons, and by that time, it was over. "Gamer culture" was beyond saving, and needed to die.
And probably the most important part? Almost always, you only saw one perspective in the press throughout these incidents. No dissenting viewpoints, hell, any dissenting views were harassment. Hell, Stephen Totilo said of Sarkeesian critics:
>And, yes, we have not given prominent exposure on Kotaku to her critics, some of whom just attack her outright and invite being ignored but others who do find exceptions or flaws in her argument. The latter is something we intend to get to on the site.
(
http://archive.is/BzBcU)
Of course, that never came to pass. Because, I think, an agreement was made to moralize and monopolize the views that were presented by the games press. This is why we saw politics start to make their way into what would otherwise be neutral coverage of stories—because a narrative had to be established and maintained.
Look at what Patrick Klepek wrote in 2012 after saying that he didn't consider himself to be a feminist:
http://archive.is/cn9ql Just saying "I'm not a feminist" was enough for people to react, and him to write the post. And now… well, I think you know how he turned out.
Here's another interesting Totilo moment from there:
>It’s odd to even be talking about this in the open, since one of the things Kotaku (then MTV) editor Stephen Totilo asked me to do was keep my political beliefs out of my writing and reporting.
If this was said before his Kotaku days, this would put the comment some time prior to April 2009. My, how things have changed.
Something also worth mentioning:
The Dickwolves comic was published on
August 11, 2010.
GameJournoPros was created on
August 31, 2010.