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2014/09/07 16:11:03
Subject: Zoe Quinn and the five guys; corruption in video game journalism
If writing reviews is hard (As Objective Game Reviews states), why does every Tom, Dick, and Sally try to do it? Most only stop because of lack of views/exposure, not because it's hard....
Also, stopped reading at Vox's "Anti-Feminism" and
Needless to say, much of the criticism of Quinn was horrifyingly gendered, directed not just at her personal decisions (which would have been bad enough) but also at her identity specifically as a woman within the gaming community.
Seriously?
I've never feared Death or Dying. I've only feared never Trying.
2014/09/07 16:12:32
Subject: Zoe Quinn and the five guys; corruption in video game journalism
LordofHats wrote: At this point mentioning the harassment while trying to make a point not about harassment would be detrimental and distracting from the point. Any mention of it will lead to hordes of comments about justification, whose right, whose wrong, etc. It's actually smarter not to mention that issue if you want to say something not directly related to it.
Interesting.
But what about the whole issue with harrassment and just leaving it at that, and just saying it is happening.
I mean its kind of interesting what is going on.
Now just need IGN to disclose that.
From whom are unforgiven we bring the mercy of war.
2014/09/07 16:15:21
Subject: Zoe Quinn and the five guys; corruption in video game journalism
The gaming media has been kicking us pretty hard, so when you kick back, hit where it matters. Their advertisers.
Meanwhile Zoe Quinn is playing the victim on her twitter claiming she was framed and that she makes no money. Scroll down and you see this: "Twitter's blowin up and I have a hunk to smooch and a cigar to light off smouldering nerd corpses so if you wanna get in touch, email me"
And that she has been hiding in the IRC chat room with "Proof" (without time codes) that it was orchestrated to harass women. What a scumbag. She is doing the same thing as she did with wizard chan and fabricating an event. She'll be asking for money any day now and rustle up the SJW hate brigade.
And this is exactly why we're ignoring her. She's not worth the time, not worth the effort and bottom line? This isn't about her. The 4chan guys knew she was in their Raid IRC at one point and were trolling her, and they've been publicly commenting on it and laughing about it. That's the thing about 4chan. They operate completely in the open. If you want to see what a 4chan board is doing about whatever, just navigate over to the board and look around a bit.
The bottom line is WE are winning. Kotaku's changed their policy and kinda apologized, The Escapist's top dog has made comments to the extent of being annoyed with his writer's bs, and changed their policy. Polygon has kinda changed their policy to a smaller extent, all of those site's traffic dropped MASSIVELY, The Escapist only recovered after the public apology went live and even that's not back up to their pre-gate averages by a significant margin. The advertisers ARE contacting these websites.
That's why 4chan isn't wasting their time messing with Anita or Zoe, A. they aren't barely related to the topic. B. we can win without hacking, harassing or doing anything vaguely like that. We don't have to. All we have to do is email Verizon, Best Buy, Amazon and say "Why do you partner with these scumbags who obviously despise their target demographic. Operation Disrespectful Nod people, send your emails. It takes 15 minutes to work up a letter or email for the big ones like Verizon and company.
Phil Fish and Zoe both got "hacked", Anita got "chased out of her home" and if you'll buy any of that I need you to PM me at once, because I have a bridge I'd like to sell you. All three of those individuals, when people have offered to contact the FBI or have gone as far AS contacting the FBI, have quietly lowered their heads and slinked off into the dark. If Zoe was going to go to the FBI over her alleged harassment she'd have gone already. This is the worst quality of dinner theater for brain dead followers who are just so worked up over a chance to fight the evil white male that actual thought doesn't begin to occur to them.
I beg of you sarge let me lead the charge when the battle lines are drawn
Lemme at least leave a good hoof beat they'll remember loud and long
Slarg232 wrote: If writing reviews is hard (As Objective Game Reviews states), why does every Tom, Dick, and Sally try to do it? Most only stop because of lack of views/exposure, not because it's hard....
Also, stopped reading at Vox's "Anti-Feminism" and
Needless to say, much of the criticism of Quinn was horrifyingly gendered, directed not just at her personal decisions (which would have been bad enough) but also at her identity specifically as a woman within the gaming community.
Seriously?
Yeah that bit I was like..... Really? Really think that? That is not what is gong on. There is no anti-feminist mob. I mean it does exist, but they just jumped and said "Yeah look at us!"
While the rest of us look at them and think. "Yeah we are not saying that."
I mean Antia, I just disagree with. And I said that one time and I got called a sexist.
From whom are unforgiven we bring the mercy of war.
2014/09/07 16:18:11
Subject: Zoe Quinn and the five guys; corruption in video game journalism
Slarg232 wrote: If writing reviews is hard (As Objective Game Reviews states), why does every Tom, Dick, and Sally try to do it? Most only stop because of lack of views/exposure, not because it's hard....
Also, stopped reading at Vox's "Anti-Feminism" and
Needless to say, much of the criticism of Quinn was horrifyingly gendered, directed not just at her personal decisions (which would have been bad enough) but also at her identity specifically as a woman within the gaming community.
Seriously?
Yeah that bit I was like..... Really? Really think that? That is not what is gong on. There is no anti-feminist mob. I mean it does exist, but they just jumped and said "Yeah look at us!"
While the rest of us look at them and think. "Yeah we are not saying that."
I mean Antia, I just disagree with. And I said that one time and I got called a sexist.
Remember that SJWs are the same people that go into science fields and claim gravity is sexist. Its literally a battle against bent minded people that are deluded beyond repair.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/09/07 16:19:46
Give me ten minutes and that article will agree with me
On the one hand you're not totally wrong. Transmedia is kind of a new idea. Newish in that the term is new, but identifies a style of marketing/media production that's been developing slowly since the late 70's. That's what Silverstring was likely referring too as that accurately defines what Silverstring does. EDIT: I guess what I'm saying is Silverstrong didn't make the term up, and it is something that does sort of exist.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/09/07 16:26:34
Watching this I've begun to realize just how much of a negative influence Disney movies have had on my life. They've planted unrealistic notions in my head, which I'm going to go ahead and blame for the entirety of my first marriage. Thanks a lot, Disney.
Even if this was posted in jest, benefit of the doubt, in comedy timing is everything.....
This was posted two hours ago, btw.
I've never feared Death or Dying. I've only feared never Trying.
2014/09/07 21:25:06
Subject: Zoe Quinn and the five guys; corruption in video game journalism
Jesus... Internet Aristocrat was right, this is what happens when you raise spoiled kids that suddenly have to deal with the real world when they hit university, they latch onto the first thing that tells them that them being a gakky person isn't their fault but societies.
Mechanical Crow wrote: Jesus... Internet Aristocrat was right, this is what happens when you raise spoiled kids that suddenly have to deal with the real world when they hit university, they latch onto the first thing that tells them that them being a gakky person isn't their fault but societies.
Oh dear god. I hate that study. I mean I latched onto Kantianism only because I thought hey, Look this idea shares my values. I like it, it makes sense. And I had no idea what I would call my ethics.
Now this maybe because I was grown up in a place that everyone hated me because I spoke differently.
But anyway the whole thing that is going on is mostly due to colleges.
IT happens. We all go through that stage.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/09/07 21:46:32
From whom are unforgiven we bring the mercy of war.
2014/09/07 21:48:36
Subject: Zoe Quinn and the five guys; corruption in video game journalism
We have some interesting facts to disseminate for the public interest. In 2009 Philippe Poisson received investment money for Polytron Corporation in the form of a loan from several influential people.
Ron Carmel of 2D Boy Nathan Vella of Capybara Studios Aaron Isaksen of AppAbove Kellee Santiago of OUYA, formerly of thatgamecompany, and IndieCade Jonathan Blow of EGW Kyle Gabler of 2D Boy Matthew Wegner of Flashbang Studios
These 7 people later went on to form Indie Fund, the “funding source for independent developers” who were “looking to encourage the next wave of game developers.” You can consider FEZ to have received the “Beta” Indie Fund.
Each of these individuals contributed a different amount of money to the FEZ creator and, in return, received a guarantee of a percentage of Gross Profits from Polytron.
While this isn't necessarily the de-facto standard method of investing in a company, it is a valid method of fund raising and isn't suspicious in its own right.
What is suspicious are the events that followed the initial investment of Polytron.
In 2011, the Independent Games Festival (or IGF) had 5 members of Indie Fund on the finalists panel, and 3 members of Polytron's staff. That's 8 out of 10 judges. Mere days before IGF was to accept submissions, FEZ creator Philippe Poisson had to announce the delay of FEZ. Had Polytron finished FEZ on time, the game would have been a shoe-in to win the grand prize at IGF that year as they had a controlling interest.
In 2012, FEZ gets through nominations and wins big. Of note here is the IGF anonymous nomination panel: all of the finalist judges are invited back to nominate games the following year. So the Indie Fund judges from 2011 would anonymously judge entrants for 2012.
The nomination process is simple: a majority of people who vote on your game is all that is needed to push you through to the selection process. While judges are explicitly told that they can only vote on the games they are given, this is not the case, and any judge can vote on any game; for example, eight people who are members of a small clique can give one game a huge starting bias.
In this instance FEZ would have started off with a bias of +8, and since it only takes a majority of people who voted to push a game through it would take at least 8 other judges to vote no, plus the number of judges that legitimately vote yes for FEZ.
Even more interesting is that judges are not even required to play the game to submit a ruling on them. So, no time need be wasted by the submitting judges: they merely must say yes or no to continue the process.
We know all of this thanks to leaked conversations of anonymous judges from past IGFs. We'd like to thank these judges for coming forward.
Interestingly enough, and we think this is not a coincidence, the software used by IGF for the anonymous judges was created by Flashbang Studios – the same studio run by Matthew Wegner who had a financial interest in Polytron Corporation.
FEZ was allowed through the IGF process twice – once in 2008 as a demo, which was strictly against IGF standards, and again in 2012 as a complete game – which created a fire-storm in the indie gaming community.
FEZ was a pre-Indie Fund game. Antichamber was also an Indie Fund game, and it too was pushed through the IGF twice: once as Antichamber, and the year prior as Hazard.
We do not suspect illegitimate practices on the part of the IGF; however, we do find it suspect that Brandon Boyer is close friends with Philippe Poisson, as he has stated on his twitter account multiple times, and is also friends with members of Indie Fund.
We would encourage the IGF to investigate these possible abuses of the anonymous nomination process as well as have an outside third party firm audit the code of their anonymous jury nomination software.
With that being said, I would now turn your attention to IndieCade, which labels itself as supporting the independent game development community. We intend to show that the only thing IndieCade supports is their own wallets.
Kellee Santiago, in 2009, invested money in Polytron which gave her voting rights in the company and a percentage stake in FEZ's Gross Profits. In 2011 she became Chair of the Awards Jury of IndieCade. Coincidentally, 2011 was the year that FEZ won two major awards at IndieCade:
Disciplinary Excellence in Story/World Design General Excellence by Grand Jury (or, their grand prize)
IndieCade works with “hundreds” of jurors to select a winner, where the Chair of the Awards Jury “works closely” with each juror to help them select the right game. We find it suspicious that the Chair of the Awards Jury works closely with the anonymous jurors (some of which may or may not be members of Indie Fund) and has a vested financial interest in one of the games submitted to IndieCade which, interestingly, won their grand prize.
If this is true, then IndieCade is guilty of siphoning funds through ticket sales and sponsorship money as a prize for FEZ, which is then recycled directly back into the pockets of those investors. Philippe Poisson gets a payday from his buddy investors, and the investors, including Kellee Santiago, get a payday thanks to their loan agreement.
Coincidentally, after its big awards win at IGF, FEZ was released less than a month later. This helped bolster the property and contribute to its hot sales. We question just how much of a hand Indie Fund had in procuring those IGF awards.
We suspect that Indie Fund has manipulated events to guarantee that their “beta” product – FEZ – would be a success and give the investors at Indie Fund a good name, at the cost of damaging the entire reputation of the indie gaming community.
This racketeering allowed FEZ to receive top marketing in the gaming media through its win at IndieCade, and helped line the wallets of its investors thanks to its win and Indie Fund's suspicious involvement with IGF.
If FEZ received such preferential treatment thanks to Indie Fund, what other games also received this treatment? Did Monaco, Antichamber, Dear Esther, and Framed, which are all Indie Fund games, also received special treatment because the investors at Indie Fund have their hands in the cookie jar? What other companies does Kellee Santiago have a vested financial interest in? What financial interests do these anonymous jurors for IGF and IndieCade have? Why aren't any of these interests disclosed to the public, or even the developers that apply to these expensive events? Of the journalists that covered this, how many of them were “incentivized” by Indie Fund or their members to cover these games positively?
We may never know the answer to these questions. We do know that these different festivals are extremely important to marketing departments, as Edmond McMillen stated on a podcast where he recounts a conversation he had with a Microsoft marketing director.
Until we get full transparency of the judges and judging processes behind IGF and IndieCade we cannot trust their results.
The following parties were reached out to without success before we aired this piece:
Brandon Boyer Philippe Poisson Ron Carmel Nathan Vella Aaron Isaksen Kellee Santiago Jonathan Blow Kyle Gabler Matthew Wegner IndieCade Independent Games Festival
We would encourage these people who have any comments on this story to reach out to us at lordkat@lordkat.com if they wish to clarify, dispute, or affirm any statements made herein.
For further analysis on this situation I would refer you to CameraLady's Video, which you can find on Short Fat Otaku's YouTube channel.
Special thanks to: Camera Lady Peter No One Temet – an unfortunate victim to house slipper abuse RogueStar Anon Our anonymous leakers, developers, and judges and the 1971 Supreme Court case: New York Times Co. v United States.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/09/07 22:03:16
From whom are unforgiven we bring the mercy of war.
2014/09/07 22:04:05
Subject: Re:Zoe Quinn and the five guys; corruption in video game journalism
FEZ has loads of the people involved in the credits, including Leigh Alexander and Jenn Frank, who wrote articles that we are terrorists etc. Apparently involved with racketeering and fraud. So it the house cards continues to collapse.
Long story short, Phil Fish is probably going to jail, and lots of digging will happen and all this fethers will get the spot light on them.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/09/07 22:08:00
FEZ has loads of the people involved in the credits, including Leigh Alexander and Jenn Frank, who wrote articles that we are terrorists etc. Apparently involved with racketeering and fraud. So it the house cards continues to collapse.
Long story short, Phil Fish is probably going to jail, and lots of digging will happen and all this fethers will get the spot light on them.
Yeah. So this is just let the hounds out.
From whom are unforgiven we bring the mercy of war.
2014/09/07 22:15:13
Subject: Re:Zoe Quinn and the five guys; corruption in video game journalism
Did the companies that supported the IGF (And have withdrawn support of it) (AKA: Valve, Digipen, Microsoft, Sony) all know about it? And if they did, did they have their hand the in cookie jar? Basically, did they pull funding to distance themselves from a PR standpoint, or from a "Oh poop let's get away from them or we get lumped in with the rest of our conspirators"?
Valve I would like to believe wouldn't do that, but they are a business and see people as wads of cash. Microsoft and Sony I don't doubt for a second, though Digipen troubles me; Dan put out a vid saying he hated GamerGate, so is that his opinion, or is that Digipen saying "Hey, you're the best thing we have to PR, say something"?
Or is this all a dream? Or is Anita Dreaming, and we're all part of it?
I've never feared Death or Dying. I've only feared never Trying.
2014/09/07 22:16:05
Subject: Zoe Quinn and the five guys; corruption in video game journalism
Honest candid question: do the journalists that complain about gamer misogyny the same that those that do articles on the best “booth babes” from E3 (or whatever the name of the big show are these days), or not?
"Our fantasy settings are grim and dark, but that is not a reflection of who we are or how we feel the real world should be. [...] We will continue to diversify the cast of characters we portray [...] so everyone can find representation and heroes they can relate to. [...] If [you don't feel the same way], you will not be missed"
https://twitter.com/WarComTeam/status/1268665798467432449/photo/1
2014/09/07 22:17:50
Subject: Re:Zoe Quinn and the five guys; corruption in video game journalism
FEZ has loads of the people involved in the credits, including Leigh Alexander and Jenn Frank, who wrote articles that we are terrorists etc. Apparently involved with racketeering and fraud. So it the house cards continues to collapse.
Long story short, Phil Fish is probably going to jail, and lots of digging will happen and all this fethers will get the spot light on them.
Yeah. So this is just let the hounds out.
It'll be hard for the SJWs to say its about misogyny now. Im going to hazard a guess and say Phil Fish will be the scapegoat. Phil connects to Zoe, who connects to Maya Kramer and silverstring media that connects to Anita, Frauds helping frauds be frauds.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote: Honest candid question: do the journalists that complain about gamer misogyny the same that those that do articles on the best “booth babes” from E3 (or whatever the name of the big show are these days), or not?
Couldn't tell you if its the same people reporting, but they do articles on cosplayers and the like.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2014/09/07 22:22:58
Did the companies that supported the IGF (And have withdrawn support of it) (AKA: Valve, Digipen, Microsoft, Sony) all know about it? And if they did, did they have their hand the in cookie jar? Basically, did they pull funding to distance themselves from a PR standpoint, or from a "Oh poop let's get away from them or we get lumped in with the rest of our conspirators"?
Valve I would like to believe wouldn't do that, but they are a business and see people as wads of cash. Microsoft and Sony I don't doubt for a second, though Digipen troubles me; Dan put out a vid saying he hated GamerGate, so is that his opinion, or is that Digipen saying "Hey, you're the best thing we have to PR, say something"?
Or is this all a dream? Or is Anita Dreaming, and we're all part of it?
They didn't support IGF. Valve doesn't need to. They already do with Steam greenlight.
This is not a dream sadly, but there is going to be a storm of fire.
From whom are unforgiven we bring the mercy of war.
2014/09/07 22:23:50
Subject: Re:Zoe Quinn and the five guys; corruption in video game journalism
Mechanical Crow wrote: Couldn't tell you its the same people reporting, but they do articles on cosplayers and the like.
Cosplay and booth babes are pretty different though. Some cosplay can be pretty sexualized, but it is still about a fan putting work into his or her passion, which is pretty different from someone being paid to wear a costume in order to promote some product.
Of course, if the article focus only on the most sexy cosplay, it is still a bit sad…
Automatically Appended Next Post: What is the problem with Double Fine getting funds? They made pretty awesome games. I admit I am too lazy to check the context .
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/09/07 22:25:47
"Our fantasy settings are grim and dark, but that is not a reflection of who we are or how we feel the real world should be. [...] We will continue to diversify the cast of characters we portray [...] so everyone can find representation and heroes they can relate to. [...] If [you don't feel the same way], you will not be missed"
https://twitter.com/WarComTeam/status/1268665798467432449/photo/1
2014/09/07 22:26:44
Subject: Zoe Quinn and the five guys; corruption in video game journalism
I was writing a post but somehow managed to mislay it.
The short version was: Keeping this in mind and to still be fair.
Have the relevant authorities (and lawyers) been informed? Is the person making this statement continuing to engage on the subject, or has he made the press statement (which is a fair enough thing to have made, I guess?) and then stopped discussing it.
Just something I was thinking about.
2014/09/07 22:29:57
Subject: Re:Zoe Quinn and the five guys; corruption in video game journalism
Compel wrote: I was writing a post but somehow managed to mislay it.
The short version was: Keeping this in mind and to still be fair.
Have the relevant authorities (and lawyers) been informed? Is the person making this statement continuing to engage on the subject, or has he made the press statement (which is a fair enough thing to have made, I guess?) and then stopped discussing it.
Just something I was thinking about.
No they are answering more questions about it to make people aware of it. I think authorities may have been contacted.
From whom are unforgiven we bring the mercy of war.
2014/09/07 22:32:43
Subject: Re:Zoe Quinn and the five guys; corruption in video game journalism
Mechanical Crow wrote: Couldn't tell you its the same people reporting, but they do articles on cosplayers and the like.
Cosplay and booth babes are pretty different though. Some cosplay can be pretty sexualized, but it is still about a fan putting work into his or her passion, which is pretty different from someone being paid to wear a costume in order to promote some product.
Of course, if the article focus only on the most sexy cosplay, it is still a bit sad…
Automatically Appended Next Post: What is the problem with Double Fine getting funds? They made pretty awesome games. I admit I am too lazy to check the context .
Several things.
1) They had a kickstarter for Double Fine Adventure, where they raised an ungodly amount of money ($3,336,371 pledged of $400,000 goal). The 400,000 was supposed to make the game, with all extra money going to make it better. Fair enough.
2) They ended up pushing the release date back, and eventually had to release half of the game due to "Misappropriated Funds". Fair enough; Game Devs typically aren't good with money when it comes to making games.
3) They get a loan from IGF to make more games. Fair enough.
4) No word of #2 of DFA as of yet.
5) IGF has racketeering leveled against it.
6) HOW DO WE KNOW THOSE "MISAPPROPRIATED FUNDS" DIDN'T LINE SOMEONES POCKET?!?
FETH. JUST prepurchased Costume Quest 2 yesterday....
I've never feared Death or Dying. I've only feared never Trying.
2014/09/07 22:47:09
Subject: Zoe Quinn and the five guys; corruption in video game journalism
.
