Depression Quest / 1 Sep 2014

Hundreds of Developers Are Fed Up With The Hate

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More than 600 developers and counting have signed the letter.
By Jenna Pitcher Hundreds of AAA and independent video game developers and publishers are signing an open letter to the gaming community to end hateful speech, harassment and make the community a more inclusive place to occupy.
The letter, created by Independent Game Designer Andreas Zecher, reads the following:
We believe that everyone, no matter what gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, or religion has the right to play games, criticize games and make games without getting harassed or threatened. It is the diversity of our community that allows games to flourish.
If you see threats of violence or harm in comments on Steam, YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, Facebook or reddit, please take a minute to report them on the respective sites.
If you see hateful, harassing speech, take a public stand against it and make the gaming community a more enjoyable space to be in.
At the time of writing more than 600 individuals and counting have signed the letter. Those interested in signing the letter, are invited to send a tweet to Andrea Szecher with their first name, last name along with Company name, University name or Independent.
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The open letter is the result of ongoing harassment in the community, which threatened to burst with a series of high profile events over just a few weeks. Developer of interactive fiction game Depression Quest, Zoe Quinn, was a target of hate campaign and received waves of harassment. Fez developer Phil Fish’s Polytron website was hacked and the developer's personal information was publicly published.
Anita Sarkeesian, creator of a web series that explores representations of women in pop culture called Feminist Frequency, frequently receives tirades of hate that spikes every time she releases a new episode. The latest, launched last week, was the second episode exploring the Women as Background Decoration trope in video games. It looked at how sexualized female bodies are often portrayed as both “sexual playthings and the perpetual victims of male violence.” Its release triggered the usual barrage of harassment and hate, with Saarkeesian forced to leave her home after receiving death threats.
Jenna Pitcher is a freelance journalist writing for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter.
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  • Keylimepies MOD • 10 hours ago � Featured by IGN Articles
    Due to the tone of comments posted thus far, we've opted to close the thread for the time being. Please be respectful of one another.
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      • t1striker • 10 hours ago
        People who are offended by the vast majority of people who know nothing about you, but the fact that you were in some way involved in the creation of a game. One thing you need to realize is that in this world we call Earth there are these people we refer to as Humans. These people come in all shapes and forms, with drastically different personalities. Anyway when some of these people get together they will both bash and praise things you may do, and let me tell you one thing. If no one is bashing/praising your work than no one knows about it or cares about it, but on the contrary if there are people bashing/praising your work than guess what they at the very least is some recognition of your work. On this planet infested with the Human species everything you do will be criticized and it will not stop until no one cares what you do. So if you are being bashed, and, or praised you need to recognize that you are actually blessed in some way.
        I once helped a blind person walk across a street once, and guess what happened. Well some people were very thankful, and thought it was a great gesture, but there was also a group of people who were extremely disgusted in the fact that I helped the person walk across the street. What I'm trying to convey here is that, no matter what you do whether you believe it is good or not there will be people who disagree, and those that agree.
        The internet is a place where the whole world can gather and state their opinion. No matter how many of these letters you send to people you will never, and yes I mean "Never" filter these people down. Your message has been sent, and in fact because you sent this letter some of you are only going to end up getting it worse. Your best bet is to filter out the knobs who actually have no valuable criticism(which will be the vast majority), and focus on those who do. If someone sends you a e-mail that your a complete and utter moron, and your destroying such and such, then ignore it. Sure maybe they say they will murder you, and your family, but in the actuality of it all they will not, and they probably have no idea where you are, unless you wily nilly let everyone know where you live(which in this modern world is a big no no to do on the internet).
        Anyway I'm pretty sure nobody, but a few other IGN readers will read this. Some will probably criticize me for it, and some may praise me for it, and I'm pretty sure none of you will probably ever read it. So here ends my long comment on a relatively wasteful subject on which I believe everyone who signs this letter should have already known that what I've written is the truth in this modern society that we live in.
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          • GamerGuy86 • 10 hours ago
            Threatining someones life and or harrassing an individual with hate isn't good, and yes DEVS should be entitled to develop games that they want. However they also must understand where a lot of this hate comes from. When they partner up with big publishers that screw their consumers that's where it begins, when devs don't listen to their install base time and time again. When so many games are simple rehashes with additional features over and over (COD/Madden), overhyped games that are promoted as something revolutionary and under deliver. Games coming out half baked (BF4), clones of games just to make a buck on what's trending. Honestly the big issue are the publishers, and Gaming journalist who promote bad games and or systems because they are being paid to do so. The community vents their frustrations out on the DEVS, but the source of our gripes are with who cuts the checks (EA, Activision, Take Two with the GTAV online oppressive economy, and so many more). After so many bad games, and the feeling of getting cheated out of your money, and the systems these big pubs keep adding to maximize profits while taking away quality games as well as variety and diversity makes the tolerance of gamers deminish, and many who were once intelligently critiquing and providing healthy feedback just turn into rage monsters after not being heard or listened too. Hopefully the pubs can step back, and let gaming go back to it's glory days before they put a vise grip around the entire industry . Sorry for the wall of text.
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              • Ghosts_Zeroes • 10 hours ago
                Trying to defend Anita Sarkeesian, Zoe Quinn and Phil Fish’s all in one article, is never a good idea..
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                  • Dragonsgale • 10 hours ago
                    I agree that we as gamer's should be above this behavior (and for the most part, we real gamer's are). We shouldn't go about threatening people and trying to destroy their lives.
                    But..........
                    Anita Sarkeesian isn't any better then the people attacking her. (IMO) all of her videos are filled with contradictions, double standards, and hypocritical statement's. She isn't exploring anything. She is conjuring issues that either don't exist or are shown out of context.
                    I would never threaten her with violence, nor would I wish any harm to her at all. I would just love to see her shut the hell up or at the vary least, explore the real issues of sexual discrimination on both ends of the field. And Yes. The issue is of both sides not just one.
                    Also, how are you developers any better when you call all gamer's trash and treat all of us like we are the ones causing these issues? This goes both ways. Most of us real gamer's are silent about the dumb crap you guys do daily, and we generally don't bash other's for the games they like. The people who do those things are not gamer's. They are pricks who happen to play games.
                    Again, I agree this crap needs to stop. But, it needs to stop from both ends.
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                      • baylaust • 10 hours ago
                        A very good idea, and quite frankly, one that everyone should be on board with.
                        That being said, Anita Sarkeesian is a scam artist, and I hate the fact that she has become the face of feminism in gaming.
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                          • Tridenter • 10 hours ago
                            You seem perfectly content publishing misinformation that perpetuates the generalization of an entire group of people... how come you seem to have so much difficulty in wanting to acknowledge some legitimate concerns? What do you have to hide?
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                              • ryandunt • 10 hours ago
                                I don't like how they generalize a few people to the entire community. Heck, even the majority of people that post on ign don't do that. It's just that vocal minority that makes everyone else look bad.
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                                  • UrMomsNewDude • 10 hours ago
                                    Sooooo two things, #1 you will never stop the hateful, socially inept keyboard warriors on the internet. I'm sorry but it won't happen. There are lots of really crappy people in the world and a lot of them have access to the internet. Asking them to be nice isn't going to do anything, I wish it would as I also hate the vitriolic state of the internet but it's a futile pursuit. #2 while I think there could be more diversity in games I'm sick of being attacked for being a male gamer. Listen here feminists, I don't hate women, I don't objectify women and I don't treat women badly but if I want to play a game that is geared toward male centric fantasies of being a gun wielding bad ass with a scantily clad woman on my arm I should be able to do that. There's plenty of film and literature that depicts these same exact things and nobody gets all up in arms because I guess once society deems a particular medium "art" then all censorship becomes socially unpopular (which by the way censorship SHOULD be discouraged) and people become free to tell whatever story they want to tell. Now if you feminist gamers are so interested in "equality" then why aren't you complaining about Tomb Raider, a game about a woman who slaughters hundreds of men, Lara Croft doesn't kill a single woman in that game, it is literally a game about a woman killing hundreds of men and guess what NO ONE CARES. It's a great game and I'm in no way offended by it. Stop being so touchy, I'm sorry but putting a woman in a bikini in a game is not setting your gender back any. Stop acting like video games are trying to force gender roles on you, it's idiotic.
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                                      • xcoppercrowx • 10 hours ago
                                        why are you people making such a big deal out of this? Everyone gets so worked up about this article?
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                                          • OddClaw222 • 10 hours ago
                                            Honestly, devs shouldn't be told to change their characters to suit someone's needs in any way, shape, or form. Changing an aspect of your character in a way that doesn't add meaning to his/her story is just pandering. And for characters where their race or background doesn't matter, who cares?
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                                              • stormtroupe • 10 hours ago
                                                There's nothing to talk about on this subject. Just be a normal person. Not an asshole.
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                                                  • JohnSnow123 • 10 hours ago
                                                    Why doesn't Anita Sarekeesian also focus on the positive side of females in gaming? Lara Croft, Samus Aran, Meryl Silverburgh Chie Satonaka etc. These are all strong female characters with great writing and back story but she chooses to ignore them.
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                                                    • Lurk23 • 10 hours ago
                                                      IGN if youre gonna delete actual good discussion on here that doesnt fit your agenda, then you might as well just closed the comments.
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                                                      • Rylo151 • 10 hours ago
                                                        all this wasted time coming up with witty remarks only to find the comment you were replying to was deleted :'(
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                                                        • Dehydration • 10 hours ago
                                                          Oh come on, IGN. You were the one big gaming site left that could've kept their hands clean and yet this happens? I agree that hate should be kept out of gaming; it's just that a lot of hate right now is ironically coming from your fellow gaming journalists from other websites.
                                                          Please do the right thing, be impartial and talk about them along with the droves of harassment gamers are getting from their supporters who do not realize that this isn't about anti-women, anti-feminism or anti-left at all, but about journalistic integrity and stamping out corruption.
                                                          I'm very disappointed.
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                                                            • KING-JTW • 10 hours ago
                                                              Ign is so censorshi supporting, it discredits them
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                                                                • chameleojack • 10 hours ago
                                                                  Geeze, that's ugly. Any of those couch-warmers ever actually pull up to developer's/journalist's house? I mean, can they afford gas??
                                                                  I support the open letter.
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                                                                    • Bunny_Man • 10 hours ago
                                                                      I thought those devs were smarter than this, unless you can ban every person for expressing hate there is no way you can change the mind of a player in a bad mood looking to vent off some steam.
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                                                                        • Breathe_Easy • 10 hours ago
                                                                          To be completely honest, I just want to play videogames. I'm too old for all this other BS. Developers, keep making the videogames you want to make and that I have been enjoying for so long. As long as you keep doing that, I won't have to find another hobby.
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                                                                            • SYN1STAR • 10 hours ago
                                                                              Whatever happened to the good old days where you could just pause the game, go out in the back yard, and settle your differences because someone just edge guarded the shit outta you in Super Smash Bros. for N64 resulting in a fist fight. :) Talk shit on people you know...not on people you don't know and their skills and opinions.
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                                                                                • ThrashMatt • 10 hours ago
                                                                                  IGN, please have respect for my opinion and the opinion of others who have not used harsh language and have not violated your terms of service. Stop deleting out comments. This will lead to IGN being seen as lacking journalistic integrity and covering up things. All this will do is cause a hit to your reputation as a video game journalism site.
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                                                                                  • Loathsomeindividual • 10 hours ago
                                                                                    Ahahahaha this was ALMOST DONE. Everyone could've just quietly gone back to work and not called more attention to this whole thing, but nope, had to try and get one last word in so people could have their names on a website like they're signing a document at the Continental Congress. IGN had previously done a great job of avoiding all this, and thus didn't have to tell their writers to knock off their extracurricular activities like a bunch of other sites. Now you've opened up a can of worms just to repost the same story people were frothing about on the lesser sites.
                                                                                    And while I'm here, why are you people still frothing in the comment sections? All these """"journalists"""" and all these devs high on their own drama are thriving, THRIVING on the attention you give them. If you stop responding, stop reading, and move on, they will be shouting into the void. There is nothing to crusade for, ad dollars will win out, you are the target demo for all these sites. Stop buying into this and giving them what they want.
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                                                                                      • Noumes • 10 hours ago
                                                                                        I will probably make a game set in communist Czechoslovakia to show how an ideal SJW game would look like. No class or gender conflict allowed (dissent is silenced), only hours of discovering the glorious Marxism-Leninism, this time with Frankfurt School and Gramsci thrown into the mix. Since "fun" isn't an important aspect of a game according to them, might as well make it a lunatic borefest.
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                                                                                        • Tridenter • 10 hours ago
                                                                                          How come they only wanted to take a "public stand" against harassment after they refused to acknowledge so much of it? Because it was happening to the "wrong side"?
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                                                                                            • SUP3RMAN-tk • 10 hours ago
                                                                                              Yes, this article does tend to put the blinders on some aspects of the issue at hand, but I think it's fair to say that no one deserves the treatment any of the people mentioned in this article have received. Something needed to be said to move the conversation in a more positive direction. You can have your own opinion on someone and the way they choose to carry on, but once we start slinging threats, it might be time to reassess how the community treats one another.
                                                                                              Don't get me wrong, there is plenty to be upset over how this situation has been handled by almost everyone involved, but there are and are not ways to handle it. Voice your grievances, but don't circulate the hate.
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                                                                                                • HonestHero • 10 hours ago
                                                                                                  How dare you. I wasn't supporting this GamerGate thing, but when you tell me I'm a hateful bigot for liking games, you can understand why I'm angry. I came to IGN to get away form social issues mixing with games like some other sites. all you're doing is sweeping gamers claims of corruption under the rug and lying to my face that's it's about women, again. Before you delete my comment check your integrity. I don't like being lied to my face.
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                                                                                                    • Drippinshells • 10 hours ago
                                                                                                      Goes right in line w what I posted a month ago about the women in video gaming getting hotter and hotter and usually hot girls have bars and stuff rather than the time to completely sit and review a big RPG w all waking time like say Kevin van ord. And how I have to think some of these girls are furthering a journalism career in a p$@& poor economy rather than having a love of the craft they're covering. I know it's horrible w the speed of logic my mind moves. Now don't get me wrong, I know somewhere out there you can find like 2 extremely hot girls that spend a lot of time doing this but stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason. I was 18 once and my life did not look like a rappers music video bc I play games. I said then it wouldn't be good for industry and look where we stand today.
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                                                                                                          Guest • 10 hours ago
                                                                                                          Why they don't just disable the comments for articles like this is beyond me...
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                                                                                                            • Ashen122 • 10 hours ago
                                                                                                              god speed to all the mods lmao
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                                                                                                              • xcoppercrowx • 10 hours ago
                                                                                                                Gamers are crazy... That's pretty much it. We need to own up to our community, stop trying to defend ourselves and realize that, yes, a few bad apples ruins the bunch.
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