Michael Koretzky | July 20, 2015
Let’s see what develops.
Derek Smart doesn’t believe in suffering in silence. The independent videogame developer is loud and proud about his tangles with the gaming industry and the gaming press.
His latest? It’s happening right now. In the past few days, PC Gamer, Gamezone, and a slew of other gaming media outlets have documented Smart’s strident protest of a game called Star Citizen, which he calls “the bullshit that is the vaporware.”
Star Citizen doesn’t exist yet, but it raised a jaw-dropping $2.1 million on Kickstarter (and many millions more elsewhere). Smart pledged $250 but has protested so vigorously, the game’s creators have refunded his money – even though Smart doesn’t want it back.
It’s a whole thing, and you can read about it on both on his blog and in the gaming press. Needless to say, Smart has big issues with “media accountability” in this case, and he certainly has as many detractors as supporters.
Since that also describes AirPlay – as many detractors as supporters – it only makes sense to invite Smart as a panelist representing game developers who are neutral on GamerGate.
“I think GamerGate is right about the media ethics and accountability,” Smart says. “We’ve had that discussion over the years, but everyone just ignored it.”
Even as he agrees with GamerGate’s mission, he questions the tactics…
They’ve made strides to call out bad behavior in their ranks, but being leaderless makes it ineffective. Going leaderless – instead of uniting under a single spokesperson, banner, or website – causes confusion. That’s made it so easy for it to be branded a hate group, because the actions of misfits propagates quicker.
For Smart, that’s not just a personal opinion, but a business consideration.
“GamerGate affects game developers due to the widespread opinion that it’s a hate group,” says the president of his own game development company, 3000AD. “The flipside is that they’re loud enough to point a spotlight.”
That spotlight will be on Smart next month at AirPlay.
All speakers are now confirmed. See the list.
“GamerGate affects game developers due to the widespread opinion that it’s a hate group”
That, and all of the devs that have been harassed by them. Oh yeah, THAT.
Such as?
name one
Zoe Quinn. Brianna Wu. Phil Fish.
There’s three.
Bullshit. You can’t find anything endorsing that shit on any hubs of communication. You have to force disparate groups together in your conception before you can state that I have anything whatsoever to do with any of that shit.
Stonemirror, what are you even still doing here? You got kicked out of AGGros good graces by being that ally no one really liked, and yet here you are.
“FREEZE PEACH”.
In fact, I’ve felt obliged to protect my Twitter account in response to about a half dozen attempts to assault me through my family.
Twitter user @rustBeltExpat posted family photos to the #GamerGate tag.
No fewer than half-a-dozen impersonation IDs were set up in the names of my daughter, my brother, etc., also using family photos.
Notice how, of the two of us, I’m not the one who’s hiding? Unfortunately, you folks like to use that as a weapon to “win” your little battles.
Fact is you’re a troll. Sarah Nyberg’s a troll, too, as her petulant response to my insistence that she say “please” when asking a favor of me shows.
I’m still watching this farce. Stop working so hard to shut me up, rather than respond to my comments, okay? It doesn’t distract me, and I’d doubt it does anyone else.
Grow some balls. Use your name when you slag someone, like an adult.
There is no “AGGROS” you kids, it’s just the vast and varied world disgusted by your gamergate tantrums and misconceptions.
Zoe “Serial Harasser and Narcissist” Quinn is a terrible example. At least when a bunch of people started gossiping about her misdeeds there was some level of accuracy to it, as opposed to the hate/harassment mobs she’s formed by compulsively lying about people she doesn’t like or who get in her way (wizardchan and TYFC being the two biggest examples).
And then there’s Brianna “False Flag” Wu, someone who’s been caught lying so many fucking times those still bothering to count are in triple digits. And who is only even relevant because she spent months mocking and insulting gamers and gamergate in order to get the modicum of attention she needed to claim “harassment”, comprised of a half-dozen image macros.
Then you type “Phil Fish Tweets” into google image search and realize he’s even worse than both, constantly berating anyone who criticizes him and starting random twitter fights over nothing. He was getting into pissing matches back in 2013 and it’s gamergate that’s suddenly harassing him? More like business as fucking usual for a developer that generates more controversy and hate than any other in the industry.
Harassment my fucking ass.
Meanwhile, harassment of pro-GGs have created plenty of compilations of the harassment they or the devs that support them receive, here’s just one I found with ten seconds of googling: https://goo.gl/qvf1VQ
Yes, we know, GG likes to get together and cobble bullshit stories and cry like a soccer player that stubbed their toe. We get it.
GG spilled spaghetti and randos did something? Aww it must be “AGGROS”, of course! Couldn’t be that reality as a whole is prejudiced against a harassment campaign? Oh no, that’d be too easy.
Best play up the grand conspiracy theories that make you look like Alex Jones on amphetamines, that’ll help your cause, good call.
So let me get this straight, these people are terrible examples to use because “they deserved it”? And for the record your accounts of them are full of inconsistencies. GamerGate had better learn how to keep itself from lying before AirPlay begins, or you’re in for a rough time.
Your “allies” have thrown you in the trash, Lefty. Why are you wasting your time with this?
“Zoe Quinn. Brianna Wu. Phil Fish.”
^
Horseshit. Try again.
“Twitter user @rustBeltExpat posted family photos to the #GamerGate tag.”
Today in things that never happened. I did a search of his tweets all I found was something about how you teach code but aren’t able to do basic maths. (?)
Seems like you’re a controversial figure who even your own side doesn’t like. Considering you’re hated by your own allies apparently it’s within in the realm that your own side made those accounts and attacked you.
The tweets were deleted because they violated Twitters rules on harassment and personal info.
Well lookie what we have here, you going solo now, stonemirror?
archive or it didn’t happen
I don’t know about Zoe Quinn, but the other 2 are hardly victims. Brianna Wu spends most of her twitter time just antagonising people. And Phil Fish has said some of the most obscene shit any of any game dev in the industry.
I don’t think “harassment” is a good thing even then, but they’re certainly not victims.
Quinn is a rapist by her own logic
They didn’t get any blowback because they were developers, they got blowback because they attacked/accused/taunted people in a public space for an extended period (twitter).
They opened themselves up to ridicule and outrage from what I would consider the bulk of GG (moderate, passionate people defending their hobby), and painted a target on their backs for Chans/trolls who sought retribution.
I have limited sympathy for people that smash up a hornet’s nest then cry that they were stung. Maybe they didn’t DESERVE the extent of it, but they certainly asked for it.
Well, I know the director of Hailstorm games had that problem
https://twitter.com/_shadowsight/status/521741419493736448
oh wait
But there are websites that #GamerGate uses:
http://deepfreeze.it/index.php
https://press.gamergate.me/dossier/
https://wiki.gamergate.me/index.php/Main_Page
Those websites are more important than twitter in defining what #GamerGate is.
Those sites have a documentary function, not a constitutive one.
#Gamergate is, always was, a Twitter hashtag, extending its reach onto many other platforms.
it’s also a movement
oohhh boy you picked smart, this is gonna be interesting as he’s a controversial figure himself. I always enjoyed reading his commentary, but apparantly some people say he name searches himself to start internet fights, I can’t really verify, but I hope you will make sure the moderation will be swift if one of the practices he’s criticized for should start.
But overall his thoughts have been interesting and different and this is a good pick. When GamerGate as a whole has criticized you, koretzky, for not actually knowing what GamerGate is or what the fuck it’s actually about, they are right on point, which is only confirmed with your attempt to bring in wu, sarkeesian, chu etc. Let me give you a hint why this would have been turned to shit if SJW’s would have entered the “debate” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNK-e6nnFGY
But damn hell, the Journalist and neutral seats you have chosen hasright on point, you got in a promising and uprising SPJ Journo, a Journo TEACHING other Journos, and an industry inside who thinks outside the box.
This is awesome
didn’t mean to write it as a reply ffs
So when’s Battlecruiser 3k going to be patched?
Keep up that un-nuanced narrative sport, I’m sure you’ll convince your friends who already think exactly like you do that those gemergoobers are all evil.
Ignore this post, I am mentally challenged.
Ignore that post as well. The persons responsible for that post have been sacked.
I’ve been SACKED!!?
That’s depressing…
I don’t even have a job.
We have escorted all prior commenters out of the building.
And now, some music.
Well, this is random. Although I generally like Mr. Smart so I’m not complaining. He recently has been under the gun in a way that is, well, just not cool, but in a totally different context, and as a representative of IGDA, I think he can bring a lot to the table from a neutral perspective.
At least this week’s airplay update is an actual update.
To get a leader when we can clearly see how time and time again leaders in other movements get co-opted, and suddenly become corrupted when they reach higher places would be insane.
“Please, you guys, why don’t you give us something to work with, we promise we will not screw you again, if don’t do as we say and get a leader we will consider you a bigot without negotiation” <– Do you seriously think we will fall for this?
Most of the people that began asking us for this were the journos themselves on the spot. Why give them what they want? They have shown no ability to contain us. They have no right, ownership or voice. Not anymore. We don't own them anything at all except our continuous distress for these last years events.
The journalists asked for leaders because there is no point interviewing people who aren’t in charge. Every time they do interview someone, and that someone says something stupid, you guys just say “Oh, he’s not the leaders, he doesn’t speak for us.” So it is a waste of time. GG has been crowing from the start to have their side heard, but from who? No one speaks for you.
That sounds kinds like feminism as well to be honest. Notice how the nutcase radical man-hating feminists (who all seem to be in “positions of authority” writing for the media) are dismissed as fringe and not the true ideals of feminism when their bigotry hatred is pointed out?
“the nutcase radical man-hating feminists”
Yes, this makes you sound like a well-balanced individual and not part of an anti-feminist hate movement of confused internet children.
Feminism isn’t a Twitter hashtag.
Food for thought.
Just because it’s an amorphous movement doesn’t mean it can’t take visible stances through a collective consensus.
That’s where the No True Scotsman fallacy becomes a fallacy fallacy. You can’t both hold GamerGate responsible for harassment and threats — due to the nature of it being an amorphous movement — yet deny its ability to do so and make sweeping generalizations based upon mostly unrelated individuals making threats and harassing people, something which is uniformly condemned by the vast majority of GamerGate.
They don’t want a leader in their movement because it destroys the victim narrative that GamerGate is being intentionally kept out of the media. At the same time the media isn’t able to report on the actions of GamerGate, because GamerGate will claim it’s only a small handful of supporters, even when they’re consistent with the majority.
Essentially GamerGate has been picking and choosing what actions it takes responsibility for through misinformation and emotional determination, not factual analysis.
Derek Smart only cares about Derek Smart. He will turn Airplay into a complete shitshow.
…and that’s a problem, because?
>implying that hasnt already happened
>implying that Derek Smart is the only one that can right this ship back on course
Here’s why journalism is dead: the opinions of people are more important than facts and logical inconsistencies. In the case of the harassment narrative thrown at GamerGate, people’s assertions that they’ve been “harassed by GamerGate” has never been checked or verified, but just accepted as fact. In reality, what can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
Journalism today lacks science and sound reason. That’s why journalists seem completely unable to reasonably cover Internet controversies. They ask questions, but they don’t actually question things.
Opinions alone amounts to nothing more than mere propaganda.
Really? I thought GamerGate took it upon themselves to verify those assertions that people were being harassed. I thought GamerGate verified that it wasn’t involved in any harassment.
Uh, you slam closed the gates, saying that no new faces and names (*cough,* Sargon of Akkad, who volunteered to pay his own way and come, and with whom you recently wasted hours having completely tangential conversations on a live stream) could be there, then you bring in Derek Smart, of all people?
Oh lordy! You sure aren’t subtle about creating a circus! Just give up the pretext entirely and have this debate or whatever you’re calling it at this point on Jerry Springer. Or maybe you can rent a big metal cage.
Sargon is a professional victim, we don’t really need him there. It’d be worse than Oliver.
Why not? Would it be too painful to admit that GG is no better than its cherry-picked “opponents”?
I like Smart’s inclusion on the panel/debate. I’ve been reading a little bit of his blogs and comments since he entered himself into the #Gamergate conversation and he conveys the kind of experienced industry insider perspective that I feel GG supporters (who are by and large consumers and enthusiasts only) have desperately been searching for to have discussions.
The worst thing to have come out of this whole affair from the supporter perspective is the entrenchment of “sides” in this affair. Anti-GG says that GG supporters are categorically wrong about everything, and the GG supporters then naturally say the same about their opponents. But I don’t care what Anti-GG people have to say. They’re not journalists, and only a tiny handful are even involved with gaming media to any significant degree. I want to know if the concerns that myself and other supporters have raised are legitimate, and which of ethical breaches that we’ve documented on places like Deepfreeze.it are genuine. Once we have real and constructive communication about those issues, the consumer revolt that is the #Gamergate movement can go back to doing its work to see the hobby we love continue to grow in creativity, intellectual diversity, and financial success.
To that end, I say again that I value Derek Smart’s inclusion on this panel, because I think that he can help us get to that point, and perhaps also help to cut away a lot of the useless crud that’s built up over the past year.
Hide yo vending machines Koretzky
I like his inclusion. He’s been pretty consistent at pointing out bullshit wherever it appears.
Yep, absolutely PRO at pointing out bullshit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIn1_9YvGds
I like that he stood up for Ellen Pao despite the shrieks that she was the antichrist.
Turns out, once all the info came out about what was going on at Reddit, he was right to do so.
I think this is a fairly good choice, and I think the tone of this update is more in the spirit of what I expect from an spjairplay update. So thanks!
I’ve interacted with Dr. Smart online several times over the last few times, and while I don’t always agree with him, I think he’s positions are well thought out, honest, and I appreciate his inclusion. I’m very interested to know why the gaming media is basically ignoring the issues surrounding Star Citizen, though I’ve contributed no money to it.
I would like to think that the intention of this panel isn’t debate, but rather information, and as such neutral parties could be expected to be neutral. I think Dr. Smart is a good representative of that.
Derek Smart is a troll and not worth the effort.
Err, no. Derek Smart is about as “neutral” as his sense of self-importance is small.
This “debate” will be little more than GamerGaters agreeing with GamerGaters.
An interesting choice, no doubt. I’m excited to see how it all turns out.
Still with high hopes for the article, and definitely liking the newest addition to the panel! Honestly, this is one of the biggest reasons I got into GG, too. Even before most of GG, many indie game devs had no chance in the industry regardless of their skill level unless they wanted to get really chummy with the journalists, because those journalists would rather write about how a speaker looks like GlaDOS or promote their friends over things not even related to games, like getting chipped, rather than mention a new indie coming out. It’s not corruption per say, but it’s definitely bad, non-objective journalism upholding a glorified blog as a new standard for journalism, especially considering how there were no disclosures of financial and intimate ties with the people they covered. As Leigh Alexander once said, her job is to “make sure that those i love stand the longest”[sic], and I doubt she is the only game “journalist” to hold this sentiment.
I understand why companies would want to avoid hiring people that have readily visible controversial opinions, ones that might create conflicts with other employees and future customers, and I understand many devs would never support GG as a result, especially with several journalists hinting at destroying their chances of getting jobs or coverage in the future (See RWS of Postal fame), but it’s definitely an important conversation to have. I hope that Derek Smart can do just that, he seems like a no-bullshit kind of guy.
He’s a levelheaded guy and would be fair in his assessments. He would be a good addition in term of representing the neutrals. Let’s hope we get enough neutrals to match the proGGs since aGG and journalists that fail factchecking aren’t willing to come.
I don’t understand all the hate for CGI. Let’s face it, any large game gets pushed back, and back, and back again. Mechwarrior Online is a good example, being 2 years late on their promises.
I don’t see how anyone can actually think Star Citizen is vaporware when they have released the dog-fighting module and will be releasing the FPS module within a few weeks (if all goes as planned), and we’ve seen plenty of videos and live-streams of the FPS module.
Are they on time? Fuck no, and that sucks, but I wasn’t expecting any different. But just because they’re going to be 2 years late on delivery doesn’t make it vaporware.
And yes, I have a boner for Chris Roberts, anyone who played Wing Commander as a kid probably does.
Regardless, I do think he would be an interesting panelist – I’m not holding his opinions on CGI against him, I can definitely empathize with people being pissed about the deadline promises that keep getting missed.
Given that timeline, Smart might even apologize before Airplay starts.
I think people underestimate the leaderless thing. lets do a thought experiment shall we ?
You are a small country very agrarian the only weapons you have were meant for hunting and sport not war . A technically advanced large militaristic country declares war on you for next to no reason. What do you do to fight back ?
Do you A. send your entire governmental body to the battlefield dressed in such a way to make them targets and fight the enemy on their terms ?
do you B. Go into hiding never present a target and slowly pick the enemy off one by one til they give up and go home?
Yes I just compared gamergate to a war we are the Vietcong and the press is the US military . As the war drags on we slowly but surely grind them down because in a stand up fight we wouldn’t stand a chance in hell.
The only way to fight a superior force and win is guerrilla tactics.
We are no bodies we have no media contacts we have no pull anywhere that matters. We are fighting our press they are clearly a superior force we wouldn’t stand a chance in a straight up fight so we did the best thing we could we went underground.
and yes what I’m describing nowadays would be declared terrorism funny how that works because when the US did it to gain “freedom” in the revolutionary war it was just called superior tactics.
You’re acting like there’s only a small group of people that opposes the actions of 8chan and not everyone who falls into the category of the so-called “normalfag”.
You’re the foreign invaders in a strange land. You’re not the Vietcong. You don’t have the support of the people.
We are the invaders how so the press attacked us the gamers not the other way around .
oh and if you didn’t notice me using my real name mr anonymous i’m not from the chans
oohhh boy you picked smart, this is gonna be interesting as he’s a controversial figure himself. I always enjoyed reading his commentary, but apparantly some people say he name searches himself to start internet fights, I can’t really verify, but I hope you will make sure the moderation will be swift if one of the practices he’s criticized for should start.
But overall his thoughts have been interesting and different and this is a good pick. When GamerGate as a whole has criticized you, koretzky, for not actually knowing what GamerGate is or what the fuck it’s actually about, they are right on point, which is only confirmed with your attempt to bring in wu, sarkeesian, chu etc. Let me give you a hint why this would have been turned to shit if SJW’s would have entered the “debate” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNK-e6nnFGY
But damn hell, the Journalist and neutral seats you have chosen hasright on point, you got in a promising and uprising SPJ Journo, a Journo TEACHING other Journos, and an industry inside who thinks outside the box.
This is awesome
Apparently not even GamerGate knows what GamerGate is about. Their side had an emotional breakdown because they felt that they deserved a whole hour just to explain what the cause was about that week.
I think we can all agree, despite our politics, that that picture of Derek Smart is f’in sexy.