Oh boy…here we go again. Folks, if this comes across as angry and ranty, I won’t lie, it is. It’s probably going to contain some profanity and it’s probably going to get very nasty. I’ll make every attempt to hold it back but I have a hell of a lot of frustration and buildup. I can’t promise you that this will be me being The Voice of Reason here and I despise drama, especially as I’ve just been done with this for a long time now.
To me, there was no “Good Guy” in GamerGate. Fact: Zoe Quinn was doing sexual favors to anyone who would give her games a favorable review. Most notably, she was sleeping with Nathan Grayson of Kotaku, cheating on her boyfriend at the time, Eron Gjoni. At it’s heart, it was about ethics in gaming journalism, which, at the time had been on the decline. Naturally, Anita Sarkeesian had to stick her nose where it didn’t belong. It was never about women in gaming. Ever. It was about a specific brand of fucking lame excuses for journalists performing unethical acts.
The formula was always simple. Make something we want in video games, we’ll buy it. Don’t and we’re happy to let it sit on the shelves, digital or otherwise, and let it collect dust until it heads to the bargain bin. Your studio…they lose money.
The solution to GamerGate was always simple as well. Stop buying games from people that have no interest in you at all.
I won’t deny that there were people saying some pretty vile fucking things but what that did was give people like Quinn and Sarkeesian elevation. Soon it was all gamers that were at fault, whether you were playing Solitaire or DOOM. Gamers were caught in the crossfire and anyone who didn’t like a game was attacked.
Fast forward to today, twelve years later, and it’s the same old song and dance.
The problem is, it’s not working.
The thing about gamers across all racial and cultural lines is we know when we’re being scammed. If we don’t know it immediately, we’ll eventually find out and, once you burn that trust, you don’t get it back.
When Kabrutus posted his Sweet Baby Inc. Detected list of games, it was to inform consumers. He never said “Thou Shalt Not Buy These Games.” He put that list together and told us, “You can buy them if you want but there’s a good chance you won’t like them.”
It’s no difference than me curating a list of books, movies or games that I don’t recommend and telling you why. That’s informing consumers.
I can tell you, in my years of retail, I’ve had to hear the smug replies of “Oh no…I read Consumer Reports.”
That’s exactly what this is. If Consumer Reports won’t do it, we will.
It’s not Sweet Baby Inc that I blame for the multitude of layoffs at AAA gaming studios, it’s the studios themselves for not listening to gamers, you know the people buying the goddamn games being produced?
Sweet Baby Inc have decided to go full Scorched Earth and institute Operation: Human Shield right off the bat.
Chris Kindred initiated this campaign. We’re not stupid. We have all the receipts. Receipts that I and others have provided. SBI and many of their employees went on the run, hid their accounts and now, outlets like The Verge are openly defaming gamers, Kotaku flip-flopped on this issue, causing what is now the death spiral of their site which, let’s face facts, that started happening a long time ago and now, this…
I can’t fathom the stupid that exists here.
Hardy thinks purging us is a great idea.
I happen to agree. It really is a good idea. Again, I am prone to reminding these fucking tools, which is what they are, again, beware the term “ally” anywhere it’s used.
Hardy, you’re the one I want to address. You’re being used and you’re allowing it. The only hateful, bigoted, true -ists and -phobes, is you.
Look around. AAA gaming studios are struggling, financially. They’re laying people off left and right. Deadspin has been sold to cover the lawsuit that they lost. Kotaku is headed for the same fate. The Verge puposefully lied by omission in the timeline of events around this. Now you’re going to chime in as though this is going to work if you just click your heels or just wish hard enough?
Let’s consult my Magic 8-Ball. I’m not breaking out my tarot cards for you on this one…
I’d have settled for Not Fucking Likely but hey, just based on this and trend analyses, I’d say you’re going to go down with this shit ship as well…
Snipes was right in the movie Blade when he said “Some motherfuckers are always trying to ice skate uphill.”
Again, you’ve failed to understand with rampant inflation going on in this country, despite your denial of objective reality and constant gaslighting is that games are a luxury. Some of us just don’t need anymore. We look through our library of tabletop RPGs, Video Games, past and present, board games and our library of PDFs and we realized something. We don’t need you.
As many of you were so fond of saying, you’re not entitled to our money. You’re not entitled to anything.
Every bit of this is a two-way street. We won’t play your dumbass games and by games I mean the constant stunts you pull.
I even extended the olive branch to studios working with SBI and, in true fashion of the incredibly fucking dense, you and yours double and triple down. Let me ask you something, Hardy. What happens when the money runs out? When there’s no one left to financially back you anymore, what will you do?
Let me tell you how this story has a happy ending for everyone. Let’s say, hypothetically, I’m at Sweet Baby Inc and I see Kabrutus’ curated list. First thing I’m doing…celebrating it.
The Tweet from me would go something akin to…
“I’d like to thank KabrutusRambo for his tireless work in advertising the games we helped our clients work on and we hope that this list will grow over time. Kabrutus, you’re the real MVP.”
If there’s a press tour, I’d go on record as saying, “I’m not really certain what the intent was but he’s bringing the games on which we worked, proudly so, to the forefront and we thank him for that. We’re not shy about it at all, we list those companies who were our clients, the games that we provided our consultation on and what it was that we did for them right there on our website. Again, thank you Kabrutus!”
That takes the wind out of the sails. Then he can state that was not his intention at all but, because we responded in such a manner and probably first, none of this ever takes place. Things go on as normal for awhile and maybe further disaster averted or at least deferred but that’s not what happened, is it? It’s because they’ve weaponized people like you as though, somehow that would ingratiate us. My only response is, fucking really? This was your plan?
Are you fucked?
As of right now, you’ve all passed the point of no return. We don’t have to harass you. We’ll just call out your bullshit as we’re doing now, close our wallets and wait for your studios and publications to go under. Your names will go down in history as an example of what not to do. Your precious season has come and gone. Now the leaves are going to be falling off of your trees, the flowers in the flower bed will shrivel and die and a long, cold winter will ensue. You won’t be able to tell the changing of the seasons from it.
Changing names won’t work, re-branding won’t work. All we have to do now is wait you out.
The more things change, the more they stay the same, no?
Get Fucked. Stay Fucked.
Just do a final purge of those players......... Yeah, sure. Just purge the players. You know, the people who bought the game, bought the DL packages, pay for server time, buy the special packages, love the game. Just purge them. Who needs them?
Obviously not the gaming houses.
Obviously not.
Perfectly well said.
The solution is, and will always be, go with indie developers who agree with you, who produce games with their fans!