The Last (Court) Battle of GamerGate: Feminists Lost, Free Speech Won

[ktchong]

 

 

Following her 2012 Kickstarter campaign for the Tropes vs. Women in Video Games video series, feminist critic Anita Sarkeesian began to receive large volumes of online harassment. One form of harassment commonly decried in the media was a Newgrounds game [created by Bendalin Spurr] in which players punched a photograph of Sarkeesian, causing her to appear progressively more bruised and injured... Stephanie Guthrie, a Toronto-based feminist activist, was among those who objected to Spurr's game. Wanting to cause real-life consequences for Spurr's online activity, she contacted news organizations and potential employers in his hometown.

 

Gregory Alan Elliott, a Toronto street artist, criticized Guthrie's actions as "every bit as vicious as the face-punch game." Although Guthrie and other women blocked him on Twitter, the social networking website declined to intervene in the ongoing exchange, and Elliott continued tweeting criticism to their accounts and commenting on their online and offline activities...

 

Elliott was charged by the Crown in November 2012 for breach of a peace bond and criminal harassment of Guthrie, and two other accusers subsequently went to police in January 2013... Elliott was released on bail on the condition that he did not tweet or access Twitter, have a smartphone or use a computer with Internet access... In cross-examination, Guthrie defended her continued tweeting about Elliott after having blocked him as being a means of fighting back against harassment.

 

On January 22, 2016, Elliott was found not guilty...

 

 

Source: Wikipedia entry on Guthrie vs. Elliott

Edited January 23, 2016 by ktchong

[Namutree]

 

 

Following her 2012 Kickstarter campaign for the Tropes vs. Women in Video Games video series, feminist critic Anita Sarkeesian began to receive large volumes of online harassment. One form of harassment commonly decried in the media was a Newgrounds game [created by Bendalin Spurr] in which players punched a photograph of Sarkeesian, causing her to appear progressively more bruised and injured... Stephanie Guthrie, a Toronto-based feminist activist, was among those who objected to Spurr's game. Wanting to cause real-life consequences for Spurr's online activity, she contacted news organizations and potential employers in his hometown.

 

Gregory Alan Elliott, a Toronto street artist, criticized Guthrie's actions as "every bit as vicious as the face-punch game." Although Guthrie and other women blocked him on Twitter, the social networking website declined to intervene in the ongoing exchange, and Elliott continued tweeting criticism to their accounts and commenting on their online and offline activities...

 

Elliott was charged by the Crown in November 2012 for breach of a peace bond and criminal harassment of Guthrie, and two other accusers subsequently went to police in January 2013... Elliott was released on bail on the condition that he did not tweet or access Twitter, have a smartphone or use a computer with Internet access... In cross-examination, Guthrie defended her continued tweeting about Elliott after having blocked him as being a means of fighting back against harassment.

 

On January 22, 2016, Elliott was found not guilty...

 

 

Source: Wikipedia entry on Guthrie vs. Elliott

Wait, what does this have to do with gamergate?

[Blarghagh]

Absolutely nothing. It's just that GamerGate likes to inject itself into everything gender politics. It's kinda like the gender politics of gender politics.

 

I used to be annoyed at progressives butting in everywhere and decrying everything as sexist and racist and ableist and transphobic. It was inevitable that there would be pushback. I just wish the pushback would realize they became what they hate and then got even worse. There are about ten idiots on the internet going "omg crazy SJWs are at it again" than there are crazy SJWs. They're ironically doing a much better job at making literally everything about oppression olympics than the SJWs are. Horseshoe theory at its finest.

[Meshugger]

(not)GamerGate aside, i am happy that the guy was acquited. It serves as a precedent that free speech rules over your feelz.

[Oerwinde]

Just finished reading the judgement. Was an interesting read. So I guess for Criminal Harassment it has to meet 5 criteria

 

1)The accused has to have engaged in a)following the victim from place to place, b)repeatedly communicating with the victim either directly or indirectly, c)watching their home or place of business, etc. or d)engaging in threatening conduct

2)The victim has to believe they are harassed

3)The harasser has to a) know he is harassing, or b)know what he's doing carries the risk of harassment, but does it anyway

4)The victim needs to fear for her safety

5)The victim's fear needs to be reasonable.

 

In the case of Guthrie, it met 1b, 2, 3b, and 4, but didn't meet 5, so was dismissed, and in the case of Reily it met 1b, 2, 3a, but didn't meet 4, so was dismissed.

 

The two charges were very different. He actively harassed Reily, calling her names while she repeatedly asked him to stop. Guthrie believed she should have control of how twitter should be used, and saw his disagreement as harassment, and that he didn't have the right to defend himself. Seriously, her witness testimony she says to the defence that she didn't believe he had the right to defend himself on twitter. She also admitted to providing tweets that accused GAE of being a paedophile to the police while knowing the person who he had the interaction with was over 18 and was setting him up, but didn't believe that was purposefully damaging to him.

 

Reily was a victim of a douche, Guthrie is a deluded psycho.

 

Defence Submissions

Judgement

Edited January 23, 2016 by Oerwinde

[Barothmuk]

I just wish the pushback would realize they became what they hate and then got even worse. There are about ten idiots on the internet going "omg crazy SJWs are at it again" than there are crazy SJWs. They're ironically doing a much better job at making literally everything about oppression olympics than the SJWs are. Horseshoe theory at its finest.

Jesus Christ this.

 

I generally disagree with bull**** that tries to censor political discussions in gaming but holy **** do I miss being able to go on a gaming website and actually discuss a game's mechanics.

[BruceVC]

 

I just wish the pushback would realize they became what they hate and then got even worse. There are about ten idiots on the internet going "omg crazy SJWs are at it again" than there are crazy SJWs. They're ironically doing a much better job at making literally everything about oppression olympics than the SJWs are. Horseshoe theory at its finest.

Jesus Christ this.I generally disagree with bull**** that tries to censor political discussions in gaming but holy **** do I miss being able to go on a gaming website and actually discuss a game's mechanics.

 

Baro you  are erudite and have  keen insights in many matters 

 

Do you realize that many of us, most of us, were dragged into this whole " GG....anti-GG " and effectively manipulated into fighting a war that others really wanted to fight for personal reasons 

 

It frustrates me because of course there are  valid cases of things like sexism in gaming and unethical behavior in gaming journalism but end of the day look at result of this debacle 

 

You still have two sides and high levels of intransigence which is never helpful  when dialogue is required to better understand another perspective   

[Oerwinde]

Gamergate has a lot of parallells to Feminism. Both have incredibly damaged reputations as a result of only their crazies getting any attention, and both won their big battles and are now just struggling to stay relevant.

[BruceVC]

Gamergate has a lot of parallells to Feminism. Both have incredibly damaged reputations as a result of only their crazies getting any attention, and both won their big battles and are now just struggling to stay relevant.

Thats a good post 

 

Do you feel on a personal level you were manipulated into supporting GG? And I'm not trying to catch you out or make you look silly. The type of manipulation I am referring to was subtle and surreptitious and took time to build so that when the Alexander article broke you were already frustrated by months of criticism from the likes of Anita so it would have been easy to align with GG? 

[Meshugger]

Speaking of Anita, she is quitting: https://archive.is/pZvPr

 

I wonder what her Kickstarter supporters think of her not living up to her original commitments?

 

Finally, you guys seems to be confused. eCelebs using GamerGate to instill their opinions about anything and saying it is abouth GG does not make it so. But hey, if that makes it feel better about sitting on your high horses of neutrality and talks about sides, then be my guest. In reality, there's only right and wrong and anti-GG is simply is that. Wrong.

 

It's quite simple really. Want games to be free from outside influence in terms of creativity? Want games to be critized and reviewed completely on their own merit? Want games not to be subjected to the politics of the day by arm-chair academics? Want games just to be games. Good, then you're pro-GamerGate, as that was all that the scandal was about. Outside idiots who hates games and thinking that they can decide what gaming should be about were outed and laughed out of the industry.

 

This little post describes it much better than i ever could, as the very same kind of people and ideas went into gaming: http://i.imgur.com/gFB0CQ8.png

[BruceVC]

Speaking of Anita, she is quitting: https://archive.is/pZvPr

 

I wonder what her Kickstarter supporters think of her not living up to her original commitments?

 

Finally, you guys seems to be confused. eCelebs using GamerGate to instill their opinions about anything and saying it is abouth GG does not make it so. But hey, if that makes it feel better about sitting on your high horses of neutrality and talks about sides, then be my guest. In reality, there's only right and wrong and anti-GG is simply is that. Wrong.

 

It's quite simple really. Want games to be free from outside influence in terms of creativity? Want games to be critized and reviewed completely on their own merit? Want games not to be subjected to the politics of the day by arm-chair academics? Want games just to be games. Good, then you're pro-GamerGate, as that was all that the scandal was about. Outside idiots who hates games and thinking that they can decide what gaming should be about were outed and laughed out of the industry.

 

This little post describes it much better than i ever could, as the very same kind of people and ideas went into gaming: http://i.imgur.com/gFB0CQ8.png

No my friend unfortunately you are equally as culpable as the rest of us for the protracted and unnecessary GG campaign

 

But Geez that last  link is terrible, people still have NO idea what SJ is about...or rather I should say " SJ on the Internet"

 

I won't go  into too much detail but the initial question just highlights how misunderstood the role of SJ is...why would you ask people who you have clearly antagonized and associate the words  " SJW" as an immediate insult " why dont you like SJW " 

 

You dont look for vindication in SJ  campaigns ....you don't do it for that reason. And you can see from the responses those people also have a very negative view of SJ

[Blarghagh]

It's quite simple really. Want games to be free from outside influence in terms of creativity? Want games to be critized and reviewed completely on their own merit? Want games not to be subjected to the politics of the day by arm-chair academics? Want games just to be games. Good, then you're pro-GamerGate, as that was all that the scandal was about.

 

RANT TIME:

 

Yeah, that's why I joined it originally. I saw this stuff first hand as a game dev. I left because that's not what it's about. Even if it used to be, it's no use even trying to discuss this on the hashtag. It gets ignored. Whenever I tried to bring the conversation back to this, the response came down to "who cares, a perpetually offended feminist said something stupid about us on twitter I should be equally perpetually offended about". Actual game talk gets consistently gets less talk than some white knight or tumblrina making nasty comments every single time. Hell, the hashtag was at its most busy when it was about a scientist's T-shirt and absolutely not about games. And the rare occassions when it finally did talk about games, it was always defending bad practices from publishers that practically abuse their game dev employees because otherwise you're "attacking gamers", taking the side of utter corporate ********s like Bethesda and UbiSoft over game devs that actually needed support. Even to most of those that claim it's about artistic freedom in games it's not really, and honestly judging by how much nonsense you have interjected about post-modernist bull**** I count you among those. Absolute tripe like Hatred doesn't become a runaway success because it has merit, but because politics. #GamerGate injects more arm-chair politics into gaming than feminists were ever able to, and companies are using it to promote games consumer lifestyle, not a promotion of game merit. Instead of paying GameSpot for Mountain Dew and Doritos ads, they've leveraged angry nerds to make viral memes about it while they pretend everyone else is a sheep. You can "no true scotsman" those "e-celebs" as much as you want, but guess what, they and their followers are the movement's majority and they think you're no true scotsman. And with them overflowing comment sections everywhere to the point comment sections in gaming media are going extinct, they're more annoying and pervasive than SJW tumblrinas could ever hope to be.

 

BasedGamer was the only good thing to come out of #GamerGate. The peepz behind that were smart in leveraging nerd rage for a good cause - killing metacritic, a tool highly abused by feminists and #GamerGate to bury and destroy anything that had a wiff of "badthink" about it, instead of on its own merit.

Edited January 23, 2016 by TrueNeutral

[Volourn]

"I used to be annoyed at progressives butting in everywhere and decrying everything as sexist and racist and ableist and transphobic. It was inevitable that there would be pushback. I just wish the pushback would realize they became what they hate and then got even worse. There are about ten idiots on the internet going "omg crazy SJWs are at it again" than there are crazy SJWs. They're ironically doing a much better job at making literally everything about oppression olympics than the SJWs are. Horseshoe theory at its finest."

 

You sound butthurt over people defending themselves. When I am accused of being a rapist abusive racists exist monster by SJW Nazis damn straight I'm gonna defend myself. But, hey, I bet you are one of those who feels if someone punches you you should smile and let him do it. LMAO

[BruceVC]

 

It's quite simple really. Want games to be free from outside influence in terms of creativity? Want games to be critized and reviewed completely on their own merit? Want games not to be subjected to the politics of the day by arm-chair academics? Want games just to be games. Good, then you're pro-GamerGate, as that was all that the scandal was about.

 

RANT TIME:

 

Yeah, that's why I joined it originally. I saw this stuff first hand as a game dev. I left because that's not what it's about. Even if it used to be, it's no use even trying to discuss this on the hashtag. It gets ignored. Whenever I tried to bring the conversation back to this, the response came down to "who cares, a perpetually offended feminist said something stupid about us on twitter I should be equally perpetually offended about". Actual game talk gets consistently gets less talk than some white knight or tumblrina making nasty comments every single time. Hell, the hashtag was at its most busy when it was about a scientist's T-shirt and absolutely not about games. And the rare occassions when it finally did talk about games, it was always defending bad practices from publishers that practically abuse their game dev employees because otherwise you're "attacking gamers", taking the side of utter corporate ********s like Bethesda and UbiSoft over game devs that actually needed support. Even to most of those that claim it's about artistic freedom in games it's not really, and honestly judging by how much nonsense you have interjected about post-modernist bull**** I count you among those. #GamerGate injects more arm-chair politics into gaming than feminists were ever able to, and companies are using it to promote games consumer lifestyle, not a promotion of game merit. Instead of paying GameSpot for Mountain Dew and Doritos ads, they've leveraged angry nerds to make viral memes about it while they pretend everyone else is a sheep. You can "no true scotsman" those "e-celebs" as much as you want, but guess what, they and their followers are the movement's majority and they think you're no true scotsman. And with them overflowing comment sections everywhere to the point comment sections in gaming media are going extinct, they're more annoying and pervasive than SJW tumblrinas could ever hope to be.

 

BasedGamer was the only good thing to come out of #GamerGate. The peepz behind that were smart in leveraging nerd rage.

 

And Anti-GG became the same  thing in most cases ....so called SJW websites where they believe in equality are happy to generalize about white, gamers or have forgotten that gaming is about ....gaming

 

 

Its interesting TN how you have articulated my view in your own words better than I can....end of the day what is  the result of GG? Its like you said, but at least there are large numbers of people who have left the GG and anti-GG movement and just game now and stay out of the " politics "  

 

Also its much harder to take an introspective look at ourselves and realize we were wrong about something we use to believe in.. So well done for having the ability and insight to do this. I had to do the same and despite what people think I feel much better. Its good to be able to discuss how we made mistakes in life 

[BruceVC]

"I used to be annoyed at progressives butting in everywhere and decrying everything as sexist and racist and ableist and transphobic. It was inevitable that there would be pushback. I just wish the pushback would realize they became what they hate and then got even worse. There are about ten idiots on the internet going "omg crazy SJWs are at it again" than there are crazy SJWs. They're ironically doing a much better job at making literally everything about oppression olympics than the SJWs are. Horseshoe theory at its finest."

 

You sound butthurt over people defending themselves. When I am accused of being a rapist abusive racists exist monster by SJW Nazis damn straight I'm gonna defend myself. But, hey, I bet you are one of those who feels if someone punches you you should smile and let him do it. LMAO

Volo how do you feel about your support for GG?

 

Do you realize some of your energy was misplaced and perhaps more an emotional reaction rather than logical...is there anything you regret?

[Blarghagh]

EDIT: Okay, now that I've taken some time to become less snarky: No Volourn, that is not what I care about. People can defend themselves all they want. But there's no such thing as defending yourself pre-emptively. You'll find twenty posts about everything being "SJW nazis" in comment sections these days and then there's not even someone to make the accusation first. To explain it in terms you like to use: That's not defending yourself, that's plastering your politics everywhere like you're some kind of crazy SJW nazi to prevent any opinion being posted except your own. It's a kind of censorship, done by Nazis. Nazis like #GamerGate.

Edited January 23, 2016 by TrueNeutral
Retry

[Meshugger]

 

It's quite simple really. Want games to be free from outside influence in terms of creativity? Want games to be critized and reviewed completely on their own merit? Want games not to be subjected to the politics of the day by arm-chair academics? Want games just to be games. Good, then you're pro-GamerGate, as that was all that the scandal was about.

 

RANT TIME:

 

Yeah, that's why I joined it originally. I saw this stuff first hand as a game dev. I left because that's not what it's about. Even if it used to be, it's no use even trying to discuss this on the hashtag. It gets ignored. Whenever I tried to bring the conversation back to this, the response came down to "who cares, a perpetually offended feminist said something stupid about us on twitter I should be equally perpetually offended about". Actual game talk gets consistently gets less talk than some white knight or tumblrina making nasty comments every single time. Hell, the hashtag was at its most busy when it was about a scientist's T-shirt and absolutely not about games. And the rare occassions when it finally did talk about games, it was always defending bad practices from publishers that practically abuse their game dev employees because otherwise you're "attacking gamers", taking the side of utter corporate ********s like Bethesda and UbiSoft over game devs that actually needed support. Even to most of those that claim it's about artistic freedom in games it's not really, and honestly judging by how much nonsense you have interjected about post-modernist bull**** I count you among those. Absolute tripe like Hatred doesn't become a runaway success because it has merit, but because politics. #GamerGate injects more arm-chair politics into gaming than feminists were ever able to, and companies are using it to promote games consumer lifestyle, not a promotion of game merit. Instead of paying GameSpot for Mountain Dew and Doritos ads, they've leveraged angry nerds to make viral memes about it while they pretend everyone else is a sheep. You can "no true scotsman" those "e-celebs" as much as you want, but guess what, they and their followers are the movement's majority and they think you're no true scotsman. And with them overflowing comment sections everywhere to the point comment sections in gaming media are going extinct, they're more annoying and pervasive than SJW tumblrinas could ever hope to be.

 

BasedGamer was the only good thing to come out of #GamerGate. The peepz behind that were smart in leveraging nerd rage for a good cause - killing metacritic, a tool highly abused by feminists and #GamerGate to bury and destroy anything that had a wiff of "badthink" about it, instead of on its own merit.

 

 

That didn't make much sense, but seeing as you seem quite angry, I will forgive you. 

[Meshugger]

 

Speaking of Anita, she is quitting: https://archive.is/pZvPr

 

I wonder what her Kickstarter supporters think of her not living up to her original commitments?

 

Finally, you guys seems to be confused. eCelebs using GamerGate to instill their opinions about anything and saying it is abouth GG does not make it so. But hey, if that makes it feel better about sitting on your high horses of neutrality and talks about sides, then be my guest. In reality, there's only right and wrong and anti-GG is simply is that. Wrong.

 

It's quite simple really. Want games to be free from outside influence in terms of creativity? Want games to be critized and reviewed completely on their own merit? Want games not to be subjected to the politics of the day by arm-chair academics? Want games just to be games. Good, then you're pro-GamerGate, as that was all that the scandal was about. Outside idiots who hates games and thinking that they can decide what gaming should be about were outed and laughed out of the industry.

 

This little post describes it much better than i ever could, as the very same kind of people and ideas went into gaming: http://i.imgur.com/gFB0CQ8.png

No my friend unfortunately you are equally as culpable as the rest of us for the protracted and unnecessary GG campaign

 

But Geez that last  link is terrible, people still have NO idea what SJ is about...or rather I should say " SJ on the Internet"

 

I won't go  into too much detail but the initial question just highlights how misunderstood the role of SJ is...why would you ask people who you have clearly antagonized and associate the words  " SJW" as an immediate insult " why dont you like SJW " 

 

You dont look for vindication in SJ  campaigns ....you don't do it for that reason. And you can see from the responses those people also have a very negative view of SJ

 

 

That last link is the truth of the matter of the larger culture war, but you are free to hide from it or claim that it is false as much as you wish.   

[Blarghagh]

LOL. "We want it to just be about games... it's the truth of the larger culture war!" Get your politics out indeed.

[Meshugger]

It makes perfect sense. You're not a true #GamerGater, the E-Celebs you hate for "co-opting" are.

 

There you go again, of course not. But it's alright, we all have our bad days, no need to push it. You're excused. 

[Nonek]

A nice victory for free speech and common sense, however I also don't see much connection to Gamergate, which is simply about asking for journalism that is fit for purpose for a multi billion dollar industry, rather than the proven corrupt and unethical practise that passes for journalism now and is defended by those who are pro corruption and unethical behaviour, and seek to excuse the demonisation and belittlements of innocent millions of consumers through crafting their elaborate conspiracy theories.

 

Then again treating others as untermensch only worthy of being looked down upon, and supporting the corrupt establishment is I suppose very fashionable now, and one can see why those who are drawn to this feel they are righteous when crafting their baseless conspracies. However the bomb threats, terrorism, the abuse of women and immoral if not illegal actions of the said supposedly righteous goes a step too far, and that I cannot empathise with nor understand, it is sheer hypocrisy.

[Gorgon]

Kinda sad to still be throwing around the 'death threats on the internet' excuse. I mean I suppose it's theoretically possible that some deluded individual of the kind that are drawn to celebrities will attempt to do her harm and in her own little pond she definitely is one. 

 

I just don't think it was ever going to happen and I don't buy that her fear of harassment is genuine. It's something to hit the opposition over the head with that you can't argue against without being called one of the harassers. 

 

Anyway it's probably a good move for her to attempt to leave all this internet fame and infamy behind and get a real job if she feels the cost is too high. 

[Meshugger]

LOL. "We want it to just be about games... it's the truth of the larger culture war!" Get your politics out indeed.

 

The SJWs came in with their politics and made into a culture war. Gamers just wanted to be left alone and play, but nooooo.....

[Blarghagh]

 

It makes perfect sense. You're not a true #GamerGater, the E-Celebs you hate for "co-opting" are.

 

There you go again, of course not. But it's alright, we all have our bad days, no need to push it. You're excused.

 

 

Yeah, I highly doubt you would see it.

 

 

LOL. "We want it to just be about games... it's the truth of the larger culture war!" Get your politics out indeed.

The SJWs came in with their politics and made into a culture war. Gamers just wanted to be left alone and play, but nooooo.....

 

Except literally every discussion we've had on this forum had you talk about nothing but Noam Chomsky's political views. That sounds like games to me.

[BruceVC]

 

 

Speaking of Anita, she is quitting: https://archive.is/pZvPr

 

I wonder what her Kickstarter supporters think of her not living up to her original commitments?

 

Finally, you guys seems to be confused. eCelebs using GamerGate to instill their opinions about anything and saying it is abouth GG does not make it so. But hey, if that makes it feel better about sitting on your high horses of neutrality and talks about sides, then be my guest. In reality, there's only right and wrong and anti-GG is simply is that. Wrong.

 

It's quite simple really. Want games to be free from outside influence in terms of creativity? Want games to be critized and reviewed completely on their own merit? Want games not to be subjected to the politics of the day by arm-chair academics? Want games just to be games. Good, then you're pro-GamerGate, as that was all that the scandal was about. Outside idiots who hates games and thinking that they can decide what gaming should be about were outed and laughed out of the industry.

 

This little post describes it much better than i ever could, as the very same kind of people and ideas went into gaming: http://i.imgur.com/gFB0CQ8.png

No my friend unfortunately you are equally as culpable as the rest of us for the protracted and unnecessary GG campaign

 

But Geez that last  link is terrible, people still have NO idea what SJ is about...or rather I should say " SJ on the Internet"

 

I won't go  into too much detail but the initial question just highlights how misunderstood the role of SJ is...why would you ask people who you have clearly antagonized and associate the words  " SJW" as an immediate insult " why dont you like SJW " 

 

You dont look for vindication in SJ  campaigns ....you don't do it for that reason. And you can see from the responses those people also have a very negative view of SJ

 

 

That last link is the truth of the matter of the larger culture war, but you are free to hide from it or claim that it is false as much as you wish.   

 

Its not as intense as a " cultural war  " ...I would say its more an Internet clash of ideals, how widespread would this be in RL?