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Fun thing I learned in terms of Academic corruption (again, thanks to Adam Ruins Everything.) Some Journalistic sources will publish anything if you pay them enough money. A.R.E. sent a synopsis of the episode they prove this (in Adam ruins Nutrition, airs tomorrow) as an academic journal and got it published here so they could prove a point that they can cite it as if it were a source.

What this implies is that there probably should be more skepticism in fact checking now that even "facts" could possibly falsified (Check sources of sources, who published what, relationships of the authors…)

Also the episode cites a recent instance of media fooling where John Bohannon got a hoax article published in spring of this year talking about how chocolate could help people lose weight. (The real reason for the study was to test to see if journalists would pick up on it.) Link

So how does this tie into gamergate?

It shows how to be skeptical or, if you want to abuse it, use shoddy publishing sites to make "sources" to prove your point, even if it's wrong. Consider this an update on how to trust but verify.

Edit: Trying to get a textile link to work
2nd edit: This Link to further information (yes it's i09, but hey, the story is real) revealing how John Bohannon pulled it off, made a several red herrings that real journalists should have picked up on, and mentioned a about how he did a sting operation a year before to prove that people don't really peer review (publishing several fake articles.)

TL;DR: How easy it is to get false information to get published as fact and how to get the media to fall for it because there's fake journals and real journals that don't do any research.

In short, people can conjure up whatever "facts" they want to, even if they don't represent reality accurately. Freaking awesome.

Good work looking into that. I'm gonna leave an archive link to that i09 article, as they are under the Gawker umbrella, and I REALLY don't like giving them money.

Here

Also, funny little joke on the side with Patrick Klepek talking about censorship and Japanese games. Oh boy.

Compare the ass slap with this games

Interesting thing, nobody gives a flying duck that in game a man can beat the crap out of a woman until she cant move anymore, actually this is how you win, but showing a assslap, thats is what is immoral and wrong.

Your images are broken links, Mex.

The bizarre thing is i can see them for some reason.
https://images.sankakucomplex.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/StreetFighterV-Censorship-RMika-3.jpg
https://images.sankakucomplex.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/StreetFighterV-Censorship-RMika-4.jpg
So i am posting as links.

Sankaku doesn't allow hot-linking. That's probably why it isn't working. For the record, the first image works but the second does not.

Weird, because i can see both of the pictures.

Moving on.

My new favorite article

10. Community Bias

Community bias is a big problem in the video game industry, from the “hot coffee” mod in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, or the “Nude Raider” mod, from PC nudity mods in Fallout 4, oversexualized female characters in video games, misogynistic men make rude remarks online, to the infamous gamergate controversy that started last year. Video games are supposed to bring people together, to make new friendships with people who share a common mutual interest in a particular video game. It is the year 2015 everyone should be treated as equal.

3. Toning down Games

Games today are just toned down on so many levels, whether it’s in difficulty, or toning down the content in the game so they can get a lower ESRB rating it’s pathetic. Trying to tone down a game that should obviously be M rated so you can get little 7 years old buy it? No, if a kid is too young to be playing a violent video game they obviously shouldn’t be playing it in the first place. There is a reason the ESRB is placed on video games today, to provide the proper gaming experience for different age groups, don’t try to tone down a violent game like Halo or Grand Theft Auto just so you can increase your profit, you’re gonna lose fans like that.

Again, violence is totally OK, but sex, boobs and an ass slap, thats serious business.

Dont tone down the things i am totally ok with, but tone down the things i am not ok with!!!

Mr. Male Trope new video

^Just to be clear, kinda having trouble reading your post tone, are you saying you agree with the article or that it's bad?

Pretty sure that's sarcasm.

I forget that is hard to notice sarcasm.

Also Aggros is lying about gamers being mad at Undertale, they keep lying and not even trying to give any type of evidence.

Western Gaming Media's Focus on Sexism is a Difficult Problem, Says Sony Executive

1.On sarcasm: The problem with tone and perception on the internet is that in a forum or chatroom it's words on print. So there's no way to really know how it's being read.

2. Regarding hatred towards Undertale.

Not exactly. The backlash actually has less to do with the game being a game and more of the game being "the best game of all time."

Currently there's a voting poll going off on Game FAQ's where people can vote on what they consider the best game of all time is. Undertale was in the lot of 128 games and it made its way to the finals, beating out Mass Effect 3, Fallout 3, Super Mario world, Pokemon Red/Blue/Yellow/Green, Super Mario 64, Super Smash Bros Melee (in that order) and is now currently against Ocarina of time for the title.

The Game FAQ made sure to mention in the rules that the Best.Game.Ever. voting system is a popularity contest, not an actual critical review or an end all be all. However, the threads are filled with disbelief and flame wars over the whole thing. (Maybe from troll accounts? There's also a contest involved for 2000$ for registered users, so it could be used to swing results to increase chances of winning?[no facts to back that up. But hey possible ethics!]) so in my opinion, this is a mountain out of a molehill.

Yes, one could argue that there are Gamers against Undertale, but one could also argue that there are more Gamers for Undertale. (Given the polling results) Its the internet being opinionated and rage-ridden (everything's pretty much normal) as ever.

Correlation is not Causation. Instances of hatred for a game because of an opposing fanbase isn't new. This isn't a war in Ba-sing-se (sorry, wanted to use this meme, even if it is incorrect) it's a bar fight in a tea shop.

TL;DR: Who ever is reporting this as Gamers against Undertale is taking instances in a gaming forum and blowing it up.

P.S. There was a similar blow up about a month ago within the Undertale fandom to draw attention to a secret boss (who could only be fought at a specific time, at a specific date, at a hidden location) who's roots may have been considered "offensive" to some and was a shame attempt at the character's kickstarter creator. It died down in few days because no one really cared.

3. From what I understand, choosing not to sell or censoring a game for the consequence of low sales numbers is basically a step further in the whole "bad review because of insert bad reason here." Developers/publishers say it'll make the game sales go down or be not worth the price of producing in the west, which ties into the idea that there's no demand for the content in the eyes of the publisher.

The stated reason is low sales numbers, which are influenced by bad review scores that can also ruin reputation, and those bad review scores are delivered by the games journalism press.

So in my opinion, it's one and the same: Games Journalism is a gaming liason that controls the image and a perceived demand of videogames for the west.

Edit: Taking mostly about the second point here with Bain's quotes but added responses to the 1st and 3rd points.

When you have any poll about the best game of all time, there will be losers about.

That kind of a title is so subjective, some might say Goldeneye for the N64 is the best game ever, some might say Fallout: New Vegas is. There is no true best game of all time. It's more like what you personally found the best.

Agreed.

The Catalyst for this anger is the fact that there's a reward with a single winner and it appears it's based on those that voted on which games would win (I guess for every right prediction and vote more entries were added to the lottery system.)

Problem is, with fallout everywhere, 'reporters' can zero in and cheery pick instances to make it seem like there is fact when it's really just the fact that an opinion exists.

It's sensationalism.

Good old Tim Schafer

Tim Schafer: Pretty much an scam artist, loved by the journos, thanks to right thinking ,then they will ignore all of this.

Yu Suzuki: SEGA version of Shigeru Miyamoto, gets called pretty much Satan and people start saying he will destroy gaming.

Alright. I'd hate to be that stupid guy asking that question,, but when did Fig show up on the scene? I've never heard of it until now.

Also, here's We Did It! Games Industry Now Self-Censoring Thanks To Endless Whining

Recent events have made me seriously consider creating as many porn games as I can just to troll these people. That and because boobs are love, boobs are life. I wonder if I can somehow get them on Steam?

Fig is an alternative to kickstarter created just recently. One of its advisors is Tim Schafer. Who seems to be in so much control of the crowdfunding platform that he can literally change the date of when a crowdfunding drive ends at will even when he's clearly going to reach his goal anyway. It also has the majority of Mainstream media shilling the heck out of it despite the fact it has accomplished nothing. Mainstream media is claiming you can make money by investing into the game but the prospects are so slim and require such a disproportionate amount of sales that you won't make back your money (and you don't get money from DLC or expansion packs or sequels, so you can bet on it that if for some miracle your investment would pay off Tim Schafer will screw you over anyway). You also need to pledge money ($33) in order to be able to talk and comment. On further analysis they don't even bother to provide protection or assurances that the product will be made with your money. All in all Fig is setting off so many red flags that you could be forgiven if you were to claim that Fig is a major conspiracy to control indie developers (there's no evidence that's the case and if it were, they probably would fail miserably).

Steam already has plenty of games that have nudity in them and even allows patches to allow more nudity scenes. Steam is entirely against actual sex scenes though. This doesn't matter too much because let's be honest they're plenty of places selling porn that its a testament to how stupid new wave feminism is that they'd rather be sensationalist and target large profile games when there are way worse and clearly misogynistic depictions of women in other porno games. Access to porn game is so easy that literally there's a new distribution platform made this year called kimochi (it's in English made for the English). And the people involved in making it based it off steam. And if for some reason you don't want to use the new platform… simple google searches will find nearly decades old online distribution platforms (and yes they're in english too). The only reason why any of the sex-negative people are going after mainstream game is because they want attention. All the complaining about rapelay becomes very hypocritical when you realize a 5 year old kid could get demos of games much much worse by simply googling basic terms and finding these websites.

Heck let's take that to its modern conclusion, game where women play volleyball and have boobs but don't show nipples or crotch? Let's get that censored! It's an offense to women everywhere! Creator's are misogynist! People who want to play it are sexist pigs who want to drive women out of gaming!

Games that involves nudity, guro, ryona, chaining someone up and doing horrible things to them (including rape)? Games with content like these sell hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of copies every month? No comment… clearly not popular enough or worth discussing. Creators probably just being edgy. Definitely not male power fantasy.

I'm just saying they're not gonna get mad because you got some porn onto steam. They're only going to get mad when it'll get them attention and clicks.

I'm gonna just break up the string of posts here and ask when did everyone join GG? I joined early last December, so I've been a part of this for a year. Curious to hear when others joined.

I think it was my 2nd month as a new KYM member when Quinnspiracy first broke out. I didn't pay much attention to it at first, but joined in just before the "Gamers are Dead" articles first started rolling in.

Been with GG since the start. I was there when Quinspiracy happened and Adam Baldwin coined the name. Didn't have an account here and I joined simply because the site allows discussion of the topic.

Make sure to give StopGamerGate.com clicks, the guy makes pitch-perfect satire.

Fig is a new Kickstarter-like crowdfunding platform for games, it's advised by Tim Schafer & partly owned by Double Fine. The big draw is that people can actually invest in the games, that would be a great step forward for gaming if it was being handled by competent & honest people.

There's also a theory that $3.3 Million Dollar Man is trying to use Fig as a tool to take over the Indie Clique, I can believe that but it won't work very well due to the fact that $3.3 Million Dollar Man is the one in charge.

Basically, unless Mr. Shitface suddenly stops making the same mistakes he's been making since the 90s it's going to turn into a slaughter. The FTC is already cracking down on Kickstarter fraud, a company that runs crowdfunding for the companies that own it and takes investments? That's going to get put under a microscope.

If Fig is offering investments that means if they treat any investors the way a lot of crowdfunding projects treat backers it turns into securities fraud, and they now have to follow regulations about insider trading & all the other stuff the SEC is interested in.

@Lenny Guy

Came in on the tails of the Quinnspiracy, if you go back to the first comments on the GamerGate article I'll be there.

I think I joined about two months after it started. It was initially way to confusing for me, so I just kept my distance and made snarky comments about another internet war. Once I read the entire KYM article front to back and put the pieces together though, it was something I got on board with quickly. And tbh, as much as I loath a lack of ethics in journalism, it was the 'Gamers are Dead' articles that pushed me over the edge. I've had my integrity and my identity attacked far too much in my short life for me to put up with this childish bullshit. I've started to become a lot more active recently, using my Twitter on a daily basis to spread GG things, and to try to help out other GGers and debate the few anti-GGs who care to discuss this in a civil manner. I love this industry too damn much to see it crushed and warped by these assholes. So I'll be here through thick and thin, right to the end.

Edit: small text too OP, I didn't even do anything :(

I join 7 or 8 months ago, i knew about it from the start, but i cant remember the reason why i decide to join one side.

I am pretty sure it was SJWs, SJWs did something and i couldnt take it anymore.

I am pretty Pro Social Justice, very left wing, i just got sick and tired of the SJWs with their psychotic selfish agenda, that helps nobody but the SJWs.

Seriously, see their agendas and they dont try to help anybody but the SJWs.

What got me to join was that I knew that the lack of integrity in the journalism was a problem since the summer of 2013, plus I wasn't a big fan of how some of those websites would misrepresent the community whenever some gender or race-related controversy arose (and I hate it much more now than ever). I didn't actually hear about the hashtag until maybe late October to early November and didn't think much of it at first. Then, I randomly decided to check the media coverage and saw how horribly one-sided it was and did my own research on it. I then joined this site in February partly because of this.

I'm the same with MR Killultra. Though I had been Lurking KYM and using it as a means of keeping up on nearly anything on the internet way back before they became part of CheezBurger. I joined because I was so gobsmacked at the audacity of these journalists. (I live near San Francisco and the stories I can tell by living in the Silicon Valley.) So I started posting with what I thought was relevant at the time before the ban, went on vacation for a little while, saw the whole thing get locked with Generall (whatever happened to that guy?) and decided to try my hand at busting chops on both sides.

Generaal told me on twitter that he had decided to focus his GG efforts elsewhere, so he left KYM of his own accord.

Nah, don't make it porn. That's a whole other issue that would likely cause even more problems. I don't think Steam would allow that, either.

What you should do is make some adventure game (or whatever), and make any female character(s) you've got stacked to the Heavens! And just to dig it in a little further, don't focus on it hardly at all. Just have her go about her business, kicking butt and taking names, and pretty much everyone else treat it like, "Yep, that's her. START RUNNING."

I got started in it around last February/March. My mass media prof (nice guy, very smart) was doing a piece in a local paper about GamerGate, and being a video game major, he asked me for input. It had almost nothing to do with what GG's really about; it passingly mentioned Anita and he mostly just asked me about content in games and such. I gave him my opinion, stating that yeah, sometimes certain games do go over the top, and those making them should show some restraint as games are developing and becoming something even more. Respect and taste is needed. Also that the ESRB could stand to be upgraded/be more descriptive.

Now before you go off on me about that, this was all before I really learned what GG was all about, and the forces at work. It was shortly after I had my face in the paper that I started digging more into GG's history. And that's when I got worried. What I said was something of a neutral stance, but after I got a good look at what was going on, I feared some backlash would come about. Fortunately, none ever did.

GG actually came up again in class, and the conversation went about the same way as things did online. It started out as being about the facts, and then the loudest, bitchiest (feminist) voice took over the conversation, derailing it into something completely unrelated. It never returned to the main point, because said voice would not listen, nor would shut up, and I was not one willing to show my butt in order to regain control.

Anyway… I got into GG more, investigated it further, and came to the conclusion that games are a form of free speech, and therefore shall not be squelched, even if said games are gross and/or stupid. Just because I don't like them, doesn't mean they aught not be made. That's why we have ratings. Also that SJWs and feminism (at least the shambling corpse that it is now) is an infectious threat to society, and if their influence is not eliminated, we will see the end to a lot we hold dear. It goes much, much deeper than just games and other media.

Seeing all this go down has also made me thank God everyday that I am not currently producing games right now, because I would have a huge target on my back if I was. As well as anyone who worked with me and our families. Also, it's all been a great learning experience in what to do and what not to. Mainly screw the critics and design things the way they should be. Perhaps even so far as to having one standard response for any and every whine-bag: "Drop dead, dolt."

So, yeah. It's been an ordeal, but I'm glad to have been a part of it. Even if a very small part.

I confess, this is an idea of mine that I've had, and one I managed to live out in Saints Row. My female!Boss? The Sex Appeal meter was always maxed out, so she always had jumbo jubblies that comically jiggled around a lot in action, but because the way the game is designed the sex appeal of my Boss is hardly ever made into some single defining trait. (I admit for extra "player appeal" I made her "thick" too, which amusingly helped make physical combat look more painful because I know a lady of this kind of thickness can put some real hurt on people). And yes I used the Laura Bailey voice option.

This whole thing porn thing makes me wonder why there isn't a Steam like client for A.O, Games. (Watch me get corrected.) The games that were considered too raunchy or too adult for retail, and were given that "kiss of death" rating.

I mean if developers are aiming for a Teen Rating for sales, why not have a way for an M and A.O. market to flourish as well? (Then again, I don't work in Game Marketing.)

I was willing to ignore the quinnspircy when that first broke out, as soon as the "gamers are dead" stuff came out, all bets where off after that

The M market is already flourishing. You go through Steam or any game store and you'll see row after row of rated M games.

A-O however, is an entirely different animal. 90% or more of the time, they are sexually explicit to the point of making DOAX look like fine art. They have no limits as to how depraved things can get, and frequently entertain themes that are deviant to the extreme, by even the lowest of standards.

They're also rarely, if ever, an actual game. Usually something like a dating simulator with explicit imagery and narrative, or something of a "choose your own sex adventure" video thing. They're meant to be wank fuel and nothing else, and the ones that try to be something other than that are really shoddy. Not to mention the places that create these things are very much like normal porn sites. Business practices are unscrupulous, and viruses are an inherent risk.

These are not something you would want to have among all the other more respectable games. To have A-O titles on Steam would be like having porn mixed with the DVDs at Best Buy. It just doesn't work. It's all kept separate for a reason.

If people are so gung-ho on getting a porn game, then they can go to the sources.

Joined about a few days after the Quinnspiracy went into full effect.

Nowadays? Eh, I feel like I'm at a crossroads when it comes to this now. I still support this, no doubt, just not with the heart or passion I used to have last year.

Ah. OK. I was just thinking of the random (and probably hypothetical) games that could flourish that use content that might warrant an AO rating. As in not really meant to be that way but more of a dip. Kinda like the NC-17 rating of a movie vs an X rating. The idea would be to push an envelope and cater to an audience that might be interested and thereby allow other content creators to be comfortable making an M rated game.

But since this already exists. The whole things moot.

Anyway back to Gamergate stuff!

Oh hey, Anti-gamer isn't that effective. Who knew?
http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2015/12/18/progressive-crusade-against-gaming-largely-ineffective-pew-research-shows/

And ARCHIVE

Garde said:

The games that were considered too raunchy or too adult for retail, and were given that “kiss of death” rating.

in general, games that keep an AO rating want it. It's part of the marketing. "Too hot/gory for retail!" and all that. Like with NC-17, if a developer doesn't want it, they edit the game, resubmit it to the ESRB, and get the M rating

It's kind of moot anyway since the only reason to get an ESRB rating is for consoles (Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft require a rating below AO to get a game license for their consoles). That's why Steam has so many "unrated" games. The developers have no interest in consoles so they don't even bother.

It's also why you're far more likely to find an "AO" game that just doesn't have a rating. The only ones that care about the rating are those that want it.

I was browsing cracked one day and saw a "gamergate r losers" comment come in one of their listicles. I thought nothing of it but then I saw it again, and I wondered who were these gamergaters for cracked to hate them so hard. I then googled gamergate, found the usual trash, then found the kym article and after I saw the "gamers are dead" articles I was redpilled and never browsed cracked again. This was shortly after the gamers are dead articles came out, around the time gamesjournopros were released. That's how I got into GG and found out about the world of SJWs.

I was browsing cracked one day and saw a "gamergate r losers" comment come in one of their listicles. I thought nothing of it but then I saw it again, and I wondered who were these gamergaters for cracked to hate them so hard. I then googled gamergate, found the usual trash, then found the kym article and after I saw the "gamers are dead" articles I was redpilled and never browsed cracked again. This was shortly after the gamers are dead articles came out, around the time gamesjournopros were released. That's how I got into GG and found out about the world of SJWs.

I see what you mean, but many rated M games already dip far into what would be considered NC-17. To go any further than that would warrant an X/A-O rating.

Also, it's great that even a big a company like Pew sees that these people are wasting their… well, everything.

So apparently Jim Sterling and his friends sent many a message to a company called Pan Games because they used the term "tranny" when referring to a trans gladiator in their upcoming game which would have actually been a positive thing other than the word tranny. So the guy changed it "trans" and a bunch of people started flaming this guy getting butthurt that the guy changed one word. Guess who Jim Sterling pointed to when the flames started to settle? https://twitter.com/pan_games

Breitbart already on the case.

And guess who just established contact with Shuhei FUCKING Yoshida?

He's already introduced Mark Kern and is now willing to do so for more western game designers/academics/journalists.

After reading the article… This game has got to be the second stupidest thing I have ever seen. I have no idea how the creator of this game could have possibly thought that this game would have created anything other than a crap-storm.

The title, the concept, the very idea… just everything about it. Even if it was created as a complete joke, there's no way that it could have gone well.

Receiving death threats and the general bile is to be expected. That's SJW 101 now. If something isn't 100% perfect, you threaten to kill anyone involved, even if it's specifically made for you and is so liberal that it leaves a stain on you monitor.

I'm not saying that the creator deserves the threats and hate, because he doesn't, but he was an idiot for thinking this idea could have gone in any other direction other than this one.

As for the thing with Mark Kern and Shuhei Yoshida, am I to understand that this is an attempt at setting the record straight?

I looked at the trailer for that game in question and I'm more offended by how shit it looks.

Honestly I agree with what Jim said in the video that it looks like the developer was trying to purposely drum up controversy for the sake of attention, because even without the "Tranny Gladiator" name this looks like trash, so what better way to get attention than to create your own controversy?

That reminds me though that a while back I saw this trailer for an actually GOOD looking game with a transwoman protagonist who awakens from cryogenic sleep in a future ruled by radical feminists, and said transwoman is trying to bring down their tyrannical rule. Unfortunately I can't remember what it was called though.

> As for the thing with Mark Kern and Shuhei Yoshida, am I to understand that this is an attempt at setting the record straight?

Yes, and also getting League for Gamers into contact with the Japanese industry.

> Unfortunately I can’t remember what it was called though.

Aerannis.

Well, I just wanted to stop by and wish you all a Merry Christmas in case I don't get a chance tomorrow (Even though I live in New York State, so it feels like it's fucking August outside!…..not that I'm bitter about it)

Anyway, I got you a gift. More Censorship!

Censored Gaming Recap – Yohjo Oh No. My favorite is "Bravely Second’s Tomahawk Class Replaced With Cowboys?"

Give Gamesnosh some clicks, they do good work.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Merry Christmas to you too!

Merry Christmas shitlords!

Happy Boxing Day?