Rant: The Games Industry

Don't get me wrong, I couldn't agree with you more that this is all almost cromagnon. However, a point -

"However, if the industry does not encourage this kind of harassment on minorities like myself or developers like Fish, where are they when it actually happens? The suits of the industry won't protect you as long as dollar signs keep flashing in their eyes."

The suits of the industry are never going to protect you. It's just business. Whatever sells best or sounds best they'll preach, but acting on it could alienate customers. So they take the safe route to keep profits up.

It's impossible to expect the industry to fix all of this rabid hate. For a large part, this falls to individuals who are just ignorant assholes. They're the people that need to be cured of telling women or PoC they're worth less than anyone else.

The way I've always seen this is as an epidemic in the entire gaming community. It's going to take the same approach used to stomp out TB, or trying for HIV/AIDS, for example. You do everything you can to educate people about the problem, but "curing" it is by removing it from each person.

It's our job as mature gamers, and people, to cut this shit off at the roots. If we don't do it, no one else will.

The gaming industry has changed so drastically over the course of 20 years that it's becoming a "big deal". By that I mean its become a legit economic system in itself. The "rules" haven't really been made yet and the laws that exist are outdated and barely apply. Yet with it becoming a "big deal", no one outside of the industry wants to take it seriously. It's a problem wrapped up in a conundrum, stuck in a quagmire. It's turning into a monster, the question is when it will all blow up in our faces or when someone will step in to tame the beast.

I feel more people in the industry don't talk about this subject because they're either afraid of backlash or willfully ignore it. I, personally, feel it's the latter. Whenever you devote so much time into a particular industry, not just gaming, one begins to elevate it to a level higher than it may deserve. So many people in the gaming industry want gaming to be taken seriously, to break through that current stigma our society has on the subject, and become a legitimate entity that isn't looked down upon by mainstream media and politicians. When you try so desperately to achieve these things, it becomes hard to admit your own industry's faults. Mainly because you wouldn't want to.

How many people who work in main stream media do you think are even aware of the constant harassment that happens online? I would be willing to bet very few. Hell, the fact two people are in jail over sarcastic threats made online is enough proof people outside the industry have no clue at all how common those occurrences really are. No one wants to talk about all the shit that happens in the industry because, if they did, there would never be new gamers coming into it. The ones who aren't bigots and ass hats would all run away as fast as they could. And, to the suits, that would just mean less money from people buying games/going to gaming websites.

I'm not going to say all of this only happens in the gaming industry. There are definitely people outside of it who have the same mentality. I feel all of that becomes exasperated because of this industry's close ties to the internet. Let's face it, the internet is nothing more than a wretched hive of scum and villainy. It has imposed this behavior upon people that being an ass hat is acceptable and even encourages people to harass those that are just being nice or civil. When an industry has to rely solely on the internet to sustain itself, yeah, you're gonna draw those people in by the dozens.

That's not to say we should ignore their behavior. I mean, several sites have already changed their comment moderation policies because of an open letter. Sure, more sites could have, but that shows not everyone is willing to ignore these issues. Change takes time; however, and the internet has had a long time to fester and spew out horrible people whose behaviors never went opposed. This is finally beginning to change, but it's still going to take a long time before it becomes more widespread.

What "industry suits" should actually be doing, screaming "you kids, play nice on the Internet"? The bigger your name the more harassment you get on the net regardless in what industry you're working at, being it movies, gaming, covering politics... If Fish can't ignore people on Twitter, then block them, can't block them, then don't use Twitter if you can't handle trash talk.

For the record, Citizen Kane was shitpanned at the time it was released by the general public, and was delayed for release because Hollywood was literally trying to stop the movie from ever coming out. Major theater chains boycotted the film and RKO literally tried to have all prints and negatives destroyed.

I'm sure Welles would much rather have been called gay by some shitheel standing on a streetcorner.

The film industry is the fuckin' worst, man.

Welles has to deal with early mob money and shit, not getting trolled.

Why is this even an issue worth talking about? The internet is filled with assholes and trolls who love to push people's buttons? Like we haven't known that for the past 10 years or so. The mainstream media and the internet at large as a way of representing society as a whole is meaningless and does the opposite effect. Let's just move on.

I feel as if you're writing a post that has already been hashed over pretty heavily, both in the realm of the usage of global media in general and, in a much more analogous (and probably more dangerous) setting, competitive gaming.

In both cases, many people in the field have spoken out about dealing with social media, but the general consensus seems to be to ignore the bullshit. Whether you like it or not, the moment you make yourself known to the internet (or any other potentially global medium) on whatever scale, you are opening yourself up to the crowd at large. You are opening yourself up to the most hostile, misogynistic comments that come out of the woodwork. It's not you, it's not the internet, it's just that people will find ways to say nasty things on any medium. As a person whose reactions are expected, as a celebrity, you must have the tact to sift the wheat from the chaff. You simply cannot expect every nagging idiot out there to shut up and listen when you need to. And as refreshing as writing the post might be, it doesn't help guide the people who need to carry themselves in a professional manner - that is, the people being harassed.

That's the price of fame.

Relevant link on dealing with internet communities and media: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55l0GMtVnnY#t=58m10s

Orson Welles, being a left leaning progressive film director that was renown for being difficult to work with and made an enemy of William Randolph Hearst, probably had more than his share of criticism and libel.

The reasons why Cliffy B is treated differently from Fish by the general gaming public are multifaceted. Cliffy B is a man with quite a successful history in video game history. From Jazz Jackrabbit to Gears of War, he has had many successful ventures making games that appeal to a very broad spectrum of fans. In comparison, Fish is a newcomer. Known for one game and a documentary that many people described as pretentious, he has become the king of the indie scene. A scene that is widely regarded as obnoxious by the public no matter the medium, from wrestling's ROHbots to Sundance Film Festival attendees. Saying people will look back and realize people play indie games because of them makes you king of the indies with all the negative conde. Eloquence is another matter, Cliffy B is no stranger to controversy but is very thorough on his position. He says his peace immediately and with the conviction of a man who has contemplated it. Phil Fish tells people to "suck my dick and choke" and steals quotes more than your average 4channer. He doesn't think about what he is saying, says stupid shit, then complains that they misunderstood or misinterpreted what he said since Japanese games suck is such a deep opinion.

I was always under the impression most of the social media hate comes from children and hence pay little attention to it. I have such a hard time believing a grown person would take their time out of their life to go on Twitter and tell a game developer that his game gave him testicular cancer and caused him to vomit violently. I might be terribly wrong though as the world is filled to the prim with assholes.
The video game industry is still a quite young one and I am sure every major developer wants to be taken seriously. While the medium might be light hearted every single creator wants their creation to be taken seriously and the craft to be respected. The childish behaviour is so multi faceted that pointing out the issue is nearly impossible. It is a combination of too much attention given to angry 12 year olds, websites blowing every bit of controversy out of proportion to gain page views and developers being treated as PR. I guess this happens when an industry is more connected to the internet than almost any other.

Journalists and the vocal minority need to change not the industry or gamers. Journalists cry every time someone doesn't agree with them and blames the readers and gamers as being spawns of Satan. Journalists always post bait articles to cause arguments. You ever notice how all the articles that feature controversial topics only ever show 1 side of the argument? They basically use their platform to try and preach. Create a a little following who will argue out their cause with everyone else. Gets them the page hits.

As for people talking crap on the internet. Crap talking happens in the real world as well. 99.9% of the time when someone says something vile they don't mean it so why would you even consider taking them seriously? Maybe its a British thing but i could easily go on the street and call a guy a cunt and he will just call me one back and we will be on our way carrying on with our lives. We wont lose sleep or take it to heart. He wont go and quit his job the next day. Cliffy B probably gets tons of crap sent to him on twitter everyday but he just dont moan about it. He doesn't take the bait. So the trolls go away. If you post an article moaning about getting sent vile messages or post on twitter moaning then you are going to have a bad time because people will see it grinds your gears and send you even more of those messages. Fish's twitter probably blew up with vile tweets after he threw his hissy fit because people just wanted to piss him off more.

Some people just need to grow a pair.

Agreed this is a problem but I really dont see what can be done about it without taking anonymity away. The worlds is filled with assholes that will never grow up. Unless there is consequences for their actions, this will always be a problem.

Damn. I thought this was going to be an article about journalists overrating AAA budget games.

Nice read though, since this "Phil Fish publicly quits and cancels Fez 2" thing is something rare. I don't believe this is the fault of journalism though. What Marcus Beer (wrongly) said is just something that tipped Phil over the edge after he's been on that edge for a while now. Jonathan Blow probably gets a lot of trolls too, but he hardly ever tries to respond to it, since it only makes things worse. That's the difference between Blow and Fish. You can say that Fish always takes the bait.