Finally, a news article about the death of gaming not pissing on it's audience.

This entire 'gamers are dead' issue is just a case of video game journalists trying to deflect the bad press they got. It's hilarious - after allegations of cronyism and collusion between and within the indie scene and game journalists, they decide to post ten articles about the same thing on the same day within hours of each other. Hell, some of those articles even link each other! Gamers aren't dead, gaming journalism is and if the rumour that they are planning on introducing a new term is true, it'll just be used by the rest of the crowd in mockery.

Good on you for reporting the news as it actually is.

"The death of gaming' articles are silly, but daunting when you realize about twelve articles, all from different sites all came out on the same day. I remember seeing a big list of all those articles with timestamps. I am amazed, but not surprised this whole issue got as big as it got.

Be aware that those "12 sites" are either owned by one company, Gawker Media in this case, or are run by people who are friends to the folks who run Gawker Media. In truth, about one and a half websites ran that article, and a dozen cronies picked it up and carried it.

Excellent article, really well done.

This is a well-written article. And I'm not just saying that because it expresses the view that I believe in. It's because it expresses a different opinion at all. Barely anyone else is reviewing the other side's feelings or beliefs in this matter. It seems to be a non-stop railroading of one side's opinion on the other. That is NOT how you debate. That's not even how you write a goddamn essay/piece. Isn't the first rule of writing essays you learn in school to express views and then give counter views?

I've gotten off on a tangent, but yeah, great article.

Thank you techraptor for showing people what's really happening.

I find it utterly ridiculous that these journalists are now trying to spin the hate vitriol towards "gamers" as being the deranged trolls. When in reality, its the hate mongers that infest both side of the coin that are doing the real damage. On Twitter, I saw a 10 year old kid receive a death threat because he dare speak his mind against an SJW type. A death threat that was casually shrugged off by SJW supporters (or to be fair. the hate-mongers that support SJW that is to say)

It just amazes me, death threat towards a 10 year old? No big deal. Death Threat towards Anita Sarkesian? Quick, run to the presses, "gamers" are evil bastards who dwell in their parents basements and rebel at the system.

Yet absolutely no one wants to bring that up, nope, instead we'll just spin the narrative that it's the "Gamers" who are the problem and not the obvious "Hate-mongers" that infest every part of the Internet.

Anyways, I'm just happy some damn sense finally prevails and this article is incredibly refreshing to read. So thank you Andrew Otton, just happy that there are still good people out there who are even handed and want to write about this whole mess in a fair manner

>It just amazes me, death threat towards a 10 year old? No big deal.
Death Threat towards Anita Sarkesian? Quick, run to the presses,
"gamers" are evil bastards who dwell in their parents basements and
rebel at the system.

Oh, it gets better. Someone wrote a fanfic where Anita executes the head of Gearbox Software. Anita herself cheerfully endorsed it.

https://www.youtube.com/wat...
http://femfreq.tumblr.com/p...
https://twitter.com/femfreq...

I'd just like to throw this out there.

I actually do identify myself as a Gamer.
I am a person who loves to play video games have very in depth discussions about video games and the industry as a whole. This, I believe, is a Gamer.
Many sorts of people can be Gamers. Intelligent or not (I prefer to stick with those who can have intelligent discussions myself, but I've had some crazy fun discussions with people I would consider stupid, so there is that)

Saying all Gamers (people who identify themselves as such) are extremist, misogynists, neckbeards, fat basement dwellers, etc is the same as someone saying that all feminists are extremist, misandrists, fat, ugly, etc.

There are far too many different people who identify with these names. In this case, we've had the extremist straw-feminists throwing out the words sexism and misogyny as a defense for their inability to accept when they're flat out wrong.

The recent 'war' started by using Zoe Quinn as a catalyst, but it goes beyond her. It isn't that she slept with many guys that people have a problem with. It's the fact that she did it and got favors that boosted her career.
When people tried to discuss it, and ask questions, their posts were nigh-instantly removed and mass censorship began. Which, as it tends to, caused people to talk even more and start digging to find out WHY they were being censored. But to even remotely TALK about any of this, people had to flee to 4chan of all places, a place where anyone can talk about anything without fear of having their posts/threads deleted, and without fear of being banned for discussing certain topics that others might not like. At first, for example, about the Zoe Quinn thing.

Please keep in mind that it only BEGAN with Zoe Quinn, and people keep making the mistake of thinking it's STILL about Zoe Quinn. Zoe Quinn was just a catalyst. It has expanded far beyond her.

This is about an extreme lack of integrity, the fact no codes of conduct exist for the game journalism sites, general corruption and more. Yay nepotism.

The whole 'death of gamers' thing is a reflex by a large group of people who know they're in deep. They want it to all go away, but it won't go away, not helped by the fact the keep shooting themselves in the foot with insulting comments and articles, and lumping large groups of people who love playing video games together with some very angry people.

A majority of the battle taking place is being taken place quite civilly, and those who aren't doing as such are the extremists who don't know how to handle themselves for the better of the industry.

Whitelisted, bookmarked... Looks like you guys will be replacing The Escapist as my general nerdery goto site! Keep up the good work, I look forward to becoming part of a (no doubt) growing community here!

Word is there is a PAX talk on Monday looking to redefine the word "gamer" due to it's baggage.
They are comparing this to invention of Atheism+ and the huge drama fest that came along with it. No solid proof yet but let's wait and see.

Good article, I'm glad there's a site that isn't afraid to talk about this properly.

Finally, some damn sense prevails. Thank you, this article is one of the best things I've read all day and finally put a smile on my face. Thanks for writing it Andrew Otton :) Even handed and fair.

Thanks for reading and for the comment.

Just leaving this here.
http://mynintendonews.com/2...

According to some high rank in Nintendo the competition (including steam) is dealing with the same kinda numbers for registered users.

Meaning if you take mobile and facebook out of the equation female presence drops drastically.

Women make up a minority of gamers? That's because they're so alienated by all the games with male protagonists.
Women make up almost half of gamers? Well, that's only because they're forced to play games with male protagonists.

Gamer refers to someone who loves video games, the video game industry, and video game culture, and is very enthusiastic about it. That's about as clear of a definition as you can get and has been defined that way since at least the '80s. It is definitely an identity (even a lifestyle) that many identify with that is neither "meaningless" nor "exclusionary". If you fit the definition up top, you are a gamer, period.

"Someone who plays video games" is not what gamer means. Gamers do more than just play video games. That's a mistake that many people make.

>Oh, because recent studies showed that there are more adult women than
teenage boys that play games. Because of this, the “gamers” feel
threatened.

Yet certain people seem to have little problem insisting women feel alienated from gaming, even though by some of their own claims, women make up almost 50% of gamers. They usually move the goalposts to "well, that's only because they don't have anything else to play but these horribly misogynist games!"

Nice to see some of the dominos are still standing. Gamers need to stand up for themselves! Good article

It's good to know that there's an article out there that's willing to look at the so-called "death of gamers" that isn't looking to stir up trouble or purposely anger its audience unlike some other articles that have been making the rounds as of late..

To Mr. Andrew Otton, I say thank you.

Thanks for reading!

I totally agree with this article. "You're mean!" is not a valid response to well-evidenced accusations of corruption. Their humorously well-coordinated ad hominem did nothing except make it that much easier to identify who has skeletons in his or her closet. They bit the hand that feeds them, and I hope gamers flee to websites that celebrate games and appreciates gamers as normal folks with a common interest.

It's good to see an article on the matter that confirms my biases instead of challenging them.

This true of every article on the other side of the spectrum as well. I can objectively say this is a LOT more level headed, thought out, and fair than Kotaku's shit postings tend to be from a purely journalistic standpoint and keeps the actual point of the issue upfront.

The fuck do you mean "as well"?

Oh, look, a drive-by handwave.

It's terrible how this got covered over now, looking back from the future at it. The smokescreen they put up using Zoe as their shield (ha, get it?) completely destroyed any real discussion of fixing the ethical problems in modern games journalism, and they all slunk away to their hidey holes to start anew, free of criticism. GameJournoPros may be gone but the people who made it are right back to doing the same thing these days. Nothing's changed. Now that's the one thing you *can* actually credit to Zoe Quinn and the idiots who made her any amount of a deal, big or otherwise. She never deserved that, one way or another (Too horrible of a person, or too obscure to deserve attention, take your pick).

Let these news outlets think we're dead. The best we can do is vote with our mouse. I've removed many of the offenders from news feeds (most I did not frequent.)

I really liked the article. I read Kotaku's and found it to be Gawker's usual click-bait fare. I've played games most of my life but never considered myself a 'gamer'. It seems silly as an identifier. Do people that listen to music call themselves musics?

People are getting all worked up by injecting social issues into something that's become a type of art and it doesn't work. If a game is good, PLAY it. If a game is terrible, don't!

I honestly don't believe for a minute that people that play games would be up in arms in ANY way if there were more of everyone depicted as the hero. Uncharted would be the same game if Drake were an Asian dude who hit on his archeologist love interest Samir. Tomb Raider would be the same if Lara Croft was black.

Forcing things like that and telling 'gamers' it needs to be changed since they're a bunch of misogynist assholes is what rubs people the wrong way.

The game and story are the primary focus, everything else is secondary. Inclusion is going to happen naturally as the market changes and there's absolutely no reason to be so militant about it like some of these websites tend to be.

There was nothing wrong with this article.

Really good points all around. Thank you for writing this.

Really good points all around. Thank you for writing this.

Gamer refers to someone who loves video games, the video game industry, and video game culture, and is very enthusiastic about it. That's about as clear of a definition as you can get and has been defined that way since at least the '80s. It is definitely an identity (even a lifestyle) that many identify with that is neither "meaningless" nor "exclusionary". If you fit the definition up top, you are a gamer, period.

"Someone who plays video games" is not what gamer means. Gamers do more than just play video games. That's a mistake that many people make.

Thank sweet chocolate christ that someone out there gets it. I thought I was alone!

Thank sweet chocolate christ that someone out there gets it. I thought I was alone!

Let these news outlets think we're dead. The best we can do is vote with our mouse. I've removed many of the offenders from news feeds (most I did not frequent.)

I really liked the article. I read Kotaku's and found it to be Gawker's usual click-bait fare. I've played games most of my life but never considered myself a 'gamer'. It seems silly as an identifier. Do people that listen to music call themselves musics?

People are getting all worked up by injecting social issues into something that's become a type of art and it doesn't work. If a game is good, PLAY it. If a game is terrible, don't!

I honestly don't believe for a minute that people that play games would be up in arms in ANY way if there were more of everyone depicted as the hero. Uncharted would be the same game if Drake were an Asian dude who hit on his archeologist love interest Samir. Tomb Raider would be the same if Lara Croft was black.

Forcing things like that and telling 'gamers' it needs to be changed since they're a bunch of misogynist assholes is what rubs people the wrong way.

The game and story are the primary focus, everything else is secondary. Inclusion is going to happen naturally as the market changes and there's absolutely no reason to be so militant about it like some of these websites tend to be.

Nice to see some of the dominos are still standing. Gamers need to stand up for themselves! Good article

It's good to know that there's an article out there that's willing to look at the so-called "death of gamers" that isn't looking to stir up trouble or purposely anger its audience unlike some other articles that have been making the rounds as of late..

To Mr. Andrew Otton, I say thank you.

Thanks for reading!

I totally agree with this article. "You're mean!" is not a valid response to well-evidenced accusations of corruption. Their humorously well-coordinated ad hominem did nothing except make it that much easier to identify who has skeletons in his or her closet. They bit the hand that feeds them, and I hope gamers flee to websites that celebrate games and appreciates gamers as normal folks with a common interest.

>Oh, because recent studies showed that there are more adult women than
teenage boys that play games. Because of this, the "gamers" feel
threatened.

Yet certain people seem to have little problem insisting women feel alienated from gaming, even though by some of their own claims, women make up almost 50% of gamers. They usually move the goalposts to "well, that's only because they don't have anything else to play but these horribly misogynist games!"

Just leaving this here.
http://mynintendonews.com/2...

According to some high rank in Nintendo the competition (including steam) is dealing with the same kinda numbers for registered users.

Meaning if you take mobile and facebook out of the equation female presence drops drastically.

Women make up a minority of gamers? That's because they're so alienated by all the games with male protagonists.
Women make up almost half of gamers? Well, that's only because they're forced to play games with male protagonists.

I find it utterly ridiculous that these journalists are now trying to spin the hate vitriol towards "gamers" as being the deranged trolls. When in reality, its the hate mongers that infest both side of the coin that are doing the real damage. On Twitter, I saw a 10 year old kid receive a death threat because he dare speak his mind against an SJW type. A death threat that was casually shrugged off by SJW supporters (or to be fair. the hate-mongers that support SJW that is to say)

It just amazes me, death threat towards a 10 year old? No big deal. Death Threat towards Anita Sarkesian? Quick, run to the presses, "gamers" are evil bastards who dwell in their parents basements and rebel at the system.

Yet absolutely no one wants to bring that up, nope, instead we'll just spin the narrative that it's the "Gamers" who are the problem and not the obvious "Hate-mongers" that infest every part of the Internet.

Anyways, I'm just happy some damn sense finally prevails and this article is incredibly refreshing to read. So thank you Andrew Otton, just happy that there are still good people out there who are even handed and want to write about this whole mess in a fair manner

http://femfreq.tumblr.com/p...

>It just amazes me, death threat towards a 10 year old? No big deal.
Death Threat towards Anita Sarkesian? Quick, run to the presses,
"gamers" are evil bastards who dwell in their parents basements and
rebel at the system.

Oh, it gets better. Someone wrote a fanfic where Anita executes the head of Gearbox Software. Anita herself cheerfully endorsed it.

Finally, some damn sense prevails. Thank you, this article is one of the best things I've read all day and finally put a smile on my face. Thanks for writing it Andrew Otton :) Even handed and fair.

Thanks for reading and for the comment.