Kickstarter "Tropes vs Women in Videogames"

[Erik_Twice]

I think you brought up a very important topic nullPointer.

I believe that indeed a significant portion of the people who harass game personalities are serial harasers. I don't follow 4Chan, or Red Pill or any of the other dark pits of the internet, but I recognize that many names that pop up have always been associated with bullying and overall hatred. This is not a new thing and many of the smaller targets have said words to the effect and they jump from controversy to controversy to keep pumping hate.

So basically as I see it you have the usual cadre of idiots and trolls, and then you have these guys.

[SamuraiMegas]

4chan isn't that dark of a place. Certain boards are bad but not all.

Also, I haven't followed this thread at all, it's pretty much a gamergate thread right?

[Fragems]

Have any feminists tackled the Deadpool game in their videos?

After playing it I thought it would be interesting to see the feminist response since the game purposely paints a giant bullseye on it's back. However any videos about it are buried under sexy moment videos on youtube .

[Erik_Twice]

4chan isn't that dark of a place. Certain boards are bad but not all.

Oh yeah, it's more to paint a mental image. I wasn't sure how to describe it.

Also, I haven't followed this thread at all, it's pretty much a gamergate thread right?

No, I don't think so. We haven't touched the topic much, it's mostly discussion of female representation and Sarkeesian's videos.

[ZeroAX]

Also, I haven't followed this thread at all, it's pretty much a gamergate thread right?

No, we don't want to get cancer.

[marurun]

You know what, if you are having problems with even the words other people use, maybe you should only debate with walls.

If you are having such difficulty to distinct between my use of the word talking about specific violent mental sicknesses, and the entire spectrum of mental sicknesses, which don't involve violence, then it's your problem. I'm not going to add a disclaimer to every word I say, learn to read the context.

Here's the thing: in debating, accurate and precise language use is critical. I didn't do debate in high school, but I spent lots of time around debaters. They were VERY careful about the language they used to discuss things.

That aside... I'm not a big fan of having the term "mental illness" become a catch all for poorly socialized people. It makes it hard to talk about real mental illness, the kind that requires medication and a lifetime of treatment and management. I mean, you can use the term if you like. I can't stop you. But I'm not going to use it.

That said, some of these harassers (maybe that's the word we need to use, harassers), especially the serial ones, probably do have some kind of personality disorder. But some of them likely don't. There are lots of people who live normal lives who make ass-stupid comments on the internet and allow themselves to get very worked up over stuff, just because the consequences of their speech are so non-existent. The ones who come back and do it over and over are not the folks I'm talking about. I'm talking about the ones who leave a few nasty tweets (including, possibly, threats) and then move on with their so-called lives.

Here's a neat piece they did on public radio here in the US which talks about Lindy West contacting someone who harassed her on-line. There is audio and a transcript. Act one of the show (This American Life) is the story. This person clearly has some issues, and probably could use some counseling, but, again, I'm not sure I, personally, would be comfortable calling them mentally ill.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/545/transcript

[Forlorn Drifter]

Harassers are a better term. I know I'm in a different generation then quite a few of ya'll, so I can say pretty easily that death threats with no meaning behind them aren't that odd for people my age. It was really common when I was little- everybody threatened to kill everybody all the time. I remember it, because I got in trouble one time for knocking my bully down, punching him in the face repeatedly Rick Grimes style, and telling him "we'll see who kills who".

I know that reflects bad on me, I just want the point to come across that it isn't that uncommon, and doesn't mean those people are "mentally ill". In fact, I imagine most of them are well functioning people. They just know they have anonymity. Look at how cyberbullying as a whole has blown up. Consider the fact that many do this on places like facebook, where you aren't anonymous. Times have made it where getting physical isn't an option, so the types of people with these goals focus on doing things through fear and humiliation. Its the same idea, different route to the goal.

[Key-Glyph]

I got in trouble one time for knocking my bully down, punching him in the face repeatedly Rick Grimes style, and telling him "we'll see who kills who".

I know that reflects bad on me...

You bet it does, as the proper way to have worded that threat would've been, "we'll see who kills whom."



(I'm just pulling your chain, Forlorn. Don't sweat the bully encounter too much! You reflect just fine.)

[Forlorn Drifter]

No, it doesn't reflect well. Far from the proper way to deal with the situation, although it is the way my family tends to deal with things. My Dad tried to fight one of his bullies once, got whooped, then came back and beat him with a baseball bat.

[MrPopo]

No, it doesn't reflect well. Far from the proper way to deal with the situation, although it is the way my family tends to deal with things. My Dad tried to fight one of his bullies once, got whooped, then came back and beat him with a baseball bat.

Sounds like he just wants to ensure there won't be a third encounter.