Gamergate (video game industry scandal)

[Lost_Wanderer]

pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2014/11/08/why-the-gamergate-story-is-so-boring/3/

" Plato already tried it out in the 4th century BC, in his Republic. In book 2, Socrates lays down the ground rules for art and poetry in his imaginary utopia. Violent myths, he says, “are absolutely not to be mentioned . . . in stories or painted in artwork.” The citizens of a perfect society have to be trained to hate disorder. So their bedtime stories have to be squeaky-clean. If they’re allowed to hear about domestic violence on Olympus or wars between the gods, little boys won’t ever grow up to be respectful and obedient adults. Violent myths make violent men."

Ironically, Peter here looks like a huge fan of both philosophers and all things Greco-Roman but apparently betrays his zero love for video games.

As a casual gamer, I am saddened by how many sort of ideological warmongers I have to contend with on different fronts. On one hand, there’s little Miss Femme who thinks I’m a subhuman pig just because I play dating games with harem endings. (“Guess what lady? You too!”) And on the other, it’s right-wing parenting squads who think I’m the next Virginia Tech just because I enjoy slaughtering and tormenting giant monsters with equally giant weapons. (“Well I’m sorry that not all of us geeks wanted to join your local football team Mr. Mayor.”) It only sickens me further to think the latter is now getting all chummy because we annoy feminists as much as they do.

I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it. These culture warriors (whether their motivation is religious, political, or philosophical) strike me as the real disease. They don’t realize that the beauty of video games is not just that there’s a game for playing a hero or a villain. It has something to offer to everyone. But no, the cultural and spiritual pride of these so-called ‘warriors’ just spit on that goodness and cry for more and more censorship.

I’ll have none of it.

 

[minion]

You have no clue what my position is do you?

The above shows you clearly don’t.

No worries, I’ll waste no more time.

Well, for my part, your post at #56 was profound and illuminating. Helped make some distinctions clear for me amidst the media confusion.

@Lost Wanderer, my response to your post way back at #20 is essentially Peter Plato’s. I think you should give it another read, more carefully, and really understand it. Brushing it off merely as a “philosopher’s take” wasn’t really a fair objection.

 

[Lost_Wanderer]

Well, for my part, your post at #56 was profound and illuminating. Helped make some distinctions clear for me amidst the media confusion.

@Lost Wanderer, my response to your post way back at #20 is essentially Peter Plato’s. I think you should give it another read, more carefully, and really understand it. Brushing it off merely as a “philosopher’s take” wasn’t really a fair objection.

You’re an ex-gamer who’s just used this entire scandal as an excuse to jump ship (when all you needed to do was tell the captain where your next stop was). You cry an unfair objection but are only proving that which is destroying the GG side of this whole mess. You’ve claimed to have been enlightened yet are closed to the idea that you had indeed allowed your ideological passion to drag you happily into the conflict that cares nothing for the subject that is its namesake.

I advise you to reread his posts. There is nothing there that even so much touches video games. It’s completely a call to participate in someone else’s political/philosophical/religious crusade that is really nothing more than a bunch of activists shouting over each other on my proverbial front porch. Frankly, I don’t care if the SJWs or the Breitbart jocks started. Just get it off my lawn! Repeating my earliest words on this thread:

Let me play in peace!

 

[Peter_Plato]

Way to prove my point. Your condescension towards gamers is what’s rotting the other side of GG. You don’t care about games. You just want a culture soapbox much like the SJWs. We gamers are nothing more than your unwitting excuse.

I repeat: Pathetic.

No condescension intended. Some may “need” gaming in the same way that children need nurturing or students need to learn how to read and write. I don’t look condescendingly upon anyone who emotionally needs to spend time on some activity merely because I no longer have a need to do so.

I no longer have a need to be nurtured or tutored in the same way I did when I was younger. Likewise I no longer need to play video games because, well, I no longer “need” to play video games.

The fact that, for me, playing video games was an activity that I personally felt I outgrew says nothing about you or the reason you play video games. I, personally, outgrew the need and for me it would be a waste of time.

You may play for an entirely different reason. Sure, I can accept that. Some people play piano. Some do woodworking. Some collect stamps. Some play video games. Some dress up in Renaissance attire and replay history. I outgrew “dress up” when I was five and “dressing up” would be for me, today, a waste of time. Does that mean re-enacting the past is necessarily childish, because I outgrew some manifestation of that activity?

I can quite reasonably claim that I outgrew dressing up, while freely and consistently holding that actors or history buffs who dress up may do so for entirely different reasons and motives. Now, because you read my comment that I outgrew “dressing up” as implying that I must, therefore, view acting or re-enacting history in a condescending way or as a childish activity is really not my problem, and is simply a logical error on your part.

My motive for doing or not doing something or my view of what moves me to engage in some activity need not imply anything about what your motives may be or whether you are justified in doing the activity. Nor does it imply that you do the activity for the same reason or with the same compulsion that made me engage in it.

If you want to project onto me your motives for why you might do things, or the implications you draw from the word “outgrew,” I can’t stop you, but you will be mistaken to assume you are correct.

Now, run along and play your video games!

 

[Lost_Wanderer]

I don’t look condescendingly upon anyone who emotionally needs to spend time on some activity merely because I no longer have a need to do so.

Not from where I’m standing.

Now, because you read my comment that I outgrew “dressing up” as implying that I must, therefore, view acting or re-enacting history in a condescending way or as a childish activity is really not my problem, and is simply a logical error on your part.

Really? That sarcastic emoticon must’ve been an accident then.

My motive for doing or not doing something or my view of what moves me to engage in some activity need not imply anything about what your motives may be or whether you are justified in doing the activity.

Doesn’t change the fact that you don’t play, are not interested, and therefore, make me roll my eyes to see commentary like yours on a scandal that supposedly involves the gaming industry.

If you want to project onto me your motives for why you might do things, or the implications you draw from the word “outgrew,” I can’t stop you, but you will be mistaken to assume you are correct.

Repeat: Your tone and use of emoticons tell me an entirely different story. For a philosopher, you are not only insulting but intellectually sound dishonest.