
Fandom Is Broken - smacktoward
http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2016/05/30/fandom-is-broken
======
busterarm
He lost me right when he referred to GamerGate as a "terrorist hate group".

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_organizations_designat...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_organizations_designated_by_the_Southern_Poverty_Law_Center_as_hate_groups)

~~~
bitwize
The goals of GamerGate are pretty much to terrorize women. Remember, it
started as a campaign to put the fear of God in Zoë Quinn.

~~~
Chlorus
They're doing a pretty bad job of that, considering how many women affiliate
with GG...
[https://twitter.com/Nonsensicole/status/737680093946863617](https://twitter.com/Nonsensicole/status/737680093946863617)

~~~
Chlorus
For further context, I'm not saying there aren't a disproportionate number of
misogynist assholes in GG, but plenty of people who have used the GG tag /
affiliated with it had far different agendas. For example, a frequent target
is ill-advised Polygon / Kotaku clickbait thinkpieces - you don't have to be
an alt-right neo-Nazi to find something objectionable about those.

~~~
bitwize
Sure, but GamerGate really isn't about those. If you look into how the
movement came about in the first place, you will see that its origins lie in
Eron Gjoni using the internet as his personal army to punish Zoë Quinn by
tarnishing her reputation with misogynistic lies. "Journalistic integrity" is
just a figleaf to mask the true aims of the movement.

------
6stringmerc
Yep, good write-up that hits a lot of the points about how the great equalizer
for communication - the Internet - also allows the ugly side of human nature
to shine as well.

It's sort of like a twisted reverse of the old saying "Never meet your heroes"
\- this is a case of "Never interact with your audience" and that might take
hold as a credo as well.

> _I see things getting worse - creators walling themselves off from fans
> while corporate masters happily throw vision and storytelling under the bus
> to appease the people who can get hashtags trending._

I don't think that's getting worse, I think that's a return to form. The
Entertainment Industry is all about chasing money, first and foremost. Yes,
there is art within the industry but it's not some kind of altruistic charity
thing.

------
CM30
Fandom isn't broken. Are there nutcases in fandoms for things? Yeah sure,
that's life. Everyone from authors to musicians to film directors and video
game designers have a few fans that take their love of the work too far. Only
difference is that there's no authority or editor that can filter out the
'hatred' before it reaches the creator.

As for GamerGate... it's not a 'terrorist hate group'. There are some
extremists in it (and some extremists against it), but it's basically a revolt
against what some see as a broken media, political correctness being forced on
a community that didn't want it and favouritism among the gaming press. Kind
of like the situation with Trump or Sanders or UKIP or the anti establishment
political movements really.

------
carsongross
Sounds like fandom needs to find a different thing to be fans of.

Good luck, industry.

------
Spivak
This article is shit, the bias is practically dripping off the page. This is
not a discussion of how people interact on the internet, but an incoherent
scatterbrained rant about self-superiority and entitlement arguing against
straw-men and internet trolls.

Seriously you just have to look at his phrasing.

> _childish_ uproar over Mass Effect 3

> that _tantrum_

> terrorist hate group GamerGate

> the nature of modern fan entitlement

> immediate access to _spew_ any kind of hate

> other version of that makes you _despair for humanity_

> century's holy popcult warriors.

This article is so bad that even though I came into the article agreeing with
his general point about political correctness I fished the article with a bad
taste in my mouth.

~~~
brador
You have to demean to feel superior.

