That Zoella one has something like 10 million subscribers. The problem lies in the fact that the majority of her subscribers are very young girls who are then begging and annoying their parents to buy them the latest thing that Zoella has recommended, pretending it’s her favourite product ever, when ultimately she has been paid to advertise the product and doesn’t use it at all or has no idea how it works.

Enda, I’m going to try and be helpful here.

Avoid citing single examples such as the one above to contextualise a whole argument. (One swallow does not a summer make etc). It doesn’t disprove the existence of extreme sexist hate and bullying online just because this one time it didn’t happen. It’s like saying rape isn’t an issue, because this one time, this girl totally made it up cause she was angry at the guy (those type of arguments, they suck).

Also, by taking a stance that Gamergate had nothing to do with sexism might seem ok in your rationale, but it comes across as if you’re denying that these things are happening, at which point you seem delusional and frankly, sexist.

Ironic statement when accusing gamergate of things without any evidence follow your own advice blue pill.

Despite the lack of coverage there have been death threats from the anti-gamergate side too.

Those to the best of my knowledge have not come from anyone officially recognised as anti gamergate and could also be false troll accounts.

TRP isn’t going to make you happier Enda.

Instead of following a philosophy that trains you to hate women, why not go out and pick up a sport or hobby that will have you feeling better about yourself, and will make you a more rounded person which in turn makes you more attractive to both women and men alike. People want to be friends and lovers with people who are happy in themselves and are well adjusted in terms of hobbies and interests.

You’re not worthless at all, neither am I. The red pill crap-ery is only going to hold you back in life, I’d advise that you let go of as soon as you can, or you will end up bitter and lonely.

You’re probably right Enda, I guess I just hadn’t thought about it like you have – the girls probably all had false accounts created to spam themselves with horrible threats, then reported it to the police so that the media would be on their side.

Now that I think of it, there’s no such thing as sexism at all, we’ve just been believing what all woman say without enough evidence. I mean, the hundreds upon hundreds of threats sent to Anita Sarkeesian, I mean, nobody kept an eye on her all the time, she totally set up all those accounts herself, right?

Here I am, thinking that 15 years of playing games online and having worked in a games company, all that stuff I’ve seen and heard was just some elaborate Truman show just for me creating the illusion of sexist bullying.

Actually, no, I choose to believe the problem exists and deserves attention, it’s not the end of the world, but I’m certainly not gonna act like it’s not a bad thing.

The red pill is all about self improvement.i have many hobbies such as gaming geocaching hiking i attend a gym and i am currently in a relationship. so dont belive everything your feminist overlords tell you.

@ciaran keep your conspiracy theory to yourself there all in saying is theres no solid evidence against anyone in gamergate to support your accusations while in the other hand there is solid evidence showing that people falsely create such narratives to benefit themselves. So stop wasting your time here whit knight.

1 article from the daily mail website… Forgive me while I collapse under the incredible weight of evidence…

Human beings are sexist. Gamers in my experience are far more tolerant and accepting of extreme sexism than most.

Gamergate started as a debate around journalistic ethics, but quickly spiralled into something sinister that wasn’t even remotely moral.

Eventually, gaming companies will bow to pressure to stamp out toxicity in their communities and it’ll take a long time, but maybe in 10 years or so a new generation will grow that doesn’t go full sexist upon hearing a female on team speak. Wider society might even benefit too.

i can link you articles and videos all day or maybe you can dust off your brain and do a google search and maybe think for yourself once in a while. oh and one article is a hell of a lot more evidence than you will ever produce for you biased nonsense. The gaming industry fended off the last siege of bullshit that was “Videogames make people violent gamers are angry violent people” we will fend off your bullshit too.

He does make a valid point about games journalism. When this issue was raised, several articles were published ‘demonizing’ gamers (‘Gamers are Dead’). These were printed in a short space of time. That’s not to say that gamers haven’t done enough to damage to their own reputation. My point is that when they raised these conflicts of interest, it was swept under the rug very quickly.

In regards to gaming companies bowing to pressure, I doubt it. Hollywood has been accused of sexism for years. Jurassic World, The Avengers, Fifty Shades of Grey and Cinderella were all at some stage accused of demeaning women or sexism. They’re in the top 10 highest grossing films of 2015.

i believe that is called “money talks bullshit walks”.

Not all gamers are jerks. But enough of them are for it to be a problem and currently it mostly goes unpunished. As online harassment gets closer in law to face to face harassment and prosecutions begin to follow, gaming companies will be forced to stamp out extreme toxicity in their communities.

What was manifested in Gamergate is part of a wider harassment issue and harsher bans for online abuse within games will build and build as pressure mounts on the companies. The result will be a community which is less abusive and eventually an internet with a greater sense of responsibility – in my opinion, it’s grown unfettered for a long time and online gaming takes slightly antisocial tenancies and through anonymity, these get exaggerated and abusive trolls are born.

@Dave – the conflicts of interest weren’t swept under a rug, but they were way less important than what started to happen in terms of abuse and targeting. Sadly, if people tried to raise the issue again, embarrassingly, it would go the same places that it did before, I expect.

Yeah im old enough to remeber the campaign of censorship brought forth by the last crowd that tried to force change on gaming. Didnt go well for them. The conplete opposite of your prediction will happen a massive backlash against censorship sjws and feminists will CONTINUE to occur and you will be the ones thrown out of the community as companies stand firm against your interferance.

@Ciaran I agree there were massive amounts of abuse and targeting but the ‘ethics in games journalism’ felt like it was swept under the rug. 13 articles in 6 days (the majority of which were published on the 28th and 29th of August) proclaiming that ‘Gamers are Dead’ or ‘The End of Gamers’ is trying to ignore the concerns that were raised. Most of these articles were published by companies that were accused of not announcing their conflicts of interest.

Now don’t get me wrong, I agree with your stance on online gaming. Personally I prefer to play older games with friends in the same room. You are also right in that any time this will be raised, it will be automatically linked with the torrent of abuse that came before. Kind of saddens me as that while the industry is growing in one respect, another may not because fools damaged the cause so badly.

https://youtu.be/FXK6P8dbrCo

@Dave Journalistic ethics fell by the wayside, but the issue was still massively raised – even if largely thanks to the abuse that followed – everyone was more aware of the issue around reviews afterwards and journalistic integrity is under the microscope since!

@Enda Internet anonymity which facilitates hatred and sexism will decline in gaming as methods of weeding it out improve (smart tech is being rolled out across a number of games currently, gauging players toxicity and issuing bans – the games themselves are doing this to improve their own communities).

As for your glee that a backlash continues to occur against sjws and feminists… I know you have a girlfriend as mentioned above, but honestly, wow. It’s only my opinion, but you come across as if you think there’s a war between gaming men and feminists online and people need to be with one side or the other…

Thats some nice backpeddling gaming communications will only be restricted based on age.The mike discussions in 18+ games will be free and open for anything.so your not even going to accomplish that. also i dont think theres a war between gaming MEN and feminists its a culture war between gamers and feminists my gaming sisters are in this fight #notyourshield.

http://www.cinemablend.com/m/games/-NotYourShield-Hashtag-Shows-Multi-Cultural-Support-GamerGate-67119.html

Enda, I’m not going to convince you that change is needed. The internet is full of horrible, odious people and gaming contains them on greater proportions than most other places.

Games with toxic communities die as people grow weary of the constant negativity. So Gaming companies, recognising this, will seek to control the toxicity, through mic & chat relayed bans to change behaviours, because it’s what their players want.

Those who celebrate and want such toxicity can have it in dying communities (they could follow the crowds to newer games with less toxic crowds, but new tech will identify toxicity and ban them).

Who knows, maybe we’ll look back on this age of toxic anonymous abuse and laugh at how bad things were and wonder how or why people thought facilitating and accepting toxic abuse made sense.

You have no idea what your talking about. The communities reflect the game your kind of communities only exist in game like my little pony. The only negative communities are ones that sap on games that were unpopular in the first place and had low subscriber bases thus became hangouts for such groups. of course the game developer will want to blame thier shitty games failure on such people rather than live in reality.

@Ciaran
“It’s only my opinion, but you come across as if you think there’s a war between gaming men and feminists online and people need to be with one side or the other…”
LOL!
There is a war….and feminists started it thinking they could bully those guys into subservience.
You know…..those guys who actually created the gaming industry…..those guys whose genius it is made the gaming industry what it is today… those guys who ventured where no man had ventured before….(and certainly no woman)
‘Henceforth you will operate according to the strict guidelines handed down from the Feminazi’
But the guys weren’t having any of it. They called feminists on the bullsiht…and Won.
Reason and logic 10 – Feminist hysteria 0.

Lad I’ve been gaming on line since TF 1.0 and have worked for one of the largest gaming companies out there – I’m as entitled to my opinion as anyone else on the Internet.

You’ve surrounded yourself in so much of the dark realms of gaming that you can’t even see how insular your views have become. Honestly, you’re like any and all zealots, you’ve surrounded yourself with like minded folks to the point where you reject any contrary information. You remind me of 9/11 conspiracy theorists or right wing religious bible belters in the US.

I hear your arguments, I look at what I see online and I cannot reconcile the two.

Yeah your as much a gamer as Anita sarkesian your level of ignorance on the subject matter gives you away. https://youtu.be/Afgtd8ZsXzI

@Ciaran.
” you can’t even see how insular your views have become”
Let me take this opportunity to enlighten you my friend.
You are the one trying to impose strict boundaries, you are the one trying to impose your own personal ethical viewpoint on gaming, you are the one sounding remarkably similar to the cabal of angry feminists who hate men and hate male freedom of expression.
You probably subscribe to the ridiculous notion of gender neutrality also.
Actually, you’re the one who’s wearing the blinkers.
The one with the myopic view of the world.

https://youtu.be/5RVlCvBd21w

@Tommy. Thank you for your support.

lol your more of a mangina than i thought ill go get some lube for you.

“I don’t want o make games where people go around shooting each other..it’s gross’
Anita thinks games are real life.
Surprised she hasn’t set out to ban western movies as well.
‘I don;t want people riding around on horses, drinking whiskey and shooting each other.
Eh…sure..OK Anita.
(keep taking the medication, you’ll be all right)

Wow, “mangina”… so Enda, let’s get something straight, I’ve deliberately been referring to “anonymity” all this time, half hinting at its role. You’re on your FB account while commenting, so am I. I don’t say things I wouldn’t say in public to people, that’d be pretty dumb right?

You want to know what irony is?

Commenting on an article to extol the virtues of abusive communities, to then insult a random “stranger” and celebrate attacking feminism, then it turns out, the internet stranger knows your girlfriend’s family. You can keep your lube.

i dont extol anything.

And what kind of threat do you think your making they know me and who i am.

not exactly doing much for your rep when your response to losing is im going to tell on you lol.

Not a threat, just pointing out the irony is all.

You’ve been opposed to my argument that anonymous chat can and should be restricted and that I see it as a problem. That’s your perogative.

Your response was to get abusive with me. I’m not going to tell on you, you’ve posted what you said. Either be proud or what or said or be ashamed and learn a lesson.

freedom of speech id freedom of speech it should NEVER be restricted under any circumstance.you need to learn before your life becomes orwellian and i stand up for my beliefs 100% always. i stand up for freedom of expression freedom of speech and freedom of thought i have nothing to be ashamed of my spineless adversary.

Freedom of speech is freedom of speech… you win. I can’t argue with that.

Let’s just leave it at that and stop trolling this article with pointless comments.

Yes Enda, women are witches who want to destroy men! They should all be burned at the stake.. but may I ask how any of your above commentary is relevant to this article? You know this article is about product endorsement by bloggers (OF BOTH GENDERS) right? So why are you going on the offensive about women? I’m failing to see the link.. but that’s probably because of my smaller female brain :p

Yvonne – Gamergate was similar to this article – people were presenting reviews/opinions on games without mentioning how the games were paying/rewarding them, the focus being on certain females in the industry. From there, the law of the Internet took hold and the whole thing spiralled real fast and started a discussion about sexist attitudes and behaviours in the gaming community/industry. Like all Internet discussions, there were no winners and a lot of losers.

Oh okay, I’m not a gamer so wasn’t aware of the whole “Gamergate” situation but still seems like a pretty big jump from the original article considering the article wasn’t bashing or promoting one gender over the other.

“Feminazi”, “mangina”, well we can see we are dealing with intellectual heavy weights here.. How did your leaving cert results go lads?