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Gamergrate | Sacred Symbols+ Episode 207

For some people, politics and video games go together like peanut butter and poop. But -- irrespective of the naysaying -- the two are natural bedfellows, as politics is with any entertainment medium or artform. To explore the positive and negative intersections of these two seemingly-disparate but deeply-interconnected worlds, I invited podcaster, social commentator, and Gamer (with a capital G) Noam Blum (also known as neontaster) to +. Together, we delve into the culture, politics, and social ramifications of gaming, touch on the origins of Gamergate (and Elevatorgate!), discuss Anita Sarkeesian, Jonathan McIntosh, Zoe Quinn, and others, consider the inevitability of a 'gaming president,' dissect the cliquishness of the very media overseeing its own destruction, the problems of translations and localizations, and a lot more. No politics in gaming? Not 'round these parts.

Comments

DrKen

This one is going to dive into some complex issues. Love it. Cant wait to listen.

Matthew Young

YES! I had been hoping for this collaboration since the fireside chat days! :)

JusticeSoulTuna

I really appreciate him bringing up NotYourShield, because there are so many gamers that are sick of being spoken for when they are women, minorities and LGBTQ+. No matter what the storm of Gamergate was, NYS was an opportunity for minority voices to speak up against the gaming media narrative.

Anonymous

Wow! These are 2 people I listen to or read almost daily. I was like “holy shit!” when I saw the pic lol

Robert Graham

Not wild about his snarky Zionist Twitter persona but seems like a chill dude I suppose.

Michael Ferrari

Gamergate is when gaming journalism and games media pretty much started to be irrelevant in my opinion. Nowadays I don't even visit sites for anything more than to just see if there's some big announcement. I could not care less about articles, reviews, opinions, podcasts, etc. from places like IGN, GameSpot, and sadly even Giant Bomb. All it takes is seeing headlines praising shows like the new Resident Evil which is HORRENDOUS (I watched all of the episodes with an open mind), to know that the games media industry is an utter joke now. They can't stop getting off to their own voices and pandering to take two minutes to think, "wait, how are the people who LOVE and made cultural icons out of characters like Lara Croft, Cortana, Lando Calrissian, Princesss Leia, Ellie, Sarge from Halo, Zelda, CJ, Samus, Barrett and countless more racists/sexists?" And that's just mentioning gaming and a few movie characters.

DB Cooper

The Perfect Blue poster in the background 0_0 Great episode!

Mike Tadych

I’m a casual gamer, but enjoy listening to gaming news and reviews. I get most of my news from IGN APP and their podcasts. Lately I feel like I’m being preached to By this outlet. Im glad I finally found a few journalists that share the same views as I do and can have an open mind. Can’t wait to listen to more content you provide!

bix hutch

Talking about poor translations and politics got me thinking of a very old mistake that is now a very common question asked in politics. The question of "what is a women?" has taken the political world by storm but once upon a time it was Dracula who asked "What is a man?".

superbadisfunny .

I have been following gaming news regularly since at least 2009 and I swear I still don't understand anything about Gamergate. Not even when I would look into it and when I did it seemed to get Unnecessary covered. Can't wait to dive into this episode about it. Thank you Colin, maybe I will have a better understanding now.

Cun

Wow man, this was such a refreshing conversation. Loved the eloquence on display from both of you, especially in the back half regarding criticism and what it's been reduced to in recent years. The fallacy of Anita Sarkeesian, the damaging reductivity of Twitter discourse, and especially Noam's take on Disney casting diverse actors in bad roles. These are all topics that roll around in my mind daily, things that frustrate me to no end but that are very complicated to complain about! It often feels as though we're moving in an inexorably negative direction, that we're stuck in these rotten routines when it comes to online debate. Hearing a couple of open-minded, intelligent dudes like yourselves breaking it down gives me hope that eventually the general populace will nut up and start thinking before they post. Thanks for coming on Noam!