» Mon May 14, 2012 2:37 am Extract posted to give people idea, but recommend read whole thing.
http://www.blisteredthumbs.net/2012/02/editorial-entitlement-to-ignorance-in-defense-of-jennifer-hepler/
Warning. This editorial contains some foul and perverse language. It is not safe for work and may offend people. You have been warned.
I wonder sometimes why I proudly proclaim myself to be a lover of video games in public. Despite my love for the world of gaming, I often am afraid to admit that I am such a gamer, because it usually leads to negative stereotyping. It is a curious thing, because this nearly exclusive culture of interactive media that I, and many of those reading this, have vehemently defended by attackers from the outside would rally in a heartbeat to stop the likes of Jack Thompson, Craig Anderson or even Joe Lieberman when attempting to censor or belittle our industry.
But this week, I witnessed the absolute worst of us in action, a sort of mob mentality that has generated more harm than good for the industry, because it just reinforces stereotypical rhetoric we have heard before. And what’s worse, it feels as if, despite several articles by high profile writers such as Jim Sterling, David Nye Griffiths, or others commenting on the issue that has, for the lack of a more eloquent term, caused a media [censored]-storm over the gaming sphere.
I am of course referring the recent attacks against one Jennifer Hepler, currently a writer at BioWare who worked on both Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II. On February 2nd, Hepler apparently signed up for a twitter account for the first time…only to request it to be taken down two weeks later after a flood of vicious attacks by what can only be described as an angry mob. Poking fun at her looks, gender and religion, making claims she needs to be [censored] and is comparable to Hitler, and calling her vile things like an “ obese [censored]” or “[censored]” with little context or provocation.
Well, that is partially true. Apparently on Reddit recently, a thread (that has been taken down at this point by Reddit) titled “This woman is a cancer that’s killing Bioware” was the source of most of this rank vitriol. And what’s worse, it is mostly due to the cherry-picking of quotations made in 2006, as seen in the photo shown here. (I’m not reposting it because… well, its disgusting.)
The two quotes come from an interview by Helper for the site Killer Betties. Sadly, the link to the interview is no longer functional, but thanks to internet archiving, the full interview can still be seen right here. The two primary complaints were general quotations regarding her stance on video games. Specifically, the fact that playing the games was her least favorite thing about video games, and games should give players the option to skip fight scenes to make games much shorter than they were.
Of course, these are loaded statements already that contracted negative attention. But the context of these statements is just as important, because what people tend to forget is that there is more behind a sound bite than a just a blanket statement, something Fox News needs to learn still in the political realm.
I wonder sometimes why I proudly proclaim myself to be a lover of video games in public. Despite my love for the world of gaming, I often am afraid to admit that I am such a gamer, because it usually leads to negative stereotyping. It is a curious thing, because this nearly exclusive culture of interactive media that I, and many of those reading this, have vehemently defended by attackers from the outside would rally in a heartbeat to stop the likes of Jack Thompson, Craig Anderson or even Joe Lieberman when attempting to censor or belittle our industry.
But this week, I witnessed the absolute worst of us in action, a sort of mob mentality that has generated more harm than good for the industry, because it just reinforces stereotypical rhetoric we have heard before. And what’s worse, it feels as if, despite several articles by high profile writers such as Jim Sterling, David Nye Griffiths, or others commenting on the issue that has, for the lack of a more eloquent term, caused a media [censored]-storm over the gaming sphere.
I am of course referring the recent attacks against one Jennifer Hepler, currently a writer at BioWare who worked on both Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II. On February 2nd, Hepler apparently signed up for a twitter account for the first time…only to request it to be taken down two weeks later after a flood of vicious attacks by what can only be described as an angry mob. Poking fun at her looks, gender and religion, making claims she needs to be [censored] and is comparable to Hitler, and calling her vile things like an “ obese [censored]” or “[censored]” with little context or provocation.
Well, that is partially true. Apparently on Reddit recently, a thread (that has been taken down at this point by Reddit) titled “This woman is a cancer that’s killing Bioware” was the source of most of this rank vitriol. And what’s worse, it is mostly due to the cherry-picking of quotations made in 2006, as seen in the photo shown here. (I’m not reposting it because… well, its disgusting.)
The two quotes come from an interview by Helper for the site Killer Betties. Sadly, the link to the interview is no longer functional, but thanks to internet archiving, the full interview can still be seen right here. The two primary complaints were general quotations regarding her stance on video games. Specifically, the fact that playing the games was her least favorite thing about video games, and games should give players the option to skip fight scenes to make games much shorter than they were.
Of course, these are loaded statements already that contracted negative attention. But the context of these statements is just as important, because what people tend to forget is that there is more behind a sound bite than a just a blanket statement, something Fox News needs to learn still in the political realm.
