Article has plenty of links to events and more details about why this past week was so terrible for gamers, but here's some highlights of what's happened in the last week:
1) A game designer's personal life was exposed to the internet, and used to justify physical threats to both the developer and her colleagues.
2) The PlayStation Network was shut down by a DDoS attack from someone who also threatened to blow up an airliner with president of Sony Online Entertainment onboard.
3) A designer's personal information and online accounts including banking information and other personal details were hacked into and spread over the internet.
4) A Counter-Strike player was SWATed at his school while livestreaming, prompting a lockdown of the school.
5) A media critic posted a video about violence against women in games and had death and -blam!- threats sent to her and her family.
I understand that people get passionate about things, but this recent wave of hacking and threats of extreme violence is making me ashamed to call myself a gamer. I know a lot of people are pissed off over Zoe Quinn, and Anita Sarkeesian has always had a ton of detractors but why all the escalation to this point?
This isn't so much about the content of our games but the people who play them. Are we contributing to a culture of violence here?
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Anita I can deal with. I don't agree with her personally, but it's a social viewpoint. Whatever. Zoe, I still don't give much of a fuck about. Who she sleeps with is none of my concern. What concerns me is the fact that writers are literally sleeping with people they publish things about. That should piss everyone off. Death threats are unwarranted. They always will be. That being said, journalists sleeping and living with people they write about is dirty down to it's core. If you enjoy gaming as a whole, you should be mad about that subject. If you want to continue moving gaming forward as a medium, we need legitimate criticism. Not echo chambers and hug parties. I am someone who enjoys games. I see them as an art form. When people try to force their social views into them, I'm going to get defensive. Am I sorry that she got dragged through the mud? Well, no, I don't like her personally. Do I think she deserved it? No. No I don't. Would I talk about the situation and spread information based on it regardless of who it happened to? You bet your fucking ass I would. Don't let the media bully you into having a specific opinion. /rant