7 ms·

Female Bioware writer harassed on Twitter

40 points by i386 15y ago

dragonFury 15y ago
Those who harass on Twitter should be banned.
chaostheory 15y ago
It's ironic that a lot of gamers would be raging on what Jennifer had to say. If you compare Bioware's masterpiece Baldur's Gate II with its more recent games, there is a lot more dialog and story in the former. Aside from the dialog alone, there are books and manuscripts you can read, and almost every weapon had its own special story to tell. Having said that it's a shame that Jennifer hasn't tried more indie video games as opposed to the mainstream console games. There's actually some games on iPhone that are pretty much interactive 'Choose your own adventure' games that are the size of a novella in content.
- projct 15y ago
  Which games would these be? I'd love to try some good ones... Thanks!
  - chaostheory 15y ago
    myquest: rise of the hunter The Gamebooks Adventure series by Tin Man Games There are plenty of other quick games too that aren't stereotypical like one I really like called Fairway Solitaire. There are too many to count. Smaller companies just take interesting risks that large game publishers will almost never take.
swordswinger12 15y ago
The reddit hivemind does something ferociously stupid that makes all internet users look like drooling morons -- is this news to people?
- Zikes 15y ago
  According to the comments, 4chan's /v/ played a part as well.
- mayanksinghal 15y ago
  Okay, so I have been sitting on these thoughts for quite some time now. Here are they: 1. I am no HN veteran (or tech veteran, for that matter) but I love this place and respect it much more that any other internet community I have a part of (a handful of them). 2. I have been to reddit not more than a dozen times and probably half of these referrals would have been from here, HN. 3. Whenever I read Reddit bashing in HN, my respect for this community decreases a little. Of course I consider HN to be a superior forum of intelligent interaction than reddit and hence I am on HN and not Reddit. I think that most of us would believe that to be true - but please, for the sake of keeping the sanctity of intelligent and useful discussion intact, we don't have to describe the superiority of intelligent discussion on HN every single time there is a post regarding Rededit! Probably all of us are aware of the differences and those who don't, won't care anyways. 4. You generalized the entire Reddit userbase to be drooling morons - the drooling part of which I guess refers to the male chauvinism. This was done despite the fact that the author of the article is not sure if gender had substantial contribution to the type of reaction the lady had received. In the comment, the another painful point that I see is that the entire community (and not just the people who acted like 'drooling morons') is shown in a derogatory light. Me, being less aware of how Reddit works - but aware enough to see that this is a wrong generalization, just made up my mind that I had to defend this community (even though I am not a part of it) and hence see reasons to probably even see a rationale behind the behaviour of 'drooling morons', not because I support them but because I want to strongly disagree with you. And I am wrong to do that, but that is in my nature and probably there would be others who would consciously or subconsciously feel the same. The point is, ad hominem and sweeping generalizations are illogical and harmful as they entice (or gives freedom to) people to be illogical in response.
  - wdewind 15y ago
    No I think you misinterpreted his statement and overreacted, even though I am an avid redditor and agree with you entirely. He said the hivemind, which in my opinion refers to the mob mentality that comes out of the entire 4chan/btard movements and has leeched into reddit. Occasionally it is used for good (hivemind hunts down cat abuser) usually it is used for, as parent commenter said, "ferociously stupid" things. Reddit is like a bar, and I love bars but there is no denying some ferociously stupid things happen in them.
bri3d 15y ago
I found this article interesting but the title of the submission disingenuous. The linked article tries to put the gender aspect aside and focuses on the actual controversy: a games writer saying they don't actually like playing games, and the stupid response of many in the gaming community. The title of this submission converts the whole thing back into an issue of gender. I'm not saying I think either aspect is more important, but I almost didn't click this link because I wasn't interested in seeing another gender discussion at the moment. When I decided to do so anyway I was pleasantly surprised.
- i386 15y ago
  I disagree. As far as I am aware, a significant portion of threats were sexual in nature or focused on body image which would not happen if the person in question was male.
  - bri3d 15y ago
    I'm sure they were - one visit to almost any /r/gaming thread, /v/ post, or Xbox Live session will inevitably yield plenty of racial and sexual slurs. However, what I liked about the linked article is that it tried its best to avoid discussing those concerns in favor of the more novel controversy about a game writer who doesn't like playing games. Hence, to me, the submission's title seemed disingenuous as it framed the article as one about gender, rather than something different.
  - socialist_coder 15y ago
    If the person in question was male the insults would just focus on penis size and sexuality. I agree with the previous commenter, I don't think gender is as big of an issue is people make it out to be.
  - chc 15y ago
    Although that might intuitively seem true, I'm not sure it really is. Heaven knows enough jokes have been made about Gabe Newell's weight (I'm pretty sure gamer law requires at least one to be made in the comments of every story about Valve), and I can only imagine the comments people would make if he were openly gay. Suffice it to say the obvious maleness of most participants on Xbox Live doesn't stop people throwing around sexual accusations like they were going out of style.
shingen 15y ago
People often like to make things like this about the Internet. It's not, it's about human behavior and probability. Saying anything through a broadcast medium has a calculation involved in regards to the likelihood you're going to get attacked over it. The world is filled with trolls. It doesn't matter what attributes you possess, thick skin will serve you well in life, and that will always be true. If you're fat or skinny, beautiful or ugly, rich or poor, you're going to get shit on, berated, harassed, and so on, at some time or another. Almost any sharp edge in any direction, about any topic, basically, results in blow back. That's not to say all scenarios are created equal. You can hardly name something that isn't divisive these days. And now you know what nearly everybody thinks about everything courtesy of Facebook, Twitter, et al. Mediums change, but trolls remain the same.
- doktrin 15y ago
  Fair point, but it's plainly obvious that the internet facilitates this type of abusive, anti-social behavior. Also, my take-away from the article was not an attack on the interwebs. If anything, the community was blamed - not the method of communication.
  - aaronbrethorst 15y ago
    Agree. Eight years later, "John Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory" still rings true for me: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19 http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19
    - jrockway 15y ago
      I don't think the Internet is a relevant part of the equation. There are plenty of trolls in the real world. Remember the "Don't taze me, bro!" guy? (Also: Bill O'Reilly)
      - mattgreenrocks 15y ago
        The Internet is part of the equation. It makes it much easier to get away with this sort of behavior, and there are virtually no consequences. You're right: trolling still happens outside of the Internet, but we have more social norms in place to deal with it in real life. If there was a way to have more consequences to what people said online, then we might see more civility. But, we're human, and we can't have nice things.
Fargren 15y ago
For what it's worth, I would have loved a "skip combat" button on Mass Effect 2. The combat was decent, but it got dull after a while, very repetitive. By the end I just wanted to see the next dialog and make the next choice. That's where the real engagement of the game was for me. And I love playing games in general.
- smacktoward 15y ago
  That seems like less of an argument for Bioware letting you skip combat in Mass Effect games and more of an argument for Bioware making combat in Mass Effect games not suck.
- IdahoEv 15y ago
  I'm coming around to that view, myself. I've long since switched to playing most games on "normal" difficulty or below, because ratcheting up the difficulty really only adds tedium, not challenge. Once you figure out how to beat the bad guys, you just have to work at it longer on nightmare difficulty. And very quickly, the repetition is not fun. I've definitely had games where I was enjoying the story and every once in a while I would totally have used a "fast forward combat" button if I had it.
  - morsch 15y ago
    While some games just add tedium at higher difficulties, many good games require you to come up with different strategies and use features you wouldn't otherwise use. And for many games, being on edge because you are close to losing is part of the atmosphere.
    - mattgreenrocks 15y ago
      What games? Most of them tend to get difficulty wrong: "this guy requires 3 headshots instead of 1!" It's better when the difficulty shows itself as more enemies, or stronger enemies, etc.
      - 15y ago
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
jrockway 15y ago
If people misbehave to get attention, and when they misbehave they get a ton of attention, aren't we the real problem?
- mattgreenrocks 15y ago
  The entire "attention economy" of the Internet is the problem, and this is another symptom.
vishaldpatel 15y ago
Somehow I don't see the logic. She's not a fan of gaming. So she'd like to make games less game-like to make the non-gaming crowd buy games. They're called books, tv shows and movies. And there are plenty of non-gamers consuming them.

40 points by i386 15y ago

Those who harass on Twitter should be banned.

It's ironic that a lot of gamers would be raging on what Jennifer had to say. If you compare Bioware's masterpiece Baldur's Gate II with its more recent games, there is a lot more dialog and story in the former. Aside from the dialog alone, there are books and manuscripts you can read, and almost every weapon had its own special story to tell. Having said that it's a shame that Jennifer hasn't tried more indie video games as opposed to the mainstream console games. There's actually some games on iPhone that are pretty much interactive 'Choose your own adventure' games that are the size of a novella in content.

projct 15y ago
Which games would these be? I'd love to try some good ones... Thanks!
- chaostheory 15y ago
  myquest: rise of the hunter The Gamebooks Adventure series by Tin Man Games There are plenty of other quick games too that aren't stereotypical like one I really like called Fairway Solitaire. There are too many to count. Smaller companies just take interesting risks that large game publishers will almost never take.

swordswinger12 15y ago

The reddit hivemind does something ferociously stupid that makes all internet users look like drooling morons -- is this news to people?

Zikes 15y ago
According to the comments, 4chan's /v/ played a part as well.
mayanksinghal 15y ago
Okay, so I have been sitting on these thoughts for quite some time now. Here are they: 1. I am no HN veteran (or tech veteran, for that matter) but I love this place and respect it much more that any other internet community I have a part of (a handful of them). 2. I have been to reddit not more than a dozen times and probably half of these referrals would have been from here, HN. 3. Whenever I read Reddit bashing in HN, my respect for this community decreases a little. Of course I consider HN to be a superior forum of intelligent interaction than reddit and hence I am on HN and not Reddit. I think that most of us would believe that to be true - but please, for the sake of keeping the sanctity of intelligent and useful discussion intact, we don't have to describe the superiority of intelligent discussion on HN every single time there is a post regarding Rededit! Probably all of us are aware of the differences and those who don't, won't care anyways. 4. You generalized the entire Reddit userbase to be drooling morons - the drooling part of which I guess refers to the male chauvinism. This was done despite the fact that the author of the article is not sure if gender had substantial contribution to the type of reaction the lady had received. In the comment, the another painful point that I see is that the entire community (and not just the people who acted like 'drooling morons') is shown in a derogatory light. Me, being less aware of how Reddit works - but aware enough to see that this is a wrong generalization, just made up my mind that I had to defend this community (even though I am not a part of it) and hence see reasons to probably even see a rationale behind the behaviour of 'drooling morons', not because I support them but because I want to strongly disagree with you. And I am wrong to do that, but that is in my nature and probably there would be others who would consciously or subconsciously feel the same. The point is, ad hominem and sweeping generalizations are illogical and harmful as they entice (or gives freedom to) people to be illogical in response.
- wdewind 15y ago
  No I think you misinterpreted his statement and overreacted, even though I am an avid redditor and agree with you entirely. He said the hivemind, which in my opinion refers to the mob mentality that comes out of the entire 4chan/btard movements and has leeched into reddit. Occasionally it is used for good (hivemind hunts down cat abuser) usually it is used for, as parent commenter said, "ferociously stupid" things. Reddit is like a bar, and I love bars but there is no denying some ferociously stupid things happen in them.

bri3d 15y ago

I found this article interesting but the title of the submission disingenuous. The linked article tries to put the gender aspect aside and focuses on the actual controversy: a games writer saying they don't actually like playing games, and the stupid response of many in the gaming community. The title of this submission converts the whole thing back into an issue of gender. I'm not saying I think either aspect is more important, but I almost didn't click this link because I wasn't interested in seeing another gender discussion at the moment. When I decided to do so anyway I was pleasantly surprised.

i386 15y ago
I disagree. As far as I am aware, a significant portion of threats were sexual in nature or focused on body image which would not happen if the person in question was male.
- bri3d 15y ago
  I'm sure they were - one visit to almost any /r/gaming thread, /v/ post, or Xbox Live session will inevitably yield plenty of racial and sexual slurs. However, what I liked about the linked article is that it tried its best to avoid discussing those concerns in favor of the more novel controversy about a game writer who doesn't like playing games. Hence, to me, the submission's title seemed disingenuous as it framed the article as one about gender, rather than something different.
- socialist_coder 15y ago
  If the person in question was male the insults would just focus on penis size and sexuality. I agree with the previous commenter, I don't think gender is as big of an issue is people make it out to be.
- chc 15y ago
  Although that might intuitively seem true, I'm not sure it really is. Heaven knows enough jokes have been made about Gabe Newell's weight (I'm pretty sure gamer law requires at least one to be made in the comments of every story about Valve), and I can only imagine the comments people would make if he were openly gay. Suffice it to say the obvious maleness of most participants on Xbox Live doesn't stop people throwing around sexual accusations like they were going out of style.

shingen 15y ago

People often like to make things like this about the Internet. It's not, it's about human behavior and probability. Saying anything through a broadcast medium has a calculation involved in regards to the likelihood you're going to get attacked over it. The world is filled with trolls. It doesn't matter what attributes you possess, thick skin will serve you well in life, and that will always be true. If you're fat or skinny, beautiful or ugly, rich or poor, you're going to get shit on, berated, harassed, and so on, at some time or another. Almost any sharp edge in any direction, about any topic, basically, results in blow back. That's not to say all scenarios are created equal. You can hardly name something that isn't divisive these days. And now you know what nearly everybody thinks about everything courtesy of Facebook, Twitter, et al. Mediums change, but trolls remain the same.

doktrin 15y ago
Fair point, but it's plainly obvious that the internet facilitates this type of abusive, anti-social behavior. Also, my take-away from the article was not an attack on the interwebs. If anything, the community was blamed - not the method of communication.
- aaronbrethorst 15y ago
  Agree. Eight years later, "John Gabriel's Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory" still rings true for me: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19 http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19
  - jrockway 15y ago
    I don't think the Internet is a relevant part of the equation. There are plenty of trolls in the real world. Remember the "Don't taze me, bro!" guy? (Also: Bill O'Reilly)
    - mattgreenrocks 15y ago
      The Internet is part of the equation. It makes it much easier to get away with this sort of behavior, and there are virtually no consequences. You're right: trolling still happens outside of the Internet, but we have more social norms in place to deal with it in real life. If there was a way to have more consequences to what people said online, then we might see more civility. But, we're human, and we can't have nice things.

Fargren 15y ago

For what it's worth, I would have loved a "skip combat" button on Mass Effect 2. The combat was decent, but it got dull after a while, very repetitive. By the end I just wanted to see the next dialog and make the next choice. That's where the real engagement of the game was for me. And I love playing games in general.

smacktoward 15y ago
That seems like less of an argument for Bioware letting you skip combat in Mass Effect games and more of an argument for Bioware making combat in Mass Effect games not suck.
IdahoEv 15y ago
I'm coming around to that view, myself. I've long since switched to playing most games on "normal" difficulty or below, because ratcheting up the difficulty really only adds tedium, not challenge. Once you figure out how to beat the bad guys, you just have to work at it longer on nightmare difficulty. And very quickly, the repetition is not fun. I've definitely had games where I was enjoying the story and every once in a while I would totally have used a "fast forward combat" button if I had it.
- morsch 15y ago
  While some games just add tedium at higher difficulties, many good games require you to come up with different strategies and use features you wouldn't otherwise use. And for many games, being on edge because you are close to losing is part of the atmosphere.
  - mattgreenrocks 15y ago
    What games? Most of them tend to get difficulty wrong: "this guy requires 3 headshots instead of 1!" It's better when the difficulty shows itself as more enemies, or stronger enemies, etc.
    - 15y ago

deleted 15y ago

[deleted]

jrockway 15y ago

If people misbehave to get attention, and when they misbehave they get a ton of attention, aren't we the real problem?

mattgreenrocks 15y ago
The entire "attention economy" of the Internet is the problem, and this is another symptom.

vishaldpatel 15y ago

Somehow I don't see the logic. She's not a fan of gaming. So she'd like to make games less game-like to make the non-gaming crowd buy games. They're called books, tv shows and movies. And there are plenty of non-gamers consuming them.