NaraVara's recent activity
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Comment on Gamergate but actually in ~games
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Comment on Gamergate but actually in ~games
NaraVara Link ParentI think the discourse today has characters on YouTube, twitch, and Twitter who just marinate in that type of toxicity all the time as part of doing business. There was a brief period of blogs with...I think the discourse today has characters on YouTube, twitch, and Twitter who just marinate in that type of toxicity all the time as part of doing business. There was a brief period of blogs with pretensions of doing journalism but it’s all SponCon now. So they’ve assimilated the mechanics of Gamergate discourse and it’s just part of them now.
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Comment on Gamergate but actually in ~games
NaraVara Link ParentI don’t think they had “respect.” They had money because people were still splashing around a lot of investment capital for online media that has since been gutted. But for the most part comments...I don’t think they had “respect.” They had money because people were still splashing around a lot of investment capital for online media that has since been gutted. But for the most part comments on games websites constantly complained about “bias” and there was a lot of console war whining and accusations being slung around since basically as long as the internet has been around. What eventually happened was the same sentiments that fueled endless console warring got channeled into cultural/tribal grievance mongering instead and then a bunch of opportunistic CHUDs who didn’t give a shit about games or gaming at all got in on the grift to add fuel to the fire.
There were only ever a handful of people who took the gig somewhat seriously as journalists. The Gawker/Kotaku alums, Polygon writers, and a few others slowly got more and more professional over time. But then a lot of people during the “Great Awokening” decided that they didn’t want to write about games or the games industry anymore and preferred to focus on online activism instead using the video games beat as an anchor. This has been, IMO, a net negative for the quality of cultural commentary.
I’d love it if there was actual sophisticated literary criticism of video games from people who actually knew what they were talking about. But when even the most basic, reductive, warmed over takes on Feminist Frequency were getting inundated with hate mail it should have been obvious that we would be getting nothing of the sort.
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Comment on Gamergate but actually in ~games
NaraVara Link ParentYou know he’s been dead for over a decade right?Would I be shocked if Roger Ebert got kickbacks for good reviews? No. I frankly don't trust him as a reviewer for my tastes and as such, I just moved on to a different review source.
You know he’s been dead for over a decade right?
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Comment on Gamergate but actually in ~games
NaraVara Link ParentWOAW! The website that festoons every square inch of the screen in ads for video games might have structural conflicts of interest impacting the video games it’s reviewing!? I’m shocked. SHOCKED!?...WOAW! The website that festoons every square inch of the screen in ads for video games might have structural conflicts of interest impacting the video games it’s reviewing!? I’m shocked. SHOCKED!?
This is how enthusiast press works. The only people who read it are into the hobby. The only people who pay for it are the people who sell to people who are into the hobby.
Are you gatekeeping the idea of "don't fuck or take money from people whose products you're reviewing without disclosing it"?
You’re right. Journalists should have no interest or opinions regarding the subject of their beat and zero personal connections or relationships within the field so as not to introduce BIAS. And somehow we should take action on this by spamming abuse threats to a random lit crit writer and any foid with a tangential connection to the games industry.
At bottom what was going on here was envy and the same stew of undifferentiated resentment finding an outlet. For all the whinging about woke it’s the exact same dynamic of outrage mobs looking for an acceptable target for their bullying.
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Comment on Gamergate but actually in ~games
NaraVara (edited )Link ParentNo, it’s pretty self-evidently stupid. I understand there’s a lot of people who want to find an excuse to not have to admit to themselves that they were ignorant and allowed themselves to get...No, it’s pretty self-evidently stupid. I understand there’s a lot of people who want to find an excuse to not have to admit to themselves that they were ignorant and allowed themselves to get suckered and whipped up into a mob, but that doesn’t change the facts.
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Comment on Industry Standard Tools in ~life.home_improvement
NaraVara Link ParentYeah I kind of wondered about how it’s gonna end up handling cameras since photography has the same problem. You’re not gonna buy Nikon stuff if you have a Canon, and it’ll be a huge pain to...Yeah I kind of wondered about how it’s gonna end up handling cameras since photography has the same problem. You’re not gonna buy Nikon stuff if you have a Canon, and it’ll be a huge pain to switch for not much benefit.
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Comment on Industry Standard Tools in ~life.home_improvement
NaraVara Link ParentYeah I think it’s benefit from a “good, better, best” tagging system.Yeah I think it’s benefit from a “good, better, best” tagging system.
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Comment on Industry Standard Tools in ~life.home_improvement
NaraVara Link ParentI’m guessing the illustration is to abstract the item away from any specific store listing since branding and labels can change over time or by where they’re sold.I’m guessing the illustration is to abstract the item away from any specific store listing since branding and labels can change over time or by where they’re sold.
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Comment on Gamergate but actually in ~games
NaraVara Link ParentI’m sorry but this woe is me act is just self-pitying nonsense. Saying this take is bad isn’t because it’s attacking a “holy cow of ideas” it’s because it’s a dumb take from someone who doesn’t...This erecting of holy cows of ideas that are taboo to ever be even examined, let alone questioned. A topic that is the very point of the intro of the video here. It points out how everyone has very strong opinions about Gamergate, but nobody ever bothered to actually look!
I’m sorry but this woe is me act is just self-pitying nonsense. Saying this take is bad isn’t because it’s attacking a “holy cow of ideas” it’s because it’s a dumb take from someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about. The idea that “nobody ever bothered to actually look” at a phenomenon that basically everyone here was there for and, in a small way, probably motivated many people here to depart Reddit and critically reexamine their social media habits is insane! Everyone knows what it was. It’s not that they didn’t look, it’s that they don’t buy the excuse-making.
Like why would anyone spend 6 hours slogging through a video whose table of contents very clearly isn’t saying anything interesting and ignoring the main things about it?
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Comment on Industry Standard Tools in ~life.home_improvement
NaraVara LinkThis is a neat directory. Is there a project or hobby you want to get into and trying to search for what equipment to buy is bewildering and full of review slop? This just shows you the good one....This is a neat directory.
Is there a project or hobby you want to get into and trying to search for what equipment to buy is bewildering and full of review slop? This just shows you the good one. The one everyone who works in the field uses. -
Industry Standard Tools
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Comment on Gamergate but actually in ~games
NaraVara (edited )Link ParentI mean, no? I can look at the table of contents and reliably identify that anyone who takes the “the sacrosanct nature of games journalism has been violated” claim seriously is just blinkered and...I mean, no? I can look at the table of contents and reliably identify that anyone who takes the “the sacrosanct nature of games journalism has been violated” claim seriously is just blinkered and has no idea what they’re talking about. It’s clear that was the narrative used to gin up the hate and do the little motte-and-bailey thing, but it’s also clear that this was entirely made up bullshit to weaponize online troll mobs.
You don’t have to be a wokie woke to recognize when people all of a sudden having really strident opinions about a topic that doesn’t concern them at all and that they didn’t know existed 15 minutes before they got rage-baited into it is probably not authentic. And it’s not as if we haven’t had decade of processing those events and seeing the exact same dynamics play out about myriad different things since using the same playbook social media outrage mongers perfected during GamerGate. People lost their shit about Lizzo playing a flute. They lost their shit about having to wear masks or get vaccinated for a pandemic. We’ve been a decade into people getting ragebaited by social media into losing their shit and just repeating a canned line about some higher moral principle behind it that isn’t just a fit of pique.
Acting like “oh but we have to take the stuff they claim to be pissed about seriously though” is basically asking me to be stupid on purpose. We’re a decade into people foaming at the mouth over the most inane shit imaginable but we’re supposed to assume that the ur-example of this dynamic might have had a kernel of something legit underneath it and not just be an early instance of idiots getting wound up by rage-baiters taking advantage of social media algorithms to facilitate mass-cyberbullying?
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Comment on Gamergate but actually in ~games
NaraVara Link ParentGames journalism follows basically the same standards as journalism in those areas. This is all called “enthusiast” press and depends entirely on the journalists having tight personal connections...Journalism around it is as big of a deal as journalism around sports, movies, fashion, music, or tv.
Games journalism follows basically the same standards as journalism in those areas. This is all called “enthusiast” press and depends entirely on the journalists having tight personal connections with the people they’re covering. You think Anna Wintour isn’t getting wined and dined by fashion houses every minute of the day during Fashion Week?
If people wanted to talk about ethics in journalism it might help if they actually knew a single thing about what journalism is, or what ethics is, or literally anything at all.
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Comment on Gamergate but actually in ~games
NaraVara Link ParentIn this case, though, it kind of is. Because it’s press releases and reviews about toys, not actual journalism. The expectation that it should be regarded as journalism is children on Reddit who...Journalistic integrity shouldn't be a joke then otherwise stuff like this is going to repeat.
In this case, though, it kind of is.
Because it’s press releases and reviews about toys, not actual journalism. The expectation that it should be regarded as journalism is children on Reddit who don’t understand how the world works getting easily confused by ragebait.
The idea that people were sincerely outraged about Zoe Quinn beggars belief because she made a random indie game that nobody cared about aside from a few scenesters at Kotaku. The only lesson here is how easy it was to drum up people into having strong opinions about things that don’t matter at all and don’t impact them at all to the point of developing a social media psychosis around it.
That psychosis is what let Trump get elected, and pretending there is any legitimacy to the random outrage these grievance mongers gin up doesn’t serve anyone. We need to call it out as ragebait induced psychosis. Nothing at the bottom of it is real or worth caring about.
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Comment on Is there any interest in building a Tildes successor? in ~tildes
NaraVara Link ParentIn my offense, many of us think this and just don't say it.In addition, as @NaraVara mentioned there's very little of "Oh you believe in X, you're a stupid person" or "You voted for Y, you must hate children, women, the Earth, and aliens!".
In my offense, many of us think this and just don't say it.
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Comment on Fired from the White House for being trans (gifted link) in ~lgbt
NaraVara Link ParentI dunno, I’m sure that’s most of it but I’ve met enough people who were spurned and exiled by their own parents to think there’s more to it than that.I dunno, I’m sure that’s most of it but I’ve met enough people who were spurned and exiled by their own parents to think there’s more to it than that.
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Comment on Why your Amazon order confirmation emails have become so unhelpful in ~tech
NaraVara Link ParentYeah it’s gotten really bad. I’ve started curating specific shops for specific things and the experience is so much better when everything is tailored to the type of shopping you’re doing. You...Yeah it’s gotten really bad. I’ve started curating specific shops for specific things and the experience is so much better when everything is tailored to the type of shopping you’re doing. You basically can’t serve all needs at once. A website and data model designed to sell pens and stationary needs to make different choices from one selling electronics and camera equipment which makes different choices from one selling cables and home networking.
The examples I put up are all shopfronts that care about selling in the vertical they sell and everything makes sense for what they’re doing. The filter criteria are actually tailored to stuff you might want, the entries for each SKU are descriptive enough to let you make an informed shopping decision, and they don’t inject your queries with dodgy nonsense with brands you don’t know if you can trust.
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Comment on We economists have done the maths: ‘growth’ is a doomed strategy – there is a better way in ~finance
NaraVara Link ParentThis is called “Market Socialism” and Proudhonism was a whole political tendency of its own in the 19th century. Marxists absolutely hated it but eventually most of the palatable market socialist...This is called “Market Socialism” and Proudhonism was a whole political tendency of its own in the 19th century. Marxists absolutely hated it but eventually most of the palatable market socialist ideas got incorporated into the New Deal and digested into mainstream liberalism/social democratic thought while the more collective ownership elements faded away.
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Comment on We economists have done the maths: ‘growth’ is a doomed strategy – there is a better way in ~finance
NaraVara Link ParentI think before the Marxist/Critical Theory adjacent format become in vogue the thing was to assert the obvious rectitude of 1950s gender roles and racial essentialisms. The degraded pop form of...I think before the Marxist/Critical Theory adjacent format become in vogue the thing was to assert the obvious rectitude of 1950s gender roles and racial essentialisms. The degraded pop form of evolutionary psychology kept going this way too. And now we’re in the other swing of the pendulum.
It’s not about cultural cachet it’s structural things about how people engage in the culture.