The Republicans could learn a thing or two from Gamergate....sometimes the good guys win...but they only win when they fight back...
Make no mistake: they are winning. Gawker and Vox writers can play at smear campaigns all they like--and it's all they have left to do, because they cannot argue the case on merit--but their own advertisers are seeing through the sneering and starting to ask whether they want to be associated at all with such wildly unpleasant attitudes.
How do I know? Because I've spent the last fortnight quietly soliciting the opinions not only of senior executives at AAA video game publishers, but also at some of the companies linked to GamerGate's boycotts and activism, such as Intel, Mercedes and BMW.
Perhaps it won't surprise you to learn that microchip manufacturers and car companies are pretty sympathetic to the concerns of male consumers. But some of the things said to me--all, sadly, on condition of anonymity--have been nothing short of remarkable.
There's the Intel vice president who told me via email that GamerGate was "doing great work" and that he was "sick of slander and self-loathing from the press". He was talking about male journalists who do misandrist feminists' work for them.
"I am pressing that team, it's not mine, but I am exerting influence when I can, to stop spending money with people who hate themselves and hate our clients," he added by phone later.
Then consider the product manager, who was happy to be identified as "senior management at a German car manufacturer", who told me that, "the violence against women is unacceptable and we cannot support it, but we will not financially support people who insult our customers either".
The manager told me: "We would prefer not to make headlines like Intel. But you should expect to see strategic changes in how we spend in coming years. It is very much an open question inside the company and we are watching closely."
Finally, the executive at a household name video game developer who said: "Opinion is sharply divided within the company. But that's remarkable in itself, given how totally the media has slammed and lied about gamers. We're split straight down the middle.
"One thing I can tell you, though, is that when claims about gamers being woman-hating or abusive start to unravel, because journalists didn't check them properly before running these 'bleeding heart' editorials, it's very difficult to win people back from there. So God help Kotaku and Polygon if any of these women are shown to be making stuff up."
Read the whole thing here...
http://bit.ly/1t4aiiv
Make no mistake: they are winning. Gawker and Vox writers can play at smear campaigns all they like--and it's all they have left to do, because they cannot argue the case on merit--but their own advertisers are seeing through the sneering and starting to ask whether they want to be associated at all with such wildly unpleasant attitudes.
How do I know? Because I've spent the last fortnight quietly soliciting the opinions not only of senior executives at AAA video game publishers, but also at some of the companies linked to GamerGate's boycotts and activism, such as Intel, Mercedes and BMW.
Perhaps it won't surprise you to learn that microchip manufacturers and car companies are pretty sympathetic to the concerns of male consumers. But some of the things said to me--all, sadly, on condition of anonymity--have been nothing short of remarkable.
There's the Intel vice president who told me via email that GamerGate was "doing great work" and that he was "sick of slander and self-loathing from the press". He was talking about male journalists who do misandrist feminists' work for them.
"I am pressing that team, it's not mine, but I am exerting influence when I can, to stop spending money with people who hate themselves and hate our clients," he added by phone later.
Then consider the product manager, who was happy to be identified as "senior management at a German car manufacturer", who told me that, "the violence against women is unacceptable and we cannot support it, but we will not financially support people who insult our customers either".
The manager told me: "We would prefer not to make headlines like Intel. But you should expect to see strategic changes in how we spend in coming years. It is very much an open question inside the company and we are watching closely."
Finally, the executive at a household name video game developer who said: "Opinion is sharply divided within the company. But that's remarkable in itself, given how totally the media has slammed and lied about gamers. We're split straight down the middle.
"One thing I can tell you, though, is that when claims about gamers being woman-hating or abusive start to unravel, because journalists didn't check them properly before running these 'bleeding heart' editorials, it's very difficult to win people back from there. So God help Kotaku and Polygon if any of these women are shown to be making stuff up."
Read the whole thing here...
http://bit.ly/1t4aiiv
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