Eurogamer have done a great in-depth look at the recent GOG and CDPR troubling social media posts including an interview with the person who made the posts on GOG's side:
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...projekt-employee-and-the-spectre-of-gamergate
I think the most interesting parts of the article are in these paragraphs though. History of writing an article about Anita Sarkeesian and Jonathan Macintosh and "how they don't enjoy games":
On being asked if he supports GamerGate:
A lot more details in the article which is worth reading.
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...projekt-employee-and-the-spectre-of-gamergate
Update: Sean Halliday is now working with a right-wing YouTuber popular with Gamergate content.
https://www.dailydot.com/parsec/gog-transphobic-tweet-gamergate-website/
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...projekt-employee-and-the-spectre-of-gamergate
On 22nd October, Polish game seller GOG - a part of CD Projekt - found itself in trouble again on Twitter. It had insensitively appropriated the trans civil rights hashtag WontBeErased. "Classic PC games #WontBeErased on our watch," it tweeted. "Yeah, how's that for some use of hashtags?"
GOG quickly deleted the tweet but not before the internet noticed, and a stink was kicked up. Not only was it a problem on its own, but it was the third problematic tweet in a handful of months from inside CD Projekt. Once is a mistake; three times?
A day after the #WontBeErased tweet, a response appeared, but it wasn't an apology. "Yesterday, we posted a tweet containing a trending hashtag as a pun," it said. "The tweet was neither intended as a malicious attack, nor as a comment to the ongoing social debate. GOG should focus only on games. We acknowledge that and we commit to it."
It didn't go down well, as Sean Halliday knew it wouldn't. The tweet had been his fault and he'd drafted his own apology as soon as the shitstorm had appeared. He's still got the draft, he tells me over Discord, and he shares it with me.
"A tweet was posted that included the hashtag 'wontbeearsed'," it began. "The context of the hashtag was missed, which was a huge oversight on my behalf. After coming to understand the hashtag, and the importance of what it represents, the tweet was promptly deleted. Please allow me to apologise profusely for the offence the tweet caused. This was not the intention of the tweet by any means, nor was there any ill will intended.
"I empathise and strongly support LGBTQ folk from all walks of life. Video games are for everyone, regardless of race, gender, sexauilty, ability or religion. It's a mistake that has cost me an incredible amount. Everyone has the right to exist and live, it was a shameful mistake to make light of this. I will do better."
But Halliday wasn't allowed to use his tweet. He tried repeatedly but his manager said no. "We are not apologising for this," Halliday was apparently told, and his manager wrote the GOG response instead - minutes after he fired Halliday.
Incident one: the Postal 2 tweet
This was Halliday's fault. "It was me who posted the tweet," he admits.
It was five minutes before a meeting and Halliday was looking for material for a Postal 2 tweet. GOG had just gotten the Paradise Lost expansion, released 12 years after Postal 2, and developer Running With Scissors wanted some promotion. Halliday had only been at GOG a couple of months.
"I was looking through the trailer to see what we could tweet and it was all head explosions and mass gore, and you can't really tweet that out," he says. "You can tweet some gore but this stuff was throwing a dead cat at someone and vomiting, and shooting their head and setting them on fire. I'm looking through this trailer like, 'There is literally nothing here.'"
But then something caught his eye: the character urinating on a gravestone. You don't see genitals, just a stream of urine. "I was like, 'This is the most safe for work thing we can find." So he asked if was OK and says he got the thumbs up.
Incident two: the Cyberpunk 2077 gender tweet
Roughly a month later, on 20th August, an eager Cyberpunk 2077 fan tweeted at the official game account declaring, "I WANT MORE GUYS", presumably missing an important comma. The Cyberpunk 2077 account sensed an opportunity and replied, "Did you just assume their gender?" aping a meme created to mock transgender struggles for recognition and equality in society.
The shit hit the fan.
But this tweet was not Halliday's doing.
"The Cyberpunk [tweet] isn't anything to do with GOG," he says. "CDP Red have their own social media team - there's five or six of them. The Cyberpunk tweet, the 'Did you just assume their gender?' one: GOG has nothing to do with that. It's a whole CDP Red thing. They have their own PR plans, their own staff."
Incident three: the #WontBeErased tweet
It's the evening of 22nd October and busybody Sean Halliday is doing a final tweet before bed. "I'll do one more tweet," he tells himself, flicking through European Twitter trends for a hashtag to piggyback. And he finds one: #WontBeErased. "I clicked on it and it was just people talking about their favourite games or films or music they wouldn't get rid of," he tells me. "I was like, 'OK, this fits perfectly with what GOG does,' so I put the tweet out.
"Then - it was like 20 seconds later - an American user sent a message saying, 'This is what the hashtag is actually about...' and it was something to do with a New York Times article - I don't take huge interest in politics in general, let alone American politics; I don't read the New York Times, it's just not something I do."
It was enough to convince Halliday he'd made a mistake, so he deleted the tweet. That's when he drafts his apology he never got to use, and that's when he notifies his manager on group messaging app HipChat, but apparently his manager wasn't overly concerned and logged off and went to sleep - which was more than Halliday could do.
I think the most interesting parts of the article are in these paragraphs though. History of writing an article about Anita Sarkeesian and Jonathan Macintosh and "how they don't enjoy games":
But the words "Games Journalism" can be made out, Halliday even acknowledges seeing them, so why didn't they give him cause for concern? Because, he says, he didn't really know what GamerGate was.
I find this hard to believe. He's saying he, a community manager in 2018 - someone who lives in gaming forums and on social media - had no idea what one of the most infamous movements in gaming in recent years was about. I even found an E3 2015 article written by Halliday about Anita Sarkeesian and Jonathan McIntosh, two critics repeatedly attacked by GamerGate. And in the article Halliday seemed to be doing a similar thing.
He wrote lines like, "Both McIntosh and Sarkeesian have been suspected of telling lies when it comes to their connection with video games..." and, "They are not people who enjoy games, they are people who enjoy power and accolades, even if that means stomping on the hopes of a movement, while dehumanizing [sic] anyone who dare question them."
How could a paid freelancer - a games journalist - writing this kind of sentiment be unaware of what GamerGate was?
On being asked if he supports GamerGate:
It's why I decide to stop dancing around the issue and come straight out and ask him: do you support GamerGate?
There's a pause while he thinks.
"I'm certainly of the view there is a discussion to be had about video game press and the industry," he answers, "but I disagree with how most of the GG crowd handle that - though I can say the same about the very liberal side of the culture too.
"I don't really subscribe to any group. I find the whole concept to be a little toxic in general. I'm a huge believer in just talking to people and understanding them, but some you simply can not do that with.
"As for harassment of people," he adds, "insulting them and all that, no I'm not a supporter of that in any shape or form. Same with any walk of life ... the world's rough enough without us attacking each other.
"But as we discussed, I've been on the fiery end of both 'sides'. That highlights a problem with modern society in general: if you don't fully commit yourself to a cause or a label, you're seen as fair game to attack."
Which isn't a 'no', but it's not really a 'yes' either.
A lot more details in the article which is worth reading.
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...projekt-employee-and-the-spectre-of-gamergate
Update: Sean Halliday is now working with a right-wing YouTuber popular with Gamergate content.
https://www.dailydot.com/parsec/gog-transphobic-tweet-gamergate-website/
However, Eurogamer's report fails to mention that Halliday is working with Jeremy "TheQuartering" Hambly, a right-wing YouTuber, on a new website focused on "all games, no politics."
For Magic the Gathering players, Hambly's name is notorious. The YouTuber received a lifetime ban from Magic's Wizards of the Coast after reportedly harassing cosplayer Christine Sprankle. These days, Hambly creates YouTube videos complaining about "SJW RAGE" and why "incels did nothing wrong." He also created a gaming website called "Exclusively Games," dedicated entirely to "fans of gaming who are sick of politics forcing its way inside."
"I don't want any infection from politics or modern day 'journalism' which is of course just activism parading as games journalism," the site's Indiegogo reads. "I got sick and tired of reading the same BS 'Hot Takes' from our existing options in terms of 'video game news' websites and rather than just complain I have undertaken doing something about it myself."
Hambly revealed in November that he planned to offer a job to Halliday, letting him "join my team, to help Discord, my social stuff, and work on managing a new community I am working on." Apparently, that job has now come to fruition. After Eurogamer published its profile on Halliday, Hambly revealed that the former GOG employee is now Exclusively Games' community manager.
The Daily Dot was able to gain access to Exclusively Games' Discord, where Halliday serves as a moderator under the username "Linko64." In one post on Exclusively Games' Discord, Halliday sympathized with users complaining about the Eurogamer story and "SJWs," although he stressed that users are not allowed to condemn neither the "alt-right" nor "SJWs."
"Ah lets keep the sjw bits and pieces away from here now," Halliday wrote. "I understand the frustrations with it all but let's stick the core values we're aiming for here."
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