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How can THQ Nordic be held accountable for the 8chan AMA? (READ OP)
- Thread starter Hecht
- Start date
I did a small summary as well in another thread, I hope it was good:
https://www.resetera.com/threads/na...tun-sundered-the-missing.108257/post-19383214
As a human, I cannot possibly value muh vidja gaem more than the suffering of other actual human beings, so my course of action is already decided the moment they decided to go that way: I'll never buy a game from them ever again.
As powerless a single consumer is, I'm still going to do what I can for what I believe is right. It is so fucking easy to sit and do absolutely nothing because the perfect solution doesn't present itself automatically and miraculously. And quite frankly, boycotting is the least one can do right for victims of child abuse.
The mentality that nothing should ever be done unless it's the magic solution that would make everything bad disappear isn't as logical and rational as you might think. It's you trying to maintain your way of life guilt-free by telling yourself and others, especially yourself, that your inaction isn't due to your mind-bogglingly apathy towards others, but that it's simply not the ultimate win-all button, and that's why you need to keep buying their vidja gaem instead of putting in the mother fucking minimal to stop the spread of child porn and child abuse. Like, go ahead and silently buy their vidja gaem all the fuck you want, but don't expect anyone with a heart to ever think your inaction is worth any praises, or how you're so fucking rational that you consider the lifehood of those poor developers than the traumatized child victims.
They as a company are happy to sweep this entire thing under rug, do you honestly think a stern talk email will see any justice done when you keep throwing them money? Have they even shown a single tiny bit of remorse in this whole thing outside of the usual "we're sorry that our edgelord move hasn't achieved the result we anticipated" statement? Like why are they getting the benefit of doubts when they can't even earn it with their action?
Lastly, as someone missing out on shit ton of games due to life, I must say that missing another game isn't going to kill you, because that has been going for me for the last decade and I'm still alive. Anecdotal I know, but no one is going to spend money to research the effect of missing out on darksider, so you may as well take my words for it.
As powerless a single consumer is, I'm still going to do what I can for what I believe is right. It is so fucking easy to sit and do absolutely nothing because the perfect solution doesn't present itself automatically and miraculously. And quite frankly, boycotting is the least one can do right for victims of child abuse.
The mentality that nothing should ever be done unless it's the magic solution that would make everything bad disappear isn't as logical and rational as you might think. It's you trying to maintain your way of life guilt-free by telling yourself and others, especially yourself, that your inaction isn't due to your mind-bogglingly apathy towards others, but that it's simply not the ultimate win-all button, and that's why you need to keep buying their vidja gaem instead of putting in the mother fucking minimal to stop the spread of child porn and child abuse. Like, go ahead and silently buy their vidja gaem all the fuck you want, but don't expect anyone with a heart to ever think your inaction is worth any praises, or how you're so fucking rational that you consider the lifehood of those poor developers than the traumatized child victims.
They as a company are happy to sweep this entire thing under rug, do you honestly think a stern talk email will see any justice done when you keep throwing them money? Have they even shown a single tiny bit of remorse in this whole thing outside of the usual "we're sorry that our edgelord move hasn't achieved the result we anticipated" statement? Like why are they getting the benefit of doubts when they can't even earn it with their action?
Lastly, as someone missing out on shit ton of games due to life, I must say that missing another game isn't going to kill you, because that has been going for me for the last decade and I'm still alive. Anecdotal I know, but no one is going to spend money to research the effect of missing out on darksider, so you may as well take my words for it.
I seriously doubt those responsible will be punished at all. They seem to have barely acknowledged it was a problem then gone silent and unfortunately it has worked as coverage died right down and it seems to have been forgotten :/
No, we didn't get any update like that. Their last statement is that they were investigating it.
http://www.thqnordic-investors.com/en/news/
And again, Reinhard Pollice is still seen in their senior management list.
http://www.thqnordic-investors.com/en/board-and-management/
It does seem so far that they feel like it's blown over.
If you go to Best Buy today and ask everyone who walks in about THQ Nordic I doubt anyone is going to know what you are talking about. Regular people aren't going to follow forum stuff like this and Best Buy isn't altering sales over it.
I don't think it's the case, but the implication of that post is that people refusing to buy THQ Nordic games has devalued their products. No one is suggesting that Best Buy is altering sales due to this.
I would apply my previous thoughts to that also. There are not enough everyday people familiar with any of this that the products themselves would be devalued. There's no real boycott outside of a small pocket of forum people.
Actually, speaking of your previous thoughts, I'll take the opportunity to address them:
Ultimately, I think we see very little organized boycotting in the gaming world, even on this forum. Rather, we see people "voting with their wallets": essentially, individualls who decide that they cannot morally justify buying a game. If it doesn't work, it's really just unfortunate, and I think it speaks poorly of the apathy of the gaming industry and fandom when a blind eye is turned to stuff like this.
As for why someone would choose not to buy THQ Nordic games, it's not because of direct interaction with the Christchurch terrorist. Rather, if the Christchurch terrorist plays into that decision, it's because they are ultimately just a realization of sentiments that were already on 8chan when THQ Nordic held the AMA there, and sentiments that THQ Nordic directly interacted with.
The THQ Nordic AMA started with "heil Hitler". During the course of it, the THQ Nordic employees ignored posts of anti-black racism, and of a Nazi with a label celebrating the death of Jewish people. They directly responded to a post containing a homophobic slur and a picture of a crusader - quite possibly in line with images using crusaders to glory violence against muslims. THQ Nordic legitimized this atmosphere which celebrates racism and glorifies racial violence.
That's not even to mention the pedophilia on the site, such as the link to /trapshota/ that would have been hanging above the AMA itself, or the links to child pornography that resulted in the site being delisted by Google.
You are ignoring my current thoughts regarding current sales and going back to a previous topic.
My point with regards to price cuts/boycotts/etc. is that forums like this (and similar places) tend to operate in a bubble. The real world isn't paying attention to stuff covered here and any boycott occurring here is not going to have a noticeable effect on the real world. Take a look at the world outside of online forums and you'll see most people don't know who THQ Nordic is or are familiar with their AMA on 8chan. Most of your average gamers just buy games and don't pay attention to this stuff. Even as a gamer I largely don't pay attention to who publishes what.
Thanks for also taking time to post answering my previous comment in this thread last month. I file the AMA under "incredibly dumb business move". I don't know if they reprimanded the guy or not. They can handle things internally and I don't need a public bloodletting myself. As someone working in marketing he really should know better or do his research better ahead of time for where he is granting interviews. I am not going to punish a large amount of devs for one idiot and boycott all the companies stuff. People are free to do that if they want to. But going back to my original point in this post it's probably not even going to be noticed by the company.
I doubt everyday people are running out to buy Sphinx or Kay either.
Cool, that doesn't mean I still can't do it and be happy with my choice of not supporting a company that does that shit and defends everyone involved by going into hiding.
I never said you couldn't be happy with your choice. As I said in the sentence before the one you bolded everyone is free to make their own choices.
In a thread regarding the framerate of a port... incredible, right?...
I mean, there are a lot of thread regarding this topic (like this one), there is no need to derail every single THQ topic with the 8chan affair if people doesn't want to talk about it.
Moderators didn't banned THQ games discussions so you have to respect that decision without going OT in a thread that talks about a different topic.
Can't argue with effectiveness though. They banked on people not giving a fuck and it seems to have paid off.
Ok thats bad. Had they fired and apologized I would have no issues with THQ itself
It'll be interesting to see how - if at all - the different outlets react when the next big-ish THQ game comes out.
Is it even going to be mentioned? Or will they all start with "Coming off a controversy at the beginning of the year, THQ is back with...." and that's all you get?
Or will anybody actually have the balls and just ignore them? Cause I doubt that will happen.
Worded like this, it sounds almost like they made a calculated risk, but let's be honest - people not giving a fuck is guaranteed, every time. They knew this would be the outcome.
Yep. People getting their video games is more important than their morals every time. It's pathetic.
People won't change their ways to avoid global warming, the literal slow death of our planet. People buy clothes and electronic devices built off of slavery. People make moral compromises to continue doing the things they enjoy. Few people are clean, and understanding that is important. People that continue to buy THQ games are as human as anyone else. We all turn our eyes away from the negative at times to continue enjoying a selfish practice.
Seriously guys. Discussion about THQ shouldn't only come up when THQ is in the title of a thread.
Interesting development.
Also:
Also:
Yeah, this will have been done on the quiet at first but unfortunately now they've got to put it out in the open. I hope they catch as many of those evil bastards as possible. That part of the internet needs to be purged.
On the other hand, it's honestly not very hard at all to just... not play a few games? There are probably millions of them out there at this point. Just play something else and move on. Fuck THQ Nordic.
from certain outlets, like easy allies and giant bomb? yes.
i also remember some journalists stating twitter that they "will not let thq nordic of the hook so easily and continue to report on this"...well.
also complete silnce from patrick klepec and austin.
Their job relies on industry access, even if they can weather THQ blacklisting them, other publishers may take notice and pressure them in order to avoid setting a precedent.
how is that a fucking reason? why would other publishers blacklist journalists who adress thq nordic using a racist/childporn/xenophobic online board as a marketing tool?
Because making THQ accountable for their actions means that the same could happen to them? Like for incidents of extreme crunch or poor working conditions.
You now, the large amount of devs could probably do something to get faith back in the company by distance themselves from the obvious people who were responsible for this, but they seem to hide like their bosses?
Googled a bit, and not only did THQ Nordic do interviews, they had Reinhard Pollice doing them. That's how much faith THQ has in games media being spineless.
For instance, he was on Youtube's E3 show with Geoff Keighley.
But in general, games media ignoring this in order to just act as a marketing arm regurgitating what THQ wants them to, is not something I personally can be disappointed in, because it's what I expected. With some exceptions, games media largely does a bad job holding the industry and community responsible.
Don't know what will come from this 8chan investigation, but some people ought to at least end up in government databases. So that's good.
Maybe Reinhard will get to make an appearance there too.
For instance, he was on Youtube's E3 show with Geoff Keighley.
But in general, games media ignoring this in order to just act as a marketing arm regurgitating what THQ wants them to, is not something I personally can be disappointed in, because it's what I expected. With some exceptions, games media largely does a bad job holding the industry and community responsible.
Don't know what will come from this 8chan investigation, but some people ought to at least end up in government databases. So that's good.
Maybe Reinhard will get to make an appearance there too.
i think this e3 was the last chance that members of gaming media had to hold thq nordic accountable, and literally nothing happened. it's safe to say they (like thq nordic) are just gonna pretend the whole thing never happened and move on.