There's a whole bunch of lonely, toxic, bigoted men out there who also happen to be sitting on wads and wads of disposable income, and publishers are like, "it's just good business"...
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The Industry Refuses To Hold Itself Accountable And THQ Nordic Proves It
- Thread starter dancingphlower
- Start date
The only ones that can enforce repercussions are:
THQ Nordic themselves.
Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo (Or all 3.)
And lastly, Nickelodeon.
Otherwise, they get off scott free.
So do you think it's wrong that a reletively big game publisher just gave a site that harbors pedophiles a huge amount of attention? Because any answer other than yes is going to come across as a defense of 8chan.
The industry is aimed heavily at the male demographic and in the late 80s to early 2010s they tried to be "edgy", "cool", "mature" with toxic marketing that mocked those who bought their competitors' console and games with "lol, you're kiddie if you buy this" and then there's things like the Ocarina of Time's "'Willst thou get the girl, or play like one?" ad. The industry created this monster, and now they lost control of it and are too scared to stop it. Now the monster is on a rampage, and it's pushing some good people out of this art medium and others are avoiding it all together.
I don't think it's gonna be forgotten, not at all.
It could have been with even minimal measures and excuses, like it already happened in others circumstances.
But because of cowardice, cynism and endorsement, now everytime they will organise something publicly, this story will emerge.
It could have been with even minimal measures and excuses, like it already happened in others circumstances.
But because of cowardice, cynism and endorsement, now everytime they will organise something publicly, this story will emerge.
There was one and it sure did go somewhere special in trying to make Era look bad.
Sadly, the industry continues to show it's ass on all of this. CDPR's transphobic shit, Sugiyama and DQ, Vavra and Kingdom Come to name a few of the more recent issues within the industry that games media as well as the industry as a whole didn't bother too much with. It's discouraging.
Yeah but have you heard about how this one Anthem boss is so bad it's not even worth fighting? Also here's eight things we didn't like about Anthem.
Basically.
I'm all for going after Crossplay stuff and being annoyed about Epic Store exclusives, and they make fine stories for game sites and forums to discuss, but then you get real shit like this and there is just... almost nothing. This isn't the sort of thing people should be going "oh well, they stopped it, lets move on" when nothing has changed. The people who did this are still employed, the CEO still stands by the guy who set it up and "didn't know" it was a bad place even though they obviously knew from the tweets beforehand and responses given on the AMA.
The game press at large seem to be just ignoring it. Few sites are reporting on it, some that report on it are downplaying it and others are just taking the response at face value and moving on.
And that is to say nothing of the scores of toxic "gamers" who are so eager to cheer on THQ for being "anti-SJW" or whatever the fuck they think they are being by doing this.
The whole thing fucking sucks. Oh yeah, and sucks for the developers being published under THQ.
What was bigger?
They apologized. What else do you want?
Edit: I just went on a few major sites and they've all covered the story to the point of it happening and the apologizing. Do people want this to drag out into a huge thing? Are we looking to dismantle the company entirely and force layoffs? Are we unable to forgive and allow a company/employee to move on?
I do not know what else needs to be talked about. The site is universally hated and everyone with any credibility denounces it as a shit move by some asshat. It's up to THQ to fire the employee or not (company decisions).
What else do you people want to happen? What else is there to talk about?
Edit: I just went on a few major sites and they've all covered the story to the point of it happening and the apologizing. Do people want this to drag out into a huge thing? Are we looking to dismantle the company entirely and force layoffs? Are we unable to forgive and allow a company/employee to move on?
I do not know what else needs to be talked about. The site is universally hated and everyone with any credibility denounces it as a shit move by some asshat. It's up to THQ to fire the employee or not (company decisions).
What else do you people want to happen? What else is there to talk about?
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Their "apology" was most likely a bullshit excuse, they left the link to this child porn site for half a day, and the people we know are involved seem to have gotten off scot-free.
Before asking what else we want, ask if what we received is sufficient. You can make that evaluation your 16th post.
As if people are so weak willed that saying "our bad" is going to appease them.
A month from now, some other major headline will come up (either a megaton new trailer, hardware reveal, announcement of an announcement or someone else doing something stupid), and everyone will forget. And THQ Nordic will go back to performing business as usual.
Because old news is old by then.
Because old news is old by then.
It made noise because the press was willing to report it and protect their dear publisher friend providing them with keys.
Why most of the press is being lenient here ?
Because they fear to be blacklisted.
Head of PR should be fired imo, I feel like a basic tenant of being able to run pr for a company would be google searching and not associating with pedophiles.
Will that really be enough to satisfy everyone here? The article talks about needing a conversation around this... why? It's universally agreed that THQ made a big oopsie and knowingly did, no one with any credibility will make the same mistake.
I agree, hope that happens. It's a huge mistake. The article as it's written seems to want more conversation and discussion. Maybe it's good for business to have a scandal to talk about...
Thq response should have been swift but wasn't. I guess we'll see how it gets handled in the next few weeks.
Did you read the apology? The one that was all "I'm sorry, totally didn't know what the site was actually like. My B" that was posted AFTER they made tweets about "mark" handling the "nasty stuff" (implying they KNEW the site had nasty shit on it) and how they were liking tweets amounting to stuff like "watch those SJWs cry about this". And that isn't even mentioning their replies in the AMA to some of the shit they were asked or pictures they were shown (like mentioning how a picture with a knight and a homophobic slur was "like something out of their games" (or something like that).
You can't do all that then say "whoa there, sorry guys, didn't know it was a seedy shit hole!" when they were actively participating. And even then, even if it was a totally 100% honest mistake with them noping the fuck out after they click and see the board about toddler porn, even if they got out THEN, it still isn't good enough to appologise and keep their job because that means they are fucking terrible at their job if they are hosting AMAs on any random site without fucking checking the site out first!
I'm glad that at least one member of the press is standing up for such rare values as 'not being a nazi', 'not condoning child porn' or 'not being hateful towards homosexuality'.
That's not a proper apology. They gave a non-apology after they went along with the disgusting things that were said during that AMA and left a link to that site for almost a whole day afterwards.
This was no accident, they knew exactly what they were doing. You don't just do an AMA on a website blacklisted by Google that has a history of child pornography. You would have had that information before hand since these things are planned in advance. You don't just go on with the AMA when the headline of the image board talks about "trapshotas" and people going "Heil Hitler" at the start of the thread. And you definitely don't respond to people asking where the "big tit lolis" by says they already have them.
The people responsible for this mess need to be fired, that the minimum of what I expect.
This is such a bizarre and shameful PR botch. Literally, all they have to do to make this go away and move on, is to post an apology (from the company, and not just a quoted statement from the employee) and fire the dumbass who did this awful thing with their brand. That's it. It would take five seconds, and is about as low a bar for "corporate responsibility" as you could possibly set.
Instead, CEO Lars Wingefors refuses to just come out and condemn 8chan, and the kind of horrible and illegal content that is posted on it. Literally no one would have associated Lars Wingefors with 8chan before this incident, and no one would associate Lars Wingefors with 8chan after it if he just took the basic professional step of formally denouncing it, and removing the offending employee from his company. He can't possibly be so stupid as to not realize that not apologizing for the incident, not distancing his company from 8chan, and even allowing the employee who pulled this stunt to continue working as the public-facing spokesman for THQ Nordic, can easily be interpreted as a tacit condoning of the whole thing, and everything that means.
It's not gonna just fucking "blow over". People have written articles about it, and if you continue to keep silent they're just gonna write more. I really cannot wrap my head around the foolishness being displayed on this man's part...
Instead, CEO Lars Wingefors refuses to just come out and condemn 8chan, and the kind of horrible and illegal content that is posted on it. Literally no one would have associated Lars Wingefors with 8chan before this incident, and no one would associate Lars Wingefors with 8chan after it if he just took the basic professional step of formally denouncing it, and removing the offending employee from his company. He can't possibly be so stupid as to not realize that not apologizing for the incident, not distancing his company from 8chan, and even allowing the employee who pulled this stunt to continue working as the public-facing spokesman for THQ Nordic, can easily be interpreted as a tacit condoning of the whole thing, and everything that means.
It's not gonna just fucking "blow over". People have written articles about it, and if you continue to keep silent they're just gonna write more. I really cannot wrap my head around the foolishness being displayed on this man's part...
Anyway, if the gaming press want to do something about it:
Stop covering THQ Nordic stuff.
Stop reviewing their games. Do it until they act properly.
Stop covering THQ Nordic stuff.
Stop reviewing their games. Do it until they act properly.
You say "I made an oopsie doodles" when you bump into people on the street. This was actively opening up 8Chan to the public and associating themselves with pedophiles. That is not an ouchie. Something truly wrong has occurred. And they either move to do something about it, or do nothing but give mouth service to ethics and morality while secretly saying there are zero tangible consequences for accepting pedophile culture in their business, strengthening and emboldening those who have been in the shadows til now.
Furthermore those who do nothing in the same industry also contribute to that effect. It is a chain reaction that defines the norms of the entire profession.
Along with the "big oopsie" they are also considering to make games with "ceased f@ggotty" or so their Business & Product Development director promised the nazi/pedophiles during the AMA.
But "they apologised".
very good article to a shameful handling of a disgusting event.
I will definitely not buy any THQ Nordic game until they show remorse and act accordingly.
I will definitely not buy any THQ Nordic game until they show remorse and act accordingly.
What was bigger this week? Actually, what was bigger this year? Or last year?
This is a major publisher actively (and knowingly, despite what they said) endorsing and catering to pedophiles and Nazis. I have never seen anything like this in this industry before.
"Fire the employee" would be all well and good but it was not just one employee. It was at least three, plus the entire PR department.
And these weren't low level interns, two of these three were the PR director and one of the board members of the company- basically a position above the CEO- posting awful things in response to disgusting questions on this site.
I don't think it's really on us to demand a firing. I'm not their HR department.
But that apology was totally not genuine, and their dogwhistles galvanized the gamergate crowd, and it would be pretty nice if they acknowledged that instead of going doh shucks I'm sorry this blew up and garnered lots of publicity.
But that apology was totally not genuine, and their dogwhistles galvanized the gamergate crowd, and it would be pretty nice if they acknowledged that instead of going doh shucks I'm sorry this blew up and garnered lots of publicity.
Until I see something significant out of thq Nordic Im not paying a penny for their games. I hate to do that to the devs but I can't support their platforming of a pedo nazi site
I guess the President's personal lawyer testifying in front of Congress about all the crimes the President committed was the biggest.
The North Korea Summit in Vietnam completing imploding was huge.
The story about Jared Kushner being ordered to receive top-secret security clearance by Trump himself despite the intelligence community deciding he was a risk and not privy to that sort of clearance just started cooking overnight and basically going to blow up over the next few days.
I just forgot all about this THQ stuff. I followed it the day it happened and it seemed like an asinine PR move that they made and apologized for and that was the end of it. I didn't see all the latest developments until reading the article in the OP.
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As I said:
The entire press can stop to cover THQ Nordic stuff. And refuse to review their games.
Or because a person says something that could be construed as rude on her personal account (Jessica Price/ArenaNet thing). But knowingly associating a publisher with 8chan is cool.
Oof
Some people couldn't be any more obvious when they try to downplay this shit.
Crazy how in the same industry, insulting a fanboy leads to you being fired yet taking a BUSINESS DECISION to host an OFFICIAL PR EVENT on a site delisted from Google for hosting CHILD PORNOGRAPHY is fine.
Amazing.
Yes, it seems like the gaming industry is deeply infested at all levels with racism, misogyny, discrimination, etc. I've been gaming my whole life and never felt bad about it, but these days, I don't know. My favorite hobby is being taken over and ruined by these twats.
Insult a fanboy = you shat the money bed
Chill with pedophiles = you raised the floor
And I'll point out it took less than a day for Areanet to fire Price and the male colleague that defended her. Still nothing from THQ Nordic. I wonder what the difference is...