It really didn't grow. Its still a minority of a few hundred to thousand ppl in anime spaces thats just super loud but god damn i would gladly purge them from the face of the earth if i ever had the chance to do so.
Aye, it's not that the amount of idiots grew, it's that the amount of people being immediately wary of anime-avatars grew rapidly. I can't really blame them given the unfortunate correlation, but I just didn't want to have people's first impression tainted by that. It may be stupid, but it's going to happen regardless.
To provide background as to 8chan. 8chan as an anonymous message board modeled on 4chan, but meant to be less restrictive than 4chan. As 4chan already restricts very little, in practice what this means is that 8chan is a 4chan clone with a focus on child pornography / pedophilic content.
From Wikipedia:
The Washington Post described it as "the more-lawless, more-libertarian, more 'free' follow-up to 4chan."[7] Boards have been created to discuss topics such as child rape. While the sharing of illegal content is against site rules, The Daily Dot wrote that boards do exist to share sexualized images of minors in provocative poses, and that some users of those boards do post links to explicit child pornography hosted elsewhere.[4] When asked whether such boards were an inevitable result of free speech, Brennan responded, "Unfortunately, yes. I don't support the content on the boards you mentioned, but it is simply the cost of free speech and being the only active site to not impose more 'laws' than those that were passed in Washington, D.C."[4]
Additionally, 8chan has a large Neo-Nazi presence, and was the host to Gamergate supporters after 4chan banned them. Blatant anti-semitic, misogynist, and racist posts are extremely common. Additionally, things like doxxing and swatting; the list just goes on.
Because of this, Google has removed 8chan from its search listings. Instead of finding the website, your search results will result in sites like Wikipedia that just tell you what the website is. This is important to note, as if someone interacts with the website, it raises the question of how they even found it in the first place.
THQ's official twitter announces that they're performing an AMA on 8chan's gaming board, /v/:
THQ also notes that they were approached by the gaming board's owner, a Mark (the identity has been guessed at being Mark Kern of Red 5 Studios, a noted Gamergate supporter, but I don't think it's been definitely proven). Cue The Room jokes.
Mark promises to handle the "nasty stuff", which presumably suggests that THQ is aware of the risk of posting on a child pornography supporting message board and wants to avoid legal risks or something along those lines. At any rate, them acknowledging "nasty stuff" tells us that they know it's a possibility here.
Getting a little ahead of ourselves, but they also like a tweet calling criticisms against the AMA on 8chan - again, a site largely defined by its attitute to child pornography - as "sensitive", suggesting a flippant attitude to the whole situation.
We can see a similar attitude expressed in the Linkedin of their PR and Marketing Director, Philipp Brock.
After speculation that maybe this was a hack or a fake, a journalist at PC Games Insider reaches out and confirms that this actually is THQ Nordic.
Some comments from Imran (news editor at Game Informer).
Looking at the activity within the AMA itself. But before you even get to the thread, you have to go to /v/, which was currently advertising a board devoted to pictures (perhaps illustrated) of children at the top of the page. Note that "shotacon" refers to attraction to young boys while "lolicon" refers to attraction to young girls, and "shota" and "loli" to the children themselves.
This would be seen both when posting the thread and going to reply to it.
Note that while 8chan is an anonymous message board and any user can put in any name, there are ways to identify users. I believe IDs are generated on a thread by thread basis and mapped to a certain IP address, but I confess I don't know the specifics of it. In this case, we can see that all of THQ's users are given an ID of 159bc1, which identifies their posts as coming from the same place regardless of what name they put in, perhaps a single company IP being subnetted to multiple users. Additionally, they are given a ## Reporter tag by the board's manager to confirm their official status.
One THQ Nordic name we see is Philipp, the aforementioned PR and marketing director, Philipp Brock.
We can see Philipp assuring an 8chan user that the company will not appeal to social justice. He does not have the ## Reporter tag here, but he does have the 159bc1 ID.
Another post where Philipp tells the user that they've already got "big tiddie lolis" - again, underage girls. Here we have both the 159bc1 ID and the ## Reporter tag.
Here Philipp makes a joke. No ## Reporter tag, but he does have the 159bc1 ID.
Another THQ Nordic name involved is Reinhard. Here we have Reinhard ignoring slurs posted in the AMA. Both the ## Reporter tag and the 159bc1 ID are present.
Reinhard also responds to a homophobic post saying that the image might be from one of their games. Again, the ## Reporter tag and the 159bc1 ID are both present.
Reinhard appears to be Reinhard Pollice, Business & Product Development Director at THQ Nordic. Bear in mind that we're now dealing with a major player within the company, not just someone low on the PR rung. http://www.thqnordic-investors.com/en/board-and-management/
When reached to for a response, Reinhard puts the blame on Philipp.
Another member of THQ Nordic is Fabian. His identity is not confirmed. However, he does have the ## Reporter tag and the same 159bc1 ID.
In another post, he says that he has no idea why they picked 8chan as the venue. Again, he has both the ## Reporter tag and the 159bc1 ID.
Meanwhile, 8channers are whining about ResetEra, because what else would a forum with a big Gamergate continigent do. Other questions contain the sort of content (racism, nazi imagery, etc.) that is expected from this website.
Philipp ultimately provides an apology.
"I personally agreed to this AMA without doing my proper due diligence to understand the history and the controversy of the site. I do not condone child pornography, white supremacy, or racism in any shape or form. (...)
(...) I am terribly sorry for the short-sightedness of my (!) decision, and promise to be far more vigorous in my assessment of these activities in the future. (...)
This was not about being edgy, this blew up and I very much regret to have done it in the first place." Philipp Brock, PR & Marketing Director THQ Nordic GmbH (Vienna, Austria)
Note that the contents of the apology claim that the issue was due to lack of due diligence and understanding. Also remember that this is a website that is unlisted by Google, that they had spoken the board owner previously and specifically on the topic of "nasty stuff", that they had clearly seen questionable content during the AMA itself, and that they had liked a tweet that claimed that critics of the AMA were just sensitive. The claim made in the apology doesn't match the evidence.
In an interview, Philipp claims that he continued the AMA despite the offensive content because he was overwhelmed.
In another, he defends one of replies in the AMA.
"'We'll try to stay that way' was in relation to us not censoring our games, not the SJW part, but I guess at this point, people write their own stories and yes, everything I have said can and will be used against me," he said in regards to his response to a user who said, "please don't censor any games nor appeal to the SocJus crowd. You guys are doing fine as is."
THQ Nordic's Twitter still currently contains a link to a website delisted from Google for being a known child pornography site. 8 hours that link has been there. 8 hours their official Twitter has linked directly to a site known primarily for hosting child porn.
Good. Probably just needs to be included in title. It's like the biggest detail of the story. With that you can't brush this off as "oops PR intern didn't know what he was doing."
The tweet containing the link to the AMA is still up on Twitter.
They still have the tweet about "sensitive simons' liked.
They already showed that they are full of shit with their "apology" about not knowing what is up with their chosen AMA site given their responses in the AMA itself.
And their CEO Lars is either a spineless coward or seems to be a-ok with them pandering to pedophiles, white supremacists, and some of the dumbest morons in the world.
Yeah, I think I'm alright with not covering anything THQ related on my site again nor playing any of their future releases.
A shocking amount of gamers identifying with anything between right wing populism and fascism can skew one's perception a bit.
What do you Era's opinions on
- taxing or disowning the rich. What's the point of one guy hoarding $160 bil?
- violent revolution (advocating for political violence is not allowed on here)
- unconditional basic income
- private property
- animal rights/veganism
- nationalization of industries
are? Not being a bigot doesn't make anyone left or far left. It's just that gamers have gone off the deep end.
So....I wasn't gonna ask as I figured it'd make me seem stupid but I figure fuck it, I'm too curious. What is this meme referencing? It seems very "inside" and the curiosity is killing me.
Boy, Lars sure fucking sealed the deal there. That makes this real easy - Fuck THQ for not taking a real stand against this and making it right by firing all those involved. I won't touch anything associated with them.
So....I wasn't gonna ask as I figured it'd make me seem stupid but I figure fuck it, I'm too curious. What is this meme referencing? It seems very "inside" and the curiosity is killing me.
Some of those comments on pc gamer were really disheartening. How does anyone find it acceptable that a company would do a AMA on a site known for such horrific and disgusting things?
So....I wasn't gonna ask as I figured it'd make me seem stupid but I figure fuck it, I'm too curious. What is this meme referencing? It seems very "inside" and the curiosity is killing me.
So....I wasn't gonna ask as I figured it'd make me seem stupid but I figure fuck it, I'm too curious. What is this meme referencing? It seems very "inside" and the curiosity is killing me.
So....I wasn't gonna ask as I figured it'd make me seem stupid but I figure fuck it, I'm too curious. What is this meme referencing? It seems very "inside" and the curiosity is killing me.
Some of those comments on pc gamer were really disheartening. How does anyone find it acceptable that a company would do a AMA on a site known for such horrific and disgusting things?
Unfortunately, the hobby so much of us engage with also has a really, really shitty side. I mean, that is why we are here, right? As flawed as resetera can be, you don't have to venture very far before you encounter something that is far, far uglier. There are large segments of "gamer culture" that are simply disgusting.
Oh Jesus Christ, I was on the old site too and I think I saw some posts alluding to something of that nature but they were a bit over my head as I had only been on the site for like two years when all that stuff with you know who being a fucking creepazoid went down. Alright then, that explains it. Thanks for the information guys.
I'd be surprised if having a board member that was okay with this wouldn't spread damage elsewhere. I think they'd have to start with that, but they should probably review the company culture as well.
I like how people here are like "I´m not buying more THQ games" People at Gunfire, or other studios doesn`t deserve that just saying... They are just workers and don`t deserve to lose jobs because this...
And just knowing the entire list of things owned by THQ losing some people would affect more to the little ones like Gunfire than THQ just saying xD.
So....I wasn't gonna ask as I figured it'd make me seem stupid but I figure fuck it, I'm too curious. What is this meme referencing? It seems very "inside" and the curiosity is killing me.
I like how people here are like "I´m not buying more THQ games" People at Gunfire, or other studios doesn`t deserve that just saying... They are just workers and don`t deserve to lose jobs because this...
"It feels horrible to be associated with this company in any capacity," said one developer currently working for a studio under THQ Nordic, who requested anonymity to protect their job.
"I definitely worry about the affect it'll have on our audience," they continued. "The mainstream game audience is arguably already leaning right, and this (implicit or explicit) approval of this awful group is only going to drive sales in their direction and away from the kind of progressive people that I would love to reach. The comment on 'continuing to avoid making games for SocJus audiences' fills me with the most dread."
