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Villa

Member
Oct 28, 2017
812
Wow, I forgot how cynical some people can be. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt unless there's strong evidence to the contrary. Some might view that as being naive, I just try not to rush to judgement (and execution). Obviously some are different, whatever floats your boat.
 

higemaru

Member
Nov 30, 2017
4,104
I'm guessing they fired their social media intern then.

Just because it's on a company's Twitter doesn't mean the company supports it especially when it's deleted immediately
 

ThreepQuest64

Avenger
Oct 29, 2017
5,735
Germany
Reminds me of the controversy of this little black boy wearing a shirt with "coolest monkey in the jungle" in a fashion catalogue, or when a German journalist remarked the behavior of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang with the word "Affenzirkus" (engl. "charade", literally, "circus of apes"). I think those were unintentional, same for GOG. Sometimes you don't think about the context (in nowadays complex societies and cultures, it's not as obvious as a bad joke at a funeral or other inappropriate situations).

One (interpreted) misconduct won't change my mind about GOG. People are generally very harsh, when it comes down to that. You can build up your reputation over years, but might loose it over night; same goes for individual people.
 

julian

Member
Oct 27, 2017
16,786
It seems entirely plausible that whoever wrote the original tweet knew exactly what they were doing, but that doesn't mean it represents the viewpoint of most or even many at GOG.

Certainly a reason to question their worldview. But not necessarily draw a solid conclusion.
 
Oct 25, 2017
4,841
Which makes me wonder why there aren't voices fighting these responses on Reddit?

At least downvote them into oblivion.
It's being brigaded by KotakuInAction. Anyone who dares to disagree with Gamergaters will be downvoted.

...which is pretty hilarious when you remember that the main right-wing argument is that they're "for freedom of speech". Who's doing the censoring now?
 

Einherjer

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,924
Germany
I'm guessing they fired their social media intern then.

Just because it's on a company's Twitter doesn't mean the company supports it especially when it's deleted immediately

So why does someone need to get fired right away if a mistake like this happens? I mean they even removed it right away and apologized for christ's sake.
I thought we where over ppl getting fired over Twitter bs after the story with Arenanet...
 

ShinUltramanJ

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,950
It's being brigaded by KotakuInAction. Anyone who dares to disagree with Gamergaters will be downvoted.

...which is pretty hilarious when you remember that the main right-wing argument is that they're "for freedom of speech". Who's doing the censoring now?

Wouldn't we outnumber them? I wasn't seeing that many upvotes when I was downvoting.

Edit: I'm afraid to even ask what absurdity "KotakuInAction" is.
 

Skronk

Member
Nov 22, 2017
1,231
Wow, I forgot how cynical some people can be. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt unless there's strong evidence to the contrary. Some might view that as being naive, I just try not to rush to judgement (and execution). Obviously some are different, whatever floats your boat.

We got that evidence though...
 

Gestault

Member
Oct 26, 2017
13,371
I appreciate the specificity in the apology. That wasn't a half-apology, and it's very up-front in the detail that was overlooked, without becoming a billboard for the hate movement behind it. I assume whoever made the post did it intentionally, but it's reasonable to think that person will have a closer set of eyes on them regardless, the same way others will (rightfully) be taking a closer look at GOG's overall communications.
 

Deleted member 14377

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
13,520
The apology is fine and all but I'll wait to see how well they stick by it. And yeah, those comments are gross. What sad, pathetic little children they are.
 

Deleted member 3058

User requested account closure
Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,728
Wow, I forgot how cynical some people can be. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt unless there's strong evidence to the contrary. Some might view that as being naive, I just try not to rush to judgement (and execution). Obviously some are different, whatever floats your boat.
They owned up to it, saw it for what it was, and apologized.
 
Oct 25, 2017
4,841
Wouldn't we outnumber them? I wasn't seeing that many upvotes when I was downvoting.

Edit: I'm afraid to even ask what absurdity "KotakuInAction" is.
Normally /r/gog is not very active. There's only like 2 posts per day, each with max 10 comments. Ending Brazilian language support only got 30 comments.

It's such a small and insignificant subreddit that there aren't enough people to fight the KiA downvote brigade. KiA is the main Gamergate subreddit.
 

Alucrid

Chicken Photographer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,432
So why does someone need to get fired right away if a mistake like this happens? I mean they even removed it right away and apologized for christ's sake.
I thought we where over ppl getting fired over Twitter bs after the story with Arenanet...

nice false equivalency
 

Jockel

Member
Oct 27, 2017
682
Berlin
Oh geez, all those twitter replies. Gamergate was definitely real you guys! The lengths some manchildren go through to convince themselves that their bigotry is ok...
 

deepFlaw

Knights of Favonius World Tour '21
Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,496
No need to fire them by default.

If it was an honest mistake (though going by the Reddit post it still sounds like the "pissing on journalism" bit was intentional, and... why?), whoever's handling the Twitter just needs to have a conversation about their policies (which might also need to be improved) and be much more careful going forward.

If it wasn't, that should result in a very different conversation about their culture and what's considered ok, and so on.
 
Oct 27, 2017
3,826
So the person cropping the image and seeing the date didn't think one second it has any meaning? Well then yeah, this person is stupid for not researching what it even can mean. Not to mention that pissing on "Games Journalism" is bad to begin with as well.
People I know that have criticisms about games journalism never talk about it because it's so... inconsequential. Dude sounds like he had an axe to grind. The problem with assuming someone is slipping in messages supporting hateful groups and movements is its designed to provoke their opposition into outrage. You take the bait, they win. You ignore them, they go unchallenged and win. No good options.
 

Captain of Outer Space

Come Sale Away With Me
Member
Oct 28, 2017
11,351
Didn't GOG just have a big sale where they asked a number of big outlets to create their own bundles of their favorite games? Pretty tone deaf way to follow that up.
 

Deleted member 1759

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
3,582
Europe
This reply cracked me up
You have no idea how big of a mistake you just made. You targeted gamers.

Gamers.

We're a group of people who will sit for hours, days, even weeks on end performing some of the hardest, most mentally demanding tasks. Over, and over, and over all for nothing more than a little digital token saying we did.

We'll punish our selfs doing things others would consider torture, because we think it's fun.

We'll spend most if not all of our free time min maxing the stats of a fictional character all to draw out a single extra point of damage per second.

Many of us have made careers out of doing just these things: slogging through the grind, all day, the same quests over and over, hundreds of times to the point where we know evety little detail such that some have attained such gamer nirvana that they can literally play these games blindfolded.

Do these people have any idea how many controllers have been smashed, systems over heated, disks and carts destroyed 8n frustration? All to latter be referred to as bragging rights?

These people honestly think this is a battle they can win? They take our media? We're already building a new one without them. They take our devs? Gamers aren't shy about throwing their money else where, or even making the games our selves. They think calling us racist, mysoginistic, rape apologists is going to change us? We've been called worse things by prepubescent 10 year olds with a shitty head set. They picked a fight against a group that's already grown desensitized to their strategies and methods. Who enjoy the battle of attrition they've threatened us with. Who take it as a challange when they tell us we no longer matter. Our obsession with proving we can after being told we can't is so deeply ingrained from years of dealing with big brothers/sisters and friends laughing at how pathetic we used to be that proving you people wrong has become a very real need; a honed reflex.

Gamers are competative, hard core, by nature. We love a challange. The worst thing you did in all of this was to challange us. You're not special, you're not original, you're not the first; this is just another boss fight.
lmao

Ok, was told that this is a copypasta lol
 

Cueil

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
93
User Banned (1 Month): Peddling rhetoric associated with hate movements. Ban extended after review.
I think this is in reference to game journal pro email group and the "gamers are dead" articles that popped up. A lot of shady stuff was going on that was brought to light. It's unfortunate that many good people got caught in the crossfire. It's unfortunate that a cheating scandle that should not have been public kicked off the movement
 
Oct 27, 2017
3,654
User Banned (3 Days): Repeatedly downplaying the principles of others; accumulated infractions
So why does someone need to get fired right away if a mistake like this happens? I mean they even removed it right away and apologized for christ's sake.
I thought we where over ppl getting fired over Twitter bs after the story with Arenanet...

Because Era posters are perfect and if they spot human error then someone must pay.
 
Oct 25, 2017
688
Brazil
A lot of people these days really seem to always assume the worst of others. One tweet with a reference that was missed by the poster and you have a bunch of people boycotting your site, honest mistake or not, even after an upfront apology.

I couldn't agree more. People trying to find demons everywhere is one of today's biggest issues.
 

tmarg

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,694
Kalamazoo
I think this is in reference to game journal pro email group and the "gamers are dead" articles that popped up. A lot of shady stuff was going on that was brought to light. It's unfortunate that many good people got caught in the crossfire. It's unfortunate that a cheating scandle that should not have been public kicked off the movement


No. It is, and always was, just a way to harass women and minorities who dare to be a part of the games industry. Nothing good or useful came of it. It's disgraceful that it exists in any way.
 

LAA

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,336
Man, don't know how there's still so much backlash to this, even after a removal/apology.
I didn't know what the date was in relation to and honestly have very little knowledge relating to GG stuff in general (Probably better for it to stay that way tbh). It's good they removed and apologized after realizing the link, but think it seems pretty harsh to assume people were fired over it and they knew what it meant and etc. There's not enough proof to suggest that.
In fact, don't know why more people aren't going after the Postal 2 devs in putting that date on the tombstone (They did? Unless it was photo shopped/edited?)
 
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DealWithIt

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,690
I take the apology at face value. Once is ok, but if I see more I'll have to stop using GoG. That would suck because GoG is the superior product.
 

derFeef

Member
Oct 26, 2017
16,358
Austria
Goddamn, I know I will have a talk with a mate tomorrow who will throw around the "but why do we have to be political correct all the time" argument. Sucks that I am bad at debates.
 

MyNameIsKonrad

PR at GOG.COM
Verified
Jan 30, 2018
1
So yeah, I'm Konrad from that Reddit thread. Hello everybody!

I think they were just going for an image that the felt was very representative of the game's attitude and picked that. I realize that I'm kind of assuming here but that feels in line with their apology tweet.

This is kind of a spot-on interpretation of what happened. "The game is so crude so hey, let's go with this." Out of the two people who regularly work with our social accounts, neither of us was aware that it's far more deliberate and loaded imagery than just your run of the mill, bone-cutting, piss-on-journalism edge.

I gotta say, what gets me the hardest is stuff like "Oh, you guys took a stance but got bullied into apologizing".
I mean no – I'm sitting right here and it's not what happened, there was no stance, only a careless tweet. The outcry did make us aware of the implication. Good. Now we know and we're better for it.
 

Dynamite Cop

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
3,002
California
They should fire whoever is in charge of their Twitter account. Companies should have a zero tolerance policy for things like this. I dont buy the ignorance claim.
 

Wowfunhappy

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,102
You really think they let interns handle their primary social media feeds?
I know an intern at a pretty large company, and she can post to the company's primary Twitter and Facebook feed her own. I was pretty surprised.

She said there was supposed to be a manager approving everything, but that in practice he didn't care. Or, he would give it a quick glance, but nothing more than that.
 

Baleoce

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,179
Sometimes you just need to take a leap of faith in humanity and assume it was an innocent screw up, you know?
 

higemaru

Member
Nov 30, 2017
4,104
So why does someone need to get fired right away if a mistake like this happens? I mean they even removed it right away and apologized for christ's sake.
I thought we where over ppl getting fired over Twitter bs after the story with Arenanet...
Well, 1. I was wrong, it wasn't removed immediately, and 2. As someone who does social media work for companies, it's highly unlikely that it was posted mistakenly. Additionally, social media "guru" is a job anyone can do for them. If you're being represented by a Gamergater, that's alienating for many customers, myself included. If I were CD Projekt Red, I'd fire him too or transfer him somewhere where he couldn't represent us publicly.
 
Jan 10, 2018
6,327
I think this is in reference to game journal pro email group and the "gamers are dead" articles that popped up. A lot of shady stuff was going on that was brought to light. It's unfortunate that many good people got caught in the crossfire. It's unfortunate that a cheating scandle that should not have been public kicked off the movement

The publically availaible OP-Ed "Gamers" are dead, which you never read, was brought to light.

Okay.
 

Einherjer

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,924
Germany
Well, 1. I was wrong, it wasn't removed immediately, and 2. As someone who does social media work for companies, it's highly unlikely that it was posted mistakenly. Additionally, social media "guru" is a job anyone can do for them. If you're being represented by a Gamergater, that's alienating for many customers, myself included. If I were CD Projekt Red, I'd fire him too or transfer him somewhere where he couldn't represent us publicly.


Again it was honest mistake and they removed it and apologized the rest are just assumptions you don't have any proof for whatsoever.
 

Zeno

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,150
I gotta say, what gets me the hardest is stuff like "Oh, you guys took a stance but got bullied into apologizing".
I mean no – I'm sitting right here and it's not what happened, there was no stance, only a careless tweet. The outcry did make us aware of the implication. Good. Now we know and we're better for it.
To be fair, the people on Reddit and Twitter are more upset at what seems to be an anti-gamergate stance than the idea of actually apologizing for it.

Reminds me of that one backer message in Pillars of Eternity 1 that got changed when the devs admitted it wouldn't have made it into the game in the first place if it was properly caught.
 

Phrozenflame500

The Fallen
Oct 28, 2017
2,132
This is kind of a spot-on interpretation of what happened. "The game is so crude so hey, let's go with this." Out of the two people who regularly work with our social accounts, neither of us was aware that it's far more deliberate and loaded imagery than just your run of the mill, bone-cutting, piss-on-journalism edge.

I gotta say, what gets me the hardest is stuff like "Oh, you guys took a stance but got bullied into apologizing".
I mean no – I'm sitting right here and it's not what happened, there was no stance, only a careless tweet. The outcry did make us aware of the implication. Good. Now we know and we're better for it.

That's kinda what I figured. Normally when people actually take a stance and backpedal they do it with a half-assed "sorry you got offended" apology, while you guys seemed pretty genuinely unaware of how much of a hornets nest you accidently kicked. Good luck with that reddit thread lmao.
 

Deleted member 1759

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
3,582
Europe

NateSnacks

Alt-Account
Banned
Apr 16, 2018
595
I wasn't really expecting something like this from GOG... but it's 2018 and this kind of people are everywhere, unfortunately.

Good on VG247 for their quick and swift response. This kind of behavior can't be tolerated. So long, GOG. I'm not buying there anymore.



Ah, yes. "Gaming journalism died in 2014" has absolutely nothing to do with GamerGate.

"In August 2014, the harassment campaign targeted several women in the video game industry; notably game developers Zoë Quinn and Brianna Wu, as well as feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian."

Don't try to justify this shit under the false pretence of plausible deniability.
I don't know too much of gamergate but if its started August 2014 and its a tombstone with that date. Wouldnt that be against gamergate or am I reading it wrong?
 

Dierce

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,993
I'm glad that GOG condemned the hateful GG movement and apologized for their mistake. We shouldn't bandwagon them because that exactly what the GGters are doing to them right now. I'm sure that some GGters are also contacting them to close their account after their apology.
 

Procholiday

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
86
This seems like an honest mistake made out of ignorance rather than having the bad intentions people are assuming it had.
 

Instro

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,015
They should fire whoever is in charge of their Twitter account. Companies should have a zero tolerance policy for things like this. I dont buy the ignorance claim.

I'd like to think I'm fairly plugged in, but I'm not sure I would have connected the date or even noticed the date if I was the one posting this. I mean it's perfectly obvious with a bit of context, but not up front. Regardless I don't think firing anyone after an immediate retraction and apology is in any way warranted.