Journal of Other Forum Analysis

[benji]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/2023-is-one-of-the-worst-years-for-gaming-ever.769748/

But wait, hypothetic person says! We can just rely on indies for great games! Yeah, good luck even finding out individual games exist now that Twitter is on fire (the major social media outreach for many small studios).

As I'm always constantly having to repeat, you are not everyone else. Facebook and the platform stores alone would be greater outreach sources than Twitter. I suspect Discord could be as well because of its genesis within the industry and the fact that it ties into pre-existing community groups. YouTube and streamers certainly would be up there. I would question how many Twitter "sources" you have about this that aren't tied to YouTube or one of the game journalism entities. Like ResetERA.com many of the Twitter "gaming" personalities spend very little time talking about games, especially ones nobody else has heard of. The "zeitgeist" generated by Twitter has very little relation to what people are playing or desire to play. It mostly produces a delusional impression about what people care about from an obsessed 1% who do nothing else. (I do, of course, think it has an effect on sales however.)

[benji]

In summer 2022, Twitch streamer Clara Sorrenti (a.k.a. Keffals) was featured on the Washington Post (and other places) as a doxxing and swatting campaign coordinated against her on anonymous forum Kiwi Farms (notorious for such things) got increasingly dangerous. Bigots shared her home address and even a hotel she took shelter in. This backlash came because Sorrenti dedicated several hours a day to streaming commentary on anti-trans and LGBTQ+ laws. (And ratioing transphobes on Twitter.)

While many people aware of the situation gave sympathy to her, a small murmur of critics expressed frustration (often cryptically) that the violence towards Sorrenti positioned her as a martyr. They alleged that she frequently attacked POC in a way that fell just short of doxxing. Sorrenti and her fans accused these critics of trying sow distrust on behalf of Kiwi Farms. However, since then she’s been caught doing just that and more.

Sorrenti’s racism (especially towards Black and Asian people), ableism, and even transphobia could fill a book. However, it’s more useful to dive into just a few examples and show how she dual wields the language of social justice and the alt-right to cause harm on the very people she claims to be an advocate for—that the accusations of false flags trying to break solidarity between marginalized groups is nothing compared to her actions. Meanwhile, Sorrenti masks her own biotgry under the guise of edgy humor for progressive causes and de-radicalizing the youth.

While “noodlegate” was among the longest-running of Sorrenti’s extended racist campaigns, it’s not the biggest this year. Her toxic behavior in the first half of Black History Month (in the U.S. and Canada) tired out many trans creators trying to call her in. After taking down Kiwi Farms, Sorrenti encouraged people to play Hogwarts Legacy. Among other reasons, the HL boycott’s goal was to prevent gamers from financially benefiting well-documented transphobe and Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling.

The Canadian streamer repeatedly “gave” non-trans people a “pass” to play on the basis that she’s transgender. Extending “passes” is a common Sorrenti deflection against criticism. Around this time, people asked her to stop saying the r-slur, but Sorrenti claimed it was okay because she’s autistic. Trans and autistic creator Jessie Earl (a.k.a. Jessie Gender) spoke out against Sorrenti for both undermining the boycott and being ableist.

Sorrenti responded by implying that Earl was contributing to transphobia by focusing on Hogwarts Legacy—that trans people complaining about the game were making trans people look irrational and like killjoys. This was not only victim blaming, but ignored the years of work Earl had done to dissect transphobic rhetoric and media with incredible patience, empathy, and humor. Sorrenti called her and others “wokescolds” and “tenderqueers.” Synonymous with “SJW” and similar terms, both words are popular among the online alt-right. Additionally, Sorrenti encouraged viewers during a livestream to use diverse profile pictures to drown out criticism.

This is the identical attitude of people who appropriated and lambast identity politics. (Just like the word “woke.”) Using this to score social points shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how transphobia connects to other issues. Sorrenti fails to see how white supremacy is the root of transphobia, anti-Blackness, queerphobia, etc. Or maybe she doesn’t and thinks bigotry is fine if it’s ironic.

There’s several reasons it has taken people a long time to see the harm Sorrenti inflicts and the bigotry she fosters. Many took Sorrenti’s word that the criticism came from transphobic forums. After all, the doxxing Sorrenti faced was real and not an anomaly. Others like the edginess and see it as an acceptable coping mechanism against the bigotry she receives. Each time they choose to give Sorrenti the benefit of the doubt over mounting examples they choose to value her whiteness over the safety of marginalized people. This disappointingly includes important activists keeping up with anti-trans legislation like Erin Reed and Alejandra Caraballo.

Even when people recognize Sorrenti’s racism and misogyny, many still hesitate to call her out. Some see the trauma faced by marginalizing others as the price and process of de-radicalizing former “incels,” etc. It’s not like she’s the only person (or even the worst) to do this among her peers. She’s never had a Nick Fuentes on her broadcast multiple times. However, others don’t feel like marginalized people should have to put up with 4chan humor, but do live in fear. They don’t want the attention of a community nearly indistinguishable from those thriving at the height of Gamergate.

[Boredfrom]

Maybe I’m crazy, but I don’t think people like Jessie Gender are much better as trans activism faces, the HL debacle was counterproductive for your cause and Keffals just pointed the obvious.

[benji]

The irony of the democratization of critical theory has been that it has dramatically moved to a confusion of the principals for the principles. This is why deplatforming doesn't work despite what seems like impeccable logic, the premises are confused. To use Joanne and genocide as an example, they confuse Joanne (the person) for the genocide (the idea) and thus misplace the locus of the power they seek to break with deplatforming. The double irony is that Foucault (albeit somewhat shakily) understood this and he targeted institutions as the embodiment of ideas, not specific people. (The others big names were more hit and miss in this regard, especially Marcuse who still remained not ignorant enough to not believe that his deplatforming scheme wouldn't require mass violence and oppression across every aspect of society.) These new "theorists" or "activists", like Nepenthe or ResetERA.com in general, are so superficially focused on singular non-complex surface concepts (Shader Model 2.0) and so ignorant of power (and history and ideas and etc.) that they seem to literally believe eliminating (perhaps through shotgunning) a person eliminates the power. Thus we just have to ban Joanne from Twitter (or Milo or Trump or Alex Jones or etc.) and the genocide vanishes because the totem of power is gone. This is also why they seem to believe that taking down a website or changing an algorithm mass deradicalizes people by not just somehow killing the idea but also inverting all studies of radicalization that show oppression increases it. (This is why, for example, many starting with John Adams argued that George III created America. George III believed he faced a malicious conspiracy duping the masses creating an existential conflict that required him to reject any attempts at compromise or moderation. Which led him into a decision tree that created further unity among the disparate colonists around increasingly radical ideas.) You would think people would be more open to considering second order effects and rejecting the idea that putting something out of immediate deliberate sight eliminates it considering how early humans, and most animals, develop object permanence.

It's literally objectifying and fetishizing in the proper sense of the terms.

[Potato]

Pretty clever to use the religious version

He knew what he was doing the nijjar.

[Potato]

Colliege got banned. 

One of the users that got dumber as time went on rather than smarter.

One of?

[Boredfrom]

It just kills me that some of the stuff she is complaining about is painfully obvious for anyone not in the progressive kool aid. 

In summer 2022, Twitch streamer Clara Sorrenti (a.k.a. Keffals) was featured on the Washington Post (and other places) as a doxxing and swatting campaign coordinated against her on anonymous forum Kiwi Farms (notorious for such things) got increasingly dangerous. Bigots shared her home address and even a hotel she took shelter in. This backlash came because Sorrenti dedicated several hours a day to streaming commentary on anti-trans and LGBTQ+ laws. (And ratioing transphobes on Twitter.)

Who the fuck cares about that last bit?

While many people aware of the situation gave sympathy to her, a small murmur of critics expressed frustration (often cryptically) that the violence towards Sorrenti positioned her as a martyr. They alleged that she frequently attacked POC in a way that fell just short of doxxing. Sorrenti and her fans accused these critics of trying sow distrust on behalf of Kiwi Farms. However, since then she’s been caught doing just that and more.

And you, as a reporter, invistigated if this was the truth way before she shit the bed... right?

The Canadian streamer repeatedly “gave” non-trans people a “pass” to play on the basis that she’s transgender. Extending “passes” is a common Sorrenti deflection against criticism. Around this time, people asked her to stop saying the r-slur, but Sorrenti claimed it was okay because she’s autistic. Trans and autistic creator Jessie Earl (a.k.a. Jessie Gender) spoke out against Sorrenti for both undermining the boycott and being ableist.

Nobody requires a "pass" to play a video game about wizards. The boycott was a painfully lost cause that just made people pissed because repeating "Rowling is a transphobe, trust me bro" is not a well documented proof. 

Sorrenti responded by implying that Earl was contributing to transphobia by focusing on Hogwarts Legacy—that trans people complaining about the game were making trans people look irrational and like killjoys. This was not only victim blaming, but ignored the years of work Earl had done to dissect transphobic rhetoric and media with incredible patience, empathy, and humor.

Can you victim blame your own group? The fact that the anti trans rethoric is getting worse seems to indicate she didn't made a good job or that the boycott was a big fuck up social media wise. This is sounding like a fight between cliques rather than activist disagreeing. 

This is the identical attitude of people who appropriated and lambast identity politics. (Just like the word “woke.”) Using this to score social points shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how transphobia connects to other issues.

So we accept that many people, including yourself, treat social network slacktivism as some sort of video game. Is obvious to me that you are as cynical as Keffals. 

There’s several reasons it has taken people a long time to see the harm Sorrenti inflicts and the bigotry she fosters. Many took Sorrenti’s word that the criticism came from transphobic forums. After all, the doxxing Sorrenti faced was real and not an anomaly.

The fact that she was doxxed (even if it is clear she started to bait for it at some point) didn't mean she wasn't a terrible person. Chris chan is a terrible person and he was doxxed as hell. You people decided to ignore all that because it was convenient, you admitted a lot of people knew she was horrible but they could just speak cryptically because how progressive activism in twitter is driven like high school politics. You didn't want to investigate if that was true or you did but decided to ignore it in the guise of "Kiwi farms is lying because they lie". 

You dont get to bitch about "Nobody could see this coming". You think is coincidence that Keffals is friendly with other scumbags like Vaush and Brianna Wu?

Others like the edginess and see it as an acceptable coping mechanism against the bigotry she receives. Each time they choose to give Sorrenti the benefit of the doubt over mounting examples they choose to value her whiteness over the safety of marginalized people. This disappointingly includes important activists keeping up with anti-trans legislation like Erin Reed and Alejandra Caraballo.

They know she is terrible, they just don't care because they are terrible people themselves. You are not dumb enough to not understand how ineffective these people are to your cause, unless you deep down don't care either. 

Even when people recognize Sorrenti’s racism and misogyny, many still hesitate to call her out.

Gee, I wonder if this happened before  . Nah, it couldn't be, that were lies invented by Gamergate. 

However, others don’t feel like marginalized people should have to put up with 4chan humor, but do live in fear. They don’t want the attention of a community nearly indistinguishable from those thriving at the height of Gamergate.

Is like both sides were plagued by a bunch of hypocritical grifters...

[Rendle]

The most surprising part for me is that benji reads the themarysue.com

[PogiJones]

The irony of the democratization of critical theory has been that it has dramatically moved to a confusion of the principals for the principles. This is why deplatforming doesn't work despite what seems like impeccable logic, the premises are confused. To use Joanne and genocide as an example, they confuse Joanne (the person) for the genocide (the idea) and thus misplace the locus of the power they seek to break with deplatforming. The double irony is that Foucault (albeit somewhat shakily) understood this and he targeted institutions as the embodiment of ideas, not specific people. (The others big names were more hit and miss in this regard, especially Marcuse who still remained not ignorant enough to not believe that his deplatforming scheme wouldn't require mass violence and oppression across every aspect of society.) These new "theorists" or "activists", like Nepenthe or ResetERA.com in general, are so superficially focused on singular non-complex surface concepts (Shader Model 2.0) and so ignorant of power (and history and ideas and etc.) that they seem to literally believe eliminating (perhaps through shotgunning) a person eliminates the power. Thus we just have to ban Joanne from Twitter (or Milo or Trump or Alex Jones or etc.) and the genocide vanishes because the totem of power is gone. This is also why they seem to believe that taking down a website or changing an algorithm mass deradicalizes people by not just somehow killing the idea but also inverting all studies of radicalization that show oppression increases it. (This is why, for example, many starting with John Adams argued that George III created America. George III believed he faced a malicious conspiracy duping the masses creating an existential conflict that required him to reject any attempts at compromise or moderation. Which led him into a decision tree that created further unity among the disparate colonists around increasingly radical ideas.) You would think people would be more open to considering second order effects and rejecting the idea that putting something out of immediate deliberate sight eliminates it considering how early humans, and most animals, develop object permanence.

It's literally objectifying and fetishizing in the proper sense of the terms.

I'm happy for you though
Or sorry that happened

[PogiJones]

Blasting Benji for huge careposts
Blasting Benji for not doing huge careposts

[Potato]

 Faceblasting Benji

[HaughtyFrank]

Each time they choose to give Sorrenti the benefit of the doubt over mounting examples they choose to value her whiteness over the safety of marginalized people

I find this part pretty amusing as it's painfully obvious that her trans identity was what kept her safe. Anyone calling her out was declared transphobic. If she wasn't white anyone calling her out would have been declared racist on top of that.

In the progressive space a marginalized identity can actually serve as a shield but I see that the Mary sue isn't ready for that conversation yet

[malfoyking]

I used to read the marysue until they went full twitter/era nonsense. I liked the idea of the site. As always, they too lost their way imo.

[kaleidoscopium]

The whole point of making a female version of the character is to make them at least slightly different. And not just for men to « see them as women », even if of course that’s a huge issue, male gaze and all that.

https://www.resetera.com/threads/deep-rock-galactic-dev-explains-why-female-playable-characters-arent-being-added.768752/page-6#post-112796369

Make female characters in games or you're sexist! Also guys don't look at the female characters in the games, it's sexist! 😂

[BIONIC]

Not sure where else to ask this, just wondering about the results of that best MP game of all time thread and if it's still coming/if I missed it? Not in a pushy way, lol.

So, that actually ties into a new addition to the forum that I'm hoping works well enough that we can unveil it in a couple of weeks

Oh, word. Looking forward to it!

We'll put out the list with it, but we'll be picking something specific to show it off with (and because it ties into a really cool prize).

“Cool prize” aka your data gets harvested by our Swedish overlords.

[Nintex]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/2023-is-one-of-the-worst-years-for-gaming-ever.769748/

As a hobbyist, this has been a great year.

Mass layoffs all over the industry.
Studios being forcefully shut down.
Uncertainty around game engines with the whole Unity debacle and mass layoffs at Epic (along with the information that both companies are losing money much faster than they're making it).

No offense for the ones actually affected but…   Is this your first year in the vidja industry? No? Then the only thing that seem to affect you directly is Unity shitting the bed. You are acting like massive mismanagement is something new. 

But wait, hypothetic person says! We can just rely on indies for great games! Yeah, good luck even finding out individual games exist now that Twitter is on fire (the major social media outreach for many small studios). And if people don't find out about those games, they don't sell, and those indie studios stop making games.

Not fan of Twitter or Musk, but seems that is doing fine or at least well enough to worry about how difficult is going to be using a new social media platform. The fact that you are still using RE seems to be a “you” problem.

'm as excited for a new 2D Mario game coming out as anyone, but this year is going to have far-reaching consequences down the road for the game industry. Lost jobs, destroyed studios, wasted time as developers scramble to switch game engines, and the increased difficulty in small developers reaching the audiences that would love their games

Again: WELCOME TO THE VIDEO GAME INDUSTRY. FIRST YEAR?  

I think people have the right to shit on clueless corpos, but dunno about whining: “ why the consumer is having fun this year?  “

There's a bunch of reasons why the gaming industry is in upheaval.

- The pandemic is over, more competition for spare time activities again
- Lots of governments didn't allow lay offs if a company received COVID support
- Salaries and costs have gone up and development cycles are longer
- Companies hired what they could because big tech scooped up all the engineers in a panic, no longer the case
- Lots of Marvel CG artists/animators have switched careers, making the labor market more competitive overall
- Governments no longer offer tax incentives and breaks to gaming companies, they have other priorities now (curbing inflation so less spending overall)
- Gaming was popular to invest in short term because while it is tech it is safer than crypto, Web 3.0 or NFTs and more growth than Microsoft/Apple/Tesla etc. however now AI yields profits faster
- Fortnite and hero shooters are past their peak in popularity
- Epic is no longer throwing money around like a drunk sailor in a strip club to get games to EGS
- Some monetization models simply don't work as well as expected (See Marvel Avengers)
- Entertainment companies like Disney and Netflix aren't doing well and cutting back investment in games
- The 'assembling army groups of studios' approach that Ubisoft pioneered and was copied doesn't work as well as expected, single studio projects with specific outsourcing (Capcom, Remedy, Nintendo EPD, FromSoftware etc.) simply yield better results
- End of PS4/Xbox One support means those teams get cut
- Google has given up Stadia, Amazon Gaming is going nowhere fast
- Everyone read the Xbox leaks, Spencer doesn't deny Microsoft pulls out in 2027 if things 'stay like this' for Xbox
- More and more studios moving to UE5 no longer doing their own engine development
- Massive success in Asia of the F2P model
- Some very big succesful games, like Resident Evil 4, Zelda TOTK, Cyberpunk 2077: PL, Elden Ring, Honkai Star Rail, Starfield etc. means less interest in less succesful games (FF16, Aveum, Saints Row, Mario + Rabbids etc.) regardless of quality
- Some studios and publishers took very big risks (Callisto Protocol for instance) and not all played out well

The way forward is pretty obvious. Indie developers will merge and form mid-sized gaming companies that are able to do marketing.
Fewer people assisted by AI tools and better engine tech will work longer on bigger games to ensure quality.

[Eric Cartman]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/disneys-launchpad-short-films-no-relation-to-ducktales-has-dropped-six-new-short-films.769502/

I'm still mad about them killing Ducktales. I haven't even watched the final two episodes. Being reminded of the fact Ducktales is dead (ironic that they cancelled their planned Launchpad spinoff too, just to use the title again anyway for something else) just makes me annoyed all over again. Fucking Disney.

This is a thread about small films made by POC meant to "diversify the types of stories that are being told and to give access to those who have historically not had it" and you're complaining about a duck cartoon.

Maybe actually put some information in the OT about what the short films are instead of just linking to them? How am I supposed to know that it's specifically designed around featuring POC creators when there is literally zero identifying information, or information of any kind, in the OT?

This would've been a significantly better way to open the OP, yeah.

Thanks! Adding the trailer and its description to the OT is helpful. Appreciate the update.

            thread whining + attempted derail?
               /

[Besticus Maximus]

Imo this year has been as strong a year for videogames as i can ever remember.

Dead space remake
RE4
Zelda
Baldur's Gate 
Street Fighter 6
Mortal Kombat 1
FF16
Armored Core

Proper megabangers imo

[Uncle]

Baldur's Gate 3 is apparently an all-time top tier game to the point where multiple articles have been written with developers begging people not to let it raise their expectations for the rest of the industry 

I notice you didn't list Starfield

[AldusMoneyPenny]

[kaleidoscopium]

I do find it hilarious how much they sperg out about Twitter being on fire. When if you are a normal user you'd know it operates seemingly the same pre musk and post musk 😂

[Hap Shaughnessy]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/a-massachusetts-woman-who-called-in-a-bomb-threat-to-boston-children%E2%80%99s-hospital-last-year-has-has-plead-guilty-rolling-stone.769700/#post-112778924

Pretty much. The complete lack of self-awareness always blows my mind.

[BIONIC]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/digital-foundry-fixed-on-switch-improvements-fsr2-has-made-to-switchs-impossible-ports-nms-outer-worlds-gta-definitive-edition-alan-wake.769913/#post-112801196

Bolds well for Switch 2

what

[Hap Shaughnessy]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/sen-dianne-feinstein-an-icon-for-women-in-politics-dies-at-90-source-confirms.769484/page-7#post-112764413

User Banned (2 weeks): conspiracy theories

It’s pretty simple. We have endless ways we can deny the will of the people (such as the EC). Do we really need another one? I choose to trust the voters.

But "The Voters" don't really get to decide in cases like Feinstein's

The DNC and local party will pull out all-stops to shut-down a Primary Challenger - Leaving the only "choice" at the General in November being "Someone who needed to retire years ago" or "the Nazi candidate".

...And sometimes that results in "The Nazi Candidate" winning when people get burnt-out.

[Nintex]

Apparently her last challenger was a Democrat so it checks out.

[Taco Bell Tower]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/disneys-launchpad-short-films-no-relation-to-ducktales-has-dropped-six-new-short-films.769502/

I'm still mad about them killing Ducktales. I haven't even watched the final two episodes. Being reminded of the fact Ducktales is dead (ironic that they cancelled their planned Launchpad spinoff too, just to use the title again anyway for something else) just makes me annoyed all over again. Fucking Disney.

This is a thread about small films made by POC meant to "diversify the types of stories that are being told and to give access to those who have historically not had it" and you're complaining about a duck cartoon.

Maybe actually put some information in the OT about what the short films are instead of just linking to them? How am I supposed to know that it's specifically designed around featuring POC creators when there is literally zero identifying information, or information of any kind, in the OT?

This would've been a significantly better way to open the OP, yeah.

Thanks! Adding the trailer and its description to the OT is helpful. Appreciate the update.

            thread whining + attempted derail?
               /

This dude's too much of a coward to reply to Planetsmasher 

Or look at the provided links before having a little tantrum? Stop being weird.

[Nintex]

The logo challenge is going great.
https://www.resetera.com/threads/create-a-logo-contest-and-new-feature-pre-announcement.769616/

my submission

[Boredfrom]

1696090293[/url]']
I do find it hilarious how much they sperg out about Twitter being on fire. When if you are a normal user you'd know it operates seemingly the same pre musk and post musk 😂

[Nintex]

We always look for new ways to deliver content to our fans and to realign our content to keep it fresh and engaging. We have decided to remove a number of titles and shows like Launchpad and Ashoka from Disney+ starting December 1st 2023. Removing legacy content from Disney+ is just one of the many actions we are taking to improve the quality of our entertainment and prepare Disney for the transition into a new dimension of interactive entertainment spaces and streaming services. We want to be part of your Metaverse in beautiful 8k on Apple Vision Pro or join you on your daily quest with Meta AR. However even if you simply want to enjoy Disney content on your living room TV we are commited to delivering high quality entertainment experiences to you and your family for decades to come.

Bob Iger: "I don't know why our people keep making this shit, like literally no one watches it. Thanks for nothing writers"

[Taco Bell Tower]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/would-you-prefer-to-work-three-12-hour-shifts-per-week-or-4-ten-hour-shifts.769910/
entremetGPT

I saw this going around and it really seem like a no-brainer. 4 days off? What?

That said especially for knowledge work, like development work, teaching, etc. There is a mental threshold where you’re just clocked out. Some studies say that most knowledge workers can only sustain 4 hours of dedicated focused mental work. However but Big Law associates, investment banking associates, consulting, accounting, medicine, are fields were knowledge workers routinely do 12 hours per day and more.

I’ve worked in the restaurant industry before and 12 hour shifts were common, but it was a different type of fatigue—physical.

12 hours shifts will suck, but I could get used it, especially with 4 days to recover. I could do two days of errands and life management and still have 2 completely free days.

Dude has never worked in his life, huh?  He sure role plays as someone who supposedly has a life.