Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin - Tim Soret Did Nothing Wrong

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June 15, 2017 - Sargon of Akkad - Carl Benjamin

22:40

Tim Soret Did Nothing Wrong

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	So E3 is going on, and if you don't know what E3 is, it's the Premier Video Games Expo, essentially, where everyone and their dog brings their big guns to show off to the public, and it's still going on.
	But already the snowflakes are out in force, making sure that everything is diverse and declaring the things that aren't diverse, heresy.
	Beyond Good and Evil 2 has been declared to be super diverse.
	And I'm guessing it's because of her hair, not because of the chimp, you racists.
	I'd say the SJWs live in a time warp, but I would honestly not recognise the time that they are referring to.
	They say, diversity in Beyond Good and Evil 2 spans not just inter-human differences, but actual species, as monkeys and pigs populate its settings frequently as say the more familiar varieties of its Homo sapiens characters.
	Oh my god, when has there ever been a time when non-human characters populated video games?
	It's just the most baffling statement in the world.
	It's like saying, my goodness, we can have two players in video games now.
	It's incredible.
	Nobody's ever thought about putting player two in before.
	So I'm not picking on Beyond Good and Evil 2 here.
	It was a good trailer and I'm sure it's a good game and I'm sure that they're not obsessed with diversity like the SJWs are.
	I'm just using it as an example because of what it demonstrates about a certain group of people at this event and in the industry as a whole.
	The trailer for this was obviously not gameplay, but apparently it represents the gameplay and you'll be able to visit new planets and interact with a diverse cast of multicultural characters.
	Again, completely stock in trade for science fiction in video games.
	But here's the dog whistle.
	When the developer announced they would be focusing on diversity, some large cheers from a small group of liberal game journalists erupted from the rear of the auditorium.
	And there's the problem.
	These people who are obsessed with diversity and will bully people if you are not inclusive.
	But they have a very strange definition of inclusivity, which means excluding certain people on the grounds of what they believe.
	But from what I heard, the show was really stolen by the trailer that you're looking at now.
	This is a trailer for a game called The Last Night, a 2.5D pixel art cyberpunk game made by OddTales.
	And as you can see from looking at the trailer, this is beautifully done.
	You can tell a lot of work and a lot of love has gone into this.
	And so you've got to ask yourself, why has this caused controversy?
	What is offensive about this?
	This looks like a fantastic cyberpunk game.
	Big fan of cyberpunk myself, so I'm very interested in seeing more of this.
	Especially with such a gorgeous art style.
	But more importantly, the main character looks like he's going through something.
	He looks like there's something going on.
	It looks like there's actually a story behind all of this.
	So sign me up, I'm damn interested.
	All you need to do is look at the people who are angry about this game to find out why.
	Dear Microsoft Xbox, why did you spotlight the game of a sexist who thinks feminism is toxic?
	Oh, is this an example of some toxic feminism right now?
	Why are you bothered that this is someone outside of your ideology making a video game?
	Just to be clear, I've never had any interest in Depression Quest or Gone Home or any of the other SJW games, but I'm not against their existence.
	I think you should be able to make your games, put them on the market, and enjoy them as and when you will if people enjoy them.
	It's not my business what you bring to market, in the same way that it's not your business what they bring to market.
	They saw that as being one of the best games that they could find to showcase feminism didn't factor into that decision.
	But I think we know why Gamergate has resurfaced in The Last Night Controversy, and it's not because people from Gamergate are interested in talking about it.
	For anyone who doesn't know, I will leave some material in the description so you can find out what Gamergate was for yourself.
	I found it very interesting how they describe all of this, now that it's in the context of Gamergate.
	As for Sorat and The Last Night, its creators' views, coupled with the misguided cyberpunk setting in his new game that's garnering criticism.
	Sorry, the misguided cyberpunk setting?
	What could possibly be misguided about a fictional setting?
	It's fiction.
	While cyberpunk as a genre is often a critique of capitalism, in The Last Night it's against people.
	The Last Night's players take control of a disillusioned character named Charlie who seeks to rebel against socialist ideals, such as universal income and leisure time afforded by automation.
	The game's Steam page contains a summary directly referring to universal income, but that has since been edited out.
	Well that sounds rather interesting, but apparently that's not all.
	A few years ago Sorret on Twitter described his new game as a warning against extreme progressivism, portraying a dark world where modern feminism won instead of egalitarianism.
	That's a genuine fear of mine.
	I'm honestly curious about this game now.
	I mean I was interested in it before just because it looked beautiful and it was cyberpunk, but now that it has a political message that I might actually get something out of, in the same way that a lesbian watching the Gone Home preview was probably thinking, wow, a lesbian walking simulator.
	I can get a lot out of that too.
	Well yeah, this placed in my politics.
	Our game Last Night will take place in a cyberpunk world where modern feminism won instead of egalitarian, wrote Sorret in now deleted tweets archived by the internet, with the hashtags Gamergate and NotYourShield.
	I find it interesting to show the danger of extreme progressivism in the background of the game the characters and the story.
	Finally we'll have another take on the cyberpunk oppression.
	Instead of Big Brother 1984 HAL Big Companies, what if the surveillance bullying marginalization won't come from governments but from the internet?
	And taking a look at the Steam page for The Last Night, they say The Last Night immerses you in the everyday life of Charlie, a second class citizen living in a city brimming with augmentation and citizens living a gamified existence, none of which Charlie can experience himself due to a childhood accident.
	Well I wonder what kind of accident that would be.
	But this is all the information I have so I can't speculate any further, but I can see how this game is politically relevant because there is an awful lot of marginalization and bullying coming from the internet.
	In fact, that's exactly what happened to Tim Sorret when they learned that this is what his game is about and the fact that he had supported Gamergate and had been critical of feminism.
	Although the hate mob didn't arrive until after The Last Night had been trending and the trailers had been seen by hundreds of thousands of people to overwhelming approval.
	Isn't it funny how this game's been in development for years and Tim Sorat publicly displayed his support for Gamergate and his criticism of feminism well about two years ago and nothing was done about this developer or his project until it became successful.
	By the same sort of people who are always and let's be honest clawing for relevance.
	Look at this.
	Just some rando SJW on Twitter.
	Well there goes my interest in The Last Night with a few screenshots of Tim Sorrett's tweets.
	4,000 retweets, which is practically viral amongst the insular world of video game SJWs.
	And who comes out of the woodwork?
	Oh that's right.
	Zoe Quinn comes out to bully Tim Sorret for criticising social justice.
	First of all she has to express her disapproval by retweeting that first tweet and saying yikes to make sure everyone knows that she's not happy.
	And then the maker of Cyberpunk IndieGame totally cool with trying to ruin the life of Cyberpunk game developer.
	You, Zoe, are doing that right now.
	That's what you are doing to him, not what he is doing to you.
	And of course she kept going on, ending with, just FYI, I am 100% for never letting it go when a developer participated in Gamergate.
	Zoe, you are some sort of psychopath.
	You bully and harass people routinely.
	You have a history of destroying other people's projects for your own personal benefit and to line your own pockets.
	Nobody gives a fuck what you're not letting go, or at least they shouldn't.
	Nobody with two bloody brain cells and a spine should give a damn what you think.
	You should be out of any industry you participate in because of your toxic behavior, Zoe.
	But don't worry, Zoe, you got your way.
	Once more, you bullied someone into compliance, because Tim Sorrett apologised.
	Saw that you guys had the big announcement reveal in Microsoft yesterday.
	I mean, that trailer was such a hit, it blew up.
	What was that like for you guys?
	Yeah, we are obviously super happy with the trail reception.
	It's been absolutely incredible.
	Now, of course, I have some concerns I want to address.
	You know, I am embarrassed by some tweets I made in the past.
	I want to apologise for those.
	They do not in any way represent who I am today, or what the last night will be about.
	Raw Fury, the publisher of this, also felt the need to put out a statement on the comments from the last night's developer.
	We at Raw Fury believe in equality, believe in feminism, and believe everyone has a right and chance of the equal pursuit of happiness.
	We would not be working with Tim Sorrett Oddtails at all if we believed they were against these principles in any aspect.
	The comments Tim made in 2014 are certainly surprising and don't fit the person we know.
	And we hope that everyone reading this knows that us at Raw Fury, on a personal level and professional level, knows who portrays the caricature of Tim going around the internet right now.
	Have you noticed that the implication here is you can't be in the video game industry unless you believe in feminism?
	The wording of his statements towards feminism in 2014 was poor, and his buying into Gamergate as a movement on the notion that it represented gamers against journalists was naïve.
	Right, so not only are we completely in defense of feminism, because feminism didn't do nothing, we're also going to take the feminist interpretation of what Gamergate is rather than the interpretation of the people actually in Gamergate, are we?
	A group of cyber harassers and bullies are going to define what Gamergate is.
	Just so you know, Raw Fury, you will never placate these people, especially if your game contains any kind of critique of feminism or progressivism.
	You aren't going to come out of this with them on your side.
	So you shouldn't even try to placate them, to be honest.
	But let's have a look at what Tim's statements actually were.
	What Tim actually did that was so heinous, so awful, that we have to disavow completely.
	That we have to say, you know what, he's not that person.
	Tim has to apologise for this.
	Let's see.
	The Gamergate people are for journalistic integrity, honest debate, transparency, inclusiveness, and egalitarianism.
	There is nothing wrong with that statement.
	I completely agree with every part of it, because for me, that's what Gamergate was about as well.
	I'm against feminism because it's getting more and more skewed.
	I'm for egalitarianism.
	I don't care boy, girl, alien.
	Completely agree with that as well.
	I'm for egalitarianism too.
	I think feminism's gone off the rails and I think that everyone else can see it.
	It's just you have a cabal of feminist bullies in the gaming industry that were pointed out as those small group at the back that cheer for diversity because literally no one else gives a damn.
	And not to say they're against it either.
	It's just part and parcel of the video game industry.
	They're the ones who give a damn and they're the ones you have to appease.
	But let's have a look at his clarifications in the forums.
	However, I think Sarkeesian is cherry-picking and painting the whole video game culture as something very negative, which, since I'm a gamer since I was four, I can't accept.
	Video games have been incredibly diverse to me and playing all kinds of animals and characters in all countries and imaginary worlds.
	I've killed 10 times more aliens, Nazis, soldiers, and innocent male characters than women in video games.
	Right, okay, I'm just going to stop here because this is lucid criticism of Anit Sarkeesian that practically everyone has made.
	Is there anyone, a single person, who disagrees with this?
	Seriously, Raw Fury.
	Do you disagree that Anita Sarkeesian has done this?
	Do feminists even disagree that Nice Sarkeesian has done this?
	So many people go, well, I'm not really a fan of Anit Sarkeesian.
	I don't think she's been very rigorous in her methods, but blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, feminism.
	That's the defense of her these days.
	It's not the defense of her work, because there is no defense of her work.
	It's been debunked so many goddamn times.
	It's just old hat now.
	It's not something you would even bother with anymore.
	And he finishes with, when I read Aiko is sexist, I can't accept any more stuff from her.
	I think she's toxic and she's spreading conflict instead of encouraging change.
	That's my opinion, and you have the right to disagree and like her work.
	Absolutely fine with that.
	Even if he said the opposite, actually, I think that everyone is spreading sexism, but you have the right to disagree and dislike her work, I'd be in complete support of that too.
	Because you do.
	You don't have to apologise for having criticisms of Saint Sarkeesian.
	He says, I also don't buy the patriarchy stuff.
	Maybe it applies in the USA, but I live in Paris and here in France, virility is not encouraged at all.
	Sensitive men and intelligence are a lot more appreciated than being a tough guy with muscles.
	And masculine behaviours are totally prohibited and considered very macho here.
	Well, there we go.
	He doesn't buy into feminist dogma.
	I don't see why anyone should.
	Is it required that video game developers buy into feminist dogma?
	Why should it be?
	Why feminism?
	Why not some other-why not Islamism?
	Why not communism?
	Why not any other ism?
	Why feminism?
	When I saw the 14 articles on the exact same day on several websites to say gamers are over or gamers are dead, I couldn't accept it.
	I can't accept them to see the media and journalists on Twitter paint gamers as misogynistic white trash neckbeards.
	While we are a very diverse culture with gamers from all countries of the world's all sex and age.
	I really can't see how the media can make such generalizations from the terrible actions of a few irrational people.
	Hang on, isn't that the very same argument the media uses in defense of say Muslims or black people or whoever when something happens and people complain about it?
	This is the exact same argument used against you.
	So you can't possibly say that this argument is a problem unless of course you think that not all Muslims is also an invalid argument.
	And of course an SJW digs up a tweet from him from fairly recently from the 25th of April where he's criticizing Bill Nye, saying it's biased, injecting identity politics under the cover of science, it's not going to end well.
	Is there anyone who disagrees with that sentiment?
	Is there anyone who thinks Bill Nye is not deserving of criticism?
	And do you find this criticism to be bigoted or is it actually a valid thing to be concerned about?
	Pro-free speech website NicheGamer were absolutely right when they said that this was a witch hunt against indie devs making cyberpunk game.
	Because break out the victim cards.
	Three years of this shit and counting fam.
	Zoe, you're the one who got on their case about this.
	Nobody gave a shit.
	You came out and said, you know, I'm against anyone who supported GameGate.
	Blah blah blah.
	You brought all of this on yourself, as you always have done.
	If you just shut up and got on with whatever project it is you're doing at the moment, no one would think about you and no one would care.
	Same with feminist frequency, Newsflash.
	Gamergate still exists, still harasses marginalized voices and still affects our daily lives.
	The abuse has just not stopped.
	You're not even in the gaming industry anymore, Anita.
	You left after it turned out that you were a total con artist by your own admission.
	Remember posting this on your Facebook page?
	It's never been about video games.
	It's always about social justice, says Anita Sarkeesian verbatim quote.
	And I'll just give you another verbatim quote from Anit Sarkeesian from her own mouth.
	You tell me which one is the truth.
	How do you feel about video games?
	I still love them.
	You know, I think games are really where we're going.
	Video games are so interesting and engaging and interactive.
	I'm a gamer and I enjoy games.
	So let's be clear.
	She is not only a liar from her own admission, but she's also a terrible critic of the very thing that she was lying about.
	And it's not like that we didn't know this in advance.
	It's not like there wasn't already footage of her saying, well, look, I'm not a gamer.
	I had to learn a lot about video games or anything.
	It's a soundtrack of one song, except I'm doing video games.
	So it's not exactly a fandom.
	I'm not a fan of video games.
	I actually had to learn a lot about video games in the process of making this.
	What I am saying is that it is necessary for people to criticize Anit Sarkeesian.
	It is completely fair to criticize Anita Sarkeesian because there is a lot to criticise her on, and none of it is based around the fact that she is a woman.
	And the same thing goes for Zoe Quinn.
	When Notch, the creator of Minecraft, tweeted her to say, you're stirring shit up to make money, you've got to ask yourself, why would he say that?
	Well, I mean, it's not like she makes any money off the only game she's ever made, game quote unquote, in Depression Quest, which she gives away for free.
	So the question is, how does she pay her bills?
	How can she pay her rent?
	How did she afford to eat if the only thing she's ever made is being given away for free?
	And the answer, of course, is victim bugs.
	We know that she stirs up trouble to get people to donate money to her for being a victim.
	It's been her modus operandi since day one, and that's when she isn't busy, I don't know, sabotaging other people's projects.
	And there are loads of examples of this.
	How about the Polaris Game Jam that collapsed on its first day of filming?
	Oh, it turns out that Zoe Quinn admits to sabotaging this in chat logs that were leaked.
	In one section, Quinn describes how her and her fellow teammates, Davey Raiden and Tom Jackson, sought to sabotage the Polaris and Maker Studio production, a production that cost Disney $400,000, according to a report from Eurogamer back in 2014.
	We actually have all of the chat logs of them plotting and scheming to hurt people, as well as doxing people within Gamergate, that have been verified by a journalist called Ian Miles Chung, who used to be part of their group and was in those chats until he realized that what they were doing was wrong.
	And we have another example of Zoe Quinn doxing and ruining another game jam of someone else out of envy.
	She fucking doxed me, ruined a production for women and refused to contact us and is currently taking money for a game jam with no start date, no location, no judges.
	That's what she did to the fine young capitalists.
	This is the quality of person you are allowing to stir up shit.
	And stirred up some shit she did because the progressive gaming press couldn't wait to go tappity tap tap tap and write up a crappy article going, oh look at this.
	This guy who's a success said something in the past we disagree with.
	Was it hateful?
	No.
	Was it harassment?
	No.
	Was it anything other than legitimate criticism?
	No.
	But still, Zoe Quinn doesn't like it and the progressive press doesn't like it and therefore.
	Fuck therefore.
	Fuck these people.
	I'm not interested in their opinions and neither should you be.
	I just want to note that literally all of these people have a history of doing terrible things vindictively over a difference on politics.
	There is just no end to it and these birds of a feather flock together.
	Take for example Jim Sterling, a man that many think for some reason has some form of integrity.
	I can't see it.
	Because he is willing to not only associate himself with Zoe Quinn but to donate enough money to her Kickstarter that he reaches the tier so he gets to be a voice actor in her quote-unquote game.
	Personally, I wouldn't donate money to a serial harasser like Zoe Quinn, but whatever floats your boat, Jim, because to be honest with you, you're not really against harassment, are you?
	Remember how you decided to pontificate about the developer of Tranny Gladiator?
	A silly looking game with a silly sounding name?
	You whipped it up so that they said, didn't realize the thousands of hate that was to come, wanted to promote cross-dressing, death threats and legal threats, I can't take it.
	You did that, Jim.
	You did that by condemning this person because you didn't like the fact that they'd used the word tranny.
	You did that.
	But then I say this like you should give a shit, Jim, because you've always been in favor of that, haven't you?
	Haven't you?
	But I hear, you know, clearly a young person using racial epithets or derogatory terms for homosexuals, it just makes my stomach churn.
	And the idea that we are supposed to be a culture of people who at one point, if not now, felt already on the margins of a greater society.
	And then you just see this behavior that just replicates the same thing with a different target.
	It really kind of makes the whole affair seem a little bit deflated and defeated.
	It really, and don't even give me that First Amendment nonsense.
	You have every right to say it, and I have every right to call you a fucking asshole and try to find your address.
	Put it out there!
	Jim, that's you endorsing harassment via the internet in 2013.
	And let's be honest, nothing's changed given your conduct since then.
	Oh, I know you'll put some mealy mouth, well, I don't agree with the tweet out every now and again, but let's be honest, Jim, you fucking love it.
	Because you, like Zoe Quinn, like Anita Sarkeesian, like the rest of your little cabal, are a bunch of pieces of shit.
	And now some guy who had legitimate concerns about feminism and created something great has to apologize and crawl on his belly not to be castigated by the hyenas of social justice in video games.
	Because that's the problem, folks.
	These people didn't go away.
	They're still holding the reins.
	You still have to bow to them.
	Remember, keep in line, keep your eyes on the ground, and don't ask any fucking questions.
	So just to summarize, Tim Sorat did nothing wrong.
	There's nothing wrong with his critiques of feminism.
	There's nothing wrong with his critiques of social justice, progressivism, socialism, Anita Sarkeesian, or anything of the like.
	And there's nothing wrong with him creating a game with a political message.
	And don't worry, I have my citations.
	They're from Kotaku and Kirk Hamilton.
	The fallacy of keep your politics out of my video games and Patricia Handez.
	There's no such thing as a game without politics or an agenda.
	So again, I just want to reiterate, Tim Sorat did nothing wrong.
	The last night looks excellent.
	And he doesn't have to apologize for a damn thing.
	And in fact, the people asking for the apology are the bullies and harassers themselves.
	And ironically, that makes his premise for his game really fucking relevant.

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