Zoe Quinn's new game.
August 25, 2016 4:11 AM Subscribe
The post needs Dr. Chuck Tingle tag.
posted by RobotHero at 5:36 AM on August 25, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by RobotHero at 5:36 AM on August 25, 2016 [4 favorites]
I don't quite understand this whole scene of punk-as-fuck, super-independent, gleefully-off-kilter freeware games – I'm probably just a wee bit too old to have grown up sufficiently immersed in Internet culture – but I'm glad it exists. As with this game, much of it seems to operate on the meta-level – it plays with the conventions / expectations / forms of gaming, and the resulting intellectual / artistic experience is as much the point as the gameplay.
For me, this rarely succeeds particularly well as art or game – but maybe it's just not for me. And even if it's not always successful, developers need to be asking these questions of games, and need to subvert / reinvent / discard / interrogate the norms and conventions of the medium more than they do. Simply showing that games can operate by different laws and mechanics is instructive. (And, this scene seems to have carved out a space inmillennial snake person DIY digital culture for women and trans folks, so that's cool.)
At any rate, if this is for sale, I'll buy it just to annoy the Gamergaters. Basically, if there were a Kickstarter campaign to somehow direct a steady trickle of stale urine into the mouths of Gamergaters, I would subscribe at the $50/month level.
It should also be noted that Chuck Tingle is an American hero.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 5:38 AM on August 25, 2016 [28 favorites]
For me, this rarely succeeds particularly well as art or game – but maybe it's just not for me. And even if it's not always successful, developers need to be asking these questions of games, and need to subvert / reinvent / discard / interrogate the norms and conventions of the medium more than they do. Simply showing that games can operate by different laws and mechanics is instructive. (And, this scene seems to have carved out a space in
At any rate, if this is for sale, I'll buy it just to annoy the Gamergaters. Basically, if there were a Kickstarter campaign to somehow direct a steady trickle of stale urine into the mouths of Gamergaters, I would subscribe at the $50/month level.
It should also be noted that Chuck Tingle is an American hero.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 5:38 AM on August 25, 2016 [28 favorites]
If only Chuck had come to prominence during Infocom's text-adventure heyday.
> accept fate
Your own butt hovers in the air behind you, then moves purposefully.
* You have tingled*
(Your score just went up.)
posted by delfin at 5:43 AM on August 25, 2016 [21 favorites]
> accept fate
Your own butt hovers in the air behind you, then moves purposefully.
* You have tingled*
(Your score just went up.)
posted by delfin at 5:43 AM on August 25, 2016 [21 favorites]
It's a maze of tingly little passages, all alike.
posted by jenkinsEar at 6:05 AM on August 25, 2016 [9 favorites]
posted by jenkinsEar at 6:05 AM on August 25, 2016 [9 favorites]
There is a quasi-market for arty high weirdness in games, and that is the conference/speaking circuit. You don't get sales, but if you're interested in travel, you can quickly get a couple grand in passes, plus whatever your speaking fees are. Every once in a while, you make a (relative) hit anyway, and generate some actual sales. While Zoe can probably get invited to speak a lot of places already, if she wants to speak about things other than gamergate, it's projects like this that will do it.
posted by GameDesignerBen at 6:09 AM on August 25, 2016 [10 favorites]
posted by GameDesignerBen at 6:09 AM on August 25, 2016 [10 favorites]
Basically, if there were a Kickstarter campaign to somehow direct a steady trickle of stale urine into the mouths of Gamergaters, I would subscribe at the $50/month level.
As a web developer and a player of video games (I refuse to use the now-ruined word "gamer" to describe myself), I've actually fantasized about crowdfunding a massive amount of money (and allowing for monthly donations from there on to keep the pool going), and then building an automated system that would distribute a small sum in some way that would directly benefit the victims of online harassment for each individual instance of harassment (say, a single tweet). Whenever the system detects one, it uses a bot to inform the harasser that his actions have just resulted in the transfer of $x.xx to their victim, a relevant charitable organization or similar. False positives would not really be a problem, either: just a bit more money to someone harassers don't want to see monetarily compensated as a result of their harassment.
I'm perfectly aware of the multitude of difficulties that would have to be dealt with in building a system like this, but I'm still pretty sure that in theory, it could be made to work.
posted by jklaiho at 6:09 AM on August 25, 2016 [28 favorites]
As a web developer and a player of video games (I refuse to use the now-ruined word "gamer" to describe myself), I've actually fantasized about crowdfunding a massive amount of money (and allowing for monthly donations from there on to keep the pool going), and then building an automated system that would distribute a small sum in some way that would directly benefit the victims of online harassment for each individual instance of harassment (say, a single tweet). Whenever the system detects one, it uses a bot to inform the harasser that his actions have just resulted in the transfer of $x.xx to their victim, a relevant charitable organization or similar. False positives would not really be a problem, either: just a bit more money to someone harassers don't want to see monetarily compensated as a result of their harassment.
I'm perfectly aware of the multitude of difficulties that would have to be dealt with in building a system like this, but I'm still pretty sure that in theory, it could be made to work.
posted by jklaiho at 6:09 AM on August 25, 2016 [28 favorites]
Basically, if there were a Kickstarter campaign to somehow direct a steady trickle of stale urine into the mouths of Gamergaters, I would subscribe at the $50/month level.
Quinn has a Patreon.
posted by howfar at 6:10 AM on August 25, 2016 [19 favorites]
Quinn has a Patreon.
posted by howfar at 6:10 AM on August 25, 2016 [19 favorites]
Yet more proof that love is real.
posted by tobascodagama at 6:11 AM on August 25, 2016 [6 favorites]
posted by tobascodagama at 6:11 AM on August 25, 2016 [6 favorites]
I love everything about this, but it already bums me out that one of the recommended videos that popped up after this video was "let's talk about zoe lying about gamergate again" and how I'm not looking forward to getting anti-zoe videos recommended to me for the next week, but also funnily enough never PRO-zoe videos.
posted by WeX Majors at 6:12 AM on August 25, 2016 [13 favorites]
posted by WeX Majors at 6:12 AM on August 25, 2016 [13 favorites]
I love everything about this, but it already bums me out that one of the recommended videos that popped up after this video was "let's talk about zoe lying about gamergate again" and how I'm not looking forward to getting anti-zoe videos recommended to me for the next week, but also funnily enough never PRO-zoe videos.
It's like the mucus trail left behind by those #GG slugs got into YouTube's recommendation engine. I'll see anti-Anita Sarkeesian videos recommended after I watch a Feminist Frequency video, too.
posted by pianoblack at 6:19 AM on August 25, 2016 [2 favorites]
It's like the mucus trail left behind by those #GG slugs got into YouTube's recommendation engine. I'll see anti-Anita Sarkeesian videos recommended after I watch a Feminist Frequency video, too.
posted by pianoblack at 6:19 AM on August 25, 2016 [2 favorites]
Between the Quinn video and the Clinton videos linked over politicalwards, all of which have a 1:20 like–to–dislike rate, I find myself really amused by the apparent belief of the alt–right that anybody but them gives a shit about like/dislike figures on YouTube. At this point it's more–or–less a mechanic that lets shitheads leave their oozing trails across the site.
(A Google enterprise? With terrible mechanics? You don't say!)
posted by rorgy at 6:28 AM on August 25, 2016 [13 favorites]
(A Google enterprise? With terrible mechanics? You don't say!)
posted by rorgy at 6:28 AM on August 25, 2016 [13 favorites]
To quote Tae Kwan Do master Dr. Chuck Tingle, "YES ALL LOVE IS REAL WE SHOULD KISS PLANES because they are HANDSOME."
goodnight.
posted by Theta States at 6:43 AM on August 25, 2016 [9 favorites]
goodnight.
posted by Theta States at 6:43 AM on August 25, 2016 [9 favorites]
If you kickstarted Phil Sandifer's Neoreaction a Basilisk then you should have a preview of his Gamergate article "The Blind All-Seeing Eye of Gamergate" in your inbox. Otherwise you'll have to wait until this weekend when it goes up on his site.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 6:48 AM on August 25, 2016 [9 favorites]
posted by robocop is bleeding at 6:48 AM on August 25, 2016 [9 favorites]
The day that YouTube shuts down comments will be glorious indeed. The web is moving slowly but surely toward the consensus that "commenting widgets on everything" was a noble experiment that just didn't work out. People will always find spaces where their toxicity is tolerated, but at least it'll be more marginalized and easier to ignore when it's not right there below the thing.
It's a shame, because there occasionally are constructive, even brilliant conversations in The Comments – conversations that wouldn't have happened otherwise. It'd be a shame to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
But, damn – outside of MetaFilter, it's almost impossible to find online spaces where civil, intelligent conversation is the norm rather than the exception. I've found a few subreddits with relatively healthy communities and good moderators, and I seem to have a more constructive experience on Facebook than most folks (due to merciless blocking and friend-list-pruning)...but that's about it.
There will always be a few folks who delight in poisoning the well, and unfortunately it doesn't take many of them to do it. (Heck, having a constructive conversation online is difficult enough when everyone is working in good faith. Even here on MeFi, I've seen many exchanges that have spiraled into venom and recrimination because someone took the least charitable possible reading of another user's comment. Communication is hard.)
I see glimmers of hope that we're starting to figure out how to fix this – or, at least, that we're acknowledging the problem and gathering the will to try. News organizations getting rid of comments are a great start. Twitter joining MySpace and Friendster on the scrap heap of Internet history will be another.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 7:05 AM on August 25, 2016 [9 favorites]
It's a shame, because there occasionally are constructive, even brilliant conversations in The Comments – conversations that wouldn't have happened otherwise. It'd be a shame to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
But, damn – outside of MetaFilter, it's almost impossible to find online spaces where civil, intelligent conversation is the norm rather than the exception. I've found a few subreddits with relatively healthy communities and good moderators, and I seem to have a more constructive experience on Facebook than most folks (due to merciless blocking and friend-list-pruning)...but that's about it.
There will always be a few folks who delight in poisoning the well, and unfortunately it doesn't take many of them to do it. (Heck, having a constructive conversation online is difficult enough when everyone is working in good faith. Even here on MeFi, I've seen many exchanges that have spiraled into venom and recrimination because someone took the least charitable possible reading of another user's comment. Communication is hard.)
I see glimmers of hope that we're starting to figure out how to fix this – or, at least, that we're acknowledging the problem and gathering the will to try. News organizations getting rid of comments are a great start. Twitter joining MySpace and Friendster on the scrap heap of Internet history will be another.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 7:05 AM on August 25, 2016 [9 favorites]
It please me that those 8k down-votes will make sure that the video gets wider circulation and if Vice monetised their videos would help them get more money off the video. YT cares about 'interactions' so down-vote bombing video accomplishes literally the opposite of what some people think it does.
posted by slimepuppy at 7:20 AM on August 25, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by slimepuppy at 7:20 AM on August 25, 2016 [3 favorites]
Well, it probably explains why after watching this, you get anti-Zoe videos "recommended" instead of pro-Zoe videos. All the algorithm knows is that it has the same keywords but a better upvote ratio.
posted by RobotHero at 7:28 AM on August 25, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by RobotHero at 7:28 AM on August 25, 2016 [4 favorites]
...but also funnily enough never PRO-zoe videos.
You can tell a lot about a person by how many minutes they'll devote to someone having an extended rant on YouTube.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 7:40 AM on August 25, 2016 [2 favorites]
You can tell a lot about a person by how many minutes they'll devote to someone having an extended rant on YouTube.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 7:40 AM on August 25, 2016 [2 favorites]
The shift in the idea of user-generated comment and feedback feels like it's still coming and I'm waiting patiently. The last year or so on Steam has convinced me that user reviews are worse than pointless for ephemeral digital confections and I want a button to make them gone. Every game now has reviews that seem like they were arrived at before the user played the game at all. Also just... zero chill. I don't need the opinion of a person with absolutely no perspective on life because I'm not that person, and hopefully you aren't either!
posted by selfnoise at 7:40 AM on August 25, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by selfnoise at 7:40 AM on August 25, 2016 [5 favorites]
how I'm not looking forward to getting anti-zoe videos recommended to me for the next week
To prevent such videos from being recommended go here and remove the video from your history after watching it.
You can also pause your viewing history if you need to. Still YT's recommendation engine is total crap.
posted by 81818181818181818181 at 7:57 AM on August 25, 2016 [2 favorites]
To prevent such videos from being recommended go here and remove the video from your history after watching it.
You can also pause your viewing history if you need to. Still YT's recommendation engine is total crap.
posted by 81818181818181818181 at 7:57 AM on August 25, 2016 [2 favorites]
To me the only utility Steam reviews have is to occasionally prompt me to take a second look at a game I might have dismissed were it not for the huge number of positive reviews. (Anything else is useless because I know many games I love have lots of negative reviews.)
posted by straight at 7:59 AM on August 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by straight at 7:59 AM on August 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
The combination of FMV and visual novel makes a lot of sense and I'm surprised we don't see more of it. Or is this style thriving in porno-game circles?
posted by RobotHero at 8:01 AM on August 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by RobotHero at 8:01 AM on August 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
I sure wish YouTube had a "don't recommend videos like this one to me" button.
posted by straight at 8:02 AM on August 25, 2016 [10 favorites]
posted by straight at 8:02 AM on August 25, 2016 [10 favorites]
Still YT's recommendation engine is total crap.
Youtube, and Google itself, can't seem to understand the context of the content, just the subject matter. Yes, I'm interested in articles about Hillary Clinton. No, I'm not interested in articles about Hillary Clinton from the Daily Stormer. But Google Now doesn't see the difference.
How to automatically group together ideological perspectives seems like it would be a hard nut to crack, especially on video.
posted by zabuni at 8:12 AM on August 25, 2016 [2 favorites]
Youtube, and Google itself, can't seem to understand the context of the content, just the subject matter. Yes, I'm interested in articles about Hillary Clinton. No, I'm not interested in articles about Hillary Clinton from the Daily Stormer. But Google Now doesn't see the difference.
How to automatically group together ideological perspectives seems like it would be a hard nut to crack, especially on video.
posted by zabuni at 8:12 AM on August 25, 2016 [2 favorites]
I have blocked all of the usual professional assholes who make their livings feeding off Zoe's life, but they still show up on the recommendation bar.
You need to be able to say "NOT HELPFUL" like an amazon recommendation, or at least respect the blocks and never show me these leeching and exploitive hatemongers again.
posted by Theta States at 8:23 AM on August 25, 2016 [4 favorites]
You need to be able to say "NOT HELPFUL" like an amazon recommendation, or at least respect the blocks and never show me these leeching and exploitive hatemongers again.
posted by Theta States at 8:23 AM on August 25, 2016 [4 favorites]
I think it's that a horse mask is the easiest way to bring a Chuck Tingle sex object to life. Until you get Michael Bay to make the butt pounding airplane we all dream of, of course.
posted by idiopath at 8:52 AM on August 25, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by idiopath at 8:52 AM on August 25, 2016 [5 favorites]
It's a maze of tingly little passages, all alike.
It's a maze of tingly little passages, all being pounded.
posted by The Tensor at 9:00 AM on August 25, 2016 [9 favorites]
It's a maze of tingly little passages, all being pounded.
posted by The Tensor at 9:00 AM on August 25, 2016 [9 favorites]
I'm glad to see her back in the news for making games. It's something she does very well.
posted by introp at 9:10 AM on August 25, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by introp at 9:10 AM on August 25, 2016 [2 favorites]
I find myself really amused by the apparent belief of the alt–right that anybody but them gives a shit about like/dislike figures on YouTube.
I think they may be going for the king game. As Hillary shows, tell enough lies about someone for long enough, and the general public will assume "Where there's smoke, there's fire." I consider what 20- something's twenty years from now will think of her and get depressed.
On the other hand, a hundred years from now a historian will probably make their name by writing a controversial book arguing against the common notion that Anita Sarkesian and ZoeQuinn were responsible for the Second American Civil War.
posted by happyroach at 9:52 AM on August 25, 2016 [2 favorites]
I think they may be going for the king game. As Hillary shows, tell enough lies about someone for long enough, and the general public will assume "Where there's smoke, there's fire." I consider what 20- something's twenty years from now will think of her and get depressed.
On the other hand, a hundred years from now a historian will probably make their name by writing a controversial book arguing against the common notion that Anita Sarkesian and ZoeQuinn were responsible for the Second American Civil War.
posted by happyroach at 9:52 AM on August 25, 2016 [2 favorites]
How to automatically group together ideological perspectives seems like it would be a hard nut to crack, especially on video.
It's not that difficult a problem, though. Spotify and Amazon already have it solved pretty well for their particular domains: when you react positively to something (starring a song, buying an item, etc.), they recommend other stuff that other people who liked that thing also liked.
But, we already have a serious problem with an echo chamber effect, epistemic closure (which has almost wholly colonized the American Right, and is rapidly catching up on the Left), whatever you want to call it. As desirable as it would be to never see a Daily Stormer link again, the broader effects of algorithmic ideological sorting are not all positive (and may in fact create the exact circumstances in which extremism and conspiracism can grow and thrive – see the 2016 US election).
posted by escape from the potato planet at 9:54 AM on August 25, 2016 [7 favorites]
It's not that difficult a problem, though. Spotify and Amazon already have it solved pretty well for their particular domains: when you react positively to something (starring a song, buying an item, etc.), they recommend other stuff that other people who liked that thing also liked.
But, we already have a serious problem with an echo chamber effect, epistemic closure (which has almost wholly colonized the American Right, and is rapidly catching up on the Left), whatever you want to call it. As desirable as it would be to never see a Daily Stormer link again, the broader effects of algorithmic ideological sorting are not all positive (and may in fact create the exact circumstances in which extremism and conspiracism can grow and thrive – see the 2016 US election).
posted by escape from the potato planet at 9:54 AM on August 25, 2016 [7 favorites]
Thanks for the Patreon link - it's not often I get to say "love your work" and "up yours, asshole" all in the same action, but I do so enjoy it when it opportunity presents.
posted by Mooski at 10:23 AM on August 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Mooski at 10:23 AM on August 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
I can't wait to buy this game. I would buy it regardless of who made it, because it looks like incredible fun. Getting to support Zoe Quinn is gravy, because she seems like a lovely, brilliant, talented person who didn't deserve any of the situation she happened into. There are so many ways to get behind this, whether you want it to pound you or not.
posted by erinfern at 11:12 AM on August 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by erinfern at 11:12 AM on August 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
If I want it to pound me, don't I want to get it behind me?
posted by escape from the potato planet at 11:20 AM on August 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by escape from the potato planet at 11:20 AM on August 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
straight: I sure wish YouTube had a "don't recommend videos like this one to me" button.Hover mouse over recommendation, click the "three dots/very small hamburger" menu/icon that appears, pick "not interested." In my experience, YouTube eventually gets the idea.
RobotHero: Well, it probably explains why after watching this, you get anti-Zoe videos "recommended" instead of pro-Zoe videos. All the algorithm knows is that it has the same keywords but a better upvote ratio.I would guess, based on the recommendations and ads I get, that they're a lot more sophisticated than that. YouTube can construct a weighted graph of actual viewing behavior outside of mere keywords and titles. They see that people who sat through N% of video A (that you just watched) also sat through N+% of video B and video C, which are closely linked to video D, so they recommend B, C, and D.
One very simple possible explanation is: a considerable percentage of the views that Quinn, Sarkeesian et al draw are in fact hate-fans - people who watch because they are addicted to the ridiculous self-righteous fury they produce for themselves in response to the speakers in those videos.
The hate-fans watch Feminist Frequency and then watch the rants about Feminist Frequency. They do it all again tomorrow. YouTube correctly identifies this as a real trend, a neighborhood on their graph, a grouping that genuinely makes sense for a large number of viewers, so it suggests it to you and me, too.
jklaiho: I've actually fantasized about crowdfunding ... an automated system that would distribute a small sum in some way that would directly benefit the victims of online harassment ... it uses a bot to inform the harasser that his actions have just resulted in the transfer of $x.xx to their victim...See, I think we've been there for a while already. If you watch a video by a big-time YouTuber, he/she gets paid - regardless of the reason you're watching.
Maybe you're watching something twice because it's educational, or funny, or because you're showing someone else. Maybe you're watching something over and over and over because you're planning to shriek out a hysterical, unhinged retort video of your own before crawling into bed to cry yourself to sleep on your battered, stained life-size Zoe Quinn pillow.
YouTube can tell what you actually watch with spooky precision, and it can very often make (it seems to me) eerily accurate guesses about other things you'll like, but it can't tell why you're watching a particular thing, so there will always be areas where the recommendations fall down.
posted by Western Infidels at 11:28 AM on August 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
"Waiting for Godot: The Game" FTW!!!
posted by hwestiii at 11:28 AM on August 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by hwestiii at 11:28 AM on August 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
You can tell a lot about a person by how many minutes they'll devote to someone having an extended rant on YouTube. -- Kid Charlemagne
Pro or con, agree or disagree, my limit is about sixty seconds if it's earnest. Whenever it's dead-serious, I glaze over after a minute, no matter how "correct" the rant, because, you know... calm down and explain it properly or STFU, angry person. I can't maintain empathetic outrage any longer than a minute or so.
However... if it's funny enough, I'll keep watching, and I don't even care if I agree with the ranter.
(Rantician. Rantionary. Rantatteur.)
posted by rokusan at 11:36 AM on August 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
Pro or con, agree or disagree, my limit is about sixty seconds if it's earnest. Whenever it's dead-serious, I glaze over after a minute, no matter how "correct" the rant, because, you know... calm down and explain it properly or STFU, angry person. I can't maintain empathetic outrage any longer than a minute or so.
However... if it's funny enough, I'll keep watching, and I don't even care if I agree with the ranter.
(Rantician. Rantionary. Rantatteur.)
posted by rokusan at 11:36 AM on August 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
HEY INTERNET RANTERS
the trick is to sustain interest by swerving unpredictably back and forth between deadpan surreal humor and very serious ranting. It keeps your audience on their toes — if they're not quite sure which type of thing you're doing at any moment, they'll have to pay closer attention to the arguments you're making. Also, if done right, the admixture of serious and surreal keeps you from getting lost in your own righteous indignation.
NOTE: As an internet ranter, you may think that righteous indignation is a good thing — I mean, you're an internet ranter, right? righteous indignation is what you're about! — but remember that your aim isn't so much to express your righteous indignation as it is to get your audience to experience their own righteous indignation. Ranting to express your own personal righteous indignation is functionally equivalent to getting high off your own supply. Don't do it!
NOTE: We are living in the age of Trump, which complicates the field of Internet ranting as a whole. To avoid Trumpery, you must keep it clear in your own mind which aspects of your rant are serious and which ones are surreal. You cannot at any point attempt to walk back a serious statement by later claiming it was just goofy surreality. Be honest with yourself, internet ranters. If you lose track of yourself, you will almost certainly turn from an internet ranter into a garden-variety troll. Trolling is boring and stupid, and there is no excuse for making the world more tedious than it already is.
NOTE: Even if we bracket off the whole Trump thing, we must admit that life as a whole right now, despite its surface surreality, has gotten very serious indeed, and that for the foreseeable future individual humans and the human race on the whole will be continually confronted with a series of very serious, very important questions — and if we choose wrong, disaster beyond reckoning will occur. The situation may be so dire that you may think that internet ranting is no longer an appropriate behavior for an intelligent human being — that it's something best left in the 1990s.
NOTE: You are right to think this.
NOTE: All that said: stay calm, buckaroos. If the battle for the future is between Zoe Quinn, Anita Sarkeesian, and Chuck Tingle on the one side and GamerGate and the alt-right on the other, Zoe Quinn, Anita Sarkeesian, and Chuck Tingle are going to win. Although the Dark Enlightenment dweebs talk a good game, in the real world the people on the good side are smarter, better organized, and more persuasive than the people on the bad side. They're also much funnier.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 12:12 PM on August 25, 2016 [11 favorites]
the trick is to sustain interest by swerving unpredictably back and forth between deadpan surreal humor and very serious ranting. It keeps your audience on their toes — if they're not quite sure which type of thing you're doing at any moment, they'll have to pay closer attention to the arguments you're making. Also, if done right, the admixture of serious and surreal keeps you from getting lost in your own righteous indignation.
NOTE: As an internet ranter, you may think that righteous indignation is a good thing — I mean, you're an internet ranter, right? righteous indignation is what you're about! — but remember that your aim isn't so much to express your righteous indignation as it is to get your audience to experience their own righteous indignation. Ranting to express your own personal righteous indignation is functionally equivalent to getting high off your own supply. Don't do it!
NOTE: We are living in the age of Trump, which complicates the field of Internet ranting as a whole. To avoid Trumpery, you must keep it clear in your own mind which aspects of your rant are serious and which ones are surreal. You cannot at any point attempt to walk back a serious statement by later claiming it was just goofy surreality. Be honest with yourself, internet ranters. If you lose track of yourself, you will almost certainly turn from an internet ranter into a garden-variety troll. Trolling is boring and stupid, and there is no excuse for making the world more tedious than it already is.
NOTE: Even if we bracket off the whole Trump thing, we must admit that life as a whole right now, despite its surface surreality, has gotten very serious indeed, and that for the foreseeable future individual humans and the human race on the whole will be continually confronted with a series of very serious, very important questions — and if we choose wrong, disaster beyond reckoning will occur. The situation may be so dire that you may think that internet ranting is no longer an appropriate behavior for an intelligent human being — that it's something best left in the 1990s.
NOTE: You are right to think this.
NOTE: All that said: stay calm, buckaroos. If the battle for the future is between Zoe Quinn, Anita Sarkeesian, and Chuck Tingle on the one side and GamerGate and the alt-right on the other, Zoe Quinn, Anita Sarkeesian, and Chuck Tingle are going to win. Although the Dark Enlightenment dweebs talk a good game, in the real world the people on the good side are smarter, better organized, and more persuasive than the people on the bad side. They're also much funnier.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 12:12 PM on August 25, 2016 [11 favorites]
Any idea when Zoe Quinn and Dr. Chuck Tingle initially talked to set this up? I'm just wondering in relation to the start of gamergate and the puppies foolishly drafting Dr. Tingle into their Hugo whining. (Important note about drafting people into your fights: Make sure they are on your side beforehand.) I'd search Twitter (assuming it wasn't just DMs), but searching Twitter is impossible.
posted by ckape at 12:21 PM on August 25, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by ckape at 12:21 PM on August 25, 2016 [3 favorites]
Also, shout-out to Star Control II
posted by ckape at 12:23 PM on August 25, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by ckape at 12:23 PM on August 25, 2016 [2 favorites]
Any idea when Zoe Quinn and Dr. Chuck Tingle initially talked to set this up?
Tingle's first book was published December of 2014. The good doctor joined twitter in Jan of 2015. Their first direct twitter interaction (after quite a bit of her saying she loved Tinglers) was this in Jan of this year, which she describes in the Vice video.
Personally, I hope we never know for sure who Chuck Tingle is/was. Much like dril, it's way more fun not knowing.
Speaking of the video itself: The stuff Vice has been doing with this video and the couple before it is great. Between hiring Austin Walker to be editor in chief of their gaming section/subsite/whatever it ends up being and this sort of thing, I'm ... looking forward to Vice coverage of something for the first time in basically ever?
posted by sparkletone at 12:38 PM on August 25, 2016 [3 favorites]
Tingle's first book was published December of 2014. The good doctor joined twitter in Jan of 2015. Their first direct twitter interaction (after quite a bit of her saying she loved Tinglers) was this in Jan of this year, which she describes in the Vice video.
Personally, I hope we never know for sure who Chuck Tingle is/was. Much like dril, it's way more fun not knowing.
Speaking of the video itself: The stuff Vice has been doing with this video and the couple before it is great. Between hiring Austin Walker to be editor in chief of their gaming section/subsite/whatever it ends up being and this sort of thing, I'm ... looking forward to Vice coverage of something for the first time in basically ever?
posted by sparkletone at 12:38 PM on August 25, 2016 [3 favorites]
ckape: Also, shout-out to Star Control II
As soon as she said she'd had a 3DO, I leaned forward, hoping to hear the words "Star Control 2" come out of my speakers. When they did, I leaped up and pranced around shouting "YES!" to nobody in particular.
Best game ever.
posted by sninky-chan at 12:41 PM on August 25, 2016 [3 favorites]
As soon as she said she'd had a 3DO, I leaned forward, hoping to hear the words "Star Control 2" come out of my speakers. When they did, I leaped up and pranced around shouting "YES!" to nobody in particular.
Best game ever.
posted by sninky-chan at 12:41 PM on August 25, 2016 [3 favorites]
Gamergaters. Fuck me.
I mean, say what you will about the tenets of ISIS, dude, but at least they have an ethos.
posted by Anoplura at 4:45 PM on August 25, 2016 [3 favorites]
I mean, say what you will about the tenets of ISIS, dude, but at least they have an ethos.
posted by Anoplura at 4:45 PM on August 25, 2016 [3 favorites]
I'm not looking forward to getting anti-zoe videos recommended to me for the next week
If I suspect a video will get me some yucky recommendations, I'll watch it in a private window in Firefox. (I also do that when I'm shopping on Amazon, so I won't be beset by Amazon spam in my inbox for a week.) At least on Youtube's main page you can click "not interested" to a suggested queue of videos and presumably that alerts their robots that you don't want to see any more of that particular thing thank you. I wish they'd give me the option to click "not interested" to those random videos of ingrown hair extractions they keep dropping into my feed. What the hell did I even watch that made Youtube think I want to see those damn things? Just the screen grabs make me cringe!
posted by Ursula Hitler at 6:27 PM on August 25, 2016
If I suspect a video will get me some yucky recommendations, I'll watch it in a private window in Firefox. (I also do that when I'm shopping on Amazon, so I won't be beset by Amazon spam in my inbox for a week.) At least on Youtube's main page you can click "not interested" to a suggested queue of videos and presumably that alerts their robots that you don't want to see any more of that particular thing thank you. I wish they'd give me the option to click "not interested" to those random videos of ingrown hair extractions they keep dropping into my feed. What the hell did I even watch that made Youtube think I want to see those damn things? Just the screen grabs make me cringe!
posted by Ursula Hitler at 6:27 PM on August 25, 2016
I wish they'd give me the option to click "not interested" to those random videos of ingrown hair extractions they keep dropping into my feed.
There is. At least there is on mobile.
And rather than just watching this, watch it and UPVOTE so Zoe isn't losing to these jerkwads again.
I've started a campaign on my Facebook feed to ask people to watch and upvote.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:47 AM on August 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
There is. At least there is on mobile.
And rather than just watching this, watch it and UPVOTE so Zoe isn't losing to these jerkwads again.
I've started a campaign on my Facebook feed to ask people to watch and upvote.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:47 AM on August 26, 2016 [1 favorite]
And rather than just watching this, watch it and UPVOTE so Zoe isn't losing to these jerkwads again.
Maybe my understanding is incorrect or out of date, but I thought that the dislikes on a youtube video don't actually really do anything to its visibility or anything. In fact, more of any kind of engagement at all (including hitting that thumbs down button) has the opposite effect.
That said, tipping the balance back the other way does feel nice.
posted by sparkletone at 11:20 AM on August 26, 2016
Maybe my understanding is incorrect or out of date, but I thought that the dislikes on a youtube video don't actually really do anything to its visibility or anything. In fact, more of any kind of engagement at all (including hitting that thumbs down button) has the opposite effect.
That said, tipping the balance back the other way does feel nice.
posted by sparkletone at 11:20 AM on August 26, 2016
Last night a Friend of Zoe's jokingly asked when someone was going to do a da share z0ne videogame.
Then this happened.
posted by sparkletone at 11:22 AM on August 26, 2016 [4 favorites]
Then this happened.
posted by sparkletone at 11:22 AM on August 26, 2016 [4 favorites]
There is. At least there is on mobile.
Unfortunately, the option to say "Not Interested" appears to be mobile-only. Which is absurd, it's too useful a feature to provide to only a subset of your users. But forget it, Jake, it's Googletown.
posted by tobascodagama at 2:04 PM on August 26, 2016
Unfortunately, the option to say "Not Interested" appears to be mobile-only. Which is absurd, it's too useful a feature to provide to only a subset of your users. But forget it, Jake, it's Googletown.
posted by tobascodagama at 2:04 PM on August 26, 2016
Hmm, I found "not interested" on the desktop version too. You need to sort of hover your mouse just to the right of the name of the video in the thumbnail view, and wait for three verticaly-arranged dots to appear - then click on those. That should open a "more options" menu that lets you say "not interested".
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:52 PM on August 26, 2016
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:52 PM on August 26, 2016
Ah. That seems to work for "related" videos but not the "up next" video.
posted by tobascodagama at 4:41 PM on August 26, 2016
posted by tobascodagama at 4:41 PM on August 26, 2016
« Older The Country Restaurant | The Mammoth Pirates Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by meinvt at 4:41 AM on August 25, 2016 [4 favorites]