Zoe Quinn for Non-Geeks

As mentioned in a previous post, I did not fully understand the "conflict" that has arisen in the gamer/geek/comicon/video game industry with the likes of Anita Sarkeesian, Adria Richards, and (most recently) Zoe Quinn.  Even though I am an avid gamer and 80's nerd, I still was not able to understand why there is so much hubbub about a bunch of feminists trying to ruin a good time in geek culture.  In my layman eye I didn't see any true threat or scandal except for a bunch of hate-filled feminists wishing to either capitalize or vainly attempt to destroy an otherwise happy and predominantly male-enclave of society so they could boost their egos without the rigor and effort of accomplishing anything of genuine merit or worth.

However, because of the sheer volume and visceral backlash against these women, I knew there must have been more than what my novice eye was seeing.  And thusly I requested our resident expert in all things Geekery, Chris Bechtloff, to connect the dots for us non-geeks so we can understand the threat these sub-humans pose to society.

I personally know Chris and his podcast is one I tune into regularly.  I'm not recommending it because "he's a friend and I'm just trying to help out a friend," but because the dude has a GREAT geek podcast and has the ability to translate the happenings in geek culture to how it affects "normal boring us" culture.  You may find his podcast here and the traffic would be appreciated.

Hello there Lieutenants, this is The Bechtloff and the good Captain has asked me to step in and explain, as simply as possible, who the hell Zoe Quinn is, what this controversy is all about, and most importantly, why you should care.

Zoe Quinn is the feminist social justice warrior who made a little video game called Depression Quest on an independent video game distributing site called Steam. Depression Quest is a text based game about having depression. If that sounds like a terrible idea for a video game, it's only because it is. Ms. Quinn's game was, as you might imagine, mocked by many a gamer. A fact that Quinn was able to use to able to use to garner sympathy and even donations via crowd funding. So to recap, Zoe Quinn's original claim to fame was making a terrible excuse for a video game, and then playing the professional victim.

Now recently Zoe Quinn's ex boyfriend published a very lengthy blog in which he accused her of cheating on him with at least five different guys, which is where she earned her new nickname of "Five Guys Burgers and Lies". Now it seems most if not all of these men were fellow video game developers and video game journalists who worked at sites that were giving her favorable coverage as well as covering up negative stories on her that came out. So obviously serious questions regarding journalistic integrity have been raised. All of this is covered extremely well in videos by the Youtuber Internet Aristocrat. I would suggest checking them out for more on it.

Now I don't want to go into extensive detail, but there are a lot of factors here. The identity of all five of these men, or even if it is indeed only five are unknown as of now. Also a staunch Zoe Quinn defender by the name of Phil Fish is claiming his website has been hacked by Zoe's enemies, although there is considerable evidence that he faked that. I'm struggling with how much to even mention here because I really want to keep this as brief as possible. As I said, there is a lot going on here, and this story continues to unfold even as I type this. But what is clear is that geek and gaming sites like Kotaku are desperately trying to sweep things under the rug on this. In a very Nixon like turn of events the cover up is rapidly becoming far worse than the crime.

Now the real question is why does this matter. Well, this is far more important than the whorishness of Zoe Quinn. This is about how unbelievably corrupt and bias the geek and gaming media has become. Put simply, we have allegations that gaming developers were sleeping with game critics in exchange for positive coverage, and the response from those in charge of these sites has been "Move along, nothing to see here folks.". We have journalists literally in bed with the industry they are charged with covering. It is clear that the gaming and geek media have become completely overrun by corrupt whores who care about nothing but pushing their insane liberal agenda and scratching each others backs in the process, or in this case, scratching each others naughty bits. And if Zoe Quinn and everyone else involved can get away with this, then that means these people can basically get away with anything. Now some of you reading this might think this doesn't matter. Maybe you don't play video games, or read comic books, or indulge in any other aspect of geek culture. But it still matters. Geek culture is the imagination of our culture. It is from geek culture that so much of our technological innovation and our art and entertainment spring. We cannot afford to let these soulless liberal whores snuff that flame of creativity out.

Thanks folks. And now back to your regularly scheduled Cappy Cap blogging.