I... The first link: I honestly shouldn't bother with the rest of it, as I already know it's going to be hyper-liberal conspiracy theorist bullshit. Really? Business are good at advertising games, and that make the military better at propaganda? Well, Two down... The fuck does this have to do with games? That is an issue with curated storefronts by biased curators. Ethical concern for games: Businesses pay for reviews... This. Still has nothing to do with video games themselves. Just storefronts and general issues with unregulated capitalism. That's it, I'm skipping the rest of the ones that are along these lines. Yeah, and for good reason. People work those jobs with talent that could get them a hell of a lot of money in other places. Turns out people choose to work as game designers (programming wise) because they like the field, not because they want money or short hours. If you don't like it, find a new job. And of course you get fired if you attack the company that is hiring you. This isn't an ethical concern! Total Biscuit has done very good talks on why this is. It has more to do with there being a fair "start date" for all companies so one does not get an early review and undermine everyone else. Without a schedule you can just give out review copies to those you know are going to review positively. Yeah, but with disclosure everyone knows where the biases are and can look to multiple places for review. With a link to the intel article? So sorry, random gaming news site, but when you go out of your way to insult a large consumer base, the people who sell things to that consumer base is going to stop selling ads on your site. You don't publish an article calling gamers "man children who are socially inept" when your audience is exactly that. Not without losing your audience and advertisers and having to start again with a new one, at least. So we go from absolute bullshit to anti Gamer Gate shit in what, two paragraphs? ___ I love how we had gotten away from the "gamers r stupid fat nerds with acne", but then right the fuck back to it with the neckbeard stereotype. Every time I hear "women are abused when participating in games" it's liked to the "critics" like Anita or Zoe Quinn. I know they do get harassment from people, threats, etc, but that's what happens to anyone on the internet with an opinion any group does not like. Look at TB, who had quite a few issues with criticism, or the amazing atheist. When a person does things people don't like, they are attacked by people online. It's not an issue connected to gaming, gamers, or anything of the sort. It's a problem with the internet, and honestly it's not going away until we force people to use their real names online. How about instead of pointing to these two scapegoats we actually focus on the real issues. Not "oh, games make people view women as objects" or "people hate my badly made flash game because i'm a woman!". Focus on the fact that people will stereotype women as not being gamers. Focus on how, when you play or are a girl on xbox live, you (apparently) get all the people going directly and immediately to "gamer girl" stereotypes, or using crap like "go make me a sandwich'. There is no issue I know of that is a larger deal than that. All the bullshit about women being sexualized will go away if we actually get a large enough part of women playing "hardcore" games to offset the number of men playing them. (it won't go away, necessarily, but there will be far more money in making a neutral game rather than a sexy one). Push for more female developers, for better moderation of communities to oust fucks like described above, etc. Build something, be constructive. All I see from these "critics" is complaining about really minor issues in games, and going so far as to directly mislead and cherry-pick information while doing so. People don't hate them because they criticism games. People have been doing that for ages. They hate them because of the false information, the misrepresentation, etc.Video games are used to covertly advance the political agendas of arms manufacturers.
The aggressive marketing of capitalist war games is an inspiration to the U.S. military, which could take a page out of games marketing’s book in order to push unpopular ideas on the public.
Games like Littleloud’s Sweatshop or Molleindustria’s Phone Story are forbidden from Apple’s mobile storefronts, because they question (arguably deservedly) the ethics of manufacturing operations in impoverished areas.
This site and this one are just a couple of the sites game developers can pay for reviews that make unproven promises to improve games’ positioning on mobile storefronts.
Developers who invest in design and publishing on mobile storefronts can expect to have free, unsanctioned clones of their games steal their revenue and come ahead of the original on charts with no action taken from the companies that own those storefronts.
The labor practices of the traditional game industry are exploitive and abhorrent. The industry’s historical production model involves staffing up, demanding extreme work weeks, and then letting go of the ‘excess’ talent after a product ships. Speaking out against these conditions is socially sanctioned, and developers who speak to the press at any time other than when marketing wants them to risk being fired.
An entire product and studio network — and by extension, a regional economy around games — can tank because of political posturing,
In the name of objectivity, the consumer-facing games press largely releases material on a mutually-agreed upon set of terms and schedules dictated by game companies.
In many of the above cases even when disclosure is obligated and made, disclosure does little to purify the overall effect on the climate and its perspectives.
Women in games are routinely abused, bullied and harassed while their professional community, and the industry’s largest companies, tend to remain silent. Interrogating this culture or attempting to advance this conversation can result in censure or punishment.
Not currently ethical concerns: Women’s sex lives, independent game developers’ Patreons, the personal perspectives of game critics, people having contentious or controversial opinions, who knows who in a close-knit industry (as if one could name an industry where people don’t know each other or work together).