Blizzard creates a commemorative TotalBiscuit cosmetic bundle for StarCraft II (Read OP)

Budi · Sep 10, 2018

BernardoOne said:
Let's stop with this fucking shit .dude was defending GamerGate in 2016 and 2017. No, he wasn't "fooled".

He was defending his own participation, not everyone using the hashtag. Which he shouldn't have done, but apologized instead.

BernardoOne said:
Let's stop with this fucking shit .dude was defending GamerGate in 2016 and 2017. No, he wasn't "fooled".
there isn't. U less you don't know own what "equating" actually means.

Neither does mod team then I suppose, you need to take it to them. Just take your L dude.

User Warned: Derailing, extreme false equivalency

mrfusticle · Sep 10, 2018

Dmax3901 said:
Why is it always the people who make claims of "SJWs and their black and white thinking!!!" that refuse to see the nuance to any sensitive discussion? I'm choking on the irony.

Same reason they always think their communities are under attack from some "other" yet call their enemies snowflakes.

OT: I think this initiative is commendable in it's purpose and the place of love and caring it's come from ... but ... It's also a sad reminder that GG was not called out at the time by big companies like Blizzard in favour of not rocking the boat and keeping profits maximised. It's now metastasized into something far worse. Unlike the USSC I don't believe businesses are capable of moral thought (as opposed to the individuals who work for them) but, in the end, hiding from bullying and bigotry is going to hurt their bottom line... Some have started to realise this but all too slowly.

Unclebenny · Sep 10, 2018

Budi said:
He was an advocate for all gamers.

He wasn't an advocate for me. I honestly couldn't care less about frame rates and would much rather focus on the horrible actions the gaming community can enact on others.

It's fine to like him and want remember him but it should also be accepted he did harm to others, either through ignorance or intention.

I also refuse to enter into the idea that menu options and frame rates are a a particularly important cause to fight for.

He set himself up as a champion for "gamers" and going along with GG was all part of that, ignoring that gaming goes far beyond frame rates and tech settings.

He furthered the narrative that gamers are never wrong and ended profiting from it in the process.

In fact, the more I think about it, the less I like him.

Zafir · Sep 10, 2018

Numberfox said:
Well, after reading the link Kinsei linked about a critique on TB's YouTube comment from 2014, as well as reading the source to what A.By posted with TB's YouTube comments from 2016, watching a bunch of junk and info about GamerGate that I've previously avoided whenever it's mentioned because I knew it'd be a huge can of worms I'd sift through whenever I decided to actually learn about it, there's a lot to unpack. I think I have a big headache wrapping my mind around it all.

TB was definitely in the wrong for being a pro-GamerGater. However, I don't think he was a true-blood GamerGater, just another person conned by the "ethics in games journalism" rhetoric that they used. An Angry Jack, easily and extremely influenced by the GamerGate movement:

I firmly believe that's the case because TB was always pro-ethics in journalism long before GamerGate, since 2011 when he started to gain popularity. As an influential figure in gaming, he had to personally deal with game journalism issues like being given gifts from developers, companies not giving out review copies, or other exploitative and anti-consumer practices by companies. His whole stance on GamerGate is that it was an actual movement to endorse ethics in game journalism. He felt the death threats that were sent by GamerGaters were extreme, but he was receiving those same death threats and a great deal of harassment by Anti-GGers, so to him they were all crazy people resorting to tribalism who shouldn't be taken seriously. To him, the fact these people were being given more attention than games journalism ethics was so backwards as someone who truly believed in GamerGate's "message" on ethics in games journalism.

Just to be clear, I'm not trying to defend his actions. I'm just trying to understand the situation myself after his death. I look at all the vitriol that GamerGate represented, the stuff TB himself stated, and I'm trying to make sense on why TB seems respected by his close peers in spite of that all. Like, why would Laura, a trans woman, and Sky Williams, a black gay man, hold a pro-GG member in high regard? Why did he never publicly apologize for supporting GG? It's because he legitimately never associated GG with a hate movement. Laura cites this SoundCloud as the thing she will most remember him by, his soundcloud defending her.
https://soundcloud.com/totalbiscuit/we-need-to-have-words

Obviously, the damage he caused by association is great. It's not an overstatement to say he was one of, if not the largest contributing factor to why GamerGate succeeded so well in what it wanted to accomplish. Maybe I'm just constantly making up excuses, I've been up for about 7 hours more than I ought to just trying to wrap my head about this whole incident. I don't know, when I look into both sides of the story, I see a man who was conned so badly by the GamerGate movement that he never realized the true motives behind it. He legitimately believed, even on his deathbed, in the fake rhetoric GG-ers used to defend themselves with. The fact that he was also personally being harassed by anti-GG folk may have helped to fuel his irrational look at what GamerGate was. But that's just as someone who had no real exposure to GamerGate until now, so I have no real idea at the end of the day. I need shuteye, so I'll sleep on it.

I mean, he also down played the harassment/death threats women got during this time because they were still alive at the end of it, lol, as if that suddenly makes it okay. He absolutely was part of the issue. I don't buy for one second that he was conned by it, he was a smart enough man to know otherwise. I think it's very probable he did care about "ethics in journalism" before this blew up, however, he didn't care for one second about any of the negatives that campaign caused towards any women in the industry. Even worse, he never apologised for it, he was too damn proud to admit anything he did was wrong, and just doubled down instead.

He did a lot of good things for games, sure, but he could be pretty damn heartless on twitter, not even just during GG.

Siresly · Sep 10, 2018

Branduil said:
It still sends a message to women that they don't matter, that you can promote a hate campaign against them as much as you want and the gaming community will still love you. There are no consequences in gaming culture for hating women.

An opportunist encouraging and legitimizing a hate group targeting women is lauded, while the people standing up against it are punished (see ArenaNet, Riot). It's beyond fucked up.

HockeyBird said:
Totalbiscuit is obviously not Hitler. I think he cared a lot about his family and his friend. He did a lot of good things for gaming and for Starcraft II. I subbed to his content and regularly watched his videos. But you also can't deny that he was part of a harassment campaign. I don't think he did it to specifically with the intent to harass women. But I do think he wanted to challenge the typical gaming media because he thought he was smarter than them. And GG gave him an audience and support for what he wanted to accomplish. And that was obviously very stupid of him. Those same people would end up harassing him and his own friends later down the road. I think over time he began to regret his support of GG but I don't think he did enough rectify the damage that he did.

He leaves behind a mixed legacy. I can see why Blizzard is doing this and they have good intentions behind it. If you only look at TB in the confines of Blizzard games, then what Blizzard is going is an obvious choice. However, for me personally, I am the type of person, who can only examine a person for a few qualities and ignore the rest. He did a lot of good things for gaming. But his support of harassment had more impact than all his youtube reviews and commentary combined. It defines him more than his contribution as a youtube content creator. The family he leave behind deserve support. But for me personally, I don't think I could support memorializing him in a positive light.

Aye.

Budi · Sep 10, 2018

Unclebenny said:
He wasn't an advocate for me. I honestly couldn't care less about frame rates and would much rather focus on the horrible actions the gaming community can enact on others.

It's fine to like him and want remember him but it should also be accepted he did harm to others, either through ignorance or intention.

I also refuse to enter into the idea that menu options and frame rates are a a particularly important cause to fight for.

He set himself up as a champion for "gamers" and going along with GG was all part of that, ignoring that gaming goes far beyond frame rates and tech settings.

He furthered the narrative that gamers are never wrong and ended profiting from it in the process.

In fact, the more I think about it, the less I like him.

Sure it's absolutely valid that you didn't feel represented by him. His focus was absolutely more on the actual games than communities and the culture around them. Yet I also firmly believe that his participation in GG and the harmful views GG largely is known to represent are exaggerated. He absolutely gave them visibility, but he didn't make any effort to keep them relevant. He didn't side with them when it comes to issues like "free speech" and being against diversity. No doubt there are people who took the wrong message from his GG support and used TB to validate their bigotry. TB failed to take responsibility about that. But he wasn't a GG figure head, he wasn't even an active participant. He took the "ethics in gaming journalism" part and went with that, of course we know it was also a cover for harassment. But TB didn't do that harassment neither was he encouraging anyone to do that.

And you really don't have to care about framerates either, but plenty of people do so he did important work that helped those people.

Zafir said:
I mean, he also down played the harassment/death threats women got during this time because they were still alive at the end of it, lol, as if that suddenly makes it okay. He absolutely was part of the issue. I don't buy for one second that he was conned by it, he was a smart enough man to know otherwise. I think it's very probable he did care about "ethics in journalism" before this blew up, however, he didn't care for one second about any of the negatives that campaign caused towards any women in the industry. Even worse, he never apologised for it, he was too damn proud to admit anything he did was wrong, and just doubled down instead.

He did a lot of good things for games, sure, but he could be pretty damn heartless on twitter, not even just during GG.

This was a mistake he made that he acknowledged though. And let's not pretend that people wouldn't also be downplaying any harassment and threats he got. Yet probably thinking they are some moral compass everyone should follow and above TB who is a monster.

Deleted member 5596 · Sep 10, 2018

Budi said:
He was defending his own participation, not everyone using the hashtag. Which he shouldn't have done, but apologized instead.

He was defending the whole validity of the movement, c'mon. Remember when Anita received death threats and he was "So what? so do I", he was extremely dismissive of the damage the movement was doing, because he was always had this beef with "game journalism" and needed the movement to piggyback his stupid crusade, neverless he was giving voice and validity to the whole shitshow to his viewers. Which is more than just "defending his own participation".

Sure it's absolutely valid that you didn't feel represented by him. His focus was absolutely more on the actual games than communities and the culture around them. Yet I also firmly believe that his participation in GG and the harmful views GG largely is known to represent are exaggerated

Maybe this is the problem...

Deleted member 4044 · Sep 10, 2018

Unclebenny said:
He wasn't an advocate for me. I honestly couldn't care less about frame rates and would much rather focus on the horrible actions the gaming community can enact on others.

It's fine to like him and want remember him but it should also be accepted he did harm to others, either through ignorance or intention.

I also refuse to enter into the idea that menu options and frame rates are a a particularly important cause to fight for.

He set himself up as a champion for "gamers" and going along with GG was all part of that, ignoring that gaming goes far beyond frame rates and tech settings.

He furthered the narrative that gamers are never wrong and ended profiting from it in the process.

In fact, the more I think about it, the less I like him.

This is a great post, and you put into words something I've hated for years now, ever since the Mass Effect 3 ending fiascp - "the narrative that gamers are never wrong."

Budi · Sep 10, 2018

Relaxed Muscle said:
He was defending the whole validity of the movement, c'mon. Remember when Anita received death threats and he was "So what? so do I", he was extremely dismissive of the damage the movement was doing, because he was always had this beef with "game journalism" and needed the movement to piggyback his stupid crusade, neverless he was giving voice and validity to the whole shitshow to his viewers. Which is more than just "defending his own participation".

Yeah I remember that, it was really stupid thing to say. I don't have to defend or excuse dumb stuff someone has said and acknowledged of being dumb, to defend them from people labeling them a monster or causing distress to their loved ones. It's good to point shit like that out, but I don't think it means we should ignore everything good he has said and done. People aren't defined by just their mistakes, atleast I believe so.

spineduke · Sep 10, 2018

Budi said:
This was a mistake he made that he acknowledged though. And let's not pretend that people wouldn't also be downplaying any harassment and threats he got. Yet probably thinking they are some moral compass everyone should follow and above TB who is a monster.

Has he really? I've never seen any apology from him about GG and his enabling behavior.

Deleted member 28076 · Sep 10, 2018

Budi said:
This was a mistake he made that he acknowledged though.

When did he acknowledge this? You keep saying TB recognized and apologized for his participation in a movement dedicated to pushing women, LGBTQ, and POC out of the industry but I can find no source on this. The closest I can find is when he announced he was done with Gamergate after it lead to his own personal friend being attacked but never took back anything he said as part of it.

Budi · Sep 10, 2018

spineduke said:
Has he really? I've never seen any apology from him about GG and his enabling behavior.

No he never apologized about his GG support, he defended his own participation to the end from what I know. But he has acknowledged and even apologized other things that have been brought up. Make no mistake, I think he didn't do enough about GG and distancing himself from it. I've been trying to be clear about this through the thread.

Doctor Ironic said:
When did he acknowledge this? You keep saying TB recognized and apologized for his participation in a movement dedicated to pushing women, LGBTQ, and POC out of the industry but I can find no source on this. The closest I can find is when he announced he was done with Gamergate after it lead to his own personal friend being attacked but never took back anything he said as part of it.

Nah not saying that. Either it's my bad English or your reading comprehension. He initially supported and highlighted GG. But he never went against women, LGBTQ and POC. He has adressed some of the issues these groups face and has been only supportive. I just can't pretend I haven't heard him talk about these things, even though he willfully associated with GG for a while.

Tygre · Sep 10, 2018

Katsyo said:
Raising money for a widowed single mother fighting cancer isn't good enough cause for you?

No. Even divorced from any context, this would still be questionable. With appropriate context it just gets worse.

You wanna go the cancer route? Try supporting the AACR, or Cancer Research, or Marie Curie, or any of the other many cancer fighting or ameliorating charities out there.

You wanna go the single mother route? Try Extended Family, or Warwick Dunn, or Gingerbread, or any of the other many family focussed charities out there.

A company like Blizzard, raising money in the name of a man like TB, specifically to help TB's family, is just... beyond words. Blizzard are big enough to do systemic good, and instead they do this.

Unclebenny · Sep 10, 2018

Admodieus said:
This is a great post, and you put into words something I've hated for years now, ever since the Mass Effect 3 ending fiascp - "the narrative that gamers are never wrong."

Thanks!

TB is very representative of a certain strain of gamer who represents that ideal and many gaming companies are also to blame for kowtowing to ridiculous demands, the worst being the Mass Effect 3 ending. As you mentioned.

We are seeing the nadir of that with all these developers getting fired recently.

Kongroo · Sep 10, 2018

So proud of Blizzard for this <3

TB was a major influence for me in the past 5 years. Glad to see this is going to help Genna.

Unclebenny · Sep 10, 2018

Budi said:
Nah not saying that. Either it's my bad English or your reading comprehension. He initially supported and highlighted GG. But he never went against women, LGBTQ and POC. He has adressed some of the issues these groups face and has been only supportive. I just can't pretend I haven't heard him talk about these things, even though he willfully associated with GG for a while.

You can't be both supportive of a blatant harassment group and a supporter of minorities. You can't use his lack of direct harassment as a defense while also admitting he was helping the people who were doing the harassing.

He was either pretending the two weren't linked or didn't care. Either way, he knew what was going on and deserves condemnation.

Dalik · Sep 10, 2018

Twig said:
"Gosh thank you TB so much for supporting this video game I like. What? No, I don't care that you did way more bad things because they don't affect me. Thank you thank you thank you! And thank you Blizzard for celebrating this man who did bad things that I don't care about!"

Basically this, this thread proves that most gamers are trash human beings.

Zafir · Sep 10, 2018

Budi said:
And you really don't have to care about framerates either, but plenty of people do so he did important work that helped those people.
This was a mistake he made that he acknowledged though. And let's not pretend that people wouldn't also be downplaying any harassment and threats he got. Yet probably thinking they are some moral compass everyone should follow and above TB who is a monster.

No one is arguing he is a monster, you keep arguing this straw man. It's you who seems to be down playing the negatives he did. Like maybe he did "regret" that particular statement, but he also said a lot of very rude things about Anita and he actively worked to publicise GG during this time, I never saw him apologise for any of these things or even make up for it. Furthermore, she isn't the only one he harassed. He was absolutely awful on twitter. Insulting people, even going so far to tell people to kill themselves, or whatever. It's pointless regretting if you don't do anything about it.

Also stop trying to suggest that because he didn't personally take part in the large scale harassment that means he was being "conned" or whatever, he was obviously a very intelligent man, it's disingenuous to suggest otherwise. He knew full well it was being used as an harassment campaign towards women, he just didn't care because he knew he could use it to further his own cause. And sure, there maybe was some good points he had towards ethics in journalism. However, that doesn't excuse for one second him helping a front for an harassment campaign.

I already said I think he did a lot of good things for games. However, I just can't personally get over all of the rubbish he did. I don't think he's a monster, I think he's a complicated person, one who had some very good ideas about the gaming industry, but also a very prideful and arrogant man which resulted in him never really truly making up for the mistakes he made. Since he didn't make up for them, it makes it very hard for me to personally memorialise him.

DeliciousSunnyD! · Sep 10, 2018

You know another thing I've found interesting in this thread? That several of the same people who don't understand or are critical of those critical towards Blizzard doing this all tend to use the same kinds of lines and rhetoric, as in "This place can be so toxic" and "I'm glad that Era is a minority in the gaming sphere" or similar.

And of course Blizzard's made a plan to do this. Any good business plans any action they take, especially actions that have outward, obvious visibility. And a company as big and prevalent (and cunning + calculating) as Blizzard would plan something like this 100%, no doubt in my mind. It isn't a conspiracy to say that I'm sure they weighed the positives and negative reactions by doing this, and determined that despite legitimate concerns about commemorating someone who maybe shouldn't be immortally commemorated in a product of theirs, they still felt that the net beneficial gain was far greater than any real and legitimate negative perception people will have against them for doing this.

Basically, they know their fans will either not be upset, champion the guy totally, or be totally ignorant on why this looks bad, on the whole.

Unclebenny said:
He wasn't an advocate for me. I honestly couldn't care less about frame rates and would much rather focus on the horrible actions the gaming community can enact on others.

It's fine to like him and want remember him but it should also be accepted he did harm to others, either through ignorance or intention.

I also refuse to enter into the idea that menu options and frame rates are a a particularly important cause to fight for.

He set himself up as a champion for "gamers" and going along with GG was all part of that, ignoring that gaming goes far beyond frame rates and tech settings.

He furthered the narrative that gamers are never wrong and ended profiting from it in the process.

In fact, the more I think about it, the less I like him.

This is the impression that I always got about this guy. And not just 'gamers', but a specific set of capital-G Gamers.

I've mentioned this a few times on this board, but in my senior year of my bachelor degree, we had to write these research papers tying our degree of study (in my case game art & design BFA) to a topic that the professor you have assigns you. My professor gave us this book by Rolling Stones reporter Matt Taibbi, The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap. This book was an incredible eye-opener for me personally, as it did a great job at illustrating how busted the concept of justice and the execution of the 'rule of law' is in the United States right now. How minorities are scapegoated, while the hyper-rich are running the country into ruination. It examined the housing crisis and the banks getting bailed out, and all of the white collar crime that was flying way under the radar.

I had to somehow tie video games and their design into their role and impact on the society and economy, and economic disparity. I wrote a paper that essentially tried to argue that the future of government and societal movement and the dynamics of the 'gaming mob' interfacing and making demands from the creators were comparable. That you could see socio-political + economical dynamics happening within the largest video games in the marketplace that were indicators of the future in IRL politics, economics and social culture.

The paper was hastily slapped together, and was probably mostly bullshit to be honest. But I do think I was scarily accurate on some levels, especially when you consider things like this:

NYMag - Steve Bannon Saw the 'Monster Power' of Angry Gamers While Farming Gold in World of Warcraft

Budi · Sep 10, 2018

Unclebenny said:
You can't be both supportive of a blatant harassment group and a supporter of minorities. You can't use his lack of direct harassment as a defense while also admitting he was helping the people who were doing the harassing.

He was either pretending the two weren't linked or didn't care. Either way, he knew what was going on and deserves condemnation.

GG tried to brand themselves for being about "ethics in gaming journalism" (which was a cover), this is what TB supported. Not the fight against "SJW":s that is movement against minorities and women. I do think there's a difference. It's more important to me that I've seen and heard him stand up against transphobia in example and challenge sexism than his stubborn defense of his participation in giving GG any spotlight. I can be critical of him while seeing the actual person at the same time and that person wasn't a monster. That person wasn't against LGBTQ, women or people of color.

"Let me make this unequivocally clear for even the most narrowminded person who listens, I'm in 100% in favor of transgender equality. I'm 100% in favor of treating human beings like human beings. It doesn't get any fucking simpler, this is 2015 and we are not a bunch of savages. Now if some of you are not okay with that, the door is to the left." His words after the mocking and hate Laura Kate Dale got after her appearance on the podcast. Source, it's around the 22.40 mark: https://soundcloud.com/totalbiscuit/we-need-to-have-words

Zafir said:
No one is arguing he is a monster, you keep arguing this straw man. It's you who seems to be down playing the negatives he did. Like maybe he did "regret" that particular statement, but he also said a lot of very rude things about Anita and he actively worked to publicise GG during this time, I never saw him apologise for any of these things or even make up for it. Furthermore, she isn't the only one he harassed. He was absolutely awful on twitter. Insulting people, even going so far to tell people to kill themselves, or whatever. It's pointless regretting if you don't do anything about it.

Also stop trying to suggest that because he didn't personally take part in the large scale harassment that means he was being "conned" or whatever, he was obviously a very intelligent man, it's disingenuous to suggest otherwise. He knew full well it was being used as an harassment campaign towards women, he just didn't care because he knew he could use it to further his own cause. And sure, there maybe was some good points he had towards ethics in journalism. However, that doesn't excuse for one second him helping a front for an harassment campaign.

I already said I think he did a lot of good things for games. However, I just can't personally get over all of the rubbish he did. I don't think he's a monster, I think he's a complicated person, one who had some very good ideas about the gaming industry, but also a very prideful and arrogant man which resulted in him never really truly making up for the mistakes he made. Since he didn't make up for them, it makes it very hard for me to personally memorialise him.

Sigh, he's been called a monster in this very thread. He did a lot of good for gamers but also took stances against bigotry. I'm not gonna ignore that, you are free to do so. And I do agree with you, it was his failure that he didn't condemn GG properly and distance himself from it. I agree that he was prideful, arrogant and stubborn too. Blizzard is doing a beautiful thing here and they have my full support for this.

Unclebenny · Sep 10, 2018

DeliciousSunnyD! said:
You know another thing I've found interesting in this thread? That several of the same people who don't understand or are critical of those critical towards Blizzard doing this all tend to use the same kinds of lines and rhetoric, as in "This place can be so toxic" and "I'm glad that Era is a minority in the gaming sphere" or similar.

And of course Blizzard's made a plan to do this. Any good business plans any action they take, especially actions that have outward, obvious visibility. And a company as big and prevalent (and cunning + calculating) as Blizzard would plan something like this 100%, no doubt in my mind. It isn't a conspiracy to say that I'm sure they weighed the positives and negative reactions by doing this, and determined that despite legitimate concerns about commemorating someone who maybe shouldn't be immortally commemorated in a product of theirs, they still felt that the net beneficial gain was far greater than any real and legitimate negative perception people will have against them for doing this.

Basically, they know their fans will either not be upset, champion the guy totally, or be totally ignorant on why this looks bad, on the whole.

This is the impression that I always got about this guy. And not just 'gamers', but a specific set of capital-G Gamers.

I've mentioned this a few times on this board, but in my senior year of my bachelor degree, we had to write these research papers tying our degree of study (in my case game art & design BFA) to a topic that the professor you have assigns you. My professor gave us this book by Rolling Stones reporter Matt Taibbi, The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap. This book was an incredible eye-opener for me personally, as it did a great job at illustrating how busted the concept of justice and the execution of the 'rule of law' is in the United States right now. How minorities are scapegoated, while the hyper-rich are running the country into ruination. It examined the housing crisis and the banks getting bailed out, and all of the white collar crime that was flying way under the radar.

I had to somehow tie video games and their design into their role and impact on the society and economy, and economic disparity. I wrote a paper that essentially tried to argue that the future of government and societal movement and the dynamics of the 'gaming mob' interfacing and making demands from the creators were comparable. That you could see socio-political + economical dynamics happening within the largest video games in the marketplace that were indicators of the future in IRL politics, economics and social culture.

The paper was hastily slapped together, and was probably mostly bullshit to be honest. But I do think I was scarily accurate on some levels, especially when you consider things like this:

NYMag - Steve Bannon Saw the 'Monster Power' of Angry Gamers While Farming Gold in World of Warcraft

I was quite heavily into reading about GG when it happened and even I have been amazed at how deep a connection this community has with the right.

There is a weird dichotomy of being both in awe of products but totally distrustful of authority figures in the space (games companies, journalists) and only trusting the fans, no matter what they are saying, as long as it serves the continued consumption.

TB was very much this personified. Let's get angry and worked up about frame rates but don't get too silly about sexism.

I truly do fell sorry for his family and was super conflicted on the response when he first died but a lot of people felt very hurt by this guy. It is important that be known.

Weltall Zero · Sep 10, 2018

Sander VF said:
Based on what others said, there was "are you assuming my gender?" joke that has since been removed.

Oh right, I forgot about that. I believe they also apologized. A far cry from Blizzard, which does seem either tone deaf or uncaring about this.

Doomguy Fieri · Sep 10, 2018

John Bain was a hell of an advocate for consumers and his love of Starcraft 2 helped it become one of my favorite games of all time. Buying this for sure.

Deleted member 19218 · Sep 10, 2018

That's nice. I always liked Blizzard's commitment towards it's community. They have the Blizzcon event that really seems to bring people together, people get immortalized (Not just TB) in the games such as the Leeroy dude and some people such as the Red Shirt Guy have become minor celebrities.

I kinda like that, I don't see that happening with many other developers, in fact I can't think of a single one right now.

Katsyo · Sep 10, 2018

Tygre said:
No. Even divorced from any context, this would still be questionable. With appropriate context it just gets worse.

You wanna go the cancer route? Try supporting the AACR, or Cancer Research, or Marie Curie, or any of the other many cancer fighting or ameliorating charities out there.

You wanna go the single mother route? Try Extended Family, or Warwick Dunn, or Gingerbread, or any of the other many family focussed charities out there.

A company like Blizzard, raising money in the name of a man like TB, specifically to help TB's family, is just... beyond words. Blizzard are big enough to do systemic good, and instead they do this.

Good to know.

Biestmann · Sep 10, 2018

Risev said:
Man I hate this place sometimes. TB did shitty things in life. I don't know how to feel about commemorating him, but ultimately I think the benefit of helping his family outweighs the negatives of commemorating a dead man who can no longer do more good or harm.

But this fucking place, turning this whole thing into something like a plan Blizzard concocted...... And a couple of pages back people were arguing with full belief in the "fact" that Blizzard must really hate women because of this...... Goes to show that people forget about the good you do in seconds and will latch on to whatever "bad" you do for all eternity. Didn't Blizzard just raise almost $13 million for breast cancer research? It's times like these I'm glad Era is a very tiny minority of the gaming spehre. This place can often be just as toxic as the rest of them.

Blizzard does not necessarily hate women, but a move like this shows a clear lack of empathy. As does supporting this decision by the company. And on the contrary to what you say, a dead man absolutely can do harm and does when things like these happen. Imagine a man that had people harass you - now dead - were to be commemorated by your favorite restaurant. Would you still want to go? Gamergate victims, and that is primarily women, see the message loud and clear: that their suffering is of no importance to this company.

TheGhost · Sep 10, 2018

I just want some sort of blue plz reference in WoW. I'll pay money if I can fly one angry murloc around.

legacyzero · Sep 10, 2018

Wow, Era showing how classy they are today, disrespecting the dead and the long a fit over some inconsequential bullshit

Unclebenny · Sep 10, 2018

Budi said:
GG tried to brand themselves for being about "ethics in gaming journalism" (which was a cover), this is what TB supported. Not the fight against "SJW":s that is movement against minorities and women. I do think there's a difference. It's more important to me that I've seen and heard him stand up against transphobia in example and challenge sexism than his stubborn defense of his participation in giving GG any spotlight. I can be critical of him while seeing the actual person at the same time and that person wasn't a monster. That person wasn't against LGBTQ, women or people of color.

"Let me make this unequivocally clear for even the most narrowminded person who listens, I'm in 100% in favor of transgender equality. I'm 100% in favor of treating human beings like human beings. It doesn't get any fucking simpler, this is 2015 and we are not a bunch of savages. Now if some of you are not okay with that, the door is to the left." His words after the mocking and hate Laura Kate Dale got after her appearance on the podcast. Source, it's around the 22.40 mark: https://soundcloud.com/totalbiscuit/we-need-to-have-words
Sigh, he's been called a monster in this very thread. He did a lot of good for gamers but also took stances against bigotry. I'm not gonna ignore that, you are free to do so. And I do agree with you, it was his failure that he didn't condemn GG properly and distance himself from it. I agree that he was prideful, arrogant and stubborn too. Blizzard is doing a beautiful thing here and they have my full support for this.

It was easily and conclusively proven that GG was not in the least bit about "ethics in gaming journalism" from the very start. I know full well that he was presented with the easily accessible evidence of why this was the case. He ignored it.

You can't seperate his actions and his personality.

There is no on/off switch for transphobia, sexism or anything else, a person can be a conflicton of complications. Milo Yiannopoulos (alt right agitator in chief) is gay and married to a black man. He is still deeply embedded in a community of literal Nazis.

TB went to bat for a personal friend but not for the wider marginalized community.

The problem here is you are trying to suggest commentators here are not seeing the "true TB" because he defended his trans friend. That we are wrong for labelling GG actions as GG actions because he wasn't like that.

That is a classic alt- right trap. Trying to argue that only explicitly racist actions are really racist. Blurring the lines of everything else. If somebody is promoting a hate group, they don't get the privilege of not being associated with their actions.

Call hateful actions as they are. It's the only way to bring them into the light,.

Dalik · Sep 10, 2018

legacyzero said:
Wow, Era showing how classy they are today, disrespecting the dead and the long a fit over some inconsequential bullshit

"misogyny and homophobia don't affect me so they are inconsequential"

TastyBurger666 · Sep 10, 2018

Vela said:
They should include a cosmetic item that shows the amount of sexist followers TotalBiscuit sent after women in games whenever he went after them. Or the time he denied there was racism in the UK. Or the time when he supported Gamergate.

There's no line in the sand for some of you, is there? Even death itself doesn't count.

Deleted member 41271 · Sep 10, 2018

Budi said:
He was an advocate for all gamers(*).

(*)Unless said gamer was a woman and/or LGBT.

I "fondly" remember that little co-op podcast ep that made me drop them, where he and Jesse discussed how brave it was to not stand up for Anita Sarkeesian.
While she was getting spammed with threats. They genuinely said it was brave not to stand up to her.

He wasn't a monster. He was just someone that stood by while monsters attacked people, and defended said monsters.

Obviously attacking his family is a no-go and I see no reason not to support his wife, but *he* can and should be criticized.

GG tried to brand themselves for being about "ethics in gaming journalism" (which was a cover), this is what TB supported

People already knew in the very month GG started what it was about. Many websites reported it as such. Not TB: He proudly signal boosted GG.

Waddle Dee · Sep 10, 2018

People being allowed to speak about TB as if he was someone of worth, even in one of the most "progressive" gaming forums, is just plain sad.

TB was a typical manchild who supported harassment campaigns and doesn't deserve any sort of respect. People should have forgotten him when he passed away and there shouldn't have been a thread where people were allowed to look back on him as if he wasn't a piece of shit. The only bad things that came from his death are his family struggling (which people can help without using it as a chance to memorialize him) and people using it as an opportunity to pretend he was a man of any worth.

oni-link · Sep 10, 2018

legacyzero said:
Wow, Era showing how classy they are today, disrespecting the dead and the long a fit over some inconsequential bullshit

Yeah it's disappointing, the guy didn't always do/say things I agreed with but he's not the evil bastard people like to paint him as

Good on Blizzard for doing this

Zafir · Sep 10, 2018

Budi said:
Sigh, he's been called a monster in this very thread. He did a lot of good for gamers but also took stances against bigotry. I'm not gonna ignore that, you are free to do so. And I do agree with you, it was his failure that he didn't condemn GG properly and distance himself from it. I agree that he was prideful, arrogant and stubborn too. Blizzard is doing a beautiful thing here and they have my full support for this.

I hadn't seen a poster calling him a monster, but now you're projecting that onto everyone else here and trying to disregard peoples thoughts on him using it. This thread isn't black and white.

As for Blizzard. Beautiful is a stretch too far, to suggest that really is downplaying all the bad that he did in his life time. I'm not going to attack Blizzard for doing it as he did good things for their games, but at the same time I'm not going to commend them for commemorating someone who supported a hate campaign against my gender.

I'd rather them create more cosmetic bundles for charities, like they've done in the past. Now that would be beautiful.

Nere · Sep 10, 2018

This forum really disappoints me sometimes. The guy died at a really young age, his wife is also battling cancer and from what I hear they have a special needs child. I mean how low do you need to fall to shit on a dead guy's grave? Is all decency and respect gone these days?

Dalik · Sep 10, 2018

Nere said:
This forum really disappoints me sometimes. The guy died at a really young age, his wife is also battling cancer and from what I hear they have a special needs child. I mean how low do you need to fall to shit on a dead guy's grave? Is all decency and respect gone these days?

Where was his decency and respect when he was alive?

oni-link · Sep 10, 2018

Dalik said:
Where was his decency and respect when he was alive?

Yeah he said a few crappy things in his short life, better shit on him forever and derail ever thread about him for the rest of time

legacyzero · Sep 10, 2018

Dalik said:
"misogyny and homophobia don't affect me so they are inconsequential"

No fuck that, and fuck that sentiment.

Firstly, anybody can weightlessly throw some terms around. I HAAAATED Total Biscuit. Was even blocked on Twitter by him. He's done and said some dumb shit.

But he's not the monster y'all want him to be. And some of y'all look incredibly stupid for your rage against him. It also reflects how low level of class some folks are when respecting the dead. Letting dumb decisions define a person entirely, instead of it being only a factor.

There are way, WAY many more people that are deserving of that ire. TB ain't the one.

Mobyduck · Sep 10, 2018

Makes me sad to learn all this stuff about him after his passing. When he was alive, all I did was watch his content on YouTube, mostly his indie highlights, and never really cared about his social media presence. It's very unfortunate that he chose to align himself with the GG movement. Checking his Twitter feed, he defended the general idea of the movement up to last year, and he should've known better. It sucks that this has tainted his image, but I understand why people are condemning his inaction, and how it emboldened the GG people.

Deleted member 3093 · Sep 10, 2018

Nere said:
This forum really disappoints me sometimes. The guy died at a really young age, his wife is also battling cancer and from what I hear they have a special needs child. I mean how low do you need to fall to shit on a dead guy's grave? Is all decency and respect gone these days?

I am legitimately sad that TotalBiscuit died so young, and died of something so awful. It's something I would wish onto no one. However, people are validly bothered by this for the things he's done.

Kinsei · Sep 10, 2018

oni-link said:
Yeah he said a few crappy things in his short life, better shit on him forever and derail ever thread about him for the rest of time

"a few crappy thing."

Say it with me now.

He

Supported

A

Hate

Group

Einherjer · Sep 10, 2018

Zafir said:
I hadn't seen a poster calling him a monster, but now you're projecting that onto everyone else here and trying to disregard peoples thoughts on him using it. This thread isn't black and white.
.

Only 10 posts in the thread before literally Hitler...

Dalik · Sep 10, 2018

oni-link said:
Yeah he said a few crappy things in his short life, better shit on him forever and derail ever thread about him for the rest of time

Yes. Glad you got the point.

saenima · Sep 10, 2018

All the TB apologists can miss me with the calls to empathy. I reserve it for the victims of the harassment campaigns he condoned.

Nere · Sep 10, 2018

Dalik said:
Where was his decency and respect when he was alive?

And because he did some mistakes while alive, you are going to drop on his level and do the exact same mistake, against a dead person no less even? Sounds like a great plan.

KLoWn · Sep 10, 2018

Class act from Blizzards side.

Threads like these also serves as a reminder how much disrespectful trash followed along from Neogaf. Disgusting.

Deleted member 41271 · Sep 10, 2018

Nere said:
And because he did some mistakes while alive, you are going to drop on his level

Getting down to his level would be supporting and defending hate groups, not criticizing him and his actions while supporting ...support for his wife and child, both of which absolutely need support.

Ie: Sorry, but saying he "supported all gamers" is a lie, and that will always get people correcting you.
Saying his wife needs support is a fact, and will get my support. that Blizzzard does so is understandable, the guy DID a lot of good for their games. It's just disappointing it was done this way overall, because it gives more GGers (as we see in this thread) a chance to lionize him and excuse his actions.

saenima · Sep 10, 2018

Nere said:
And because he did some mistakes while alive, you are going to drop on his level and do the exact same mistake, against a dead person no less even? Sounds like a great plan.

I didn't realize that TB had turned into a woman after dying and that people here were harassing him out of the industry.

Dalik · Sep 10, 2018

Nere said:
And because he did some mistakes while alive, you are going to drop on his level and do the exact same mistake, against a dead person no less even? Sounds like a great plan.

"the exact same thing" lmao.
I'm not a supporter of GG nor I make fun of death threats on women.

Blizzard creates a commemorative TotalBiscuit cosmetic bundle for StarCraft II (Read OP)

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