I realize that it's been a while since I've made any official announcements, updates, or proposals concerning GamerGate-related stuff, so I intend to rectify that as of right now. :)
Operation Canadian BaCon II Non-Update
Thanks to the combined effors of the mods of KotakuInAction and KotakuInAction2, various GamerGate supporters, and u/AcidOverlord helping to rally the remnants of 8chan, several interventions (complaints) were filed with the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, part of the Canadian government) concerning the biased coverage of GamerGate by the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canada's national broadcaster). I'm not sure how many people ended up participating since I devoted most of my time and energy to finishing my own submission - which I ended up having to take a day or two off from work to complete and ended up clocking in at over 100 pages(!) - but the 8chan contingent managed to get at least 40 to 50 people to participate and I know that some longtime GamerGaters like u/Calbeck also tossed their hat into the ring.
All I can report at the moment is that my intervention was successfully submitted and accepted. It's currently available on the CRTC's website and can be freely accessed by anyone who knows where to look for it. (I must admit that I find the fact that the leaked Crash Override Network chat logs are publicly available on a Canadian government website to be very amusing.) In addition, I volunteered to not only speak before the commission evaluating the CBC's behavior if asked, but also to potentially participate in a citizen's committee that would provide recommendations to the Canadian government on how to combat fake news and misinformation/disinformation campaigns in the digital age and following the rise of social media. Unfortunately, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the timetable for all of the aforementioned events has been completely disrupted and I've yet to receive any information or updates about rescheduling. The moment I hear anything, I'll be sure to let the GamerGate community know.
However, while we wait for news, I have two proposals for two (extremely loose) OPs to keep us busy in the interim, neither one of which should be disruptive enough to run afoul of Reddit's rules concerning brigading:
Operation Amaterasu
During its early days, #GamerGate had several Japanese-speaking supporters, including Poo Okakura (a.k.a. Roninworks) (who remains active to this day), u/RyanOfTheStars, and, of course, good old Mombot. Unfortunately, due to his work-related schedule, RyanOfTheStars is only able to participate if and when time allows it, and, as everyone here already knows, Mombot retired after being banned from Twitter due to the combined efforts of Renfamous, Sony, and Rage Against The Machine nearly a year ago. And this is a less-than-ideal situation considering that recent shenanigans (including Sony's ever-increasing censorship of the sexual content in Japanese PlayStation 4 video games, Funimation's questionable anime script rewrites, SJWs having openly expressed their intention to censor "problematic" material coming out of Japan directly at its source, and the recent banning of certain manga and light novels from Amazon) have made it more important than ever for us to establish contacts with Japanese otaku so they can fight back against this incursion on their home turf, especially since SJWs will definitely take advantage of Japan's "honor culture" to extract apologies from creators, then turn around and use this as an excuse to make more demands of them in the future (with the incident involving Swery seemingly being the "trial run" for such tactics).
And that's where Operation Amaterasu comes in.
As an unintentional (but welcome) side effect of using machine translation programs to communicate with some Japanese Twitter users concerning SJWs back in March and April (and befriending several of them in the process), an alternative news/information distribution has started to emerge (similar to what happened with GamerGate back in the day) over the past few months where we've discussed events, both past and present, involving attempts to censor and inject political correctness into anime, manga, and Japanese video games. Awareness of Funimation's antics, Anita Sarkeesian, GamerGate and even concepts like Sargon's Law are slowly stating to seep into Japanese social media thanks to the combined efforts of these individuals, among others:
- Kotsuyose
- Rayforce (whose translations have been quoted in some Hero Hei and Clownfish TV videos)
- Seriema (who frequently writes articles on the Japanese user-generated content site Togetter and has likewise been referenced by YouTubers)
- Kotonoha
- Romly
- Kai's Otaku Culture Lab
Though none of us are big names on social media, we've nevertheless managed to attract the attention of an emerging otaku collective - the All Japan Otaku Federation Founding Movement Committee - as well as a member of AFEE, an organization dedicated to standing up for freedom of expression in Japanese entertainment media. Right now, we're working together with ComicsGate supporter Nerd Wonder to create a small comic to raise public awareness. I know that many people here hate social media (especially Twitter) like the plague, but Japanese Twitter has been extremely welcoming and chill, so we're hoping you might consider joining us there to network with Japanese otaku, share stories, and pass on knowledge we gained the hard way during GamerGate to prepare them for what's ahead. Anyone who wishes to help us teach them of our strange ways is welcome to participate and we hope to see you there. :)
On an amusing side note, the Japanese are coming up with their own (disparaging) names for SJWs (though "SJW" appears to be gaining traction as well). The most popular one seems to be Porikore (ポリコレ), an abbreviated version of "poritikaru korekutonesu" (ポリティカル・コレクトネス, i.e. political correctness), though some have even taken to referring them as the Porikore Yakuza (ポリコレヤクザ) (The Political Correctness Yakuza). Also, radical Twitter feminists are enough of a pain in the ass in the Land of the Rising Sun that they've earned a nickname of their own: Twifemi or Tsuifemi (ツイフェミ), which is short for "Tsuittaa Feminisuto" ("Twitter Feminist").
Operation Short March
This is something that may be of interest to the (would-be) video game developers and creative types in both our ranks as well as in anti-SJW communities. Yes, its name is an intentional reference to the phrase "the long march through the institutions" and the idea behind this OP is to take the strategy that's been used by communists and SJWs to infiltrate academia, (online) communities, and businesses and turn it against them, in this case by starting our own counterinvasion of the gaming industry, with an upcoming event serving as a possible starting point.
MIGS (Montreal International Game Summit) is a large annual conference of video game professionals that started in 2004 and was combined with MEGA (Montreal Expo Gaming Arcade) two years ago to create a large public gathering where members of the gaming community and gaming industry could meet up and interact with one another. Usually, there're some pretty big names in attendance. Last year, for example, I briefly met and exchanged business cards with "Okami" background designer and "Bayonetta" concept artist Ikumi Nakamura (though I admittedly also came within spitting distance of Leigh Alexander).
This time around, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they're holding a virtual version of the event in two parts, the first of which the one being held from September 25-26, 2020 should be particularly noteworthy for everyone here:
In September, a platform for exchange for recruitment (junior, intermediate/senior and international) as well as a showcase for academic training will be in the spotlight.
In other words, this might be a good opportunity to network and/or form business contacts with video game industry professionals to get your foot in the door and get a career started. On the downside, they're charging a "virtual admission fee" and haven't provided details on how exactly this is supposed to work yet. On the upside, there's currently a Super Early Bird Special going on until August 1, 2020 where you pay $16 CAN (around $12.00 US) for general admission to both this event as well as a more business-oriented one in November, so it's not going to break the bank. More information (such as it is) can be found here:
I wish you guys all the luck.