Silverstring notes

We're onto some interesting stuff re:Silverstring and this "gaming is dead" meme they want to push.

Turns out the idea was floated over a year ago in a journal article by Adrienne Shaw, then discussed in a Google discussion group by members of Silverstring, that Anita Sarkeesian consults for. We're examining possible ties between these PR agents/firms, and political lobbying groups that might be backing them. We're also looking into how much of high profile donation campaigns and fundraising (like Sarkeesian's Kickstarter) are orchestrated and donated to by PR firms as part of their initial putsch for clients).

This PR group Sarkeesian is tied to is fairly creepy. Heavily ideological, they hold retreat workshops for SJW concepts, with a sharply activist tone. Reminds us of Jesus Camp. They do workshops for game devs where they discuss "dismantling hegemonic masculinity in the gaming industry", and do weird training activities like "State Torture Jenga". "Hegemonic masculinity" -- it's like they're quoting Gramsci's prison notebooks. Creepy.

(http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/marxism/marxism10.html)

Their blog reads: "We talked a big game at DiGRA about dismantling hegemonic masculinity through intimate friendships. Tearing down those emotional walls that are part of the infrastructure of gendered oppression. Pursuing that male emotional fulfillment that Samantha Allen writes about as essential to the liberation of women. Meghan echoed my call for a games criticism and academia camping trip. Can we just leave the building? Not always. As we kept saying when we designed State Torture Jenga, something compels the players to keep manipulating the architecture. There is no such thing as inaction. There’s just the daily work of trying to turn these structures inside out."

State Torture Jenga:
http://silverstringmedia.com/blog/2014/8/20/a-to-z-a-digra-letter-series-part-4

Dismantling "hegemonic masculinity in gamer culture":
http://adanewmedia.org/2013/06/issue2-shaw/ Race, gender, and gamer identity (the first 3 lines of the conclusion are interesting, targeting white/cis/male gamers for elimination): http://imgur.com/a/x6HiE#12

Original behind paywall:
http://nms.sagepub.com/content/14/1/28.abstract

Related:
https://www.westminster.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/182116/005.-Talking-to-Gaymers-Adrienne-Shaw.pdf

Google discussion forum about retiring the "gamer demographic":
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/game-words-incorporated/VxYXZhDqv8I Etc http://lucasjwjohnson.com/ http://www.haywiremag.com/?p=101