Anita Sarkeesian: Career scammer (Gamergate thread)

[Dan Druff]

I have an interesting cross-section of people on my Facebook friends list, many of whom have their own pet issues that they tend to obsess over.

One such friend (whom I actually like, btw) is a female in the video gaming industry, so she is focused on the supposed sexism that exists there.

Common complaints from women in the video gaming industry:

- They are not taken seriously at work

- Nobody wants to create female characters in games, unless they are sexy and meant to titillate the male players

- Video games are never aimed at a female audience, even though many women really enjoy playing games


Not being an expert on the video gaming industry, I won't comment on the validity of these claims. Perhaps there's rampant sexism, perhaps there's misogyny, perhaps there's not, perhaps it's being exaggerated.... who knows?

But that's not important here.

What is important is that one particular woman realized a way to make big money from guilty liberals and oppressed-feeling women in the gaming industry.

Anita Sarkeesian is 30 years old. In 2011, she developed an interest in writing about misogyny in video games. Her writings generated a lot of controversy, and her name became fairly known within the gaming community.

Anita soon realized she could make money from this notoriety.

In March, 2012, she started a Kickstarter page to fund a video series regarding sexism in video games. It was called "Tropes versus Women in Video Games". She asked for $6,000, figuring that was about the most she could reasonably ask for to produce such a thing.

Then she had a stroke of genius. The gaming neckbeards who didn't like her quest to change video games got angry, and started sending her hate messages. This made a light bulb pop above her head. "What if I take the actual hate messages I'm receiving, dress it up a bit, and then escalate it on my own? That should really bring in the bucks!"

She posted examples of the "harassment" on her blog, much of which might have been falsified, and her $6,000 Kickstarter campaign netted a whopping $150,000, after an outpouring of money from guilty liberals and women who identified with her.

Unfortunately, even the greats can get too cocky and slip up.

On August 27 of this year, Anita recently claimed that she was receiving death threats. Supposedly these threats were coming from a Twitter account belonging to "Kevin Dobson". Unfortunately, she didn't put a lot of thought into properly falsifying the evidence this time, and she was basically caught red-handed as being behind the Dobson account. Here is a great blog basically destroying her and proving her to be full of shit:

http://www.returnofkings.com/42602/d...gainst-herself





Under fire, Anita then attempted to post a copy of an e-mail she received from "Warhero@aol.com" (lol), also threatening her:



She did a poor job with subtlety and authenticity when likely creating her "threatening e-mail" to present as "proof" to the doubters. Here are the various things that smell bad about the e-mail:

1) It's from "Warhero@aol.com". Uh huh. AOL has existed since the '90s. I guarantee that Warhero@aol.com was taken long before the dawn of the 21st century. So that means it's a spoofed e-mail address. But why make a spoofed e-mail? There are so many free and anonymous e-mail services out there, that this serves no purpose. Furthermore, if you are going to make a spoofed e-mail address just to make a point, it's more likely to be something like "Warhero@Warhero.com" rather than AOL.com. To me, it looks like she was going for a caricature of a misogynistic military guy, and just went with the first thing that came to mind "Warhero@Aol.com", especially with the AOL part being indicative of ignorance and simplicity.

2) The motivation of the e-mail author is nonsensical and over-the-top. Again, it's like someone asked her to create a really cheesy caricature of a super-sexist military guy, and that's what she came up with. He says that she's a greater threat to the country than terrorism, and that he is going to kill her because he "loves his country". Right. Even mentions his father and grandfather in WW1 and WW2. (Side note: His father fought in WW2? How old is the guy making the threats? 75?)

3) The grammar looks weird and intentionally poor (again, along with the AOL thing, to indicate someone simple and unedcuated). However, the spelling is perfect, and he makes sure to properly punctuate words like "that's". Not a single spelling mistake in a letter that is so grammatically poor that it almost looks like broken English. Has all the hallmarks of an intentional masking of writing style.

I would love to see the original SMTP headers on the "Warhero@aol.com" e-mail. I bet it would be rather eye opening.

Anyway, I guess there is a documentary about her coming out, and this will be great publicity.

Amazingly, all of the feminists and nerds are eating this up, and they are ignoring the obvious red flags that a crafty woman is taking advantage of them.

[Dan Druff]

https://encyclopediadramatica.es/Fem...RIGGER_WARNING

In the meantime, guilty people in the gaming industry (a fairly liberal, PC bunch) ignore all of this and have anointed her a hero.

[jsearles22]

Cliffs maybe?

[LLL]

Fools and their money are soon parted.

Did she not deliver the Kickstarter videos?

[sonatine]

Not sure if youre aware or not but there is a bunch of super creepy aspie-on-female eviolence taking place in gaming communities right now.

Moot literally just shut down the entire video game board at 4chan because it was becoming super gross.

Some top game reviewer got targetted in a huge and ugly fashion and it became some sort of grotesque lightening rod for everyone from otaku to ICP types. Basically; if youre a pathic life loser kissless virgin, youre trolling every female gamer you can find with absolutely and utter toxic stupidity.

[sonatine]

Point being, we are entering the third phase of this phenomenon, where damaged women are starting to fly their victim flags for attention.


So, you know, yeah.

[DJ_Chaps]

Not sure if youre aware or not but there is a bunch of super creepy aspie-on-female eviolence taking place in gaming communities right now.

Moot literally just shut down the entire video game board at 4chan because it was becoming super gross.

Some top game reviewer got targetted in a huge and ugly fashion and it became some sort of grotesque lightening rod for everyone from otaku to ICP types. Basically; if youre a pathic life loser kissless virgin, youre trolling every female gamer you can find with absolutely and utter toxic stupidity.

Yah, I wish you and your cronies would back off.

[Dan Druff]

BUMP

Apparently others in the gaming community are getting on this gravy train of political correctness and professional victimhood.

Brianna Wu is a real charmer.

It's a trans woman game developer who has been claiming to have been the innocent victim of threats because of being a female game developer.

http://www.bustle.com/articles/63466...p-to-gamergate

Here is Brianna (the white one) with his/her husband:



Never mind that the people critical of "Brianna" don't see him/her as a female in the first place, so it's obviously not a case of sexism. And oddly enough, he doesn't blame being transgendered for the reason he's being picked on. In fact, Brianna never mentions being transgendered in any interview. This is probably because the hot topic at the moment is sexism in gaming, so being threatened for being female is a hell of a lot more lucrative than being threatened for being a trans woman. But neither are the reason Brianna is having issues with certain gamers.

It goes much deeper than that.

This "innocent victim" has a long history of aggression and intolerance, both online and in person.

- "Brianna" (at the time named John) was presented with a restraining order in college to stay away from his college newspaper office where he once worked, because he constantly harassed co-workers. He also shouted epithets at them such as "dyke", "sand n-word", and "raghead"

- Brianna has a long history on Myspace spouting off anti-gay rhetoric

- When criticized by a fellow gamer with Asperger's, Brianna repeatedly made fun of his condition and made GIFs featuring an autistic boy to taunt him


Brianna also claimed last year to have been driven from home out of fear of the threats he/she received. Except that was later proven to have been a complete lie, and Brianna never actually went anywhere.

Basically there has been a long history of this freak acting like an aggressive and intolerant psycho, which is why these claims of being victimized for being a "female game developer" are so ridiculous.

Here is a writeup (albeit a bit hard to follow) about Brianna: https://encyclopediadramatica.se/Brianna_Wu

Now, none of this would normally be news. The internet is full of aggressive psychos who like to cause their own problems and then play victim. We even had one here in SixToedPete. But unlike SixToedPete, Brianna has become a media darling, and now a Law and Order SVU episode has been produced, modeled somewhat after "her" situation!

The retarded mainstream media is so hungry for this stupid "Gamergate" story that it is not at all vetting the background and veracity of the claims of the "victims".

So this Law and Order SVU episode presents a victim named "Raina", who is fictitious, but is said to be an amalgamation of Brianna, Anita Sarkeesian (see OP in this thread), and Zoe Quinn.

Who is Zoe Quinn?

This is Zoe Quinn:



She is best known for sleeping with a staffer of a gaming news site called Kotaku, in order to get increased publicity for her newly released game in 2014. She also slept with other dudes in gaming who were in influential positions to help her.

So when the shit hit the fan about this.... well... guess who cried "sexism"?


So this unholy trio of professional victims has been presented to the world as the faces of the fight against sexism in gaming, and guilty liberals in the gaming community (of which there are many) can't keep their checkbooks closed, nor can the media get enough of parading them in front of the camera as the persecuted innocent.

Pretty unbelievable that in the age of such immense access to information that this hoax could continue for so long.

Anyway, here's the trainer of the Law and Order episode, if anyone cares:

[Dan Druff]

Oh I guess this episode just aired. Now I have to go download it and watch it, even though it looks terrible.

[4Dragons]

Fun part of this is every developer from the dawn of software has been trying to make the 'killer app', which was literally anything that would engage females into using a computer other than to type on it. It took what, 25 years before Facebook got invented, but that is that killer app that nothing but men worked on just to get chided on now on how chicks that wouldn't touch a fucking computer 20 years ago bring all their bullshit with them and... blame men. Too rich.

[Dan Druff]

As predicted, the Law and Order SVU episode was awful.

You can watch it (legally) here: http://www.nbc.com/law-and-order-spe...n-game/2844940

The amazing thing is that everyone hated it.

 

The male gamers hated it because it portrayed them as rapists and murderers, who can't tell the difference between video games and real life.

The female game developers -- even the professional victims -- hated it because the end involved the female developer giving up.

Everyone else hated it because it was awful, made little sense, had tons of plot holes, and was beyond sensationalistic.

Of course, what can you expect from a Dick Wolf production?

[El Gallo]

Druff you are not in the industry and sound like a dick. This is a real problem. I've seen it first hand.... What happened on Donkdown or NWP when a chick tried to join the community. Those chicks could just leave... a lot of these woman are actually super creative and a huge asset to the gaming world, but there are some sick fucks out there. Even if you knew it was bullshit how would someone sending you an email saying they were going to kill you make you feel.... and What in the fuck does it matter who this chick slept with... what relevance does it have to people threatening to rape and kill her.... There hasn't been one email, there have been dozens.

Your hate for these chicks is creeping me out

[Dan Druff]

Druff you are not in the industry and sound like a dick. This is a real problem. I've seen it first hand.... What happened on Donkdown or NWP when a chick tried to join the community. Those chicks could just leave... a lot of these woman are actually super creative and a huge asset to the gaming world, but there are some sick fucks out there. Even if you knew it was bullshit how would someone sending you an email saying they were going to kill you make you feel.... and What in the fuck does it matter who this chick slept with... what relevance does it have to people threatening to rape and kill her.... There hasn't been one email, there have been dozens.

Your hate for these chicks is creeping me out

I am not denying sexism in gaming. I'm sure it exists.

But these three professional victims are exploiting it for personal gain.

Anita Sarkeesian is NOT a female game designer. She was formerly involved in some scam seminar company (unrelated to gaming), and then moved on to being a self-appointed game critic from a feminist standpoint. Then all of a sudden she's getting "threats" (many of which strongly appear to be fabricated), and begs the internet for money to produce more feminist gamer videos that she was somehow already making for free. Then the media gets a hold of it, and she gets $160,000 in donations. The video quality and frequency doesn't improve, so basically she just pocketed the $160,000 she received from guilty politically correct gamers who felt bad for the "threats" she probably sent to herself in the first place.

Zoe Quinn is a female game designer, but not a serious one. She produced a really simple TEXT (yes, text) game called "Depression Quest", which honestly is so unsophisticated that it could legitimately be ported to 1970s personal computers if someone wanted to (not even kidding). Despite the fact that her game is incredibly simple and barely worthy as freeware, it got all kinds of great publicity and press because she slept with influential people in the gamer media right before it was released. When she experienced fallout from this (revealed, with plenty of proof, by the angry ex-boyfriend she cheated on to do this), "sexism" was blamed.

Brianna Wu is the only real developer in this "Gamergate" situation. Brianna's game actually looks fairly good, though the main characters in the game are exactly the highly sexualized, shallow female characters that Anita Sarkeesian railed against! That aside, though, Brianna is NOT being attacked for being a female game developer, because Brianna isn't female. Brianna was a man just a few years ago, and those attacking "her" do not see Brianna as female, so it's definitely not a case of sexism. Brianna is being attacked not because of sexism or homophobia, but because he/she has a LONG history of trolling, psychotic behavior, and bigotry which made him/her lots of enemies over the years. So, again, this is not a victim of sexism.

And that's the sad thing.

The gamer community has rallied around three high-profile "victims" and given them money and their games publicity, and yet these victims are frauds who are exploiting the community's sensitivity the real problem of sexism in gaming.

My "hatred" is not against women in gaming, but these three particular individuals who are not victims and are exploiting the sexism in gaming hysteria for personal gain.

[nunbeater]

Druff you are not in the industry and sound like a dick. This is a real problem. I've seen it first hand.... What happened on Donkdown or NWP when a chick tried to join the community. Those chicks could just leave... a lot of these woman are actually super creative and a huge asset to the gaming world, but there are some sick fucks out there. Even if you knew it was bullshit how would someone sending you an email saying they were going to kill you make you feel.... and What in the fuck does it matter who this chick slept with... what relevance does it have to people threatening to rape and kill her.... There hasn't been one email, there have been dozens.

Your hate for these chicks is creeping me out

I am not denying sexism in gaming. I'm sure it exists.

But these three professional victims are exploiting it for personal gain.

Anita Sarkeesian is NOT a female game designer. She was formerly involved in some scam seminar company (unrelated to gaming), and then moved on to being a self-appointed game critic from a feminist standpoint. Then all of a sudden she's getting "threats" (many of which strongly appear to be fabricated), and begs the internet for money to produce more feminist gamer videos that she was somehow already making for free. Then the media gets a hold of it, and she gets $160,000 in donations. The video quality and frequency doesn't improve, so basically she just pocketed the $160,000 she received from guilty politically correct gamers who felt bad for the "threats" she probably sent to herself in the first place.

Zoe Quinn is a female game designer, but not a serious one. She produced a really simple TEXT (yes, text) game called "Depression Quest", which honestly is so unsophisticated that it could legitimately be ported to 1970s personal computers if someone wanted to (not even kidding). Despite the fact that her game is incredibly simple and barely worthy as freeware, it got all kinds of great publicity and press because she slept with influential people in the gamer media right before it was released. When she experienced fallout from this (revealed, with plenty of proof, by the angry ex-boyfriend she cheated on to do this), "sexism" was blamed.

Brianna Wu is the only real developer in this "Gamergate" situation. Brianna's game actually looks fairly good, though the main characters in the game are exactly the highly sexualized, shallow female characters that Anita Sarkeesian railed against! That aside, though, Brianna is NOT being attacked for being a female game developer, because Brianna isn't female. Brianna was a man just a few years ago, and those attacking "her" do not see Brianna as female, so it's definitely not a case of sexism. Brianna is being attacked not because of sexism or homophobia, but because he/she has a LONG history of trolling, psychotic behavior, and bigotry which made him/her lots of enemies over the years. So, again, this is not a victim of sexism.

And that's the sad thing.

The gamer community has rallied around three high-profile "victims" and given them money and their games publicity, and yet these victims are frauds who are exploiting the community's sensitivity the real problem of sexism in gaming.

My "hatred" is not against women in gaming, but these three particular individuals who are not victims and are exploiting the sexism in gaming hysteria for personal gain.

Say what? I don't know about the other two chicks but I thought that this was all bullshit, her ex-boyfriend got mad because they broke up and started spreading rumors about her on a message board. I am trying to wrap my head around anyone that designs indie video games that they let people play for free fucking people in their industry for positive reviews because......wait, I will put it in list form for easier digestion.


1. make indie video games, allow people to play for free
2. bang reviewers to get favorable reviews so tons of people buy my free game
3. ????
4. Profit

Bullet Proof

Also http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-things...-hated-person/

[Corrigan]

but that is that killer app that nothing but men worked on just to get chided on now on how chicks that wouldn't touch a fucking computer 20 years ago bring all their bullshit with them and... blame men. Too rich.

lol you're so mad your words are almost pure gibberish

[Dan Druff]

I am not denying sexism in gaming. I'm sure it exists.

But these three professional victims are exploiting it for personal gain.

Anita Sarkeesian is NOT a female game designer. She was formerly involved in some scam seminar company (unrelated to gaming), and then moved on to being a self-appointed game critic from a feminist standpoint. Then all of a sudden she's getting "threats" (many of which strongly appear to be fabricated), and begs the internet for money to produce more feminist gamer videos that she was somehow already making for free. Then the media gets a hold of it, and she gets $160,000 in donations. The video quality and frequency doesn't improve, so basically she just pocketed the $160,000 she received from guilty politically correct gamers who felt bad for the "threats" she probably sent to herself in the first place.

Zoe Quinn is a female game designer, but not a serious one. She produced a really simple TEXT (yes, text) game called "Depression Quest", which honestly is so unsophisticated that it could legitimately be ported to 1970s personal computers if someone wanted to (not even kidding). Despite the fact that her game is incredibly simple and barely worthy as freeware, it got all kinds of great publicity and press because she slept with influential people in the gamer media right before it was released. When she experienced fallout from this (revealed, with plenty of proof, by the angry ex-boyfriend she cheated on to do this), "sexism" was blamed.

Brianna Wu is the only real developer in this "Gamergate" situation. Brianna's game actually looks fairly good, though the main characters in the game are exactly the highly sexualized, shallow female characters that Anita Sarkeesian railed against! That aside, though, Brianna is NOT being attacked for being a female game developer, because Brianna isn't female. Brianna was a man just a few years ago, and those attacking "her" do not see Brianna as female, so it's definitely not a case of sexism. Brianna is being attacked not because of sexism or homophobia, but because he/she has a LONG history of trolling, psychotic behavior, and bigotry which made him/her lots of enemies over the years. So, again, this is not a victim of sexism.

And that's the sad thing.

The gamer community has rallied around three high-profile "victims" and given them money and their games publicity, and yet these victims are frauds who are exploiting the community's sensitivity the real problem of sexism in gaming.

My "hatred" is not against women in gaming, but these three particular individuals who are not victims and are exploiting the sexism in gaming hysteria for personal gain.

Say what? I don't know about the other two chicks but I thought that this was all bullshit, her ex-boyfriend got mad because they broke up and started spreading rumors about her on a message board. I am trying to wrap my head around anyone that designs indie video games that they let people play for free fucking people in their industry for positive reviews because......wait, I will put it in list form for easier digestion.


1. make indie video games, allow people to play for free
2. bang reviewers to get favorable reviews so tons of people buy my free game
3. ????
4. Profit

Bullet Proof

Also http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-things...-hated-person/

I just read the Cracked link you posted above, where Zoe essentially gives her rebuttal. It was a lot longer than I expected, so I kind skimmed through parts, but I didn't see any denials that she slept with several other dudes in gaming while with her ex-boyfriend.

It seems like she's making the point that it's none of anyone's business who she sleeps with, and that the entire thing got overblown. And she may be right that it was all overblown and exaggerated, but I'm not seeing her deny that she fucked 5 different guys in gaming while with her ex, who then went apeshit when he found out.

So even if she didn't sleep with that Nathan guy at Kotaku for better reviews, you can't blame this whole thing on sexism, as even if you believe her version of events, this was about an angry ex spreading rumors about her, rather than any kind of anti-females-in-gaming conspiracy.

To further illustrate my point, say one of my angry ex girlfriends came on PFA and convinced everyone that i was actually a poker cheat. Even with the accusations being false, I couldn't blame the subsequent outrage on anti-Semitism. I couldn't parade around the internet claiming that I'm being attacked by the masses because I'm Jewish. One has nothing to do with the other. I would be attacked because an ex convinced people of something that wasn't true -- but that's still a result of a personal dispute which has nothing to do with any kind of grand scheme to persecute me or other Jews in poker.

So I think at best Zoe can say that she got attacked by neckbeards who were convinced by her ex-boyfriend and his buddies that she slept around to get better reviews. But you also can't label that sexism.

And BTW, a manager at Kotaku posted a statement in August confirming that, yes, that writer Nathan had "a relationship" with Zoe, but that it occurred AFTER the only article he wrote involving her. Except that looks like a lie, as there are some photos out there from 9 days BEFORE the article he wrote, showing the two of them hanging out. It does seem that the article he wrote involving her wasn't actually a review of her game, so I guess that part of the allegation is indeed false.

[mulva]

meanwhile in the lesbian forum, debra plots her revenge.

[Shizzmoney]

Brianna Wu is running for Congress in 2018

“I am a national figure of women’s rights,” she said. “When people hear ‘Brianna Wu,’ they think Internet harassment, and advocating for women in technology and the workplace.”

b/t this and that dumb idiot Lena Dunham, this stuff might actually drive me to the alt-right.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/poli...flow%3Atwitter

[Dan Druff]

BUMP

They are making a movie loosely related to this. It's a comedy, and not a documentary, and not explicitly about Gamergate.

However, the plot involves a girl on a college e-sports team who experiences sexism, and then leaves the team to form her own all-women team full of "misfits", which eventually "kicks butt" in the gaming scene.

The movie is called "1UP", which is a weird name, since that's a 1970s/80s video game reference, and not something young gamers (the intended audience) will find familiar. Ellen Page is one of the stars.

Think "Bad News Bears" but about 2020s video games and sexism. Ugh.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/he...-1up-exclusive

I can already see it's going to be awful, and the entire movie will be a super-predictable cringefest. I'm guessing the entire film will be this:

1) All of the men are super-sexist, overconfident, arrogant, but in reality are insecure and weak. They mistreat the main character, who leaves and starts her own team.

2) She can only find really quirky girls who have weird personality characteristics, unusual looks, and unusual behaviors. The main character will first be frustrated with these girls, but will quickly learn to appreciate them as they improve. 100% there will be at least one lesbian on the team (I'm guessing more than one.)

3) The girls will destroy the competition, and end up in the finals against the team of males which the main character left in the first place. After a tough battle, the team of misfit girls will win, showing that girls really can do anythinggggg!!!!!11


Despite Gamergate being a complete scam and lie, I actually do believe there is sexism in gaming, and that there are neckbeards who mistreat and sexually harass women in the industry (both players and developers). However, the media and Hollywood's treatment of the story has been laughably bad, as I imagine this movie will.

[gimmick]

BUMP

They are making a movie loosely related to this. It's a comedy, and not a documentary, and not explicitly about Gamergate.

However, the plot involves a girl on a college e-sports team who experiences sexism, and then leaves the team to form her own all-women team full of "misfits", which eventually "kicks butt" in the gaming scene.

The movie is called "1UP", which is a weird name, since that's a 1970s/80s video game reference, and not something young gamers (the intended audience) will find familiar. Ellen Page is one of the stars.

Think "Bad News Bears" but about 2020s video games and sexism. Ugh.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/he...-1up-exclusive

I can already see it's going to be awful, and the entire movie will be a super-predictable cringefest. I'm guessing the entire film will be this:

1) All of the men are super-sexist, overconfident, arrogant, but in reality are insecure and weak. They mistreat the main character, who leaves and starts her own team.

2) She can only find really quirky girls who have weird personality characteristics, unusual looks, and unusual behaviors. The main character will first be frustrated with these girls, but will quickly learn to appreciate them as they improve. 100% there will be at least one lesbian on the team (I'm guessing more than one.)

3) The girls will destroy the competition, and end up in the finals against the team of males which the main character left in the first place. After a tough battle, the team of misfit girls will win, showing that girls really can do anythinggggg!!!!!11


Despite Gamergate being a complete scam and lie, I actually do believe there is sexism in gaming, and that there are neckbeards who mistreat and sexually harass women in the industry (both players and developers). However, the media and Hollywood's treatment of the story has been laughably bad, as I imagine this movie will.

I assume it sucks. There really isn't a real life example for this that i know of. There have been women at the top teams of their respective games, but never enough to make a team out of.

Earliest i can remember was Hafu. She played at one of the top teams in WoW 3v3 arenas. At the time i think most of the e-sport scene was revolved around WoW, Counter-Strike, Star Craft I or II and fighting game scene had their own thing. Dota 2 and LoL came later i think.

Running theme at the time was that almost none of the players made any money of it and were usually fucked by their orgs one way or another.

Of that era somewhat related was death of Reckful. He jumped out of a building in Austin in July. His stream is still on reruns, i haven't had heart to unfollow even tho it's kinda fucked up to see it's on. He played poker for a while and was in the process of making his own game. I think on the week of his death he had secured few millions to finish his game. Anyways his older brother killed himself in 95 and ever since he was living on borrowed time.

Rambling things, that maybe tie somewhere are, that there are e-sport related stories to make movies out of. The early days were filled by driven characters that were sort of pushed away when enough money came in. When marketing and entertainment value become things that determined careers we lost the weird driven fucks that were willing to put in the hours when it really wasn't worth much.