Monthly Archives: October 2015

Journalism Quest – Milo Yiannopoulos’ Debut Game Reviewed!

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The Witchfinder reviews another text game – this time by the Milo Yiannopoulos of Breitbart. All reviews are strictly in accordance with Matthew Hopkins News Game Review Guidelines.

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Journalism Quest – Milo Yiannopoulos’ debut game is written with twine, just like Depression Quest except, less, well, depressing.

This is a review of a short game – more of a gamelet, by Milo Yiannopoulos. The reason for the review is not to pretend the product is the next Mass Effect 3 but instead because the comparison with Zoe Quinn’s effort, Depression Quest (DQ – previously reviewed 27%) is instructive in terms of the wider game industry debate. Needless to say, journalism Quest scores higher than DQ.

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Charlotte Proudman – Bar Standards Board to Take No Action

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The outcome of the complaint by Matthew Hopkins News against Charlotte Proudman has been received and she has (annoyingly) escaped censure.

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The Bar Standards Board will not take action against Charlotte Proudman over ‘LinkedIn’ tweet.

The complaints by this publication and its readers were dismissed because –

“There is no suggestion that the message sent to Miss Proudman was confidential or could not, for legal reasons, be disclosed by her to other parties. Furthermore, Miss Proudman was free to make such comments as she saw fit as long as they were not unlawful.”

Whilst this is disappointing, at least the BSB has supported the principle of free speech, which is a plus to we cultural libertarians.

It is important to remember that this outcome does not mean Proudman was, right, or kind, or wise – only that she has not breached any laws or regulatory requirements.

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#GGinLDN – Savvy, Successful and Upbeat

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All the best people go to #GamerGate parties, which can be a useful way to boost a career in technology. Your author attended #GGinLDN this weekend and encountered a group of happy and confident activists who know their arguments are slowly succeeding.

The GamerGate in London gathering on 17/10/2015 was held at Finch’s pub between Moorgate and Old Street, near Bank. This is the square mile – high finance country, and the event attracted a high powered crowd of professionals interested in protecting our society’s tradition of free speech and free enterprise.

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From left to right, @BenFClark, @Nero, @JSF_Resistance, @SoftHeartedFool. Note the person discreetly wearing the sign of the Infinite Chan. All hail the burning light of the Infinite Chan!

Look at the well turned out group above. Note the high class silk Ralph Lauren tie worn by the right-most man and the subtle infinity sign worn by the lady. Can you guess which board they hail from?

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Those Who Wait

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Last year, the Kickstarter Game ‘That Which Sleeps’ was announced. A well presented publicity and video campaign made for a Kickstarter that netted over $85,000 from backers on an initial $12,000 goal. Release of the beta was originally promised for December 2014. It is now a year since the product was funded on 22/10/2014 and backers have yet to see even a video of the game being played. ‘That Which Sleeps’ still slumbers fitfully and there is only the lurking, eldritch horror of … Those Who Wait.

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King Dinosaur Games recently released a video showing the scenario selection screen for their game. The beautiful, revamped, scenario selections screen has come a long way since Kickstarter. However backers were told to expect a playable beta in December 2014 – it is now October 2015. This video, whilst well presented, shows nothing but a revised version of functionality customers have seen before. Click for full size.

I have a rule in relation to Kickstarters. It is a very simple rule. I will only back a game if it has a playable demo I have played and liked or the developers have previously released a game I enjoyed. I have only broken this rule once – when I backed Joseph Vivolo and Joshua Perry, trading as King Dinosaur Games, and put down $50 to back the Kickstarter for That Which Sleeps.

That Which Sleeps was intended to be a kind of ‘ancient evil simulator’. The player would control one of a number of slumbering villains locked away eons ago. As they stir towards full wakefulness they gather their powers like Sauron from the Lord of the Rings. Like Sauron the players must work in the shadows to avoid discovery whilst they are still weak lest the world unites against them, using agents and subtle manipulation.

A lot of development work had allegedly been done and from 29/08/2014 until 08/10/2014, King Dinosaur Games released 6 videos – just over one a week [1], [2], [3], [4], [5] and [6]. The videos portrayed a game nearing completion – and that was how Josh and Joseph represented it. They expressly stated they had a working game –

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Block Bot Funds for #GGinLondon – Final Account

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As the claim against the Block Bot has ended the remaining money from the donation fund needs to be accounted for and put to proper use. The original request for funds said it would be used to support a KiA London meet. Today I transferred the funds to @SabrinaLianne who is organising the meetup in London this weekend, to put behind the bar at the venue.

CR DR Balance
Donations £285.00 £285.00
Go Fund Me Fees £23.09 £261.91
Court Issue Fee £60.00 £201.91
Available Funds £201.91
Transfer to #GGinLondon £201.91 0.00

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More Patreon Info Incoming – Randi Fact Checked – SJWs Inflating Donations? (developing)

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Yesterday was fascinating. I was astonished to be accused of helping Randi Harper increase her income. This was obviously untrue for the simple reason that if you look at her graph, the alleged ‘spike’ in donations started about 3 days before I sent my email to the leaked supporters list or wrote my article about her Patreon.

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Randi Harper’s fundraising. Note that, if we believe her, the alleged massive fundraising increase started a couple of days before my email or article. Source – http://graphtreon.com/creator/freebsdgirl . Click for full size.

Click the graph for full size. If we believe Randi, a glance at the graph will show that neither my article nor @Nero‘s has actually had any effect. However, that does not end the story. How can this be true? I have people telling me they think she is erratic and are ceasing to support her, yet here is this upward graph? Continue reading →

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“Abhorrent” – Patreon Donors React to Randi Harper Revelations

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The Witchfinder explains himself, answers baseless blackmail allegations and releases heartening (anonymised) information about some of Randi’s (former) subscribers.

I remember my first interaction with Randi Harper well. In fact I wrote an article about it. I had created, as obvious satire (literally labelled ‘parody’) a ‘Bot for Endangered Sealions’. A while later, I started to receive tweets. Lots of tweets. I tried to reply only to find the stranger who was sending them had blocked me. It was Randi Harper.

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Randi Harper is very, very angry. She is also very, very dumb.

Soon after, a small group of her friends started trying to brigade me using discriminatory language. When I shared my article about her with supporters, one of them called it a ‘meltdown’. I laughed at them. Continue reading →

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Ethical Journalistic Treatment of the Randi Harper Patreon Leak

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The Witchfinder ponders the most morally appropriate way to handle the leaked list of extremist online bully and admitted drug abuser Randi Harper’s supporters.

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Randi Harper admits to the leak of her donors on Twitter. Face blanked out for ethical reasons.

This is a brief trailer for a longer article. It is now well known that the complete list of Randi Harper’s donors has been leaked online by unknown third parties. Indeed it has been admitted by Harper herself (archive here). Your author in no way endorses hacking or other illegal activities and will not be publishing the whole list as this would be irresponsible.

Online leaks of the membership or supporters lists of extremists groups are nothing new. In 2009 the members list of British far right political party the ‘British National Party’ was leaked online and placed on WikiLeaks.

Given Harper’s extremist online behaviour, such as releasing people’s private contact details (doxing) and other forms of abuse, well documented by the journalists at Breitbart and blogger the Ralph Retort, many legitimate journalistic concerns may arise about those who support her – Continue reading →

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Restaurant Review – Hanson at the Chelsea

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On a tangential note, the Witchfinder was in Swansea for a couple of days recently and tried a local restaurant called Hanson at the Chelsea. It was so good I decided to go back another day to er … ‘research’ a review.

All the fighting against social authoritarians makes me hungry and so, whilst on a recent break in Swansea, I spent some time kicking back on some fine dining.

The first day I was just looking for somewhere to eat and so picked out a highly reviewed restaurant. It had a nice, homely interior near Swansea station, and had quick service, although the lights in the gents appeared to be broken and I had to rely on the illumination of my iPhone 4. I ordered scallops to start. They were … good. Melt in the mouth good – perfectly cooked and textured. I had not intended to write a review but I decided to go back the next day –

I started with the Oak Smoked Salmon. As on the first day service was quick and the starter looked like this –

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This is some good salmon – that white material underneath is crab flakes.

The fish was a fitting prelude for the main course. HatC is in the Good Food Guide 2015 and has two AA Rosettes, also for 2015. The restaurant won AA fish restaurant of the year for Wales 2005. However, your author recommends not having the fish for the main course. The reason for this is simply that you will miss out on the revelation that is the 8 Hour Cooked Honey Crisp Belly Pork. This –

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Legal Remedies for Milo Yiannopoulos and Julie Bindel Versus Manchester University Student Extremists

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The Witchfinder explores legal remedies that may be open to gay journalist Milo Yiannopoulos and feminist Julie Bindel after being banned from attending an event at University of Manchester Students’ Union. Comments are legal opinion, untested by any court.

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University of Manchester Students’ Union Women’s Officer Jess Lishak, shown in a black shirt with hammer and sickle. Original picture was released on Flickr by ‘Jennifer’ here (archive here) under the irrevocable NC-BY-SA 2.0 open source license (archive here). Image was further amended by cropping, enhancing and photoshopping a Communist hammer and sickle onto Jess’ convenient black shirt for parody purposes. It is therefore asserted the image falls under s30A Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1998 – the ‘parody exception’ and can be used commercially for that purpose. 09/10/2015 – Image Amended

In 2012 the European Court of Human Rights rules in the case of Redfearn v United Kingdom (Application no. 47335/06). Arthur Redfearn was a bus driver. He was also a member of the British National Party, a British far right party that opposes immigration and multiculturalism. Conservative grandee Lord Tebbit once called them, “Labour with racism”.

The Court ruled in favour of Mr Redfearn and UK law was changed. Recent case law appears to confirm that political views – even extremist views, can fall within the definition of a ‘philosophical belief’ under s10 Equality Act 2010.

Yet Milo Yiannopoulos does not hold extremist views. Manchester Students’ Union, in a statement (archive here), say they banned him because –

“We have been made aware of various comments lambasting rape survivors and trans* people, and as such we are concerned for the safety of our students on the topic of this event. He is a rape apologist and has repeatedly used derogatory and debasing ableist language when describing members of the trans* community.”

I am unaware of any occasion where Milo Yiannopoulos has apologised for, nor mitigated rape. He has on some occasions highlighted false allegations and the need for procedural safeguards.

Yiannopoulos is a supporter of #GamerGate, a cultural libertarian, pro-free speech, anti-censorship, consumer movement. As a prominent cultural libertarian, he would likely have mentioned #GamerGate in the context of freedom of speech.

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