Rami Ismail responds to Gamergate accusations

Vlambeer's Rami Ismail responds to latest Gamergate accusations

Rami Ismail, the indie developer behind the mobile hit Ridiculous Fishing and the PC successes Luftrausers and Nuclear Throne, has taken to Twitter to point out a number of false allegations against him spread by the so-called “Ethical journalism” movement GamerGate.

The Gamergate controversy began last year as a grassroots reaction to false allegations from an ex-partner that Depression Quest developer Zoe Quinn had slept with journalists in order to curry favorable coverage in the gaming press. It takes its name from a tweet posted by actor Adam Baldwin. Since then, it has targeted a number of female developers and members of the gaming press over what it says is evidence of widespread corruption in the industry. Despite this, all of their allegations have so far proven false with no evidence to back them up.

After a torrid year for the games industry in 2014, what initially looked to become a widespread problem has since been relegated to a disparate group of supporters coordinating themselves through message boards and the notorious 8chan - best known for being home to a widespread number of message boards used by paedophiles. 8chan, currently based out of the Phillipines, was founded by Frederick Brennan as a response to what he deemed a growing trend of authoritanism on the equally-notorious 4chan. As a result of constant negative press and a series of public incidents, including death threats issued to an American University following a speaking engagement by controversial feminist critic Anita Sarkeesian last year, 4chan banned the group from its site.

In this latest bout against game industry professionals, an anonymous GamerGate poster calling himself Leader makes accusations that Ismail is in a sexual relationship with game journalist and PR consultant, Maya Kramer. Aside from getting Ismail’s name wrong, Leader falsely claims that Ismail in a sexual relationship with Kramer, citing a pair of innocent tweets between the pair. This is despite the fact that Ismail is not only a Muslim - and therefore doesn’t practice sex before marriage - but also that he is in a relationship with his partner of 3 years, Adriel Wallick - facts which are public knowledge and easily found online through basic googling.

Upon finding the latest round of allegations, Ismail posted a comeback on Twitter, pointing out the multiple mistakes in the original post and highlighing the relevant inaccuracies in bright red MS Paint pen.

Vlambeer’s most recent game is Nuclear Throne on PC. It’s a top-down twin stick shooter which takes place in procedural environments, with a number of different playable characters. It’s currently on Steam’s Early Access program, and is well worth a look. If you’re more of a mobile gamer, check out Ridiculous Fishing if you haven’t already done so.

Dale Morgan

Dale Morgan

Founder, Editor in Chief
When Dale isn't crying over his keyboard about his never-ending workload, he's playing games - lots of them. Dale has a particular love for RPGs, Roguelikes and Metroidvanias.
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  • RealGamerJ

    This is about Indie Developer not gg . He should have just had the courage to speak his beliefs without mentioning gg and just let his actions speak for themselves. I agree with people calling the dev stupid on this PR move. But we’re all human, hopefully his next move is to drop great games.

    • Anonymous

      He’s responding to allegations made by a GG supporter on a GG board, that explicitly mentions his views concerning GG. How is this not related to GG?

  • Pingback: Nuovo capitolo #GamerGate, accusato il creatore di Luftrausers | VG247.it()

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