Recently, one of the convention organisers here - posted a list of people that they are planning on bringing to Sydney and Perth for conventions in June. One of those named was Adam Baldwin (the person who created the hashtag gamergate) Anyways, when there was this announcement there was lots of backlash from it, and also positive feedback and negative feedback. Someone started a petition to get his invite revoked, while another person started another petition to organisers to ignore the petition to revoke the invite. What I want to know - does anyone know if this has happened in other counties with conventions that have had Adam Baldwin as a guest. Or any other celebrities.
Was he invited because he's the Adam Baldwin famous for being an actor, or because he's another Adam Baldwin, famous for creating the hashtag gamergate? Because I don't know who the latter is. If I were the organizers, I'd ignore any petition campaign. People who don't like the guest list are free not to attend. The OP makes it sound like gamergate is his claim to fame.
Yes they are free not to attend but those people not attendibg could easily turn the convention into a financial disaster.
Are they protesting Baldwin for creating the hashtag, his stance on the controversy, or his work as an actor? I don't know what his position is and don't really care, because I've been a fan of his work since 1980.
It would be for his stance on the contrevesry and creation of the hashtag. Why would they be protesting his acting?
When it comes to fans, it's sometimes hard to predict what they'll find fault with. This entire board is in an example of that.
My Bodyguard was the bomb! [yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj8sZlSUI38[/yt] I don't care what his stance is on the so-called Gamergate controversy. I'd love to see him at a convention!
I had a WTF moment when I read this thread, so I had to do me some researchin'. Have I got this right? A woman develops a popular game. She was dating a gaming journalist. Her ex decides he doesn't like that, so he accuses her of using sex to be successful? Baldwin creates a hashtag to protest corruption and insincerity in gaming journalism, and a buttload of gaming losers who likely live in their parents' basements coopt the hashtag in order to threaten and harass anybody they think breathes funny in their games' general direction? On Twitter? And everybody's mad at Baldwin for not collapsing in shame because other people are using something he created in a way he never intended? To answer the OP's question, I've never heard of it happening at a convention in the States, mainly because we litigate everything to death. To prevent it even becoming an issue Baldwin simply wouldn't have been invited in the first place.
So was it Adam Baldwin the actor, or another Adam Baldwin? I don't even want that hashtag gamergate crap on my search history - but admittedly I would wander into a room at a Con in which it was being discussed.
I'm still not 100% sure I understand the Gamergate nonsense. Anyway, I got to meet Adam Baldwin at a con a couple years ago. Nice enough guy in person, I suppose. But a lot of tweets and social media-stuff has sort of shown him to be a bit of an ass.
^ On the Nerdist podcast a few weeks ago, Wil Wheaton explained that Adam Baldwin was an ass to him. He said Baldwin tried to organize people against him. Sorry, I can't remember specifics, but if you're interested, you can look here.
I can see that, honestly. I liked Firefly, I liked him as Jayne, but I see more and more stories of him generally being sort-of an ass. My experience with him is limited to minute or so I met and chit-chatted with him while he signed my Jayne comicbook and observed him over the days of the convention. So, limited, to say the least.
Yeah, he seems to come off as an ass in his tweets and other posts. He's certainly a conspiracy theorist, once tweeting that Obama probably wanted ebola in America for some reason. So definitely an ass.
Adam Baldwin was an asshat before the Gamergate situation, he was an even bigger asshat during it, and he'll most likely continue being an asshat for the rest of his life. That being said, I don't see the need to deprive fans of Jayne the character who aren't invested in the Gamergate debate or Baldwin's personal politics the opportunity to meet him and get a picture or an autograph, or the need to disrupt potential Firefly cast reunions in the future. If you want to boycott him, don't visit his individual booth or stage appearances. Empty rooms and autograph lines will send a much better message than banning him from the convention. As long as he acts professionally during the conventions themselves and doesn't cause the conventioneers any undue headaches, as obnoxious as his personal views are it's not worth banning him outright from future appearances. If convention runners feel his presence will be negative or disruptive, they're fully within their rights to refuse him. And people are fully within their rights to petition for his removal. I just don't think it's particularly productive in the latter case.
Yes that was the reason why he was invited. The convention company had to delete the thread about him on facebook after the backlash. The person who runs the convention posted this on FB yesterday:- Hi Everyone. While we wish Adam Baldwin's attendance in Supanova in Sydney and Perth this June wasn't a controversial issue, it clearly is, and the reasons why are now understood. We ask for your patience and understanding while we deal with the developments. Regardless of what the ultimate outcome is please know that we 100% agree with your right, as our fans, to have your say, to share your feelings, to create or sign petitions in the positive or the negative, to protest or support. Source Absolutely not. I do enjoy firefly and Chuck, that he has been in. I pretty much agree. After reading about this more. I am glad I don't follow him on any social media. Today, I signed the petition, after reading this on twitter and a few other things. Also read on a friend's FB about a female cosplayer having personal details shared after she spoke out about it.
Well, after watching and reading about actors for over 50 years, I really think they should keep their mouths shut unless they're talking about acting. That's really all most of them know about anything.
I'm disappointed but not shocked, as I'm pretty familiar with Adam Baldwin's general offscreen persona. I'm not a big online gamer, just a little STO in which I haven't even talked to a single other player yet. So I didn't pay much attention to GG except being generally aware of it's existence. I knew Adam was a special kind of jerk, I just didn't realize he had reached jerk, Epic Level in recent years. All that said, I wouldn't sign a petition to get him removed from a con. I would love to watch some of my female friends have a shot at him in an open forum. If he thinks he can be involved with something like this, appear at cons and expect to be asked about his body of decent but largely insignificant work instead of being booed offstage because of this, I wouldn't mind seeing him realize it in person.
MMM-kay. So it looks like the general feeling round these parts is Adam Baldwin's some version of ass. I would have no idea, since I've never met him or talked with him under any circumstance. And his acting has never enthralled me so much that I'd waste much energy trying to meet him. And I'm not much of a gamer of any kind, so I don't even have that dog in this hunt. So, yeah... the con organizers can ban him all they like, AFAIC...