Netscape · @netscape9
8th Nov 2015 from TwitLonger
Editorial: The Case for #GamerGate
I wrote this editorial as part of an assignment at my college a few weeks ago. Given that I submitted it a while back, I thought I would share it with everyone. Needless to say, I have removed formatting and works cited page for the sake of posting it on Twitlonger.
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The video game community and industry was once a joyous and united place. People worked together to build communities, make custom modifications and create copious amounts of fan content. All was well, or so it seemed, but lurking beneath the surface there was a raging problem. This problem was authoritarian corruption.
While one would be hard-pressed to argue that video game journalism was transparent and honest prior to August 2014, it became an undeniable fact after that fateful August. What initially started as gamers raising concerns about a single journalist promoting his friend’s game without disclosure, quickly transformed into an inferno consuming almost the entire gaming community and industry.
Rather than responding to their critics, once-respected gaming publication Kotaku had doubled down and insisted that “everything was fine.” While some may have taken Kotaku at their word, it didn’t take long for evidence to come forth showing that not only had their writer (Nathan Grayson) given positive coverage to his friend’s game, but that another one of their writers (Patricia Hernandez) was doing the same thing. The discovery of these two ethical breaches led many to take critical looks at other gaming publications.
The public outcry about these various ethical breaches likely would have almost certainly subsided within a couple of weeks. Yet rather than admitting that mistakes were made and apologizing, many publications decided to claim that they were “under attack” by malcontents. Over the course of a few days over a dozen articles across various gaming publications had claimed that gamers were “off the hinges” and many of them even went so far as to claim that gamers and the gaming community were “racist” or “sexist.”
The accusations of racism and sexism came as a shock to many, especially given that so many publications said almost the exact same thing in such a short period of time. Many gamers felt betrayed by their own press, who they had already been skeptical of over dishonest articles and reviews. While certainly there may be some racists, sexists and homophobes in the gaming community, they are a minority and do not represent the core gaming culture. To make matters worse, it was revealed that there was a secret email list for games journalists and members of the group had no problem openly discussing agenda-pushing. It quickly became clear that anyone who dared to suggest that these publications adopt ethical policies and act more transparently would be labeled a racist, sexist, homophobe, harasser or in some cases even a terrorist.
A cursory look at gaming journalism over the past several years indicates that these negative attitudes against gamers were hardly new among the gaming press. Articles dating back half a decade indicate that some gaming journalists felt a sense of superiority over their audience and were more interested in pushing their personal political ideology, rather than discussing gaming with the plebeians. These gaming journalists are entitled to their opinion and are free to review games from a political perspective, but they absolutely should not be above criticism, nor should their political views give them a free pass to mislead consumers.
This direct and deliberate attack on gamers, combined with a lack of said publications to address ethical concerns, resulted in the formation of the #GamerGate hashtag. While GamerGate may have started as a hashtag, many people also discussed the various topics surrounding the GamerGate scandal on Reddit, 4chan, Facebook, Tumblr, YouTube and dozens of online gaming forums. GamerGate was never viewed as a group by most people using the hashtag, it was merely a medium to share information and have a discussion about various concerns people had in the industry.
While journalistic ethics, censorship and extreme political correctness were chief among the topics discussed, the hashtag and various related communities also included discussions on various industry issues. From discussions on exploitative business practices in the industry, such as intrusive digital rights management agreements and microtransactions, to corruption within the International Game Developers Association, GamerGate was at the center of the discussion about all of these things and more. Some users of the hashtag also focused on journalistic ethics at large and in some cases political correctness at large, such as the “ShirtStorm” incident where a hate mob tried to get a world-renowned scientist fired for wearing a politically incorrect shirt on television.
I personally missed out on the early discussions and didn’t get involved until around February 2015. I saw innocent people under attack by corrupt journalists and so-called “social justice warriors” who tried to use mob tactics to harass and vilify good people. I also got involved right around these so-called “social justice warriors” started attacking comic book artists and game developers for not being politically correct enough. Even the slightest offense would often result in artists and game developers receiving hundreds or even thousands of hateful and oftentimes threatening tweets by these “social justice warriors” who would demand that artists and developers remove the offensive content.
While providing feedback is absolutely fine, these so-called “social justice warriors” would often go too far. Feedback would become demands and if those demands weren’t met, they would lead to shaming and even death threats. Even things as minor as a female character showing “too much skin” or a politically incorrect joke would often bring on the wrath of this hate mob. Despite being a vocal minority, this hate mob was creating a culture of fear among game developers and artists. No longer could artists and developers bring about their creative visions, not without being mass pressured, shamed and even have their lives threatened over it.
These bullying tactics and the culture of fear were seen as unacceptable to many gamers and game developers, renewing interest in the hashtag. I personally became heavily invested in the conversation, in no small part due to these war on creative freedom. That’s why GamerGate is important to me and that’s why I am making a stand for gamers and game developers.