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roga
What can I say about Gamergate that other people haven't said far better than me?
The first thing to understand is that Gamergate has always been here. The harassment and the anger and the weird defensive nerd rage are not new things to the gaming community. Anita Sarkeesian didn't wake up one morning in August and start getting death threats. Those have been coming towards her for years and years now.
What is new -- what is so horrifying -- is that those disparate factions of angry nerds found a way to come to together, to put up a banner that allowed them to find each other and make them sound semi-legitimate.
It is, after all, about ethics in gaming journalism.
The effects of it obviously do still reverberate, but it's always in odd ways. You can always find That Guy in the comments of particular articles, trotting out talking points, obsessed with 'objectivity', desperate to recruit for the cause. Feminism and 'SJWs' show up in odd unrelated conversational topics. The harassment and the spread of misinformation continues.
They probably won't ever go away. They were here before, and they're here now.
There's a few bright spots in the muck. I think perhaps this incident woke a few people up, that it opened some people's eyes to how bad it really is out there. There's plenty of mocking of Gamergate to go around, my favorite being the 'It's about ethics in X journalism!' meme showing up in unrelated topics. Feminists have a far larger platform to speak than ever before.
And so the gaming community keeps trucking forward. Anita Sarkeesian reaches more ears with every bit of high profile news coverage she earns. Brianna Wu continues to deal with posting creepy shit about her house and sad life events in her life. The indie games scene continues to grow. The big gaming sites tread on uncertain feet, denouncing the harassment without naming the group that encourages it.
And, well, for the rest of us? We keep on playing games.
P.S. This is probably a good time for me to purchase my very own 'Gaming's Feminist Illuminati' t-shirt.
rogaWhat can I say about Gamergate that other people haven't said far better than me?
The first thing to understand is that Gamergate has always been here. The harassment and the anger and the weird defensive nerd rage are not new things to the gaming community. Anita Sarkeesian didn't wake up one morning in August and start getting death threats. Those have been coming towards her for years and years now.
What is new -- what is so horrifying -- is that those disparate factions of angry nerds found a way to come to together, to put up a banner that allowed them to find each other and make them sound semi-legitimate.
It is, after all, about ethics in gaming journalism.
The effects of it obviously do still reverberate, but it's always in odd ways. You can always find That Guy in the comments of particular articles, trotting out talking points, obsessed with 'objectivity', desperate to recruit for the cause. Feminism and 'SJWs' show up in odd unrelated conversational topics. The harassment and the spread of misinformation continues.
They probably won't ever go away. They were here before, and they're here now.
There's a few bright spots in the muck. I think perhaps this incident woke a few people up, that it opened some people's eyes to how bad it really is out there. There's plenty of mocking of Gamergate to go around, my favorite being the 'It's about ethics in X journalism!' meme showing up in unrelated topics. Feminists have a far larger platform to speak than ever before.
And so the gaming community keeps trucking forward. Anita Sarkeesian reaches more ears with every bit of high profile news coverage she earns. Brianna Wu continues to deal with posting creepy shit about her house and sad life events in her life. The indie games scene continues to grow. The big gaming sites tread on uncertain feet, denouncing the harassment without naming the group that encourages it.
And, well, for the rest of us? We keep on playing games.
P.S. This is probably a good time for me to purchase my very own 'Gaming's Feminist Illuminati' t-shirt.