I ran in to a reddit post via Ian Miles Cheong, aka @stillgray, aka one of the many Social Justice Warriors an epitaph given by the same people who disguise the #GamerGate hashtag to be about journalistic integrity. The Hate Machine that popped into being still grinds on incensed by posts like this, entrenching people in their opinions.
Make no mistake, journalistic integrity is important, but having followed the discussions closely, this is not what #GamerGate is about. #GamerGate is about sheltering a misogynistic and anachronistic hero factory, tailored to meet the needs of a masculinity that is outdated and to some extent harmful*. Yes. That’s what I actually think.
I’ll take a moment to go through the Reddit post. I’m doing it in the vain hope that someone will read what I have to say, and actually reflect. Well. Half truth. I’m also doing it because it pissed me off.
A great schism has occurred in gaming, not because the culture is slipping towards a progressive demographic as they claim, but because an elitist attitude of condescension towards fellow human beings has been exposed, originating from a group of extremist SJW ideologues in positions of power in games journalism.
If there is any kind of elitism in the gaming culture, it stems from the hierarchy within gaming, where the triple-A gaming culture have always set the tone and claimed the right to interpret what is a good game and what is a bad game. Needless to say, any game that isn’t triple-A is lower on the ladder than games aimed at a wider audience. Playstation and Xbox are at the pinnacle of the status ladder together with Nintendo 64 (because that was back in the day when Nintendo still made “real games” and didn’t mess about with silly kids’ games, am I right? Besides, it’s always cool to have been playing a long time). Right below triple-A we’ve got the “cool” mobile games, like XCom and others of that ilk. Below that mobile games in general. Then we start in on the casual games and last and least come the Facebook games and other trivia. Those games are lucky if they even qualify as games. Well. Not true. Games are cool if they have a certain theme. This theme should be hardcore. Hardcore games are those games that replicate the triple-A hero factory.
The only people I’ve ever heard being elitist are the hardcore gamers that won’t admit that mobile games can be just as tricky and difficult to play as their beloved Call of Duty-clones, Grand Theft Auto-copies and Uncharted-replicas. (Don’t believe me? Read Jesper Juul’s the Casual Revolution.)
They were indoctrinated in very sheltered socioeconomic, and academic bubbles from their affluent backgrounds, their not used to people challenging their ideals, and they are unable to cope with others debunking them.
Ever since I started playing I’ve been told I don’t belong. Ever since I was a kid I’ve been told I’m different, I don’t fit in. If the above were true, I’d not lasted long in games or the games industry. Instead I’ve had to fight to be taken seriously, I’ve had to confirm time and time again, that yes I do belong. Many, many, many women and men are not allowed to belong in a culture that rejects them solely based on external markers. You’re a woman – you don’t belong. You’re a person of color – you SO don’t belong. If you play anything but the approved “cool” games you do not belong, and if you by chance do play games that are cool, you’ll be told that no, you don’t because [insert gaming minority**] doesn’t play games. Oh and incidentally, you don’t belong.
I question the quality of their intellects and work ethic, since most of them couldn’t hack it in STEM, and are unable to debate their philosophy in a civil manner without censorship and extreme bias from their allies in the media.
Hey, I’m hacking it in STEM. So are many of my colleagues who – whoa! – also think that representation in games is an important issue. As for the civil manner of debate, I’ve never heard of a so called SJW threatening anyone with rape or violence just because they have an opinion.
They do not consider “gamers” to be their intellectual equals, they consider you to be unwashed masses in need of enlightenment from their social betters (them of course), that are to be indoctrinated with their political agenda through video games.
No. I consider everyone who plays a game to be a gamer. I do not divide players based on what game or what console a gamer uses. Do you play Candy Crush for an hour on the bus every day? Kaching! You’re a gamer. Do you play Call of Duty? Kaching! Gamer. Do you play on a C64 that has barely survived the test of time? Kaching! Gamer. Do you play table-top roleplaying games, or board games or e-sport? Gamer. We are all the same. We are all human beings and we (most of us anyway) all enjoy games. But the rhetoric here is designed to other people who have a differing opinion. Othering is the first step towards objectification. Objectification renders someone less human. This is elitism at its worst. To think that just because our opinions differ I am worth less than you. As soon as you start to think of people with differing opinions as “them” and the people you hang out with, the people who think like you as “us”, that’s trouble. What I am saying now is not “you have to think like me.” What I’m saying is that MY opinion is just as much worth as YOURS, and I have the right to voice it, just like you. But don’t for a second think that I or my fellow SJWs will let it stand unopposed.
With the risk of sounding flippant and elitist. Learn to make a stringent argument and back it with something else than your own opinion or prejudice, stop attacking people as a group and stop ascribing people who don’t think like you opinions that you have no clue as to whether they harbor or not.
This is what I hate most about being someone who actually thinks before I speak (or as it were write). I don’t use name calling. I don’t use ad hominem attacks. I try to base my opinions as much as I possibly can on facts (even if you won’t find sources in this blog post, I can tell you that the basis for this wrath stems from countless papers written on the subject, a few books and a lot of reading). This is a real drawback. You’ll note that I’ve not ascribed any opinions to anyone. Using this rhetoric is harder than just saying “this is what my opponent thinks” and then proceed to dismantle said opponent because they have supposed crappy views. Instead of attacking people, I have to argue with facts and experiences. Unfortunately, the gaming culture decides which experiences and facts are real as well, no matter how well documented.
I am fucking angry because my experiences are never allowed to stand unchallenged. I am fucking angry because I struggle with this every goddamn day, and have been for 14 years. #GamerGaters have had two weeks of mild opposition. Grow the fuck up and learn to make an argument without threatening or name calling.
Footnotes
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* For men. It teaches to never have emotions, to take revenge using violence and that the ends justify the means.
** And as it turns out, not such a big minority anymore. Yes, yes, I know. If we play, we’re not playing real games, and if it turns out that we are playing real games, then what’s the problem? Amirite?
2014-09-09 at 14:17
Gamers play games and enjoy doing so.
Haters spew hate and enjoy doing so.
There is no correlation between Gamers and Haters except that one can be both.
It’s always great to read what you write, I’ve got great respect for the method you use, i.e of making ones point without hatred.
2014-09-10 at 10:10
As someone who sometimes speak before thinking, acting on gut instinct, I admire your patience, Åsa.
2014-09-10 at 10:52
You write:
“stop attacking people as a group and stop ascribing people who don’t think like you opinions that you have no clue as to whether they harbor or not.” and “stop ascribing people who don’t think like you opinions that you have no clue as to whether they harbor or not.”
I feel that you are doing the very same thing when you claim that #GamerGate is about “sheltering a misogynistic and anachronistic hero factory, tailored to meet the needs of a masculinity that is outdated and to some extent harmful”
2014-09-10 at 12:26
Carl – Really? Okay, then I apologize if I made you feel uncomfortable.
As a clarification I’m looking at GamerGate as a phenomenon represented by many texts, tweets and opinion pieces. I believe that the opinions expressed intend to shelter the gamer culture. That I feel that the gamer culture and games industry is a hero factory tailored to meet needs of masculinity that is outdated has nothing to do with individual gamers.
2014-09-10 at 16:25
No need to apologize.
I just feel that your analysis and your conclusions differ a lot from my own. We have different perspectives. I think that the mainstream media has been very one sided without hearing the other side or trying to understand why people are frustrated with gaming media.
2014-09-10 at 17:22
Probably not. As I said, I can understand that there’s a concern with journalistic integrity in the games media however that’s not what I’m seeing here.
Why have I had people sending me unsolicited descriptions of how vile people both Quinn and Sarkeesian are? GamerGate originated in a hate campaign against female devs and critics.
Games journalism suffer from the same bias problems as political journalism and other areas where the journalist and the subject get very close to one another. Yes, that may be a problem, but the bottom line is that it comes down to trust. My impression of this affair is that the people dissatisfied with the fact that Quinn and Sarkeesian aren’t slaughtered in game media have a hard time trusting the media. Also group think. The ball started rolling. People jumped aboard without fact checking. Rumors became “truth”. The reason so many others didn’t see this is because the sources aren’t trustworthy, or not possible to corroborate. Or, as it turned out, not true.
2014-09-11 at 19:39
Yeah, that’s what I’m saying.
We’re all susceptible to group think, you included. Yes, both sides jumped aboard without checking facts.
Which other female devs besides Zoe Quinn were targeted by this #gamergate hate campaign?
2014-09-12 at 12:00
As far as I know Brianna Wu caught quite a bit of flak, Quinn also mentioned that several of her developer friends had been targeted. There were also several women writers who quit or said they would quit based on the threats they received from GamerGate, among others Jenn Frank and Mattie Brice.
As for the fact checking and the group think – well, I DID check facts. The one’s possible to check at least. I’ve read just about everything there is about GamerGate, including the blog posts that started it all. As for group think – I admitted as much in my previous post. I’m not above it. I will however say this – I’m aware of it. I try to look at both sides. I try to understand both sides. In this instance, the way GamerGate developed, I have a hard time seeing how threatening a developer and a critic to such a degree that they have to leave their homes is a valid and reasonable response to a blog post containing alleged* misconduct and a YouTube video criticizing how women are portrayed in video games.
* alleged because it’s very hard to confirm the facts in the post, and some of the stuff in there was retracted by Quinn’s ex-boyfriend, some of it was refuted by other sources.
2014-09-14 at 03:01
Judging the whole #GamerGate movement based on a few bad apples, some of them not even related to gamergate, is like judging feminism based on Valerie Solanas. “Look, feminists want to kill men!”.
Think about how you feel when people say that feminists are just bigoted misandrists who hate men.
I’ve seen death threats going both ways, I’ve seen people quitting or losing their jobs on both sides. I’ve seen Microsoft and Ubisoft devs supporting #GamerGate anonymously, because they’re afraid they’ll lose their jobs if they speak out publicly.
If you read the gamergate threads on 4chan, you’d see that they are actively reporting anyone who harass, since it’s hurting their cause. They also donated over $ 20,000 to fund a charity in support of women in video game development.
The two developers who have gotten the most harassment recently is Zoe and Phil Fish. Phil is male.
Are some people supporting #gamergate misogynist? Sure! But the movement is not as black and white as you make it out to be.
2014-09-14 at 04:26
I’ve already apologized if I’ve made you feel uncomfortable. Despite your assurances of the opposite, I get the feeling that I have done that.
Let me explain something about this post that may give you a different perspective on it, or It may not, I don’t know. I’m not presuming anything, just so you know.
I rarely write while I’m angry. Actually, that’s not true, I often write when I’m angry, but I rarely publish it. This post was supposed to be up for about a day, then my plan was to remove it. Why? Because I knew that comments like yours would appear. However people asked me to keep it up, so I did. The thing is, I know not to judge people by one or a few representatives. That’s the first thing you learn if you want to write about feminism and the games industry. I know this. You don’t have to tell me. I also know, that as a feminist, for someone even to listen to you, you have to make a multifaceted case, you have to make it iron clad, and you have to point out “not all [insert category of people/games/etc] as a disclaimer or the comments will be inundated by angry comments.
So I let it stay, this blog post, even though I knew it would be … Problematic to keep it. So I’m sorry if it makes you feel uncomfortable, and I’m sorry that threats are being made on both sides of the fence and I’m sorry that devs are feeling uncomfortable about speaking up, but do you really think that I should be made to answer for that? Because I wrote something while I was angry? Which, btw still is my take on the phenomenon of GamerGate.
That devs are afraid to speak up, well, I can assure you that I’ve been terrified for about ten years time to talk about feminism in games. I’m never sure when it will lead to uncomfortable discussions at work, angry mails from co-workers, policing via my blogg, Facebook or Twitter and affect my ability to find a new job, so while I sympathize with the devs you’re talking about, it’s nothing that I’m not experiencing on a daily basis.
To be honest I think I’ve never gone to work in any context without fear. To be honest I’ve never spoken, or expressed my opinions about gaming without fear.
So there. This was an angry post. I wish I had never posted it. At the same time, why am I not allowed anger?
2014-09-30 at 17:19
No, you haven’t made me feel uncomfortable.
Why are you presupposing that I think you should answer for their actions? Where did I say you should?
I’m not saying that you can’t be angry. Why are you asking me? Ask the people who argue that you’re not allowed to be angry.
You originally wrote:
I commented that I felt like you’re doing the very same thing that you’re criticizing. Even in your replies to me you keep doing the very same thing. By asking me the questions I quoted above, you’re making me answer for opinions I don’t even hold in the first place. Heed your own advice and stop doing that.
2014-09-30 at 19:03
I obviously don’t agree with your assessment of me or my replies. Maybe that’s okay too. I have not the time nor the inclination to continue this discussion. I don’t know how to talk to you, because obviously we have very different viewpoints on the subject. I’ve apologized, but apparently that’s not enough. I don’t know what you want or what your purpose with your comments is, apart from me getting the sense that you think I’m dishonest or inconsistent. Be that as it may. I’m a human being, I’m allowed some inconsistencies. I’m also very tired. If you feel that my posts are sub par or whatever you’re trying to say, if you think I’m dishonest or inconsistent there’s a really simple solution for that as well. Stop reading. My posts reach about a thousand readers. That’s nothing. Take comfort in that and let it lie. I give up. You win.
2014-10-01 at 14:19
I apologize if I made you uncomfortable. It was not my intention. I’m just tired of the divisive rhethoric used by both sides of the argument, because it won’t win either side over to the other side.
I think we agree on more things than you realize. It’s just that I only ever comment on things when I don’t agree.
I won’t stop reading your blog. I think it leads to intellectual stagnation if you only ever read opinion pieces that conform with your own viewpoint. People should challenge their opinion to see if they hold up to scrutiny.
I’m sorry if you felt that I was being unreasonably critical of your post. Have a great afternoon.