10.19.2014

#GamerGate: A Post I've Been Fearing for Weeks

     I have been off lately for this blog.  It's been a hellish last few weeks and I'm super tired from both work and homework all day so this post might be a bit lacking in quality.  Any long time readers will know that I make no effort to hide who I am, or what I like.  I am a liberal, equal rights individual, believing everyone deserves the same stand.  I am a comics loving, cinema fan, and lifelong gamer.  Also, of course, if you are reading this you've probably heard something of the GamerGate situation in the media.  It has been eating away at me for a long time, and I'm coming under fire for supporting a movement that is largely misunderstood in the media.  People I don't know have harassed me, thankfully it's been mild so far, and I'm just a nobody.  It's been bothering me a ton.  The general populous have blown up about this recently and I don't believe the Pro GamerGate side has even remotely gotten a fair word in.  Any time it gets mentioned someone has to throw in about Feminist Frequency and Anita Sarkeesian, which is NOT what it is about.  This is a very disturbing trend to have come about.


     What makes this better is the GamerGate supporters I've talked to are all nice.  I'm not going to say they all are, but plenty of the ones I've had the pleasure of conversing with have all been cordial, and I thank them for it.  Which oddly enough brings me to the few encounters with Anti-GamerGate people I've met.  They have all been hostile, tossing around terms of hate left and right.  Seriously people, calm down and we can discuss things.

     Honestly, this is the best comic representation that I've seen of it, being a GGer since the beginning (you may check my twitter feed if you like):


    First off, I have been a supporter for GamerGate since it began.  It was NOT about misogyny then, it is still NOT about harassment or misogyny.  Sure, the inciting event was about Zoe Quinn (note- it wasn't about her actions per se, but the fact they MAY have been a factor in journalistic integrity for articles about her game and the people she might have had an influence upon them, much like the whole Phil Fish and Fez fiasco), and of course we have had the ever present Anita Sarkeesian and much more recently, Brianna Wu jumping in and pushing mass media to believe this is all about harassment.
     Here is a great bunch of coverage to show you that the major media outlets are lacking about these 3 ladies: Realgamernewz.  Another great link: The Males of Games.  And a Quinn post/article from yesterday I believe- questionable actions.  All the media seems to cover is all the "oppression" that is happening, despite having mass groups of minorities speaking up for and supporting GamerGate.
     Now, mind you, I firmly believe that any harassment these women have faced is wrong, and should the harassers be found, they should be dealt with appropriately through whatever means the legal system has.  Harassment is not to be tolerated.  Death threats are not to be tolerated.  Simple as that.  What I disagree with is the fact that they keep taking all their problems and saying GamerGate is the cause.

     This next part was the last straw for me, the one that spurned me to action.  As two of my nerd heroes, Patton Oswalt and John Scalzi, recently tweeted things that are absolutely astounding considering the subject matter.





     Well, two clicks of the mouse would've brought this up:


     Even, before this video was made, looking through Ms. Wu's tweets shows that NONE of the threats were even tagged with GamerGate.  Seriously, neither of them bothered to actually look into it.  How disheartening is this- to have two very awesome people make a mass judgement and declaration about something they don't actually know anything about.  Talk about leading the public to false conclusions.  It's just perpetuated the hate going around.
     Because I am getting hate mail already (part of my reasons for not posting in a while) and I have a lot of other things on my plate, such as school, a full-time job in health care, and I've been super sick lately- I'll leave some links to people that are smarter and have far better information than I can provide at this time. I've been dealing with this for, what, something like 2 months now, and it is getting sickening to continually hear that all these problems are my fault because I'm a gamer.
     Wu accused GamerGate and has since, continually accused us of doing all manner of ridiculous things.  If Mr. Scalzi and Mr. Oswalt had taken the time to actually investigate this stuff a little further, they might have found some interesting information, such as Ms. Wu treating others with the same disrespect she hates.  Including a pretty derogatory tweet about autism, which she has since deleted.  Seems a bit one sided to me.  I'm sorry but it was unfair for either Scalzi or Oswalt to make those cruel statements without at least looking into the situation a little.
     It has become damn near impossible to actually discuss things with anyone now because any response or criticism gets automatically labelled as misogyny.  If anyone brings up anything in the way of criticism of any of these 3 women, regardless of what it might be, it is deflected with labels.  It halts the conversations that need to be had.  Without a dialogue this cannot be fixed.  We need to talk about this.  As people not constantly forced to defend ourselves on both sides- if you don't think the GamerGaters get harassed, here's a great compilation of some of them on GamerGate Harassed on Tumblr.  

     A call for civility and peace in GamerGate:

     Let me tell you something about myself.  I grew up a nerd.  In the 80's when getting beaten up for liking comics, cartoons and video games was the norm.  I got bullied all the time because I was a scrawny nerd.  But you know what- that doesn't matter.  What does is the fact that nerd culture is now embraced, so why is gamer culture being vilified?
     Out of GamerGate, I've found an amazing number of new friends.  Of all ages and backgrounds.  Before this started I had friends of all over the place- a 60 year old Irish friend that plays Pokemon Soul Silver with me, a group of Physicians that I play Diablo 3 with, and a bunch of co-workers kids that I give my games to .  Do you know what the common denominator here is?  Gaming.  It brings us all together.  
     It would be madness to think people don't want ladies in gaming because more gamers means more games, more games means more opportunity and fun.  Many of us GamerGaters welcome everyone- it's more people to meet and have fun with.  This is a way of socializing.

     Now I fully acknowledge that I am essentially a nobody blogger, but this is an issue that needs to get sorted out.  It is staggering how much hate is being slung in both directions, and yes, most of it are the internet trolls out to get riled up at the misery and suffering of others.  As a culture we have an amazing ability to talk about this and work it out.

     For a more thorough group of evidence that GamerGate is not about hate I will list a bunch of people that are great to follow on twitter for information.  I mean think of all the charities that we GamerGate supporters have donated to, I personally put my money towards ExtraLife.org as I have for the last few years.  The news won't tell you that, but harassers and doxxers on both sides are being reported by the GamerGate supporters.  Suicide prevention and bullying prevention is being aided.  #NotYourShield is proving that diversity is great among us.  #NotYourShield 

     Anyways, here's list of people that are far better informed and have a great base of information:


     Before commenting, please keep things at least decent.  No hateful or spiteful comments and no name calling.  This blog post is off the cuff.  I didn't plan it, just sat and cobbled this together.  If I get some more downtime I'll try and get a really good piece worked out for it.  And for the purposes of full disclosure- I do get "advertising money" on this site.  I put that in comments because after a couple hundred thousand views in the last 6 years I've made exactly $31.02 as of just now (I just checked).  Please, keep things peaceful.

    Then lastly, here's the extremely level-headed, kind-hearted Boogie2988 as seen above, with a call to #EndTheHate:



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