Gamer Gate is Going No Where
There’s meaning in #GamerGate but its been lost to the internet
Recently the media was abuzz with news of Gamergate or #gamergate. I could summarize what has happened to lead to this boiling pot moment but honestly you can find summaries from both sides over the entire internet.
Gamergate and the many, many, many sides surrounding it have been fighting to expose the “truth”. What truth you may ask? Well that’s the first difficult question. The arguments on both sides have ranged from gaming journalism transparency, corruption in gaming industry, misogyny, feminism, social justice warriors(SJW), “toxic gamers”, trolls, censorship, hate speech etc. The list is literally endless. As Ron Burgundy said, “Boy, that escalated quickly.”
So now what, why even care? Honestly I’ve spent days over this subject and I realized Gamergate isn’t worth it. Both sides have become entrenched in a horrible war of words. Those who try and see both sides are often drowned out in little time due to the massive volume of content being made about this subject. Both sides have come out with valid points at times, but there is absolutely no dialogue. There is terrible corruption in the gaming industry, this is completely true, to many times I’ve sat down and been disappointed by a game. I still curse EA for taking titles I enjoyed an squeezing as much money as possible out of them. To the other side I also say sexism is real, in video games as well as the rest of the world. Saying everything in the industry is great is obviously false.
What has happened though is long past the point of fighting for what’s right or wrong in the gaming industry. Social movements can be specific to a goal and much smaller, which means they may not create the awareness needed, or they can be large but much harder to steer. Gamergate has become a super tanker without its rudder. There are simply to many voices in a complicated debate. There are horrible threats of violence and sexism. There are massive generalizations about a culture that is often stereotyped. At the end of it all no one will come out happy from this. All the tweets, Facebook posts, and op-eds will only entrench people more.
If there is one thing that gets to me about all this its the fact that this is not what gaming is about. I am a gamer, and gaming is supposed to bring people together, even when they disagree to figure things out. It can be art, social criticism, or just shoot at things on the screen. It doesn’t matter what form it takes, what games should do is be a place for us to come together, and, this may shock some, have fun. Define fun or entertainment however you choose, but the negativity and drama in gamergate from all the sides is useless.
