Week 9: How did we get here?

I played Depression Quest, and I honestly cannot wrap my head around why this game is the center of controversy. If you can get over the fact that it’s a text-based game and actually take in the story’s narrative, then you’ll see that the game actually deserves the awards and attention that it received. So why all the controversy? Dean does a great job of summarizing and assessing both the pro-GamerGate and anti-GamerGate views in “A Balanced View of GamerGate” in a mostly unbiased manner. While I completely agree with Dean regarding his point that “GamerGate, as conceived by its instigators, was first and foremost motivated by an anti-liberal and anti-feminist sentiment,” I don’t believe the anti-GamerGate commentators were entirely blameless, as they branded the pro-GamerGate commentators “misogynists who are somehow complicit in issuing death threats.” This is not to say that I disagree with anti-GamerGate on this issue because I do believe, for the most part, their views are substantial and relatively valid. However, I will acknowledge that at its core, the pro-GamerGate commentators do have sound arguments regarding their desire to purge corruption from gaming media. Do I wish they had gone about proving their arguments valid in a manner that wasn’t reminiscent of the Salem witch trials? Absolutely. Would they have garnered support from both men and women had they not treated Zoe Quinn like a witch on trial and publicly burned her alive at the stake, metaphorically-speaking? Probably; they would’ve had my support. If anything, GamerGate is indicative of a much larger problem in the gaming community than just ethics in gaming media and journalism. GamerGate brings to light the fragile masculinity that perverts the gaming community.