GamerGate Questions - Pro-GG

Interview Questions

Starter Questions
1. Tell me about your GamerGate experience?
2. Why did you get involved with GamerGate?
3. Can you define what GamerGate was?

Gamers Are Dead
1. Do you consider yourself a gamer? What does that mean to you?
2. Is that a gendered term for you?
3. On August 28th, 2014 ten competing outlets all published articles on the same day. These ten articles were followed nine additional articles on other mostly gaming sites over the next few days, which some saw as calling for an end to the gamer identity. What did you think of these articles?
4. Why do you think they wrote these articles?
5. If the games press tried to reform or even just ignored ethical questions, instead of publishing the Gamers Are Dead articles, do you think this still would have blown up into a massive controversy?
6. Why do you think the games press didn’t go that route instead?

Games Journalism
1. What did you think about games journalism in 2014 and what do you think of it now?
2. Has games journalism gotten better?
3. What kind of reforms would you have liked to see happen?
4. How responsive to calls for reform do you think the games press was?
5. If you were the editor-in-chief of a gaming website and some of your employees were accused of ethical violations, how would you have handled the situation?
6. Do you think there is still a role for good games journalism in the world - and if so, what does that look like to you?
7. In September 2014 it was revealed that nearly 150 games journalists from competing publications were in a mailing group called GameJournoPros. What did you think of this revelation?
8. Some GamerGate supporters believed that pressuring advertisers to pull out would be a good way to convince gaming publications to initiate ethical reforms. What did you think of this strategy?
9. Did you support contacting advertisers over ethical violations only or for other reasons too?
10. Do you have any thoughts on DeepFreeze?
11. In August 2015, Michael Koretzky, a regional director for the Society of Professional Journalists, hosted the SPJ Airplay conference. The idea of the conference was to have journalistic ethics experts meet with GamerGate supporters to discuss their concerns about games journalism and the way the media covered GamerGate. The second half of the conference was interrupted by bomb threats, forcing the convention center to be evacuated. Do you have any thoughts on this event?
12. Why do you think the media largely didn’t cover SPJ Airplay?
13. Do you have any thoughts on other GamerGate panels, like the SXSW SavePoint panel or my GamerGate panels at Arch Anime and Natsucon?
14. Some people believed that GamerGate should have ended after SPJ Airplay, what did you think?
15. Have you seen the Airplay Documentary that recently came out?
16. Do you have any thoughts on the Kunkel Awards?
17. Do you think the GamerGate banner should have been used to take on gaming industry issues outside of just games journalism?

Artistic Freedom
1. Were you involved in the artistic freedom side of GamerGate?
2. What do you think of arguments about video games causing or reinforcing real world sexist attitudes?
3. What do you think of arguments about video games causing real world violence?
4. Some political activists believed that using social media campaigns to demand artists change artistic elements of their work was a good thing, such as #ChangeTheCover. What do you think of this tactic?
5. Where do you think the lines are between criticism and advocacy of censorship?
6. Do you have any thoughts on the removal of content from Japanese or other foreign games when they are localized?

Games and Politics
1. Some critics of GamerGate have argued that the movement was mostly or entirely right-wing, do you think that was accurate?
2. Do you want to talk about your political views or philosophy?
3. Have your politics changed since GamerGate? Or due to GamerGate?
4. Are you okay with gaming sites criticizing games through a political or religious lens, such as a Marxist, feminist, Christian, or other lens?
5. Do you think there can be any value in analyzing games or other works of art through a political lens?
6. Some people say GamerGate was the “first battle of the culture war,” do you have any thoughts on that framing?
7. What do you think of the framing of GamerGate being a response to a moral panic about video games?
8. What do you think of the framing of GamerGate as a battle between those who believed in classical liberal values like artistic freedom, free speech, and pluralism and those who didn’t?

Interactions with the Other Side
1. Did you interact with any anti-GG people?
2. Did you ever change anyone’s mind on GamerGate?
3. Are you friends with anyone on the other side?
4. How could the conversation about GamerGate have been more productive?
5. Do you have any thoughts on NotYourShield?
6. The GamerGate discussion was widely censored online, why do you think that was?

Harassment
1. Why do you think some people claimed that GamerGate was about harassment or hating women?
2. What do you think of the studies about GamerGate and harassment, such as the Women Action Media, Newsweek/BrandWatch and Nimbus studies?
3. What do you think of the GamerGate Anti-Harassment Patrol?
4. How important to you was it that bad actors were condemned?
5. Do you think most GamerGate people did a good job condemning harassment?
6. If you saw someone “on your side” doing something you thought was bad, how would you handle that situation?
7. You don’t have to answer or talk about it, but did you experience any harassment during GG, from either side or from third party trolls?
8. Why do you think the media largely didn’t cover harassment against GamerGate supporters?
9. Do you have any thoughts on ZachAttack?
10. What do you think of the CONLeaks?
11. What do you think of the term sea-lioning?
12. What do you think of the burgersandfries stuff?
13. Do you have any thoughts on GGRevolt?
14. Can you define what you think harassment is?

Media Coverage
1. What do you think about how the media covered GamerGate?
2. If you were going to investigate GamerGate as an act of journalism, how would you have done it?
3. Are there any journalists you think did a good job covering GamerGate?
4. Did anyone in the media reach out to you for an interview to discuss the movement?
5. Did you reach out to any journalists or media outlets who wrote articles about GamerGate, to correct misinformation?
6. Are there any specific articles or videos you want to discuss?
7. Did the media’s coverage of GamerGate increase or decrease your trust in the media?
8. If a journalist who got GamerGate wrong (in your view) is reading this now, what do you want them to reconsider?
9. What do you think the media can learn from how they covered GamerGate?
10. Do you have any thoughts on the Wikipedia article about GamerGate?
11. Would you like to see “the narrative” on GamerGate change in your lifetime?
12. Has your conscious experience as a Human been made worse, to any degree, because of the negative narrative about GamerGate?

Light Items
1. What’s your favorite video game?
2. Did you attend a GamerGate meetup?
3. Do you want to talk about the friendships you made during GamerGate?
4. Do you have any thoughts on Vivian James or other GamerGate related art projects?

Reflections
1. What was your favorite moment during GamerGate?
2. If you could have changed one thing about GamerGate, what would it be?
3. What would you personally have done differently during GamerGate?
4. Let’s say it’s 10 years from now and an online movement is looking to GamerGate for guidance for their movement, what advice do you have for them?
5. What have you personally learned from GamerGate?
6. Do you see parallels between GamerGate and the way society currently discusses issues?
7. What do you think of the decentralized and leaderless nature of GamerGate?
8. Would you want to do a GamerGate reunion, sort of a big meet up once every ten years or something like that?
9. Have you ever thought about writing a book or other project related to GamerGate?
10. For you personally, what would GamerGate being successful look like?
11. Was GamerGate successful in your eyes?

Closing Questions
1. If you could do it all over again, would you?
2. What do you think of this interview project?
3. Some people reading this might hold a negative view of GamerGate, do you have anything you want to say to these people?
4. Can you explain GamerGate to any Cetaceans who might be reading or listening  to this?
5. Anything else you want to talk about?