Gamergate: What to Make of a Mess


	As soon as I knew that there would be a current events paper, I knew exactly what I wanted to write it about: an event of sexism and scandal known as Gamergate. My initial problem in writing about this subject is that many news outlets did not consider it to be very newsworthy at the time, writing it off as a sort of niche group of people that were dealing with some sort of self-contained problem. The fact is, while the story of Gamergate does immediately affect people who play and enjoy video games the most, it also raises multiple concerns for the general public, such as what kinds of standards we as a society want to hold journalists to, and to a greater extent, the idea of sexism and gender misrepresentation in the video gaming industry.

	Another problem in attempting to cover a story like this is that, since it is scandalous in nature, it can be difficult discriminating facts from people making up information to make things seem a lot better or worse than they actually are. At a personal anecdotal level, a popular online forum I frequent which regularly discusses video game culture and current events recently banned all current and future discussion of Gamergate on the boards. The reason for this is was not to cover up some kind of hidden agenda; it’s because people were getting emotional about it and spreading misinformation, not to mention many people were just being aggressive in general, sometimes going so far as to make personal attacks to key people in the story. These people who were obsessed with Gamergate were a minority, but they were being so verbal and aggressive that they had to be removed from the forums altogether. Examples like these show why it’s so important for moderators to exist, leaders who can control the situation when dealing with widely-spread public conversation. I chose not to use these forums as a source since their information was so often unreliable.
The idea that there’s a group of people who want to identify as “gamers” or want to belong to a social group that identifies as gamers, relates to the concepts of self-identity and wanting to belong to a large group of like-minded people, which is a natural human urge to have. To people who identify as “gamers”, other people who identify as such are often within the in-group, and thusly, people generally feel safer and more comfortable around these people. This is a general statement however, since it is entirely possible for two people who both identify as “gamers” to have wildly different tastes and lifestyles. This is an example of “social category”, sharing a characteristic with one or more other people while not necessarily interacting or identifying with one another.  It’s such a generalized term that it’s gotten to the point where just about anyone can be a “gamer”, the same way a person could be considered a “foodie”, or an “artist”

	Of the sources I researched, NPR seemed to give the most unbiased and simplified rundown of the story, in an article titled: “#Gamergate Controversy Fuels Debate on Woman and Video Games”, written September 24th, 2014.
Some time around early September of 2014, independent game developer Zoe Quinn, creator of a game called “Depression Quest”, was in a relationship with a programmer named Eron Gjoni. Gjoni wrote online that Zoe had cheated on him with Nathan Greyson, a journalist for the popular video game news site “Kotaku” Allegations starting coming from multiple directions that Quinn did this in order to get good press coverage and reviews for her game, which Kotaku and Quinn have both denied. After an initial backlash on sites like Twitter and 4chan, Quinn received death threats and rape threats from multiple anonymous people. Her personal information became exposed and she was forced to leave her home for her own safety.

	NPR goes on to write about a woman named Anita Sarkeesian, one of the most prominent and outspoken women in the video gaming industry, who often speaks in favor of women’s rights, negative tropes affecting women in modern-day video games, and gender equality. “…sexualized female bodies often occupy a dual role as both sexual playthings and the perpetual victims of male violence” says Sarkeesian on the objectification of women in games. During the whole Gamegate incident, Sarkessian was also targeted and had her information leaked, largely in part due to her sex and gender, but also because she’s considered by many to be the most outspoken and publicly known woman in the gaming industry, making her an easy target for anyone toxic enough to be making death threats in the first place.
This is when Andreas Zecher, an independent games designer in Germany, wrote an open letter to the gaming community that read: “We believe everyone, no matter what gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity religion, or disability, has the right to play games, criticize games and make games without getting harassed or threatened. It is the diversity of our community that allows games to flourish” The letter quickly gained around 2,500 signatures and included names from people at major game studios like Rockstar North, Naughty Dog, Bungie, and Ubisoft. To many people in the industry, this is seen as proof that the people sending vicious attacks to Quinn and Sarkeesian aren’t representative of the video gaming industry overall.

	This is the point at which the NPR’s story ends. The article for the most part is pretty neutral and unbiased, although it is important to note that it is not completely free from bias, as only people seen as the “good guys” got interviewed and quoted by NPR, and the article does not include a perspective other than the one provided by the victims and people immediately related to the victims. Regardless of that, it seems like NPR is aware of some of the current problems that Gamergate is highlighting, with a major focus on sexism in gaming, rather than journalistic integrity in gaming.
	Next, I’ll be looking at the way The Washington Post presents their information on the subject on Gamergate in an article titled: “The only guide to Gamergate you will ever need to read”, written October 14th, 2014, nearly a month after the story was covered by NPR.

	The article opens with the same basic tone, however it assumes that the person reading is a person who may have heard of Gamergate but isn’t exactly sure what happened, perhaps because most of the controversy has died down at this point. The Washington Post notes that there is a clear divide between the young male stereotype of a gamer, and the much broader and more diverse range of people across many ages and genders who play video games today. They also seem aware of the real problems at work here and it doesn’t seem like they’re attempting to over-sensationalize the story, writing: “If you’re not personally a gamer, it can be tempting to dismiss it all as subcultural drama. But as the preceding paragraphs would suggest, that couldn’t be further from the truth: The issues that Gamergate struggles over are also issues of great conflict, and importance, to American culture as a whole. In fact, in many respects, Gamergate is just a proxy war for a greater cultural battle over space and visibility and inclusion...”
I personally think that the above quote sums things up pretty well. One of the biggest problems at work here is that, even though things on the internet appear to be in a virtual space where rules are different from real life, recent events like Gamergate have shown us that this is not always the case. It can be a distorted lens to view the world through at times, but it’s still reflective of our culture as a whole.

	The remainder of the article doesn’t add any real important information and mostly recycles facts that could be taken from the NPR article. The tone is very similar to the NPR article, although one thing that may be important to note is that the NPR article was written by a man, and the Washington Post article was written by a woman. As a result, the Washington Post article seems to come from a more informed and personal place, while at the same time it doesn’t seem particularly overbearing or preachy.
One of the problems at work here is there is a clear patriarchy in place. In the current landscape of game development, the white male still has a large majority of leverage over women in the workplace, as the number of men in the gaming industry is much larger than the number of women. There also appears to be a glass ceiling in effect here since women are very rarely seen in high-paying positions in the gaming industry. Admittedly, this may be due partially to the fact that women who are experienced enough to be running for these positions might still look at gamers as a clichéd stereotype, or they might be more concerned with what their peer groups think of them, and it certainly doesn’t help matters that the gamer demographic is regularly scapegoated by fear-mongering news sources such as FOX. However, I believe that white male privilege is still in effect here and is at least partially to blame. Many people argue that it is hindering the progress of what could potentially be a truly progressive and free medium, and on the opposite, more extreme side of the spectrum, you have people that feel like forcing inclusion into games will ruin the gaming market as a whole, or at least, their favorite parts of it.

	According to The Guardian, as of September 2014, 52% of gamers are female, when you factor in mobile smartphone gaming, which constitutes a massive portion of the market. In fact, in 2011, 49% of gamers were female, so it is clearly not a “boys only” club at this point. There are obviously many different kinds of gamers of course; the 33-year old white male who plays World of Warcraft with his guild for 12 hours every day is having a very different lived experience than the 14 year-old girl who plays Candy Crush on her iphone for half an hour on weekends, but nonetheless both these people are gamers, and both these people belong to demographics that contribute billions of dollars to game development as a whole.
At the end of the day, all gamers are just people, plain and simple. And as long as people possess freedom of speech and aspirations for a better world, people will be fighting for gender equality and equal representation. It’s a very slow change, but stories like Gamergate prove that people do still care. Mainstream games are more inclusive now than they ever have been in history, which is good, but things can still be so much better.