What has #GamerGate done to the gaming community?

I worry about what #GamerGate has done to the games community. Don’t get me wrong, it needed to happen, it was going to happen sooner or later, and a lot of shit got said that needed to get said. However, I worry about what the long-term repercussions will be because of this, for lack of a better word, explosion in the community. I worry about who came down on what side in the aftermath of all of this hate.

I worry that gamers who are otherwise good people and who found their identity in games, likely at a time they weren’t accepted elsewhere, have become hardened to the claims of harassment by women in the gaming community. Because #GamerGate shone an unpleasant light into something so many hold near and dear, the reactions I’ve seen published—mostly in online gaming blogs—troubles me deeply. I’ve seen everything from accusations that women (Sarkeesian in particular) don’t care about games and just want their 5 minutes of fame (or victimhood) to claims that the harassment never really existed at all for any women in gaming. Because the debate has gotten so hostile so quickly, many have shut their eyes and ears to the legitimate concerns happening under all our noses.

Did it have to happen so quickly? So violently? I don’t have an answer to that. All I can say is for those who felt hurt that their community was attacked and that their games were being criticized unfairly, take one moment to think about what it would be like to game as a woman. Every time I am identified as a woman in an online game, I am harassed, accused, attacked. And that’s me as a person, not just a community I care about. For those focused on whether or not Sarkeesian cherry picked games or unfairly lobbied criticism, at least she brought these issues to light for people who didn’t have the means or ability to do so.

Is Sarkeesian beating up on games and gamers in her videos? I have seen this claimed over and over. The only conclusion I can come to is that people making this claim has never watched her videos. She doesn’t claim gamers are a bunch of nerdy virgins, in fact she claims the opposite and this is an important part of her argument. She doesn’t attack games for being terrible; she’s not trying to get people to stop playing games. She is not attacking your 20 year running D&D group or your lifelong WoW guild for being sexist or awful or anything. All she does is point out that women are used stereotypically and offensively in games.

I would wager that no one could really disagree with this. Yes, women are often represented poorly in games. Give me a litany of games where there are strong female characters, fine. There are some. But I’d be willing to bet that most you name are simply female skinned male characters (ie. characters/interactions programmed as a male protagonist, and then he is given a female skin). For example, Samas Aran was programmed as a male character, and at the end, they decided to make her female to shock the player. Is she a strong female character? I don’t think so. Particularly because after they decided to make her female they programmed a bikini mode into the game. Now, there is nothing wrong with a bikini. Was she important for female protagonists as a whole in the history of gaming? Absolutely.

And that’s the rub. What Sarkeesian is doing isn’t groundbreaking and isn’t even all that interesting. She is about 5 years behind academia. But the reaction she has gotten speaks volumes. If you as a gamer can’t admit that it’s cliché to be always saving a princess or that the chainmail bikini may be a problem as it represents a pattern of sexualizing and dehumanizing women, then you need to do some serious introspection, because those claims are so benign. As far as extrapolating that she hates games? That’s delusion. Saying her work is reductive? Absolutely. Unfortunately, the backlash against her has more than proven her point. So you want to bring attention to the more important parts of gaming and more problematic aspects of character representation? Do it on your own blog then. But don’t beat up people who aren’t doing the work as well as you think you could do it because it’s not perfect. Ie. Do it better or stop whining.

I think GTA is far, far from the problem. In fact, it’s a lazy target. Yep, it’s offensive. SHOCK. What happens to women when they speak out about GTA being offensive? Now that’s the fucked up part of gaming. No one really gives a shit if a game from 20 years ago doesn’t have a female protagonist. The problem is the pattern in games and in the community that has led to a place so toxic that women can’t even speak. Poor representation and treatment of women in games are part of that problem, sure. But I would wager that those games are a reflection of the toxicity behind the scenes. And that’s what we need to focus on.

I would beg those of you in academia and games to stop and think before you post uncritical reactions to #GamerGate. The gaming community will never be the same after this. Women are roughly 47% of gamers right now and we have a chance to make this a more equitable, better gaming world with better games and better funding and a wider appeal. Blaming Sarkeesian for the reactions she got; dismissing Quinn’s harassment; ignoring Wu’s death threats; these will not help. Circling the wagons around your gaming buddies because you refuse to accept that things can be both imperfect and worth dedicating your life to will help no one. And it will ruin games for us all.