They’ve taken down women I care about one by one. Now, the vicious mob of the Gamergate movement is coming after me. They’ve threatened to rape me. They’ve threatened to make me choke to death on my husband’s severed genitals. They’ve threatened to murder any children I might have.
This angry horde has been allowed to wage its misogynistic war without penalty for too long. It’s time for the video game industry to stop them.
Gamergate is ostensibly about journalistic ethics. Supporters say they want to address conflicts of interest between the people that make games and the people that support them. In reality, Gamergate is a group of gamers that are willing to destroy the women who have invaded their clubhouse.
The movement is not new. Two years ago, when Anita Sarkeesian tried to crowdfund a series of videos critiquing the hypersexualized female characters of video games, they threatened to kill and rape her. The movement reached fever pitch – and got its name — when a jilted former lover of indie game developer Zoe Quinn published transcripts of her life online. Gamers who were outraged over charges that Quinn’s game Depression Quest had received favorable reviews due to an alleged romantic relationship with a journalist, seized the opportunity to shame and terrify her into hiding. Now, Gamergate is a wildfire that threatens to consume the entire games industry.
The fact that Gamergate supporters went after Quinn and not the journalist says everything you need to know about the movement.
I became Gamergate’s latest target when I tweeted this joke about supporters of the movement. (Unable to copy the image. See article directly.)
The next day, my Twitter mentions were full of death threats so severe I had to flee my home. They have targeted the financial assets of my company by hacking. They have tried to impersonate me on Twitter. Even as we speak, they are spreading lies to journalists via burner e-mail accounts in an attempt to destroy me professionally.
We’ve lost too many women to this lunatic mob. Good women the industry was lucky to have, such as Jenn Frank, Mattie Bryce and my friend Samantha Allen, one of the most insightful critics in games media. They decided the personal cost was too high, and I don’t know who could blame them.
Every woman I know in the industry is terrified she will be next.
The culture in which women are treated this way by gamers didn’t happen in a vacuum. For 30 years, video games have been designed by men, marketed to men and sold to men. It’s obvious to anyone outside the industry that video games have serious issues with the portrayal of women. It’s not just oversexualized examples, such as Ivy of the Soul Caliber series. Games are still lazily falling on the same outdated tropes involving women. Princess Peach, of Nintendo’s Mario games, has been kidnapped in 12 separate games since 1985. Perhaps the most disturbing of all is the propensity of games to have women thoughtlessly murdered as a motivation for the male hero, such as Watch Dogs.
The consequence of this culture is male gamers have been trained to feel video games are their turf. In stopping Gamergate, the men who dominate it – not just women — must address the culture that created Gamergate.
Some have. But many more have been silent. In the male-dominated video game media, many have chosen to sit by and do nothing as Gamergate picks us off, one by one. IGN has not covered Gamergate. Game Informer has not covered Gamergate. Ironically, the people who most need to hear this message are not hearing it, because of an editorial choice to stay on the sidelines.
There are many straightforward steps we can take to change this.
First, major institutions in video games, which happen to be dominated by men, need to speak up immediately and denounce Gamergate. The dam started to break this week as Patrick Klepek of Giant Bomb broke the silence at their publication on Monday. Last week, the industry’s top trade group, the Entertainment Software Association spoke out against Gamergate, saying “Threats of violence and harassment have to stop. There is no place in the video game community for personal attacks and threats.”
Secondly, I call upon the entire industry to examine its hiring practices at all levels. Women make up half of all gamers, yet we make up only a fraction of this industry. While it’s possible to point to high profile women in the field, the fact remains. Women hold a shockingly disproportionate number of high level positions in game studios, game publishers and particularly in leadership roles. There are just 11 percent of game designers and 3 percent of programmers, according to The Boston Globe.
Game journalism also plays a critical role. It doesn’t matter how many women we get into game production. If the only people evaluating the work we do continue to be men, women’s voices will never be heard.
My friend Quinn told me about a folder on her computer called, “The Ones We’ve Lost.” They are the letters she’s gotten from young girls who dream of being game developers, but are terrified of the environment they see. I nearly broke into tears as I told her I had a folder filled with the same. The truth is, even if we stopped Gamergate tomorrow, it will have already come at too high a cost.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/postev...ch-spoken-out/
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The feminist analysis of this would be, GamerGate is another tickle down effect of the real problem. The real problem is we live in a patriarchal world, made by and for males based on the concepts of male superiority which cannot exist without female inferiority; male dominance which cannot exist without female submission; male entitlement which cannot exist without female lack thereof. All of this is reinforced thru ritualized, systemic, and institutionized methods to keep women, oppressed, victimized and objectified. The biggest weapon used is the threat of violence and "corrective rape" to those who dare expose the system for what it is.
The system, from time to time, allows things to occur which appear to be "progressive" and "empowering" for females. Nothing is allowed to happen in an oppressive system which does not enhance or reinforce the power or whims of the oppressors. Nothing. The oppressed may be operating under the illusion they have gained something or made headway but in the final analysis, the benefit to the oppressor far outweighs the crumbs the oppressed mistake as progress.
Much time, energy, and resources are wasted by reinventing the wheel, issue after issue in the trickle down effect. GamerGate, the rape of females, domestic violence, wage inequity, and every other trickle down issue comes from the same source. These issues will remain until the source of these horrors inflicted on females is dealt with with.
The silence of males on these issues and the use of "not all males" are both methods of distancing oneself from the reality and responsibility. Silence implies consent and agreement. "Not all males" is saying there is a difference without demonstrating there is a difference. To expect those who benefit from such a system to speak to the inequities of such is not exactly realistic. It takes strength and courage to stand apart from the protection afforded by the whole.
Feminism is about always keeping the bigger picture in mind when looking at the trickle down effects. It is about speaking to the truth over and over. It is about living the truth and modeling the truth to others. It is about not being complicit in ones own oppression and educating others about this as well.
Feminism is not a laundry lists of trickle down issues which are wholly unsolvable at the trickle down level. It is a way of seeing the world for what it is and being committed to changing it 24/7/365. It is also about feeling you are banging your head against the wall.....cuz you are.
And, you know you are doing a damn good job as a feminist when people attack you and threaten you for speaking out, for telling the truth, and for being committed to the truth. Being threatened means you are speaking to something that is very threatening to the person(s) who are threatening you. Thats a crapload of threatening.
It is stone age mentality but threats and violence are all about instilling fear and forcing people to be silent because they are paralyzed by fear. Threats and violence are just methods of control, like any other methods of control females face every single freakin day.
History has proven over and over the methods of the oppressors. It has also shown the methods the oppressed have used to lessen their burden including bargaining, colluding, appealing to higher senses, using logic etc.
History will keep repeating itself until the oppressed finally say no and back up that no with appropriate, definitive action.