Posted July 24, 2018
low rated
See, it's hard to consider "gamergate as a whole". My experience of gamergate, and certainly gog's experience of gamergate, is what transpires through the gog forums and the many threads about it. And that is a very specific "tier", to take this DeFranco's terminology. But I also think that it's the very "tier" that defines gamergate in general. The history of how it was hijacked by it is another matter, independant from what it is today. Hey, who knows, maybe this Jesus Christ guy was even a nice bloke, but damn, look at the history of his church, how long will he remain their excuse ?
And nowadays, I do side with quoted journal articles that depict "gamer culture" as toxic, lowbrow, and pretty nasty in general. This is not an image that I acquired through journalism (I don't follow gaming journalism at all - actually my only sources on gaming outside gog was two or three youtube channels, including John Bain's, who was pretty much pro-GG). It's an image that I acquired through these very forums, in particular through the gamergate threads. Gamergaters have supplanted the image that was built by my own very few gamers friends and by GOG's own original community. Now, yeah, I do easily warn people against the dominant mentality in internet's "gamers" subculture. Even though I go through the effort of relativising numbers and visibility. GOG is certainly conscious that the angry geeks that flood the forums in the name of gamergate (and politically correct feminazi castrating gay hippie stalinist NWO oppression) are a negligible fraction of the humans playing videogames. But they are not a negligible part of the internet's self-percieved gaming "community".
So, for me, "gamergate" (and, to some extend, "gamers" as an internet subculture) are represented by threads such as this one, or the former, closed, gamergate ones. And they are a very direct illustration of what they are accused of.
And if genuine pro-consumers pro-ethical journalism activists (the supposed original gamergaters ? even though the original Quinn anecdote is pretty questionable as a motivation) have an issue with this, it's an issue they should have with the ultraconservative militants that have coopted this movement and turned it into a broad cultural reactionary crusade, and not with the observers who describe it as it is now.
And nowadays, I do side with quoted journal articles that depict "gamer culture" as toxic, lowbrow, and pretty nasty in general. This is not an image that I acquired through journalism (I don't follow gaming journalism at all - actually my only sources on gaming outside gog was two or three youtube channels, including John Bain's, who was pretty much pro-GG). It's an image that I acquired through these very forums, in particular through the gamergate threads. Gamergaters have supplanted the image that was built by my own very few gamers friends and by GOG's own original community. Now, yeah, I do easily warn people against the dominant mentality in internet's "gamers" subculture. Even though I go through the effort of relativising numbers and visibility. GOG is certainly conscious that the angry geeks that flood the forums in the name of gamergate (and politically correct feminazi castrating gay hippie stalinist NWO oppression) are a negligible fraction of the humans playing videogames. But they are not a negligible part of the internet's self-percieved gaming "community".
So, for me, "gamergate" (and, to some extend, "gamers" as an internet subculture) are represented by threads such as this one, or the former, closed, gamergate ones. And they are a very direct illustration of what they are accused of.
And if genuine pro-consumers pro-ethical journalism activists (the supposed original gamergaters ? even though the original Quinn anecdote is pretty questionable as a motivation) have an issue with this, it's an issue they should have with the ultraconservative militants that have coopted this movement and turned it into a broad cultural reactionary crusade, and not with the observers who describe it as it is now.
Post edited July 24, 2018 by Telika