I’m talking about Gamergate now
I’m not talking about this because I feel compelled to defend or attack one side or the other. I’m not talking about this because it’s an issue I find even remotely sensible. No, I’m talking about this, because it’s 2016, and this shit is still being talked about. But, it’s dying down, so maybe there’s hope that it’s almost over. Anyway, I’ve put this off long enough.
I’ll be the first to admit that when I first heard of Gamergate, I thought that the cause was Anita. And while it’s true that she was harassed before the official movement started, the actual ignition of it was Zoe Quinn. Now, to the untrained reader, the name Zoe Quinn may enact a certain response. “Who’s that?” The only reason I knew anything about Zoe is because I checked Steam Greenlight constantly at the time, and Depression Quest was there. Apparently that was the issue, as, according to her ex, she had sex with a bunch of people in gaming journalism to help further her career and success in gaming. Depression Quest is, and to my knowledge always has been, free. You can pay if you want, yeah, but if you don’t, the game is free. So this leads to three possible conclusions.
1. Zoe Quinn did not actually have sex with gaming journalists.
2. Zoe Quinn did in fact have sex with game journalists, but not for any monetary benefits whatsoever.
Or 3. Zoe Quinn is a god damn idiot.
I’m not going to say that any of these are true, but they’re the only rational explanations for the situation. Somehow this, fucking THIS, led to accusations of corruption in video game media? If she didn’t actually do it (1 is true), then you look like a jackass. If she did for other reasons (2 is true), then you look like an uptight jackass. And if she did, for those reasons that you say (3 is true), then she’s a stupid woman who thinks that people actually care about, let alone pay for, free games that don’t involve murdering your adversary. This is not an insult to Depression Quest, the writing in that game is phenomenal, but the point certainly didn’t seem to be “I want money”. And, for a moment, let’s consider that it was. This whole time, she did everything she was accused of.
Depression Quest was still free, and was barely promoted adequately anywhere. Furthermore, no one gave a shit about Zoe Quinn’s sex life before this, hell, barely anyone gave a shit about her. Not because she wasn’t a valuable member of society, or even an independent game developer, but because... who the fuck was she? Am I supposed to believe that there’s been a two year plus bullshit brigade because some nobody may have went to bed with a few writers? Why?
I hear some of you mentioning Anita now, and I’m getting to that, but I’m getting Zoe out of the way now because, straight up, I am NOT against that woman. I think she may have gotten a bit too hurt, but given the number of attacks sent to her by people on the internet.... ehhh I suppose sensitive people can be forgiven for that. Besides that though, I have no opinion of Zoe whatsoever, except for that I think she’s a good story writer.
Anita’s a different story.
I’ve defended Anita on occasions relating solely to harassment. The point being, yes, she gets harassed, and yes, it does look pretty ridiculous sometimes. Especially considering the fact that all Anita did to set the charge for this was decide to talk about women’s role in video games (albeit with a kickstarter, but that’s fine), and people went off the handle. I think anyone should be able to talk about anything safely, and had Anita done all here videos on the topics, I may not have agreed, but I would’ve accepted that she had the opinion nonetheless.
Up to this point I sound like I’m on Anita Sarkeesian’s side. And for a while, I was leaning towards it, because the backlash clearly outweighed anything bad she may have done. But that was then, when she proposed the videos, and this is now. Where are they?
At this point everyone and their mother knows how far behind in the series Anita currently is. Defenders may relate this to attacks or the fact that the video making process is a very long time, but with the money Anita has made in the past few years (AND THAT GIRL MAKES BANK), you’d think that she would say “You know, I should really hire some others to help me make this series, so episodes don’t take as long as Sherlock”. The fact that she hasn’t, along with her consistent ignorance to valid complaints regarding things she has said in the past, makes me think “Hey, she wants this to continue”. And why wouldn’t she? She doesn’t need to care that people are laughing at her, before this, I certainly didn’t know who she was, so she’s clearly getting something out of this.
Gamergate for a while seemed like a self fueling machine that just made everyone who crossed it’s path miserable. I’ve been around debate clubs and skeptics societies in which everyone there erupted in screaming when the word was brought up. I’m not saying stop caring about Gamergate. I’m saying stop paying attention to Gamergate, or any of the key people for or opposed to the movement who continue to breed hatred among social media.
I missed the days where the biggest issue in games were that Half Life 3 wasn’t out yet.
P.S. I know there were some people I missed, and... who are they.