#gamergatebook

[tachyonblu]

Join top games researcher Chris Ferguson and I on Wednesday as we analyze the media coverage of GamerGate, including deep dives on coverage from @abcnews, @nbcnews and UN Dispatch! We'll also be discussing the Pxie and Destiny lawsuit. You won't want to miss this!

[tachyonblu]

Coming soon! The story of @silverwolfcc, a once self-proclaimed "social justice warrior" and Zoe Quinn fan who went to fight what she saw as GamerGate harassers. But CC came to believe she was on the wrong side and decided to join the GG community and the quest for ethics.

[tachyonblu]

"It sounds a stupid thing to say about an online slapfight, but I think it was a really meaningful event for a lot of people. And if you've been through an event like that alongside people, it forges really strong bonds." -Grim Jim

[tachyonblu]

Veteran game designer Troy Leavitt saw GamerGate as a battle between liberals and authoritarians: "That small l-liberalism is where I consider myself to be, that classical liberalism. We were resisting the authoritarian, elitist left that was like, 'Here’s how it needs to be.'"

[tachyonblu]

Lisa discusses her interactions with anti-GamerGate and her favorite game, Alice: Madness Returns! An excerpt:

"I think a lot of them were just so stubborn and, and I hate this phrase, but set in their ways that they didn't want to stop and consider, hey, maybe I could be wrong about this. The ones that weren't willing to talk kind of dug their heels in. I found myself getting blocked by quite a few people that I've never interacted with. There have been a few times where I'll read a gaming article, I'm curious about the person who wrote it, so I go to their Twitter. Oh hey, I'm blocked even though I've never heard of this person until today. Oh, I’m blocked. Okay. It was irritating at first, I just started finding it funny after a while." -Lisa

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Lisa shares her thoughts on various framings of GamerGate, if her politics have changed since GG, what she thinks of analyzing games through a political lens, and diversity in games. Lisa praises Mortal Kombat and Tell Me Why as examples of diversity in games done well.

[tachyonblu]

New video! GameDiviner voices his perspective on politics in media.

An excerpt: "If that works with the way [Stan Lee] told it and the audience trusts him and that’s the way he does, then all the more power to him. X-Men in itself was about people who don’t fit into society one way or another. That speaks on many levels to different people and the prejudices thereof, and he does a very good exploration of both sides of the coin. Like Professor X versus Magneto, right? Magneto wants retribution and Professor X wants to live in harmony with the people who don’t understand him and he wants to educate people. He plays between the sides. But that’s the thing, when you walk into that setting and you know what X-Men is about, you expect those themes, that’s what’s going on there.

There’s a certain contract you make with the storyteller and the storyteller also has the expectation to stay within the bounds of the canon and what the story is about. There are ways of breaking storytelling rules, as well as in-universe rules, that violate what people expect of you. And so there is a certain respect that people should have all around, because they are dealing with something that’s greater than themselves. It’s not simply the plaything of the IP owner, it’s greater than the audience and the author. The author has the privilege of being the storyteller and they have a grave responsibility, and that is something I people don’t get– That the IP isn’t just a plaything. It’s something greater and each of us has a responsibility to do so. And the audience themselves, they have a responsibility to, in a sense, call out something when they think it doesn’t fit and to protect the story itself.

I think there’s a place for all of us in this and the conversation is lost because everyone is saying 'Well the IP owner, they own it and they can do whatever they want.' That’s not true and we all know that. Even the original writers… There are original writers who have really messed up their own IP, not badly, but they overstepped it. George Lucas for one. When everyone was talking about Episode One with the Midi-chlorian thing, that was an in-universe breaking the rules of the lore of Star Wars. George Lucas knew it and stepped away from it very quietly.

Another person who is struggling with that now is J.K. Rowling with Fantastic Beasts. She’s breaking the rules of her universe many times over, as well as the lore of established characters. Even though she is the original creator, she is breaking the rules and people are starting to talk about, not really her politics but how she is handling the story. The story itself is bigger than her now and unfortunately she is treating it like her own special thing, but it’s not. It really is bigger than her and that’s something a lot of people don’t understand about these stories." -GameDiviner

[tachyonblu]

Loving how the test copy of The People of GamerGate, Volume 2 looks!