#Biased

So GamerGate.

That’s a thing that’s still happening.

It’s amazing. Usually internet stuff lasts a few days or so before it fizzles out of the public eye, but here we are: It’s been two months, and GamerGate is still going strong.

The last time I discussed GamerGate, I tried to remain as unbiased as possible. Now, I think it's time I shared my personal opinions as a strong GamerGate supporter.

For those of you who aren’t following the story, here are the basics:

#GamerGate is a Twitter campaign that has been calling for a reform in online games journalism, including websites in the Gawker Media family. It began after several games journalists were shown to have written extremely positive reviews for games made by people who were close to them (friends, roommates, former lovers, coworkers, etc.).

But if you’ve been following the story in the mainstream media, you know GamerGate as a group of misogynistic male gamers who are trying to bully women out of the videogame industry. According to “Anti-GamerGaters,” GamerGate is just a small vocal group of men who want to keep gaming a “boy’s club.” And most of the mainstream media (including CNN, MSNBC, Newsweek and many others) agrees with that sentiment.

Here’s my problem with the mainstream side of the story: It is ridiculously biased. Mainstream coverage has focused entirely on the journalists’ side of the story.  A televised MSNBC interview turned to Gamasutra games journalist Leigh Alexander to ask what GamerGate is all about, and then acted as if she gave an unbiased representation of the movement. Forgive me for sounding skeptical, but that’s like asking the bus companies what Rosa Parks stood for. It’s ludicrous!

Mainstream stories about GamerGate have been quick to point out that female developers have been harassed and “doxed” (had their personal information leaked online), but completely ignore the exact same attacks being conducted against GamerGate supporters. They report that Anita Sarkeesian was threatened, but so far have remained silent about how GamerGate supporter Milo Yiannopoulos was mailed a syringe filled with a mysterious fluid, or how Twitter personality @KingofPol was sent a knife and a note instructing him to “PLEASE KILL YOURSELF.” And there’s been no mention of the harassment of Christina Sommers, a feminist writer whose books were burned after she came out in support of GamerGate.

https://twitter.com/samfbiddle/status/522771545287303169

And let’s not forget all of the hatred that the Anti-GamerGate crowd is spreading. Sam Biddle, a Gawker employee, recently tweeted that “nerds should be constantly shamed and degraded into submission,” and that society should “Bring Back Bullying.”Similarly, Gawker’s editor-in-chief recently boasted that he’d “spent the day f*****g with damaged or neuroatypical ppl” (both terms often used to refer to people with autism or other mental disorders).

And where is the mention of all the good that GamerGate has done? Back in August, 4chan gamers raised over $5,000 for The Fine Young Capitalists, a feminist charity that promotes female developers in videogames. It raised over $5,500 for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. It raised over $16,500 for the PACER Center for Bullying Prevention.

But no. The media says GamerGate is nothing but a bunch of misogynistic bullies.

In my first column on this subject I said that if these journalists kept calling GamerGaters names instead of listening to their arguments, it would cost them dearly. Well, in the last few weeks Intel, BMW, Hulu and Adobe have all announced that they will be pulling their advertisements from the Gawker Media family’s websites. That’s a looooooot of lost money. Games journalists can’t plug their ears and shout the word “misogyny” any longer. They need to start taking this seriously, or their whole industry will collapse around them.