You know, if you’re trying to convey a message of some kind to get people over to your side, like how GamerGate is only about fighting for “ethics in game journalism” for example? You probably shouldn’t make comments like these to people who are afraid of your movement.
More things have been popping up like that. In fact another voice has stepped up and has been getting the same treatment. This is Felicia Day’s tumblr blog post regarding why she hasn’t said anything about GamerGate until now.
I have been through a lot in my years on the internet. I have encountered a small fraction of the attacks from people like the ones who currently represent the worst of this “movement”. In the past, I worked through it alone because I felt shining a light on their words gave them exactly what they wanted: Attention and credibility. To say that their attacks and contempt didn’t set me back creatively would be a lie, but overall I got through the twists and turns, emotionally battered, but alright. My philosophy has always been, “Exist and represent yourself the way you want to exist as a woman who loves games, not as a reflection of what other people think or want of you. You will change minds by BEING. Show, don’t tell.” The attacks I experienced over the years were NOTHING compared to people who are the victims of these attacks now, but I still thought early on during the Gamer Gate phenomenon, “These trolls will dissipate into the night like they always do, it will be fine.”
Shortly after writing that she was later doxxed aka her phone number and address were posted in the comments (which were later removed after disabling comments).
One common thing I’ve noticed about the GamerGate thing is they tend to not only fight in circle jerk logic to tire people from arguing about the “bad apples”, but they tend to try and silence people who don’t agree with them even if it’s just suggesting to not be such big douchecanoes. Harsher if they happen to be female or feminist, which to these dudebros it seems to be one in the same. Basically agree with us or we’ll hunt you down/send death threats. yeah, way win people over. I’m guessing these were the same tactics they tried to use to find a insignificant other…
If there was even any shred of genuine desire to go after the gaming media for “ethics in game journalism” it died when these knuckle draggers became it’s face for the bowel movement. At this point it would be time to find a new thing to call yourselves. Most people are going to look at GamerGate and back as far the fuck away as possible.