#GamerGate

Wasn't the Mordor thing more of PR company's fault? Still shocking none nonetheless. Also, that time line is missing many of Polygon's recent shenanigans.

But here's the thing, since there is literally no actual leadership or organization, both of which are claims of gamergate, what exactly can you stand for? There's no criteria for being a member of gamergate other than to say that you're a member of gamergate. So yeah, those "few bad apples" are still either legitamitely a large or very vocal part of the movement. There's no statement of values or goals that gamergate has that they can point to and be like, this is what we all stand for and so when there's no official policy, then any policy is legitimate. Just mentioning Brianna Wu, Zoe Quinn, and Anita Sarkessian on Twitter or GamerGate boards is enough to just light it up with hate. That's the only constant thing about them. Also gamergate has an interesting way of addressing critics of journalistic ethics by attacking sites that actually criticize corruption in game journalism. Kotaku, for instance, was the first to report on accusations that GameSpot reviewer Jeff Gerstmann had been fired for panning a game in 2007,and was the only source to follow up on the story, confirming it five years later. More recently, both Gamasutra and Rock Paper Shotgun have written stories about pay-for-play deals by YouTubers. The Escapist and Kotaku were quick to denounce the stringent rules and screening Warner Bros required of those receiving copies of the game Shadows of Mordor. This all happened before gamergate. Also pressurizing Intel to pull their ads for websites that publish articles that they don't agree with is pretty stupidly hypocritical

The thing is, game reviews are objective. You can't go around just blasting on every single review that you don't agree with. Payola for youtube celebrities is still going on. Not a single thing has been done about it. If gamergate was really concerned about ethics, then why aren't they doing anything about it? They can bully companies like intel and Adobe to pull ads from sites in an effort to censor anything that's written against them, but they somehow can't bully companies into not providing payola? That's pretty suspicious. They can force two people from their homes but they can't actually do anything to address anything to do with journalism ethics? Prominent gamergate supporters like Mike Cernovich are attacking people like Anil Dash who isn't even a journalist nor does he write about games because somehow it has to do with... game journalism ethics? I'm pretty skeptical

Here's the thing, I can understand there being a dialogue open between journalists and their audience so as to address ethics problems. I can understand that many people have very legitimate concerns about journalistic integrity. These concerns and issues should be worked out and payola should be stopped. I can understand many legitimate gamers getting offended about the labels that are now associated with gamergate that doesn't apply to them. However my stance is and has always been, that the roots of gamergate happened as a result of a private affair that was no one's business but the people involved and that the beginnings were fueled by misogyny. Did a lot of people ultimately join in who disagree with the harassments? Sure, but the thing is, that hashtag and movement is tainted. It's to the point that nationally, it's viewed along the same lines as the montreal massacre and terrorism. It's like Captain America 2. You remember what Captain America did when he found out SHIELD was infiltrated and controlled by Hydra? He shut that shit down. If you want to actually do something and be successful about gaming journalism, start a new hashtag with an actual leadership or at least an actual statement of purpose and goals. Because running around threatening and censoring everyone who has anything critical to say about you isn't exactly an endearing or mature quality that inspires change, especially if you're trying to advocate for less corruption. By engaging in those kinds of behaviors, gamergate as a movement, is doing everything that they say they're fighting against.