Zero understanding

Gamergate is the name of a scandal revolving around (real or perceived) corruption within the gaming industry. Somewhat confusingly, Gamergate is also the chosen designation of a movement among gamers which claim to fight said corruption. In this review, the term "Gamergate" will be used exclusively in the second sense.

Although the issue is supposed to be corruption, in particular the collusion between certain game developers and reporters, the conflict also has a political dimension. Gamergate supporters tend to be “young white males”, and are backed by libertarians and conservatives. Those opposed to the Gamergate movement, by contrast, are virtually always feminists and have connections to the phenomenon known as Social Justice Warriors or SJWs. Thus, the conflicts over Gamergate are part of the broader “culture wars”.

The scandal (or supposed scandal) broke in 2014 when game developer Zoe Quinn was accused of “sleeping around” with game reporters in order to promote one of her games. Quinn denied the allegations, charging that the real scandal was the Gamergate movement, which she accused of misogyny and harassment. Another game developer named Brianna Wu and the feminist activist Anita Sarkeesian (who believes that most games are sexist) also claimed that Gamergate supporters were harassing them. So far, the harassment has included doxxing, rape threats, death threats and a bomb threat of a public event in Salt Lake City at which Sarkeesian was scheduled to speak. Both the gaming press and mainstream media has almost universally sided with Quinn, Wu and Sarkeesian. Gamergate supporters claim that the threats either have nothing to do with their movement, or are completely made up by the alleged victims. Gamergate also deny allegations of misogyny and sexism.

An objective account of these relatively recent events still remains to be written. In the meantime, interested outsiders will have to do their own diligent browsing on the web to get *some* kind of idea about what's going on.

Which brings me to this little Kindle book, “Understanding Gamergate” by Scott Cameron, a supporter of Gamergate residing somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. If Cameron's purpose is to disprove allegations of misogyny, sexism and harassment, I can't say he has been very successful. Thus, the author suggests that women may indeed be inferior to men, and “proves” this by appeals to “evolutionary psychology” (he means sociobiology). He denies that games objectify women, then admits that of course young white males want to drool over luscious females in games. It wouldn't be “fun” otherwise, apparently. Cameron also denies that Gamergate harass women, but then admit that anti-GG women are indeed harassed and propose that they should grow thicker skins instead of complaining! He doesn't demand that angry white males should grow thicker skins when a feminist like Quinn gets her game promoted by reporters, however. Victimhood, much? Sometimes, the author is so “out there” that I suspect he might be trolling. His bizarre rationalist-logical-deductive “proof” that Anita Sarkeesian hasn't received death threats is a case in point. I would gladly have quoted it at length, but space won't permit it.

I can't say “Understanding Gamergate” made me more understanding towards Gamergate!

That being said, I feel neither particularly pro-GG nor particularly anti-GG. While I oppose misogyny and sexism, and even see myself as a feminist of sorts, I have a number of objections to both sides in this conflict. You already heard my objections to Mr Cameron. As for the critics, Quinn and Wu don't exactly strike me as poster children for principled politics or clean country livin'. Sarkeesian seems more honest, but her postmodernist criticism of games sounds frankly weird. Does she really believe that all characters in games should be reduced to blue de-personalized blobs? More disturbingly, both GG and Anti-GG seem to regroup crazies with a penchant for heavy-handed harassment. Recently, a Gamergate event in New Jersey was evacuated after a bomb threat, presumably a “revenge” for what happened in Salt Lake City.

“Understanding Gamergate” shows what everyone suspected already: Gamergate has nothing to do with “corruption within the gaming industry” (even though such corruption probably exists) and everything to do with “angry white males” being sick and tired of feminist encroachments on gaming, previously mostly-male territory. But what should be done about it? A feminist campaign which unites with hypocrites or would-be terrorists will soon find itself in very deep waters…