Video games have always been a form of entertainment and escapism since it hit its mainstream popularity in the 1970s and 1980s. A small industry has grown into the largest in the world, beating out movies and music. Because of this, it would not be hard to image that video games would become the center of controversy. One such controversy, started a culture war between two distinct groups of people online, this controversy: Gamergate.
Gamergate is essentially a movement that aims to protect the gaming community and expose the loss of ethics with journalism. It started when a small game developer, Zoe Quinn, was the victim of death threats and other harassments for creating the game Depression Quest. The harassments reached its peak when her boyfriend stated that she cheated on him with five other men. What followed was major gaming journalists painting the gaming community (as a whole) in a very bad light. This led to other smaller journalists following suit in doing the same. As horrible as these threats are, it is necessary to realize they are from a small minority directed at an even smaller game. Unfortunately, the damage has come to the entire gaming community as they find themselves criminalized with such gratuitous, falsified statements calling them “A mob, riled up by incendiary racist or misogynist rhetoric (or both), dogpiles a target’s social media accounts with death threats, rape threats, sexist, racist …” This started the culture war. The war was against small game developers and programmers, who criminalize gamers and criticize games, and the gaming community they were criminalizing. The mainstream media has only focused on one side of this story, but have almost entirely ignored the side of the gaming community because they deserve some defending because like any community, “We should be careful to not blame the entire community for the actions of that minority."
Nevertheless, the war did not last long as the credibility of the developers bringing the accusations against the gaming community quickly disappeared upon learning of the fabrication of the claims. Brianna Wu is one great example of someone making false accusations. She claimed, via social media, to be the victim of the hateful community of gamers. However, her story lost all credibility when the proof came to light showing the threat came from herself using an alternate account. This as well as the sudden outcry of these threats, lead many to question the validity of her claims as it was hard to believe any of the threats were from anyone other than herself. Analysis of other critics of Gamergate, such as Zoe Quinn herself, points out these “threats” although very rarely are extreme and are more on the lines of defending the community and the games they love.
Sure, there are things that have crossed the line and one has every right to debate and question them. However, games such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario Bros, The Legend of Zelda, and many others do not deserve this extreme criticism. These games are simply pure escapism, which is why so many are up in arms to defend them.
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