The hashtag was flipping every where so I read up on it and thank you so much Wired for summing it up for me. Since everyone in the universe is talking about it, why shouldn’t I chime in?
This scares me for a multitude of reasons… First and foremost, I like gaming and I’m not half bad at it. As I’ve posted before, I thought it’d be cool to make vids and such. Now, I’m scared to even talk on the internet lest some crazy ex of mine ruin the shit out of my life.
But I’m boring so, that’s not likely.
The biggest reason? I have a daughter who is a budding gamer. She loves this and has even expressed a desire to make her own games one day.
Nothing would make me prouder. Well, my daughter could grow up to anything she wanted and as long as she was happy with her life, I’d be the proudest mother in the universe. But she says “Mama! I wanna make my own games one day!” She draws characters, devises how her enemies will attack and how the hero will defend. She writes plots, listens eagerly to her mama’s rants about escort missions and glitchy enemies, and takes it all in like an adorable sponge. She cut her teeth on Brave for the PS3 and she is the one who introduced me to Amnesia* from a picture in a gaming magazine I’d left around. I see such amazing potential in her; this bouncy, creative little brownie who scampers around my house.
Is what happened to Zoe Quinn what awaits my daughter? Is slut-shaming and death threats the result of her speaking out against something she doesn’t like? Or making something innovative? Hell, or even making something relatively mediocre!
As a woman it’s scary, as a person who creates things to be consumed by the masses it’s scary, and as a mother, it’s fucking terrifying.
So the gaming world may be changing, the demographics are changing, the prices, the consoles, blah, blah, blah… Damnit, me and my kid just wanna play cool games. We wanna laugh, we wanna be scared, we wanna have adventures! And we shouldn’t be afraid to let people know we want those things. I shouldn’t be scared someone would read this and start threatening my life.
Just play games and be cool. Is that too much to ask?
*I keep her away from most scary games. Too much violence and straight up creepy shit.
As you referred only to the wired article I’d strongly advice you to also at least skim over the neutral article by slate (http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/bitwise/2014/09/gamergate_explodes_gaming_journalists_declare_the_gamers_are_over_but_they.html) and/or the email interview of #GamerGaters conducted by @PixieJenni who is anti-GG (http://pixietalksgamergate.wordpress.com/) as one shouldn’t make up their mind after hearing only one side.
May you and your daughter live your dreams and stay excellent.
Oh, I don’t doubt there are many sides to all of this. What shocks me is the level of vitriol! PixieJenni sums it up perfectly for me when she references Hale’s comment about being scared to speak up. It’s not even a matter of who said what about gaming and why at the point of death threats and such. For me, my mind is made up only in the way of being scared for people who are being threatened. At that point, is the why even important anymore?