games, gamers and culture wars

8/18/2019 Games, Gamers and Culture Wars

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Off the Map Kate Edwards

Games, gamers

and culture wars

For nearly a decade, I’ve written for this mag-azine on topics related to geopolitics and culture

and the need to be acutely aware of the sensi-

tivities of such issues as they relate to content

in our products. While I’ve touched upon the

consumer side of the equation many times, at

least in terms of how endusers will perceive the

content we produce, I’ve rarely addressed the

culture of the media the consumers are enjoy-

ing, as opposed to the local culture of the con-

sumers themselves.

For example, we can talk about the impact of imagesused in books and how such images may affect the culturalexpectations in one locale or another, but we rarely talkabout the images in the context of how avid book readersmay react. Usually the medium of delivery isn’t as relevantto the key questions about content sensitivities and theireffect on a specific culture.

One of the topics I’ve often discussed is the concept ofcultural protectionism and how local entities such as anational government will take action to protect their local“narrative,” meaning the way in which their culture, theirterritory, their histoiy and so on are perceived by people

outside their locale. This kind of protectionism has been themotive for everything from tourism marketing to persua-sive propaganda to political upheaval and even to militaryconflict. Cultural protectionism isn’t exclusive to countrieseither, it can happen among any group that maintains acertain identity, and when it feel this identity is being threat-ened in some way.

In 2014, this very kind of protectionism emerged inthe form of consumer activism, and provided us with anexample of what can happen when endusers identify so fer-vently with a medium they eagerly enjoy. The issue at hand,which continues as of this writing, is what's become knownas “Gamergate,” and it’s been one of the most disruptive

actions in recent years and certainly one of the most signifi-cant in the game industry as far as its negative impact. It’san issue that interweaves many threads of discussion, fromonline harassment and misogyny to the culture wars aroundconservatism, feminism and the role of anonymity in virtualcommunities. It’s also an issue that affected me personally,as I remain one of the key targets of this small but vocalcrowd of online antagonists. But at its core, Gamergate is atale of cultural protectionism, where a group that felt it hadownership over the label g a m e r found instead that it’s justone part of a now global, multicultural and diverse demo-graphic of game players.

This issue requires a certain amount of background beforediscussion, so I’ll attempt to summarize as succinctly as pos-sible what happened and how we’ve come to this point. Thespark that ignited this whole issue was when a games jour-nalist, Eron Gjoni, posted a derogatory piece in early August2014 about his exgirlfriend, independent game developerZoe Quinn, after they broke up. Within days, Gjoni’s postfound support from the 4chan message boards, a community priding itself on its anonymity and its tendency to initiateharassment and other malicious behavior for any issue orindividual they collectively deem worthy of their negativeattention. Many of these people joined Gjoni’s rant, includ-ing some notable YouTube broadcasters (such as one knownas TotalBiscuit) and the harassment against Quinn quicklyescalated. Around this time, game industry commentator

Anita Sarkeesian released another video in her ongoingseries about the negative portrayals of women in videogames. Sarkeesian’s criticism of existing tropes are meantto spur discussion and help the game industry take a criticallook at its portrayal of women. Yet to this building crowdof harassers, Sarkeesian was attacking what they hold dear their “classic” video games that they enjoy and to them

Kate Edwards is a geographer and the principa l cons ultant o f

Geogrify, a Seattle-based consultancy fo r culturalization and conte nt

strategy. She is also the e xecutive director o f the Interna tiona l Game

Developers Association (IGDA).

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she represented a “social justice war-rior” (SJW) and “radical feminist” whowas aiming to change the industry andtake away their cherished games. Sarkeesian had become a target in 2012when she initiated her video series, butthe mob renewed their attacks on her,complete with online harassment anddeath threats.

As happens with online mobs,this socalled “movement” quicklyescalated and took on its own life,especially when actor Adam Baldwin(of the beloved geek TV series Firefly) added his conservative politics to themix, railing against the perception ofan outofcontrol feminist agenda, andcoined the Twitter hashtag #gamergate.This provided a more distinct identityto what was initially random groups of

anonymous individuals in online com-munities that have long been associ-ated with misogynistic behavior.

By the end of August 2014, theactivity had started getting the noticeof a wider range of people in thegame industry, particularly amongindependent developers and journal-ists. Gamasutra.com columnist LeighAlexander published a particularly pointed piece about how “gamers areover,” essentially denouncing the toxiconline behavior and declaring that the

gamer identity as typically defined — mostly young, white males — is nolonger valid because virtually every-

one plays games now. The messageand tone of this article set off a newwave of harassment and hatred amongthe Gamergate adherents and fueleda new level of reaction against other

people who spoke out against them, particularly women. The practice of“doxing,” revealing someone’s privateinformation online, such as an addressor phone number, was regularlyemployed by Gamergate adherentsagainst their targets. In some casesthey also employed “swatting,” whichis alerting local law enforcement to afake “incident” at their target’s homeaddress in the hope that a SWAT teamon high alert would be sent in response.

With Gamasutra’s publishing of theinflammatory column, the Gamergatecrowd protested by targeting the web-

site’s advertisers in September, startingwith the tech giant Intel. In a knee jerkreaction, Intel removed its advertisingfrom Gamasutra, contributing to the perception of a major victory amongthe Gamergate supporters. Over thenext few months, Intel would realizethe tremendous mistake it had madeand by early January 2015, IntelCEO Brian Krzanich announced inhis keynote at the annual ConsumerElectronics Show (CES) that Intel wascommitting $300 million in a broad

initiative to not only fix the obvi-ous diversity problems in the gameindustry but in the entire technology

sector, starting with full representationat all levels within Intel. This actionhas since inspired other companies toincrease their diversity efforts, suchas Apple’s public commitment of $50million in March 2015.

By October 2014, the overt misog-yny of Gamergate began to get widelynoticed. Major media outlets such asThe New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Jou rnal and otheroutlets correctly identified Gamergatefor what it is: a convoluted mob with-out any single agenda or voice butwith a clear misogynist streak. Eventhough the harassment campaign triedto change the focus of their vitriol to being an issue over ethics in games journalism, they were mostly unable toescape the perception that this was a

group striving to exclude women fromsomehow interfering with their gamerculture. In other words, they sup- posedly weren’t ranting against ZoeQuinn, Anita Sarkeesian and others’involvement in the industry as women,

but rather the way that game jou rnal-ists are too close to game developersand the perception of a lack of objec-tivity in game coverage and reviews.Unfortunately, this additional facadeincreased Gamergate’s appeal amongnew followers.

As for my part in all this, as theexecutive director of the InternationalGame Developers Association (IGDA),

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I was proud that our board of direc-tors issued a statement in late August2014 to denounce the harassmentand misogyny; at the time we werethe only major industry organiza-tion to say anything about the issue.And because I was so outspoken inmany media interviews on the topic,1 quickly became another key targetof Gamergate — seen as another key“SJW” and as “the gamers’enemy” andyes 1 received death threats as well asconstant harassment andderision on Twitter andon Gamergate blog posts.

Never mind my 20+ yearhistory in the game indus-try and the fact that I’velikely worked on many ofthe games the Gamergate

proponents enjoy, and never mind thefact that I’ve likely been a gamer longerthan most of these harassers have beenalive. The fact that I am an industryfigure willing to stand up and vocallyoppose their actions made me worthyof their hatred. I’ve been blamed andaccused of some of the wildest, mostridiculous conspiracy theories; in otherwords, I’ve been a convenient enemyto hate and help fuel their conspiraciesand internal cultural narrative.

This whole issue continues to

rumble on in the virtual communities,and for better or worse, for peoplewho don’t pay attention to Twitter orReddit, Gamergate has been virtuallyinvisible. Indeed, even at the annualGame Developers Conference in March2015,1had some longtime developersask me about the issue because theyhad no idea that it had been raging formonths and had never heard the term“Gamergate.” The harassment contin-ues, although not nearly as intenselyas a few months ago, and at this timethe echo chamber known as Gamergatemostly continues to regurgitate famil-iar statements and arguments, neveroffering any new insights or thought-fulness about whatever they were sup-

posedly raging against from the start.Unfortunately, women developers andtheir defenders are still being harassedand targeted, and while the US Fed-eral Bureau of Investigation has beeninvolved since even before August2014, the agency hasn’t made much

progress in apprehending the worstof the mob due to issues around ano-

nymity, free speech and many of theactions being performed by juveniles.

So to return to the cultural protec-tionism point I raised earlier, I’m proneto cast this episode in that light, particu-larly given my perspective as a geog-rapher and culturalization strategist.Imagine that there’s a culture (mostlyyoung males) high in the mountainsthat adopts a certain enjoyable pastime,a local cultural tradition (video games).For a long while, they’re mostly the

only people enjoying this tradition andit becomes familiar and comfortablefor them and their tribal name, gamer, represents their specific culture. Everyonce in a while, outsiders (such aswomen) will wander into their territoryand might be accepted but are neverreally considered part of the culture andcertainly aren’t really allowed to use thegamer label (or if they do, they’re oftenaccused of being “fake gamer girls” ordoing it only because their boyfriends

play games). This isolated culture con-

tinues to grow and companies continueto make goods that this culture enjoys(including overly sexist depictions ofwomen).

But something interesting happens.Eventually, this cultural tradition findsa place beyond the traditional gamer’sterritory. Over time, more and more people outside their realm are also play-ing games, and many of these peopledon’t fit the tribal definition of gamer.One day, after years have passed, thisisolated culture of gamers suddenlyrealizes that the world around them haschanged — they’re no longer uniqueand special, and the companies mak-ing their games are also making gamesfor the people outside their territory.Their cherished cultural tradition now belongs to everyone, and they reallydon’t like this idea. As they panic atthis revelation, they lash out at whatthey perceive to be the most obviouscause of this change —people differentfrom them who’ve invaded their space(mostly women). And while they alsolash out at the ethics of games journal-

ism, this small, isolated realm decidesto employ highly unethical methods ofattack to those beyond their territory,such as constant harassment, publichumiliation, doxing and swatting.

Indeed, the world has changedaround them. In the United States,nearly 50% of gamers are women.Several years ago the global videogame industry began generating morerevenue than the film and musicindustries combined. Game playing is

ubiquitous, with a verywide demographic. In theUnited States alone, theaverage age of a gameris now 36 years old.That tribal perception ofa gamer being a youngmale has utterly changed.

Just as other major art forms such asliterature, music, radio, television andfilm are enjoyed by virtually everyoneon some level, games have reached the point of being the latest entertainmentmedium to become part of the modernhuman experience.

Several times I’ve been asked bymedia outlets and others if anythinggood will result from all this. Myresponse is a fervent yes, absolutely.There's no question that this has beena time of turmoil for the game indus-

try, and the disturbing (and illegal)harassment must come to a full stop.Gamergate has been an additional layerof angst added to the alreadydynamicenvironment of an everchangingindustry. As the game industry is sotechnology dependent, it continues toevolve its platforms, delivery methods,content sources and so forth. In response,there has been much upheaval over the past few years, as evidenced in a varietyof ways. For example, the IGDA’s ownDeveloper Satisfaction Survey found in2014 that over the past five years, gamedevelopers had an average of four jobs!Many in the industry were anecdotallyaware of an underlying chum but thesurvey helped shine a hard light on therealities.

So add to the landscape this addi-tional aspect of industry change,that of inclusion and diversity. Weall knew that eventually it neededto be addressed, and I myself havingattended and participated in count-less talks about women in games anddiversity panels and such discussions,

Gamergate has been an additiona l layer of

angst added to the already-dynamic environment

o f an ever-changing industry.

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it’s clear that there’s been a strongfrustration with the lack of progress,

both in the game industry as well asthe broader technology sector. That’sone reason why the IGDA has adopteda “space program” goal of trying todouble the number of women workingin the game industry by 2025. It’s whyIntel has come out so boldly in favorof resolving their diversity problem inthe IT sector once and for all. It’s whywe’re seeing a plethora of STEM (sci-ence-technology-engineering-math) programs arise for young women and people of diversity.

The reaction against Gamergate’smisogynist message has been so strongthat in the end, the very thing theirisolated culture was railing againstis going to actually become a reality.

Their cultural backlash has becomea catalyst for galvanizing an entireindustry to take a hard look at itselfand then have the courage to take real,measurable steps to change. Granted,this effort is only getting started andit’s a long-term proposition, yet Iremain optimistic. The internet willalways have its echo chambers andstrong opinions, it will continue to rageon a wide variety of issues and I doubtGamergate adherents will go awayanytime soon. But hopefully social

media companies such as Twitter willalso realize some hard lessons abouthow to better manage their platforms,rather than being enablers. And thoseof us who engage in social media useon a frequent basis can learn to betterfilter the noise so we can concentrateon the signals that matter.

For the sake of brevity, there aremany details I’ve had to leave out ofthis discussion as it has many layersof complexity and I have no doubtthat it’s going to result in many master’s theses and doctoral dissertations

in the fields of sociology, communication, journalism, cultural anthro

pology and information sciences,to name a few. It’s important for usto keep in mind that culture doesn’talways have to be defined by country

borders, languages or ethnicities. Intoday’s increasingly virtual spaces ofcommunication and social interaction, cultural identity associated withmediums, brands and content typesare becoming ever more relevant andcritical to consider in our work. M

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