Harassment, Video Games, and “Ethics”
Introduction
In August 2014 the world of video games was completely taken by storm when allegations against game creator Zoe Quinn came to light. These allegations in question were put against her by a former boyfriend Eric Gjoni which stated that Zoe Quinn slept with Kotaku writer Nathan Grayson in order to receive better reception on her game Depression Quest. Kotaku, formed an official investigation against Nathan Grayson, but no wrongdoing was found. Following these allegations against Quinn, comments on sites like 4chan, Reddit, and YouTube were made against her, many of which were targeting her personally and harassing her. Gamers upset with Quinn were there to point out the lack of journalistic integrity within gaming journalism. #Gamergate was coined following these events, which saw a massive amount of support from individuals who believed that there was a lack of ethics in gaming journalism. Critics of Gamergate were quick to point out though, that the discussion quickly turned from journalistic integrity into harassing women like Zoe Quinn and Anita Sarkeesian in particular. Both of which are prominent figures in the feminist and gaming industry.
Feminist Frequency
Anita Sarkeesian is a prominent feminist critic of media who created a YouTube series called “Feminist Frequency”. Sarkeesian later decided to make a Kickstarter to create a series which spoke on issues of female representation in video games. She was met with criticism by some gamers who disagreed with her opinion, which again, the criticism spiraled into an online hate mob.
While many at the time stood by their reasoning that Gamergate was to target the ethics, or, lack thereof ethics in gaming journalism. Others were also around to say that this was a harassment campaign towards women that didn’t truly focus on journalism, but was rather an excuse to target and harass these figures. All of the press in regards to the way that certain individuals in the gaming community were reacting led to many articles that negatively spoke on the gaming community, in particular, those who were apart of the Gamergate movement.
Alt-Right Connection
It has been 8 years since the Gamergate movement first started and it is still a cultural event that is being talked about to this day. Today, looking back at Gamergate, there is a very strong connection between that and today’s alt-right. Gamergate should’ve seeded out the bad apples in Right-Wing politics, but no one seemed to notice fast enough until, you could say it was too late. Individuals involved in the Gamergate movement at the time like that of Milo Yinnopoulos. Milo used this event as a way to target feminism instead of the larger topic at hand, which was supposed to be a discussion of ethics in gaming journalism. Individuals like Milo, are now synonymous with the alt-right movement. As a movement, Gamergate seemed admirable. Trying to fix issues with ethics in gaming journalism is something that should be good. Going down the path it led though, it was clear this movement was only created to create more targeted harassment towards female critics and creators in the space of video games.
Pursuit of Ethics
Ethics in journalism are incredibly important to take into consideration. While you want to create a story that draws in and captivates the reader, it’s important to focus on the ethics of things. You don’t want to cross a line that can lead to controversies. Gaming journalism and traditional journalism are something that can be considered different things. Gaming journalism targets more of a niche audience who are invested into the gaming world. Traditional journalism targets those who seek information about the world around them, the issues they might face, issues in other countries, etc. The flow of information in this modern age could never be better. Should gaming journalism and traditional journalism fall under the same umbrella though? Firstly, it’s important to understand that gaming journalism and traditional journalism do indeed fall under the same umbrella. Report the facts, don’t plagiarize, don’t write about friends or family in a glowing manner, etc. Gaming journalism does fall under the same umbrella as traditional journalism would. There are already set in stone ethics in regards to gaming journalism that is applicable to any other piece of journalism.
Larger Issues at Play
Issues that arise from a situation like this aren’t in particular just about “ethics in video game journalism” This is much larger than that though. In reality, situations like this are just a veil to target certain individuals and harass them. It is especially cruel in the case of targeting women, like that of Zoe Quinn. The true issue that comes up when we speak on topics like Gamergate is the idea they are only around to spread hate and not a message. Gamergate wasn’t the first case of this and definitely won’t be the last. There should’ve been more scrutiny placed on Gamergate from the get-go, and without that scrutiny there has been a larger development in the alt-right movement. Should a situation like this ever arise again, there needs to be a bigger picture into these types of situations. The harassment, death threats, and stalking of individuals like that of Zoe Quinn and Anita Sarkeesian is truly disturbing behavior. Really, the only thing that should be asked is should there be more scrutiny from media as a whole on the harassment of women online? This isn’t an issue of ethics, this is really an issue of harassment online. In particular the harassment of women online. It’s not a secret that women on the internet are faced with hateful remarks, sexual harassment, death threats, doxing, and more.
When Does it End?
When does this all end though? When do we start giving scrutiny to more people online in regards to the treatment of women in the gaming industry, feminist, or just women online in general? The internet is a wild, wild, ocean of creativity, freedom of expression, ideas, etc. But there will always be the wild bunch that decides to ruin the fun for everyone. Online harassment may seem covered plenty in media, but is it really effective? It seems that it’s always one article after the next about harassment on the internet. There needs to be a line drawn at some point. Therefore, should a proposal be made to more frequently criticize these individuals online?
