#stopgamergate

I jumped into the journalism game back in September 2014 and then started StopGamerGate.com a few months later in November that year. During that time I’ve written and made a lot of different things and even hit some legitimacy, however I’ve now decided to refresh.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not conceding defeat. Ok sure GamerGate discovered issues, forced sites to create and enforce ethics policies, banded a huge number of people together and started a counter culture against negative aspects in gaming and beyond, but we called a bunch of people sexist so I think it’s about even.

I am conceding that GamerGate itself will never die thanks to the media constantly needing to refer to it years later. In 50 years some journalists will utter GG on their death beds. It will be their “Rosebud”.

I’ll talk about the changes in another post but I’d like to thank everyone who has enjoyed (and hated) this site these past 1 and a bit years. To all the people who helped spread my work around on tumblr, twitter, reddit and everyone who visits I thank you.

Recently DarkSydePhil aka. DSP was caught masturbating on Stream. Unaware the camera was on and he was broadcasting to the people who follow him for some reason, he decided to pleasure himself as he has difficulty deriving satisfaction from video games. Thankfully it only lasted for a short period and it was the first time DSP didn’t complain about something being too hard.

The question is tough did DSP really embarrass himself disgracefully to the world or is he the victim of vicious gamers? We know that DSP has been anti-gamergate in the past, and if it’s one thing we’ve learnt it’s that every time someone anti-gg does something wrong it’s not their fault. As long as you have GamerGate to blame you can do anything and they can be there as a scapegoat. Surely this is all lies from the GamerGate hate mob! So let’s examine the top theories how this is probably GamerGate’s fault:

They hacked his camera

They sent DSP high quality hentai making not fapping impossible

This isn’t actually DSP and a body double sent to masturbate in his place

It’s because of harassment

This is actually an important political statement that’s been misinterpreted

They doxxed his DarkSydePenis forcing it to be revealed

His right hand is actually not fapping but making multiple donations to Anita Sarkeesian’s latest project

Dear Brianna,

Before you go on a multi-tweet tirade against a troll please understand that you are only helping to prove his point, not show him wrong.

When people say Revolution 60 looks worse then a PSOne game the correct response is not to tell them how the game could not run on a PSOne. Their whole point is that despite all the technological advances you have on far superior hardware, the game looks worse than games released on a console in 1994.

After years of tireless complaining, outrage, wailing and insults we’ve done it. We’ve finally won and got what we want. Today is a day for celebration. Mission complete. Our childish tantrums have finally paid off. We have reached the point where video game companies are bending to our will before we even get the chance to demand it.

In a recent interview Shuhei Yoshida admitted that Dead or Alive xTreme 3 will not come to Western territories due to ‘cultural differences’ and also mentioned the negative reactions some Western reviewers gave Dragon’s Crown. Coupled with Idea Factory revealing they won’t localize some games due to censorship, Yoshinori Ono stating they made changes in Street Fighter V to avoid offending people and Koei Tecmo’s earlier statement about Dead or Alive xTreme 3, it is very clear that years of endless moaning have produced the desired result.

That result is having games companies themselves strive to keep the industry puritanical without us moral arbiters even needing to lift a finger. Let’s not discount though the years of backbreaking typing that it took for us to reach this point. It is really hard work denigrating the hard work of others.

You see what fellow journalists, feminists and outrage merchants have done is train game companies via negative reinforcement. For example, company does something we consider sexist then we jump up and down and make a lot of noise (as we are the media are a lot nosier than actual customers). Write some insulting words (e.g. sexist, misogynist), force the company to release a press statement about ‘the controversy’, publicly shame the company, artists, creators and developers, ask them awkward questions in interviews, feign more disgust and voila! Eventually they’ll just give up in fear of going through that awful process again.

Years of this has lead to an environment of “I can’t be stuffed, why even bother, I don’t want to deal with all their bitching” and I couldn’t be prouder. There is no greater feeling then knowing you’ve grounded someone down to the point of total apathy just by constantly bitching at them. When you’ve gotten into the mind of a creator so they’re thinking “I want to create this but I won’t to avoid drama” that’s when you know you’ve really made a difference.

You may ask though, “What now? Thanks to your vacuous critiques they won’t even bother so what will be left for you to complain about?” The answer is there will always be something to complain about, we’ll just dig deeper. Street Fighter may be less lewd but we can still complain about cultural appropriation. Dead or Alive may not be officially released but we can still whine that people can import it (for example click on ad below to prove my point). We can complain about the lack of female protagonists in Tetris or transgender representation in Fifa. There will always be something we’re unhappy about.