PART 6
You Can't Stay Neutral On a Moving Train
The title of this piece is a play on A People's History of The United States. That work by historian Howard Zinn sought to show another side to our history. A counter perspective to what we all know to be true, and an excellent companion piece to anyone interested in American history. A work to show that you cannot get the entire story by looking at the paper. This piece has been my own humble attempt to emulate that. This is not a complete account of the issue by any means. I did not make mention of the alternative press that has sprung up around this movement. Sites like Techraptor or GamesNosh, that strive to report on the industry without injecting their own ideologies into it. I did not have a chance to touch on Kotaku's Patricia Hernandez, who has articles linking directly to the Steam store page for her roommate's game. It is certainly no hyperbole to say I only scratched the surface of the extent that Gamer Gate discussion was censored, not even touching on the fact that 4chan of all places banned discussion of the topic. All of that was unfortunately out of the scope of this piece. It's intention was to be a bite sized chunk to promote an understanding, in a sincere way, of the climate of the time. In this regard, I admit I have failed. This piece has ballooned to almost four times its intended length. I considered cutting much of it, but decided against it. It was all necessary to show a glimpse of what is happening under the surface. Anything less would have been devoid of nuance and disingenuous. That has been my major criticism with how games media has portrayed the issues. I am prepared to accept any criticism that may come as a result of this posting, except one. That it was devoid of nuance and ultimately disingenuous.
Over the course of this article, you may have in fact criticized me for presenting a one sided portrayal of the events. There was little to no mention of the harassment or the threats for instance. As I said in the beginning, this is by design. You do not have to look far to find ample coverage of those facts. In fact, look no further than the references posted here. This was, by design, a counter narrative. Something to provide, so that a reasonable person could understand that the truth, most likely, lies somewhere in between. In beginning this article, I had tried to stay neutral as much as possible. While I do still consider myself a moderate, I have over the course of this event found one thing to be true. I could no longer stay neutral while my identity was being attacked and I was found guilty by association. I found, and forgive me for borrowing from another Zinn title, that you can't stay neutral on a moving train.
Here, I would like the counter narrative to end, and speak instead, as a voice for the common narrative. Because the thing that Gamer Gate has shown us more than any thing, it's that we have much more in common than we do apart. And so I again, as I have done previously, will quote Leigh Alexander.
"[We] want games about more things, and games by more people. We want -- and we are getting, and will keep getting -- tragicomedy, vignette, musicals, dream worlds, family tales, ethnographies, abstract art. We will get this, because we’re creating culture now. [And] We are refusing to let anyone feel prohibited from participating."
On this point, Ms. Alexander and I couldn't agree more.
Thank you for your time and your thoughts.
Here, I would like the counter narrative to end, and speak instead, as a voice for the common narrative. Because the thing that Gamer Gate has shown us more than any thing, it's that we have much more in common than we do apart. And so I again, as I have done previously, will quote Leigh Alexander.
"[We] want games about more things, and games by more people. We want -- and we are getting, and will keep getting -- tragicomedy, vignette, musicals, dream worlds, family tales, ethnographies, abstract art. We will get this, because we’re creating culture now. [And] We are refusing to let anyone feel prohibited from participating."
On this point, Ms. Alexander and I couldn't agree more.
Thank you for your time and your thoughts.
