Welcome
I hadn't originally intended to open this article with Welcome, but there seems to be some confusion on the subject. So just to clarify again, welcome. I don't know what you look like, where you're from, or how you are dressed. Honestly, I couldn't care. Those have got to be some of the least interesting things about you. I am also willing to wager that most gamers you talk to will feel the same way. Gamers, after all, have been stigmatized their entire lives. While I'm sure you can find some one out there willing to pass on that repression twice what they got, most gamers will not. Most gamers have been excluded, and know there's nothing to gain from excluding someone else. We might haze you, we might make fun of you, but we won't exclude you. You will be given the exact same opportunities as any of us, and we will make fun of you up until the point you beat us. Then, we will have nothing to say.
Gamer is a strange term, because it can mean so much. Gamers play strategy games, first person military shooters, epic role playing games, side scrolling platformers, fighting games, farming games, castle building games, castle destroying games, space games combined with any of the previous categories and pigeon dating simulators. Any person you talk to could like some combination of these categories or something completely different. There's one thing that binds us all thoughl, a love of the game. People who otherwise would have nothing in common can bond over games. Video games are a positive element of my life, I have so many good memories playing them, and so many strong emotions about them.
Gamer is a strange term, because it can mean so much. Gamers play strategy games, first person military shooters, epic role playing games, side scrolling platformers, fighting games, farming games, castle building games, castle destroying games, space games combined with any of the previous categories and pigeon dating simulators. Any person you talk to could like some combination of these categories or something completely different. There's one thing that binds us all thoughl, a love of the game. People who otherwise would have nothing in common can bond over games. Video games are a positive element of my life, I have so many good memories playing them, and so many strong emotions about them.
That is why gamers can deal with a lot, but they can't stand by while they are told that all those wonderful memories are actually bad. The most egregious example of that was a man named Jack Thompson. He led a crusade trying to prove that video games caused violence. That they were the cause of school shootings. That they were murder simulators, as if we couldn't tell the difference between the pixels on the screen and the person next to us. Now, there are other people trying to tell us that our memories are bad. That video games are making us misogynists. That the way women are portrayed in our games makes us hate the women in our lives. As if we couldn't tell the difference between the pixels on the screen and the person next to us. Even more true when the person next to me is my girlfriend, the love of my life and the reason I have only gotten to play my Nintendo 3DS for a few hours. You see, male gamers like female gamers. It just makes sense.
So that brings us to GamerGate. You will see a lot of people label it as a conservative movement. Jack Thompson, a hard line social conservative, would disagree. You will see people claim it is anti-woman. As this article will show, that is simply not the case. Simply put, gamers do not like the hyper-politicization of their pastime, regardless of it's source. Gamers will reject anyone who tries to come into our medium so they can pedal an agenda. People from all walks of life have come together to speak out against journalistic corruption and have been served up as the target of countless hit pieces as a result. A grass roots movement of thousands being blamed for the actions of what really is just a few individuals. Individuals which we constantly denounce because they are making us all look bad. Not just gamers, but ALL of us. The fact that some people online are jerks is not news, nor is it really worth thinking too much about. Just know that whoever you are, we do not hate you, and you are welcome here. So can we just play some video games already?
Thank you for your thoughts and your time,
So that brings us to GamerGate. You will see a lot of people label it as a conservative movement. Jack Thompson, a hard line social conservative, would disagree. You will see people claim it is anti-woman. As this article will show, that is simply not the case. Simply put, gamers do not like the hyper-politicization of their pastime, regardless of it's source. Gamers will reject anyone who tries to come into our medium so they can pedal an agenda. People from all walks of life have come together to speak out against journalistic corruption and have been served up as the target of countless hit pieces as a result. A grass roots movement of thousands being blamed for the actions of what really is just a few individuals. Individuals which we constantly denounce because they are making us all look bad. Not just gamers, but ALL of us. The fact that some people online are jerks is not news, nor is it really worth thinking too much about. Just know that whoever you are, we do not hate you, and you are welcome here. So can we just play some video games already?
Thank you for your thoughts and your time,
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Gurney Halleck
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