Pro GG Interview: Tyronne

http://web.archive.org/web/20141108162142/http://mangotron.com/round-2-pro-vs-anti-gamergate-two-interviews/

Pro-GamerGate

Tyronne speaks about gaming, atheism, anti-feminism, rational thinking and other topics on his blog and Youtube channel. Here’s his interview.

1) What is GamerGate and what does it want to achieve, in your view?

Gamergate is a consumer revolt against the obviously displayed corruption within the video game journalism industry,and the egregious ethical violations that have come to light. As well as an opposition to idealogues who are attempting to use video games to push forward their own socio-political agenda.

It’s goal is to force the gaming journalism industry to clean up their act and begin serving its consumers as it should be, rather than pushing it’s own agenda as it’s been attempting to.

2) Do you feel GamerGate, or any part of it is about misogyny or anti-feminism?

The claim about Gamergate being about misogyny is ridiculous,at least if one is going by the semasiological definition of the term. That is,the word as it exists in the general dictionary, which is a hatred or dislike of all women.

What most people fail to understand is that alongside the semasiological definition there exists also the onomasiological definition of misogyny that feminists and those we call social justice warriors (SJW’s) use.
It’s what’s often called “loading the language”, where groups create their own vocabulary.Often giving words different or more complex meanings than what the normal person would interpret them as. In the case of feminists and sjw’s they often use these interchangeably so that people will assume that they mean one,as opposed to the other.

Simone de Beauvoir defined misogyny as treating women as the “other” in her book theSecond Sex. Giving it an incredibly vague definition which feminists often use. Furthermore, as feminists view themselves as the respresentatives of womens rightsby default, they typically interpret any opposition or criticism to them as being misogyny.

This can be easily seen by their typical use of the argument that anyone who believes in equality for both genders is a feminist,whether they accept the label and ideology or not. Or simply anytime they are criticized or taken to task for their words or actions (Anita Sarkesian has outright stated that asking for evidence that a woman is harassed is rooted in sexist ideology). Misogyny is essentially used as a blanket term to silence any oppositionto their position.

The claim of misogyny, coming from them,is an entirely meaningless one. Simply opposing them is a great hatred of women,because they see themselves as the representatives of all women. So to oppose them is to oppose women.

Which brings me to the second part of the question.Is it about anti-feminism.

Ostensibly no,but it has become that in a way.Simply because feminism has forced itself into the discussion. No one in gamergate really cared about feminism until it shoehorned it’s way into a situation that was simply a matter of a breach of journalistic ethics.So those in gamergate have been forced to fight feminism as well, simply because they’re the ones leading the charge against us.

It must be noted however,that feminism is not women. Only about twenty five percent of women even accept the label of feminist.Because feminism does not speak for them,as much as they pretend otherwise. To fight against feminism has nothing to do with fighting against women or their interests.It is to fight a group of irrational ideologues trying to force their insane opinions on others.

3) Do you feel GamerGate or any part of it promotes abusive behavior such as trolling and death threats?

Naturally not. The idea is fairly ludicrous.For one thing there is no possible motive for such a thing .It would only hurt our goals to endorse or employ such tactics and woud do nothing to advance our cause. We literally would have nothing to gain by endorsing such things and everything to lose. I would like to point out that it was our side which raised thousands of dollars for a charitable organization to stop bullying.

A very well-done and informative blog post took a look at a newsweek analysis of the GG hastag. The analysis was meant to look into the number of tweets sent under the hashtag to people in the gaming industry that were considered negative.Newsweek attempted to use this information to portray GG in a negative light but,as pointed out in the blog post, the reality is very different if one looks at all of the numbers.

Out of the 124,076 tweets that they examined under the GG hashtag only ten percent of them were directed at the particular people that they were testing (Anita Sarkesian,Quinn, Wu, Kotaku, Alexander, Grayson, or Totilo). Out of all of these tweets eighty-five to ninety percent of them were labelled as neutral by the analysis.While only five to ten percent were labelled as negative,and under five percent were labelled as positive.This means that the vast majority of the GG tweets directed at these people were neutral in tone.

Furthermore, the ones who received the most abuse were the men on the AntiGG side. Not the women, who all received fewer negative tweets than the men. Which is an odd turn of events since GG is supposedly about hating on women.

Simply put, there is no evidence of these threats coming from our side. All of these threats are anonymously delivered and when investigated they always come from elsewhere.
Threats made against Brianna Wu, supposedly sent by Gamergate, all traced back to a clickbait journalist in Brazil who was trying to cause conflict so that he could report on it and get views. The latest threats to Anita Sarkesian ended up the same way. It was someone unconnected with Gamergate trying to stir up trouble.

Even before Gamergate began people like Anita had been caught manufacturing threats against them in order to help fund their image as the perpetual victim.

Now, don’t get me wrong, there is certainly a great deal of vitriol directed at these people, however their prevailing narrative that it has anything to do with misogyny is patently ridiculous.

Anita does not receive the vitriol that she does because she is a woman.She receives it because she is a liar and a con-artist who openly lies in order to put forth her agenda. In one of her videos where she is showing video from the game of Hitman, Anita bemoans how the game encourages violence against women and treating women as disposable objects. As she does this you can see onscreen the video character beating a pair of strippers with his bare hands and then dragging their corpses around.

What was pointed out several times is that the game Hitman is about a stealthy assassin,and you are expected to actually be a stealthy assassin.Meaning that the game penalizes you for harming people who are not your intended target. Her claim about being rewarded for killing those women was an blatant lie; you are, in fact, penalized for such an act. Which means that she had to go out of her way to beat those two female characters to death and drag their corpses around just so that she could show it repeatedly (about four times in total throughout the video) to shock the audience. Because it is something that no one who was actually playing the game would ever do. Yet she openly declares this to be normal gameplay for which one is rewarded.

This is more or less indicative of all of Anita’s general level of work.

Brianna Wu had herself been spamming the GG hashtag with abuse and antiGG memes before she ever received any of the threats that she complains about.

All of the abuse that does exist is aimed at individual women. There is none aimed at women in general.And to the extent that these people do receive anger and vitriol it is not because they are women. It is because they are horrible people.

I invite anyone to take a look at the gamergate hashtag and see for themselves.There are constant reminders not to engage in these sorts of tactics, and you simply will not see anyone using them,condoning them, or engaging in them. There is simply no evidence for that claim.

4) How about anti-GamerGate, do you feel any part of it promotes abusive behavior such as trolling and death threats?

Without question. That’s not even a matter of debate in this case. They do it openly. I have a collection of several hundred tweets that I’m putting together for a video from the anti-gamergate side doing exactly that.There is an entire blog on tumblr that posts these messages.

It’s not just a bunch of anonymous internet people doing this.It’s game developers,media executives,company managers,etc. They openly doxx or call for doxxing,preach violence against GG supporters,use racial epitaphs, the whole nine yards that they accuse us of.

One of my personal favourites was one Anti-GG person who equated the women in GG with “House Niggers”. I’ve enclosed some of them for evidentiary purposes.

5) How do you feel about anti-GamerGate supporters living in fear of being harmed by GamerGate supporters?

I feel bad about if it’s true, and it shouldn’t be happening.The key phrase there though is “if it’s true”.

I highly doubt that it is.

As I said, these people have been caught lying about threats and harassment before,and they certainly don’t act like people who are afraid for their lives to the extent that they claim.

One of the things that you’ll be told by the police if you receive death threats or threats in general is not to broadcast them or tell everyone about them because it hampers the investigation and might cause the harasser to go to ground.Making them much harder to catch.So what, one must ask do these people do when they receive a threat?

They immediately tweet these threats to all of their followers, crying loudly about how they are being victimized. And naturally how they need money and support.

One of the fake threats that Anita tried to claim happened coincided with the release of one of her videos, and within a few hours of tweeting that she had left her house was asking for money and donations. In another instance Anita was sent images of child pornography by someone trying to troll her.Instead of immediately reporting it to the police of FBI she started retweeting it to her followers, causing the pictures to be spread around. It was others who reported the pictures to the FBI.Anita later tried to cover herself by claiming that she couldn’t find the form on Twitter for reporting such things. Despite the fact that it is fairly obvious and easy to find. Which doesn’t change the fact that she felt it better to share the attack with several thousand people than report it to the authorities.

In Utah Anita cancelled a speech she was going to give at a university due to threats that were received. She and other SJW’s went on the rampage again about how she was being threatened into silence (several even blaming it on GG without any supporting evidence). This is despite the fact that both the university and the FBI/police have gone on record saying that there was no real threat (video).

After receiving those threats from that Brazilian journalist,Brianna Wu suddenly went from being completely unknown to being in the spotlight and getting interviews on CNN.
None of these people who are claiming to be victimized and pelted by threats were even known until they started screaming about the threats that they got. It was playing the victim for their audience that made them famous in their groups circles and gave them relevance.

Of course I don’t deny that at least some of the threats they get are genuine, but they really don’t seem as bothered or threatened by it as they should be if they took them seriously.

6) Do you feel there are good natured people who want the best for others in anti-GamerGate?

Certainly, but that describes humans in general.Almost all humans are good natured people who want the best for others. The problem isn’t that they’re not good natured. The problem is that,like most people, they’re stupid and poor thinkers.

On my youtube channel I have a video of a conversation between a radio host on Fox News Radio where he is interviewing the Grand Dragon of the KKK.The Grand Dragon had recently been evicted from a childrens charity when they found out what his affiliations were. Keep in mind that this man wasn’t a lunatic sitting there ranting about Jewish conspiracies, or the “Darkies” or anything.He seems like an entirely decent human being.However when the host starts questioning him on his beliefs he completely fails to understand how his beliefs are racist or wrong.

Even when the host takes him step by step through his position and the logical implications of them he simply can’t grasp the fact that he’s wrong,or that his claim that the KKK stands for racial equality is not true.

Humans have a very strong ability to convince ourselves that what we’re doing is good and justified. It’s one of the things that makes us very easy to manipulate by those few of us who do have bad inentions. This is how you get things like cults,hate groups, supremacist groups, etc. Not because you have thousands or millions of people who are bad. But because you have a few manipulative sociopaths that are able to convince large groups of people that they’re fighting for a noble cause,while simultaneously keeping them from looking behind the curtain at the man hiding behind it. And once you see your side as inherently morally right and the other side as morally wrong, it is very easy to justify doing whatever you need to do in order to stop them.

This is why we developed tools like logic, reason,the scientific method, ect.So that we can filter our ideas through them and remove these biases. If you surrender those things to an ideology like feminism then you no longer have any reality check. You’re like the Grand Dragon. You have no way of understanding when you’re wrong,and there’s no way for others to explain it to you.

When you look at the anti-GG people, it’s not that they don’t want what’s best.It’s that they don’t know what’s best. They don’t really even know what’s worst.They’re using a model of reality that simply does not conform to the observable world.

7) Were you aware of that anti-GamerGate appreciates your effort on reporting abusive behaviour against them? How do you feel about that?

Considering the identity of the individual who wrote that tweet, I find it more than a little ironic. Also rather disingenuous.

I’d be more inclined to take this particular person seriously if they had actually ever attempted to do anything about, or speak out about, the abusive behaviour of her own side and her own supporters.

8) Do you feel there are misunderstandings between pro and anti-GamerGate? If so, what do you think they are and how can they be solved?

No misunderstandings exactly, that’s not the problem. The problem ultimately is that the people on the anti-GG side are operating under a different model of reality than most people. It’s the nature of an ideology.

Ideologies are theoretical frameworks through which the world is viewed from. However these are not real models of reality. Though religion is obviously the most common example of this type of phenomenon, political and philosophical ideologies work in the same manner. But whichever form they take all ideologies use as their basis and starting point some form of base assumptions about the way the world works.

In the case of feminism and social justice, their primary assumption is that women are and have always been oppressed by men or society (which is really just men by proxy) and it is this assumption that colours everything else that they think or see. Feminist theory is the study of all of the ways in which their oppression happens. It’s why to them not having pockets in dresses is a tool to keep women down. They aren’t asking are women and other groups oppressed. They automatically assume that they are and then go out looking for the ways in which they are.

Hence, why they claim that games are misogynistic and sexist against women.If there are more male gamers than female gamers and more male characters than female characters in the games then it must obviously be proof that women are being discriminated against. As opposed to the far more rational idea that maybe men are just naturally interested in gaming more than women and thus the market reflects what men want.

I heard one of the Anti-GG say the other day, when told that GG is not a political movement, that everything is political.According to him even when you’re trying to be apolitical, that is still political because it is a rejection of the political.

What does one even say to something like that?

It’s not that no one on our side understands.We understand. More than a few of us have been dealing with people like this for years. The difficulty is that how do you reason with people who are so inherently incapable of basic logic, that they actually had to create their own systems of logic and thought to justify their ideas?

9) Do you think the media is reluctant to hear out GamerGate supporters?

I would say it’s pretty obvious at this point. Twelve gaming sites all come out within a single day all sending the exact same message that gamers are dead.Brianna Wu goes on MSNBC and CNN for no reason other than she got a few threats, yet almost no one on the GG gets heard.

When it did happen on HuffPost Live the interviewer obviously tried to force the three representitives around to the conversation that he wanted. Trying to paint GG as misogynist and against women, even though two of the people he was talking to identified as feminists themselves.

That analysis which I mentioned above? When referenced by Newsweek they ignored the existence of all the neutral tweets and simply reported the there were more negative tweets sent to the Anti-GG side than positive ones.

Let me put it this way.Gaming is a multi-billion dollar industry. For the last two plus months there has been a large-scale consumer revolt displaying corruption in at least a dozen different companies, including an entire media conglomeration like Gawker.Big companies like BMW,Intel, Adobe, etc.have pulled adsand funding from the sites.

There is evidence of secret newsletters and meetings by those in the industry to manipulate it for their own agenda. Which has,keep in mind, been admitted to by the other side. There have been secret firings, death threats, knives sent to GGers homes, Swattings,and scandals.

Yet throughout all of this the group that is actually organizing the revolt can barely get a second of screentime compared to their opponents.
When Kim Kardashian’s thong slips too much to the side it gets more coverage.

10) We need more love in the world. Can’t we just forgive each other and hug it out?

No. No we can’t. For one thing I don’t do hugs for anyone. I’m a an emotionally stunted shut-in.

For the more important reason, these are not people who forgive and forget. The people who were involved in Atheism+ are still crawling along and trying to push their agenda forward even though they’ve lost all power and respect of the community and their site has been reduced to effectively just a group of moderators bitching at one another.

This is not going to go away anytime soon. If anything this is only going to be the start.They threw down the gauntlet, we just picked it up and accepted it.

11) What’s your message to anti-GamerGate?

All of this could have been completely avoided.All anyone ever asked was that you own up to what you did and stop dong it.Like responsible adults.

Now we’ve passed that point and you’ve dragged all of this mess into it.So, all right, let’s do this.I hope you’re ready because you’re going to lose like you always do.

12) If you had a chance to play any game with anti-GamerGaters, what game would it be and why?

I honestly can’t think of one off-hand. I rarely play multi-player games. Mostly I like RPG’s,sometimes MMO’s (I highly recommend the Secret World) or the occasional shooter (onlyin single player). If I had to choose I suppose I would go with DC Universe Online. It was the last game I played where I enjoyed having other people around to play it with.

SJW proGG

http://mangotron.com/can-an-sjw-be-pro-gamergate/

One of the biggest questions in #GamerGate and the discussions related to it are about identity. So, here’s mine. I’m a black American male, i’m a feminist, a social justice activist, a YouTube culture critic and a gamer. I was part of #GamerGate since pretty much day one. Back then it consisted of a lot more discussion and research into the state of journalistic media in gaming, and a lot less defending ourselves and hand-wringing about media coverage. The majority of people I’ve followed and befriended during GG have been women and feminist gamers. I’ve seen some of them doxxed and threatened with rape and death for supporting or even being neutral towards #GamerGate. I’ve seen people claiming to be part of GG doxx, harass and threaten women and men who oppose it. I’ve called those people out, and seen some of them banned from Twitter or ejected from livestreams. But, in the beginning, GG had a bad habit of being in such a hurry to distance themselves from trolls that they dismissed or minimised the harm that was being done. I’ve seen GG move away from that and actively seek out and report/call-out people from both sides who participate in the nasty stuff.

As someone who’s interested in social justice and feminism, I’ve lost friends because my involvement with #GamerGate. Some people were unwilling to look past the negative aspects of the movement, and see that if me—their friend who’s always been pretty serious about issues of social justice and feminism—would support it, it could not be even a little bit about misogyny. Especially considering the very public stink I’ve raised about certain issues online. Now, there’s a lot to say about the awful things done in the name of #GamerGate. I’ve never been one to deny that or condone it. There’s no excuse for it, pretty much full stop. Do I feel personally responsible for those things? No. Because I don’t make excuses for them, or equivocate on them. They’re wrong, and I report them. I recently reported a ‘pro-GG’ YouTuber who made really awful racist comments in a video. I no longer follow the people involved in that. I publicly denounced them. I take responsibility as an adult to recognise the people I might be associated with and let it be known that I make a separation between us, and I’m not going to just let anything happen.

Now, there’s a lot to say about the awful things done in the name of #GamerGate. I’ve never been one to deny that or condone it. There’s no excuse for it, pretty much full stop. Do
I feel personally responsible for those things? No. Because I don’t make excuses for them, or equivocate on them. They’re wrong, and I report them.

You might be wondering, how do I remain part of a movement, when I admit some people who are part of it are racist, or misogynists, or who use terror tactics to make points? Hopefully, this analogy can help make sense of it. Look at #GamerGate as a country club. We all have a shared interest in golfing, and improvements to the quality of the club. It’s something we all care about. Some of us are also concerned with the expansions in membership; some are excited about having another hundred members, others prefer to keep it small, some don’t care either way. I happen to encourage new members, and an inclusive selection process. Another group of club members don’t like a female member who often disseminates flyers about the lack of acceptance of new female members. Some people actually like her, some people don’t care. I don’t like her methods, but I’m interested in having more female golfers accepted into the club. There are members who are racists, or misogynists. Say I discovered a group of them using racial epithets and spreading misogynist flyers to counter the above-mentioned woman’s. I report them to the club management, and send a letter of apology to the female member for the abuse other members visited on her. Should I quit the club? Am I also a misogynist because of those members I reported? I think the answers to those questions are no. But, can I still profess to want more female golfers or GoC (Golfers of Color) in the club, even though there are some members who vocally oppose that? Absolutely. That’s how I feel about #GamerGate. There’s definitely bad. But there’s so much good, too.

Look at #GamerGate as a country club. We all have a shared interest in golfing, and improvements to the quality of the club. It’s something we all care about. Some of us are also concerned with the expansions in membership; some are excited about having another hundred members, others prefer to keep it small, some don’t care either way.

Relatively recently, there was an attempted doxx of Zoe Quinn on 8chan that would have revealed a ton of information on her history, private life and family. Dozens of GG people stayed up through the night (these are mostly Americans) flooding 8chan with spam to cover the doxx attempts until the morning when a mod could ban the doxxer’s IP. It was a really cool thing and was totally ignored by most media. In addition, GamerGate, through and with 4chan, helped to raise over $70,000 for a project to help women make games. They raised thousands for an anti-bullying charity in protest of the awful comments from Gawker’s Sam Biddle. They’re also raising charitable donations for UNICEF and have raised over $1,000. #GamerGate also started a ‘Harassment Patrol’ to actively look for and report harassment and abuse against men and women in discussion surrounding #GamerGate. I’ve taken an active role in this, and feel proud to have brought some semblance of online justice to the trolls who make life miserable for a lot of people. In the end, Zoe Quinn and journalists Leigh Alexander and Jason Schreier thanked those good aspects of #GamerGate for their initiative, attention and kindness.

Relatively recently, there was an attempted doxx of Zoe Quinn on 8chan that would have revealed a ton of information on her history, private life and family. Dozens of GG people stayed up through the night (these are mostly Americans) flooding 8chan with spam to cover the doxx attempts until the morning when a mod could ban the doxxer’s IP.

If it’s not clear, I’m pro-#GamerGate. But, I get anti-#GamerGate. So, here’s my middle ground.

People from #Gamergate have done shitty stuff. Not just people who claim membership, but actual identifiable supporters. People from GG have also done awesome stuff. The same can be said for the people who oppose it. When you take a movement made of hundreds or thousands of people and condense it into “these are misogynists,” you miss a lot. Just like if you take their opposition and say “these are fascists.” I think we can all agree that harassment and threats are wrong. No one should have to feel so unsafe they lash out at everything, because they expect to be led into a situation where they can be attacked and belittled. The people who have participated in activities that caused this were wrong, and are probably mean and nasty people through-and-through. The people who condoned those actions are also wrong.

I can use my eyes and see that in an average game dev team there’s between 0 and 1 woman. And it’s not a issue of women not being qualified. That’s a problem. I can use my eyes and see that in almost every gaming publication #GamerGate has been called everything from a group of white male misogynists and their puppets to ISIS 2.0, and even fifteen minutes research into the other side’s point-of-view demonstrates that’s not true. That’s a problem. There’s a major problem with female representation in gaming. There’s also a problem with fair and truthful reporting and journalistic ethics in (mind, the very, very young) gaming media. Those are problems we can solve. Both are important enough for me to take an active stance. In my identity as a social justice activist and culture critic, I use social media and YouTube as platforms to hopefully engage in a community that will positively affect culture and society. And, with my newly created gaming journalism watchdog project, The Sentinel Wire, I hope to inspire greater discussions around ethics and accountability in the gaming media.

When you take a movement made of hundreds or thousands of people and condense it into “these are misogynists,” you miss a lot. Just like if you take their opposition and say “these are fascists.” I think we can all agree that harassment and threats are wrong. No one should have to feel so unsafe they lash out at everything, because they expect to be led into a situation where they can be attacked and belittled.

There are also issues of competing ideologies in #GamerGate, and those are critical to some of the underlying issues that triggered the movement. But, that’s an issue that goes beyond gaming, and can’t be as easily ‘solved’ if there’s even a solution. But, though people don’t share the same ideology, I think they can agree to treat each other with kindness and respect. And, I think they can give other humans the benefit of believing they aren’t monsters, and allow interactions with them to prove whether or not they are. In the end, questions of identity, ethics and accountability are important, and I urge those opposed to #GamerGate to take those questions seriously. In addition, being brave enough to stand against problematic areas of groups you associate with are just as important, and I encourage those proponents of #GamerGate to take a firm and active stance against harassment and abuse, even if you have to make some very uncomfortably adult admissions about people you may like to do so. Have great discussions. Enjoy our hobby. Assume the best in people. And, as ‘GamerGaters’ often tell me when I’ve said something controversial; be safe.

Why GG is Ridiculous

http://mangotron.com/why-gamergate-is-ridiculous/

It was never about ethics in games journalism. That was just an excuse to let erupt hidden misogyny masked as a “good cause.” I mean there’s bad ethics in all areas of life and we need to address them, question them and challenge them, but what gives us the right to terrorize those that don’t agree with us? It’s ridiculous.

Personally I think there are more important topics to worry about than ethics in games journalism. Sure there may be flaws, but no one is dying from it. If it really does affect you and cause you sleepless nights, then stop visiting gaming sites, stop reading the news/reviews. You can still play games you know? You don’t actually NEED to rely on games journalism!

GamerGate is wasting too much energy on the negative, “why this? why that?” If it was as passionate about adding something positive to video games it would have made a difference. Instead it’s just seen as a hate group and it has itself to blame.

Stop using ethics as an excuse to lash out at feminists. We can see through you. Even gamergaters who actually are all about ethics are making a mountain out of a molehill. They’re seeing problems that aren’t even there.

To anyone within gamergate who genuinely questions ethics in games journalism, I urge you to strip away the label “gamergate” from yourselves and continue challenging bad ethics if you want.. You don’t need a label. You don’t need GamerGate. When gamergate ceases to exist, you don’t want to be remembered as being someone who supported the hate movement.

Disassociate yourself now!

Liz Interview Pro GG

http://mangotron.com/pro-vs-anti-gamergate-two-interviews/#comment-934

Pro GamerGate

Liz is a well respected voice within GamerGate. Here’s her interview.

1) What is GameGate to you?

Gamergate is, very plainly, a call for transparency and fairness in journalism. It should be required in every facet of journalism, yet you will see it is enforced less the farther away from main stream media you get. It is impossible to be an unbiased journalist. We don’t expect someone to be unbiased – we are all human, capable of independent thought. We do expect people in positions of influence to put their bias aside in the interest of covering an issue fairly. In the event there is a personal or financial conflict of interest which could call the ability to cover something fairly into question, that should be disclosed.

2) What started GamerGate, in your view?

This is where people tend to get confused. Gamergate did in fact begin with the Zoe Post. A game developer’s ex boyfriend wrote a blog post detailing the end of his relationship, which had indications of being emotionally and mentally abusive. He outlined the infidelity of his girlfriend throughout the course of their relationship. Several of the names included in the post drew attention to a potential conflict of interest in gaming journalism. The issue here, is many people feel this was a reaction to a female developer having sex. In reality, the developer was a character backstory, and we were interested in the plot of the film.

When this was brought to light, two other undisclosed conflicts of interest were exposed at essentially the same point in time (Kotaku’s Patricia Hernandez and Polygon’s Ben Kuchera)

When we, as consumers, began questioning these conflicts, over a dozen articles declaring the “death of gamers” were published within 48 hours of one another, from competing sites, some more vitriolic than others.

Gamergate was described as misogynistic white men, and with the creation of Not Your Shield, sock puppets, by the people we were demanding answers from. What do you do when someone accuses you of something bad? You either admit you were wrong and fix it, or you accuse them of something worse.

3) What does GamerGate want to achieve, in your view?

Very simply, we want to see an ethics policy put into effect, similar to what we’ve seen recently from the Escapist. An article was written a little while ago, and it outlines everything so simply. How do you kill gamergate? 1. Adopt an ethics policy. 2. Adhere to it. I personally would add in 3. Don’t attack your consumers, but that’s just me personally.

4) Do you feel any part of GamerGate is about misogyny or anti-feminism?

I don’t believe the two to be similar. I personal identify as an egalitarian, not a feminist. The thing with Gamergate is you see feminists and non-feminists side by side, demanding ethical changes. What people don’t understand, is “feminism” is not synonymous with “women.” “Non-feminist” is not synonymous with “anti-woman.” Misogyny has become a grossly overused word. Disagreeing with a few women does not mean you hate or stereotype all women.

You will see bad apples in any group, especially one as large as Gamergate. However, the idea that Gamergate as a whole is a misogynistic ,movement is especially absurd, considering we helped to raise more than $70,000 for a feminist group, to aid women entering the gaming industry. The overwhelming majority of us are anti harassment. We call out all ugliness we see, and have reported plenty of “our own” simply because they have no place with us.

I value opposing opinions in life. I like being made to think about things in a different light. That can be done without assassinating anyone’s character. And hugs are nice!

5) Do you feel any part of GamerGate promotes abusive behavior such as trolling and death threats?

We have been seeing many graphic threats aimed at both sides, and I suspect third parties of using the tension as a smokescreen for ugliness and hate. Every time I have seen a threat against either side, I report it, inform others, and they do the same.

For example, a gamergate supporter traced a recent threat against Anita Sarkeesian to a Brazilian blogger, and informed the authorities of his findings. Several nights ago, an anonymous party attempted to release a doxx (private information) of Zoe Quinn on 8chan. Hundreds of Gamergaters spammed the boards on 8chan (which recycle after a certain amount of posts) for hours in the middle of the night, preventing it from happening, until a moderator woke up.

The problem with anonymity on the internet, is anyone can post anything with a hashtag. Anyone can post on an anonymous board and claim to be whatever they choose. I don’t assume my death threats to be from someone anti-gamergate. I assume it to be from sick and twisted individuals.

6) What’s your opinion on the recent articles on gaming sites like Polygon about GamerGate?

I take issue with journalists relaying only one side of a story. Real journalistic integrity is not reporting some facts that support your bias, rather reporting all facts in spite of your bias. I do not want articles that are strictly from the gamergate point of view. I want balanced articles that fairly represent the facts, and interpretations of said facts, on both sides.

7) What else could the articles have mentioned?

I feel this is the same as above. The articles have all represented a single side of a conversation. I don’t like only reading my own opinions thrown back at me. I like reading balanced – and rational – points from all sides.

8) Are there any misconceptions Anti-GamerGate has about GamerGate?

Oh boy, yes! Mainly, that we’re all men, or “sockpuppets.” I’ve had to spend a large amount of time proving I even exist, only to be told I have “internalized misogyny.” I’m not going to lie, I’ve had death threats and vicious harassment, yet that probably hurts the most. I value diversity in opinions above all else – it’s how all great discoveries come to be – and yet I’ve constantly been told my voice is irrelevant because I dare to have an opinion opposite of what others think I should have. The same goes for all the women supporting gamergate. (Although, I’m not going to lie, it makes me a little sad that being male is enough of a reason for people to discount another person’s opinions)

9) Is there any chance of forgiving each other and moving on? We need more love in the world. Can’t we just hug it out?

I wish! While we will continue to fight for ethics in journalism, it would sure be nice to cut out all the rest of the drama. It’s not helping anyone. I value opposing opinions in life. I like being made to think about things in a different light. That can be done without assassinating anyone’s character.

And hugs are nice!

10) If Anti-GamerGate is willing to compromise, what would it take to bring about a resolution?

Changes to ethics policies, and adherence to these policies from the journalists. That’s really it!

I have no issue whatsoever with people who oppose gamergate who are not journalists. I respect and value their opinions, and their rights to freely express these opinions. But not if it involves unfairly attacking another person’s character. That’s not a productive environment for discussion.

11) What’s your message to Anti-GamerGate?

Talk to me. Talk to us. Keep an open mind. I’m not what you think I am. None of us are. You don’t have to agree with us, but you also don’t have to make assumptions about us. We really aren’t as different as you think.

12) If you had a chance to play any game with Anti-GamerGaters, what game would it be and why?

Street Fighter! I have no good or witty reason for this, other than Street Fighter being one of my favorite games.

Liz F – Twitter: @lizzyf620