It's no secret that the gaming community online is toxic. What I mean by that is that they are rude, hateful, and open to spitting out vitriol whenever possible. If you jump into a game of Call of Duty, Halo, Overwatch, League of Legends, or any kind of online competitive game (which is a majority of them) you will likely come across somebody with a microphone who will insult you and talk about how they slept with your mom. This kind of mentality has been shaped by playing video games.
In an article written by my friend in early 2016, he talks about the "myth of redemptive violence", which is a common theme in video games that tells gamers that most problems can be solved through killing the bad guys. This myth has bled into the psyche of gamers and has made them think that if something negative happens, the best way to approach it is to be rid of it. Even gamers know that actual physical violence is not the solution to problems. That principle has been instilled in us since we were children. However, nobody said anything about hurting someone else's feelings to make them go away so that we wouldn't see them again.
Video games haven't made people rude. I'm not saying that. However, video games have made us rude to people that gamers view as the opposition. Anita Sarkeesian is a journalist who set out to create a video series that discussed the portrayal of women in video games. Most of what Sarkeesian had to say didn't put video games in the brightest light. With that, the gaming community lashed out at her for undertaking this task. Death threats, threats of rape, threats of physical violence, publishing her address of her place of living, photoshopping pictures of her face beaten and bruised; the list goes on. All of this because of video games. If you asked any of the people who did some of these things, they most likely would respond with "I wasn't going to do it". For some reason the idea of "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me" has prevailed in the minds of gamers. However, one could call this frequent stream of threats violent. It is harassment. It is assault. It is slander, and they are lies. All of these things being amoral. Though, none of these things matter to the gamer, because they weren't actually going to make good on their promise to hurt anyone, they just wanted them to leave, and shut up about video games.
The stereotype of the gamer is one who sits indoors all day, playing their video games in the dark, eyes glued to their screen. Sadly, this portrait of the gamer isn't too far off from the vocal minority that has banned together under the flag of #gamergate. This hashtag has brought out the worst in the gaming community. The reality is that they are few, but they can still make a lot of noise. #gamergate was originally started because of a journalist named Nathan Grayson at Kotaku. Word had got out that Grayson was in a relationship with a game developer named Zoe Quinn. Quinn has developed several games by herself, and had released them all for free on Steam. Grayson had never written any articles about her games, as it would have gone against Kotaku's policies of integrity. However, Quinn's ex had found out about the relationship and had written up a slanderous piece about the couple and had spread it across every forum that was available to him. This lead to a multitude of gamers calling for the heads of the "corrupt" journalists in the video game journalism industry. The backlash of this forum post was monumental. Zoe Quinn was the most hated person on the internet. Everything I mentioned that happened to Sarkeesian happened to Quinn tenfold. When Quinn went to the authorities to ask for help, her claims were dismissed. Most likely because all of her evidence came from Twitter, and that she couldn't place the names and locations of where these threats were coming from. While #gamergate has yet to hurt anyone, the threats to these peoples livelihoods is real.
Using various forums to meet, members of #gamergate had resolved to harass advertisers of particular gaming sites by making false claims that what the website was publishing was offensive. #gamergate sent hundreds of thousands of emails to stop advertisers from giving money to these sites, cutting off income from the people who work for these sites. This was a real act. This was not a threat. This was not just harassment. This was something that gamers had banned together to accomplish, and it worked. I'm sure that they felt pretty proud of themselves for eliminating an enemy in their sights.
This is the mentality of gamers. In most games, threats are dealt with through violence. If an enemy is killed, that is a good thing. One less thing to worry about. Gamers tend to see things in black and white, because that's how the stories usually go in video games. Save or harvest, paragon or renegade, good or evil, light side or dark side. Games too often provide players with binary choices with clear consequences. Slowly, subtly, this has warped the views of gamers. If something is bothering them, a gamer must take care of it with the means at its disposal. If someone is badmouthing a game of their childhood, they must be destroyed. If someone is threatening the status quo of gaming, they must be destroyed. If someone didn't touch on the gameplay element of a game in their review, they must be destroyed. #gamergate has gotten so out of control, that the slightest disturbance is worthy of their ire. It is a group of immature children that have figured out how to use twitter and email to harass and threaten those who have different opinions of them. Because in video games, if you're not for us, you must be against us. You're either on the red team, or you're on the blue team.
Life is not black and white. The stories of peoples circumstances are more than what is presented upon your first meeting. Video games are magical, and wonderful, but they are not a direct simulation of life. They're just fantasies. They are just something to be enjoyed, and when people in these communities are acting out like this, it is hard for me and many others to call themselves proud to be a gamer. It's bad enough that people who don't play games think gamers immature and childish, it's even worse when they think us violent and angry. #gamergate does not do anyone any service. The mentality of eliminating opposition due to a difference of opinion, diversity, or just because they aren't playing a video game as well as you are, is no way to live life. This is a deplorable facet of video games. It's become so common, that most of us have just accepted that it's just how things are in gaming communities.
But I say no. I say that we all should do our best to clean up the gaming communities. We can be just as loud as they are and shout a different message. One of kindness and love. I know that's really difficult when you're losing, but maybe we need to exercise some self control and step away for a while. Getting angry will only hurt yourself and others. Games are entertainment, and they are art, and if they leave us in a bad mood, perhaps we've spent a bit too much time with them. We all need to keep a positive attitude, and that can be just as infectious as a negative one. We need to encourage others and lift each other up. Leave comments on videos that are kind. Tweet out kindness. Don't build gates, build bridges. Make an open doorway into gaming. Because we love video games, don't we? We love to see our friends playing them and enjoying them. We should want to share our passions with others, not hoard them like some kind of dragon. Don't be a dragon. Dragons don't have friends. Also, people want to kill dragons and be rid of them. You want to be the hero, don't you? Slay dragons. Kill them with kindness. Be a positive change. Be a force for good. Be a force for kindness. Show love and compassion for those around you. Even if you don't know them, or have never seen their face. Show kindness.
