#GamerGate The future of video games is not Kim Kardassian's Hollywood.

I see some bad morale over the latest ratfuckings (See definition here http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sjdn0d ). That's to be expected. That's what ratfucking does. While it's a tactic only bad people use, it is very effective in political campaigns. In fact, lot's of things #GamerGate 's opposition does are really effective in political campaigns. For example, going on Nightline or MSNBC and smearing us, or getting a famous, wealthy, powerful Hollywood mogul to denounce us as "Klan Day Care."



I don't like the chances of the presidential candidate we've put up....



Oh, wait a minute, I think they're confused. This isn't a presidential campaign, this is a consumer insurgency. This isn't about votes, this is about money. Specifically, about extracting money from the game consuming public.



Now, where you should really be looking is not at flashy stuff like Anita Sarkeesian on Nightline. Anita Sarkeesian is very good at convincing people who hate video games and gamers that video games and gamers are bad.



Surprisingly, this is a highly marketable skill.



Titus Oates used it to become a very effective political figure in 18th century Britain (although in his case it was convincing people who already hated Catholics that Catholics were up to no good). But really, the evening newz was just as happy to have Jack Thompson on to denounce us. Because, you know, they go into most gaming stories with, "How do we convince our viewers that gamers like to eat babies?" (Aside: aGG hasn't used Fox Newz despite a plethora of Fox branded "baby eating gamers" stories over the years because they've convinced themselves that this is a political campaign. That's just funny to me.)



#GamerGate is interesting because we often over estimate our own power. Then weirdly, we also underestimate it. We're impatient for loud, flashy wins when what we're really after is systemic change. But what's the systemic change aGG wants?



A future of gaming where Kim Kardasshian's Hollywood and Twine angst fests written by hipsters win game of the year over what I'm going to refer to by the term of art "real games." Really, do you see any future in that? Because I don't see any future in that. (Oh, and censorship of games they don't like, which ends up being remarkably similar to the games censorship we've been dealing with since Nintendo first planted their flag on the smoldering wreckage of the previous console industry. Yes we have to fight it, but no these people aren't different in any important way than Leland Yee or Joseph Lieberman. We're different now though, because we have a Supreme Court decision on our side.)

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