Ever since the word ‘Video Gamer’ has entered the public domain, for some reason people felt threatened by these people who sometimes do nothing than play them or mess around with games between hard work days. Maybe it’s because they wanted to be us, maybe it’s living an easier life — the exact reasons seem to escape me. Even at a decade when D&D players were accused of Satanic worship (I don’t know the struggle, but I did see the Dexter’s Lab episode on it), Gamers were left alone. We, as a nation, should have learned lessons from the disastrous legacy of the Comics Code Authority and how it has put the comic industry back many decades. However because we can we make mountains out of molehills. In this case, social justice warriors made it happen faster.

In 1993, games were released or being discovered that set in motion a chain reaction which lead to the first real PR crisis for the infant industry — The Lieberman\Kohl Senate Joint Hearings on Video Game Violence. Nintendo had sanitized the SNES version of Mortal Kombat, and that led to being shellacked in the holiday sales figures by Sega with the un-sanitized Genesis version. If you believe industry legend it was Howard Lincoln — then a VP of NOA — who got the ball rolling by paying a visit to Lieberman, but this has been proven to be false. In the end, Nintendo did turn out to the big winner of the hearings although it was Sega that came up with the idea that would lead to the formation of the ESRB, which turned 20 this summer. Lincoln was rewarded with a promotion to chairman of NOA, and his first order of business? Dropping the Purell and releasing MK2 in its raw form.

It would be six more years before the PR lessons learned would be put to the test. After the Columbine horror and various other big deal school shootings another panic was spreading. Matters were made worse when Kliebold and Harris’s fanatic obcessiom of Doom was made public knowledge. The gaming industry was deemed down for the count when Sam Brownback convened the Sentate hearing that would ask the question of whether behavior exhibited when playing games could translate to real life. The opponents brought their a-game — but so did Doug Lowenstein and the ESA. When it was determined that the ESRB ratings were doing their job, the hearing ended quickly. A year later Jack Thompson began his eight-year crusade, which caused a great deal of headaches. Gamers and the gaming press attacked Thomson’s points head on, and he was made a laughingstock in quick succession. This victory preserved the legitimacy of gamers for another six years. And now we have come to this.

The gaming press had the time after the skirmish with Thompson ended to be assimilated by a group of people who were exactly like the man they just fought. But unlike Thompson, they attack in the shadows, away from the eyes of the public. These self-proclaimed intellectuals, armed with a latte on one hand and a gender studies degree on the other, told the press that they needed to be more ‘inclusive’ if games are to survive. They provided sketchy evidence on how games that feature strong female leads are a male power fantasy and that is bad for the image of gamers. Without even thinking of the long term risks the gaming press bought into these fresh new minds with bold ideas. But they kept it secret and the business of loving games resumed. Then Gerstmanngate and Doritosgate happened.

The man behind the curtain was revealed. However the gamers did not pursue the matter further after the parties involved made quick and sincere apologies. But all this had done was buy the gaming press time. Time they apparently squandered.

Now the Gamers are seeing the man under the curtain again, and rather than look themselves in the mirror the gaming press chose to defend their new friends to whom they believed gamers owed their new found legitimacy. Gamer called BS to that motion so the press met in secret to try to figure out ways to extinguish the fire. These communications into an effort that ended out badly would be exposed by someone who they think would be their ally — a gay Brit with cap and pipe at the ready. (Yes, I am a black liberal and I am directing you to a Breitbart article. No, I have not lost my mind.)

Now that I have explained GamerGate and the reasons that lead to in just 5 and a quarter paragraphs I may wanna get to my point. And it is this — Gamers ALREADY know that games are not the root cause of everything bad in the world, just as every facet of geek culture never is. There had been numerous studies and commissions that say so, and the latest one proves what we have been saying for 30+ years. A Stetson University study compared violent media and every mass murder in the US from 1920 to 2005. And surprise surprise, they concluded that violent media equaled less murders, not more. The study also provides the icing on the birthday cake for the ESRB — it has been shown that the ratings from the time they have been conceived to 2011 have been doing what they were designed to do. So now with this argument in the can, the SJWs and the gaming press tried a new tact — misogyny.

The gaming press decided to let a trio of rainbow haired conwomen and pro victims to make the case their all gamers are women haters. Gamers were quick to say ‘No we’re not! We’re the most diverse community ever!’ Faced with almost the same resistance Dawkins gave Rebecca Watson and the Atheism+ cabal this group now asked the gaming press to join them in doing the same thing Watson did — play dirty. And oh, they were deep down in the mud, slinging it at gamers like some negative political ads. People were threatened, sent dirty needles and knives in the mail, and some were even fired from their jobs because of relentless doxxing on both sides. GamerGate has dragged on for going on four months next Saturday, and smart money says the New Year is when we see the endgame. In comparison, eleven anti GamerGate hashtags were made, but have lost steam in under 4–8 days. This should be enough for the gaming press to rethink their relationship with the SJWs and their defenders. Yet they are defending them still. Maybe it’s about time for that look in the mirror.

Here is where I stand. I am an advocate for a game developer’s artistic creativity. I am an advocate to save the great title of gamer from posers and nobodies. I am an advocate of NotYourShield because I refuse to be a weapon for the posers and nobodies. I know who I play. I know what I do in real life. And let me tell you, it’s not what the posers and nobodies say I am.

If you don’t obsolete yourself, someone else will. ~Al Alcorn