Some people never learn, and GamesIndustry.biz editor-in-chief James Brightman is one of those people. He continues to peddle the “sexist, misogynist” “ism” buzzword nonsense that led to Donald Trump being elected President of the United States.

In a piece called “Video games Trump hate”, published on November 11th, 2016, Brightman continues to harangue about the importance of gaming evolving as a medium to cater to people who don’t play games and have no intentions of playing video games. He continues to condescend and misinform readers about things like #GamerGate and Brexit, using tired talking points that were disproven back in 2014.

Brightman writes…

“There’s a segment of the gaming population that takes that sentiment to mean that some developers want to take their games away, that one kind of game is coming at the expense of the traditional AAA shooter. “The same undercurrent in society that produced Gamergate, the alt-right movement, Brexit and now a Trump election (bigotry, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia, religious persecution, fear mongering, etc.) are what led to exclusionary thinking in the game-playing populace. “How dare you change my games?” they’ll say. But they aren’t “your” games; just because the industry has catered to the 18-34 white male audience over the last two decades doesn’t give you some special claim to the medium. Just like movies, books and TV, games are for everyone.”

There’s so much misinformation in that nonsense that I don’t even know where to begin. First of all, everything about #GamerGate can be summed up by seeing how corrupt Brightman’s peers are over on Deepfreeze.it. That’s always the best resource to give you an idea of what #GamerGate is about: outlining the corruption and illegal activity by games journalists.

People like Brightman would need resolve, intelligence and intestinal fortitude to address the issues raised on a site like Deepfreeze.it, which is precisely why he dishonestly deflects to the “isms” instead of acknowledging that those issues even exist.

It’s the same way in which PC Gamer dishonestly deflected to “#GamerGate is a harassment campaign, therefore we didn’t report on the corruption committed by our peers” during their AMA when they were asked about why they didn’t report on the corruption back in 2014 and 2015.

But what’s more, all this talk about “not taking away games” (which has proven to be a lie) isn’t about promoting alternative games, it’s about advocating censorship and promoting friends… the friends of the journalists.

When was the last time these outlets actually talked about alternative games like Lilly Looking Through? It was certainly never mentioned on GamesIndustry.biz, but there’s an entire Google page dedicated to GI.biz talking about Zoe Quinn and Depression Quest, which isn’t even a real game.

When was the last time GamesIndustry.biz talked about Neckbolt’s Belladonna? Or how about Bear With Me? Have they ever bothered interview Exordium Games? They sure did give a lot of press and continue to give a lot of press to Gone Home. More Google pages filled with results.

In fact, I can’t find one article on GamesIndustry.biz about Legend of Iya, which struggled to hit its Kickstarter goals due to a lack of media coverage.

So is Brightman and his staff ill-informed about the games they want on the market or are they misogynists? Do they just not like to write about games featuring women? Are they sexist against female protagonists? Or maybe because they haven’t written anything about the YouTube channel Games For Everybody they’re ableist? Is that it? Is that how this works? Someone doesn’t toe a line or say what you want and you get to call them an “ism” and denigrate their position no matter what they actually stand for?

Thankfully, this kind of exclusionary thinking was called out in the comment section and rightfully so. So many people, especially minorities and women, are tired of white beta males telling them that they need to fall in line with authoritarian thinking or they’re practicing an “ism” or they’re an “ist”.

A QA and translator who works in the gaming industry, Shehzaan Abdulla, says what a lot of people have been thinking or trying to say but have either been censored or prohibited from doing so on most media websites, writing in the comment section…

“Trump won was precisely because those wanting to stop him getting in haven’t done exactly that. […] “Instead, they’ve won a cultural war (i.e. become the dominant train of visible thought out there) by simply beating people into silence if they offer another opinion or perspective through a witch-hunt mentality that favours vilification over communication.” […] “What is your goal in any of your ‘political engagement’? Is it to effect some hollow moral victory? Or to actually effect change? Because if it’s the latter you can no longer afford the complacency of not caring what others (i.e. people not in your political circle) think. Not when you are actively putting people in danger by doing so.

The thing is, factually #GamerGate was used by a majority of Libertarian Leftists. This is according to a polling survey conducted by Brad Glasgow in a piece published on August 21st, 2016 at Allthink called “No, GamerGate is Not Right Wing”.

People like Brightman and sites like GamesIndustry.biz or PC Gamer or Kotaku or Polygon won’t let the facts or the humans representing those numbers affect their ideology. Behind each click, behind each comment, behind each expression of anguish at the corruption in today’s media circles, the only thing people like Brightman see is the enemy.

Brightman and his ilk have dehumanized people who disagree with them and have done so to their own detriment. Gamers can no longer go to sites like GamesIndustry.biz to get informed about a diverse variety of games, they can only go there to be preached down to by a pundit on a political podium.

In result of this “with us or against us” mentality, peddled by cultural aggravators wearing fedoras that are sometimes used to mask vile intentions, many gamers are starting to see through the facade and realize that these outlets represent views and agendas borne of exclusionism. Simply put, they’ve become video game websites that gamers hate.

(Main image courtesy of Rebrn)