There is a good chance now that if you are a regular user of the Internet, you have come across the term GamerGate. There are plenty of pieces about GamerGate available ranging in approaches, from condemning the ‘movement’ as the internet’s ISIS to praising it as the second coming of Christ. Finding out what is true about GamerGate and what is not feels like an almost impossible mission. Something which I have attempted to do.

A little about myself for full disclosure. I am a Gamer, I was playing video games such as Total Anhilation before I reached my tenth birthday, the first thing I ever saved for was a Pocket Gameboy. It took me 25 weeks to aquire the £50 it cost at the time. I moved into consoles, eventually managing to convince my parents into buying me an Xbox, at the time an expensive expenditure for my parents. Over time I moved back into Pc gaming especially with the launch of World of Warcraft. A game which I’m sure everyone is familiar with. I’ve never really stopped playing games but I did stop reading reviews and gaming journalism in general. So I was undoutably late to the party on GamerGate, in fact I don’t really care about ‘Ethic in Journalism’.

Apart from being a Gamer the other identifying tag which you could apply to me is Atheist. Funnily it was my Atheism which led me to GamerGate. Some of you may remember the storm of hastily written click bait articles about Richard Dawkins views on abortions regarding Down Syndrome. It was this which finally lead to me joining twitter, a site I had long resisted. I began my adventure on Twitter by following several people who I felt were Insightful/funny.

Not long after I joined twitter, Richard Dawkins tweeted a video made by a woman called Christina Sommers about video games and sexism. The video to me seemed factual and well presented so I decided I may as well follow the creator on Twitter. Soon mentions of GamerGate began to pop up. My curiosity was sparked. I had no idea what GamerGate was so I decided to look it up.

Of course the first thing I came across was Wikipedia. I was born into an Atheist family, but I would like to think that over time I have become a skeptic. It was that Skepticism that told me something was wrong with the Wikipedia page on GamerGate. Why would anyone support this idea if it was so hateful, many of the tweets I had seen, seemed to come from reasonable people.

Although the Wiki page told me very little, it did give me places to search for more information. Feminist Frequency and more significantly Anita Sarkeesian. I watched her videos and at first the message of her videos rang true with me. Fortunately a niggling part of my brain wanted some proof, after watching more I realised she had very little to offer. This lead me to watch several response videos. Whilst I felt some of them contained too much ire towards her, they seemed a lot more accurate. I realised that C H Sommers video had been tackling some of the points made in Anita’s videos as well.

The next thing I did was return to Twitter. I read through tweets from Pro GGers and Anti. I’m not sure how exactly but I then came across the reddit /KiA. I’m not a user of reddit either so this was new territory for me as well. Already I was beginning to feel myself siding with the Pro GGs. Generally they seemed more informed and less prone to using, creationist style arguments. Not excluded from this however. Looking back Reddit sealed the deal for me.

I had heard and read many people telling their audiences how GamerGate was a movement of Misogyny and Harassment which masqueraded under the banner of ‘Ethic in Gaming’. The various topics on KiA told me differently. They (the gaming media) were hiding a concern for Ethics in Gaming media under Misogyny and harassment. The most impressive thing, in my opinion, about GamerGaters is they don’t try to get you on their side. The majority of topics were stating facts then leaving them with you with a “You decide what this means” attitude. There opposition on the other hand was trying everything to convince you that GamerGate was bad and if you support it you are wrong and evil.

So if you aren’t sure what to believe on this subject, my honest opinion is go to /KotakuinAction and look through the topics for “the facts of gamergate” or just ask someone to provide you the links if you are unwilling to look.

I’ve been hesitant on taking a side on this issue, largely because it really doesn’t concern me. I don’t visit Game Journalist sites nor do I believe Sarkeesian will stop great games from being made on the ground of sexism. But also because all I would be adding is a single, quiet, voice.

“One whisper, added to a thousand others, becomes a roar of discontent”

Remember this if you are like me. Afraid or uninterested in speaking up for what you think to be true. For those who have been doing this for months now.

You are not silent, slowly your message is seeping out. Well done.