One criticism that the antis LOVE to make is “What have YOU done in 12 months? You had us update some ethics so what?”

I mean the automatic comeback may well be “How is the audience for Progressive games? Plenty of buyers?”

But outside this tit for tat approach, let’s look at what they have and what we need to win.

They have the narrative, the IDGA, DIGRA, Gaming Press, IGF, IndieCade, Indie fund, and various conventions.

So that is a pretty big list and at first glance can seem a little overwhelming. But let’s go back to that question

“What have you guys done in the last 12 months?”

The answer is much more than meets the eye. We were fighting a stronger, more seasoned enemy with media that poisoned our wells from the outset and attacked our industry and fandom as they have many others before (last one being Atheist spaces). We were supposed to capitulate. So that in itself is something we have done. Making a community and culture is another. A sustainable culture that will be able to last another 12 months or another. That is huge. But there is something far more important. We are starting now to set up ourselves to actually win this. Not to just hold the line and the blockade, but to actually march over the top of the opposition.

So, how do we do this?

They have the narrative, the IDGA, DIGRA, Gaming Press, IGF, IndieCade, Indie fund, and various conventions.

Narrative: We will never completely wash out the stain of their narrative smearing. But we really do need to repair some damage caused.. If we can show enough things to cast reasonable doubt on the bullshit they created, that is what we need to do

I have already mentioned SPJ Airplay and some of my thoughts on this. I also mentioned some of the possible effects of Eron’s case.

One of the big things I did not mention is that If Eron takes it further and the court assesses or states that Zoe lied, misrepresented or fabricated any part of her affidavit, we win. She does not even need to be convicted of perjury (though this would be rather nice too).

The reason why we win is that for all the Progressive’s value of “feelings over facts”, and the public’s want to coddle their feeling based narrative, there is one place which is an authority on this. On which “truth” has validity. That is the courts. If the court says you perjured yourself, that perjury is not “subjective truth”, it is a lie, and no spin can free you from that.

IF this is proven then any time any Gamergate supporter has any opposition to anything related to Gamergate, and they raise any issue remotely associated with Zoe Quinn, the fact that she is dishonest opens up the door to the question “She lied to you about that, and you bought it lock, stock and barrel, what else did she lie to you about and why are you defending her?”

The impact this would have on the narrative is palpable. Other organisations trying to address Gamergate will have a harder time trying to reference her as a credible source for any accusations make. If this all comes to pass, she will be our “Jackie Coakley”

Of course this alone will not be enough but it is something substantial.

Gaming Press: What can I tell you that you do not already know as to why these people are bad? We need to make great use of Deepfreeze and Operation Disrespectful Nod. The perfect and complimentary combination of “trapping” the unethical journalists in the company that they work for (by exposing their unethical violations through Deepfreeze), fundraise for campaigns to drive up search engine rankings on Deepfreeze entries, so anyone searching theses unethical hacks or their comany names can know exactly what unethical hacks they are, THEN hit their company with Operation Disrespectful Nod. Once the advertisers pull out en masse, the companies will either close or downsize. The effect either way is that these hacks that are unethical and now unemployable anywhere else BUT the company they worked for, are punished when the company closes or downsizes.

I still say we should focus away from Gawker and hope that Hulk Hogan finishes them off and IF not him maybe Quentin Tarantino could refile his suit or whatever. I hope that instead of chasing down Gawker for another year and giving the other smaller sites breathing space, we should share the love and take more of them down instead.

If we do these things and at the same time support some of the brilliant alternative gaming media sites we have (That is right, visit these places and donate if you can) such as Techraptor, Nichegamer, GamesNosh, Christ Centred Gamer, Attack on Gaming, Adland and others. In the future these are to be where we get our among news from NOT the crap and corrupt sites.

IDGA: Is power without any doubt. They hold tremendous sway over the Gaming Industry. We need a counter and an alternative.

So what do we have? We have League for Gamers. Yes it is only just released and hardly a match for IDGA but everything starts somewhere, and we have it now. It is up to us to build this up and make it a legitimate counter and opposition to the IDGA. For people who dislike IDGA but do not see any viable alternatives, we need to make it viable and sustainable. Something that others can say “You know what this League looks like it can do far more for me than IDGA”

Big boots to fill but I think we can do it. We are awesome.

IGF and Indiecade: These are circle jerks and has been for a long time. They do not deserve an audience. I think that Based Gamer and the various Youtube personalities will provide a bit of a counter to this. A mixture of various Youtube playthroughs and good play based user scoring on Based Gamer (free of ideological tampering or cronyism), should provide a fairer and more positive alternative.

Indie Fund: I say that for now the existence of Kickstarter, IndieGogo and other crowdfunding campaigns, allows for a better alternative than any reliance or hope for being noticed by these people. A game you promote well enough to the Gamergate legions, should stand or fall on its own merits.

DiGRA: I always think of the Dharma Initiative from the Television series lost. It is the same kind of pseudo-intellectual identity politics masquerading as serious intellectual discussion. It is pretentious twaddle.

That said, they are a nebulous and enigmatic organisation with seemingly many fingers in many pies.

@Grimachu last I heard, was wishing to create an alternative to DIGRA. I have no idea how he plans to do this or what that may look like or what it entails but I am all for it.

Other conventions: Important, fun and a great way to meet people, discuss the industry and celebrate your part in it. These things as we saw from The Calgary expo, are very much aligned against us. (By the way, I hope the Honey Badgers kick their arses so hard that they will be wearing their arse cheeks as shoulder pads. I hope too that Calgary Expo gets onto The Mary Sue and says “We trusted what you said and based our decisions on what you published. It was bullshit, and now we have been sued successfully. Why would you do this?”)

That is okay. Don’t be mad. We don’t need them. Why? Because we have us. There is NOTHING stopping us from having more and more meet-ups, (like we have been having) and cement relationships, whilst also having Airplay-like conventions. In time maybe they WILL morph into these bigger conventions. But for now they are now simply an alternative that we can build up.

We have many varied defences and weapons with which to press forward. My hope is that those who are scared of the Social Justice Warrior Insurgents, and are feeling that the influence is of these crazy ideological zealots is more fearful than the benefit that they will get from Gamergate Supporters, will be convinced otherwise.

IF we can develop each of these things I mentioned here an importantly the networks and channels (the very infrastructure) connection and interrelating between them all, then we have a alternative that will eclipse and eventually overshadow the Social Justice Warriors and their toxic cabal

I am proud of you guys. We have this guys. We really do. We just need to dedicate the energy and enthusiasm we came to defend Gaming with 12 months ago. We have the tools and the direction, we just need the push now.

They really picked the wrong fight and we will win this we just need to consider what to do next.