Ok, a lot of people seem to be really confused when I say that #Gamergate is the result of a buildup of distrust between game industry media and gamers. People will scoff and say "Yeah, right! This is all just misogyny!"

Frankly, I think that the misogyny view is ridiculously shallow. I just don't understand how anyone can actually believe that thousands upon thousands of people would be this up in arms about women being in the industry. If that were even the case, why did this outrage not happen in 2013, when the ESA published their findings regarding video game demographics?

https://www.theesa.com/facts/pdfs/ESA_EF_2013.pdf

The 48% of gamers being women is also a bit of a fallacious statement, but we'll get to that later.

First, let's talk about the history of gaming media, and how all this distrust came about in the first place. Let's talk about Doritogate.

What was Doritogate? Well, I actually had to do some research myself on the issue. Doritogate was a controversy surrounding (almost literally) Geoff Keighley, a video game journalist. The controversy was sparked by a video in which Geoff interviewed Austin Griffith, LevelSave.com's Xbox 360 Editor. The content of what was said is largely irrelevant, but what was relevant was the content of the video itself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rbU0mzoMyw (note the approval rating)

The ludicrous product placement regarding Doritos and Mountain Dew sparked Rab Florence, a Eurogamer writer, to write an article. In it, he says:

"Geoff Keighley is often described as an industry leader. A games expert. He is one of the most prominent games journalists in the world. And there he sits, right there, beside a table of snacks. He will be sitting there forever, in our minds."

I feel like this is important to point out. When the "industry leader" is performing such blatant product placement, it becomes hard to take gaming journalism very seriously. But Rab doesn't stop there. He goes on, and he writes something that might be very eye-opening to those who think this is a recent issue.

"I want to make a confession. I stalk games journalists. It's something I've always done. I keep an eye on people. I have a mental list of games journos who are the very worst of the bunch. The ones who are at every PR launch event, the ones who tweet about all the freebies they get. I am fascinated by them. I won't name them here, because it's a horrible thing to do, but I'm sure some of you will know who they are. I'm fascinated by these creatures because they are living one of the most strange existences - they are playing at being a thing that they don't understand. And if they don't understand it, how can they love it? And if they don't love it, why are they playing at being it?"

Why, indeed?

Doritogate went on when a complaint from one of the journalists whom Rab cited tweets of in his article resulted in those tweets being removed from the article.

"Following receipt of a complaint from Lauren Wainwright, Eurogamer has removed part of the article Lost Humanity 18." - Eurogamer

The passage in question of the original article is as follows:

"One games journalist, Lauren Wainwright, tweeted: "Urm... Trion were giving away PS3s to journalists at the GMAs. Not sure why that's a bad thing?"

Now, a few tweets earlier, she also tweeted this: "Lara header, two TR pix in the gallery and a very subtle TR background. #obsessed @tombraider pic.twitter.com/VOWDSavZ"

And instantly I am suspicious. I am suspicious of this journalist's apparent love for Tomb Raider. I am asking myself whether she's in the pocket of the Tomb Raider PR team. I'm sure she isn't, but the doubt is there. After all, she sees nothing wrong with journalists promoting a game to win a PS3, right?

Another journalist, one of the winners of the PS3 competition, tweeted this at disgusted RPS writer John Walker: "It was a hashtag, not an advert. Get off the pedestal." Now, this was Dave Cook, a guy I've met before. A good guy, as far as I could tell. But I don't believe for one second that Dave doesn't understand that in this time of social media madness a hashtag is just as powerful as an advert. Either he's on the defensive or he doesn't get what being a journalist is actually about."

http://neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=43585928&postcount=48 (Full, unedited article)

Rab left Eurogamer the same day.

"Also, don't blame Eurogamer for this. The threat of legal action brings unbelievable pressure. I am clear on who the bad guys are in this.

— Mr Nyarlathostep (@robertflorence) 25 oktober 2012 "

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbjaiZVVo00

Several gaming sites decried the threat of legal action against Rab's article, but interestingly enough, one gaming "blog" didn't:

Kotaku.

https://archive.today/B5whW

Now at the time Kotaku already had a sort of bad reputation as a site that had biased reviews to profit from ad revenue. It's important we talk about Kotaku now, because they are the next step to understanding the ire of #Gamergate. We are now moving away from Doritogate and to the general distrust of gamers towards the increasing push of PC and social justice clickbait, to which Stephen Totilo himself admits!

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1r5qhn/i_am_the_editorinchief_of_kotaku_ama_about_ps4/cdjxygt

So I want through some archived Kotaku articles. I found various examples of social justice and PC clickbait, along with barely gaming-related clickbait from Kotaku. I think you'll also find some interesting connections to what they were saying years ago and what is being said now in a couple of them.

Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is

https://archive.today/DJZVp

Why Were There No Women Presenters At The PlayStation 4 Event?

https://archive.today/tIzos

Game Developers Really Need To Stop Letting Teenage Boys Design Their Characters

https://archive.today/AEtyO

The Real Problem With That Controversial, Sexy Video Game Sorceress [UPDATE]

https://archive.today/wBtqa

Idiots Fight To Keep A Medieval Game White

https://archive.today/FmF5J

How Diablo III Told Me My Marriage Was Over

https://archive.today/cWjdj

Nobody Wins When Horror Games Stigmatize Mental Illness

https://archive.today/d1lzl

Is Gamer A Dirty Word?

https://archive.today/VoJvC

Nerds and Male Privilege

https://archive.today/RsSbE

Three Words I Said to the Man I Defeated in Gears of War That I'll Never Say Again

https://archive.today/QU3QH

Oh, and let's not forget one thing in particular to those claiming that this forcing of PC issues is having no impact at all on gaming:

An Informed Expert Speaks Out On RE5 Racism (UPDATE)

https://archive.today/pwa1c

Capcom Promises: No More Racist Games!

https://archive.today/qozjt

God help any game developer that intends to create a zombie game and sets it in Africa.

But the true irony?

Oh holy shit you will never believe this one.

Insensitive Jerkwad Connects Stabbings with Japanese Geek Culture

https://archive.today/FdaUM

Yes. You heard that right. Thank god we aren't blaming American Geek Culture for bomb threats, misogyny and other awful things, eh Kotaku? I mean, that would be really hypocritical, no? No one has actually DIED yet, but Gamers sure are disgusting, awful people!

But that's just Kotaku. Let's look at Polygon!

There were more severed heads than women presenters at E3 2014

https://archive.today/pxOP3

(Review) "Dragon's Crown is an unapologetic adolescent fantasy"

https://archive.today/A8Wx4

(Review)"Tropico 5 made me feel powerful in the worst way"

https://archive.today/wGUwz

And the list goes on. Frankly, as a white male, some of these articles are just outright insulting. Some of them are barely related to gaming. The Polygon reviews in particular are so insanely dishonest as well. Tropico 5 made you feel bad because you were a dictator? No shit? Dragon's Crown loses points because tits and ass? What the fuck? Why would I care about that? All I want to know, as a gamer, is if the game is good. If the gameplay is fun.

You know what's insanely pathetic regarding this?

https://www.christcenteredgamer.com/

"ChristCenteredGamer.com is a Christian game review site. We are not limited to Christian games, our main focus is on secular games and their content."

What's this? A Christian website? I can't wait to go read their Dragon's Crown review and see them bash it because it is too lustful or some other garbage. They must be just like Polygon in this regard, no?

https://www.christcenteredgamer.com/index.php/reviews/47-handhelds/vita/5582-dragon-s-crown-vita

"Game Score - 88%

Gameplay - 18/20

Graphics - 8/10

Sound - 8/10

Stability - 5/5

Controls - 5/5

Morality Score - 64%%

Violence - 6/10

Language - 10/10

Sexual Content - 2.5/10

Occult/Supernatural - 3.5/10

Cultural/Moral/Ethical - 10/10"

Literally: Jesus Christ. They actually manage to separate their views as Christians from their attempt at reviewing the game in an objective manner. Just for that, Christ Centered Gamer is already a far, FAR superior website than Polygon, and they are much more honest than any of the mainstream gaming media sites. More recently, it's interesting to see the two websites review Bayonetta 2:

http://i.imgur.com/lXzLHB4.png

But this is beside the point. Let's get back to the time before #Gamergate. We're still building up to #Gamergate, and we've touched on Doritogate and how the influx of Social Justice in gaming media is harming the honesty and integrity of some game media websites.

Next comes a controversy that I hold very dear to my heart. The Mass Effect 3 controversy.

As someone who was directly involved in this controversy, I feel like this is my chance to finally lash out at those who rubbed salt in the wound. So what happened?

For those of you who never played the Mass Effect series, it's a series where in each game you make choices. These choices can carry over to the following games and have an impact in those games. Mass Effect was a really valuable series for me and one that helped me realise I wanted to create my own world and my own story- but that was only after what happened with ME3.

You see, the day ME3 was released, all hell broke loose. The game's ending was considered by many to be one of the worst endings in the history of gaming. To be honest, it IS the worst ending in the history of gaming in my eyes not just because of what it is, but because of what it isn't. All of the choices you made up until that point in the series: Irrelevant. Pointless. Useless.

You can imagine that people were angry. Very, very fucking angry. Rightfully so! Because Bioware LIED to people about not JUST the ending, but countless other things regarding the game.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/995487-mass-effect-3/62267857

So what happened? Well, Bioware and the rest of the gaming media had the gall to call its own consumers entitled, and how they were going against Bioware's "artistic integrity".

Charitable Donations Don't Give you the Right to Ask For Changes to Mass Effect 3 [Update]

https://archive.today/bVg4h

Protecting Creative Risk And Integrity: Why Mass Effect 3's Ending Should Never Be Changed

https://archive.today/RjlDM

Why Mass Effect 3's Ending Doesn't Need Changing (SPOILERS)

https://archive.today/IyAOi

Why BioWare Shouldn't Change Mass Effect 3's Ending

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/why-bioware-shouldnt-change-mass-effect-3s-ending/1100-6366066/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqgRP5_YKu0

This Youtube video in particular... I'm going to go off on a tangent here to say something that I've wanted to say for two years.

FUCK. YOU. COLIN MORIARTY.

You are the most ignorant piece of shit I've ever had the displeasure to see leaning back on his revolving office chair. Your argument basically boils down to "Oh but other games have bad endings too!"

First of all, that doesn't mean we shouldn't fucking complain about the god damn ending. Secondly, that's a FALSE EQUIVALENCY. Resistance 3 doesn't import data from Resistance 1 and 2. It doesn't promise a good ending, or a culmination to everything that you've personally chosen to do. The developers DIDNT FUCKING BLATANTLY LIE IN YOUR FUCKING FACE ABOUT IT.

But you defend them. You say it's Karpyshyn's vision (WHICH IT FUCKING WASN'T BECAUSE HE WASNT EVEN A WRITER FOR ME3), yet, in fact, Karpyshyn had a VERY different view of the goals of the Reapers and how the series would have ended. But you don't know this because all you do is swivel around your office chair dragging your ass and pretending you're speaking from some high ground, above the opinions of the consumers. You want to know the reality, Colin? We ARE entitled. We are entitled to express our opinions and tell you why you have no fucking idea what it is you're talking about. We have every right to tell Bioware they made a garbage decision. WE are the consumers. WE are the ones who care about the story and the depth of the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dos50mhB1qs

If WE decide to boycott or complain, you had better fucking listen, because sooner or later that office chair is going to break and you're not going to have the money to buy a new one.

I'll borrow MundaneMatt's words to summarize how I feel about you and your stupid fucking anti-consumer opinions:

http://youtu.be/XoLCCyEQ1Gw?t=3m6s

So yeah, that did not sit well with a lot of gamers. What shocked most was that Forbes' Erik Kain was the only one gamers could actually go to. Someone who wasn't actively part of the gaming media was representing gamers and the people who loved the Mass Effect series better than anyone in the gaming media.

The controversy ultimately died down after Bioware announced a DLC, but the damage had already been done. The games media had proven yet again they have no idea what the community likes. They had proven yet again they don't understand the games they play, and why it's ridiculous for Bioware to defend their ending by claiming it's their "artistic integrity" when anyone who analyzes the series realizes that the ending was in no way consistent with the rest of the themes or artistic elements of the rest of the series and was quite obviously rushed with little to no thought. Gaming media was, quite frankly, pathetically disconnected.

Moving on, we're going to be talking about David Jaffe's Twisted Metal and a Kotaku piece that slandered him and called him a misogynist.

Does David Jaffe Really Recommend His New Game as A Sexual Aid?

https://archive.today/yz461

On a calm day on February 7th, 2012, Kate Cox released this article regarding David Jaffe, wherein she claimed some of his statements regarding the game as misogynistic, even though Jaffe himself confronted people on Twitter about it. This is another example of the increasing push for "PC" in gaming culture, where Jaffe is demonized for his sexual comments in promoting Twisted Metal. Of course, he was dogpiled by the games media after the article, and eventually David decided to take matters into his own hands.

https://soundcloud.com/ben-kuchera/jaffe-confrontation

Needless to say, animosity was very much present and no one came out of this very happy.

On the subject of these controversies, it's also important to underline another increasing worry in the gaming media: the importance of reviews in regards to advertisements and, ultimately, moolah. The Kane and Lynch controversy is a prime example of how current games media has become untrustworthy.

http://www.gamespot.com/reviews/kane-and-lynch-dead-men-review/1900-6182836/

A 6/10 review by Gamespot resulted in the firing of Jeff Gerstmann. Why, you ask? Well, the site had been boasting lots of ads regarding Kane & Lynch. Gamespot, of course, denied that Eidos threatening to pull their advertisements as a result of this review had any role to play in this!

Oh wait. They did. Jeff Gerstmann said later that this was EXACTLY the reason as to why he was fired. So now, we know games media will fire people for bad reviews in fear of losing ad revenue. You know who loses the most from all of this? Not Gamespot. Not Jeff. But us. The consumers. Now we KNOW that we cannot trust games media to give us good, unbiased reviews.

So let's get to the juicy part of the history, where we now delve into what will be the foundations for the accusations of misogyny in the games industry and the gaming community. That's right, full speed ahead, we're talking about Anita Sarkeesian.

But before that, let me tell you a story about political correctness and a game critic whom EVERYONE in gaming hated. A certain Jack Thompson.

Who was Jack Thompson? Simple, Jack was a man who criticized videogames. He believed videogames were indoctrination machines that made people who played them turn into muderhappy, violent monsters. Sadly for Jack Thompson, despite the fact that people literally made a game where you would beat the shit out of him, his claims were unfounded and dismantled by the gaming community, the gaming media, the games industry and even researchers who PROVED there was no link between acts of violence and videogames.

What's important to note is that games media, at the time, was still very much connected with the gaming community. Gaming was still not something huge, though it was rapidly gaining momentum. Games media was, at the time, a friend of the community. An ally that helped us fight against the angry soccer moms (and soccer dad) who wanted to censor our games because of their content. Rejoice!

But it's been a long time since 1997, and it looks like now gaming has another crazy critic that is intent in pushing the "PC" agenda that gamers had already defeated in the past. Anita Sarkeesian, known as the woman behind Feminist Frequency (even though the real person behind Feminist Frequency is a man, but nevermind that). People will definitely scoff at this, but the parallels are honestly there in black and white. Anita makes various claims in her Youtube video series that videogames influence gamers to view women in a sexist way. She claims they perpetuate "rape culture" (pffttpfp) and other such nonsense without citing any real research, stealing content from let's players and cherrypicking "evidence". The fact of the matter is this: She's Jack Thompson, female edition.

Yet there is a twist this time. This time, the games media is NOT on the side of the consumers. It doesn't defend the opinions of the people, but rather defends Anita's accusations and claims in regards to gaming. And now, when people express outrage at her manipulation of information and sometimes outright lies, they are branded as misogynists and are suddenly "proof" that gamers are sexist. You cannot criticize these people.

You want to know the harsh truth? Jack Thompson got death threats. Jack Thompson was harassed. Jack Thompson was HATED. Why? Because the gaming community felt attacked, scared that their games would be infected with an agenda. So what did Jack Thompson do? He said that these actions PROVED his accusations.

Anita got threats. The games community felt attacked, scared that their games would be infected with an agenda. What did Anita do? Say that this proved her actions.

I said at the start of this post that I would be talking about the ESA report's statistic regarding women being 48% of videogame players. Well, now is the time to bring it up. The statistic is unrepresentative of the core gaming demographic. As a whole, yes, gaming is made up of 48% of women, if you consider anyone who plays any game for any amount of time as a gamer. However, if you look at demographics, you will see that gamers are separated into various groups: Casual, Mid-Core and Core. Game devs will often tell you that the most profitable of these three groups is the Core group, which on average spends 20% more money on games than the other groups. They also play far more games than the other two groups. So who is this demographic mainly representative of? Males.

I've seen various statistics regarding this, ranging from 75~90% of the core gaming demographic being predominantly male. Proponents of social justice and others who oppose Gamergate don't understand that this hobby has ALWAYS been predominantly male, but what is worrisome is that they think this needs changing. What is scary is that they actually believe that gaming must be equally representative of men AND women.

Let me tell you something, if gaming has not changed in 30 years, even after a market crash that was saved by Nintendo who marketed their console as a unisex TOY, gaming will not change. It has nothing to do with sexism. It has everything to do that men and women are just different and like different things at different capacities. This is why you don't see any women in the LCS or in DotA or Counter Strike and so on. I think that gaming can still make more space for women as it grows larger and perhaps more socially acceptable, but when it does, the market will still be predominantly male. The females who enjoy and buy videogames would not be a major part of this industry if they didn't love games as much as any man. We are united by our love of games, and the attempts to divide the community have only brought us closer together under the banner of #Gamergate

Which brings me, ultimately, to TheZoePost. We all know the story, for the most part, but let me reiterate it for those who missed it.

Eron Gjoni, a disgruntled ex-boyfriend of Zoe Quinn, comes out and posts information that incriminates Nathan Grayson (and a bunch of other people) as having had a relationship with Zoe and giving her game positive reviews. Mundane Matt makes a video discussing this. The video gets DMCA'd. Totalbiscuit comments on the situation. The Reddit thread with 25k replies is purged. The Streisand Effect explodes out of control when even 4chan starts censoring this discussion. Make no mistake: this is the direct result of censorship. Every attempt to silence this discussion has caused more people to take notice and express their interest and anger at the situation.

Kotaku then says that the review never happened, but yet again, it turns out that Nathan DID praise and advertise Zoe's game- a day before their relationship, as if that would fucking change anything. Ultimately, however, this grew beyond Zoe and the 5 guys incident very quickly. It became much bigger, because gamers realised that this was their opportunity to fight back against gaming media, which had betrayed the gaming community up to that point.

With this much history, to claim that this is a misogynistic hate campaign by thousands upon thousands of gamers is probably the most pathetic and shallow analysis of any situation I have ever borne witness to.

It does ultimately all boil down to a growing disenfranchisement from gaming media and the videogame community. We're tired of being called entitled. We're tired of the gaming media's constant holier-than-thou tone towards the community. We're tired of our media not respecting us as not only consumers, but as people.

And that's why #Gamergate exists. Because this is not a movement. This is a full-on consumer revolt. We are done with gaming journalism. It has outlived its usage in the community and it has not justified its presence for years on end now. These sites are not only not representative of gamers, but they have created so much animosity between themselves and the widespread culture that this is now where we stand.

We would rather bask in the glory that is Youtube and streaming than listen to your out-dated thoughts about why we have no right to complain about games or gaming. You have, frankly, held gaming back for long enough. We are going to continue this consumer revolt until you acknowledge, change and justify your existence in OUR hobby, because it is not our culture that must change. It is you.

And you'd better choose fast. Your advertisers sure are.

http://ldssmile.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/3779149-no+you+move+cap+says.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8KQmps-Sog