GUEST EDITORIAL by Buttermancer, The Webmaster of TheRalphRetort.com

I’m Buttermancer. Maybe you know me? More than likely not. I only have about 230 followers on Twitter, and the most famous one is a pornstar (Hi Mercedes Carrera! Love you!). Im more of a stage hand when it comes to GamerGate. I spend my time helping others when I can, shooting emails and retweeting content. Sometimes I throw stuff out there. Overall, I’m not as important as other people. I just like to help strengthen GamerGate in any way I can.

The first time TheRalph’s site went down, I jumped up to help him. It must be odd that some random stranger offered to help keep his site up. However here I am, still at it, and still not giving up. It’s some what of a thankless thing to do. I make no money off it, and have quickly become his personal tech support. I’ve also acted as as a tutor for some, and a web coder for others. However, I enjoy what I’m doing. My reasoning for supporting him is simple. I am for free speech and am a gamer for over 28 years. Both of which are under attack. I will continue to support my fellow gamers. For the few I meet in person, it was nice sitting down and having a drink with you all.

Working with him has been a rollercoaster ride. A few weeks ago, I spent my Saturday with my niece. We had a night of me teaching a 10 year old how to play Smash Bros on the Wii U. She was entranced by it. She would laugh and cheer for her newly bought Pikachu amiibo which she played 2v2 with. She asked if her friends could play, and I said yes. I was just happy my niece was having fun. It reminded me of what games meant to me as a child (and what they still mean to me now). I just wish that I had the chance to take her to a arcade like I would go to with my best friend, when I was her age.

The very next day, after a heartwarming night, things took a grim turn. The attacks on TheRalph’s site began again after the Sarah Butts article. Random DDoS attempts were happening, and my email inbox was flooded with ban reports from the server. I quickly jumped on, and attempted to remedy the situation. Flipping through the emails and clearing the alerts, I noticed some were from anonymous emails. Some of the subject lines included “Kill Yourself”, “Stop helping TheRalph asshole,” and “Watch your back.” It was depressing. My niece came back while I was under high stress. I let her play the Wii U again all day, while i worked to get his site back up again.

As you likely saw, a combination of the “Reddit Effect”, DDoS attacks, and attempts to login to the server, made things difficult. Quite honestly these happen quite a bit when something against the Anti side comes up. Even as of late with the Zoe article on the gag order, I’ve been getting threatening phone calls from Google voice. Realistically, there is nothing I can do about it. Look, I know I’m not the best server admin in the world. I’m more of a programmer by trade. I also take full responsibility of the site being down. However damn it, I’m not going to fucking give up. All I can guess, is these people are trying to come at me because they won’t break TheRalph. I have filed reports to the authorities, however I doubt anything will become of this.

Video Games helped me throughout my life. My first system I owned was a home pong machine. Form there “Miracle Warriors: Seal of the Dark Lord”, “Phantasy Star”, “Final Fantasy” and “Shadowgate” taught me how to read and progress my literacy beyond my grade level (granted my spelling and grammar are still garbage). “The Legend Of Zelda” took me away from a poor, broken household, and sent me away to a fantasy land. The soul eater rune from “Suikoden” is tattooed on me for remembrance of my first love, and “Suikoden 2” helped me cope with her death from a drunk driver. Even “Unreal Tournament” solidified me wanting to become a programmer. Hell, my pets are named after video game characters. I’m not trying to pull some sappy shit. However, the gamer identity is one that I grew up with. Yeah, was bullied for wearing a Sonic 2 shirt in school. I did chores a a child to be able to get a new game. I got good grades and was rewarded with a Sega Genesis. I dont need some some journalist telling me my hobby doesn’t belong to me any more. I helped make it through my own actions.

I’ve been entrenched with what’s going on since the burgers and fries event. Realistically who didn’t see this coming? We knew Anita would be profiting off of video game controversy since her unfinished Kickstarter, and don’t get me started with Brianna Wu’s pity party. Even now with the Nightline “report,” this is all just fuel for my fire. Everything that has happened this far to me, as well as to you all, fuels my fire. I have made a few friends throughout GamerGate, and despite the media shitting on us, I won’t give up. All we asked for was ethics. In return, we got a full culture war.

What does me writing this mean? Realistically nothing. I guess it’s more to vent my anger and frustrations. I lose time and money doing things for others, however knowing that my fellow “dead” gamers are here, I can’t help but to thank all of you. Where most people would just ignore what has happened, we took a stand. Everyday it pisses them off, because we’re still here, and they can’t fulfill their agenda until we’re gone. I’m not the most intelligent person, the best coder or admin, or even the best person to fact check things. Still, I am happy to support all of you.