Having been watching GamerGate unfold for the last few months, and watching the hostilities continue among the two side, I can only shake my head. While I am human, and therefore have a side that I associate more heavily towards, as would any who have put proper investigation into the movement, I would hope to maintain as neutral a stance as I can in regards to what I believe must be said, and that is this: The opposition does not consist of the most vile parts of humanity. They are not all trolls, or ghost accounts, or those having an agenda, or any negative term. while these can certainly exist, they are mainly those who truly believe that their movement is necessary and are willing to put themselves through abuse to fight for their cause.

I often feel that this is lost in arguments over the subject of GamerGate. Though it is certainly easy to see your adversary as a mindless drone that exists to attack your beliefs and nothing else, they are just as passionate of their cause as you are of yours. The only problem is that the two sides are so concerned over insulting the other’s movement to the point that they are only spreading hate and not the message of what their movements want.

#GamerGate is About Ethics and Journalistic Integrity

#Gamergate’s creation is oftentimes the source of contention among the two sides. Having been created from the reveal of a female game designer’s alleged affair with 5 men, some of which holding positions at prominent games media websites, Many gamers found concern about the lack of ethics in their favorite hobby’s journalism. Though Gamergate was born from this alleged affair, it is no longer the focus. The focus moved away from that when all possible evidence linking it to corrupt journalism was discovered. Following this discovery, a number of large websites released articles all within the same day saying the same thing: that gamers were all misogynistic, white, cis-males who spread hate throughout their medium.

As time went on more evidence continued to reveal itself revealing the corruption that gamers feared. #Gamergate was then made to express the disapproval and desire for change by those who stand under it’s banner

The Social Justice Warriors (or whatever name preferred) are about the treatment of women in the Gaming industry

The heading is a little misleading in that the “Social Justice Warriors” have existed in various forms for a long time. However in regards to GamerGate they act as a force that serves to fight for the rights of women in the industry. Seeing apparent moments of harassment, those who associate among this group fight for others. Ultimately seemingly a quite noble goal.

Why Do These Sides fight?

If you notice, the fundamental principles of either side don’t really form a proper dichotomy. They are both fighting for seemingly completely different reasons. One for equality and the other for ethics, and yet these two sides are constantly at each others throats. When you get down to the finer level of things though, points start to align. Going back to the nature of #GamerGate being born from a supposed affair, this supplied ample ammunition for gaming media to throw insults of misogyny and harassment, which were created out of the overzealous and possible extreme trolling of some users. this was then picked up by the SJWs who began to fight GamerGate over these false issues while those on the side of GamerGate saw them as pawns of the game media. All the while, a strong part of the heat was taken off the real offenders, the media and those involved in its corruption, while these two noble sides fought each other for their own reasons

GamerGate and SJW would make a better team then they do rivals

As previously mentioned, GamerGate and the Social Justice Warriors fight over misunderstanding of fundamental aspects of each others movements. All the while, I feel that the real offenders are avoiding much of the heat that they deserve. While I feel it is true that there is inequality in the world, and we must do our best to fight it, I also feel that this sensitive issue was abused for petty protection and has been blown was out of proportion. While GamerGate should still fight for journalistic ethics, just as they always have, the Social Justice warriors should stand right there beside them to make sure that it is about ethics and not changed into an issue of equality, as allowing false reports to continue will only serve to weaken said equality. Let us unite and #GameTogether.