SHARE THIS:

A couple of weeks before Christmas last year, I had the chance to do a Q and A interview with Cult of vivian (Nicole Sund). So we talked about everything from #GamerGate, censorship, sexism to corruption in the games industry. So I hope that you guys and girls will enjoy the interview. With that said, enjoy!

Robin TGG

I think we could start this interview by doing a little introduction. So feel free to present yourself for our readers madam =)

Cult of vivian

I am @CultOfVivian on twitter, The Vivian Project on YouTube, but my real name is Nicole Sund. I started cosplaying and making videos as Vivian James for fun online after a friend pointed out that I looked like her, and offered to help with some video production. Originally I planned for the account to only occasionally tweet phrases like “git gud scrub” and “I just want to play video games” for fun, but I found myself interacting with followers more and putting my own personality into Vivian.

It ended up being an account where I tweeted my personal thoughts about GamerGate, feminism, and politics, with the Vivian James cosplay and videos falling by the wayside. I’ve been more involved in the community than I ever thought I’d be: organizing local meet-ups, running a charity campaign, starting my own steam group dedicated to playing online with others in the GamerGate community, co-hosting a twitch stream, and now possibly being a panelist at Airplay 2.

At this point, I’ve dropped the “James” since the account is no longer dedicated to GamerGate or Vivian James cosplay, but might keep the name “Vivian” because that’s how so many people know me. I haven’t entirely decided yet.

Robin TGG

How, why and when did you get involved in #GamerGate? And how has GG affected you as a person? (this is my story).

Cult of vivian

I would say it was the reddit censorship and awful behavior of anti-GamerGate that did me in. I knew a little bit about Zoe Quinn, and even supported her due to her supposed mental health activism, when The Zoe Post first started floating around. I had been following the theatrics of radfems and “SJWs” for two years thanks to the /r/TumblrInAction subreddit. TIA was one of the only subreddits that allowed discussion about GamerGate, and even formed the now-popular GamerGate subreddit /r/KotakuInAction, so I was able to read a lot about what GamerGate stood for. I followed the controversies passively for a couple of months, and whenever I tried to ask for the other side of the story, subreddits like /r/girlgamers, /r/gaming, and /r/GamerGhazi either dismissed, downvoted, deleted, or outright banned me. That was annoying.

I ended up joining twitter in early October to ask the GamerGate community if I should take the plunge into speaking up about #GamerGate and #NotYourShield. What I found was that the community was incredibly accepting, patient, and kind with me. Not only did this solidify my decision to participate in the hashtag and subsequent activities, but I’ve also formed many friendships because of it. I play online games so much more than I ever used to thanks to them.

Robin TGG

How has #GamerGate evolved since August last year in your opinion? Some would say that GG is a “bit” more political oriented now than it was one year ago. Do you agree on that?

Cult of Vivian

I agree with that. It didn’t take long for people to realize that most of the unethical behavior in the gaming industry was coming from people on the extreme left. Once that happened, it was bound to be tied down to politics. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though.

Robin TGG

For over a years’ time now, GG has been called a terrorist group, a hate mob, terrorists and sexists women haters. What´s your take on that? And do you think that main-stream media has portrayed GG in a fair manner?



Cult of vivian

Most of the people in GamerGate are just gamers. I might understand why someone would be afraid of gamers if they bought into the idea that games make you more violent or misogynistic, but the reality is that they don’t. There are a few jerks, like in any community, but overall we’re just hobbyists. The games press of all people should know better than that. The mainstream media has always been anti-gamer, whether it’s in the news or demonstrated by how gamers/nerds/geeks are portrayed in popular television.

I don’t expect them to treat GamerGate any differently, but that doesn’t make it any less disappointing. I find this accusation that we’re terrorists especially funny because GamerGate events have been regularly disrupted by threats of violence deemed credible by the authorities… while most of the figureheads for “anti-GamerGate” are unable to even provide proof of harassment beyond anonymous mean tweets or e-mails. I’ve planned a couple of meet-ups now where we felt it was necessary to inform the venue and the local police beforehand. I have never been so paranoid about safety until I had to plan around radicals.

Robin TGG

I´ve been told that there is no middle ground in GG, do you find that to be true? Personally, I´m moderate (just like Boogie2988 for example), so I´m not pro anything besides life pretty much.

Cult of vivian

I think there absolutely is a middle ground in GamerGate. People can agree with some parts, and disagree with other parts. I also respect people who support ethics in the games press, but don’t want to attach the GamerGate label to themselves. Labels are less important than the ideas behind them, and I think that too often gets lost in politics.

Robin TGG

When I wrote my “Disclosure, where does the line go? And when should you be alarmed?”, “The truth about the corrupt game journalists” and “#GamerGate´s 1 year anniversary, up close and personal” articles, found out that I´m far from alone when it comes having concerns about corruption in the video game industry.

So my question to you would be this, do you think that the video game industry is less corrupt today than it was one year ago? And what´s the best way to handle corruption as a potential whistle-blower? (I actually asked people about this in the past, but very few gave me feedback on that very question).



Cult of vivian

While I do appreciate the updated ethics policies and more frequent disclosure of conflicts-of-interest, there’s still work to be done in the gaming industry. For example, publishers participate in terrible practices like pushing for micro transactions in games, releasing games that are broken on day one, and overworking yet underpaying employees. I would love to see all of that change. I am also still skeptical of some journalists. I worry that GamerGate has only taught them how to hide their crimes better, rather than pushing them to change.

As far as whistle-blowing goes, I think the best way to expose an employer without losing your job is to release the information anonymously. Whether that means leaking important documents proving corruption or speaking up for an anonymous interview. Technically it’s illegal to blacklist someone for whistleblowing, but realistically, we’ve seen the gaming industry blacklist people for much less. Being anonymous while contributing what you can is sometimes best for now.

Robin TGG

GG has been around for over a year now, and during that time GG has achieved quite a lot of things (charity projects, better ethics policies in the industry, etc.). Nevertheless, the media still just shows a very one-sided picture of GG. So this would be my question, do you think the public is buying everything that the media is saying about GG?

Cult of vivian

I think that the public will tend to buy into what the media tells them, unless they already have a pre-formed opinion on the matter. Unfortunately that would apply to GamerGate. However, I do think that almost no one outside of the GamerGate battle has heard of it or care about it. That works in our favor to an extent.

Robin TGG

Correct me if I´m wrong now, but it seems like GG is focusing more on media sites and media outlets as of recently (ABC News, Vox Media, and Gawker Media to name a few). What would be the reason behind that in your opinion? Personally, I think it´s because media has started to get more aggressive towards GG.

Cult of vivian

To me it seems like GamerGate has been focused on bringing down unethical sites from the beginning, I wouldn’t say that it’s new. Especially when you look at operations like Disrespectful Nod, which involved e-mailing advertisers for several major outlets in an attempt to pull funding. Most people in GamerGate also try to avoid unethical outlets in general so they get less pageviews and ad hits.

Robin TGG

Just recently I spoke to a developer (which would like to remain anonymous) about GG, and he/she agreed that corruption in the video game industry is a huge problem. Not only that, he/She thought that the ethics part needs to be improved as well (no matter if you’re a publisher, gaming journalist or a developer). However, he/she also pointed out that it´s very hard to admit any of this publicly, if you´re still active in the industry (as you could end up losing your job or your business due to boycotts).

So my question would be this, how would one even be able to speak up about these problems and GG, without risking any serious repercussions? I was also told that he/she (the dev I mentioned earlier) had a change of heart when he/she watched the “Shahbaz’s Epic #GamerGate Rant” video with Shahbaz and Sargon of Akkad. As the friendly faces gave her/him a different picture of GG than the one that´s been shown in main-stream media.

So “maybe” that´s something that could help people feel more at ease? Having friendly faces that speaks up about GG related stuff I mean.

Cult of Vivian

It’s unfortunate to hear that, and it’s even worse that they’re not alone. I’ve also heard from several gaming industry insiders expressing their desire for an improved industry, but they can’t talk about it without fear of being told they’re part of a hate group. Look at Mark Kern, who for months advocated for nothing but a more ethical games press, and was immediately labelled a GamerGate supporter and a misogynistic harasser for doing so.

It’s almost impossible to speak up about industry issues right now, especially those related to radicals in any way, because any criticism is tied to misogyny and terrorism. It’s frustrating, but the best you can do is speak out anonymously and try to work with small changes from the inside. I love the idea of people speaking to big-name YouTubers and streamers to have their voices heard, such as BroTeamPill’s video series speaking to anonymous game developers. You don’t always need to tie your own name to something to make a difference.

Robin TGG

What do you think about the whole situation with Team Ninja caving into the SJWS in the west? As Team Ninja made it very clear that they have no plans to release Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 in the West just recently?

Cult of vivian

It’s outrageous that people are trying to push these weird puritan values into gaming again. The only difference this time is that it’s coming from the authoritarian left instead of the authoritarian right. I don’t care whether the reasoning is “objectification”, “violence”, or “immorality” – censorship of artistic content is just plain wrong. I am glad that a few retail outlets are taking a stand to sell a translated version of the game in the states.

I’ve seen some people claim that criticizing a game doesn’t mean you want it censored. Unfortunately, using your platform to tell people who certain content is harmful will inevitably cause censorship. I might understand where people would want to censor games if they actually were dangerous in some way. But there is no proof that playing video games will directly affect long-term behavior. Those who would insist otherwise, such as the team behind Feminist Frequency, are foolish.

Robin TGG

Do you think that game developers should be able to create whatever they want in terms of characters, settings and so on? I bring this question up due to all the rants over sexism in video games (The Witcher 3, DOA5: The Last Round, GTA5 with many more).

Cult of vivian

Absolutely. It’s important that game developers get to see their artistic vision brought to light, no matter what content it contains. If consumers don’t like the content, they don’t need to buy it. Let the free market speak for itself. If someone wants to see a new game made with content that they do like, they can contribute to crowdfunding, or learn to make a game themselves. There’s no shortage of educational resources online.

Robin TGG

My memory could be failing me now, but I do recall you being a feminist? So what´s your thoughts on Protein World´s “Are you beach body ready” campaign? (which has sparked new drama and controversy as of lately again).

Cult of vivian

I do consider myself to be a moderate feminist, but in all honestly, that label is probably more trouble than it’s worth these days. My views could easily fall under the category of egalitarian, humanist, men’s rights supporter, and other labels too. I didn’t mind the “Beach Body Ready” advertisements at all. I appreciate that companies are encouraging women to be healthy and strong, instead of focusing on being thin alone. It’s a much better approach that will hopefully contribute to more positive body images. People shouldn’t be bullied for being overweight, but being offended by a healthy body is ridiculous.

Robin TGG

What are your thoughts on Mark Kern´s “League For Gamers” project?

Cult of vivian

I admittedly don’t know much about it, but it’s a great idea that I’ve been meaning to look into for a while. I love the idea of a set group of gamers trying to make positive change. There’s a lot of fantastic people on board who have worked in gaming for decades, so I’m hoping that they have the strength to push the industry in a better direction.

Robin TGG

Since GG has been portrayed as a women hating group in media. How has the #GamerGate movement (experience) been for you as a woman?

Cult of vivian

I don’t see GamerGate as being different from any other corner of the internet. For the most part, it’s full of great people with a vast diversity of ideas. There will always be a few jerks trying to spoil the fun. I’ve experienced a small amount of (what could be considered) misogyny from individuals who are a part of this community, but it’s not more than I’ve experienced in other communities. For the most part, people have been awesome and supportive of me. What I appreciate most is that I don’t experience much benevolent sexism within GamerGate, either. I’m not treated like a woman, I’m treated like a person. My ideas matter more than my gender. It feels great to know that I’m actually worth something, instead of being used for “social justice points”.

Robin TGG

What´s your take on Anita Sarkeesian and Zoé Quinn´s UN speech about online harassment and cyber violence?

Cult of vivian

Sarkeesian and Quinn made embarrassments of themselves by trying to categorize critical videos as harassment. I’m positive that Quinn realizes it, considering how much she tried to backpedal online afterwards. The paper accompanying their talk was icing on the cake – horribly written with even worse citations. While I agree that online harassment needs to be kept in check, heavy government monitoring and censorship of ideas is not the answer.

Robin TGG

As for my last question, where do you see GG and yourself one year from now? And which battles is left for GG to win?

Cult of vivian

I have no idea. The internet moves so fast that it’s hard to know what direction GamerGate is headed. I imagine that since a lot of the corruption has already been dug up, GamerGate will probably serve as more of a watchdog than anything. A group of consumers ready to jump on top of any future issues that arise within the gaming industry. That would be the most optimal outcome in my eyes.

As for me, I plan to move further from talking about politics. I realized the other night that I enjoy life most when I’m simply gaming with friends and not worrying about the internet outrage machine. I’ll still talk about GamerGate, politics, and feminism from time to time – but for the most part I feel ready to move into a new chapter. This year I hope to focus more on gaming, streaming, and making videos. It’s better for me. Even though GamerGate was an awesome and productive time, it did make me lose sight of what matters most: gaming.



Robin “V-Act” Ek

The Gaming Ground

Twitter: @TheGamingGround

SHARE THIS: Twitter

Facebook

Reddit



More by Robin Ek:

Tags: #GamerGate, Censorship, Cult of vivian, Cult of vivian interview, Nicole Sund