Swell AI Transcript: Beyond Gamergate

SPEAKER_00: It's the latest development in what has become known as Gamergate, an online culture war.
Tig: Hello and welcome to another episode of Neutral Good. I'm your host, Tig. The first season of Neutral Good is all about hashtag Gamergate. So if you haven't gone back and listened to the previous episodes, I highly recommend them. In the previous episode, we covered Milo Yiannopoulos and his brush with right-wing royalty as writer for Breitbart at the height of Gamergate. He wrote scathing, inflammatory articles that brought new readership to Breitbart at a time when Steve Bannon, executive chairman of Breitbart News at the time, was looking to branch out and expand the site's audience. He made appearances on 4chan and 8chan boards, providing photographic evidence of himself, usually a selfie with the date written on a piece of paper. and asking users to send him anything he should be covering or looking into. He was a Gamergate darling, I guess you could say, right up until he made some pretty weird remarks about underage consent and inappropriate relationships between men and young boys on the Joe Rogan podcast and quickly resigned from Breitbart. Nowadays, Milo co-hosts a religious home shopping network, selling you overpriced 3D printed Virgin Mary statues and gushing about how much they look like real bronze. Newsflash, they don't. In this episode, I want to talk about some of the effects of Gamergate over the years since it has touched upon so many social issues. We'll take a look at a few of the ways that Gamergate's had a lasting impression over the last 10 years and explore the positives and negatives. Things like the impact on gaming journalism, the rise of the alt-right, an increased awareness of and action against online bullying and harassment, the polarization of gaming communities that still exist to this day, a broadening of diversity and inclusion in gaming. Even if progress has been slow, the disenfranchisement of women in games development due to harassment seen during Gamergate, the fear of speaking out about issues and reluctance to enter these jobs. A little tangent here, I recently re-watched a lot of Innuendo Studios videos on the alt-right playbook to freshen up my Gamergate-era political knowledge and was amazed to find just how relevant some of those videos are in today's online political climate. Specifically, the video Always a Bigger Fish mentioned the underlying belief among conservatives that people need to earn their place. This particular sentiment has been expressed a lot lately in a very mask off pushback against DEI, also known as diversity, equity, inclusion. Imagine being such a racist bigot that you're comfortable publicly condemning something called, literally, diversity, equity, and inclusion. The arguments I've seen boil down to this. Unskilled workers in minorities will get jobs that could go to skilled white workers. You see how silly that sounds on its face? By ignoring the fact that businesses always look out for their own interests when hiring, we're brushing off the need to actively promote diversity, equity, and inclusion. It conveniently ignores the systemic discrimination that got us here. This argument also makes it sound like companies would have to hire people who don't really fit their requirements, and that gets conservatives riled up. People aren't earning their place. I'd recommend checking out the entire catalog of Innuendo Studios videos for an eye-opening and often uncomfortable look at North American online political discourse. Link in the show notes. Let's talk about the effect that Gamergate had on journalism. I watched a pretty long documentary in preparation for this episode that features a ton of footage from a debate in 2015 hosted by the Society of Professional Journalists about ethics in gaming journalism and noticed a funny trend when the pro Gamergate side would present a claim and evidence of some form of questionable ethics in recent games coverage. First off, it was always somehow like a Gawker owned outlet. And second, nobody's on the other side of the argument. In fact, Steven Totillo admitted that they could be better. And I covered that in a previous episode of this podcast. Here is Ren Laforme, managing editor of Pointer.org, which bills itself as, quote, the world's leading instructor, innovator, convener and resource for anyone who aspires to engage and inform citizens, end quote.

Ren LaForme: I just, we've spent a half an hour talking about ethics in journalism and Gawker in this, what? Like, these are the guys that are getting sued for everything they own for publishing Hulk Hogan's sex tape. It's like we're having a gourmet food conversation, but talking about easy mac and cheese. This is just, to me, this doesn't make a whole lot of sense. These guys come from this tabloid tradition. I mean, they're not actually, I mean, Nick Denton, the publisher of Gawker, just like two weeks ago said, okay, maybe we should think about ethics. And, you know, half the staff left.

Tig: I can't believe like… And here's Mark Seb, a pro GamerGate YouTuber, responding to Ren.

SPEAKER_06: I can tell you why, Ren, and it's because, unfortunately, and I said unfortunately because they're large. Okay, and this gets into my other topic, but you guys, it seems mainstream media doesn't, well I mean in the case of AirPlay, doesn't know how to approach games. So you rely on the game's media to fill your beat. And even though, as you say, it's ridiculous we're talking about Gawker, you rely on them. They're giving you bad information, in the case of the New York Times. They're giving you bad information, and then it's imprinting misinformation, which just makes people even more distrustful of journalists.

Tig: And I think the problem here is that, again, Mark assigns no autonomy to the consumer of journalism. If you're unhappy with the reporting standards, you go after the company doing the poor reporting. You stop reading their publication and giving them your money and you voice your opinions to those who make financial decisions. Those are literally the same methods of recourse you've had with any published media forever. That's just. capitalism at work. You vote with your wallet. I think I'm frustrated because on the surface it's argued that this is an ethics problem specifically in gaming journalism when in reality it's just survival of the fittest enforced by capitalism. Gawkers admittedly low journalistic standards at the time earned them eyeballs on pages which translates to ad revenue. If folks really had such problems with Kotaku for instance why did so many gamers read their articles? You can't argue that there's some powerhouse that can't be toppled when their profits are driven entirely by people choosing to spend time on their websites. Like I'm not a fan of capitalism, but even I will admit that it exists and it's pretty obvious when things are shaped by its effects. This made my brain hurt almost as much as hearing TotalBiscuit argue against some of the more progressive game review websites because game publishers were using amalgamated review scores to calculate bonuses given to their studios. Imagine blaming the game critics for greedy publishers making typical capitalistic profit driven decisions. Yeah, that'll show them. Next up on the docket, the rise of the alt-right. I'm going to let some other folks say this better than I ever could. Here's Dave of the Serfs introducing a clip of our old pal Milo Yiannopoulos being interviewed by right-wing talk show host Steven Crowder.

Dave of The Serfs: If you see, Gamergate was also a YouTube content goldmine that turned many skeptics into men lords. Familiar faces today, like Sargon of Akkad, Thunderf00t, Ike Serenovich, Chris Regan, and even Milo Yiannopoulos.

SPEAKER_05: There's that thing in the men's rights world, the red-pilling. You sort of take the red pill, suddenly your eyes are opened to the realities of the relationships between men and women and how they should both behave and all the rest of it. I've noticed a similar sort of effect in gamers, where they suddenly realize, well actually wait, I think it was yesterday I saw a tweet, somebody said, I just watched Fox News and for the first time in my life it's starting to make sense to me. And of course, a lot of them have been coming to Breitbart to read my stuff. And I think there's obviously an inevitable bleed into elsewhere in the site.

Tig: And here's Cheyenne Lin in her video essay, Why Nerds Joined the Alt-Right, which I'll link in the show notes.

SPEAKER_00: But rather than blame the capitalist patriarchy and toxic masculinity, they begin to believe that their oppression stems from the content they enjoy and identify with and turn themselves into victims. But then this narrative too becomes disrupted when later the same material that they based their identity on became widely loved and accepted, thus making these men even more spiteful. This fire then continued to be stoked via the mass onslaught of criticism of said properties due to fourth wave feminism and online activism. And thus, the alt-right, as opportunistic as ever, saw a new recruiting base primed to see their new wave fascist movement as a place of refuge. And both directly and indirectly brought angry white men over through creating content on platforms whose addicting algorithms work by suggesting the same content over and over and by infiltrating online fandom spaces where these types of nerds typically hang out.

Tig: For more information about the rise of the alt-right, check out Innuendo Studios on YouTube. Link in the show notes. Luckily, there were some, I guess you could say positive things that came from all the harassing phone calls, death threats, swattings and bomb threats. It took all of those things happening for authorities and journalists to start taking online threats seriously. It wasn't that folks hadn't leveled credible threats against people online before. No, it was now that those threats were being directed at people working in games journalism. So they had to report on it. If Zoe Quinn had been the sole target and if Zoe hadn't been friends with Nathan Grayson, for instance, and maybe some of their peers in those circles, I don't think anyone would have had such an inside scoop on what it looks like to have millions of young men across the planet angry at you. Experiencing harassment was and is still just seen as part of existing on the Internet. But nowadays, you can actually find helpful resources if you're experiencing bullying and harassment online. Zoe Quinn even formed the Crash Override Network, a crisis helpline and advocacy group for people experiencing online abuse as a direct response to the hate received from GamerGators. Speaking of directed hate, let's talk a bit about the resulting polarization of gamers into different groups during and post GamerGate. When Anita Sarkeesian released her Tropes vs. Women in Video Games video series in 2013, I think, and Cheyenne Lin mentions this in her video essay you heard earlier, she basically says that folks feel threatened when something they like has problems because they feel that reflects on themselves. Anita's videos revealed some pretty easily identifiable tropes about women seen in video games that should make us question things. But if your whole identity is based on gaming with a capital G and you have no framework to process her arguments, you're going to feel threatened by something that calls into question that which you've based your entire identity upon. You're going to instinctively want to find ways to delegitimize Anita and her arguments. You can place her in the crazy feminist who's never played a video game box and wave your hand, conveniently ignoring that her claims are sound. And circa the summer of 2014, that rhetoric was heavily employed by 4chaners to bolster angry young gamers into foaming at the mouth for a chance to harass Anita and Zoe Quinn on Twitter, swat them, call in bomb threats to their speaking events, labeling them anti-gamergate social justice warriors who were ruining gaming forever. Now consider that at the same time the Ferguson unrest was unfolding in Missouri, protests were held and riots broke out over a series of days, starting August 10th, 2014, after FPD officer Darren Wilson shot and killed 18-year-old Michael Brown. In episode four, Or the internet aristocrat mentions the Ferguson threads in one of his farewell videos. 4chan's threads about the Ferguson unrest were some of the most racist, bigoted things you'll ever see on the internet outside actual Stormfront, I guess. I actually don't want to get into more detail than that, but my point is that anyone opposing this racism or trying to show support for the protesters was also labeled a social justice warrior and the same hate would now be directed at them. This was part of the pipeline. Some of the only good that came from this that I can see is groups forming their own online protected spaces out of necessity and clamping down on who's allowed to attend. Previously, you'd see well-meaning liberals questioning whether you could really achieve any good by limiting membership, because we all need to openly discuss ideas for the best ideas to win, they'd say. Whereas now it's been demonstrated that folks need safe, like-minded communities who won't allow people with intolerant views to muscle or sweet-talk their way in. Look at Black-owned or LGBTQ-owned and operated user groups that politely decline membership for so-called allies in the name of keeping the safe space for those who identify. It's pretty obvious why these need to exist today. Finally, let's briefly discuss the impacts and effects of Gamergate on games themselves.

SPEAKER_04: uh lose myself think oh my god just think of this world just think of all the planets i can visit all the immersive things that i can get involved with all the fights all the relationships all the people i meet all the places i go i'm so excited to go there and you know i love nothing more then with all of that laid out in front of me, I love nothing more than to be dragged out at every fucking conceivable opportunity so you can fucking current day us! Sorry, did you want to get immersed in our world? Yeah, well, guess what? Fucking pronouns! Fucking gender ambiguity! Fucking current day Californian shit! Because that's all we fucking know! Because we're boring! We're so fucking boring! BORING! We can't see past our own fucking reflection! That's the level of our narcissism here at Bethesda Western Game Company! Fuck your immersion! Fuck you having a good time! Fuck you falling into a world and just getting lost! No, no, no! Current fucking day! Fuck off! You're boring! You're fucking dull! You have nothing to say! You are a one hived mind twat waffle. That's all you fucking are. And you wonder why people are getting so fucking sick and tired. You take everything we love, all our immersions, all our fantasies, all our escapism, and you just can't help shovel your dog shit, fucking crap, ideology into everything, every single solitary fucking thing.

Tig: Now, personally, I think that what's actually ruining gaming is the hyper-capitalist consumer cycle that gives us Call of Duty 17, Modern Battlefield, Bad Company 4, especially since the pronouns in Starfield were entirely optional. But keep cranking out that red pill content. Gotta earn that Adsense money. Here's YouTuber and Twitch streamer Brandon Stennis talking about his experience.

SPEAKER_07: I played video games since I was eight years old and there's been very rare times I've ever seen myself in a video game or like someone who was like me in a video game. I think my very first experience with that was when I played the Dragon Age series for the first time and so I was able to like you know create a character who looked like me. I got to be like an elf. you know, with magic and all that kind of stuff. Actually, it was also the first game that, you know, you could change your sexuality and do all that kind of stuff. So that was like my first experience with that. And it just, it made me feel like I can actually create a story that I wanted to, even if it is its own game story. It's like a character I created and in the image of what I wanted it to look like which is like all the characters who when I have a creative character are usually black anyway because I want to see myself when I play the game so it's just easier for me to connect with that character and then wanting to play the game even more when I can see myself in it.

Tig: As a white male gamer, it took me an embarrassingly long time to come to terms with the fact that just because I don't think something is important in games, that I'm somehow the majority opinion, or even that my opinion matters, I always felt represented. And since I hadn't lived the experience of others who were not represented, I didn't understand their view at all. It's wild how close I came to realizing this at times when I'd be playing a female character or a non-white character and feel just odd, like I'm not me somehow. If only I'd been able to recognize that at the time. I guess it's good that I can look back and criticize myself now. A sign of growth or something, right? Thanks for listening to another episode of Neutral Good. Links to my sources and other content of interest are in the show notes available at www.neutralgoodpodcast.com. We're in the home stretch of season one, which is all about Gamergate. And if everything goes to plan, we'll wrap up after 10 episodes. Probably going to switch up the format for season two, but don't worry, I'll still be me. If you're enjoying the podcast so far, please tell a friend. I'm your host, Tig. Thanks. And I hope you'll tune in to the next episode.