Seriously, this is the first pic of a person I got when I Googled “typical gamer”
I really don’t want to rehash everything surrounding #gamergate, Zoe Quinn, Anita Sarkeesian and some terrible assholes doing terrible things like threatening to rape and kill women. There’s a lot on the internet about it already and my opinion has swayed back and forth about a million times seeing elements I agreed with on both sides (and then being completely appalled by the actions of what I hope is a small portion of not just gamer culture, but hopefully humanity itself). Anyways, this article isn’t really about GamerGate, or about feminism and gaming, or the video game media and it’s responsibility (or lack of it) to the reader. No, what I want to talk about is the opportunity that gamers have right now to set things straight. And yes, I still think the term “gamer” can mean something and I think we can be better than all of this.
To be clear, I think we can all agree that when someone identifies as a “gamer” they are saying a little bit more about themselves than just “I play video games.” Without spending too much time on the definition of a gamer, I think it is someone who at least slightly participates in the community, be it through message boards, going to conventions, redditing about video games, writing a blog, etc. The gamer spends time reading about upcoming releases, researching game design and game theory, tries to find cool indie projects, etc. It is like being a film buff, but for video games. In the same way that someone who goes to every summer blockbuster might not be a film buff, even someone who spends a LOT of time playing video games is not necessarily a gamer. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
