I don't think I've ever seen or expected this within a fun hobby. Things have been stressful lately. Some family drama is happening and I've been forced to play mediator in a situation where I can't agree completely with either side, I have an upcoming medical procedure I'm concerned about, and while gaming is supposed to be something fun to lay back on and relax with to help these situations it instead has became its own habitat for drama and frustration. I want to say first off that with this frustration and these odd events, its been difficult to discuss. I've re-written my response to the cause about 4 times (and then went back and edited it a bit more), I've sunk some hours into this issue, but I'm not 100% sure I'm content with it all. So if I say anything confusing, screw up on the keyboard with some typos, or come off as hypocritical or angry then I'm sorry. Still I feel pressured to document my thoughts, and I'm trying it in the most reasonable way I can do right now while under stress on multiple cases. The past week or two have been among the darkest I've known for gaming culture, and oddly enough its slightly difficult for some to even see. You know what, for those still ignorant to it, I think they've been blessed. Think back to when you started gaming. Whether you played brawlers, shooters, RPGs, platformers, strategy games, or something else there was something special about it to hook you in. The interaction, the immersion, the tactics, the sportsmanship, something. Something got you into gaming and it became fun. I got truly invested with Spyro and similar platformers, becoming immersed in a colorful fun world I could play around with in its own space totally suspended from time and reality of the mundane. Then I got into shooters, and it became a slightly similar feeling of freedom but this time it was more about the mechanics, the silly plots and dark creatures, and insane set pieces alongside fragile digital buddies you felt like observing their virtual fate with. I later on also became fascinated with strategy games, specifically the highly customizable ones that were so open I could create my own stories, adventures, and campaigns with those options and little bit of my imagination. It was great, and then I discovered how to combine this hobby with the internet. For a while that seemed great to as it was a source to cheat codes, tips, fascinating insights from other gamers and even the designers, and there was a big industry growing around this very thing with reporters, and reviewers, and comedy on it, and more. It was great.... and then we had to get "serious" about it.
Fine I get it, it happens, and really it was never perfect to begin with. With or without these super serious insights, politics, and financial garbage getting involved, we still had to deal with the fact that interests and fads change and the times move on. The Mario 64 era platformer got pushed aside for more western RPGs and open world games, shooters changed their format, horror died and got reborn into a ton of interesting experimental indie projects, and MOBAs became a fad strategy game that is confusing everyone but not before becoming a big deal for the competetive scene. These changes happen, and I can accept that. What upsets me horribly though is when politics get stuck in and people replace fun with bigotry or false attempts at slaying said bigotry because some think that by shaming others they get some special righteous crusader of the month award. Then you have rebuttals against it that doesn't help out so well. The way the vocal gaming industry is ripping itself apart in the past couple of weeks is a prime example of this, and as of a few days ago a few sides of the press are literally attempting to change the term gamer into one big slander word over night. Good luck with that you hypocrites. One moment they say that "gaming is rapidly accepted and enjoy now!" and "Oh look at how far we've come! Billions of people love playing games, and we've got it recognized as 'art' because that was somehow so important" then suddenly its "Everyone knows a gamer is the most disgusting hate mongering bigot on this planet." I'm about fed up with the attitude. It brings me around to what I was saying at the start, those who are out of the loop are blessed. Those who sit there ignoring these sides of the internet because they're busy enjoying LittleBigPlanet, Call of Duty, Tomb Raider, PayDay 2, DMC, Dota 2, or older classics, etc are enjoying themselves and basking in what gaming and being a gamer is all about. They aren't aware that they're being called Nazis from their fellow enthusiasts and hate is flying around when discussing this hobby.
This article comes as somewhat of a response to this article that's becoming quite popular among the gaming media. It claims that gamers are over and then begins to talk like the term has always meant the lower ends of the social ladder. Gamer to this article (or according to the world in their view) somehow has come to mean bigots, keyboard warriors, racists, sexists, and people who demand that any decent demographics stay out. Its over, because gaming has reached beyond their demographics Funny though, Gamer has never been a "demographic", instead there are demographics within gaming. As far as I've known the term Gamer is the same to games as movie goer or film fanatic is to movies, Bookworm or big reader is to describe a fan of novels or ebooks, etc. It basically boils down to this: you love video games and have taken it up as a heart-felt hobby. Instead of accepting that like many have, this article wants to pretend gamer means what it did in the late 80's except with more bigotry included. If you want a TL;DR version of this, check out boogie's video on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVEDRh9UaxA He doesn't represent my opinions necessarily, but he sends the basic message I want to, and in probably a lighter easier to digest tone than I can do here.
This isn't only about this article though. The Gamasutra article comes itself as a response to events surrounding gamers (by which I mean game enthusiasts, not the hateful Nazi context from the article). To sum things up, basically a developer was supposedly caught in some affairs tied to game journalists and other developers, people lash out against the people with some resorting to threats while others want an answer on the topic of Journalistic integrity. Unfortunately because the developer was a female, some of those threats were flavored in a pretty foul manor and others used this as an excuse to ignore the subject matter entirely and instead frame gaming as anti-female (again). Oh and something about phil fish getting hacked but it was a fraud or maybe not (the conspiracy thickens, yay!). The sad thing though is that people on the professional side are staying absurdly tight lipped, which is horrible in a time where we need to them to come forth on transparency. Meanwhile the opposite is true for the informal side of things, where anyone with a blog (hi!) or twitter account has basically fanned the fires. As a result we have respected people whether it be Youtube guys like JonTron, or popular developers like Tim Schafer taking sides and either shaming gamers or getting distracted by arguing with them. Actually those precise two names got into a twitter fight with each other, lovely. Because we have a loud crowd, loud outrages, and no one of value to the original problem is answering, we actually are seeing the community kind of rip itself apart trying to make its own answers. Then it comes down to this where we have a couple articles like above pretending like we're all guilty of being horrible people for being a part of gaming. Yeah nice, insult the whole industry that gave you your job.
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| Wait, what happened to just enjoying this? |
Alright one more example this time with a link.
"The negative fan reactions went on for hours, and led to a wave of online jokes about the casting from more mainstream folks and media, with Twitter leading the way. By morning, the entertainment press were focused as much on the negative online reaction and portrayed it as if it was some kind of widespread mainstream public opposition to the casting rather than a typical online situation where the loudest voices just get more attention. But that’s the new narrative, and so it’s time we address it head on I guess.
The voices of the Internet — or rather the tens of thousands of people (out of hundreds of millions who watch movies around the world) who went nuts and are convinced that this casting is the worst thing that ever happened in their lives — are wrong. They are wrong about the casting being bad, they are wrong about Affleck being bad, and they are wrong about how the casting will affect the movie. And I’m here to tell you the six biggest reasons they are so wrong."
"Fanboys and fangirls have an uncanny knack for being the most angry over casting where the anger turns out to be least justified. And when it comes to crazy over-the-top fan reactions that turn out to be glaringly wrong in hindsight, the stand-out examples are in fact from the history of the Batman franchise. Remember back in the late-1980′s when Michael Keaton was cast as Batman? I remember it vividly. Fans went absolutely nuts, threatening mass boycotts and starting petitions to reverse the casting, and the mainstream public laughed and assumed it was going to be a satire or a complete disaster. It was called the worst casting of all time. The Mr. Mom jokes went on and on right up until opening day, and then everyone shut up really fast."
That's two snippets off of this article trying to fight off (or fan) the flames of batman's casting controversy that big movie goers and batman fans were taking part in. This has 100% nothing to do with gaming, gamers, or the progress of gaming. It simply has to do with the fact that it was an event that brought out some of the worst people that just so happen to be speaking around a hobby.
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| sorry I just had to also remind you of this |
What am I getting at here? Well to be blunt, the threats, horrible screaming, etc.... its not exclusive to us gamers. It instead happens at a trigger. Something pushes our buttons in a hobby we love and feel passionate about, and some manage their stress and differences better than others. Other medias have similar problems to us, and its not something worth fighting about. I'm not defending the death threats and saying its ok, but its certainly not a defining factor of "gamer" like some want to believe and discussing these death threats only is ignoring what caused them. Its not any different than other industries. What is different to the best of my knowledge is that gaming is evolving and becoming significant in the same age as the internet, and people of all kinds don't quite know how to handle both maturely. The progress of this hobby in the mainstream eye is confused because of the mixed messages being sent across the web. Instead of only letting it naturally develop, open up, and have generations grow up with it and accept it (like comics, movies, music, etc) its stunted a bit by such easy access to random anonymous opinions coloring things. We also have guys trying to hammer it in as "We've got to do everything to be noticed as heroes guys!". So when someone acts up in a common way that the internet has sadly allowed its been made into a mountain of problems because it apparently "reflects" us as gamers when that's just not true. Some people send some angry threats, some people pull a publicity stunt, and then the media demonizes the entire hobby for it. Some of our own developers, writers, our supposed gamer friends across websites like reddit and tumblr try to tear the hobby apart and put the whole as equal with the extremists. I could try calling them out for being dumb white knight SJWs, but that would be just putting me on the other end of the problem and doesn't solve anything. That's what this has turned into. One hate feeds the other, and then an outlash goes to another outlash. Well I didn't write this to say that, or to contribute to that. Labels like SJW, White knights, MRA, feminists, dudebro, and more are floating around in places they don't belong. They're being used to bundle a whole group of people together, shape it into someone's cheap shot argument, and then blast them. However that doesn't ever work because that's all it is, a cheap shot used to make someone feel like they won the argument, and it just gets the same rebuttal back until you've got a mundane ugly internet fight with strawmen groups propped up. I'm guilty of similar in the past, and I may find myself making that mistake again where I abuse a term like SJW. I try to give it proper context and use it under terminology that makes sense (like what labels are for), but it sometimes does the opposite. Right now though I can see clearly its not the time for that. Its not time to start misusing the label "Gamer" like that either. Instead we need to seek reasoning, we need to express our concerns, and we need to fix the source of the problem (Journalistic integrity). We can start by stopping the argument over pandering, feminism, death threats, and stop fighting slinging terms like SJW around. We can stop by tweeting our messages because there's not enough room to reason in that space.
However addressing the outrage at its very base, was it really worth that either? I think its quite silly looking back on it. Yes Journalistic integrity is important, and this was a pretty foul move. However now we know some names not to trust, and the message has been spread. Transparency, professionals setting reasonable standards, and not doing shady shit would all be great things we should hold them accountable to. There should be a bit of anger over corruption. However are you really also going to be this shocked that a journalist was questionable? Have you just started learning for the first time that you should take what they say with a grain of salt and that they may have some biased slant? Have you never fathomed the idea that these influential writers may have been tampered with for money or publicity? Yeah its bad that they're open to such corruption, but its not the end of the world. If you haven't learned the lesson by now, get it through your head now that you can't depend on others to tell you where your money should be spent. They aren't in charge of this hobby and we can do just fine without their advice. Look at all the youtubers, and events that do their jobs a lot better. We don't need the old journalists, and if they want to be dishonest cowards using politics to scapegoat issues then fine, they'll kill their-selves over time with that crap. Good riddance, I sure didn't need them when I got into this hobby in the first place. That's precisely what I say as well to articles like the one from Gamasutra, if your not willing to respect the hobby and think straight then quite frankly gamers never needed you to. That's all that needed to be said, its done now. We didn't need the mudslinging, twitter threats, political agendas, etc.
Okay lets go back to this "Gamer" term. What have you taken away from this discussion so far? Well sadly its become like the term SJW where it just became a name someone wanted to lump a broad audience up in and twist its meaning into a cheap shot. At least that's what the article did, but honestly the good thing is that like SJW its going to find another meaning out in the real world. If you sit out and call someone a Social Justice Warrior in real life they wont think of pandering ploys, or extremist activisits. They'll just scratch their heads or laugh at you because the term doesn't have much meaning out in the public and is separate from what you see people throwing around online in emotional upsets. If you call someone a gamer they'll think not of the Gamasutra article, not of some twitter trolls, not of journalistic ethics, but of playing video games. They'll think of people playing games together, wearing hats with references to goombas and 1-Up mushrooms, they may even one day think of that cool Dota 2 match they saw on a sports channel. I don't know where Gamasutra pulled its "public view" from, because its not the same place I live in. I can say gamer, video games, and gaming without association of bigots or basement dwellers. There will still be exceptions of course, much like how if you look around you can find someone that still thinks rock music is still just "noise" or even outright demonic stuff like the controversy from decades ago. However gaming is evolving with or without those people, and it'll do just the same no matter who is framing the word into a cheap shot slander statement. "Gamer" isn't over. It doesn't end because some guy takes the term, rebrands it to fit a lecture, and then shames anyone that has ever called themselves a gamer because of their favorite hobby. I think not. We have kids growing up playing Bioshock Infinite in wonder. We have a rising sports-like scene within the MOBA genre, and we have over billions of people around the world enjoying Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto. We have families cracking smiles as they race each other in Mario Kart 8. We have people studying back on classics like Ratchet and Clank, Mario, Pac-man, or Metal Gear Solid, and some studying on just the progress of the industry like how Nintendo helped out with the big crash or how they created their own competition with Sony. I noticed a guy on a ROM site talking about how great the 90's gaming must have been with classics like Donkey Kong Country even though they missed it by being born into the 2000's. We have new people fascinated with horror games after watching the emotions of lets players, and we have people sharing their love of old nostalgic games they grew up with and inspiring a new generation or those who simply missed games of the time to go fetch them and catch up on some awesome stuff. These people are keeping gaming alive, and the passionate ones are Gamers in every sense of the word. They're simply people who are brought together by the interest of all the good and fun video games represent. The bigotry and hate we see can be found elsewhere, but the fun of games are unique to games. That's where "Gamer" comes from and what it means, its in the name.
You don't have to believe me or any of the stuff I spew out on this blog. However what you should be able to believe this is part of being a gamer, this has gamer appeal, this comes from a gamer, this person is here to stand for gaming culture, this has to do with being a gamer, and finally this guy know what it means to be a part of gaming culture. This and more along similar lines is what "gamer" means to a lot of people, and all the silly twitter rage or slanted labeling in the world aren't going to change that. These things, and the one video at the beginning with Boogie2988, mean and stand for more than this entire blog could ever hope to accomplish. If actions speak louder than words, than there's your proof, and here is what you should believe in. They are working, living examples of what gaming has brought and what the term gamer means. Sure sometimes we still have a good laugh and come up with some silly photo that plays on cartoonish stereotypes, or have our oddball habits and associations. Much like ribs, BBQ, or beer goes with the culture of football season Gamers have energy drinks, crazy reactions to their televisions, and more internet memes than you can keep up with. Still gamer in the end has come with one certain association that few can deny, and that's a gaming enthusiast. Someone that plays, loves, and keeps up with gaming. Very soon I'm going to turn on my PS3 and go back to normal with being an example of a gamer myself. I'm tired of this drama, and its got nothing to do with the joy we all get out of gaming.
Growing up in the late 90's I never encountered any serious issues with the term Gamer. It wasn't a dated term, it wasn't something that was tied to hatred, it was what came with the fact that "he loves and plays games". By the time I heard of idiots on twitter, profanity in online games, heard of conspiracies and corruption, or saw bigotry set in motion I had seen it somewhere else before. In politics, within the television news media, within school, and within feuds between people. Video game culture has some of it within itself to, but its not the egg that hatched it, rather its just a part of being human. Its a part of taking note of the world and using some common sense to separate good from bad and right from wrong. I never thought though that these issues would circle gaming so strongly and with so much misinformation, rumors, or hate. Still its not everything. Honestly gaming is still what it is. It has come from pixels battling on a screen for pointless points powered by a single joystick, to angry birds and massive sci-fi space operas co-existing in a multi-billion dollar industry. It still remains fun, innocent in itself (its an inanimate object), and now entertains billions. Its made major progress and is growing up with multiple generations, and will over time become a standard thing in society if it hasn't already. Gaming has gone far, deep, and has an audience of countless people of all types. It should be clear that Gamer has come to mean this:
There should be no drama to this. I'm proud to call myself, and other passionate enthusiasts, gamers. It has nothing to do with someone signing up with superemacists or activist groups, it has nothing to do with whatever a "Social Justice Warrior" is. All you need is to leave your worries at the door, bring a controller and a mind willing to have fun. That's what it means to be a gamer, and I'm proud to be a part of that. Now check your settings, turn your friendly fire off, and press start to play. If nobody else wants to, and gaming culture rips itself apart in the end... well I've still got a lot of fun games and I've been content with playing solo.
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