Game over for for the GamerGate trolls

This comment article is writter by Ujima Radio presenter Cheryl Morgan

Last month I wrote about an event for women who code, but since then it has become obvious that there is one area of programming where women are distinctly unwelcome. I’m talking about video games, and the online phenomenon known as GamerGate.

Normally I wouldn’t pay any attention to such things. I have the coordination and reaction times of a drunken, arthritic elephant. But it so happens that I know one of the major figures in this story.

I’ve only met Brianna Wu once, but back when I lived in San Francisco I knew her future husband well. Anything that causes my friend Frank and his wife to leave their home and seek FBI protection because of death threats gets my notice.

Ostensibly, GamerGate is about journalistic ethics, though studies suggest that the majority of what happens on Twitter under the #GamerGate hashtag is actually harassment of women like Brianna. Some of the targets don’t even make games. Anita Sarkeesian just talks about them.

There’s a saying attributed to Margaret Atwood: “Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.” Apparently if women do laugh at men then some of those men will threaten to rape them, or kill them, or worse. Social media allows them to make those threats quickly and in great volume.

If you want to know more about GamerGate, there’s plenty of material online. I found 13 articles on the Guardian website alone. While most of what has happened is vile, many of the people involved clearly feel very angry about something. When they talk about corruption in games journalism, what they seem to be talking about is reviews of games made by women, and for women. Their space is being invaded.

It isn’t just gaming either. Science fiction fandom has had its own brush with accusations of women taking over. This led to a very successful Kickstarter campaign for an anthology cheekily titled Women Destroy Science Fiction. It raised so much money that women got to destroy Fantasy and Horror as well. [Full disclosure: I have a short article in the book.]

In the past, the mainstream media have portrayed geeky pursuits as the sole domain of sad teenage boys. It was never true. Women have always read science fiction, and they have always played video games. I first played Dungeons and Dragons back in 1976, and there were lots of girls in my gaming group then.

What is different now is that geekdom has gone mainstream, and businesses have noticed. Savvy marketers are realising that women consume geek culture. So instead of appealing just to the core teenage male market, they are targeting other groups, including women and girls. That, I suspect, is what has got the GamerGaters upset.

Unfortunately for GamerGate, it is not going to get any better. There’s money in them there girlies, and companies are not going to forego potential profits by ignoring them.