there were rumblings of it a little beforehand, but it had a different form. The main thing I remember prior to GG was a vague kind of anti-censorship sentiment, with g*mers mad at Jack Thompson or Tipper Gore complaining about violence in games. There's a ctrl-alt-delete comic (not the loss one) where the author's self-insert even threatens politicians who would dare censor games, even using the phrase "don't fuck with us." Looking back on it now I can kinda see the vague outline of what would eventually become gamergate.
I remember the most ferocious opinions had to do with games being serious or meaningful if they were extremely violent, had racist jokes, and used women as sexual objects. Like you look at a game like Postal 2 back then and somehow that didn't scan as political, despite how crassly racist and misogynist it often is. A game that attempts to defy those kinds of bigotry does scan as political to g*mers.
Right before GG kicked off in earnest, I remember feeling something bad was in the water because of the reaction to the game Gone Home. It received scathingly negative reactions from communities I thought had good taste at the time, then I started seeing really pointed homophobia. Something in my stomach dropped back then, I knew it couldn't lead anywhere good. That was in late 2013, GG began in earnest around early 2014.
I was playing a huge amount of Planetside 2 back in '13. I was vaguely in the Reddit TEST/Goonswarm alliance on Vanu (purple space communists). The TR faction (Red space fascists) was dominated by a clan called The Enclave, after the fascist genocidal US government in Fallout 2 and 3. The Enclave accepted open racism and bigotry and had some proto-neo nazis in it. Their leader had kind of a cult of personality as a proto-joker figure. Looking back it was obvious that he was creating a space for what would become the alt-right to incubate. It's kind of fascinating looking back because the 2013 Planetside scene turned out to be a snapshot of what politics would become over the next ten years.
there were rumblings of it a little beforehand, but it had a different form. The main thing I remember prior to GG was a vague kind of anti-censorship sentiment, with g*mers mad at Jack Thompson or Tipper Gore complaining about violence in games. There's a ctrl-alt-delete comic (not the loss one) where the author's self-insert even threatens politicians who would dare censor games, even using the phrase "don't fuck with us." Looking back on it now I can kinda see the vague outline of what would eventually become gamergate.
I remember the most ferocious opinions had to do with games being serious or meaningful if they were extremely violent, had racist jokes, and used women as sexual objects. Like you look at a game like Postal 2 back then and somehow that didn't scan as political, despite how crassly racist and misogynist it often is. A game that attempts to defy those kinds of bigotry does scan as political to g*mers.
Right before GG kicked off in earnest, I remember feeling something bad was in the water because of the reaction to the game Gone Home. It received scathingly negative reactions from communities I thought had good taste at the time, then I started seeing really pointed homophobia. Something in my stomach dropped back then, I knew it couldn't lead anywhere good. That was in late 2013, GG began in earnest around early 2014.
I was playing a huge amount of Planetside 2 back in '13. I was vaguely in the Reddit TEST/Goonswarm alliance on Vanu (purple space communists). The TR faction (Red space fascists) was dominated by a clan called The Enclave, after the fascist genocidal US government in Fallout 2 and 3. The Enclave accepted open racism and bigotry and had some proto-neo nazis in it. Their leader had kind of a cult of personality as a proto-joker figure. Looking back it was obvious that he was creating a space for what would become the alt-right to incubate. It's kind of fascinating looking back because the 2013 Planetside scene turned out to be a snapshot of what politics would become over the next ten years.