Breaking Arrows is a Soapbox series published by Highland Arrow relating the views and opinions of smaller developers, independent journalists, and gamers, related to the GamerGate movement.
This entry in the series is the response of an anonymous young male gamer.
Editor's note: The gamer of this submission was originally named, but the name was removed at their request following the assault and SWATing events that occurred recently.
I've been interested in video-games for the longest time, since I was very little. And not just video-games; tabletop gaming, card games like Yugioh and MTG (inb4 degenerate) and I've enjoyed the wonderful punctuation that the grand epochs of gaming have added to my life! I have some of the fondest memories sitting around playing DnD with my friends, generating inside jokes that nobody else would understand. Friendships have faded and the jokes aren't funny anymore, but the memories are still strong, and even though I don't always have the time to play games or the money for them I'll always be a gamer.
To be perfectly honest I've never been interested in journalistic media. There was a time in my life when I was very political but mostly I just troll people on the internet or have philosophical arguments with my family. Today I consider myself Apolitical, in the same way that people are Atheist or Asexual. I've never been all that interested in the scandals of the day, although I know about Dorito Pope and Mountain Dewrito scandal through the memes alone.
But something about #GamerGate hit me. I felt like the memories of me sitting around making fart and boob jokes with my friends, being a dumb teenager and having fun in my secret fantasy world where I felt like I could escape from all the problems of real life were under attack. This time it wasn't bullying, family problems or moving away that hurt me, it was a group of people who are making a money off of my love of video-games, off of my fond memories and my willingness to pay to relive them that where attacking my identity.
We can talk forever about the facts of the case but what it comes down to for me is hypocrisy and an incredibly toxic mentality. It became clear to me that these people don't care about gaming, gaming culture or the so called social justice that they espouse to promote. Their stories of victim-hood are proof of this. I'm not saying these stories are false; I'm saying the way these people have capitalized and profiteered off of peoples willingness to help a damsel in distress (while un-ironically attacking the "damsel in distress" trope) is proof of their hypocrisy.
The real clincher to this was the hate. I'm gay. I'm in a committed relationship with my boyfriend of 3 years, who has hinted that he's buying a ring sometime next year. (damn right he's gunna buy it, betta put a ring on dis fine thing) and it is absolutely infuriating for me to see these people insult me, a gay gamer, by calling me sexist, misogynistic and homophobic just because I like video-games in the name of promoting diversity.
The worst part is that people have believed them. These mostly upper middle class white straight male hipster game journo's with a humanities degree, a superiority complex, a trust fund and their ironically dressed fake nerd friends have the world convinced that I'm a terrible person because I like to play video-games. They've been injecting a brand of toxic politics into my hobby for quite some time, and I'm willing to accept that all messages and all identities are welcome in video-gaming, but not when they are trying to destroy my identity and supplant it with their bland politically correct historical revisionist interpretation of reality. Not when they're trying to push me out of my hobby, to destroy the diversity they claim to enjoy in the name of the false god of "equality". They're fighting "homophobia" and "bigotry" by calling gay people misogynist for liking video-games. And people are willing to buy it.
I don't know what's going to happen with #GamerGate. I hope they bring back Firefly and I'm excited about Kingdom Come; Deliverance. I'd love to see LW 1 & 2 fade into obscurity and I desperately hope someone pulls Megaphone lady's sponsors and makes her get a real job. I just know that no matter what happens, I'll always have my memories, and hopefully in a year I'll have a husbandu who I can share new memories with.
To all my #GamerGate brothers out there; keep up the fight. We might not get exactly what we want, but the times we've gone through will make us all stronger. We few, we happy few. We band of brothers.
