The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutras community.
The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.
This post will, likely, accomplish nothing. The people who donât need to read it will see it the most whereas it wonât even be on the radar of the people most in need of reading it.
Iâve been busy lately â working on two big work projects, one big indie project, a couple smaller indie projects, Diablo 3 (again), and sometimes even sleepingâ so Iâve missed the whole #gamergate thing until now. I donât even have much to say on the matter, but these are people I âknowâ through the Internet, so I feel obligated to post my thoughts.
Firstly, the harassment is beyond abhorrent. Itâs something that should never happen in any office, industry, or any scope whatsoever. Itâs completely and wholly beyond reproach. Those involved should not only feel ashamed to call themselves âgamersâ, but ashamed to call themselves human beings.
I feel the need to figure out why anything Anita Sarkeesian, Zoe Quinn, or Jenn Frank have done would elicit such a response. My answer would be ânothingâ, but clearly thatâs not the case, because the harassment exists and continues. So, whatâs next? The analysis of games from a feminine perspective? Well, to put it pretty bluntly, games are by and large male-oriented. Thereâs no shortage of male power fantasies, objectified female characters, or generally male-dominated topics and attitudes. That is a true fact â plain and simple. Thereâs no arguing it and, if you try to argue it, youâre already wrong.  Sure, you can find examples of gender neutral or female-oriented games and try to use that as a counterpoint, but youâll be trumped by twenty male-focused game at the very least. So, gamers, donât worry about your favorite hobby getting, I donât even know what to call it, âdilutedâ? Call of Duty will still sell millions of copies to the millions that love that game (myself amongst them), and there are no shortage of other games like it if thatâs your sort of thing.
If you donât want to play a game like Quinnâs Depression Quest then, believe me, youâve got plenty of other options out there. I havenât personally played the game because, as a systems guy, it doesnât interest me on a mechanical level. On a thematic level, though? Absolutely. Iâm a bipolar, anxious, OCD-driven person, and games that analyze any kind of mental syndrome are totally up my alley. So, eventually, Iâll give the game a try for that reason alone. Realistically, when I play games these days, itâs almost an afterthought. And I go to âcomfort gamesâ. Right now, Iâm playing Diablo 3 on my PS4. Iâve also played Diablo 3 on PC/Mac and Xbox 360. And Iâm doing it again. Itâs just what helps me unwind. That, and whatever Vita/3DS game I play on the bus, are the games that I play right now.
My point here is that, no matter who are you, thereâs a game for you â if youâre a man. Now, I donât know the words to say what Iâm trying to say here, so I apologize if theyâre wrong, but: if youâre a woman looking for a AAA game experience that will deliver the same sense of empowerment that a game like Call of Duty does for million of males (and females, itâs not a black-and-white situation here)⌠Youâre out of luck. Your best bet is AAA game thatâs gender-neutral. And thatâs horrible.
As a game developer, I make games that are important to me. Iâve made games about emotions like Balance (work/life balance), Doubt (⌠doubt), and Broken (bad relationships). These were great for me at the time. For the most part, though, I really enjoy just making a variety of systemically-interesting games. Starhawk was super interesting to work on, Dragon Academy was a lot of fun, Cat vs. Aliens was my first officially-published âbabyâ, and SPACE COLORS was my second âbabyâ. I just enjoy making games. I have a tremendous amount of emotion attached to all of these games, but for the latter bunch, theyâre not my attempt to express any emotion, theyâre my attempt to express fun gameplay through different mechanics. And thatâs going to continue to be my contribution to the industry. Iâm a systems guy, and thatâs what most interests me about games.
So, when you attack people like Zoe Quinn or Anita Sarkeesian, what youâre doing is reducing the number of voices that games get made by. Jenn Frank and Anita Sarkeesian may not be a game developers, but that doesnât mean their voices doesnât impact games. They do and they should impact games. Theyâre just impacting the individual game developers who make games.
And hereâs the thing: all of those game developers â male or female â are people. They are people with personal lives divorced from their profession. They are people with their own problems and joys. The thing we all share is a love for games as a medium. This is not a left-leaning or right-leaning (which, somehow, inexplicably entered into this whole mess) issue. This is a person issue. And attacking people for making games or discussing games or analyzing games is despicable act. Not only because itâs crude, rude, or unprofessional â though it is all of those things and more â but itâs completely irrelevant.
Engage the ideas. Take a moment and reflect on the arguments being made. If you disagree with them, figure out why, and attack the hell out of that argument with witty rhetoric and a sense of mad style.Thatâs what will further the industry and the medium. Thatâs constructive. And thatâs what humans should do.