Just last night I deleted a youtube comment from a user who posted my home address and said he'd kill my wife and leave me to mourn.
— Boo-ghoul 29666 (@Boogie2988) October 14, 2014
Williams has also spoken about “gender identification and sexuality in gaming, and [tried] to encourage gamers to be better people, and to be inclusive and awesome.” He seems like a guy just doing what he can to best express his passion for gaming in a way that doesn’t offend anyone. He wants to emphasize fun, tolerance, and openness. You can, after all, declare yourself a feminist and stand for GamerGate. Still, hate cascaded over the socials and into his smartphone.I have received two death threats this week that included my home address and IDK how to get the press to cover that. Wish I did.
— Boo-ghoul 29666 (@Boogie2988) October 16, 2014
Williams’ head is clearly screwed on—and he’s endearingly self-deprecating, too; a great quality at a time of great unrest. A day after his threats, he posted the below:I truly believe its time to start extending some olive branches and I'm glad to be that branch. Or honestly with as fat as I am, a limb.
— Boo-ghoul 29666 (@Boogie2988) October 14, 2014
Unfortunately for a rare few of you, this is a necessary infographic. Make sure people see this. pic.twitter.com/NxGwmj33pC
— Boo-ghoul 29666 (@Boogie2988) October 16, 2014
Is there an end to all of this? To the hate that’s plagued both sides of GamerGate? I reached out to Twitter user @_icze4r, who engaged with me after my previous article, and who has also received death threats. They are not comfortable with revealing their true identity:“I would but I've already gotten doxxed [having personal details posted on the internet] once. They didn’t do it right that time, but I would prefer not to give them any information to cross-reference," they told me. "I’ve received two rape and death threats recently and I’m not putting any more personal information out there. They targeted a family member through me and I cannot endanger their life with what I’m doing.”I wanted to ask how we can close out GamerGate without anyone actually being murdered just because they once made a game, played one, or simply looked at a cartridge a bit funny one time. @_icze4r has been tweeting the #stopgamergate2014 tag—trending at the time of writing—alongside the likes of Sarkeesian, but is from the side associated with the wave of threats that prominent feminists have faced.VICE: What needs to be done to ensure that GG moves on from threats and abuse, maybe to a thorough examination of journalistic ethics?Just remember, I have nothing but love for you no matter how you feel about this thing. Even love the really fucked up ones, too.
— Boo-ghoul 29666 (@Boogie2988) October 16, 2014
@_icze4r: First, we need Twitter’s help. I'd heard in the news that they were going to add a “Report Abuse” button that would take care of this, making it easy to report rape and death threats, but I’ve reported both rape and death threats against me, and I only received two emails that stated that the account did not exist, or that they couldn’t do anything because the user may have deleted the reported tweets. Others have come to me also confirming a lack of success in reporting threats made to them on Twitter.
I would say that it's not “about taking out women.” A lot of people feel insulted by games journalists telling them that they can't dress themselves, that they do not know how to behave and that they're “over” or “dead.” To many, it seems obvious that plenty of the games journalists talking about people who play video games seem to have no respect for them, and also, more egregiously, have no respect for basic tenets of journalism. Unethical behavior is not to be dismissed as they have so dismissed it, and it's especially not to be dismissed while also telling their audience over and over that the audience is made up of bad people.What is the major ethical problem with games journalism, as you see it?
In a keyword? GameJournoPros. GameJournoPros exemplifies every single major ethical problem with modern games journalism. This has happened before: JournoList. All the evidence and examples you need are in the leaked emails from GameJournoPros, and I really wish other news organizations would pay more attention to that.
I personally have no problem whatsoever with fairer representation of women in video games, or in any other media. The quickest way to make me dislike a movie or a video game is to have underwritten female characters. We need female characters that are well written, and we need better-written video games in general.When it comes to video games, I myself gravitate towards games with female protagonists, or with protagonists that seem sexless. A favorite game of mine is Final Fantasy XIII. People say it was a bad game, but it's the only game where I actually identified with the main character. I love Lightning. I actually would prefer if we had more female protagonists, and especially non-binary characters. I identified very strongly with Lightning.Can you detail the threats you've received, as someone on the pro-GG side?
The threats are detailed below. It has been repeated falsely, time and time again, that GamerGate is made up of terrorists, that we’re ISIS, that we’re “house nigger[s],” that we're like or worse than the KKK, and that we’re misogynists, to the point that people attack us now, thinking that they’re fighting an evil, nefarious group of people, when they’re actually just fighting us. We are normal people, disappointed with video game journalism and speaking out against it, and we have been branded as terrorists. It’s insane.
Yes, I feel that it has become too easy to make this into pro/anti-feminism. I am a feminist. Ever since I knew what one was, I’ve called myself a feminist. Feminism should address video games, but to say that GamerGate came to be, or even continues to exist, because it’s fighting feminism, I can’t say that.GamerGate is ready, willing, and able to debate anything, just as long as you provide evidence of your claims. No one in GamerGate is going to shut somebody down if they can prove what they’re saying. It’s been claimed that GamerGate is anti-feminism and misogynistic, but that’s kind of hard to prove, especially given our relationship with Christina H. Sommers. Though, some people have claimed that Sommers is an “Anti-Feminist,” so even this is kind of confusing to me.
A more sympathetic approach will facilitate clearer debate. There are apparently two sides now: GamerGate, and Anti-GG. Though the hashtag #GamerGate is necessary, because it draws many different people into the debate, I dream of a day when everyone can post in #GamerGate. By that, I mean that I hope that anti-GG people one day can bridge the divide between us. I’ve been trying to bridge the divide, because quite obviously, in reporting death threats and protecting people, there are no sides. My hope is that I can further erode the line between pro- and anti- until we can join together in cooperation, and point out games journalism’s problems together.We can never have civilisation when it's hate vs. hate. There should be no attacks. Some of the best conversations I've had were with Anti-GG people who realized that we were not so different. Both sides will eventually become friends. We will resolve our differences and come together in order to cooperate, because it is the only way we’re going to be able to protect each other effectively. The minute we all look out for each other regardless of whether or not we disagree, that's when this conversation can truly move forward. I will never support an endless “fight” where two sides just blindly hate each other.S o what now? The best judges of ethical standards within games journalism are the writers themselves. It’s always been this way. It’s right that gamers should be able to express their concerns if they feel that the press is compromised, just as it’s right that games reviews should go beyond how pressing A does this cool thing and explore gender representation and politics and more Real World stuff that’s being beamed into living rooms through the medium of games (so yes, I loved Bayonetta 2 as well, but I appreciate the reasons behind Polygon’s 7.5 rating). The correct response to criticism of the press should not be to blanket perceive pro-GG as a gaggle of grotesques. Unfortunately, some individuals are using GG-related opportunities to spread hatred. But with both sides vigilant, there is hope that this can be monitored and, if not fully extinguished, at least contained.I come back to what I wrote in my previous piece on GamerGate: that something much deeper than the GG situation has to die, and that’s prehistoric attitudes that women don’t have a place in modern tech and entertainment industries. Unfortunately, long after GG has simmered down to a background concern, women will still face discrimination in the workplace—and, more disturbingly, people who chose to express opinions that might not always be popular will receive threats and abuse over social media channels. GamerGate has illuminated one tiny corner of a much bigger picture. It’s up to everyone on both sides to reveal the full extent of the problem—but it’s imperative, too, that we’re not entrenched in this idea that GamerGate is just about abusing women.It’s not.Well, it is about that, partially. But when that rightly reported side of GG is as close to controlled as anyone can get it, what comes then? I’m reminded of the splendid scene in Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks, where Jack Nicholson delivers a powerful speech advocating togetherness: “Why can’t we work out our differences? Why can’t we work things out? Why can’t we all just get along?”Of course, Jack ends up dead on the floor, but at least he reached out. He tried to achieve harmony from chaos. I don’t want anyone spread-eagled with an enemy flag protruding from their guts—and from what I can ascertain, nor do most over on the pro-GG side. It still seems so incredible that this can all flare up over what are, to a great many people who you enjoy the company of, toys.Remember when you would argue with your friend in the playground because he was into Sonic and you liked Mario, and never the two would meet? Yeah, look what happened there.Follow Mike Diver on Twitter