Two months ago, there was this movement that gamer started and coined by Adam Baldwin called GamerGate. They claim that it was about journalistic integrity and game ethics in the video game industry. Unfortunately, it feels more like a hate group instead of what they claim to be. Instead of digging in the past for corruptions, they instead attack people they do not agree with, primary female developers.
In order to have a reliable movement going, you are going to need history to lay the foundation of your movement. You would need actual corruption. If you look at the history, you can see the foundation was there for years. The most famous and often forgotten about incident was the firing of Jeff Gerstmann in 2007. (1) In 2007, Jeff Gerstmann, who has been with the website for 11 years, was fired because he gave a game, Kane and Lynch, a low score. At the time, Kane and Lynch ads was all over the place. One even let you make your own trailer. I remember this because I made my own. This should have been on the forefront of GameGate, and while the suits that had the hand of firing Jeff Gerstmann are long gone, there is always a chance that it could happen again.
It’s also not about journalist and writers also. The way a game is developed has to chance. I do not think a lot of people remembered, but a lot of wives have leveled complaints to Rockstar because their spouses was working overtime hours during the crunch time of Red Dead Redemption. (2) Rockstar did denided this, but the fact that Crunch Time is still a thing needs to be addressed. (3) If you don’t know what Crunch Time is, it’s where a development team work day and night to make sure that the game is ready to be shipped at the time the launch date was announced. This could lead to working long hours, sometimes 17 hours a day. It is uncommon for a developer to sleep under their desk for a couple of hours just to get up and do it again. (4) The bad thing is that when a game is done and shipped its common place to let go some of the developers that worked on the game. The nasty thing is that publishers have known to withhold money if a metacritic score does not meet expectations. It is a terrible thing that has to be fixed.
There are a few pro-gamergaters that do want to fix the issues in gaming today. TotalBiscuit revealed that there was PR firm that would allow gamers to get a review copy of Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor on PC only if they said nothing but positive things. That PR firm would also say if that video would be up in 24 hours. (5) This caused a small controversy and in turn, many PR firms decided to revise their brand deals for the better. Jim Sterling did a video about the issues. (6) Boggie2988 is another pro-gamergater that wants to see a positive change. The sad thing is that those that would like to see a real positive change in the game industry is swallowed up by the hate filled rantings of people that are afraid of change.
If GamerGate really condones harassment, then they should speak up to whenever hate is thrown to someone, anyone. I forgot who said it, but I believe that person said it best. The industry is getting some "growing pains". A year from now, hopefully, developers can create the games they want to create regardless of race, gender, or creed. It’s still a long way off, but I believe that change is coming. We just have to make sure that it is headed in the right direction.
(3) http://kotaku.com/5452809/rockstar-responds-to-rockstar-spouse-controversy-saddened-by-accusations
(5)