Extra-Life: Gaming for Good!

As I stumbled, bleary eyed and blinking, towards the dinner table last Sunday, my mother in law said, "Mike, you look really tired!" Well, yes, other-Mom, I was. I was tired because I had not slept more than forty minutes on Saturday night. And why? Because I was using video and board games to help sick kids.

There's been a lot of talk over the last few months about the negative aspects of the gaming community. And there certainly have been some really negative aspects in the last few months. But we here at the Ace of Geeks believe in the power of gaming to help people, and Extra Life is one of the best ways to do just that.

10 Reasons Gamergate Has Failed

Content advisement: this article unabashedly discusses misogyny and some of the words commonly used as sexist slurs. There are also some screen captures of some of the actual sexist and abusive things people have written.

In the history of fail, there have been few examples quite thorough as Gamergate. Whatever momentum they briefly held in their championing the ethical treatment of video game journalism has been fully eclipsed by an increasing awareness that they are behaving like toddlers with overfull diapers. Sexist toddlers. With potty mouths.

You may have noticed that they're kind of becoming a joke these days.

Don't Call Me a Gamer. Not Anymore.

 My very first article for this site was an article about me thinking about quitting video games. It took too much time out of my life to continue to justify playing them and taking me away from my other creative endeavors. That was pretty naive, it turns out, as video games have still been a big part of my life, although in a much more time manageable sense. Video games are my reward for a hard days work now, rather than a source of procrastination. I even just bought myself a shiny new Xbox One to compliment my gaming PC. I have been and continue to be a Gamer.

That is, until I caught up with the Zoe Quinn situation. I mostly ignore the Internet, as the Internet rarely has anything useful to say about anything, (Says a blogger on the internet - Ed) but this story stuck with me for a variety of reasons and I'm let me tell you, I no longer want to be labeled as a Gamer. I don't want to be called that, because now that means I am a heinous, misogynistic bigot. The Gamer community has tarnished itself to the point that I no longer want to be a part of it.

Let me make this clear; I don't know Zoe Quinn. I've never met Zoe Quinn, and I will never meet Zoe Quinn. I don't give a fuck who she's fucked and neither should you. She could have done everything she is being accused of doing, and it still wouldn't matter because it is NONE OF OUR BUSINESS. To watch what the Gamer community has done to this poor woman is a disgrace that I just can't be a part of.

What's hilarious about this whole situation is the Gamer community is desperate to be taken seriously. They want E-Sports on ESPN and games recognized as a serious art form. They want Games to stop being blamed for mass shootings and violence and perceived as a useful pasttime. They want to be known as a welcoming global community that embraces everyone. Hell, anyone can be a "Gamer". And then you all pull this shit and "anyone" means white, heterosexual male? How can you, as a community, be taken seriously when you attack women with such hatred and disgust that even someone in ISIS would be uncomfortable.

That's right, I compared Gamers to ISIS. I'm not overracting, or going for Fox News worthy hyperbole, you are all seriously that misguided and abusive. The only explanation can be that you all hate women with such a passion that the comparison to Islamic Extremism is not only justified, but easy to make. And I'll say this about 4chan that a friend of mine said best, if 4chan were a geographic location military action would have to be considered for the evil that dwells there would be to horrific to let continue. Congrats, 4chan, you are the equivalent to a third world brutal dictatorship, and the only group of people on the planet that would be proud of that. Also, I'm not afraid of you, but you only seem to prey on women so I guess I don't really have anything to be afraid of.

So I'm walking away from this "community" and I'm ashamed that I ever was a part of it. Gamer, to me, now has such a negative connotation to it that I'd like to be as far away from that as possible. I'm still going to play video games, but to me, a Gamer is now a certain type of person, mysogynistic and vile. Terrence Howard has this great moment in Crash and although its not a great movie, his quote as stuck with me and although the situation in which it was uttered in the film has far more weight to it, it's fitting for this situation. "You embarass me, and you embarrass yourself."

Kyle Johanessen is not a gamer.

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