Random Shots: Failure of Character

• About two months ago, an eternity in internet time, I wrote an impassioned defense of the term "gamer". I have always identified as a gamer. Games have helped me through hard times. Games have given me opportunities to make friends when I might otherwise find it difficult. So as the GamerGate mess was just forming, I decided to toss in my two cents.


• I was wrong to do so.


• A lot of what I see in GamerGate is people in pain. People like myself, hurt by the very people that they thought of as allies. I understand it because that is what I felt. I was confused because I did not know why I was being attacked for being even tangentially tied to the horrific events that were underway. In the midst of all that, I rushed to my own defense as though it was ever really about me.


• But instead of speaking, I should have been listening. Instead of writing, I should have been reading. GamerGate has never been about me. It is about the pain and suffering inflicted by people I might once have called friends.


• And so, far too late, I apologize. I hope that those who identify with GamerGate come to realize that their lashing out as though they are the victims will do more harm than good in that long run. The gaming community may be irrevocably damaged now, but I don't think it's too late.