Since August 2014, anyone with even a marginal interest in games has been made painfully aware of some very loud, very annoying, and very angry individuals who have made it their mission to clear up a few things about games using the hashtag #Gamergate. Games, these people whine, do not have politics. Games, they opine, are simply about fun (and fun, in this case, is defined by them); Gone Home and Depression Quest are not games. Gaming journalism, critique, and research, they shout, should not be “biased” or reflect the concerns of “social justice warriors” (SJWs). Gaming culture, their actions suggest, is for men and boys– specifically, young, cisgendered, straight, white males (Dewey, 2014; McCormick, 2014). For many of us, watching #Gamergate unfold has been an unsettling confirmation of what we’ve already known for a long time: some within the gaming community do not want us to play and make games. We struggle with what that might mean, and more importantly, how to change it. And so we call for more diverse representation within
games (and in the gaming industry).
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