Gamer's traditionally have less political sophistication than a dead dog. Recent highly visible gamer moves have included review bombing Helldivers, screaming about not being able to see both labia t the same time in Stellar Blade, and whatever that Sweet Baby/DEI thing I haven't bothered to look at is. Idk what the scale of this roblox bs is, but i am interested in the phenomena of game rage campaigns where they get extremely self righteously mad over strange, often trivial shit and make it their entire life for a few days. Wtf is happening? Is this echoes of gamegate a decade later?
I feel like gamergate left a permanent stain on the gaming community as a whole. I wasn't really online enough to have followed gamergate all that closely when it was happening, but in the aftermath it always felt like it only ever cooled down to the point where the sentiments were boiling just below the surface.
Now, at a time when reactionary forces are constantly bombarding people crying about how wokeness is destroying America gamers are falling for the propaganda. They're mad at the games industry for all the wrong reasons. I wouldn't be shocked if some of the people within studios are the ones that help stir this shit up. Like wasn't the person that created the Stellar Blade petition some sexpest formerly from Bethesda or something like that? Of course the long term effects are the creation of a new generation of reactionaries and its sad to see.
Propaganda isn’t something people “fall for”, it’s something people seek out deliberately because it agrees with what they already think. The only thing which will change their minds is a lived experience which teaches them otherwise.
I like that redsails article, but in the context of children -- and this is roblox -- propaganda is absolutely something people fall for
Same... I mean if this stuff didn't work the right would not spend literally billions of dollars on it. The propaganda is everywhere at all times. Makes me jealous of the people living ad-free in Pyongyang.
I think Gamergate and the Alt-Right could be analyzed as the right figuring out how to mobilize masses of people using new communications technologies. Back in the day I was playing a large scale MMO where one of the factions was almost entirely guys who, in retrospect, were very obviously the petri dishes from which the Alt-Right spawned. In that sense your "stain" theory checks out - After that the new awareness that online gate campaigns could cause significant disruption and gain a lot of attention spread and we've seen a bunch of smaller campaigns happen.
I think the Stellar Blade guy is an ex-Blizzard dev that was too creepy for even them and got fired before all the terrible shit went public. Wouldn't be surprised if he was the one that was stealing breast milk.