For Rachael Lefler, a student at Illinois State University, the Gamergate controversy was pretty much a life-altering event. For those who don’t know, the #Gamergate hashtag emerged on Twitter as a response by gamers to what many of them viewed as unethical conduct in the games journalism industry. The corrupt journalists and game developers then led a PR campaign to frame the scandal as a feminist issue, claiming that women in gaming are unduly attacked by the gamers.
As a lifetime “geek”, with hobbies including science fiction, anime, fantasy, drawing, cosplay, and of course, gaming. Rachael was appalled, knowing that this allegation, and many others levied against people who play video games, is false and represents stereotypes that have been used against her and people like her to bully and belittle them. In fact, this re-branding the issue as an “attack on women in gaming” has become so successful that all of the first page of Google results for “gamergate” will make this argument. We are NOT misogynist and we are NOT trying to attack, insult, or belittle women. This is a misrepresentation of us, made by people whose economic interests lie in crying to the camera for money, in playing the role of “professional victim”.
Through her experience with this, and her desire to fight negative misrepresentations of geek culture, Rachael has taken to Kickstarter to hopefully launch her own alternative geek and gaming news site; one that strives for higher standards of journalistic integrity. Instead of directly attacking feminists or directly talking about the specific arguments surrounding the Gamergate controversy, Rachael instead just simply hopes to create her own ethical alternative to the big gaming news sites.
The result: Bokutachi. This Kickstarter project is aimed at creating a new games and geek culture journalism site, which will cover a range of topics and contain both updates/breaking news and in-depth analysis into the philosophy, sociology, and psychology behind human interaction with and consumption of various geek-associated media (games, books, comic books, art, television, and film). Read more about this exciting new project here. Inquiries about writing or about the philosophy behind the creation of the sight can be sent to rjlefle@ilstu.edu
