Cuties Killing Video Games: Gender Politics and Performance in Indie Game Developer Subculture A Thesis Presented to the Honors Tutorial College, Ohio University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Graduation from the Honors Tutorial College with the degree of Political Science by Alexander Higgins April 2015 Higgins 2 Table of Contents Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 3 Chapter 1: The Sad State of Gender Politics in Video Game Subculture, or, Why Videogames Need to be Killed ..................................................................................... 15 Chapter 2: History and Manifestations of Inequality and the Egalitarian Potential of Alternative Spaces ................................................................................................... 38 Chapter 3: Gamergate Observed, or, My Experience as an Undercover Social Justice Warrior .......................................................................................................................... 74 Chapter 4: How to Kill Video Games and Look Cute While Doing It ...................... 147 Chapter 5: Conclusion................................................................................................. 187 Bibliography and Works Cited ................................................................................... 203 Higgins 3 Introduction In August 2014, Maya Felix Kramer, a public relations professional in independent game development, designed and sold a T-shirt featuring the slogan “Cuties Killing Video Games.” When asked about the meaning of the shirt, she explains that “There is a theory you might not be familiar with that has been circulating [in] the gamer community for quite some time: that some people have the desire to KILL VIDEO GAMES.”1 She then provides a list of the people who are allegedly destroying the medium, which includes “developers of games about ‘feelings,’” “people who write about games,” “feminists,” “casuals,” “people working to make games accessible to those with disabilities,” and “minorities.” In jest, she says that, if people like her are “killing” video games, then “I’m into it. If I’m killing video games, I may as well own it, and look cute doing it.” In reality, there are few, if any, people on the political left in gaming culture who literally want to literally “kill” or “ruin” video games. However, the phrase, “Cuties Killing Video Games,” is an attractive metaphor for a cultural shift currently underway in gaming subculture – the evolution of gaming’s social norms as a result of social justice advocacy. “Cuties” want a greater diversity of voices in gaming, both among developers and players, and they also want games to capture a wider variety of human experiences, especially those of marginalized people. However, there are others in gaming culture opposed to such reform, insisting that gaming subculture is 1 Source: Kramer, Maya. “Forgive my ignorance, but what exactly does "killing videogames" mean?” Ask.fm. Ask.fm, Aug. 2014. Web. 7 Apr. 2015. <http://ask.fm/legobutts/answer/118001011383>. Higgins 4 threatened by feminists and other social justice advocates. The struggle between these two factions is currently epitomized by the ongoing Gamergate controversy, which I will return to later in this introduction. Videogames are capable of emulating a wide variety of human experiences, yet, collectively, they capture very few of them. As developer Anna Anthropy writes in Rise of the Videogame Zinesters, “Mostly, videogames are about men shooting men in the face.” (3). While her statement is exaggerated for rhetorical effect (there are, obviously, games without shooting), games about fantasy violence arguably dominate mainstream gaming culture. Even when accounting for all genres, there has been little exploration in mainstream games outside themes of violence, action, sports, racing, or abstract puzzle solving. Compared to novels, film, and most other entertainment media, there is less variety in the stories told through games. One can take Anthropy’s statement one step further and assert that most (non-abstract) videogames are about cisgendered,2 heterosexual, and white men who shoot men in the face. Nonwhite protagonists are disproportionately rare, and women often play supporting or even submissive roles, both narratively and mechanically. Problem solving usually occurs through the (often violent) domination of other actors and the vast accumulation of wealth, perhaps reinforcing values of rugged individualism, exceptionalism, and consumerism. 2 Meaning that the one’s gender identity is identical to that assigned at birth. Higgins 5 The homogenous experiences portrayed in games are paralleled by the homogenous gender and race identities of game developers.3 As I will further discuss in Chapter 2, professional game developers are primarily white and male, and to secondarily Asian and male. While women are more present in player communities, their degree of engagement in these communities is often diminished or delegitimized. Mainstream game culture is dominated by men. This thesis is an exploration of how a more progressive and egalitarian gaming subculture can be achieved, a topic which holds implications for gender equality in a general societal context. The Context of this Discussion: Gamergate The “Cuties Killing Video Games” t-shirt was originally printed shortly after the beginning of the Gamergate controversy, a struggle about social identity, cultural criticism, and feminism within gaming culture. The following account I provide of Gamergate is by no means complete history of the movement. Providing an accurate account of Gamergate that considers every ideological shift, email campaign, dox,4 DDoS attack,5 rape threat, death threat, account suspension, and police report would be a massive undertaking in itself. Because of Gamergate, or one’s involvement within it, many people have abandoned social media, lost their jobs, and even fled their homes – its story is complicated, dramatic, and sometimes tragic. The account of 3 Please keep in mind that when I talk about game developer identities as homogenous, I mean that they are homogenous relative to the rest of society. Obviously, technically skilled white men come from a variety of backgrounds and experiences, and I do not intend to deny the variety of experiences among them. However, these experiences are still not representative of society’s experience as a whole. 4 Doxxing is practice of leaking a target’s personal information online, facilitating, among many things, the harassment of that target. 5 A DDoS attack, or distributed denial of service attack, is an attempt to make a website inaccessible to the general public, effectively shutting it down. Higgins 6 Gamergate I provide here is meant to serve as an introduction to the controversy, and is by no means attempting to be a complete and comprehensive history. I cannot properly express in this introduction alone how extraordinary the previous eight months have been. Gamergate began in August, 2014, when Eron Gjoni, an ex-boyfriend of independent game developer Zoe Quinn, published a blog called thezoepost,6 in which, among many things, he accuses Quinn of cheating on him with five other people, including games writer Nathan Grayson, who currently writes for the video game news site Kotaku. From thezoepost emerged allegations that Quinn slept with Grayson in exchange for positive reviews of her game, Depression Quest. The allegations in what became known as the “Zoe Quinn Scandal” were quickly proven false,7 but it did not prevent self-identified gamers from accusing gaming journalism of being “corrupted” by “social justice warriors” (SJWs) – a pejorative term used for those concerned about social justice issues. In the weeks following the allegations, Quinn experienced a notable amount of online criticism and harassment at the hands of self-identified “gamers.” In response to this, games journalists and bloggers wrote a number of editorials condemning the harassment, a few of which declared the irrelevance and metaphorical death of the gamer identity. It was around this time that Quinn’s opponents began to organize and refer to themselves as Gamergate. 6Source: Gjoni, Eron. Thezoepost. N.p., Aug. 2014. Web. 7 Apr. 2015. <https://thezoepost.wordpress.com>. 7 Grayson only mentioned Quinn and Depression Quest in two of his articles. Neither was a review of the game, and both were written before they were romantically involved. Higgins 7 Gamergate is an online movement, which originated from the use of the #gamergate hashtag on Twitter, first used by actor Adam Baldwin to refer to the Zoe Quinn Scandal, and soon adopted by gamers (the name of the movement is a play on the Watergate scandal). Many members have joined the movement to protest perceived journalistic corruption,8 while others contend that “SJWs” are censoring and disallowing opposing viewpoints in online spaces and the press. As I will discuss in Chapter 3, those who Gamergate9 accuses of engaging in journalistic corruption or attacking mainstream gaming culture are often also accused of being “SJWs.” Gamergate members argue that “SJWs” are trying to force a social justice agenda upon gaming culture, hijacking what they perceive as an apolitical culture for political ends. Gamergate is a complicated political movement with no formal organization or leadership. Generally, members of the movement are opposed to what they see