GamerGate, feminism, Anita Sarkeesian, and gamer identity: these topics dominated online conversations throughout the latter half of 2014 — but how many people actually care? Is it a just vocal minority that are engaged in these debates, leaving most gamers to play their games in peace, isolated from gaming’s larger context, culture, and community?
In a recent episode of Less Than or Equal, I posited that most consumers in the gaming industry have no awareness of these issues and movements. To test that theory, I found four gamers who are not on Twitter and, despite enjoying such games as Call of Duty, Smash Bros., and Xenosaga, had never heard of GamerGate or Feminist Frequency. I asked each guest in turn the same four questions: what is a gamer; who is Anita Sarkeesian; what is a feminist; and what is GamerGate? After having the honor of introducing them to these concepts, I recorded their reactions.
These four guests represent a cross-section of gaming, coming from different ages (22–36), genders, ethnicities, marital and parental status, geographies, professions, political/religious/sexual orientations, and gaming platforms. All four are personal friends of mine and are identified in this episode’s audio by first name only.
Download the audio edition of this interview below or from iTunes, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Mixcloud, Spoke, Overcast, acast, Pocket Casts, Castbox, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive.
Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:38:39 — 51.5MB) | Embed
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