Get in the Game

Chapter 4Underworld: Violence, Addiction, Toxicity, Representation, and Brand Safety

For a pastime that's supposed to be fun, gaming has a lot of baggage. So much so that at various points, those in the industry were in favor of removing the words “game” or “gamer” from conversations with those outside the industry, instead relying upon more sterile terms like “interactive entertainment.” Public flashpoints like Gamergate, where female game developer Zoe Quinn came under fire based on a factless insinuation from an ex‐boyfriend that she had used sex to advance her career, served as a bit of vindication for those who held onto stereotypical conceptions of gamers or the gaming industry. A larger dialogue around representation and biases in gaming ensued, and “gamers” marched out (online, naturally), virtual pitchforks and torches in hand, to attack those in the industry who didn't look or think like them. In seeing a mob of angry young men attacking women, journalists, and nonwhite/nonmale developers, it wasn't a hard cognitive leap to assume that various other qualms directed at gaming fans (that they were violent, addicted to games, nasty to one another or outsiders, etc.) were also true.

Why does it seem like there are so many jerks in gaming? On the one hand, gaming tends to be full of jerks because the world is full of jerks.¹ On the other, much of the toxicity in gaming tends to come from a very small part of the overall gaming population, and developers (along with other ...