Katie Ward
Staff Writer

#Gamergate has recently been the source of gaming controversy in the gaming community, and at its source is the gaming community’s desire for change. The conflict revolves around two main topics. It began with the role of women and female characters in the gaming industry. This slowly turned into the conversation of ethical journalism, and gaming journalists’ and gaming critics’ hyperfocus on feminism in gaming, to the point where readers believed they were not being provided with objective descriptions of the games in review. Do you believe that left-leaning journalism such as this calls the struggles of minorities to light, or do you believe that it distracts from the topic at hand? Why do you believe so?

Eoin O’Leary
sophomore international business major

“I think it’s an effective way to bring about change and bring about the fact that there are problems within the gaming community. It is a rather sexist community. Female characters are portrayed very differently than male characters. I think if you’re looking for an objective opinion on a gaming community you can’t expect all journalists to have a fully objective opinion, some of course are going to have a somewhat biased opinion based on their personal gender and their own personal experiences. But I think that this form of journalism is a good way to bring about change and at least bring up that the fact that there is a problem within the gaming community.”

Aisling Gallaghe
freshman undeclared arts major

“I believe that recognition of these minorities’ struggles by left leaning journalists is important and should be continued to a certain point. However, these journalists must establish a balance between an objective review and then perhaps acknowledgement of struggles. Focusing too strongly on either side does have drawbacks, so a balance is key. Too objective of a review airbrushes the realities in the gamer industry today, and does not draw any attention to the struggles that females or other groups face. However, too liberal of a review may successfully shine light on these issues but fails to provide a straightforward, helpful review of games. In order to successfully cover these topics, a balance must be established.”

Kelsey Sexton
junior kinesiology and dance major

“If [critics and journalists] are talking about women in the sense that we shouldn’t objectify women in video games, and all of that, then I think that’s all good. At the same time, if you are doing a review of a video game it should be about the entire video game. If they are writing an article about feminism and how objectified women are in video games, then it should be about that. If it’s a simple review, then it should be about the game across the board.”