Robert Conway
Robert Conway is millennial who grew up with gaming. When he's not gaming he's either working, at the gym, playing music, or reading comic books. Robert prefers to play games on Xbox but will always have a soft spot for Nintendo's consoles.
Want to know what’s going over at GamerGhazi’s chatroom? Well you’re in luck my friend because the chat logs for Wednesday, March 11, 2015 have been leaked to the public. While I can’t say that the leaks revealed anything surprising it seems that Ghazi needs to do some soul searching. Ghazi’s mods are currently struggling with whether or not their subreddit is a safe space or not. This topic of course is pretty broad and includes whether or not their logo of St. Anita is in good taste and whether or not mocking #Gamergate is productive or not.
Much of the criticism against Ghazi came from Maddy Myers who had been tweeting some strong criticisms of Ghazi. Maddy’s tweets accused Ghazi of being counter productive. Maddy Myers falls into a group of people that see Ghazi a place for victim support rather than reporting “tabloid news.” This is at the heart of the conflict.
Based on both Maddy Myers’ tweets and the chat logs there is a general consensus among some Ghazians that making fun of #Gamergate and the subreddit Kotaku In Action (KIA for short) is counter productive and is causing more harm than good. Another thing Myers was extremely upset about was the ‘victim list’. She claimed that the list not only made it easier for the victims to be harassed but that the list allegedly “misgendered” the victims too.
Randi Harper has a strong presence in the chat logs. Harper not only weighed in on Maddy Myers’ tweets but also took credit for getting Leigh Alexander’s Twitter unblocked in less than 10 minutes.This was interesting in its own right, for why would Randi Harper be connected to Twitter admins when she is responsible for the creation of a massive Twitter blocker bot?
I wonder how Randi did it?
Most of the chat log was mundane. Several of the Ghazians discussed games such Marvel Heroes and Pokemon. Other discussed anime like Evangelion and Sword Art Online. Randi Harper discussed buying a new puppy (presumably to dye an unnatural neon color). Other Ghazians discussed their social lives (or lack thereof). One Ghazian went as far as admitting to having no friends in real life and that GamerGhazi was the closest she had to a social life. Perhaps being that kind of anti-social shut-in has kept Ghazians from considering other points of view. Several other members discussed combating depression, a common affliction when you barricade yourself in an echo chamber.
If Ghazi is your only social outlet, you need to get out more.
At the end of the day the chat logs have painted an interesting picture of Gamerghazi, which is already going through major changes. They’ve recently removed their logo featuring their patron saint Anita Sarkeesian in hopes that they will look less like a cult. I wouldn’t be surprised if Ghazi went private for a bit either. If that does happen I wouldn’t necessarily call that a victory for #Gamergate; the real victory will come if Ghazi decides to shift its focus to genuine victim support afflicting those on the gamergate side instead of unfunny mockery. As Ghazi begins to make changes It will be interesting see if the subreddit will be able to sustain itself.
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