In the last year or so we've been surrounded by industry controversy, from the shocking abuse of a Bioware writer to the ill considered comments by a Gearbox developer, and it seems that we're always ready for a good fight. To get PROPER angry.
In most cases, it's entirely warranted - sexism, misogyny and homophobia have been left rife and unchallenged within the community for far too long, thus the growing number of people on social media and journalists at large have been fighting (mostly) to expose it. I've happily noticed an ever growing number of people, both male and female, calling foul on most of this practices which tells me there is, however small, movement on tackling these issues.
But the flip-side of this crusade to tackle these problems has increased the level of general anger and antagonism, both on social media, blogs and larger outlets between gamers and journos alike. When most of us would usually bind together to fight as a unit against outside forces (Jack Thompson, Politicans, Mainstream media rubbish), on these problems we prefer to blame each other.
It doesn't help that the internet has created the extraordinarily easy opportunity for any idiot with a keyboard to create a blog, slap on an Ad Words banner, and write a horrible headline with garbage underneath to become instantly notorious. This won't take long to hit the social airwaves and before long, we're all fighting with each other again over a troll.
I get it. These people shouldn't be writing this sort of crap. But we've been through so much turmoil and snark that it really doesn't take much for us to get angry again at the drop of a hat. It doesn't justify flooding your feed with furious retweets and .@'s because you read something designed to be offensive on JoeBlogGamesVille.com - all you are doing is perpetuating the cycle and nullifying the *REAL* rage when someone actually important says or does something offensive.
Let's all step back, have a breath, and focus on the things that matter: The games, the people who make them and the upstanding community of great people who contribute to the creative process every day. Feel free to do your jobs to hold people accountable for their views, but maybe make sure those people are actually worth the effort.
