Video game

From ‘Fortnite’ To Alt-Right Rhymes, I Guess, But Does It Mean Anything? – Forbes


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A recent op/ed argues that gamers are uniquely vulnerable to recruitment by white nationalists. Here’s why that’s not true.Credit: Bethesda

Writing in the opinion pages of the New York Times, Megan Condis wonders if white nationalists are using video games to recruit new initiates into their ideology of hatred.

Video games and the communities surrounding these games, writes Condis, “make for an ideal recruiting venue. Why? Because they come equipped with an easy-to-understand narrative of the unwelcome “invasion” of “our spaces” that, in the right hands, can readily be expanded beyond the world of gaming.”

She notes also that social media and numerous other avenues are open to white nationalists looking to reel in new recruits. Still, she argues, gaming has a unique appeal given all the controversy in gaming over “SJWs” and political correctness and feminism and so on and so forth.

“White supremacist recruiters have recognized this feeling of resentment bubbling up and pounced,” Condis writes, “seeking out gamers who fit the stereotype. They tell those gamers that they really do represent the rightful majority within their community and that all others are either opportunistic fakers only pretending to be into games or intruders trying to ruin everything fun and unique about gaming culture with their insidious political correctness.”

This is a complicated argument in that I can see both sides of it and it’s not exactly the usual “games create monsters/shooters/satanists” piece we so often see after mass shootings. Blaming games for violence is as commonplace as it is absurd. But that’s not exactly what Condis is arguing, though as I’ll get to in a minute, her argument still fails to convince.

I mean, sure, yes I can see how political activists of all stripes might seek out recruitment in gaming forums. Why not? Politics and marketing have plenty in common, and the gaming community provides fertile soil for both, comprised largely of young men with at least a little time and money. The ones self-selecting to be involved in forums and internet debates are certainly more likely to become involved in politics of some kind.

But I see nothing unique about gaming to suggest that white nationalism will find anything more than fringe foothold here, just like anywhere else. Most gamers will not be swayed by white nationalist arguments. Some will. Just like most people in general will not become regulars at Stormfront or the local KKK chapter house, but some will. When we talk about games this way we gate them off from the rest of society as though gamers and gaming communities only exist in that space, but gamers are often also doctors, clerks, policemen, brewers, milliners, acupuncturists, taxidermists, meteorologists, psychics . . . you get my drift.

It’s an argument with little substance, in other words, however much sense it makes in a certain light. Certainly there is some overlap between gaming and the darker corners of the internet. Then again, there’s some overlap between many other hobbies and professions and industries and the darker corners of the internet.

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Gamers are just normal people like you and me.Credit: 2K Games

Most gamers don’t even go on forums or get involved in the latest stupid controversy. Most gamers don’t even read about games all that much!

They have no interest in the latest patch notes for their favorite games, let alone this kind of fringe politics and all that it entails. They don’t care. They want to shoot pixel bad guys in Apex Legends or do slick combos in Devil May Cry 5 or die over and over again in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice or dance like there’s no tomorrow in Fortnite. Or play Candy Crush on the bus while thinking about girls or pizza or their job interview.

That’s the thing. You’re much more likely to see people dancing and having a good time in Fortnite than you are to see gamers wooed by neo-Nazis with memes. Gamers aren’t some other class of people, or some foreign species. That’s a silly notion.

Condis writes:

“So if we know gaming culture is being exploited by white supremacist recruiters, where do we go from here? It can be tempting to write off video games as toxic hotbeds of hate, too tainted for the uninitiated to engage with. But this would be exactly what extremists like the New Zealand shooter want.” (Do we know it’s being exploited, or at least exploited at any kind of alarming rate, though? I see no evidence, even if it’s true.)

This, she argues, is because if “we” (the mainstream media and culture, I guess) don’t pay attention to the gaming community, it will continue to be a potential breeding ground for white nationalists and right-wing terrorists.

“Our failure to take games seriously provides the companies in the games industry an excuse not to invest the time, effort and money that would be required to moderate their communities properly,” she writes. Or maybe our failure to take games seriously means we constantly misunderstand what the gaming community is actually like, or where to draw the line between actual gamers and actual trolls.

This is where the op/ed blindly wheels off a cliff and crashes into the rubble below. Cue explosions. Cue wailing sirens in the distance. Look, a lone spire of smoke rising high into the sky above the wreckage below.

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This argument is on thin ice.Credit: Microsoft

What, exactly, is a game company supposed to do to moderate its community properly? There is no proposed solution here. Just words, words, words. I am at a loss as to what one might be. It’s a game company’s responsibility to make sure players aren’t cheating or being abusive or harmful to one another in-game, which is why most have some form of reporting function, and certainly on official forums it’s a company’s job to provide moderation.

But white nationalist recruitment, if it is happening, is more likely to take place on reddit, 4chan or Twitter, or other more wretched domains, not in the middle of a Call of Duty match. The gaming industry can’t moderate those places, and in any case, if there is one thing that unites most gamers it’s the desire to be left alone and not hounded by busybodies and scolds of any political stripe. The gaming community isn’t exactly unique in this regard—other than the fact that it tends to attract more busybodies and scolds than many other communities for some reason.

Look, I’m not saying that extremists won’t use the gaming community to recruit or spread messages. I’m sure they do. I’ve seen political hacks try their hand at this very thing. That’s what politics is about, exploiting whatever you can to spread your message, whatever it may be. But there isn’t actually anything unique about gamers to make them any more susceptible to this than any other type of person, at least not for the majority of gamers. There are always bad apples. The real breeding ground for hatred is poverty and ignorance. Sometimes it’s also mental illness.

If we want to fight the rise of fascism or any other terrible idea, we need to put our money where our mouth is and provide decent jobs and education and healthcare to people, so that they can afford to buy video games and enjoy their lives without worrying about getting sick or losing their jobs and being destitute or out on the street. We need to encourage peaceful co-existence and trade.

We can disagree on the best way to do this—some might argue for more private sector involvement and deregulation while others want more government spending and expanded public programs—but when we turn to arguments that hinge on “the gamers” or “what about the children?” we’re almost certainly wading into a fantasy land of our own creation built on the pretty pixelated bricks of an overactive imagination.

Now I think I’ll go kill me some Nazis in Wolfenstein. Just in case there’s a white nationalist recruiter lurking about.



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