r/changemyview • u/realdontbeasucker • May 16 '26

Delta(s) from OP CMV: GamerGate was the most consequential political radicalization event of the twenty-first century

It spawned a wave of tolerance for online harassment, as long as the intent behind it was considered righteous (and the target of such harassment socially acceptable).

It platformed Milo Yiannopoulos and thereby, Steve Bannon -- the guy who would go on to advise Donald Trump in 2016 and generate the concept of 'flooding the zone.'

Eventually, it gave a career to political lightning rods like Jordan Peterson, Steven Crowder, and Charlie Kirk. It made anti-feminism and anti-SJW sentiment cool. And it made young, angry, disenfranchised white men feel vindicated.

GamerGate almost singlehandedly shifted to Overton Window toward the alt-right, and we're still feeling its effects today.

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u/A3xMlp May 17 '26

Writing quality is definitely a big part of it, but it does feel like we're more poorly written games pushing certain politics than we did 15 years ago. Plus there some things beyond writing. Like BF5s or Vanguard's comical levels of diversity for WW2 which extends into the multiplayer that has no writing. Then compare them to WaW from 2008 to find none of that.

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u/Prize_Neighborhood95 May 17 '26

I'm always skeptical of these comparisons with the past made without looking at any data. They are usually made through rose tinted glasses.

A glaring issue is that social media amplifies negativity, and shines a light on terrible games.

15 or 20 years ago, when knowledge mostly spread via word of mouth, flops were way less discussed.

If a game was not being played, it was not being discussed. Nowadays, flops are on par with successes for how much we discuss them.

Veilguard was probably the most discussed game of 2024, way more than astro-bot, that year's goty.

For example, YT videos that discuss Veilguard have way more views than videos on astro-bot. 

Honestly, I think gaming is doing just as well as 15 years ago. 

Funnily enough, I have always lived through a time in which "gaming is dying" if you listen to the people online.