NBI2015 Talkback Challenge week 1

In the first Talkback challenge of #NBI2015, Izlain posits the question: How did GamerGate effect you?

I guess I'd have to say that it scared me off. This was a topic that I wanted to understand, but did not have the time to fully comprehend what was going on. I heard snippets here and there about what was being discussed, but I never dug in. And one thing I try to avoid, is stepping into something I know little about and making uninformed comments. So I backed off and just played games.

I don't play games to make a statement or to be political, I play games as a diversion and an entertainment, so when things started getting all wonky, I buried myself in the games. I played a lot of League of Legends and Heroes of the Storm and some single player games – I didn't even really want to go into MMOs because I knew the people I interact with there were talking about the controversy. And I cut back on posts here. I wanted to let the discussion continue without me, and it sure did.

I still don't know what all the hubbub was about and I suppose to some degree the issue is still out there, but I am not really interested in getting involved with it. I am actually glad it has fallen down on the internet priority list – I guess the Black Widow/Joss Whedon thing is trending now, but whatever GamerGate is, I'm not really motivated to discuss it.

So I guess the effect GamerGate had on me was that I opted out of participating in the discussion.