Simps, Slurs, and Sexism: Online Radicalisation of the Alt-Right Within Online Gaming Spaces
Words by Stevie Malcom
CW: Discussion of terrorism, racism, anti-semitism, sexism, homophobia, harassment, and brief discussions of pornography. Specific mention of the 2019 Christchurch mosque attacks.
The alt-right are a silently-growing ideological group that seems to infiltrate more online spaces every day.
Over the past few years, online radicalisation has been pointed to as the key cause to motivate the growing number of alt-right terrorist attacks.
Thanks to sharp algorithms and social media feeding echo-chambers, members of the alt-right have been able to infiltrate online spaces to radicalise young people by slowly pushing more extreme content and ideas. This is often referred to as the ‘alt-right pipeline.’
The world of online gaming has become one of the most talked about spaces at the start of this pipeline. In recent examples, the perpetrator of the 2019 Christchurch Mosque attacks was radicalised to the alt-right online through white-nationalist forums. The perpetrator was then praised as a hero within these forums, with his followers even developing a twisted first-person shooter game to mimic the attack (which has now been shut down).
Over the years, gaming culture has developed a reputation for fostering problematic and offensive views, often due to the sense of anonymity players feel online. So how do we distinguish between a light-hearted community of people with shared interests, and something much more sinister? I spoke to two gamers who both have experienced first-hand the effects of this type of gaming culture.
Rose, a gamer based in Wellington, explained to me that her encounters with sexism while gaming online were not isolated incidents:
“I pretty much avoided online gaming because everyone who I knew was a girl would get harassed […] so I haven't delved too much into it because of that, and when I am online, I'm pretty much always pretending to be a boy.” Rose explained that the misogynistic comments were considered the norm, and that men speaking out against misogyny would be shamed.
“If you're pro-women, you're a simp,” she put it bluntly.
While Rose acknowledges that these attitudes are common, they vary depending on the types of games she’s playing.
“I think [these attitudes are] more common in mainstream video games, like [first-person] shooters”, Rose explained. “In games like Rainbow Siege, Overwatch—typical shooter games, it’s pretty big. But in more like ‘hardcore games’—people playing games for gaming’s sake—theres more of a maturity […] it attracts a bit more of an older crowd, so I find there's a lot less harassment in those types of games.”
When asked whether she thinks that these environments can foster hate and further discrimination, Rose replied,“100%. How familiar are you with the Gamergate movement?”
Gamergate was a harassment campaign in 2014 that promoted the de-politicism of gaming across online gaming spaces. It was associated with the rise of the online alt-right movement, because it was centred around anti-progressive ideologies. The campaign itself is long-winded and complex. Wikipedia describes it as a “culture war over cultural diversification, artistic recognition, feminism in video games, social criticism in video games, and the social identity of gamers.” The purpose of the campaign was to oppose the new ‘political correctness’ that ‘Gamergaters’ claimed was being inserted into video games.
Gamergate was mostly organised through forums and message boards such as 4chan and Reddit. Game developer Zoë Quinn was the initial target of the harassment, after her ex-boyfriend shared a post accusing her of sleeping with a gaming journalist for a good review of her video game. Quinn then began receiving a series of assault threats and death threats online. Alongside Quinn, Gamergaters have harassed other women and gender diverse gamers who have spoken up about misogyny in gaming, such as game developer Brianna Wu. The campaign itself expanded into a type of culture war among different online games.
Rose described to me how the Gamergate movement infiltrated the online game Overwatch. She explained that when game developer Blizzard developed a new first-person shooter game, certain players became upset.
“They were trying to appeal to a more mainstream audience. At this point they had all of the female [characters] in the exact same physique and all the males in various shapes and sizes. A lot of women were like “What the fuck, why are all the women the same?” So Blizzard, to combat that […] they released two different characters, a plus-size character and a very very butch woman.”
When asked how Blizzard’s audience took that, Rose replied, “People lost their shit.”
“The game developed a very very sexual nature,” Rose explained. “There was a huge ban on porn for it because you couldn't Google [Overwatch] without getting porn.”
“The way to fuck with the company was to fuck with all of the women.”
From Rose’s perspective, that was the moment that gaming started to develop a more sexist culture. “Girls started coming in and pointing out sexism in it, and guys felt very threatened because their [...] space was being invaded.”
Robert Evans, an investigative journalist specialising in extremist ideologies and communities, explained that Gamergate worked because of who it catered towards: “Part of why Gamergate happened in the first place was because you had these people online preaching to these groups of disaffected young men.”
Ben, a gamer based in Auckland, is aware of Gamergate’s impact on the politics of modern gaming culture all too well. Ben explained that they became accustomed to hearing slurs in most gaming lobbies they were in. “I would be surprised […] if there wasn't one vaguely problematic remark, if not one actively problematic remark”.
Ben was mostly gaming with their brother when they first started to notice the language their sibling was using.
They explained that after they came out as bisexual, they noticed homophobic and racist language a lot more:
“Just the way he and his friends in chat rooms would very casually use racial slurs, homophobic slurs, that kind of thing.” Ben says that language was used so frequently that it put them off gaming with their brother altogether.
Ben confronted their brother when their brother’s friend started yelling homophobic slurs after losing a game. “A month later, my brother very sheepishly came up to me and was like “you know [my friend] isnt actually homophobic, right?” He said it was just kind of a thing you do, that he didn't actually mean it. I was like “Well if he didnt mean it, he shouldn't say it.”
Another common occurrence that Ben noticed was the casual use of anti-semitism within the community.
“Every now and again, I would see [my brother’s friend] change his emblem to something anti-semetic. Usually ‘as a joke’, swastikas, because he thought it was funny.” Ben explained that the creative control gamers have over their avatars and emblems easily allows for hateful imagery and messages to be displayed.
Similar to Rose, Ben noted how different games can result in different crowds being drawn. “Some games tend to draw more of a discriminatory crowd than other games,” they explained to me. “Games that foster teamwork and cooperation have much less to do with that sort of thing, whereas the blunt competitiveness of other games can really foster aggressiveness.”
President of VESA (Victoria University’s E-Sports Association), Laura Westney, weighed in on the matter. Unlike Ben, she doesnt think radicalisation poses much of a threat to the gaming community.
“I think genuine alt-right radicalisation is definitely happening in gaming somewhere, just not on a broad, general level,” she stated. “It’s very niche. I think the same can be said for most radical groups as well.”
Ben notes that echo-chambers radicalise gamers through normalising problematic ideals: “It’s probably that bizarre community type of thing where you play games that you enjoy with the people that you like and then you start to use their cultural terminology.”
“And then, you slowly [funnel] yourself into [more] groups that don't care or are actively charmed by it. Then before you know it, you're in places that are way more happy to foster anti-seminitism, racism, homophobia.”
While gamers across the internet can debate whether gaming culture actually contributes to far-right radicalisation, it’s clear that problematic ideas are growing in a community that was originally built for much less menacing intentions. To say that all gamers are prone to these behaviours would be vastly incorrect. However, it is unfortunately clear that a small minority of gamers are becoming targets to radicalisation from the alt-right.
Coming out of my investigation, it's clear to me that the strongest tool to prevent radicalisation is increasing awareness. To offer new perspectives to those at risk of radicalisation to stop the normalisation of hateful ones.
Because normalisation does not make hateful ideas correct. It just makes them appear more acceptable.