In this paper, I argue that player misery often originates from a fictional or lusory attitude which brackets game events from real-life, making the player’s emotions solely relevant within the game context. Although these feelings are usually regarded as undesirable, many players seem to enjoy videogames which cause them. As such, they can evoke feelings of failure, sadness, anger, and fear. Videogames often confront players with frustratingly difficult challenges, fearsome enemies, and tragic stories.

Understanding that the theory of cultivation (Morgan, 2009) may have played a pivotal role in the initiation and explosion of the internet hate mob and by viewing this social phenomenon through the eyes of a former game developer, I hope to illustrate how the specific content choices could have cultivated a modified world view regarding gender roles and sexuality generated by the video games they consume to amplify existing gender roles. Viewing GamerGate through the lens of cultivation theory, we begin to see the action as the result of nearly three decades of questionable content potentially cultivating the digital video games audience.

This action spread, morphing into an ex post facto justification (Read, 2016) to continue their harassment campaign to also include commentaries on the nature of digital games in the broader culture generated as a response to their initial actions (Alexander, 'Gamers' don't have to be your audience. Using digital technologies like twitter, facebook, and online communities of practice like 4chan, agents of this harassment action attempted to discredit the target of Eron’s angst and began “CRASHING HER CAREER WITH NO SURVIVORS” (LOG, 2014) along with anyone that defended her. In August of 2014, a harassment campaign initiated by Eron Gjonji exposed the underbelly of digital game culture to the rest of the world.

Batman arkham knight download free