By David Futrelle
After a man identified by witnesses as a participant in a Madden video game tournament in Jacksonville, Florida opened fire on fellow gamers, killing several and wounding numerous others before turning his gun on himself, some of the regulars in the Kotaku in Action subreddit are directing their anger at one of their favorite targets — game journalists, who these Redditors are accusing in advance of blaming the shootings on violent video games and game culture.
Yep. The mall at which the shooting took place has only just been cleared by police, and no articles have yet been published on video game news sites blaming games or gamers or game culture for a mass shooting allegedly carried out by a gamer at a game tournament, but Redditors are already getting mad online about the hypothetical articles they think are coming that will dare to suggest that this mass shooting might just have something to do with the incredible toxicity of the gaming subculture.
Currently, these are the top comments in the main thread on the shooting on Reddit’s Kotaku in Action, which desccribes itself as “the main hub for GamerGate on Reddit.”
![[–]Taidan-X [score hidden] an hour ago Games journalists now eagerly awaiting the news of the race of the shooter, so they can decide whether this is a "senseless tragedy that we shouldn't politicise" or "more evidence of the toxicity of Gamers". Or as I call it, The Atrocity Ethnicity Lottery. permalinkembedsavereportgive goldreply [–]peargarden [score hidden] an hour ago It's sad to think that some journalists are probably disappointed that it was a Madden tournament and not something like CS:GO so they can't spin the "violent videogame shooters make gamers violent" angle. permalinkembedsaveparentreportgive goldreply [–]Stark0s [score hidden] 58 minutes ago It's Madden. They can still try to play the "toxic masculinity"TM card. permalinkembedsaveparentreportgive goldreply [–]GarrioValereBest I can do is half homo. Make sure it's hot. [score hidden] 56 minutes ago If the shooter is who some people are claiming it is, he also extensively played Counterstrike, so merry christmas journalists. permalinkembedsaveparentreportgive goldreply [–]christianknight [score hidden] 54 minutes ago They always have the gun control issue to fall back on. permalinkembedsaveparentreportgive goldreply [–]B-VOLLEYBALL-READYThe internet was a mistake. [score hidden] an hour ago Seriously, keep an eye out for those pieces of shit trying to blame video games for this on Twitter. We had some utterly reprehensible comments after the Orlando shootings. https://www.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAction/comments/4nvfmz/misc_listing_all_the_people_in_and_around_the/ permalinkembedsaveparentreportgive goldreply [–]PikaTools [score hidden] 59 minutes ago I've already seen some randos comment blaming games. I expect it to be ten fold since it was at a gaming event this time.](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/jgffjkg.png?resize=580%2C612&ssl=1)
Some on Twitter had similar reactions to the shootings.
And since this was at a Madden tournament, I really, really hope the media and journalists don't start blaming violent video games or write stupid shit like "the toxic nature of gamers", but I have a feeling they will most likely happen.
— Allie-RX (@AllieRX) August 26, 2018
boy I can't wait for the scummy journalists of the world to spin this into more "violence in video games is the problem" narratives.
— MarioWrath (@Leafretv) August 26, 2018
https://twitter.com/realh0r1z0n/status/1033802067964583936
Methinks game journalists are trying to collect themselves after a collective cream at this news.
— ゴゴゴThe Juudeゴゴゴ (@juukuchi) August 26, 2018
I can already see the articles from journalists eagerly pushing the “violence in video games” narrative; showing no respect to the victims.
— Captain Hat (@CaptHat211) August 26, 2018
Glad you’ve got your priorities straight here. Wouldn’t want a horrifying tragedy at a games tournament to cause any needless self-reflection.
That was fast.
Obviously, this comment applies both to the douchebags and to David; I am horrified if unsurprised at the first, and applauding the second.
Word fail me about how monumently stupid they can be.
To be totally honest, I do think that blaming videogames themselves is probably wrong. But there is a reflexion to have on that. And they reject any and all reflexion, probably because they more or less know that gamer culture, and entitled young white culture more generally, is toxic and one of the causes for mass shootings.
They’re just scum.
Hardly anyone shoots up chess, bridge* or Scrabble tournaments. Just sayin’.
*There was that one time
@Hambeast:
I was unaware of that case, and my life was incomplete until this moment. Thank you.
I am amazed that Edward Albee didn’t write a play about it.
Do GamerGaters think they get points for how quickly they release their “not me!” statements?
…Game journalists are almost never the people saying that violence in video games causes violence in real life. That’s what journalists outside the sub-industry say, particularly those that belong to mouthpieces for the NRA.
Yeah, the Lit’rally Whos that GamerGate targeted/targets may use this as a jumping-off point for criticizing toxicity in gamer culture, but this is the opposite of saying that violent video games cause real life violence.
Jesus fucking christ, feminists aren’t your mom coming to take away your video games because there was a shooting on the news.
Hambeast : correlation is not causation. Outside of the fact it’s the first shooting at a videogame tournament I have heard of, the place in America where there are the most mass shooting are school, and it’s not because schools make people violent.
Just sayin’.
Back at the height of gamergate, these guys were saying that gamers from couldn’t claim that they were receiving targeted harassment due to being female or trans or queer or whatever group because that’s just how gaming culture is. Everyone shit talks and says horrible things to everyone else. You just have to be tough enough to take it. In other words, they were using the overall toxicity in the culture to try and dismiss specific claims of harassment.
Sorry, but they don’t get to now be outraged because maybe journalists will write pieces about toxicity in gaming culture. They had their chance to do their part to clean up the culture years ago when harassment victims in the gaming and gaming adjacent industries started speaking out. They didn’t. They doubled down on it. Fuck you, KiA.
Now I’m not saying the shooter was necessarily steeped in the more toxic portions of gaming culture. It’s too soon to tell for sure. But these turddumplings have no place getting huffy about the potential for journalists to call out the shitlordery they’ve been reveling.
I’ve got to admit: my first thought wasn’t to wonder what gamergaters would think about this, since they’re old news at this point. Since the contest apparently took place at a pizza restaurant, I wondered whether the pizzagaters / QAnon would put their weird spin on it.
@Moggie
Probably some ridiculous shit like how the shooter was some quadruple agent out to aid/harm Trump’s agenda somehow.
I was thinking that this was a symptom of our shitty gig economy.
Professional gaming is a new ‘golden ticket’ in this economic wasteland.
Funny how they all “know” what reporters are gonna write before they even write it. Meanwhile, the CNN report where I heard of this first is very neutral and isn’t blaming anything, just putting the facts out there (the suspect is white, male, and died at the scene, etc.)
And it’s not feminists or journalists that blame shooter violence on video games; we know that it’s due to gun culture, not GAME culture. But you know who’s been blaming gaming for decades already, with zero proof that games cause shootings? Yeah…THE FAR RIGHT. Something that just never somehow occurs to these Keinsteins.
Rabid Rabbit – It doesn’t even really count since it wasn’t a proper tournament. It was just the first thing that popped up in a quick Google search. I was a teeny bit surprised that nothing came up for chess tourney shootings at all, considering the popularity of chess.
Ohlmann – I posted that because I doubt that there are many gamergoobers that go to, or even care, about chess, bridge, or Scrabble. Although now some of them might complain that feeeeemallleeesss can’t chess!
…And an NRA spokesperson has chimed in.
https://twitter.com/DLoesch/status/1033806660865863680
I love how the gun crowd always just happens to know for sure that no one else with a gun besides the shooter was there. I do remember after the Las Vegas shooting, one of the musicians that was playing there said that he did have guns in their trailer and he realized in the moment that those guns weren’t going to do anything to help anyone. He had previously been an anti-gun control person who believed that a good guy with a gun was the best protection from gun violence. But actually being in that situation changed his mind.
Anyway, there was just a press conference. The shooter was a 24 year old white male from Baltimore named I believe, David Katz. They didn’t comment on the motive.
*sighs* Can we not?
In addition to the fifty thousand usual reasons, Madden’s a football game. There’s no violence in it (unless you want to count tackles, I suppose).
Fuck Dana Loesch. That monster should crawl back under her rock and stay there when shit like this happens, not opine on the evils of “gun-free spaces” and how this could have been prevented if everyone were armed. Yeah, bullets flying everywhere, and cops unable to tell who the bad guy is. Great idea, Dana, you fucking troll.
@kupo: I imagine the NRA leadership got a collective priapric boner. Not only can they use this to stir up their membership, but it’ll probably keep people from talking about whether they were laundering Russian money or not.
The interesting thing is that recently, from what I can remember, the NRA had actually been taking a few days of silence before trotting out their usual bullshit. Maybe they were spooked because the Parkland kids were just on a gun-control march (is it even over yet?), and they’re panicking because oh noes, the reasonable people might manage to take control of the conversation if they leave a gap?
That, or people playing computer games don’t raise the same level of horror that schoolkids do, so it’s fair game to be assholes this time because they don’t need to far the wrath of soccer moms.
That being said, I do feel the need to salute the sherriff who, at the press conference, clearly said that the suspect was a white male, even before they’d confirmed the number of victims. It’s a small thing, I know, but more than I would have expected.
Fuck nuggets like these are the reasons I distance myself from gaming communities these days. -___-
Roosh is now Tweeting around a claim that mass shooters are Jewish, rather than white. Adorbs.
I won’t be surprised if it is later revealed that the shooter has a history of domestic violence and his killing spree was ultimately triggered by aggrieved male entitlement.
Most shooters seem to follow that pattern.
Latest info on the shooter here:
https://www.kansas.com/latest-news/article217369810.html
I found this bit particularly bizarre:
No shit.
Apparently, he lost his game. That’s when he started shooting. He targeted 5 people, then killed himself.
If toxic masculinity is NOT a factor in all this, I’ll eat all my fuckin’ hats.
Oh, don’t worry, the intertrolls seem to have decided to blame it on the shooter’s being apparently Jewish. Terrifying hazard of having to recognize and confront implications of toxic masculinity successfully averted once again.