TruthTellah

While I'd say the truth of the nonsense in gaming is crazier than the fiction, it was obviously an absurd, exploitative take on an ongoing tragedy in gaming. The show organizers promoted it so victims might watch, and when they did, the show depicted analogs of them being sexually assaulted, gang-raped, and successfully driven out of gaming.

In the end, they presented a sadly common authority message that, considering the difficulties and problems in gaming, women and minorities should probably stop trying and just quit. And for extremists in gaming, they should keep ratcheting up their efforts until that happens.

Welcome to the Giant Bomb(and GS) team, Will! With Alexis gone, you're probably gonna now get paired up with Drew by fans, but don't let them railroad you. Forge your own path, duder!

I look forward to everyone pawning off any site problems from here on out onto you.

You're gonna do great! <>

My face just fell off and flew into the future this is so awesome.

Those Melee Top 8 Finals were amazing. Videogames are awesome.

@aurahack: They should make this real just to mess with NASCAR fans. Reach out to the truth at high speeds!

@aurahack said:

@manhattan_project:

@sgtsphynx: Thank you!!

Is that real?? That is so cool! And strange!

Sure. I think the unfortunate thing is how some good resources are not actually widely well-known and there isn't a culture of acknowledging the necessity of it being well known. Usually it's passed around in a "stay safe from random hackers" or from governments sort of way, but there's less of a serious take when it comes to the fact that harassment online is still real harassment with a real impact.

When people are being specifically targeted, that has its own concerns along with more general online safety. It has been an ever-growing issue impacting some for years on end, and it's something we'll have to better figure out how to personally handle and broadly work against in the years ahead.

Fortunately, there's definitely some good stuff about protecting your identity online. (It's an especially popular topic amongst those who use the Internet to harass people, too!) Though, a more personal touch can help in handling crises, and more resources of support are much-needed. There's a lot of information online on all kinds of subjects, but it's not always readily available for when people need it most.

That's quite true. Keeping things normal or working on returning to normal is not always particularly easy depending on the kind of harassment you're receiving. It's common for people to give cold advice with little regard for the emotional aspect of it. And while "don't feed the trolls" is common, that doesn't account for systemic harassment or intentional efforts to not just get a rise out of someone but to get them to shut up. Few of these people are only ever going to act against -you-. Almost always they treat others in a similar manner. So when you ignore it, you're just leaving them to hurt others.

No one has to feel obligated to fight back against harassment when they're facing it, but in the end, a lot of problems which fuel harassment don't go away by ignoring them. When who you are is enough to get prejudice and hounding, you can't simply stop being who you are. In the long term, acknowledging and standing up to it may be the only way anyone else will recognize it, as well, and hopefully, people can slowly improve things for you and others like you.

More people need to realize that, for many who face prejudice online and in person, they're doing the best they can to just keep things "normal". For those who see what is happening, you have the chance to actively work to improve things and call out the problems you see. Those who are hurt aren't necessarily going to have all the answers for fixing things even if they wish they did, but since it's what they've experienced, they can usually tell you what's wrong and encourage you to try to somehow figure out ways to help. Think for yourself and consider ways to make things better.

I hope their site will be able to help some of those facing harassment. There aren't many reliable outlets for such assistance, and more groups like this would be welcome. People need places to turn for information and support against harassment, and it's long overdue that we see better resources pop up.