Listen, i'm just saying that this:
Seems like a pretty wild leap. I mean, what do we have to do with gamergate?
Nothing. And for that, I thank you.
You're not obligated to share your picture on the Internet, Morgan. I'm sure most of us don't care either way.
Indeed. The voice of reason, and the one to explain my reasoning in my absence. Thank you.
It's not a matter of sticking it to some vicious, monolithic organization that made a big enough stink to get mentioned on the news one time, though that may be your motivation, all this is about putting your face up on some corner of the internet and hopefully avoiding the opinionated hydra swarm of people who are just hateful in general. We aren't politicians here, and we aren't >moderately famous media makers. We're people who post on a small writing site and play games on forums. There will certainly not be a horde of stalkery beasts any time soon. And if there is, I'll eat all three of my tf2 hats.
I trust you all implicitly. I hope at least some of you will believe me when I say I have more knowlege of Gamergate and its impact on female game designers than you do. And yes, it's the fringe. It doesn't change the fact that I KNOW women, IRL, who have personally dealt with this shit... and not just the 'big names' like Quinn, Sarkeesian and Wu.
Even so, I only give a flying fark about Gamergate IN THIS CONTEXT because I consider you to be my friends. Some closer than others, but friends all the same. And I was a really farking lonely kid, when I was a kid in college. And I lost friends, too... not through alienation, but through fear. I literally couldn't bring myself to tell my best friend on the internet that I was gay, so I just... talked to him less and less, until one day I realized I'd never be able to talk to him again, because I'd forgotten my ICQ password & my retrieval email was defunct. And my best friend IRL... well, I've told that story before. Water under the bridge, now.
Suffice it to say that I value my friendships, however tenuous they may be. And it... frustrated me, when Drak got dared into showing his face or however the hell that went down, that I was in the throes of figuring out how to handle Gamergate, as a woman deciding how to launch herself as a professional game designer, and couldn't use my one awesome profile pic as my avatar here, because it had already gone up on Facebook.
The ever-observant Killa has noted that I now refer to myself as a woman. So, yes, my gender identity has apparently recrystalized, at age 35. Eventually, though, once life has thrown you enough curveballs... you learn to hit the goddamn ball out of the goddamn park.
So, yes. I plan to be a successful indie game designer, which is not entirely unlike planning to be a Farking rock star. But I've already BEEN the Farking rock star... and I've told that story too, albeit in pieces. I may have even named the Big Name Client, though I probably shouldn't have. But what are they going to do, fire me? 9_9
Tired owl rolls its tired eyes, folks. Maybe tomorrow bubbly!Morgan will feel like proving she can dress like a girl if she puts her mind to it. Maybe not. Fark me if I'm not too tired to give much of a damn. It's been a long double-day, and I'm glad to be winding down.