Gamergate Death Threat Is a Slam Dunk for Prosecutors. Will They Act?
themarysue.com
themarysue.com
I know, it is terrifying that in the 9 months since Gamergate broke onto the scene that nothing has happened. No one has died, no one has been attacked, no one has been arrested, no one has done anything.
It's absolute abhorrent that nothing has happened except for a war of words on the internet.
This is an incredibly boorish statement to make. This isn't a "war of words", such as academic debate or the like. (And believe me, academic debate can get pretty darn heated.) No, this is a war of harassment with nothing whatsoever to do with the debate implied by "war of words". These actions are direct, malicious assaults against another person's well-being. This is blatantly illegal behavior and behavior that we've banned from our society for good reason.
If you, your friends, and/or your family were subject to the "merely verbal" abuse that has been carried out under the Gamergate banner... I'll pretty much guarantee that you'd start singing a different tune.
In other words, what happens pretty much 24/7 in online gaming circles to pretty much anyone who participates in online gaming (as least for "you"; "your friends" and "your family" would also be included if any of them, too, participate in online gaming).
Welcome to the Internet. While I agree that death threats are abhorrent, I get the impression that the folks complaining about them in a lot of these contexts are complaining because they aren't yet acclimated to the sheer volume of such obscenities that are transmitted and received by online gamers every waking moment. You're talking about hordes of PFYs whose pasttimes involve "reking n00bs" and yelling into microphones about sexual intercourse with maternal figures; the fact that Ms. Wu received a mere 100 such threats from this sort of crowd is outright miraculous when one can easily amass twice that in minutes with such inanities like "Sonic is better than Mario".
If we want to pity someone, let's pity Rebecca Black, who has amassed millions of such comments (with threats of murder, rape, and other violent abuse) simply because she or her parents (inclusively) got swindled by some shady music video producer to make a mediocre song about the days of the week, and she was (possibly still is) a goddamn minor.
And most importantly, can you avoid these threats by logging out of a game? Or are these people calling your home after you've turned off your computer at night?
Please don't trivialize these threats by comparing them to in-game banter.
Your last point would hold if we only had the mental capacity to pity one person at a time, in which case would Rebecca Black really win over, say, victims of child sex trafficking?
My point is that the irrationality and hostility of the Internet and its users is by no means a new thing, and - as much as I sympathize for Ms. Wu - nobody is exempt from online dickery.
> Are these obscenities received every waking moment, or only during the game?
Depends on whether or not you choose to connect a real-world identity to your in-game identity. This is often the case for, say, screencasters, "Let's Play"ers, etc.
> Do they know your real name, your home phone number, your address, or just your avatar name?
Depends on how motivated they are, and - again - whether or not you've made any connection between the real and unreal worlds for these sorts of trolls to latch onto.
> Are they threatening your online personality, or threatening you?
The latter in many (if not most) cases. That's how it works in a lot of these situations; the other players are real people, and therefore not subject to Fourth-Wall-induced restrictions.
> Please don't trivialize these threats by comparing them to in-game banter.
You'd be surprised how frequently "in-game banter" is the understatement of the century.