The short account I’d heard of how the left in the UK organized against racist skinheads and the BNP in the late 70s may be relevant. It started by recognizing that, like all effective lies, it was a half-truth: there was a social and economic crisis in the UK, leading to increasing unemployment and poverty among white working class youth – but this wasn’t the fault of immigrants or other minorities, who were suffering even more. So the response was a two-pronged approach: first, firmly and directly opposing the bigots, in order to expose them and isolate them from the community they were trying to influence; second, offering a better explanation of the crisis and a better model of organization, which emphasized solidarity between all groups suffering from the crisis.
By analogy, I think we want a two-pronged approach here: squarely confronting and condemning the misogyny and bigotry when we can; and building a campaign about confronting real issues in the gaming industry, explicitly linking it to issues of representation and thematics in games. That would involve highlighting really imaginative games by indie developers, and the really insightful critics who represent underrepresented voices – starting, obviously, with Anita Sarkeesian and Leigh Alexander, though we should make a point of looking for other good critics who deserve more attention.
Perhaps we could come up with a good hashtag: something like #GamesForAll ?
ADDENDUM: There’s a hashtag running now, #StopGamerGate2014.
I posted a message of support, and immediately got responses accusing that hashtag of being built up by ISIS.