Why Jenn Frank's Back Writing About Games & Second Life - Despite Gamergate (NWN Guest Post)

Last September, noted game journalist and reviewer Jenn Frank became a primary target for Gamergate, the small but zealous "activist" group generally seen as a reactionary backlash against feminist and socially progressive elements in the game industry. After writing a Guardian post on being a woman in games which attracted their hostility, Frank was deluged by vicious harrassment, and subsequently quit the industry. Now, however, Jenn Frank is back, writing about the virtual world Second Life for this blog, and about games for a number of well-known media outlets -- year-end round-ups she describes as "cameo appearances".

"Despite my trepidation with the audience and subject matter -- despite my fear and actually a lot of grief -- it's an honor just to be asked," Jenn Frank tells me. "And I would not accept just willy-nilly. This was always my dream, you know? To write a list for the one outlet, or to be part of a chorus on this other one. Being 'pitched' is not something I take lightly, and I accepted with the same degree of gravity. I take video games, and writing about them, hilariously seriously."

Below, as an introduction to New World Notes readers, she explains her fascination with writing about Second Life. - WJA

Three months ago, I retired.

I'd been, however briefly, drawn into the Gamergate conversation. This, for me, was the sum of all my worst nightmares, realized. I cannot begin to articulate the emotional tax.

Now, I've always been a little anxious, a little frantic, but the experience has piqued my anxiety in a fresh and new and lasting way. (In anticipation of my upcoming coverage for New World Notes, editor Wagner James Au has been republishing a 2011 Kill Screen Magazine article, printed here as a series of posts. It describes, among other things, my 2008 agoraphobia diagnosis. So I would warn that, not only does not everyone seek "attention" -- a claim Gamergate often bandies -- "attention" is, for some people, the worst thing humanly imaginable.)

I really, really do not want to write this, do not enjoy addressing it -- but it's the elephant in the room, isn't it? And if there is any truth to allegations about my integrity, there must be a shadow hanging over my byline, besides.

I'm terrified of writing, not just this, but literally anything. And how, exactly, is one supposed to explain her return to tech writing? How is writing for New World Notes any different from ordinary games writing? Mr. Au and I have discussed these very questions at length.

One salient difference, I would assert, is Second Life itself:

Second Life is, even to this day, a tremendous achievement. It allows space for investigating certain taboos (when the land parcel's owners permit it!) and is, in the most literal sense, a "safe space." All writers, all Makers and Doers, seek a safe space for their creative work -- an experimental soil -- and Second Life is especially fertile. Anytime I venture in-world I find myself at no loss for things to write about.

My avatar is named after me, and she looks rather like me, although I suppose she doesn't have to be named that, doesn't have to look like me (and does not always, in fact, look like me, because sometimes she is dressed as Ultraman). What I'm saying is, Second Life affords me a type of anonymity my "first life" does not.

Second Life is a welcome respite from the din and clang and exhaustion of real life. And the metaverse, for me, is at its very best when it mines the ordinary, the mundane for inspiration. Will that make my writing, in turn, ordinary or mundane? (God, I almost hope so.)

I'm looking forward to doing some writing for you, NWN reader, that evokes the feelings Second Life inspires in me: a type of languid stroll, an everyday sort of tourism.

SL photo by Hamlet Au in Insilico. More writing from Jenn Frank on Second Life coming very soon!

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Comments

[Ray]

What a get by NWN. Jenn Frank is one of the best writers out there. I was incredibly bummed out when she took a hiatus, but life is good because she is BACK.

[Wagner James Au]

Agreed on all counts -- it's like a Festivus miracle!

[Yesplease]

Oh I am simply beside myself with trepidation.

[Yesplease]

sorry I mean excited trepidation

[David Cartier]

This is such a good thing; such a good place for us to be. It's somehow appropriate that she's writing about Second Life. It would be nice if we could just laugh at everything that was said and written, but a few very sick individuals took it way past there. Maybe the gaming community is ready to move past it.

[Paul]

This is my first time to the site, and having a regular column by Jenn Frank means it won't be my last. Can't wait!

[Vivienne Daguerre]

I have enjoyed your videos. It makes me glad to see that the feminist spirit still lives and thrives. I was born in the 1950s, and through much of my childhood I heard what I could and could not do because I was "a girl." I fought against that for most of my life. In the Canadian military, I was the second in my tech trade across the country, and the first at both of my postings. I could write a book on harassment. The only good thing about banging your head against a wall is that it feels so good when you stop. After that, I made my career working in Corrections, 18 years in federal male institutions. It is a sad thing to say, but I received better treatment from criminals than I did from the men of our Canadian Armed Forces.

I am happily retired now. I wonder how much better things are now for women than when I was young. I suspect they are, but not as much as I had hoped they would be.

The women of my generation pass you the torch. Hold it high.

[Carl Metropolitan]

Hamlet Au wrote: "Gamergate, the small but zealous "activist" group generally seen as a reactionary backlash against feminist and socially progressive elements in the game industry."

The only reason Gamergate has been "generally seen" in a negative light is that the gaming media and mainstream media have consistently lied about it. As Gamergate began as a consumer revolt against corrupt media practices in the gaming media, it's not surprising. Gaming and mainstream media have continually attributed actions of a small number of dedicated internet trolls to the entire Gamergate movement, ignoring all efforts by Gamergate to oppose them. At the same time, continual harassment, threats, and blacklisting by prominent people on anti-Gamergate side are either never covered, or worse, justified.

The media has no mercy for those that cross it.

Much to their horor, Gamergate doesn't give a shit.

While Gamergate has no leaders, and no organization, generally speaking most people involved are committed to the goals of opposing corrupt media, pushing back against bullying by "internet Social Justice Warrior" types, and protecting free expression for gamers and game developers. Gamergate voices have spoken out strongly against efforts to suppress games with controversial content (such as "Grand Theft Auto V" and "Hatred").

I welcome Jenn Frank back to Second Life and to New World Notes, but she should be aware that many of the people she thinks of as her allies are coming after safe "space for investigating certain taboos", and those in Gamergate that she thinks of as her enemies will be the ones defending those spaces.

[Ciaran Laval]

It's a shame that you retired and I hope you reconsider. I look forward to seeing more of your posts here.

[irihapeti]

i dont get it Carl

you once moved against those in NCI who chose to express themselfs in reactionary ways. Reactionaries faking it as freedom to express themselfs in any old hedonistic, disruptive ways they chose. And nevermind the consequences for their victims. Those they tormented

now you saying the opposite seems like. You were right back then Carl. It was right the stand you took then

i never been back to NCI ever since you were forced out by them reactionaries. They were ugly people then and still are now

you can split hairs (and say this is all about the evol medias) if you want and try think this is somehow different. Is not

Ugly is ugly. Gamergate is ugly