The problem of game developers receiving abusive messages
Up until about five years ago, I&#x27;ve only ever wanted to create and share video games. After a couple years doing it independently and getting my first professional game job, gamer gate happened. It&#x27;s absolutely terrifying to see the lengths at which people will go to make someone&#x27;s life a living hell. Every industry friend was affected, and reacted mostly by reducing their online presence, and I&#x27;ve done the same. Some were targeted personally. A few left the industry.<p>It&#x27;s hard to want to make games now. The best feeling in the world was watching someone on YouTube play something I&#x27;d made. It&#x27;s different now. Part of it is fear of being targeted, but it&#x27;s also made me think of why I would put so much effort into something that attracts so much vitriol. I know it&#x27;s a minority of people, but games take months of hard work to create and these thoughts take a toll over time, especially on bad days.<p>The more personality a person puts into their game, the more they risk being targeted. It&#x27;s depressing to have to hide self expression, reduce social media presence, and use pseudonyms when all I really want is to make games for others to have fun with.