The timeline of Gamergate usually centers on key moments in 2014 and 2015. But if we think about Gamergate as just the most public manifestations of much deeper tensions and anxieties concerning gender, race, and videogames, then the phenomena behind Gamergate might actually go back decades.
In this lab we’re going to collectively build a timeline that maps out the broader cultural forces at work in Gamergate. We’ll use the tool Timeline.js, which powers an interactive timeline that reads data from a Google Spreadsheet—a spreadsheet that we will all contribute to during class.
Several rules to follow:
- None of the customary events associated with Gamergate can be used. That’s basically the usual suspects from 2014-2016. Your goal is to find cultural resonances not obviously connected to Gamergate. They may not even be connected directly to videogames. Think broadly about cultural, technological, and economic forces that might have somehow fostered any of the competing positions staked out in Gamergate.
- Each group must contribute at least 5 events from their time period. Each event must include a headline, descriptive text, some kind of media (an image, video, map, etc.), a caption, and media credit. Your descriptive text should indicate why that particular event is relevant to Gamergate.
The Groups:
- Pre-1970
- 1980s & 1990s
- 2000s & 2010s
- Post-Gamergate
- Wildcard
Timeline:
The Lab Report:
The lab report is due by midnight on Monday, shared as usual as a Google Document. It is divided into two parts:
- Discuss the issues and questions that came up for your group. How did you decide what to include, and why?
- Explore the overall timeline. What story about videogames and culture does it seem to tell? How does this story complicate the history of Gamergate?