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We can all agree that the #GGinDC meetup was a roaring success. There had been a couple of meetups before in the UK, but the one in DC was very peculiar. First, for its size. Second, it was the first one that came stateside, which is where most of GamerGate’s antagonists reside. Third, there were threats, intimidation against the bar’s owner -who answered with one of the most patriotic and hotblooded answers ever- and even a bombthreat which forced a brief evacuation. And today, I have someone who was there. Ladies and gentlemen, Daddy Warpig.
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There are some people who may be not familiar with you, Daddy. Mind telling us a little about yourself?
D: I’m a blogger, former journalist and talk show host, former member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
There’s not else to tell, right now. : )
A former member of the SPJ? I guess that explains why you always seem wiser than most people I met in GamerGate. How did you first come in contact with it, by the way?
D: I graduated with a degree in Radio and Print Journalism, and everyone with a Journo major joined. I even had pieces in an SPJ contest. Won an award.
Long time ago, of course.
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Very interesting. What about GamerGate? What was your first contact with it?
D: I had just become active on Twitter, and was adding people. Followed Adam Baldwin and saw he was talking about a video games controversy. I checked it out, and sent my first tweet to the hashtag on or about Sep 8.
What are your thoughts on its evolution and its current situation?
D: GamerGate has won, if by “won” you mean validated its existence and established that its concerns are valid, as well as proving that we’re not harassers, not violent, and most importantly not going away.
Smart people are making their peace with our existence and accepting our demands (whether they admit it or not), foolish people are discrediting themselves fighting against the most resilient consumer revolt in modern history.
Most resilient in modern history… Flows off the tongue so well. I love it. Now, we’ll see how it evolves. The meetups will probably be a big part of that. You went to the one in DC, right? Why did you decide to go?
D: I wanted to meet many of the people I’d been fighting alongside for the last eight months. It was that simple.
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Were they like they seemed to be online?
D: Everyone I met was friendly, cheerful, and welcoming.
Is there one person in particular that impressed you?
D: What, I’m supposed to pick favorites, now? The only people I didn’t enjoy spending time with were those I didn’t get to meet.
Fair enough. Can you tell us how the bomb threath debacle developed?
D: I was upstairs, talking to some people, when the crowd started filtering out. Staff told us there was a fire drill, that we needed to exit.
I went outside, joked around with some of the people out there. Milo escorted CH Sommers to a cab. Someone said there was a bomb threat.
Police got there, had us move down the street. Some of my friends left at that point. Got my picture taken with Milo (one of which Destructoid used without permission).
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Several people left, we walked to another club several blocks away, decided not to wait in line. I went to McDonald’s to get dinner, talked with TV Tokyo Ben and his girlfriend over a quarter-pounder. The bar was re-opened, we walked back and I talked with several other people.
None of us were afraid, just annoyed. We didn’t let it ruin our night.
Did anyone know about what was going on on Twitter with Arthur Chu and the guy who made the treat by that point?
D: I heard about it as we were walking to the other club. Other people knew before me.
And now more meetups are popping up like fungi. What do you think about it?
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D: I think it’s great. Now that #GamerGate has largely broken our “Siege of Stalingrad”, we can branch out into other areas and begin affecting VG culture as a whole. Some began writing for various outlets, some founded their own, some are becoming developers themselves.
The meet-ups facilitate all that.
Thanks for your time, WP. Any future projects you’d like to talk about? A message for our readers?
D: By joining in GamerGate, you helped accomplish something significant. It may not be evident to others, and you’ll probably never receive proper credit, but you were part of something grand and good.
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The post GamerGate Interviews – Daddy Warpig appeared first on Meinos Kaen.