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Gaming’s biggest controversies of 2020

By Elliott Gatica

LOS ANGELES, CA - JUNE 10: A Playstation 4 controller is displayed at the Sony Playstation E3 2013 press conference June 10, 2013 in Los Angeles, California. Thousands are expected to attend the annual three-day convention to see the latest games and announcements from the gaming industry.(Photo by Eric Thayer/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - JUNE 10: A Playstation 4 controller is displayed at the Sony Playstation E3 2013 press conference June 10, 2013 in Los Angeles, California. Thousands are expected to attend the annual three-day convention to see the latest games and announcements from the gaming industry.(Photo by Eric Thayer/Getty Images) /
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The logo of the video game ‘League of Legends developed and published by Riot Games is displayed during the ‘Paris Games Week’ (Photo by Chesnot/Getty Images)
The logo of the video game ‘League of Legends developed and published by Riot Games is displayed during the ‘Paris Games Week’ (Photo by Chesnot/Getty Images) /

#MeToo movement in the gaming industry

In late June, many victims ousted a handful of problematic and prominent figures in the industry via social media.

These oustings consist of accusations of sexual misconduct, rape, grooming, bullying, and abuse of power. This isn’t anything new, unfortunately. Malpractices like these were mostly swept under the rug right around the time until news broke out about Riot Games and the problems they faced with toxicity and sexual harassment back in 2018. Prominent figures in the development industry were ousted first, with the most notorious being multiple employees from Ubisoft being accused of sexual misconduct.

This gained mainstream traction and eventually hit the streaming and eSports sides of things, with many more people being hit with accusations. Then this hit the Smash Bros. community, which is already very divisive and toxic in its own right. Several prominent figures in the scene were accused of the aforementioned transgressions and the community seemingly was in shambles.

To put some kind of positive spin on all this, this was a much needed cleansing of the industry. These survivors of the various incidents were met with overwhelming support; their stories were heard. I hope we can all agree that the less toxic the better, because nowadays it seems like the term “gamer” has become a pejorative rather than something to pride yourself to be.

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