A GameSpot writer had the perfect response to a mean troll — she sent a message to his mom.
Ongoing sexism against female gamers
As many of us not in the gamer world found out with #GamerGate, female gamers, especially gaming writers, can suffer extreme levels of harassment.
This fact is all too familiar to Kallie Plagge, a former reviews writer at GameSpot and current writer/editor at Nintendo.
“I don't know any women in the industry who haven't experienced [harassment]," Plagge told The Daily Beast, according to GOOD. “It varies by how outspoken you are on Twitter, for example, but I think we all get demoralizing comments, whether it's about our appearance or about the things we say."
She said the main character in a game was selfish
In a recent case, Plagge wrote a review of a game called Days Gone. The game was given decent reviews by many publications, but Plagge's review in GameSpot gave it a rating of just 5 out of 10.
"Deacon is selfish, and it's simply boring that the game is uncritical of him," she wrote.
Attacked online by an angry troll
Plagge said she received dozens of messages criticizing her work. Many of them accused her of being a "social justice warrior" — a term used on the right to demean progressives.
“It was very clear [from] very early on that it had nothing to do with the content of our review," Plagge told The Daily Beast. “It was very much just that guys wanted to find an excuse to say sexist things to women."
In one case, Plagge received a message from a user named Ryan who strung together an abhorrent couple sentences of extremely hurtful words.
So she messaged his mom
Many would just let it go. Others would take it to heart. But Plagge did something else.
She looked Ryan up on Facebook and found his mother. So, she reached out.
“Hello! You don't know who I am, but your son does," Plagge wrote to the woman via Facebook. “I thought you might want to know the kinds of messages he sends to women he doesn't agree with. He sent me this because I wrote a review of a video game."
“I am so sorry," the man's mother replied. “He is 37 years old and I am so going after him. He definitely has problems. I will straighten him out!!!"
Troll the trolls
Often we expect trolls like Ryan to be teenagers who don't know much better — but this came from a 37-year-old man. What a disgrace.
While the internet can be filled with trolls like Ryan, Plagge showed an amazing way to fight back. At the end of the day, these harassers are mostly men with weak character — it's best to ignore them, or perhaps embarrass them to teach them a memorable lesson like Plagge did, as much as we can.
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