Who benefits from gatekeeping games?

Gatekeeping is, “the activity of controlling, and usually limiting, general access to something”. 

It can take many forms. Paywalls are a form of gatekeeping. They limit access to content unless you’ve paid to view that content. Receptionists, personal assistants, and those who do similar work are gatekeepers as well. They often determine who gets through, who has to wait, and who doesn’t get access to ‘the boss’. The attendant at an amusement park ride is the gatekeeper for that attraction. You’re probably conjuring images in your head of other gatekeepers in your everyday life.

These are common types of gatekeeping that we more or less accept. Why these ‘gates are kept’, so to speak, is clear. Who is responsible for keeping the gate is also clear. There’s an authority, person or point of contact that makes the final decision, whether it’s an automatic process, or a human. There are clear reasons we are and are not allowed access.

This isn’t the type of gatekeeping I’m focusing on for this article, though. We’re here to talk about community gatekeeping, mainly as it relates to games, both video and analogue. 

As I mentioned, gatekeeping has many forms and manifests in different ways. One of these ways, as mentioned earlier is the outright prevention of access; rendering someone unable to access or participate in something. The paywall blocking text. The receptionist telling you, “Sorry, Mrs Doe isn’t interested.” The roller coaster attendant telling a kid’s parents they’re too short to ride. I consider that \"hard\" gatekeeping. Not necessarily in that it’s harsh or anything, but that there’s little to nothing one can do as an individual to pass the gate. 

The other type I consider “soft” gatekeeping. This type of gatekeeping occurs when the people trying to gatekeep don’t actually hold the authority to prevent people access, whether it’s to an activity or community. Because of this, rather than prevent entry it more often pushes out and separates who is defined as worthy from those who are not. It creates a space where certain types of people don’t want to be, specifically to keep them out. Most often this comes as treating those they wish to keep out as outsiders, invaders, and bad actors who seek to ruin what they seek to protect. 

Gatekeeping in games has always existed at some level, though not as widely talked about aside from acknowledgement in tropes like, “Girl’s don’t play games”. It’s still been there in various other ways that span racial lines, socio-economic backgrounds, sexual identities, and so forth. We didn’t talk about that though. Not on a larger scale at least. Marginalized gamers have wanted representation since we could recognize characters and follow their stories. We just didn’t get much attention when we spoke about it beyond folks that were just like us.

Until recently.

To be fair, the ‘games community’ has grown and become much more connected via services like Twitter, Twitch, and other means of direct engagement. In what should really be a victory for games, especially tabletop RPG’s, more people than ever are taking an interest in some form of gaming. Where D&D could have easily been considered unpopular in my childhood (and was definitely the punch line of many jokes), more and more people are becoming involved in it. Their interest is taking them to more games they’d never have known about— and some gaming tables are netting huge viewerships. That’s not to forget the massive viewership platforms like Twitch have brought to video games, either. There’s enough revenue in viewer for companies those companies to pull in millions upon millions of dollars on spectators alone.

That was unfathomable when I grew up. Not many folks were as openly avid about their RPG hobbies, and game systems were sort of (but not extremely) niche and expensive. That’s just not true now. As video games (and games in general) have become more ubiquitous (if still expensive) and we’ve grown past stigma around tabletop ones, more people have decided they want in. 

With that has come a resurgence of the, “Who belongs,” discussion that’s shrunk and grown in participation, especially as marginalized players have been pushing for more quality diversity in the games and other media they consume. As with many things, I don’t feel that this subject was always as polarized as it is now, though I feel there are many reasons for that, not the smallest of which being the relative youth of the game industry and the communities that grow around it.

On one side, the gatekeepers believe that they’re being alienated from their hobbies and communities to make room for people who want to “do the thing,” but not as passionately as themselves. They feel what they love will become a watered-down version, or shell of its former self as more and more will be changed to appease ‘the new crowd’. In the worst cases, some believe that efforts to include marginalized characters, stories, and by extension, players in these mediums is no more than pandering to an insignificant segment of the audience— not the ‘true’ or most dedicated one… and the baggage that comes with that.

On the other side are people who largely feel disregarded by the industry. Many are longtime players who have yet to feel a genuine attempt has been made to include and reflect them. Some of these grievences are preferential— Such as wanting more black or queer protagonists in games (after all, black people and queer people are consumers of the mediums), and not having their representation be relegated to a joke or stereotype. For others, the gate has been systemic, as they’ve been forced to navigate the landscape for games they can play with their disabilities. Accessibility, while a longtime concern, has been slow to innovate and lately publishers (large and indie) have been doing just that. Naturally, people now want titles that offer accessible solutions, because it allows them to join in the experience.

I could expand on both of these sides, but for the sake of brevity, I wanted to at least call out some of the most common feelings I’ve seen expressed before I step back to gatekeeping in general, because I’m going to add something. In our case, there’s a sub-purpose at play: Preserve the game and/or community as what it was, when it was enjoyed by the people keeping the gate.

I understand the frustration that comes with something you enjoy changing in front of you into something unrecognizable. I understand feeling like you don’t quite fit in with what’s in front of you anymore. I can understand being frustrated at a change that seems to cater to a small audience. Change, or the unknown factor that comes with it, can absolutely be a scary thing. When people justify their reasons for game/community gatekeeping they often cite the prevention of harm to the game itself. By their account, they’re protecting it. I feel that many of these concerns are genuine, or at least they’re genuine to them. I can’t really fault anyone for feeling protective over something they genuinely care about.

What does bother me is when those folks tell people they’re destroying games or franchises, because publishers make bad decisions, albeit if they’re trying to include new gamers. Or they pass especially harsh judgement on (or make fun of) folks who, for whatever reason, need an easier version of a challenging experience without considering why. This especially extends to particularly book-heavy RPGs. Whether or not they realize it, they’re creating a hostile place for people who want to enjoy a hobby as much as they do. When people blame or belittle other gamers for these kinds of things and more, it can absolutely kill any joy that might have existed for someone else. That’s something taken from someone. I don’t think the majority of these folks are malicious, or perhaps even realize how their actions impact people, but I do believe their gatekeeping is doing harm. I sincerely hope that many of them can come to realize that.

Not everyone’s concerns are coming from as noble (if misguided) a position, however. There’s contingency of people who don’t want diversity in their games at all. That’s where they’re drawing their lines in the sand. They see developers and publishers as kowtowing to ‘social justice warriors’ who want to change a medium they ‘were never a part of’. They see the increasing amount of diversity and inclusion in games as politics being forced on them, or sometimes as an attack on them. They’re often quick to tell people to “go make their own game,” when folks note instances of exclusion of marginalized characters in games. Or ones of racism, sexism, homophobia, and beyond. They tell folks that using racial slurs don’t matter in competitive games because of, “the heat of the moment,” and, “it shouldn’t matter, because it’s just a game”. They say there’s no need to make ‘special concessions’ for people’s disabilities in roleplaying games.

I’m not saying these particular folks are all racist, or sexist, or homo/transphobic, or what-have-you. At least not all at the same time. 

Mostly. 

Probably.

What I will say is that those elements are present and perpetuate hostile segments of the community where anger against progress in diversity results in harassment against people making and playing games— usually increasing with intensity the further away from white, male, straight, and abled one happens to be. 

I can’t say I have any sympathy for anyone upset that a game showcases women who don’t look appealing enough for them, or has too much queer representation because a small flag is visible in the background. Or the folks that signal their rage on social media when publishers recognize marginalized consumers. Games are going to evolve, and these folks can sure drag out if they want, but they’re going ultimately going to lose. For now, they’re still going to do damage. They’re going to push interested people out of gaming communities and sometimes games entirely. They’re going to stifle the industry they claim they’re protecting.

So what’s my point here? Gatekeeping bad? Well, yeah, this gatekeeping is bad. It has no place in the gaming community, and when you really dig deep, it gets harder and harder to see the use in denigrating other gamers for needs in sliding difficulty, or wanting characters that reflect them, too. Or wanting more games that don’t sexualize or belittle them. Why gatekeep to prevent that? Who really gets hurt, here?

We can do better. Games can be better. They’re the hobby I’ve kept my entire life; the one that I won’t let go of. I’ve watched innovations and failures happen throughout the years. The variety in challenges and experiences in games has only grown, with much of that growth coming from the indie sector.

As a 25+ year (fuck it, I’ll say it) gamer, I’d say the effect of all of the ‘new people’ and access to new gaming devices has been a ‘net good’ thing for games. Some developers made some bad decisions along the way, but that’s not the fault of a more inclusive landscape. Some will miss the mark in the future and ruin what we once loved. That’s on them for forgetting a part of their audience. But change will happen, just as it has throughout my entire life.

Gatekeeping is just a waste of energy that creates animosity, because it’s not going to stop games from evolving. So what do we do?

Create a welcoming community that celebrates how diverse people who play games are. Advocate for better game accessibility. Listen to what marginalized people say when they speak about how representation in games affects their experience. Consider how much a marginalized protagonist actually affects a game before you complain, if you feel inclined to do so. Consider how your actions welcome or discourage someone in regards to games.  Let the people who are gatekeeping for their own bigotry wall themselves in, because we outnumber them.  

If you are one of those people who are worried that games will lose their sense of challenge  and individuality as they evolve, I implore you to have faith. Many good games have found ways to be accessible without losing their sense of challenge. You can still advocate for challenge and individuality, while advocating for other people’s interests and needs as well. Innovation is part of the game industry, and we have to push them to innovate on both challenge and accessibility. We’ll get better games as a result.

Let’s celebrate this art form together.