you know I don't want to say that Leigh Alexander was right because I think her rhetoric was way too vitriolic and that she is guilty of contributing to the same toxicity that plagues much of the online discourse in games, but she was right. The only way to get through this thing is to stop attaching so much value to this identity that's as meaningless as saying you like to watch movies or read books. So many people play games now that it's a pointless distinction.
Anyway, this is a great thread.
Yah, like I said a few hours ago, I feel she was emotional and hasty when writing the article, so not only was she misinterpreted by people already filled with that GG vitriol, she wrote it with some of that vitriol too. If she waited a bit for Gamergate and herself to cool down, I feel this situation would have been much smaller. As it was posted, it just made Gamergaters angrier and confused many other people, myself included, about why she would write an article that insulted and alienated her primary audience, especially on Gamasutra where pretty much the only people that would read it are gamers.
I'm going to dispute your assertion, though, I think using gamer as an identify is fine, ave the team itself doesn't really need to change, since it's definition has already sort of changed organically. Gamer used to simply mean someone who plays games, but that's from a time when the only people that played games were dedicated to it. Now that games are more widespread accessible, the term gamer is used as an identity for those who are truly passionate about games. You never hear the people that only play Candy Crush or Farmville calling themselves gamers, the people that use the identity are those that are dedicated to games, the people that will play for hours at a time, but not stop there. A gamer is someone for whom a game's experience goes beyond the game, when they aren't playing they'll be talking about the game, or reading about, they'll be looking for information about the development, trying to figure out the optimal way to play. A gamer is someone who lives games. It's the same as someone calling themselves a film buff or a foodie. Sure, nearly everyone watches movies and everyone eats food, but not everyone calls themselves these terms. Both of them are identifies of someone who dedicated themself too the intricacies of movies or food and uses their passion as an identity. All of these terms, gamer included, are used by people that don't just enjoy these things, but they communicate and connect with people that share that same passion. And I'm not talking only about multiplayer games, but any game that prior discuss beyond "Hey, have you played x game? I did too."
That being said, we as a community have to, absolutely have to embrace the fact that or community us expanding and growing more diverse. Personally I love it, if gamers are more diverse and have more diverse desires, developers will have to cater to more audiences and innovate, giving us more diversity in the games on the market. But beyond embracing it, we need to get rid of the extremely vocal minority of bigots, we need to let them know that we don't want anyone like that. I'm very much supportive of the changes that Lyte and his team are bringing to League of Legends (probably a bit biased as a player of the game), with a heavy handed approach when it comes to bigotry. If you are caught being racist, homophobic, sexist, anything of the sort and it's not a freak thing, something you do consistently, you're getting a two week ban, and if it's obscenely bad or you didn't change after the two weeks, you're getting perma-banned (technically a 200 year ban) and that's the end of the story. What's interesting that's coffee out of this is that a lot of people don't know they've done anything wrong, likey because they've never been told it's wrong. People have just stayed silent and let things happen, instead of calling out someone for their Bullshit. But no one likes to play or be around people like this, even if you aren't the target, toxicity completely destroys the atmosphere. Whether we like or not, we've let bigotry and toxicity become the norm, and we're reaching a turning point where we have to get rid of the hate or gamers really will be dead.
