What can one say about the recent Ellie
Overwatch controversy?
It's a mess.
Nobody involved comes out looking good---not the players, like Punisher, who devised this "social experiment"; not the gamers who suggested doxxing the at-the-time potentially real/potentially fictional Ellie or those who sent threats; not the game journalists who published articles without doing due diligence to verify that Ellie was even real; and certainly not Second Wind,
in a hurry to sign a female pro, who went ahead and did so without proper vetting.
Everyone is pointing fingers now. The blame game is afoot.
Long story short:
- A male Overwatch player pretended to be a female, was recruited by a pro-team excited to have a female pro on-board, wouldn't reveal any personal information leading to the community becoming skeptical of "her" true identity which led to cyber-sleuthing and, from some bad apples, threats and harassment.
- A bunch of video game sites took Ellie's story at face value and condemned gamers for a witch-hunt without learning the full truth of the matter. Then it turned out that Ellie was actually a male gamer to begin with.
- The fallout has seen some gaming sites double down, claiming that none of this would have happened if Ellie hadn't been female, somehow missing the point that the entire crux of the issue was that Ellie wasn't actually female.
- Many gamers understandably see this as yet another failure of the gaming press, but gloss over the worst behavior in the community since their skepticism was proven to be justified.
The problem, as is so often the case, seems to be that people think their cause is so just that they can act however they please, say whatever they want to whomever they wish, publish whatever story pushes the proper agenda no matter the facts.
R: Account made to troll high level players into thinking "they were beaten by a girl". Additionally resulted in unsolicited donations to the supposed "female" player and roster spot on a team in OWL's contender division.
