The decade is the 1980s. I’m not born yet or even an idea, but the second longest war in American history has begun—not the war on drugs, but the console war, something that is just as pointless but with far lower stakes. I thought we could agree on that, but some people still take this made-up consumerist tribalism very seriously in The Year of our Lord(s) two thousand and twenty-three. Some weirdos people on Twitter and other social media sites are rushing to get a person who works with PlayStation fired for playing the one the biggest games of the moment: Starfield.
Earlier this month, Bethesda Softworks released Starfield as an Xbox exclusive. A few years ago, that might’ve meant the game was only available for people who own the newest Xbox console. Nowadays, Xbox exclusive tends to mean Xbox and PC. In addition to the increase of cross-platform play, the affordability of PCs, and popularity of Nintendo consoles, this move by Microsoft likely contributed to the end to the console war. Or so I thought. Turns out some people still maintain loyalty to corporations that often fail to see them or their employees as humans.
When the most oppressed group on the internet (“traditional” gamers) saw Charalanahzard, a.k.a. Alanah Pearce, playing Starfield on her Twitch streams, they began tagging her employer, demanding she get fired. Much of this hate stemmed from one person gasping to declare Pearce (who works at Santa Monica Studio and on the game God of War Ragnarök) was “extremely unprofessional.” Tagging Hermen Hulst, head of PlayStation Studios, and Cory Balrog, Ragnarök creative director, they continued to berate Pearce for demonstrating “a lack of loyalty and seriousness to PlayStation.”
We are all winning
Most players, voice actors, artists, writers, etc. root for the success of others. A win for one is a win for all. This goes for labor rights and a well-made game. (Which I’m not saying Starfield is, by the way.) The people behind our favorite stories experience other art. The only time there would be some eyebrow raising is if someone is a spokesperson for one particular product. For example, you probably wouldn’t catch Cardi B drinking or talking about Coca-Cola in early 2019. This uproar around Pearce could be the case of a few hundred people just not getting with the program. However, considering her high visibility, it’s hard not to see it as more.
Since the early days of Gamergate (and it’s predecessor, Comicsgate), Pearce has been a target of people who feel loudly uncomfortable with marginalized people expressing frustration over hostility in gaming. (Or sometimes just existing.) As a former gaming journalist, trolls harassed her and sent death threats for years.
In 2014, Pearce went viral for fighting back by contacting the parents of children participating in these campaigns. She continued to speak up about misogyny as the gaming industry faced its own #MeToo. Additionally, Pearce spoke up when IGN was censored for sharing aid resources to Gaza after a bombing spree by Israel. Even as she moved on to online entertainment (Charalanahzard and Funhaus) and writing for video games, the harassment followed.
In a video addressing the criticism for playing Starfield, Pearce started with clarifying that she only wanted to address this nonsense due to an uptick in harassment. While she did throw in some jabs, she pointed out that this division is just on the players’ side. Pearce revealed what few restrictions she’s faced as her place in the industry has morphed over time:
“The console war stuff that y’all think matters so much doesn’t actually matter to anyone on my level. We all just love video games and are excited about video games. And, new video games being good and having a good time with video games.”
Many people took issue with her addressing these tweets and retweets at all, feeling it was beneath her. After all, these types of trolls are just mad at her resilience and think they’re more deserving of her career success. They’re certainly worthy of just ignoring, but confronted with that much hate, you have to speak out sometimes. She did a little, but took this as a moment to shine some light on this still rather fledgling industry.
(via @Mr.Zanadood on TikTok, featured image: Bethesda Game Studios)
