Harassment in Magic has to stop.
I have tried to write this article dozens of times. I’ve actually been working on it since March, writing and rewriting hoping that one of these times when I was done I would look on the page to see words that conveyed this message that feels so muddied and complicated, when it reality it should be clear and simple. I tried originally to write an objective piece—writing about the history, the timeline—but everything was just too close to home.
The first time I tried to write about Jeremy Hambly, AKA MTGHeadquarters AKA The Quartering AKA Unsleeved Media AKA MeatyOCore AKA Marketing Sheriff (etc, etc) was after I became the target of his ire. I came close: I wrote an article about making sure we know the truth about our content creators but I kept it vague and didn’t call him out. Just one week before I had published an article about how I was disappointed that there were no women on the Pro Tour and what were some things we could do at the local level to help make women feel more welcome into the game. The night it came out, I woke up at 2am to my phone going off repeatedly. At first I thought someone was calling me but I quickly realized it was Twitter. I just assumed I had been tagged in a conversation and no one had untagged me after going off on a tangent, muted my phone and went back to sleep.
The next morning I woke up to messages, tweets, mentions, etc full of hate. That night Jeremy, who I had never interacted with before, found my article and shared it, tagging prominent members of the Gamergate community. He then made not one, but two videos about me on two of his channels (MTG Headquarters and MeatyOCore)—naming me, linking my article, and taking every word I said and twisting it.
It hurt. It really fucking hurt. Between the two it adds up to a full thirty minutes of him hating on me. He isn’t trolling. He’s not being sarcastic. He’s taking everything I wrote out of context and telling the world I have a problem with men. (Yes, he actually said that.) He ended the video saying don’t be a dick to anyone, trans people, men, women, etc; but when you pair them with the tweets he was sending at the exact same time you get a bit of a mixed message.
He ends the nicer of the two videos saying that we can all handle not being dicks, that we should all look at people who are dicks and mark them as our common enemy. But what do you call this?
If this were intended to be satire, why tag a well known member of GamerGate who has almost 7,000 followers? Why reach out to Gamergate every time you seem to have a problem with someone? If this is just a joke, why make people the target of groups known for using tactics like doxing and swatting?
I suffer from General Anxiety Disorder as well as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. It can be tough sometimes sharing who you are with the public while dealing with mental health issues. I knew when I started creating Magic content that I would need to make sure that I had a good support system. But I did not expect to need an emergency plan in place for targeted harassment. I had a feeling I would occasionally get a negative message here or there, but never thought my little Eternal column would bring in a barrage of hate. It was awkward warning my boss that I was a target of harassment and that they might be contacted since I had mentioned my job on my Twitter. It was awful telling my amazing mother to watch out for weird messages. It was heartbreaking to ask my husband to stay silent and not say anything to the people who were trying to hurt me.
I know, that if Jeremy even reads this, he won’t listen. I know that there is fairly good chance that after this goes live that I will need to lock down my Twitter and prepare for more harassment. I know that before this goes live, I need to double check my Facebook privacy settings and be ready for a long day. Part of me wondered if I should sit back and stay silent, if I should just let others speak up and protect myself. But then I see more attacks on the people I care about and remember that this is about so much more than just me. This is about a game and a community I love.
I met my husband at a Magic Tournament. We got paired round two at Legacy and have been inseparable ever since. I’ve met my closest friends through Magic and the best jobs I’ve ever had have come through the game. This is a community that I’m willing to go to bat for, so it can be the best that it can be. Will you?
Kate hails from Worcester MA and also does a bit of Card Altering. Check her Stuff out on Facebook! She mainly plays legacy and modern though will occasionally find herself playing EDH.