good talk on @twitch Gaming atm about gaming and harassment, and I think this bears a little more visibility:

having friends and family to lean on is good, but having dedicated resources and outlets is BETTER

many people look at it as 'you should lean on friends and family' or fall back onto the classic 'mute/block and move on' and the point that's being missed is that it still takes a toll on victims

and @anitasarkeesian brought up an EXCELLENT point in the convo: have you ever TRIED to tell a family member about Twitch?

I've been streaming for almost 4 years and my step-mom still refers to my community as 'my little friends on the internet'

that's to highlight: she DOESN'T get that I've built and curated a whole community. We're not just 'little friends': this is a unified group who share a space, work on games and game dev, and lean on each other for commadarie that better aligns with our experiences.

if I were to tell my Dad what happened this weekend, he's gonna be looking at me like

but the people who messaged me, DMd me, reached out, checked in, etc.-I don't HAVE to explain it. I don't have to give a 45 minute powerpoint, with a detailed explanation, a break, a pamphlet, a timeline....

and what the @GamesHotline aspires to do is provide viable resources from people in the space, professionals, and people who are trained to deal with things akin to this and other forms of online harassment.

More resources are always gonna be a good thing! That's not saying your friends and family are incapable of providing you solace-but it's good to remember they're people, too. So having a variety of resources is nothing but beneficial!