You wake up, you roll over. You check your phone, or your laptop, or your desktop. You go to KotakuInAction, or Reddit, or 8Chan.

GamerGate is over.

Sometime in the night, everyone stopped. They abandoned the hashtag. They stopped e-mailing advertisers. It's done.

What happens?

The answer is: nothing, and everything that's already happened so far.

We'd be distraught, surely. "We've lost," I'd probably think, but that's not quite right. There is no such thing as 'losing' in GamerGate.

You see, GamerGate isn't an old school game. You're not forced to start over when you lose, back to square one. GamerGate is modern; it believes in the autosave feature. At worst, the world of game journalism falls back to the latest checkpoint.

All of the money we've given to charity? That doesn't suddenly appear back in our accounts; it's out there to stay. TFYC game jam happens regardless. The hungry we feed, the victims we help, they're helped whether or not GamerGate is 'over.'

Think about the revisions to ethics policies we've effected. The Escapist? IGN? The little disclosures suddenly blossoming all over game journalism sites like EuroGamer, even Kotaku and others? They're a bigger win than we even realize. GamerGate could end this moment, and they won't all just 'go away.'

Think of the power we've shown as consumers. Fighting a steep uphill battle for months on end against a torrent of slander, smears, and hatred. Belittled, battered, bruised--but never broken. With the power of even the mainstream media brought to bear against us, multi-billion-dollar companies still agreed enough to pull ads or to distance themselves from corrupt, self-serving journalistic outlets.

People on both sides have called this a 'war,' and if GamerGate were to vanish tomorrow, many opponents will claim that they've 'won.'

But it's not a war. When you 'win' a war, it's because you've killed your opponents. You've rendered them unable to continue acting for their chosen side. If GamerGate were to end tomorrow, nobody would be dead, they'd be waiting.

GamerGate will never die; it will simply, at most, bide its time.

And it can. This isn't World War I. The thousands in GamerGate who are truly against corruption in the games media will not wait twenty years for the next 'act of aggression,' so to speak. We'll wait four, or three, or two, or one. Because, like clockwork, the outlets of game journalism who partake or promote shoddy, corrupt practices will do it again.

We'll get another Kane and Lynch 2. Another Mass Effect 3, a DoritoGate, or any of the other deluges of cheap clickbait, half-assed slander, or blatant politicalizations we stand against.

But this time, it's different. Next time, they'll know we're watching.

It doesn't matter how loudly Gawker would crow at our 'defeat.' It doesn't matter how many opponents dance on our 'grave.'

The media, in their hearts, will never forget that a group of smeared, slandered nerds persevered against everything and ripped a chunk out of their bottom line, damaged them, and dragged their sins into the light in a manner that they didn't believe possible.

GamerGate, bad PR or not, is what every consumer revolt wishes it could be. Because even if it ended tomorrow, we succeeded in more ways, from more directions, than many groups even dare to dream.

Game Journalism will only continue to create its own worst enemy.

As the industry continues to grow, and the audience swells, the burden of responsibility upon game journalists will become greater and more apparent to everyone. The longer they continue to treat it like their precious opinion blog, and the more radicalized and opinionated their cronyism and politicization becomes, the more vocal and confident we, their opponents, will become in criticizing them.

GamerGate grew to 15,000 or more within a few months. Imagine the next time the outcry boils over; will we hit that within two? Only one?

So, sorry to pull a fast one. I don't mean to play tricks, or to lie in the title. I guess the point of this late-night morale-boosting post is this:

GamerGate doesn't end, it waits. Our allies and friends stand ready, watching. And now, game journalism knows we're watching, too.

The best part about writing this? About reminding everyone of how much we've accomplished, and how little we have to lose?

You'll wake up tomorrow and GamerGate won't be over. And I'll see you there. Good night, and sleep well.