Gamergate (harassment campaign)

For the type of ant, see Gamergate.

#GamerGate refers to a controversy in the video games community involving harassment, misogyny, allegations of conflicts of interest between video game journalists and developers, and questions of the gamer identity which became the subject of public discussion in August of 2014 following a rant that was posted alleging professional improprieties about an ex-girlfriend who was a game developer.

Background

Independent video game developer Zoe Quinn had developed and released her interactive fiction title Depression Quest in 2013, later in 2014 with a wider release on Valve Corporation's Steam content platform. Quinn had developed Depression Quest as a means to represent her own depression that she had suffered, presenting it as a video game as "a powerful use of the medium", in her words. Though the title was positively received by gaming journalists for its 2013 release, some members of the gamer community expressed dislike towards Quinn and the title. Some expressed concern that using a video game to present a dark theme was not suitable, while others felt that the critical praise it received was disproportionate to the quality and simplicity of the game, and presented the solution to depression in too simple of a matter; they also expressed concern that the game's protagonist was over-privileged, and had solutions that most that suffer from depression do not often have available. In working with Valve to put Depression Quest on Steam's Greenlight system (a means for users to vote on titles to bring onto the platform) near the end of 2013, Quinn stated that she had been harassed by a number of members of the gaming communicating with statements similar to "women cannot relate to anyone with depression", according to The Escapist.

Shortly following the full release of Depression Quest on Steam in August 2014, Quinn's former boyfriend Eron Gjoni wrote a blog post alleging that she had had a sexual relationship with Nathan Grayson, a journalist for the video game website Kotaku. This led to allegations from Quinn's opponents that the relationship had resulted in favorable media coverage. Kotaku's editor-in-chief Stephen Totilo stated that Grayson had not written anything about Quinn after becoming involved with her and had never reviewed her games. While Grayson had written an article about the failed GAME_JAM web reality show that Quinn participated in and Kotaku had also mentioned her game, both occurred before the relationship began. The incident led to broader allegations on social media that games developers and gaming media are too often closely connected and that cultural criticism of video games has led to an increasing focus on social representation and cultural meaning in games by some video games writers. A number of commentators within and outside the games industry denounced the attack on Quinn as misogynistic and unfounded. Quinn and her family were subsequently targeted by a "virulent campaign" of harassment, including doxxing, threats of rape, hacking attempts and at least one death threat. Those who came to her defense were also targeted, such as fellow video game developer Phil Fish who was "doxxed" after speaking in support of Quinn, with many of his personal details and documents relating to his company Polytron exposed in a hack, making him opt to sell off Polytron and leave the gaming industry.

The harassment expanded to include the feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian. Sarkeesian's strong feminist views on the video game industry and her series Tropes vs. Women in Video Games, which explores issues of feminism and sexism in the field, had already created harsh criticism towards her, and she had been subject to harassment by some members of the gamer community, including death threats. After she released another episode of Tropes vs. Women in Video Games shortly after the initial accusations against Quinn in August 2014, Sarkeesian reported receiving death threats that compelled her to temporarily leave her home.

During these events, gamers used social media and sites such as 4chan and Reddit to explain and support their position, and figures like Adam Baldwin (who was one of the first to use the hashtag #GamerGate on Twitter) highlighted the issue to the population at large. A portion of those that support the #GamerGate movement took issue with critics and the media claiming them all to be misogynists, and started a second Twitter hashtag "#NotYourShield", presenting themselves as women and members of other minorities seeking for changes in the ethics of the video game industry and denying that the core issues behind #GamerGate was driven by sexism. A radical feminist group supportive of the #GamerGate movement known as "The Fine Young Capitalists" (TFYC) reported that their charity game jam on Indiegogo had been hacked. Prior to #GamerGate, Quinn had spoken out against TFYC's campaign due to their differing feminist stances; those critical of Quinn, allegedly members of 4chan's video games board "/v/" as they are addressed in the hack message, began to support it, donating US$17,000 to the campaign and even creating a mascot that TFYC decided to use in the winning submission.

Analysis

Media attention has focused on the highly-personal nature of the allegations about Quinn and the subsequent campaign of harassment, linking the issue with historical perceptions of the gaming community as sexist and reactionary. The industry had previously dealt with persistent harassment and threats of developers through social media as early as mid-2013, in some cases reaching levels that prompted individuals to leave the industry. Nathan Fisk, a lecturer at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, spoke on how such harassment can come about: "Fans are invested in the stories and worlds that developers create, and certain design decisions can be seen by fans to threaten those stories and worlds. Harassment silences and repositions content creators in ways that protect the interests of certain fan groups[...]." The International Game Developers Association (IGDA), in light of these events, created special support groups to help developers that were dealing with harassment. The IGDA revealed in September 2014 that they had began discussions with the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation prior to August to help investigate online harassment brought onto game developers.

A number of commentators have argued that the #GamerGate movement had the potential to raise important issues in gaming journalism, but that the wave of misogynistic harassment and abuse associated with the hashtag had poisoned the well, making it impossible to separate honest criticism from sexist trolling.

Responses

According to Erik Kain, writing in Forbes, the #GamerGate movement is driven by an anti-feminist backlash against the increasing diversity of voices involved in cultural criticism of video games. "What it boils down to is many people feeling upset that the video game space has been so heavily politicized with a left-leaning, feminist-driven slant," he said.

Writing in Time, Leigh Alexander described the campaign as "deeply sincere" but based on "bizarre conspiracy theories," stating that there is nothing unethical or improper about journalists being friends and acquaintances of those they cover. "Surely these campaigners understand that no meaningful reporting on anything takes place without the trust—and often friendship—of people on the inside," she said. She attributed the controversy to a growing gulf between some traditional video game fans and the increasingly diverse nature of the industry, noting that the maturing and ever-more-mainstream nature of video games opens the genre to longstanding cultural critiques and new perspectives.

David Auerbach of Slate argued it was a case of a fair number of gamers hating the journalists who cover video games, and the journalists hating the video gamers. Like Alexander, Auerbach asserts gaming culture is changing but it is the ordinary video-game journalist that is being phased out in favor of amateur Let's Play commentators on YouTube and Twitch.

The online harassment of Quinn and the death threats against Sarkeesian prompted an open letter to the gaming community by independent game developer Andreas Zecher, who called upon the community to take a public stand against the attacks. The letter subsequently attracted the signatures of more than 2000 professionals within the gaming industry.

Zoe Quinn has stated that #GamerGate was manufactured by members of 4chan operating on a private IRC channel specifically to attack her and her followers for her feminist views, releasing numerous screencaps on Twitter. This has been denied by some members of the channel.

Anita Sarkeesian, speaking in public for the first time (at the XOXO Festival in Portland, Oregon) since she fled her home, said that "One of the most radical things you can do is to actually believe women when they talk about their experiences", regarding the accusation that high-profile women were making up the threats against them, and that "The perpetrators do not see themselves as perpetrators at all... They see themselves as noble warriors."

Liana Kerzner, writing for MetalEater.com, criticized some gaming journalists for making "unprofessional, anti-intellectual, and dehumanizing" generalizations about those who supported #GamerGate, and that it had been unfair to paint all of its supporters as motivated by ill will rather than true concern for the state of games journalism. "As a member of the video game media, I am sorry for that. It was wrong, and you guys didn't deserve it." She also urged the gaming community to challenge and reject the "small subgroups of gamers" whose actions have stigmatized the community. "The misogyny within our ranks is real. The racism is real. The homophobia and transgendered stigma is real. The stigma against mental illness is real. Our juvenile relationship with sexualized violence is real," she wrote.

Writing in Vox, Todd VanDerWerff lamented that the movement's "actually interesting concerns" were being "warped and drowned out by an army of trolls spewing bile, often at women." Sarah Kaplan of The Washington Post noted that sexism became "the crux" of the #GamerGate controversy. Alex Goldman from On the Media wrote "The most frustrating aspect of this, I think, is that there is a scintilla of truth and merit to some of the Gamergate complaints. The industry and journalists are too cozy. Gamers are diverse. But when there is clear evidence that 4chan is trying to bolster Gamergate's fight by pretending to be minorities and women, all credibility is lost. ... As of right now, the worst people standing behind the mantle of gamer have spoiled it for all of you."

Gaming press sites such as Polygon and Kotaku changed their disclosure and conflict of interest policies, including prohibiting writers from supporting game developers through Patreon, while The Escapist and Destructoid reviewed their ethics policy.