GamerGate has been a force of malice and destruction for three months now. The movement has shown signs of slowing, but no signs of stopping. In many ways, GamerGate has become more crazy and conspiratorial since it began. They have spun out of control and, in some ways, become comical in their operating forces. GamerGate now spans a number of different hashtags like #NotYourShield, #OpSKYNET, #FullMcIntosh, and several others that all basically mean the same thing, yet mean absolutely nothing at all. GamerGate is spiraling into silence. Continue reading
The History of GamerGate, Part 7: Statements
In the wake of GamerGate, video game media publications did very little to stamp out the flames of harassment and misogyny. GamerGate was the phrase no one wanted to speak aloud, a veritable Voldemort of video game culture. Kotaku spoke out first, before more general and widespread news sources began discussing GamerGate. It wasn’t until GamerGate’s campaign of harassment was presented in mainstream news coverage in the New York Times and on MSNBC that other large video game publications condemned the dangerous parts of video game culture. It wasn’t until Brianna Wu, the third woman attacked by GamerGate, was threatened with rape and murder that many notable publications said anything about the topic. There were various condemnations on twitter, but nothing public and front-facing against the harassment and misogyny.
That is a problem. Continue reading
The History of GamerGate, Part 6: October 14
October 14, 2014 was one of the most eventful days in GamerGate’s short but exhausting history. In the span of just 24 hours, GamerGate’s main targets: Zoe Quinn, Anita Sarkeesian, and Brianna Wu (the three Literally Who’s of GamerGate) were all attacked in some way. Continue reading
The History of GamerGate, Part 5: Brianna Wu
On October 10, 2014 Brianna Wu, software engineer and creator of Revolution 60, left her home out of fear from an onslaught of rape and death threats directed at her. GamerGate directed their efforts towards her after she tweeted about a meme a fan had made based on her tweets about the hashtag. Continue reading
The History of GamerGate, Part 4: GameJournoPros
Collusion!
On September 17, 2014 Breitbart writer Milo Yiannopoulos wrote an article called “Exposed: The Secret Mailing List of the Gaming Journalism Elite” which sparked a firestorm in the GamerGate community. This is perhaps one of the more baffling “wins” for GamerGate that they still celebrate. A mailing list of like-minded individuals in the same industry is anything but conspiratorial, and yet, a conspiracy web GamerGate did weave. Continue reading
The History of GamerGate, Part 3: Gamers are Over
On the morning of August 28, 2014 Leigh Alexander posted an article on Gamasutra titled, “’Gamers’ don’t have to be your audience. ‘Gamers’ are over.” In it, Alexander decried the latest string of stories about harassment and sexism relating to Zoe Quinn and Anita Sarkeesian. She talks about the cultural identity of the term “gamer.” She makes a case against the marketization of the “male gamer” and how that has been continuously less important as the medium matures. Continue reading
The History of GamerGate, Part 2: Anita Sarkeesian
On August 26, just ten days after the escalation of harassment towards Zoe Quinn, the campaign of harassment still lacked its unifying terminology. The nascent #GamerGate hashtag would appear one day after this rogue band of miscreants attacked another woman. Continue reading
