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| == Early life == | == Early life == | ||
| Quinn spent her childhood in a small town near the ] in ], United States.<ref name="NewYorker" /> She often played video games as she was growing up. One of her favorites was ], an ] game featuring an eight-year-old protagonist who travels the galaxy to defend the earth after building a spaceship with items he finds around his house.<ref name="NewYorker" /> As a teenager, Quinn suffered from depression, and she was diagnosed with the affliction at the age of 14.<ref name="NewYorker" /> She did not receive much sympathy about her situation from school-district officials, |
Quinn spent her childhood in a small town near the ] in ], United States.<ref name="NewYorker" /> She often played video games as she was growing up. One of her favorites was ], an ] game featuring an eight-year-old protagonist who travels the galaxy to defend the earth after building a spaceship with items he finds around his house.<ref name="NewYorker" /> As a teenager, Quinn suffered from depression, and she was diagnosed with the affliction at the age of 14.<ref name="NewYorker" /> She did not receive much sympathy about her situation from school-district officials, whom she says "were less than understanding about teens with depression and suicide issues".<ref name="NewYorker" /> | ||
| At the age of 24, she moved to Canada, where she made her first forays into video game programming. Her first game was the result of a six-week course on video-game creation that she attended after seeing an advertisement in a newspaper. In a later interview for '']'', she said of this experience, "I felt like I’d found my calling."<ref name="NewYorker" /> | At the age of 24, she moved to Canada, where she made her first forays into video game programming. Her first game was the result of a six-week course on video-game creation that she attended after seeing an advertisement in a newspaper. In a later interview for '']'', she said of this experience, "I felt like I’d found my calling."<ref name="NewYorker" /> | ||
Revision as of 00:32, 17 September 2014
| Zoe Quinn | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1986 or 1987 (age 37–38) United States |
| Occupation | Video game developer |
| Known for | Depression Quest |
Zoe Quinn (born 1986 or 1987) is an American independent video game developer and 2D artist. Quinn developed the interactive fiction Depression Quest, co-created with Patrick Lindsey and Isaac Schankler, a Twine game released on Steam.
Early life
Quinn spent her childhood in a small town near the Adirondack Mountains in New York, United States. She often played video games as she was growing up. One of her favorites was Commander Keen, an MS-DOS game featuring an eight-year-old protagonist who travels the galaxy to defend the earth after building a spaceship with items he finds around his house. As a teenager, Quinn suffered from depression, and she was diagnosed with the affliction at the age of 14. She did not receive much sympathy about her situation from school-district officials, whom she says "were less than understanding about teens with depression and suicide issues".
At the age of 24, she moved to Canada, where she made her first forays into video game programming. Her first game was the result of a six-week course on video-game creation that she attended after seeing an advertisement in a newspaper. In a later interview for The New Yorker, she said of this experience, "I felt like I’d found my calling."
Career
Depression Quest
Main article: Depression QuestThrough her early game-development work, Quinn met Patrick Lindsey, a writer and fellow depression sufferer. Lindsay felt that existing video games that dealt with the subject of depression did not adequately depict the emotions felt by sufferers, instead dealing with the subject through metaphor and symbolism. To address this balance, and to help others understand their experiences, he suggested to Quinn that they write a new video game. Quinn thought that a game would be a good way to depict depression, as it could impose a set of rules on the player that they may not have in everyday life. Quinn and Lindsay teamed up with Isaac Schankler to provide music for the game, and the result was Depression Quest, released in February 2013.
Depression Quest details the troubled life of a person suffering from depression. Quinn attempted to publish the game on Steam Greenlight service twice - in December 2013 and later in August 2014, when it was accepted and released by Steam.
Harassment and GamerGate
Quinn has reported that in December 2013, while attempting to publish Depression Quest, she became the target of harassment, both online and through sexually explicit phone calls. Shortly after the game was released on Steam, in August 2014, Quinn's ex-boyfriend published a post on his blog accusing Quinn of infidelity. After the posting, Quinn was targeted by "a disturbing harassment campaign", including publication of sensitive personal information online and hacking of her Tumblr account by someone claiming to be from "/v/", a gaming forum on the 4chan website, events which formed the genesis of the video game controversy GamerGate which eventually influenced both the wider video game culture and discussions on the sociology of the Internet with regards to feminism. Part of the controversy centered on a dispute she had with the group The Fine Young Capitalists over its women in video games project.
Other projects
In addition to her own game development projects, Quinn is also known for creating the Game Developer Help List designed to bring experienced game developers and novice developers into contact with one another. In 2014, Quinn was to be part of the cancelled YouTube reality television show GAME_JAM, which was intended to bring together a number of prominent indie game developers.
Quinn has joined Loveshack Entertainment as Narrative Designer for the upcoming iOS game FRAMED. Quinn is also working on a full motion video game starring Greg Sestero.
Personal life
Quinn is interested in body modification, and has implanted a chip in the back of her hand that can be programmed to perform various functions. Her first use of the chip was to load it with a download code for the game Deus Ex. She also has a magnetic implant in her left ring finger.
References
- ^ Parkin, Simon (September 9, 2014). "Zoe Quinn's Depression Quest". New Yorker. Retrieved September 15, 2014.
- "'Depression Quest' Now Available on Steam". Game Politics. August 13, 2014. Retrieved August 23, 2014.
- ^ Edge Staff. "Why the co-creator of Depression Quest is fighting back against Internet trolls". Retrieved 30 May 2014.
- ^ "Depression Quest Now Available on Steam for Free". AusGamers. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
- Carly Smith (2013). "Depression Quest Dev Faces Harassment after Steam Submission". The Escapist. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
- Ben Kuchera. "Developer Zoe Quinn offers real-world advice, support for dealing with online harassment". Polygon. Retrieved 27 Aug 2014.
- Polo, Susana (2013). "The Two Most Inexplicable Examples of Video Game Community Harassment This Week". The Mary Sue. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
- ^ Wooley, Emma M.Don’t believe the ‘conspiracy,’ gaming has bigger problems than ‘corruption’, The Globe and Mail, 27 August 2014. Retrieved 2 September 2014.
- ^ Marcotte, Amanda. "Gaming Misogyny Gets Infinite Lives: Zoe Quinn, Virtual Rape, and Sexism". Retrieved 2 September 2014.
- Auerbach, David Letter to a Young Male Gamer - Some ground rules to keep in mind in the wake of an ugly, sexist scandal, Slate, 27 August 2014. Retrieved 2 September 2014.
- ^ Romano, Aja. "The sexist crusade to destroy game developer Zoe Quinn". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 2 September 2014.
- "with-gamergate-the-video-game-industrys-growing-pains-go-viral/". Washington Post. Retrieved 15 September 2014.
- "Gamergate-Misogyny-death-threats-and-a-mob-of-angry-trolls-Inside-the-dark-world-of-video-games.html". Telegraph.co.uk. 10 September 2014. Retrieved 15 September 2014.
- "zoe-quinns-depression-quest". The New Yorker. Retrieved 15 September 2014.
- Alex Hern. "Zoe Quinn on Gamergate: 'We need a proper discussion about online hate mobs' - Technology - theguardian.com". the Guardian. Retrieved 15 September 2014.
- Ringo, Allegra (28 August 2014). "Meet the Female Gamer Mascot Born of Anti-Feminist Internet Drama". Vice. Retrieved 16 September 2014.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - Wawro, Alex (2013). "Game Developer Help List rallies industry vets to aid rookie devs". Retrieved 30 May 2014.
- Matulef, Jeffrey (2014). "Game jam reality show cancelled as indies wouldn't put up with its s***". Retrieved 30 May 2014.
- Daniel Nye Griffiths (2014). "Quest Love - 'Depression Quest' Creator Zoe Quinn Joins Hot Indie 'Framed'". Retrieved 30 May 2014.
- Donaldson, Ricky (2014). "Zoe Quinn's Follow Up To Depression Quest is a FMV Game". Retrieved 18 April 2014.
- ^ Hernandez, Patricia (2014). "Woman puts Deus Ex on computer chip in her hand". Retrieved 7 May 2014.
- Kleppek, Patrick (2014). "Zoe Quinn has embraced our cybernetic future". Retrieved 8 May 2014.
