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Revision as of 11:41, 26 January 2015 view sourceTrivialist (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users, Pending changes reviewers208,531 edits →Harassment and Gamergate: adding link, fixing punctuation← Previous edit Revision as of 16:28, 26 January 2015 view source Tony Sidaway (talk | contribs)Autopatrolled, Extended confirmed users, Pending changes reviewers81,722 edits Reverting last two edits. This is probably rather more weight to a particular episode than a biography can bear. Harassment of Quinn part of a larger event detailed in another article.Next edit →
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==== Harassment and Gamergate ==== ==== Harassment and Gamergate ====
{{Main|Gamergate controversy}} {{Main|Gamergate controversy}}
With other women in the game industry, Quinn suffered through a long period of harassment including ], rape threats, and death threats. ] was the culmination of these events and resulted in widespread recognition of misogyny in gaming.
In December 2013, while launching ''Depression Quest'', Quinn reported harassment, both online and through sexually explicit phone calls.<ref name="Edge" /><ref name="Escapist">{{cite web| author=Carly Smith | work=]|title=Depression Quest Dev Faces Harassment after Steam Submission|url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/130525-Depression-Quest-Dev-Faces-Harassment-after-Steam-Submission|date=14 December 2013|accessdate=30 May 2014}}</ref><ref name="polygon">{{cite web|first=Ben|last=Kuchera|authorlink=Ben Kuchera|publisher=]|title=Developer Zoe Quinn offers real-world advice, support for dealing with online harassment|date=19 March 2014|accessdate=27 Aug 2014|url=http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/19/5526114/developer-zoe-quinn-offers-real-world-advice-support-for-dealing-with}}</ref><ref name="Polo">{{cite web|last=Polo|first=Susana|title=The Two Most Inexplicable Examples of Video Game Community Harassment This Week|url=http://www.themarysue.com/mighty-no-9-dina-abou-karam/|date=13 December 2013|accessdate=30 May 2014|work=The Mary Sue}}</ref> Shortly after the game was released in August 2014,<ref name="AusGamers" /> Eron Gjoni, Quinn's ex-boyfriend, published a blog post claiming that she had been involved in a romantic relationship with a journalist for Kotaku, a video game news site.<ref name="wooley">{{cite web|last=Wooley|first=Emma M.|url=http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/digital-culture/dont-believe-the-conspiracy-gaming-has-bigger-problems-than-corruption/article20230850/|title=Don't believe the 'conspiracy,' gaming has bigger problems than 'corruption'|publisher=The Globe and Mail|date=27 August 2014|accessdate=2 September 2014}}</ref><ref name="beast">{{cite web|last1=Marcotte|first1=Amanda|title=Gaming Misogyny Gets Infinite Lives: Zoe Quinn, Virtual Rape, and Sexism|url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/22/gaming-misogyny-gets-infinite-lives-zoe-quinn-virtual-rape-and-sexism.html|publisher=The Daily Beast|date=22 August 2014|accessdate=2 September 2014}}</ref><ref name="Auerbach">{{cite web|last=Auerbach|first=David|url=http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/bitwise/2014/08/zoe_quinn_harassment_a_letter_to_a_young_male_gamer.html|title=Letter to a Young Male Gamer - Some ground rules to keep in mind in the wake of an ugly, sexist scandal|publisher=Slate|date=27 August 2014|accessdate=2 September 2014}}</ref> After the posting, Quinn became the target of a widespread campaign of harassment.<ref name=NewYorker/><ref name="beast" /><ref name="WashingtonPost"/> The campaign included the ] and the hacking of her ] account by someone claiming to be from "/v/", the main gaming forum on the ] ].<ref name="WashingtonPost">{{cite web|last=Kaplan|first=Sarah|url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/09/12/with-gamergate-the-video-game-industrys-growing-pains-go-viral/|title=With #GamerGate, the video-game industry's growing pains go viral|work=Washington Post|date=12 September 2014|accessdate=15 September 2014}}</ref><ref name="dot">{{cite web|last1=Romano|first1=Aja|title=The sexist crusade to destroy game developer Zoe Quinn|url=http://www.dailydot.com/geek/zoe-quinn-depression-quest-gaming-sex-scandal/|publisher=The Daily Dot|date=20 August 2014|accessdate=2 September 2014}}</ref> These events were the spark igniting a ] that came to be known as ]. Gamergate eventually influenced the wider ], spurring discussion about ] and ] on the ].<ref name="NewYorker" /><ref name="Telegraph">{{cite web|last=Sanghani|first=Radhika|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11082629/Gamergate-Misogyny-death-threats-and-a-mob-of-angry-trolls-Inside-the-dark-world-of-video-games.html|title=Misogyny, death threats and a mob of trolls: Inside the dark world of video games with Zoe Quinn - target of #GamerGate|date=10 September 2014|work=The Telegraph|accessdate=15 September 2014}}</ref><ref name="Guardian">{{cite web|url=http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/12/zoe-quinn-gamergate-online-hate-mobs-depression-quest|title=Zoe Quinn on Gamergate: 'We need a proper discussion about online hate mobs'|first=Alex|last=Hern|work=The Guardian|date=12 September 2014|accessdate=15 September 2014}}</ref> She told the BBC that "to me, Gamergate will always be glorified ] by my angry ex."<ref name=BBC/> One aspect of the controversy centered on a dispute between Quinn and the group ], over the latter's women in video games project.<ref name="Vice">{{cite news|last1=Ringo|first1=Allegra|title=Meet the Female Gamer Mascot Born of Anti-Feminist Internet Drama|url=http://www.vice.com/read/meet-the-female-gamer-mascot-created-by-anti-feminists-828|accessdate=16 September 2014|publisher='']''|date=28 August 2014}}</ref>


At the height of the controversy, according to ''The New Yorker'', the harassment escalated to the point where Quinn, "fearing for her safety, chose to leave her home" and began working with the authorities to identify those responsible for the harassment.<ref name=NewYorker /> She detailed her experience in an interview on ]'s '']'' in late October, saying that Gamergate represented a rapidly-shrinking fringe among an increasingly-diverse gaming community and that those attacking her and other women in gaming needed "to just grow up."<ref>{{cite episode|title=Exclusive: Woman who sparked Gamergate |series= ]| station=]|url=http://www.msnbc.com/ronan-farrow-daily/watch/exclusive--woman-who-sparked-gamergate-345327171549|accessdate=27 November 2014|date=20 October 2014}}</ref> Speaking with ], she said the harassment had consumed her life, leading her to feel as if she was "surrounded by nothing but hate — it's virulent, it's everywhere" and that she was "just trying to survive." She said the attacks on her boiled down to "the same accusation everybody makes toward every successful woman: she got to where she is because she had sex with someone" and that Gamergate had targeted "the people with the least power in the industry." After speaking at the annual ] event in Nottingham, she said she "used to go to games events and feel like I was going home... Now it's just like... are any of the people I'm currently in the room with, the ones that said they wanted to beat me to death?"<ref name=BBC>{{cite news | url=http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-29821050 | title=Zoe Quinn: GamerGate must be condemned | work=] | date=29 October 2014 | accessdate=27 November 2014 | author=Lee, Dave}}</ref> She said her therapist remarked of the harassment, "I don’t even know what to tell you, this is so f---ing far outside anything I’m aware of."<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-11-26/anita-sarkeesian-battles-sexism-in-games-gamergate-harassment |author= Sheelah Kolhatkar |title= The Gaming Industry's Greatest Adversary Is Just Getting Started |work= ] |date= November 26, 2014 |accessdate= November 26, 2014}}</ref> At the height of the controversy, according to ''The New Yorker'', the harassment escalated to the point where Quinn, "fearing for her safety, chose to leave her home" and began working with the authorities to identify those responsible for the harassment.<ref name=NewYorker /> She detailed her experience in an interview on ]'s '']'' in late October, saying that Gamergate represented a rapidly-shrinking fringe among an increasingly-diverse gaming community and that those attacking her and other women in gaming needed "to just grow up."<ref>{{cite episode|title=Exclusive: Woman who sparked Gamergate |series= ]| station=]|url=http://www.msnbc.com/ronan-farrow-daily/watch/exclusive--woman-who-sparked-gamergate-345327171549|accessdate=27 November 2014|date=20 October 2014}}</ref> Speaking with ], she said the harassment had consumed her life, leading her to feel as if she was "surrounded by nothing but hate — it's virulent, it's everywhere" and that she was "just trying to survive." She said the attacks on her boiled down to "the same accusation everybody makes toward every successful woman: she got to where she is because she had sex with someone" and that Gamergate had targeted "the people with the least power in the industry." After speaking at the annual ] event in Nottingham, she said she "used to go to games events and feel like I was going home... Now it's just like... are any of the people I'm currently in the room with, the ones that said they wanted to beat me to death?"<ref name=BBC>{{cite news | url=http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-29821050 | title=Zoe Quinn: GamerGate must be condemned | work=] | date=29 October 2014 | accessdate=27 November 2014 | author=Lee, Dave}}</ref> She said her therapist remarked of the harassment, "I don’t even know what to tell you, this is so f-‍-‍-ing far outside anything I’m aware of."<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-11-26/anita-sarkeesian-battles-sexism-in-games-gamergate-harassment |author= Sheelah Kolhatkar |title= The Gaming Industry's Greatest Adversary Is Just Getting Started |work= ] |date= November 26, 2014 |accessdate= November 26, 2014}}</ref>


=== Other projects === === Other projects ===

Revision as of 16:28, 26 January 2015

Zoe Quinn
Zoe Quinn in 2014
Born1987 (age 36–37)
United States
OccupationVideo game developer
Known forDepression Quest
Websitequinnspiracy.com

Zoe Quinn (born 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. Following a blog post by her ex-boyfriend, Quinn was subject to widespread harassment, which sparked a controversy known widely as "Gamergate".

Early life

Zoe Quinn was born in 1987 and spent her childhood in a small town near the Adirondack Mountains in New York. Growing up, she often played video games. One of her favorites was Commander Keen, an MS-DOS game featuring an eight-year-old protagonist who builds a spaceship with items found around his house and then travels the galaxy defending the Earth. As a teenager, Quinn suffered from depression; she was diagnosed with the condition at the age of 14. She has described receiving little sympathy or assistance from school district officials, who were, she says, "less than understanding about teens with depression and suicide issues".

Career

At the age of 24, Quinn 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."

Depression Quest

Main article: Depression Quest

Through her early game-development work, Quinn met Patrick Lindsey, a writer. Like Quinn, Lindsey struggled with depression. He felt that existing video games that dealt with the subject did not adequately depict the real emotions associated with depression, instead utilizing metaphor and symbolism. He suggested to Quinn that they write a new video game to better help others understand their experience. Quinn thought a game would be a good way to depict depression, imposing a set of rules on players they might not otherwise experience in their day-to-day lives. Quinn and Lindsey teamed with Isaac Schankler for the game's music, and released the final result of their collaboration, the text-based Depression Quest, 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. Depression Quest was featured in a Playboy article as one of several video games dealing with the subjective experience of depression.

Harassment and Gamergate

Main article: Gamergate controversy

With other women in the game industry, Quinn suffered through a long period of harassment including doxing, rape threats, and death threats. Gamergate was the culmination of these events and resulted in widespread recognition of misogyny in gaming.

At the height of the controversy, according to The New Yorker, the harassment escalated to the point where Quinn, "fearing for her safety, chose to leave her home" and began working with the authorities to identify those responsible for the harassment. She detailed her experience in an interview on MSNBC's Ronan Farrow Daily in late October, saying that Gamergate represented a rapidly-shrinking fringe among an increasingly-diverse gaming community and that those attacking her and other women in gaming needed "to just grow up." Speaking with BBC News, she said the harassment had consumed her life, leading her to feel as if she was "surrounded by nothing but hate — it's virulent, it's everywhere" and that she was "just trying to survive." She said the attacks on her boiled down to "the same accusation everybody makes toward every successful woman: she got to where she is because she had sex with someone" and that Gamergate had targeted "the people with the least power in the industry." After speaking at the annual GameCity event in Nottingham, she said she "used to go to games events and feel like I was going home... Now it's just like... are any of the people I'm currently in the room with, the ones that said they wanted to beat me to death?" She said her therapist remarked of the harassment, "I don’t even know what to tell you, this is so f-‍-‍-ing far outside anything I’m aware of."

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 codenamed "Game_Jam", which was intended to bring together a number of prominent indie game developers. She has additionally worked on Fez, Jazzpunk, They Bleed Pixels and several jam games.

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.

In January 2015 Quinn co-founded Crash Override, a private network of experts to assist victims of online harassment.

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 the download code for the game Deus Ex. She also has a magnetic implant in her left ring finger.

References

  1. @TheQuinnspiracy (Zoe Quinn) (October 13, 2014). "1987 is my birth year. I am 27". twitter. Retrieved October 13, 2014.
  2. ^ Parkin, Simon (September 9, 2014). "Zoe Quinn's Depression Quest". The New Yorker. Retrieved September 15, 2014.
  3. "'Depression Quest' Now Available on Steam". Game Politics. August 13, 2014. Retrieved August 23, 2014.
  4. "Why the co-creator of Depression Quest is fighting back against Internet trolls". Edge. Retrieved 30 May 2014.
  5. "Depression Quest Now Available on Steam for Free". AusGamers. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
  6. Rougeau, Mike (25 November 2014). "Resistance is Futile: The New Wave of Video Games about Depression". Playboy.com. Retrieved 27 November 2014.
  7. "Exclusive: Woman who sparked Gamergate". Ronan Farrow Daily. 20 October 2014. MSNBC.com. Retrieved 27 November 2014.
  8. Lee, Dave (29 October 2014). "Zoe Quinn: GamerGate must be condemned". BBC News. Retrieved 27 November 2014.
  9. Sheelah Kolhatkar (November 26, 2014). "The Gaming Industry's Greatest Adversary Is Just Getting Started". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved November 26, 2014.
  10. Wawro, Alex (18 December 2013). "Game Developer Help List rallies industry vets to aid rookie devs". Gamasutra. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  11. Matulef, Jeffrey (1 April 2014). "Game jam reality show cancelled as indies wouldn't put up with its s***". Eurogamer. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  12. Griffiths, Daniel Nye (30 April 2014). "Quest Love – 'Depression Quest' Creator Zoe Quinn Joins Hot Indie 'Framed'". Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  13. Donaldson, Ricky (18 April 2014). "Zoe Quinn's Follow Up To Depression Quest is a FMV Game". Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  14. Mendoza, Jessica (January 20, 2015). "Online harassment targets strike back against abusers. Will it work?". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved January 21, 2015.
  15. Hudson, Laura (January 20, 2015). "Gamergate Target Zoe Quinn Launches Anti-Harassment Support Network". Wired. Retrieved January 22, 2015.
  16. ^ Hernandez, Patricia (7 May 2014). "Woman puts Deus Ex on computer chip in her hand". Kotaku. Retrieved 17 September 2014.
  17. Kleppek, Patrick (2014). "Zoe Quinn has embraced our cybernetic future". Giant Bomb. Retrieved 8 May 2014.

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