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#GamerGate is a controversy in video game culture in which long-standing issues of sexism and misogyny in the gamer community became high-profile on social and mainstream media, along with issues regarding journalistic ethics in the online gaming press, particularly conflicts of interest between video game journalists and developers. The controversy stemmed from harassment that indie game developer Zoe Quinn received after an ex-boyfriend posted allegations on his blog in August 2014 about her personal life which led others to accuse her of professional impropriety to obtain positive media coverage for her game; those subsequent allegations were later proven false, but the debate they sparked continued. Other topics of debate have included perceived changes or threats to the "gamer" identity as a result of the maturing and diversifying of the gaming industry.

Events

Independent video game developer Zoe Quinn developed and released her interactive fiction title Depression Quest in 2013 as a means to represent her own bout with depression. Upon its release, some people 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 attention 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. Others, however, saw it as an important expression of themes not previously addressed in mainstream gaming — "'game' as communication, comfort and tool of understanding," in the words of Rock, Paper, Shotgun's Adam Smith. In working with Valve Corporation to put Depression Quest on the Steam content platform'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 community 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 containing a series of allegations, amongst which was that Quinn had cheated on him with Kotaku journalist Nathan Grayson. This led to allegations from Quinn's opponents in the gaming community that the relationship had resulted in favorable media coverage. Kotaku's editor-in-chief Stephen Totilo affirmed the two had a relationship, but 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. She began couch-surfing with friends out of fear that she would be tracked to her home. The New Yorker reported an example of the threats: “Next time she shows up at a conference we … give her a crippling injury that’s never going to fully heal … a good solid injury to the knees. I’d say a brain damage, but we don’t want to make it so she ends up too retarded to fear us.” Those who came to her defense were also targeted, such as fellow video game developer Phil Fish, who had been a focus of controversy on social media in 2013. Fish 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 who had experienced prior harassment from members of the gamer community over her Tropes vs. Women in Video Games series on exploring issues of feminism and sexism in video games. A new episode in the series (Women as Background, Pt. 2) was released shortly after Gjoni's blog entry, whereupon renewed harassment against Sarkeesian began. She reported that she had received death threats that compelled her to temporarily leave her home.

Concurrent to 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 the first to use the hashtag #GamerGate on Twitter) highlighted the issue to the population at large. In some cases, posts relating to the controversy were blocked or erased on some web sites, while at least one YouTube commentator had their video critical of Quinn removed by a DMCA request, leading some gamers to complain about censorship and leading to a Streisand Effect that brought more people into the debate. A portion of those that support the #GamerGate movement took issue with the widespread description of the movement as misogynist; some gamers asserted that the focus on the misogamy of the situation was to "deflect criticism" of gaming journalism, according to The Washington Post. A second Twitter hashtag, "#NotYourShield", was started, intending to show that women and members of other minorities in the gaming community were also seeking for changes in the ethics of the video game industry and denying that the core issues behind #GamerGate were driven by sexism. Quinn has stated that the #GamerGate movement was manufactured by users of 4chan operating on an IRC channel specifically to attack her and her followers for her feminist views, while those posting under #NotYourShield were not of the claimed minority groups. These statements have been denied by some users of 4chan.

A self-described radical feminist group supportive of the #GamerGate movement known as The Fine Young Capitalists (TFYC) reported that their account for their charity game jam on Indiegogo had had its password cracked. Prior to #GamerGate, Quinn had spoken out against TFYC's campaign concerning their rules on transgender participants and on how the participants were not being paid; TFYC has explained that their rules stipulate a particular date before which participants had to have identified as women to ensure participants would not abuse the process by lying about their gender identity, and worded it such that people who had difficulties in legally transitioning could participate, and that the participants were only providing conceptual work, rather than the bulk of computer programming. During the initial argument between the two camps, TFYC's website suffered from an unintentional DDoS attack due to increased traffic resulting from the discussion on Twitter. The group also states that a sponsor withdrew support over the transphobia concerns, costing them US$10,000.

After #GamerGate gained traction, TFYC noted that 4chan users had donated US$17,000 to their Indiegogo project, and designed a mascot character which the group decided to use in their games; the 4chan video games board /v/ is explicitly mentioned in the message put up by the perpetrator of the password crack. The character "Vivian James" (meant to sound similar to "video games") was designed to appear like a normal female gamer. Tom Mendelsohn of The Independent wrote that 4chan had created Vivian as an emblem for their campaign to demonstrate they’re not sexist, and described the character as "a sardonic dream woman who games in slouchy hoodies, has long, lascivious tresses of red hair and doesn’t ever want to hurt them". Erik Kain of Forbes described Vivian as an “every-girl of sorts, and maybe not what you’d expect from 4chan". Vivian James has been criticized as being anti-feminist; Allegra Ringo of Vice alleged that the character was created out of spite, describing it as "masquerading as a feminist icon for the express purpose of spiting feminists".

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. According to Sarah Kaplan of The Washington Post, "sexism in gaming is a long-documented, much-debated but seemingly intractable problem," and became the crux of the #GamerGate controversy. In an article for The Guardian, Jenn Frank described the tactics used in the harassment campaign, and of the climate of fear it generated through its attacks on women and their allies. Frank concluded that this alienating abusive environment would harm not only women, but the industry as a whole. After receiving harassment herself, Frank left games journalism.

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. In one noted case, Treyarch developer David Vonderhaar was flooded with complaints and death threats after he announced a weapons rebalancing patch to Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 in mid-2013, requiring Activision's community manager Dan Amrich to step in and calm the players' reactions. In August 2013, BioWare senior writer Jennifer Hepler reported that she had received harassing messages through social media, emails, and phone calls, including threatening the lives of her children, regarding her participation in Dragon Age II; Hepler believed it was because of an old interview where she said she disliked combat in games. In July 2014, Brianna Wu wrote a piece for Polygon revealing she had been sent threatening text messages for her involvement in a video game, and also documented four other women's experiences: a blogger whose post was shared by Anita Sarkeesian and resulted in harassment and violent threats after it was reposted to Reddit, former IGN editor Nicole Tanner who discovered sexist comments on YouTube regarding herself and her Girlfigt panel members at the 2010 PAX East, a woman who is being sexually harassed by an unknown individual sending her pornographic fan fiction of themselves, and GameSpot editor Carolyn Petit whose simple existence as a transgender woman on the staff resulted in harassing messages sent to her. 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. Quinn said the campaign had "roped well-meaning people who cared about ethics and transparency into a preexisting hate mob."

The issue of journalism ethics has been highlighted as a concern of the controversy. Vox Media writer Todd VanDerWerff highlighted an essay written by game developer David Hill which explained that he believed #GamerGate made good points, but targeted the wrong people. Hill wrote that gaming journalists hated the nepotism and how the industry, particluarly AAA publishers, treats video game journalism as marketing rather than critics. Hill wrote, "We want to approach these works of art as works of art, and not just as the next success or flop. But that can't happen on any large scale, because of that corruption, because of the commercialism of it all." He further added that the #GamerGate movement should not have focused on independent developers like Quinn, particularly attacking her sex life, and Fish to try to enact a change in games journalism, describing them as "frankly powerless in the games industry", but rather the movement should have targetted advertising by AAA companies.

Gamers have also become distrustful of gaming journalism due to their ties with game publishers and actions taken, with two prior incidents weighing heavily. In 2007, Jeff Gerstmann was fired from his position at GameSpot after he gave a poor review for Eidos Interactive's Kane & Lynch: Dead Men; Eidos were heavily advertising the game in question on the site and threatened to pull sponsorship. In 2012, Geoff Keighley's game reviews filmed in front of promotional posters for Halo 4 and accompanied by Doritos and Mountain Dew was dubbed "Doritosgate", and led to Eurogamer's Robert Florence to remark on the issues regarding such promotions in the industry. Kotaku's Totilo wrote in 2012 that the game journalism industry had become indistinguishable from public relations, with writers and reporters inundated with promotional material to receive positive coverage. Some of those supporting the #GamerGate principles argue that as journalism has shifted to covering independent video games, "indie game developers and the online gaming press have gotten too cozy", according to Vox's VanDerWerff. Quinn agreed that a discussion on journalism ethics was needed and suggested that all those instead use the "#GameEthics" hashtag to discuss the matter without the baggage of misogyny and harassment that have attached to #GamerGate.

Supporters of #GamerGate have also expressed concern over the use of video games to present cultural criticism and moving them away from an entertainment form. In recent years, video games have come to be accepted as works of art by mainstream media, and numerous games are designed by their creators to create an emotional response in the player. These types of games have become more common through independent video game development that allows developers to release titles without publisher interference, who would otherwise not likely publish these titles. However, GamerGate supporters believe that titles such as Depression Quest or Gone Home are not really games, according to What Culture!'s Jordan Ephraim. Ephraim expresses concern that these titles, in taking up popular culture points such as depression in Depression Quest or LGBT issues with Gone Home, are critically praised on how they present these cultural points and less on the nature of the game mechanics. Some supporters believe that these games are designed to push political agendas; the Los Angeles Times quotes two GamerGate supporters stating "Can we please just keep the agendas out of video games? Entertainment is meant to be the furthest possible thing from politics", and "It'd be nice if the gaming industry/gaming journalism would just...focus on games over politics." Attributing the controversy to a gulf between some traditional video game fans and the increasingly-diverse nature of the industry, Leigh Alexander said that the maturing and ever-more-mainstream nature of video games opens the genre to longstanding cultural critiques and new perspectives. She also said that there was room for both "games as product" and "games as culture" in the industry.

Relating to this, several journalists have noted that the changing market of video games and their place in the culture is challenging the perceived identity of the average video game player, leading several to suggest #GamerGate may be the "death of the 'gamer'". Until about 2013, young adult males dominated the video game consumer market. In reports published by the Entertainment Software Association based on retail sales, the proportion of female games was about 45% in 2013, and 48% in 2014. These studies have also highlighted the trend of older, female gamers over younger males due to the popularity of the casual game and mobile game markets. These have lead changes to publishers to reconsider the target demographic for titles and accommodate the broader gender and age differences, and changing the meaning of what a "gamer" is. Vox's VanderWerff notes in light of #GamerGate, that "Many involved don't want the term 'gamer' to go away, but they also want it to be as inclusive as possible. But the term already is exclusionary, because it's so heavily associated with the stereotype."

Responses

According to Erik Kain, writing at Forbes.com, 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.

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. Auerbach asserts gaming culture is changing but it is the ordinary video-game journalist that is being phased out in favor of video game enthusiasts and amateur Let's Play commentators who use YouTube and Twitch.

Writing in The New Yorker, Simon Parkin said "In Quinn’s case, the fact that she was the subject of the attacks rather than the friend who wrote about her game reveals the true nature of much of the criticism: a pretense to make further harassment of women in the industry permissible." Quinn told The New Yorker that she feels sympathy for her attackers; "People don’t viciously attack anyone without having some deep-seeded loathing in themselves," she said.

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 two thousand professionals within the gaming industry.

Anita Sarkeesian, speaking publicly for the first time (at the XOXO Festival in Portland, Oregon) since she fled her home, said in regard to the accusations that high-profile women were making up the threats against them that "One of the most radical things you can do is to actually believe women when they talk about their experiences," 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 for Vox, Todd VanDerWerff wrote 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 that he did recognize that there were legitimate complaints in #GamerGate concerning the relationship between the video game industry and journalists, and that there is diversity within the gamer community, but noted that the attempts by users of 4chan to pretend to be members of the minority groups made the movement lose credibility. He added, "If you want to be seen as a monolith, publicly shame the bad actors in your cohort. If you want to be seen as individuals, well, stop calling yourself gamers. Come up with some other means of self-identification. Because 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 the prohibiting of writers from supporting any game developers through Patreon, while The Escapist and Destructoid reviewed their ethics policy.

References

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