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The harassment against her reached a fever pitch in August after an ex-boyfriend, Eron Gjoni, wrote a series of blog posts alleging that Quinn had cheated on him with five other men, some of whom worked in games or games journalism. Last month, the New Yorker attempted to explain why Quinn and her game inspire such outrage among gamers - Depression Quest is not a "real game," it's "just words," its portrayal of depression is too personal to be relatable-but it's hard not to look at the last several weeks of chatter in the gaming community and not come to the conclusion that it's about the fact that she's a woman. Quinn has been the victim of death threats and harassment since she began trying to publish Depression Quest, a text-based game partially based on her own experience with depression, in 2013.

#Gamergate actually began in August as a pernicious attack on one female game developer, Zoe Quinn, and her sex life. That article is over a month old, though. Intel removed its ads last week from Gamasutra, a niche website for video game developers, at the behest of #Gamergate, which took particular offense to an article by journalist Leigh Alexander arguing that "gamers," in the traditional sense, are becoming irrelevant as "angry young men" grow up and the medium evolves to include new audiences. But there are a lot of reasons not to regard the movement generously. "#GamerGate" is an online movement ostensibly concerned with ethics in game journalism and with protecting the "gamer" identity.Įven regarded generously, Gamergate isn't much more than a tone-deaf rabble of angry obsessives with a misguided understanding of journalistic ethics. Now that major companies are taking sides, it's time to figure it out. But last week, computing giant Intel pulled its ads from an independent game-development site thanks to the gaming lobby. Among those he steered Gamergate's rage toward was entrepreneur and blogger Anil Dash, who spent the weekend buried under a barrage of rage after pointing out that Cernovich's earnest crusade was self-promotional bullshit.Until recently, you might have lived a life blissfully unaware of the online #Gamergate movement. Placing himself at the forefront of a campaign to demand that Gawker's advertisers drop support for the site, Cernovich ranged far and wide. His wedge: Gawker writer Sam Biddle, who wrote a few sarcastic tweets, clearly intended ironically, about how the geeks who support GamerGate should themselves be bullied. A bodybuilding lawyer from California who sells "Fit Juice" and Nietzsche quotes, he entered the fray presenting himself as an impartial advocate, challenging bullies in all walks of life. Cernovich, the anti-bullying hero! Cerniovich, GamerGate's newest hero. The movement, shocked and awed and desperate, is now ready for a new breed of combatant: the grifter.Įnter Mike Cernovich.

Milo Yiannopoulos, a columnist at Breitbart UK who weeks earlier ridiculed gamers as "weirdos in yellowing underpants" whose hobby was the key insight into spree-killer Elliot Rodger, was apologizing within days of GamerGate's inception–and ready with a stream of anti-feminist material to nurse its anger with.Īfter threats of a " Montreal Massacre-style attack" were delivered to a state college hosting game critic Anita Sarkeesian, the mainstream media finally noticed GamerGate, bringing its hypocrisy to relentless public attention and opprobrium. Felicia Day? She can't be a case of "see, we can't be misogynists, this one girl supports us!" Seth Rogen, Elijah Wood, Patton Oswalt, and countless other celebrity geek heroes have spoken out against GamerGate-and I'm not even getting into the big names in the video game industry who have come out against it. Wil Wheaton? He's swallowed the blue pill. On top of your failures to pull the wool over anyone's eyes but your own, your own heroes have forcefully come out against you. You have failed to convince the majority that GamerGate, a movement built on sexism and lies targeting women who develop and criticize games, is actually a call for " journalistic integrity in gaming journalism."

If you're a supporter of #GamerGate, your life is surely full of disappointment right now. Matt Binder on the narcissists, grifters and creeps arriving in its wake. The mainstream media finally discovered the Internet's latest subculture of hostile, cynical, easily-led youngsters.