#GamerGate
It's been a bizarre couple of weeks in the world of gaming. I've been RT-ing pertinent stuff on twitter, but I thought I should compile a little bit of information to give an overview of what's happening.
On 11th August 2014, the day that Robin Williams died, game developer Zoe Quinn released her game Depression Quest (Free) on Steam. The game had already been available and wowing people for a while, and I myself was eager to play it when it came out. I was impressed by its sincerity and cleverness. It's a gentle and respectful game, well worth playing. There was a little bit of negative heat because of the timing, but nothing too big.
However, shortly after it came out, a blog was created by someone claiming to be her ex-boyfriend. He wrote a few incredibly long posts stating that she had cheated on him repeatedly, and had slept with members of the gaming press for positive coverage.
Then, a number of anonymous, obnoxious denizens of the internet began attacking her online. Friends and allies sprung to her defence. Her website and twitter were hacked, her personal information (including her phone number) was released in the open. The same happened to notorious hothead Phil Fish (FEZ), who had been standing up for Zoe. He subsequently announced that he is quitting the industry (again).
This hornet's nest was starting to subside and chill, when Anita Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency posted another in her series of videos on tropes in videogames.
The episode is about women as background decoration and being so thorough, compelling and well-produced, it quickly went viral.
This is when the situation really exploded. A vocal subsection of the gaming community began ranting about the ethics of gaming journalism, deciding that since the gaming press weren't reporting on Zoe Quinn (a personal matter) and were covering Anita Sarkeesian (a professional and necessary feminist critique), they were obviously corrupt and part of a conspiracy. They coined the terms SJW (social justice warrior) and White Knights, calling out women, feminists and anybody in favour of welcoming diversity to gaming as biased and unethical. Vile death threats were made to Anita and her family:
https://twitter.com/femfreq/status/504718160902492160
Since then, the shouting has only gotten louder, with the #GamerGate people becoming more insane by the hour:
If you'd like to read a couple of properly-written articles, check out: