Everything You Never Wanted to Know About GamerGate

If you're sick of GamerGate, consider this a trigger warning.

We're entering month three of the controversy, and things aren't getting any better. In fact, the whole issue seems to be increasing in frequency of mentions. It was on the front page of the New York Times the other day and your co-workers and relatives are going to start asking you about it because "You play games, right?" So now's your time to ask away. Let's get started.

Q. Do we really have to talk about this? I was kind of hoping it would go away.
A. Me, too.

Q. That sounds like you're going to tell me about this anyway.
A. I am.

Q. OK. Let's just get this over with then. When did GamerGate begin?
A. It started back in August. Maybe you were lying on a beach or at a barbecue eating a hot dog and a cloud went across the sun for a full minute or you bit down on your tongue. Whatever it was, ever so briefly your joy was blotted out. That was GamerGate making itself known.

Q. You're a bit dramatic.
A. Thank you.

Q. So what was the cause?
A. Well this girl broke up with a guy...

Q. You're kidding me, right?
A. I'm afraid not.

Q. Omfg.
A. Yeah, well. Her name is Zoe Quinn. She's a game developer and she made this game called Depression Quest.

Q. Dragon Quest. You must have meant Dragon Quest.
A. No, it's called Depression Quest.

Q. Who goes out looking for depression?
A. It's a choose-your-own-adventure-style game designed to help people understand how those with depression feel.

Q. Ah. Got it.
A. So like I was saying, Quinn and her boyfriend Eron Gjoni, a programmer, ended their relationship. Gjoni did not take things well and wrote it all out at thezoepost. In part it accused her of cheating on him with Nathan Grayson, a games journalist who writes for Kotaku. Readers surmised that Quinn was sleeping with Grayson for favorable coverage of Depression Quest.

Q. This feels gross to ask about other people's relationships but: did that happen?
A. No. Grayson never reviewed Depression Quest, nor did anyone else at Kotaku. And Gjoni later updated his blog to say, "To be clear, if there was any conflict of interest between Zoe and Nathan regarding coverage of Depression Quest prior to April, I have no evidence to imply that it was sexual in nature."

Q. Why did people think that then?
A. People, man.

Q. Yeah. Then what happened?
A. Things turned nasty against Quinn on social media and on 4chan where discussion included pushing her to suicide, nude photos of her circulated, and her personal information was disclosed. She left her home because she was afraid of what might happen if online trolls turned up IRL.

Q. WTF.
A. If you want to see some of it, Quinn has posted it.

Q. OK. I looked at that thing. What is an "SJW"? It's all over these threads.
A. SJW stands for social-justice warrior.

Q. Being a social-justice warrior sounds like it would be a good thing, no? Like Batman?
A. Let's not even get into that. Well, about Batman, Batman does a lot of killing to be a social-justice warrior.

Q. So GamerGate is against social-justice warriors. Is Quinn the main person they've gone after?
A. No. There are two other women at the forefront of this: Anita Sarkeesian and Brianna Wu. Sarkeesian is a video blogger who hosts Feminist Frequency and discusses the representation of women in pop culture, including video games. She's long been a target of those who do not want to hear about how women are often background decoration in games. She's been facing death threats and rape threats and has left her home because of concerns for her safety. Sarkeesian recently canceled an appearance at Utah State University when university representatives received an email threatening a shooting massacre, and police said state gun laws would prohibit them from checking attendees for weapons.

Q. What about Brianna Wu?
A. Wu is an independent game developer. She took to Twitter to take on GamerGate and in a short time faced death and rape threats that resulted in her and her husband leaving their home.

Q. Are they the only ones involved in GamerGate?
A. No, the GamerGate crowd has also gone after journalists and also non-journalists who they've labeled journalists.

Q. What about the sites where the harassment takes place? Have they done anything? A. Thus far, Twitter has not issued an official statement beyond its terms of service, though it has suspended some accounts, such as a faux Anita Sarkeesian account, @femfreq_. 4chan founder Christopher Poole said some threads were deleted because "they violate our blanket 'no personal information / raids / calls to invasion' rule," prompting some Gamergate supporters to move on to 8chan.

Q. Can't the cops do anything?
A. Investigations have been opened, but jurisdictional and anonymity issues can sometimes hamper action. Different states also have different statutes. Overseas, U.K. officials are trying to increase jail times for Internet harassment.

Q. So now we've gone over everything GamerGate is about?
A. No, there is also much talk of it being about ethics in games journalism, with GamerGate supporters saying that there are improper relationships between developers and journalists.

Q. Is that true?
A. There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to games journalism but many sites aim for transparency and increasingly so in the wake of GamerGate. For instance Kotaku is now banning its writers from backing games developers on crowdfunding platform Patreon.

Q. This is all really confusing. Does GamerGate have a leader? A platform?
A. No, there is no leader, self-appointed or otherwise.

Q. Is there any movement against GamerGate?
A. There are some tweeting with #stopgamergate2014. Then there are some who agree with some aspects of GamerGate but feel misrepresented by the coverage of the movement and are mostly women, LGBTQ individuals, and minorities. They're using #notyourshield.

Q. How did this hashtag thing get started anyway!?
A. Well the first person to use #gamergate on Twitter was actor Adam Baldwin.

#GamerGate: pt. 1: https://t.co/VMIwtoFlhD pt. 2: https://t.co/bLrgB8JGwQ

— Adam Baldwin (@AdamBaldwin) August 28, 2014

Q. Wait, is he a Baldwin brother?
A. No relation.

Q. OK. Go on.
A. So…

Q. Sorry, I have to say something here.
A. That's OK. You're the one running the show here. What is it?

Q. Why do we call all these things something-gate? I mean Watergate wasn't a scandal about water. It was the name of a hotel.
A. I am so glad you brought that up! Do you know how long I've been waiting for someone to make that point?

Q. I want to get in on this conversation. I'm going to tweet with #gamergate.
A. Don't.

Q. I think if I try to get involved…
A. Seriously, don't.

Q. OK. Fine. Is this a thing only gamers know about?
A. No, this has started to get attention beyond the gaming world.

Q. Is it going away any time soon?
A. It doesn't seem like it.

Q. Does this mean my relatives are going to be asking me about this at Thanksgiving?
A. Probably, yeah.

Q. Is there something less controversial that I can bring up to change the conversation when they do?
A. Um. Ebola?