User:Rhoark/sandbox/MortensenAnger

Several game developers, scholars, and critics were harassed by users of the #GamerGate hashtag beginning in August 2014. Threats particularly affected game designer Zoe Quinn and critic Anita Sarkeesian. Some individuals associated with Gamergate accused the game research community of being part of a conspiracy. DiGRA president Mia Consalvo considered the controversy an opportunity to further understanding of game culture. Some supporters of Gamergate feared that politically correct video games were part of a broader effort to promote Cultural Marxism. Several claimed that academics promoted Jewish or Muslim interests at the expense of white men, after the fashion of Anders Breivik's manifesto. The GamerGate hashtag was used to spread misinformation and attempt to discredit game scholars, particularly Mia Consalvo and Adrienne Shaw, whom some Gamergate supporters saw as instigating the conflict. The activity of Gamergate was not planned but emerged from the behavior of individuals reacting to limited circles of peers. Some individuals carried more influence than others, though this influence was communicated through second- or third-hand interactions.

Gamergate appeared to begin as a harassment campaign against Zoe Quinn. It was initiated by complaints about Quinn from her ex-boyfriend, Eron Gjoni, which he posted on forums at Something Awful and Penny Arcade. According to logs, Gjoni's accusations were used by certain users of 4chan and an IRC channel #burgersandfries to stoke anger against Quinn. The chats also reference a prior conflict between Quinn and users of Wizardchan. The veracity of these logs has been disputed but not disproven. When Anita Sarkeesian in the same timeframe released an installment of her video series, she also became a target of Gamergate-related harassment. John Bain (also known as TotalBiscuit) accused Sarkeesian of using the video to insert herself into the conversation. A series of articles known as the "gamers are dead" articles were published by several outlets. The sharply-worded condemnations of gaming culture in these articles caused outrage, bringing more attention and participants to the nascent #Gamergate hashtag on Twitter. The volume of hate-messages increased following this incident. Some of the leading figures in Gamergate, such as Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos, were not themselves gamers and had in fact been critical of gamers in the past. Estimates of the number of Gamergate supporters ranged from 38,000 to 150,000 - a much much smaller number than the 155 million people who play electronic games. A tool created by Randi Harper to automatically block Twitter followers of Gamergate figureheads blocked fewer than 10,000 accounts, including false positives, suggesting an upper bound on the number of such followers. Regardless of size, Chess and Shaw considered Gamergate to be "an important cultural moment" with implications for the future of online society.

The #Gamergate hashtag was coined on August 27, 2014 by actor Adam Baldwin in a tweet that linked to a video by YouTube user "Internet Aristocrat". Activists both supporting and opposing Gamergate agree however that the origins of the conflict lie earlier. According to a wiki maintained by supporters, the earliest relevant incident was the controversial firing of Jeff Gerstmann in 2007. Following up on Gjoni's allegations, John Bain examined close relationships between game companies and journalists, justifying the framing of the issue as a matter of journalism ethics. Yiannopoulos revealed that approximately a week before the publication of the "gamers are dead" articles, journalists using a mailing list had discussed giving public support to Quinn. Some in Gamergate saw this as evidence of collusion. In the principal representative of these articles, Leigh Alexander wrote not that "gamers are dead", but rather "gamers are over", referring to the fact that self-identified gamers are a small subset of people who play games. While not using the term "Gamergate" - a name only a day old at the time - Alexander referred to the same movement by writing, "people who know so little about how human social interaction and professional life works that they can concoct online ‘wars’ about social justice or ‘game journalism ethics,’ straight-faced, and cause genuine human consequences." A wiki maintained by opponents of Gamergate focused on Gjoni and his personal allegations against Quinn. Following online and offline threats against her, Quinn lived in hiding throughout the autumn of 2014. Because of the effects on Quinn, media reactions tended to align with critics of Gamergate who called it a harassment campaign. Some individuals writing from an academic background have however disagreed with this framing, such as feminist Christina Hoff Summers or New Mexico University professor Nick Flor.

Gamergate was not a unified group. Many who argued in support of it did not know its origins or disagreed with the more aggressive tactics employed on its behalf. Some participants used "sockpuppet" accounts to argue from multiple sides of the issue. Outsiders to the movement used the hashtag to engage in harassment or to discredit the tag. Women and men in the Gamergate movement were vulnerable to harassment. The extent of that harassment is obscured by the social norm within the movement that one should not publicize the harassment received. The anti-Gamergate forum Gamerghazi was sometimes a cause of Twitter "dogpiling", which the forum's moderators took steps to mitigate. People participating in Gamergate tended to maintain anonymity out of recognition they could suffer negative repercussions from being identified. Gamergate opponents such as Sarkeesian, Quinn, game developer Brianna Wu, and actress Felicia Day were doxxed early in the controversy. Doxxing can have consequences ranging from unwanted pizza deliveries to hoax SWAT raids. Although very few people were likely involved in these sorts of pranks, they could effectively terrorize victims. The anonymous nature of Gamergate was a double-edged sword when it came to attributing responsibility for doxxing and harassment. On the one hand, it was difficult to prove these were actions of genuine supporters. On the other hand, it was difficult to prove that they were not. Drawing the attention of Gamergate carried risks that might be expected in general of ethnography but less so of digital media studies. There are prior examples of gamers doxxing game developers and producers who drew their ire, along with targeting journalists reporting on them.

Online aggression against journalists is not characteristic only of Gamergate, but also of the imageboard culture it inhabits. Imageboard culture encourages anonymity as a means to privileging the merit of an argument over the identity of the speaker. Freedom of speech on imageboards can facilitate valuable creativity and activism, especially for ideas marginalized by the mainstream However, norms against taking offense to others' speech also tend to silence objections to overt racism and sexism. Doxxing is sometimes used as a tool of imageboard culture norm enforcement, for example as in the case of Sarah Nyberg, a former troll who was doxxed after becoming critical of Gamergate. Imageboard software regularly purges its forums, making content there relatively ephemeral. Ideally, this aspect of the boards would cause false or misleading information to be discarded. In practice, entertaining lies may be much more persistent than boring or unpleasant rebuttals. Information on the Internet is rarely lost forever, as illustrated by images of Quinn from an adult photo shoot that were located and redistributed. Quinn identified with imageboard culture, musing that she would have been on the same side as Gamergate had it happened to target someone else. Her familiarity with these forums allowed her to access and record logs of discussions of her harassment that otherwise would not have become public.

Gamergate bears some parallels with football hooligan culture. Gamergate devalued traits deemed as feminine, though they did value women in the movement. The hashtag #NotYourShield, started by an African-American 4chan poster, was meant to showcase women and minorities who disagreed with media framing of diverse representation in games. There were also instructions given on how white men could support the tag with sockpuppet accounts. Gamergate has provided a bonding experience for participants, including through real-life meetups. Photos of these occasions show predominantly white men, but include some women and racial minorities. Women in Gamergate defended sexual imagery and depictions of violence against women found in games. Gamergate members see themselves as victims, in that they belong to a persecuted subculture. During the 1990's, mainstream media generally regarded gaming as merely childish, apart from moral panics linking games to mass shootings. The article by Alexander reiterated these stereotypes of gamers as being dangerously aggressive or socially inept. Although the pastime has become more accepted, experience had primed gamers to be defensive.

Supporters of Gamergate commonly hold suspicions that Quinn and Sarkeesian have profited financially from the controversy. Although it does not justify the abuse these women received, that interpretation is correct inasmuch as public sympathy brought them opportunities they would not otherwise have had. The controversy was also a financial windfall for crowdfunded creators of pro-Gamergate commentary. These included Jordan Owen and David Aurini working on the documentary The Sarkeesian Effect, YouTubers Thunderf00t and Sargon of Akkad, and the "Honey Badger Brigade" (a group of female Mens' Rights Activists). Jay Allen called this trend examples of "professional victimizers". The socioeconomic status of many participants in Gamergate means they are "punching down" when targeting freelancing women. Others however are relatively disadvantaged and fear that criticism of game communities could undermine a source of social support.

Though Gamergate might be regarded as illogical and confusing, it is not an isolated phenomenon. The controversy and the people in it are embedded throughout all types of social media interaction. It was an object lesson in how the design of technological systems can suppress speech or create ideological echo chambers. The diversity of opinions on the topic confirms that game players are not a single demography.