The GamerGate scandal started as a battle in the online gaming community between a game developer and ex-boyfriend. According to Mashable , The developer’s ex boyfriend wrote a 9,000-word screed about their relationship, accusing her of trading sex for favorable press coverage and other career boosts. Although this information was false, the gaming community preceded to intervene full force.
One focal points of the scandal was the relationship between Zoe Quinn, an independent game developer and alleged sexual partner Nathan Grayson who is a video game journalist. The gaming community viewed this as an ethical scandal, drawing attention to the corruption within the video game journaling community. (aside from the fact Nathan never wrote an article on one of Quinn’s games) According to Bloomberg View the underlying problems of the scandal seems to be misogyny, and the politicization of geek culture.
Misogyny has been a prevalent trend throughout the online gaming community for quite some time. There have frequently been anti-women messages spread throughout online community and spread quickly due to online anonymity. Female gamers have been particularly weary in speaking out on the controversy in order to avoid having their personal information leaked online. Felicia Day recently spoke out on the movement and her personal information was leaked in the comment box of her blog. The anonymity within the online gaming community seems to be instigating the harassment and expanded the online threats.
Within the gaming community there seems to be a split between those wanting to protect harassment victims, mostly feminist gamers who vocalize their views online, and those misogynists who harass female gamers and leak their personal information online. There has become an inherent divide online, and many have become focused on fighting opposing parties rather than virtual zombies.
The whole entire GamerGate scandal has gotten out of control, some female gamers have received death threats and there seems to be no end to the visual harassment either. This scandal has skyrocketed past a little debacle between exs, and has spiraled into a full force problem, drawing attention to the negative aspects of the online gaming community. Perhaps this will be a wake up call for the gaming community to take back their online forums and focus on what they initially went online for, love of video games. Or perhaps this online warfare will continue, reducing the online appeal of gaming communities for many people.
