5 Years Later: A Look Back at the Gamergate Controversy

Many gamers see their favorite games as a place to escape politics. Nonetheless, politics and video games often collide. And there is no better example of this than Gamergate, the 2014 harassment campaign against women in the video game industry.

Gamergate was a cultural phenomenon that burned bright and burned out. It also burned many of the people involved. And now that the smoke has cleared, we can look back at what this controversy meant for games, gamers, and the entire gaming industry.

Zoe Quinn

What Is Gamergate?

Contrary to popular belief, Gamergate was never much of an organized group. Instead, it was a culture centered around a hashtag and held together by resentful fans and charismatic provocateurs. Supporters would clash with gamers, game developers, and cultural critics online. However, the exact endgame of this group was never quite clear.

It all started when game developer Zoe Quinn and boyfriend Eron Gjoni had a messy breakup. Gjoni ended up writing a nasty revenge post online that alleged that Quinn had slept with a Kotaku writer, Nathan Grayson. Gjoni alleged Quinn was trying to get positive reviews and press coverage for her newest game at the time, Depression Quest.

The problem with his claim? Her game, Depression Quest, was never reviewed on that site. Despite this obvious lie, Quinn and Kotaku remained part of the rallying cry for changing the state of gaming journalism.

Because supporters ignored that their origin was a lie, critics of Gamergate had no choice but to assume a more sinister motivation. It seemed like little more than a culture war outlet where supporters could attack women, minorities, LGBTQ+, and allies as “SJWs.”

This effectively drew battle lines. Gamergate supporters claimed their later posts, videos, and harassment campaigns were all in the name of improving gaming journalism. But critics quickly noted that women were the most prominent targets. This made the entire movement seem like it consisted of game-loving incels.

Eron Gjoni

Principle Players

No great drama is complete without its players. And while we don’t have space to list everybody involved in this controversy, here are some of the people involved from the very beginning.

We have already mentioned game developer Zoe Quinn and her resentful ex Eron Gjoni. Culture critic Anita Sarkeesian (most known for her Kickstarted Youtube show Feminist Frequency) was also a frequent target of Gamergate.

Eventually, Gamergate began targeting others in the gaming industry. This included doxxing Polytron CEO Phil Fish and driving game developer Brianna Wu from her home.

While the movement would later have prominent political figureheads, much of this coordinated harassment came from corners of the internet such as 4chan and Reddit. This provided some plausible deniability when critics started talking about the harassment campaigns. The average supporter could then claim this was just a handful of bad apples that were distracting from the movement’s real purpose.