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Gamergate controversy

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Gamergate controversy
Logo
DateAugust 2014 (2014-08)  2015 (2015)
TargetWomen in the video game industry
Attack type
Online harassment campaign
VictimsZoë Quinn, Anita Sarkeesian, Brianna Wu, and others
PerpetratorsInternet trolls, particularly from 4chan, IRC, and 8chan
Motive
InquiryFBI investigation

The Gamergate controversy is a popular nickname for a harassment campaign about people's hatred of women indefinite of video games made by right-wing groups to push against feminism. the hashtag "#Gamergate" was popular in 2014 and 2015.

In order of harassment, Zoë Quinn, Anita Sarkeesian and Brianna Wu.

Zoë Quinn designed a video game called Depression Quest about a person who struggles with depression. Several video game journalists praised the game while others said that it was too disturbing to be a good game. People in the second group claimed that the only reason Quinn's game was popular was because of people who cared more about feminism and political correctness than the quality of video games. Then, Quinn's ex-boyfriend started a blog wherein he accused her of having had sex with a male video game journalist in exchange for good reviews.[1]

That journalist pointed out that he had never reviewed the game at all. More people started to criticize her and her game, with very few people sending threats of murder, rape and other forms of violence towards Quinn. When people came to Quinn's defense and said that the attacks against Quinn were proof of sexism against video game designers who were not male, they were accused of being social justice warriors (SJWs). Milo Yiannopoulos supported Quinn's attackers on Breitbart and said that anybody who did not support her attackers was being too politically correct.[2]

References

[change | change source]
  1. Malone, Noreen (2017-07-26). "The Woman Targeted by Gamergate on Surviving a World-Altering Trolling Attack". Intelligencer. Retrieved 2025-08-27.
  2. "Twitter and the poisoning of online debate". BBC News. 2014-10-16. Retrieved 2025-08-27.