Gamergate

Gamergate (sometimes referred to by the hashtag #gamergate) is a series of controversial events that started in August 2014. Detractors allege that it is a movement rooted in a culture war against women, feminism, and the diversification of gaming culture, whereas supporters maintain that the movement's primary purpose is to address issues of corruption, collusion and negligence in games journalism.

The controversy began after Eron Gjoni, an ex-boyfriend of indie game developer Zoe Quinn, posted a Wordpress blog outlining numerous allegations of professional and personal impropriety on Quinn's part. Among these was an allegation Quinn had cheated on Gjoni with Kotaku games blogger Nathan Grayson. Community disapproval of the apparent failure to maintain professional boundaries between developers and press resulted in online harassment directed at Grayson, Quinn and a number of their colleagues on social media platforms.

Media coverage of the events overwhelmingly focused on the harassment, generally ignoring the movement's proclaimed concerns with the state of games journalism. A perceived bias in mainstream media coverage, in tandem with allegations that pro GamerGate discussion was being suppressed on social media platforms, comment sections and forums, fueled the movement's assumption of corruption, collusion and conspiracy in the gaming press. On the 27th of August, actor Adam Baldwin referred to the controvery using the twitter hashtag #GamerGate, which the movement officially adopted as its moniker.

Historical Tensions between Gaming Media and Consumers
Before Gamergate, there were several instances of consumers raising concerns over practices engaged in by video game journalists. Such concerns included the termination of Jeff Gerstmann over review scores, promotional relationships with advertisers , and a lack of disclosure of relationships with game developers, such as Jessica Chobot's coverage of Mass Effect 3 despite appearing as a voice actor in the same game.

The Quinnspiracy Scandal
On 15 August 2014, Eron Gjoni published a Wordpress blog entitled TheZoePost outlining the end of his relationship with independent game developer Zoe Quinn. In the blog, Gjoni makes a series of allegations in regards to Quinn's behaviors and presents supporting evidence in the form of chat logs from social media sites. Following publication of The Zoe Post, Quinn stated that she was subjected to severe harassment where she reportedly was forced to leave her home amid threats of violence.

It was later discovered that Quinn's game Depression Quest was featured in an article by Nathan Grayson, one of the men Quinn was alleged to have had a relationship with, and that Grayson had written about her on another occasion only a few days prior to the beginning of their romantic relationship. In response to community outrage, Kotaku editor-in-chief Stephen Totilo confirmed that Grayson and Quinn had been in a romantic relationship, but maintained that romantic encounters occurring after an article was written did not constitute professional impropriety.

TFYC Charity Drive
After the reports of unethical behavior by the game developer Zoe Quinn, a representative of The Fine Young Capitalistscame forward to state that Zoe Quinn had been responsible for the dissemination of his personal information and that she had spread false information about him and TFYC. They claimed that this had led to him receiving death threats, the destruction of TFYCs public image and loss of funding for their recent Indiegogo project resulting from allegations of transphobia. Eventually, the project was funded successfully, due in part to significant donations from users of 4chan's /v/ board. The donations from this board's users led to the creation of the character Vivian James, who is to be included in the Indiegogo project's winning game and has been unofficially adopted as the mascot of the GamerGate movement.

Censorship
On 16 August 2014, YouTube personality MundaneMatt uploaded a video discussing The Zoe Post, additionally expressing criticisms about the nepotism between game journalists and game developers. The video used a screenshot taken from the Steam page of Depression Quest as a background. On the following day, the video was taken down for a DMCA violation. Evidence provided by MundaneMatt showed that the DMCA takedown's claimant was named named "Zoe Quinn". Quinn has refused to comment on this DMCA takedown.

4chan's /v/ board and reddit's subforum /r/Gaming both removed discussion regarding the topic. The culmination of this was a thread with nearly 25,000 removed comments, originally linking to a post by the well-known self-producing PC game critic TotalBiscuit, where he discussed the then-recent events.

GamerGate supporters claim to have been censored on major forums and their complaints were being ignored by the press. Among the websites that censored the topic were 4chan, IGN, Reddit, NeoGAF, Kotaku, The Verge, The Escapist. Users have expressed concern about having been banned, and having their discussion topics removed or rendered invisible. In the end, discussion has been moved to 8chan, Reddit's subforum /r/KotakuInAction, and other websites.

Gamergate Hashtag
Gamergate is often referred to by its supporters as a "consumer revolt." Because discussion of the issues relating to it was explicitly disallowed at many forums, and judged as too contentious or peripheral at others, much of the discussion was engaged in using Twitter. Adam Baldwin, an actor of some fame in the "geek culture" community, coined the #gamergate hashtag on Aug. 27, 2014, and it was quickly adopted as the unifying label. The users of this label see themselves in opposition to games media whose historical practices of reporting on and reviewing of games and gaming culture they consider not to have served them, as consumers of the media. They argue that it is these practices against which they are staging a revolt. This consumer revolt uses nonviolent tools such as boycotts and social media as a force to drive illumination of the issues and resolution of the disservice forward.

The various media publications targeted by the consumer revolt have often brought harsh critique on the movement in regards to their choice of target, claiming that while problems exist in the media it is in fact publishers and large game-development studios that are causing the problems and not the media itself. In addition, many instances of real and claimed harassment of Gamergate opponents have been assigned by media reports as being tied to the Gamergate tag and associated movement, although generally these incidents are linked only through coincidence and assertion, and not by evidence.

NotYourShield Movement
NotYourShield is a sister-hashtag to GamerGate. It was started by and for GamerGate supporters who do not fall into the heterosexual white male stereotype portrayed by the media at large. Its intention was to allow minorities voice their dissatisfaction with being silenced, marginalised and used as a means to deflect concerns of ethics in the Games Media by ways of accusing the movement they are a part of of being exclusionary and/or bigoted.(citations needed)

#NotYourShield Harassment
While harassment against white males of #GamerGate gained some attention, harassment against minorities has gone almost entirely unreported. #NotYourShield supporters have consistently been harassed to provide photographic evidence of their gender or skin color, have been bombarded with racial epithets, have been "doxed", been fired from work, and have been forced to leave their jobs and homes due to threats on their lives.

Some Journalists and bloggers within the games media have accused supporters of NotYourShield of being so called "sock-puppet" accounts, and of allowing themselves to be used as a shield meant to deflect allegations of misogyny and sexism aimed at supporters of GamerGate. [citation needed]

GameJournoPros Email List
On 17 September 2014, a private mailing list of some 150 members involved with gaming journalism was uncovered, in which the members were apparently actively discussing how to influence the opinions, policies and reporting priorities of other publications. One of such aforementioned members, Greg Tito, was evidently actively coerced by multiple editors in the mailing list to shut down discussion in the Escapist forum. In late September, the list of all 150 members of the email list was published.

Greg Tito later stated that he had solicited the opinions of the other GJP members about the Escapist Forum discussions himself (source yt discussion with eric kain?).

GameJournoPros is a mailing list in which video game journalists communicate regarding their job. Similar to JournoList, where over 400 "left-leaning" journalists colluded to force certain agendas in 2010, it raised many concerns in the GamerGate community. The "onslaught" of the "Gamers are Dead" articles has also been compared to the similar actions by the members of J-List.[to be deleted, leaving in just for now] Later, Kyle Orland claimed that JournoList was the "inspiration" for GameJournoPros.

Pinsof and GameJournoPros
Allistair Pinsof is a former writer and journalist for Destructoid, which is a gaming news, review and blog site. He was fired in 2013 after an article that he wrote was published on Destructoid. The article revealed that a fundraising campaign, ostensibly to help pay for life saving surgery, was actually intended to be used for gender reassignment surgery. The article sparked a controversy as it revealed the person that perpetrated the fraud was transgendered, which was not public information prior to the article.

However, with the recent exposure of the Game Journo Pros group it was revealed that the decision to fire Pinsof was discussed at length in the group, with many advocating that he should be fired. It was also revealed through this group that an alleged blacklisting of Pinsof took place when Dale North, who was Destructoid Editor-in-Chief at the time, informed the Game Journo Pro group that Pinsof was looking to return to the industry and discouraged them from engaging him. Dale North has since resigned from Destructoid, citing disagreements with the management at the website.

Shadow of Mordor Paid Brand Deals
In late September an popular Youtube video game reviewer known as Total Biscuit claimed that he had been offered a pre-release code for Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor in exchange for agreeing to a "paid brand deal". The details of this brand deal were later passed on to critic and satirist Jim Sterling, who made the details public. The deal was offered by PR company Plaid Social, granting Youtuber reviewers early access to the game and preventing them from discussing the game negatively under contract terms. The Youtuber reviewers were required to “Persuade users to purchase the game”, "promote positive sentiment about the game" and were told they "must not show bugs or glitches which may exist."

Data From 40,000 User Accounts Compromised At Firemonkeys Studios
In September 2013, Firemonkeys Studio's community forums were breached in a hack attempt. In September 2014, EA (the parent company of Firemonkeys Studio) reported that as a result of the breach "customer email addresses were potentially obtained", but that an investigation had revealed no evidence to suggest further information was taken. During the attack the forums were taken offline and Firemonkeys Studio reported to users that this was temporary and for maintenance purposes, however the forums have never been restored. The source that revealed this breach (who has remained anonymous but claims to be a former employee) alleges that e-mail addresses, names and dates of birth were obtained; they also claim that EA suppressed information about the breach. At the time, Firemonkeys Studio had around 40,000 forum users. Under Australian law neither EA nor Firemonkeys Studio was required to disclose the hack.

''[why is this here and is it even relevant? -- Ellen] [Because it was covered up due to personal relations][I think it's relevant without personal relationships being responsible for the cover-up, they still covered it up (allegedly) and it was uncovered in the wake of GG - SirBoodle]''

Patricia Hernandez's relationship with Anna Anthropy

 * Note: This entire paragraph needs a overhaul, so many policy violations

Patricia Hernandez published a blog post on 26 June 2012 indicating that she was moving to Oakland, CA, with Anna Anthropy, following a period of several months in which the two lived together. (WP:RS) Tweets that have been made public strongly indicate that the two were close friends, and perhaps roommates, on 21 December 2012. (WP:OR) On 25 December 2012, Hernandez, as an employee of Kotaku, published an article covering Anthropy's game Drink. There was no apparent concise, upfront, or meaningful disclosure at the time the article was written that there existed any relationship between the writer (Hernandez) and game developer (Anthropy). On 15 January 2013, Hernandez published a second article on Anthropy's game The Hunt for Gay Planet that similarly lacked any distinct or notable disclosure of any conflict of interest. The articles have been retroactively modified to include disclosure of the pair's relationship in the aftermath of criticism. (WP:V) There are indications that they ceased relations as roommates but carried an ongoing friendship in the spring of 2013. (WP:OR) On 18 October 2013, Hernandez again wrote about Anthropy, again without initial disclosure, but has since updated said article as well due to the aforementioned criticism attributed to GamerGate proponents. (WP:V) Stephen Totilo, editor-in-chief of Kotaku, has stated that full disclosure of relationships between article writers and their subject(s) will be provided in the future. (WP:V) Patricia Hernandez' relationship with Christine Love also deserves mentioning since that situation mirrors the misconduct by Patricia in regards to Anna Anthropy.

Brad Wardell Scandal
In September 2012, gaming website Kotaku ran an article stating that Brad Wardell had filed a lawsuit against former employee Alexandra Miseta, claiming that actions she took immediately before her departure from the company in August 2010 were a major contributing factor in the failure of the company's game Elemental: War of Magic, which was released three weeks after Miseta's departure. The article also stated that Miseta had filed a lawsuit against Wardell for sexual harassment in December 2010, which was still ongoing at the time. The article alleged that "the timing of the new lawsuit suggests it could have more to do with the other court case than it does with Elemental." Both of these lawsuits were later dismissed in a settlement and Miseta issued a public apology to Wardell and his company.

Brad Wardell has been critical of the original Kotaku article, describing it as inappropriate and biased, he claims that some now viewed him as "tainted" as a result of the allegations and he holds Kotaku responsible for publishing court documents that he claims make "endless false accusations". Wardell has also been critical of the journalist that wrote the original Kotaku article, he claims that "the freelancer had an agenda (in her case: Women are victims in the game industry)" and claims that she misrepresented his interactions with Miseta to that end.

Email campaigns, advertisers and impacts to the economy

 * Note: This section needs rewriting, Pullouts and Advice is decent

The various email campaigns, known collectively within the GamerGate revolt as "Operation Disrespectful Nod" are a part of this: contacting advertisers to inform them of the unethical behavior of sites such as Kotaku, Polygon,Gamasutra and Gawker and the immoral statements of their employees. The results of the email campaigns have been varied depending on the sites; Polygon and Kotaku have revised or clarified their stance on Patreon donations. Gawker, however, despite stating that they suffered losses, has turned to depend more on native advertisement as well as third-party advertisers instead of opting for reform.

Advertiser Pullouts
Several companies, including BMW and Adobe, have stated they will not advertise on Gawker Media -affiliated websites due to the pro-bullying comments made by Gawker writer, former editor, Sam Biddle. Mercedes-Benz also withdrew advertising from Gawker subject to assessment but later reinstated their ads and declined to comment on the matter. .

Intel was confirmed on the 2nd of October that they had pulled advertising support from Gamasutra becaus of their "vicious denunciation of an entire group of people" as Erik Kain put it. Intel later issued a statement in which they apologized to anyone they might have offended with their ad pull and clarified that they are not anti-women.

Intel was criticized for their decision by certain media outlets; they did not reinstate their advertisement. Gawker described Intel, and Adobe, as "run by craven idiots" due to their retraction of advertising support.

Advice about the situation from ad centered magazines and the economical impact
The controversy of whether or not advertisers should pull out has been actively discussed on various different outlets and online communities. While Ad Age advised not to react to GamerGate emails, they also stated that none of the companies which had retracted advertising support would take hits to their bottom line. Other advertising consultant outlets advised for advertisers to dissociate themselves from Gawker and Adland even stated "Gawker is toxic to brands who partner with them" As a result of GamerGate, Digitimes forecast a significant revenue loss for several companies within the technology and gaming industries even though they are not directly affected by advertising on Gawker. Gawker editor-in-chief Max Read has claimed that Gawker has already lost thousands of dollars and could potentially lose millions.

Ethics Policy Revisions
In response to the controversy several websites updated their ethics policies, focusing on disclosure of financial and material transactions between journalists and developers.

The Escapist magazine, on 8 September 2014, published an ethics policy. There are plans by IGN to do the same, in addition to withholding review scores for several major titles until the respective release dates [more citations appreciated]. Polygon and Kotaku have revised their ethics policies, and published articles regarding Patreon support of/by subjects. [Issue: Polygon specifically did *not* revise their ethics policy, which was last changed on 27 March 2014. They *did* revise their stance on announcing Patreon support.]

"Gamers are Dead" Articles
On 28 August 2014, Games Writer Leigh Alexander published an article on Gamasutra titled "'Gamers' don't have to be your audience. 'Gamers' are over," and during the next few days, several technological and gaming outlets followed suit with similar articles, all generally and typically based on the premise that 'Gamers are dead', the assertion that the "Gamer" label, stereotypically consisting of white privileged men, was dying as a result of the wide popularity of video games on multiple platforms. As a result, the meaning of the "Gamer" identity was questioned. The appearance of the first ten of these articles within 24 hours of each other were cited by GamerGate sympathizers as evidence of collusion between gaming media outlets and individual journalists, especially after the revelations of the GameJournoPros email group.

However, said media outlets claimed that the articles were not meant to be taken as an attack on gamers. Some have suggested a culture of reblogging and "takes on takes" is to blame rather than a concerted effort to push a message.[citation needed]

Some Journalists have written critiques of the "Gamers are Dead articles", In a piece entitled "The Gamer Is Dead: Long Live The Gamer," Forbes Eric Kain wrote "Gamer has always been one of the more positive tags I’ve used for myself, along with 'musician' and 'writer' and 'lover' and 'father' and so forth." Andy Macnamara, editor in chief of gameinformer.com, drew similarities between gamers and enthusiasts of other hobbies such as "foodies" and "cinema nuts." He went on to assert that this identification, while being distinct from the general population of game players, is not exclusive and is open to anyone wishing to use the term and questioned the validity of seeking to remove the term from the lexicon altogether.

Non-Gaming Media Involvement

 * Note: This section needs to be folded into others

In the week following the 'Gamers are Dead' articles, articles appeared in Slate and Forbes attempting to explain, contextualize, and rationalize the outrage of Gamers to the broader public. Each publication would later return to report and comment on various aspects of #GamerGate, such as Intel's decision to pull advertising from Gamasutra; and to make suggestions on how the #GamerGate movement might be brought to a close in a constructive manner.

The Guardian published an article alleging a 'culture of hate and suspicion' in the games industry, focusing particularly on the harassment Zoe Quinn and Anita Sarkeesian reported receiving, and reporting that the breach of journalistic ethics had not actually taken place according to statements by Stephen Totilo. The writer of the Guardian article in question, Jenn Frank, quickly became the target of #GamerGate ire when it was discovered she had a personal friendship with the subject of her article, Zoe Quinn, whom she also paid a monthly stipend over the Patreon service. This potential conflict of interest was initially disclosed by Jenn Frank but dismissed by Guardian editors as irrelevant; however, the Guardian reinstated the disclosure statement four days after publication. According to Frank she felt harassed by the sheer volume of complaints allegedly leveled at her over Twitter and the comments section of the guardian, as well as the public dissemination of infographics showing her links to Zoe Quinn and the third party Maya Kramer, reportedly a PR associate of Zoe Quinn; these infographics eventually reached Al Jazeera, and were published as the chosen example of journalistic impropriety on their discussion page on the #GamerGate. These events led Frank to temporarily leave journalism.

Following a resurgence in popularity in the gaming press, Anita Sarkeesian appeared on the Colbert Report, supposedly to talk about GamerGate. This followed the release of her latest video in the Tropes vs Women in Video Games series, which was allegedly accompanied by criticism and a wave of death threats.

The interview did not touch on the substance of GamerGate, dismissing it with the joke that ethics in gaming journalism was as unimportant as that in Hollywood; according to Sarkeesian "ethics in journalism is not what's happening in any way". Instead it focussed on Miss Sarkeesian's Feminist critique of Gaming and attributing the threats she receives to that activity. She further claimed GamerGate was a response to the influx of more inclusive videogames and her stance that "gaming can no longer be just this little boys club anymore". The Washington Post and other newspapers reported on this with headlines such as "How media critic Anita Sarkeesian turned Stephen Colbert into a feminist" contributing to the conflation of #GamerGate with feminist issues.

Political talk program 'The David Pakman Show' interviewed developer Brianna Wu about her involvement with GamerGate. Wu claimed during the interview that she felt it was a "hit piece". Pakman has since made an effort to fairly interview both sides of the argument, speaking additionally to Jennie Bharaj, TotalBiscuit, Milo Yiannopoulos, and others. He was accused of harassment after asking developer Zoe Quinn for an interview by Arthur Chu, for failing to use dot reply notation on the service. Many other people have declined to or have not responded.

''//How can we contract those references? Thanks''

Harassment, Doxxing and Threats
Talk page for this section - discuss content there http://gamergate.gamepedia.com/Talk:Proposed_Wikipedia_Entry#Harassment_section

There has been an abundance of harassment claims from both the 'pro-GG' and the 'anti-GG' sides. The harassment has taken various forms from insults and death threats on Twitter to mass doxing of individuals. Supporters of gamergate have claimed that, while harassment of opponents to gamergate have received ample attention and coverage in the media, harassment of gamergate supporters has been all but ignored.

Due to the anonymity of the harassers and their medium, as well as a lack of ownership in most cases, it is unclear if the sources of harassment are coming from either side or are third party "trolls," or all of the above.[WP:RS, or else this is original research] In some specific cases, however, authorship has been claimed over actions such as the doxing of people by the troll group known as the "Bill Waggoner Crew," or attempts at agitation and provocation by the troll group known as GNAA.

In an attempt to reduce these incidents on Twitter, a group of GamerGate supporters banded together under the label "GamerGate Harassment Patrol," and took it upon themselves to report en masse to Twitter any type of doxing or other clearly abusive Tweets, regardless of which side the target was on.

Zoe Quinn
Discussion on Zoe Quinn moved to talk page

Alexandra Wuori
A transgender supporter of gamergate claimed to have received a phonecall from an anonymous caller insulting her and threatening to reveal details of her personal life to her family. She described the experience has having left her "shaking in her boots." She was later doxxed and outed as transgender over the internet.

Anita Sarkeesian
In October 2014 an e-mail was sent to some staff members at Utah State University, where critic Anita Sarkeesian was scheduled to speak, which threatened school shooting and bombing unless the event was cancelled.

Sarkeesian asserted that one of the emails was affiliated to GamerGate. The USU released a statement saying the threats appeared to be similar to previous ones and they would provide more security, so the event could go on. They further stated that police with help of FBI Cyber Division and FBI BAU, had concluded that there was "no risk to students". Nevertheless, Sarkeesian cancelled her speech on the basis that Utah could not under state law prevent gun licensees from bringing weapons to the event.

Brianna Wu
Indie game developer Brianna Wu left her house after being doxed on 8chan and receiving a death threat on Twitter directed toward both her and her husband. The account in question has been suspended and numerous gamergate supporters claim to have been involved in reporting it. She subsequently offered a reward for information leading to the prosecution of those involved. She also alleged that attempts had been made to gain access to her company's financial records and apple account. Various gamergate supporters have questioned the allegation that these incidents were perpetrated my members of the movement.

Margaret Gel
Margaret Gel, a GamerGate supporter and active in the "GamerGate Harassment Patrol," stated she received two rape threats and two death threats.

Milo Yiannopoulos
Breitbart associate editor Milo Yiannopoulos, referring indirectly to himself as "Reporters sympathetic to the #GamerGate movement" stated he was sent toilet paper and a syringe containing an unknown liquid. [Source is SPS] He later stated on an alternative Twitter account that he was sent a dead animal.

Mike Cernovich
Mike Cernovich has reported harassment in the form of false police reports, reports designed to get him arrested and which filers claimed he was 'personally harassing Zoe Quinn' and subsequently gave address info, full name, and the alleged crimes he had committed. He also received a threat to 'SWAT' him which prompted him to leave his home. Cernovich later decided to indict the offender on the charge of criminal violation of California Penal Code Section 148.5.[citation needed]

Steven "Boogie2988" Williams
YouTube personality Boogie2988 stated that he received multiple threats including a death threat placed as a comment on one of his YouTube videos.

Wolfgang Wozniak
Shortly after Gjoni's post on Zoe Quinn was published, indie game developer Wolfgang Wozniak made a claim on Twitter that during early March he was sexually harassed by Zoe Quinn. He then received a barrage of harassment. Shortly after the harassment targeting him began, Wozniak retracted his statement. proposed deletion - see talk page

Firing Attempts
Multiple supporters of gamergate claim that their employers have been contacted with regard to their stance on the issue. One supporter claimed to have been suspended from their job due to gamergate opponents contacting their employer and calling for their dismissal. Another supporter claimed her business with amazon was blocked due to anonymous complaints, she was later harassed on twitter by a user desiring her to kill herself and another individual saying “none of this would have happened if [name removed] had stayed in the kitchen.”

David Pakman's interviews
