Video game image via Shutterstock
Video game image via Shutterstock

What is Gamergate? Most folks outside the games industry are understandably confused by what appears to be an internal dispute within the confines of the games business that has flared up into something ugly, dangerous and, yet, still inexplicable to outsiders.

The Gamergate story has become big enough that mainstream press like The New York Times, Newsweek and Time magazine have covered it.

More importantly, as Gamergate has exploded, it has resulted in material harm to several women through threats and actions that have led some of these women to flee their homes or cancel public appearances.

A Brief History

Back in August, a jilted boyfriend (Eron Gjoni) posted a blog post accusing his ex-girlfriend (game developer Zoe Quinn) of sleeping with journalists to get good reviews. The review site involved (Kotaku) investigated and showed that these allegations were entirely baseless.

That should have been the end of it, but in the meantime, many male gamers have been increasingly unhappy that women like Anita Sarkeesian have been pointing out the male bias and outright misogyny in most games, both past and present. Two years ago when Ms. Sarkeesian launched a successful Kickstarter campaign to document specifically how women are poorly portrayed in games, she started receiving death threats.

Now these same misanthropes have taken the allegations against Zoe Quinn (once again, baseless) and run with them, asserting that this was another way women and feminists were hurting their hobby.

And even that might have been largely ignored: misogynist chatter relegated to the darker corners of Reddit and 4chan.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end.

Because the worst of these men have not been content to voice their disagreement with Ms. Sarkeesian and those supporting her. They have returned to the tactics of two years ago and are once again issuing rape and death threats against anyone who disagrees with them, primarily women. They have organized campaigns to “dox” these same women (outing their personal details including home addresses). They have, in short, been engaging in criminal behavior against those they disagree with.

Most recently when “geek” celebrity Felicia Day spoke out against Gamergate, she was (as she feared she would be), immediately doxxed. Just a couple weeks ago, Anita Sarkeesian was forced to cancel a speaking engagement at Utah State because of a mass shooting threat.

Why Is This Continuing?

Stuart Moulder
Stuart Moulder

It’s pretty clear to me that the worst offenders of Gamergate will not stop till compelled to. I cannot answer why law enforcement has not done more to find and prosecute those making specific threats of harm – perhaps they are pursuing them now and we won’t know until they bring someone in.

I do know that many people are arguing that Gamergate is meant to be about journalistic ethics. It is my belief that this is no longer true (if it ever was) – once the line was crossed to direct personal threats, the hashtag was irredeemably compromised. If there is a discussion to be had about journalistic ethics in the games business, it will have to happen separately.

I also fear that many will not let go of Gamergate because it has drawn so much attention. For a certain insecure, immature demographic, just getting the attention of the larger world is rewarding, regardless of what kind of attention has been drawn. Or why.

What Happens Now?

Many people have hoped that Gamergate would die a natural death. Bereft any ethical foundation, scorned and derided by most, it was believed it would ultimately be a victim of the Internet’s notoriously short attention span.

That hasn’t happened though, and I think part of the problem is that Gamergate’rs feel that the old adage that “any publicity is good publicity” applies here. It doesn’t matter whether they are right, they are incented to keep the pot stirred if they believe it’s true.

Which leads to a paradox – do articles like this just serve to fan the flames of a fire that is best left to die out? Possibly.

But I believe it is imperative that the industry stand up, male and female, and declare unequivocally that the misogyny of Gamergate does not represent games, gamers, game makers or the aspirations of this fledgling art.

The Bigger Issue

Gamergate brings a sharp focus to an emerging issue: What are the reasonable limits of expression in our connected world? The law does not permit direct, personal, specific threats to be made against another person – in other words, threats are not protected speech.

But in practice, what should be done? What can be done? The democratization that the Internet enables may have helped fuel the Arab Spring. But it is clearly also a platform for hate speech and worse. Is this a world we can live in?

For those of us who have never been chased from our homes in fear, that may seem far-fetched. But ask those who are being persecuted and threatened and I suspect they will tell you that we are at a tipping point. We must find a way to moderate our discourse. At least to a point where personal safety is not in peril.

Stuart Moulder is the COO at Area 52 Games, a Seattle area game maker. 

Editor’s note: Video game image via Shutterstock

Like what you're reading? Subscribe to GeekWire's free newsletters to catch every headline

Job Listings on GeekWork

Find more jobs on GeekWork. Employers, post a job here.