Regarding Recent Events in Games Journalism

If you play videogames and use social media then you may have heard about Gamergate. If not, here's some context. In August 2014, Eron Gjoni set up a blog that detailed his relationship with independent videogame developer Zoe Quinn, and provided evidence of her cheating on him with five other men, one of those men being her boss , another being a prominent games journalist and another  being a game developer. Quinn is a female independent game developer who is best known for her game "Depression Quest" , a game that has received very positive ratings from journalism sites and is probably her claim to fame.  It also happens that journalists are donating money to Quinn via crowdfunding site Patreon. These ties to journalists have sparked outcry regarding a breach in journalistic integrity and  conflicts of interest, with many critics claiming that Quinn used her relationships in order to get positive reviews for her game "Depression Quest".

Quinn has accused internet forum Wizardchan of hacking her websites and releasing her personal information.  Analysis of the so called "hacking" show that it was most likely a false-flag operation conducted by Quinn in order to deflect ire and gain sympathy. To make all this evidence even more damning, many discussion sites such as Reddit and NeoGAF began to censor all threads regarding the situation. This led to all discussion of the topic being titled "Five Guys with Burgers and Fries" in order to bypass the media blackout. 

There have also been allegations made that Quinn purposefully attacked indie game developer group "The Fine Young Capitalists" and sabotaged their female-centric game development event in order to promote her own event, Rebel Game Jam.

Details of aforementioned sabotage.

This entire fiasco has been dubbed the "Quinnspiracy" by the online community.

Many journalism sites, Kotaku, Rock Paper Shotgun and Polygon to name a few popular ones, have refused to run articles about the issue and assert that it is a "personal issue" that they shouldn't get involvedin. This is where I begin take issue with the events that have unfolded. In July of 2014, Max Temkin, developer of the popular card game "Cards Against Humanity" was accused of rape. Temkin denied the accusations and attempted to defend himself. Games journalism sites found it appropriate to cover this story, and even complained about the lack of conversation about the topic. Now, Quinn has admitted that her infidelity is the equivalent of rape, via her own definition as outlined on Gjoni's blog post.

And of course, sex without consent is rape. So here we have Quinn Quinn, admitting to rape, and no journalism site wants to run articles on the issue. They are even complaining that people shouldn't be discussing the issue. Is it a coincidence that Quinn happens to have slept with Nathan Grayson, the founder of news site Rock Paper Shotgun? Or that she has personal ties to writers at Kotaku? Is it just me or is there a bit of hypocrisy here? 

            

The "Quinnspiracy" has led to vast numbers of gamers denouncing the apparent corruption within games journalism. This backlash has been dubbed Gamergate (a play on words referencing Watergate). Gamergate has been reviled as a cover for gamers to attack Quinn and others who are related to the Quinnspiracy. Proponents of social justice and feminists have brought up the fact that the videogame community is intensely misogynistic, and that Gamergate is a hate fueled campaign against women in the field of game development.

           

I'm not going to discount any of those accusations. The history of misogyny being deeply embedded in videogames and the videogame community has been well examined by feminist critics. There are definitely many people  who couldn't give a shit about corruption in games journalism and just want to hop on the bandwagon for a witch hunt. There are those who are focusing solely on the issue of Quinn's infidelity and making violent threats to her life. Ultimately,  it's these actions that delegitimize Gamergate's cause; to spread awareness of nepotism and hypocrisy in the indie game dev scene and in games journalism.

             

What's even more annoying to me is the fact that opposition to Gamergate is using the behavior of the videogame community to sidestep the issues of corruption. Many websites are pointing to the violent threats made to Quinn and others supporting her as a way to avoid talking about the issues Gamergate wishes to discuss, and to avoid taking responsibility for their actions. They are so intent on keeping silent about this issue that they're silencing their own people. One such example comes from Wolf Wozniak, a game developer, who claims that Quinn sexually harassed him at a wedding party.

Wozniak has since deleted his tweet.

 A response by another developer, Phil Fish, inadvertently confirms this event occurring. Wozniak admits to have feared coming forward with this information for fear of being ostracized by the indie game community.

             

It's a farce of immense proportions. The game devs and journalists involved in this need to drop the act and own up to their faults. It's only human to err, and to continue to try to avoid blame and cover their asses (poorly) will only make things worse. The evidence of foul play is credible enough to warrant explanations and confessions from developers and journalists alike. And just because someone supports Gamergate doesn't mean that they're a woman-hater, or that they excuse the behavior of the videogame community. The mighty human brain is capable of caring about more than one issue. How do you expect consumers of a media to improve themselves and their behavior when the people who create and extol that media are behaving like children?

While I don't believe it's reasonable to condemn Gamergate as a hateocracy, I can understand that the background of toxic behavior in the videogame community makes it hard to take anything they do seriously. You can damn Gamergate all you want, but you shouldn't turn a blind eye to the ugliness behind games journalism and development.