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I'm surprised there hasn't already been a thread about this. Here's Wikipedia's summary:
My two cents: Those who identify with the gamer-gate movement claim that it is about ethics in journalism. Their actions, however, suggest otherwise. They have virtually ignored recent controversies that actually involve questionable practices on the part of games developers, and have chosen instead to direct the majority of their vitriol attacking developers and journalists who have been critical of the depiction of women and minorities in video-games.Gamergate (sometimes referred to as GamerGate or as a hashtag #gamergate) is a controversy centering on misogyny and harassment in video game culture, the role of social commentary in game critiques, and ethics in video game journalism, particularly alleged conflicts of interest between video game journalists and developers. The controversy began in August 2014 and has occurred primarily over social media. A number of people, primarily women, working in the gaming industry in various capacities were subjected to an intense campaign of harassment and violent threats. It prompted increased attention to "deep-rooted anti-feminist sentiment" and issues of sexism and misogyny in segments of the gaming community. A subsequent series of death threats against prominent women in gaming drew international media attention to the movement's association with violent harassment. In response to what they considered attacks from the media, GamerGate supporters have increasingly focused on contacting companies advertising on gaming news outlets, embroiling several major companies in the controversy.
Their attacks are disproportionately targeted at women, such as Anita Sarkeesian - a feminist critique of video-games, Zoe Quinn, a female game developer who gamergaters falsely believed was sleeping with journalists in exchange for favourable reviews of her games, and Felicia Day, an actress and writer, for merely speaking out against the gamergate "movement".
After several websites published articles critical of gamergate, members of the movement orchestrated a partially successful campaign to have advertisers pull their ads from the websites in question (strange behaviour indeed from a group that claims to be interested in journalism which is not beholden to the influence of advertisers and developers).
The various harrassment and "doxxing" (the practice of revealing a person's personal information, or 'documents' online) culminated recently in Sarkeesian cancelling a talk she was due to give at a university in Utah, following threats of an attack. Various other targets of gamergate, most of them women, have been subjected to rape and death threats, with some of them (like the above-mentioned Zoe Quinn and Sarkeesian) being forced to flee their homes.
It would be interesting to hear from fellow gamers (and fellow feminists) as to your thoughts on this fiasco.
Originally Posted by Sync
