

What Is Gamergate, and Why Is Intel So Afraid of It? - r0h1n
http://recode.net/2014/10/09/what-is-gamergate-and-why-is-intel-so-afraid-of-it/

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Goladus
The stubborn proliferation of biased articles such as this one is precisely
why GamerGate refuses to fade away and why anyone who relies on writers like
Eric Johnson will be confused about why Intel pulled their ads from Gamasutra.
Erik Kain at Forbes published opinions on Intel's decision[1], and also
includes a laughably charitable take on the Leigh Alexander article that
sparked the consumer revolt. It's worth reading if you are falling for the
narrative that Intel buckled under pressure from a harassment campaign.

Eric Johnson also writes:

 _But that’s not what Gamergate has shown it cares about in practice. The
labels of “ethics” and “corruption” are, to date, a thin veil over an ongoing
attempt to undermine women in the gaming industry and the games press. Anyone
who advocates for gender equality, or better representation, or even just a
more open discussion is considered an enemy to be bullied, boycotted or, in
some cases, harassed._

This is flat-out incorrect and full of dishonest generalizations.

 _undermine women in the gaming industry and the games press_

Easily shown to be false. #GamerGate is very diverse, actively promotes
inclusiveness (#NotYourShield), and even helped raise over $20,000 to fund The
Fine Young Capitalists project, which is specifically about helping women
create games.

 _Anyone who advocates for gender equality, or better representation, or even
just a more open discussion is considered an enemy to be bullied_

Once again, easily shown to be false. Many advocate for gender equality or
"better representation" and don't even attract criticism, much less bullying
or harassment. The Escapist Magazine started out in the middle of this mess,
and has continued to publish opinions on the issue, but escaped boycotts and
consumer action for two simple reasons: 1) Greg Tito stood by a fair and just
interpretation of their site's rules and allowed discussion to continue in
their forum, even against his personal bias and in the face of Ben Kuchera
(Polygon)'s bullying on the GameJournoPros mailing list[2]. 2) The Escapist
Magazine made a good faith attempt to respond to the fairest relevant
criticism they were able to identify.

The publications currently under boycott and consumer action campaigns failed
to do what The Escapist did.

But it wasn't until Allum Bokhari stepped up and published an article at
TechCrunch [3] that #GamerGate began to get any kind of fair coverage outside
Breitbart, isolated blogs, forums, and youtube streams.

 _Even if Quinn were the person Gjoni and his adherents claim she is, she’s a
person, not a government or multinational company; her only impact on the
public was being a female game developer who made an atypical, critically
acclaimed game._

Right, see what he's doing here? He's reframing away from specific allegations
in favor of a generalized narrative with conveniently defined identities. But
he's not very good at it, since he still makes a false claim. It's most
certainly not true that Zoe Quinn's only impact on the public has been "being
a female game developer." There are other allegations such as those related to
The Fine Young Capitalists. Quinn had already been in the news for her role in
Polaris Game Jam.

[1] [http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2014/10/04/why-it-
makes...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2014/10/04/why-it-makes-sense-
for-intel-to-pull-ads-from-gamasutra-over-gamergate-and-why-its-still-the-
wrong-move/)

[2] [http://yiannopoulos.net/2014/09/19/gamejournopros-zoe-
quinn-...](http://yiannopoulos.net/2014/09/19/gamejournopros-zoe-quinn-email-
dump/)

[3] [http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/25/gamergate-an-issue-
with-2-s...](http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/25/gamergate-an-issue-
with-2-sides/)

