A Campaign Made from Hate? That’s Gamergate!
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a headshot of eron gjoni resting his head on a pillow
It's unpredictable what can result from a breakup. There are different possibilities like the breaker and the breakee becoming friends afterwards or the two of them never interacting again. Of course, not all breakups will bring about a satisfying conclusion, and one game developer truly grasped that on one unfortunate day.
On August 16th, 2014, Zoe Quinn's ex-boyfriend, Eron Gjoni, released an over 9,000-word long blog post titled "The Zoe Post" on WordPress, accusing her of cheating on him with five different men to help boost the rating of her games. The five who were brought into this mess were those who had ties to the gaming industry and journalists for said industry.
Originally, the post didn't garner much attention until it made its way to 4chan. The users, having sympathy for Gjoni and feeling that their industry was being threatened, started their path of harassment towards Quinn.
Zoe quinn at the Xoxo festival (2015) speaking to an audience
While the army Gjoni had amassed did their thing, he made clear that he condemned any of the harassment they were sending her way, even though he couldn’t show that as he continued to post the blog onto other websites to add more to the outrage.
Each day, the army grew larger as Gjoni recruited angry gamers through his post. Because of its extent, the campaign that was officially given the name "Gamergate" at some point, reached many well-known names across the world. In fact, the name was coined by the actor, Adam Baldwin, who expressed his support for the movement like many others did. Nonetheless, there were those who expressed their disgust with the whole thing, but they would end up getting doxxed by the multitude.
A headshot of Anita sarkeesian outside
Yes, the whole campaign consisted of many figures, no matter how public or little, getting doxxed and harassed just like their first victim who was certainly the only one Eron had envisioned getting attacked since he admitted he didn't expect his writing to create such a large combustion.
During its reign, spaces on the internet looked like a dictatorship where one was not allowed to say anything that went against the movement and Gjoni, but sadly enough, it wasn’t just speaking out against Gamergate that would have one punished for their “crime.”
On August 25th, a week after the whole disaster began, feminist media critic, Anita Sarkeesian, uploaded a new video to her YouTube channel, Feminist Frequency. It was added to her series Tropes vs. Women in Video Games titled “Women as Background Decoration Part 2." Regrettably, but unknowing to her, she would face harassment from the Gamergate soldiers because of her upload. This made her another major target for the campaign after Quinn.
brianna wu next to a motocycle in the middle of the street
But that's not all. On September 19th, lead game developer, Brianna Wu, made a joke on her twitter account mocking Gamergate and its terror. However, that could only be speculated because she never mentioned it by name. Needless to say, she would end up getting harassed and doxxed. So, along with Quinn and Sarkeesian, she became another main target for the campaign.
For years, the trio went on to be victims of the harassment campaign. Throughout those troubling times, they were continuously made to move locations, stay away from the internet, but most importantly, be strong for themselves. Eventually, Gamergate calmed down around 2017, allowing the women to feel a sense of freedom again. Basically, Quinn went back to creating video games and so did Wu, while Sarkeesian added on to her series. Even more, many who took part in the harassment apologized to them and so, were forgiven.
Being the horrendous event that it was, Gamergate could have been avoided if Eron Gjoni listened to his mother's advice to "calm down" after his breakup with Zoe Quinn, but instead, he chose to let his emotions get the better of him and publish the post that ruined the lives of many, not just the one who caught his eye.
Hey there,
My name is Tia Nsoedo and I am a 19-year-old student in the Professional Writing program, but after that, I plan on going straight into the Scriptwriting one.
I am very passionate about drawing, creating characters, and writing, while interested in countries, history, music, animated tv shows, meanings/origins of first and given names, and video games.
In the future, I hope to become a scriptwriter, where I get to script my own animated tv show… Hopefully.
