Since we have to go down this road again, it's near impossible to sum up what Gamergate was neatly, but here goes.
A fabricated consumer revolt used as cover to destroy a woman which quickly escalated into targeting every marginalized group that neo-nazi channers hate.
A fabricated consumer revolt used as cover to destroy a woman which quickly escalated into targeting every marginalized group that neo-nazi channers hate.
It was also very quickly co-opted and accellerated by Steve Bannon through Breitbart. When Bannon was previously at IGE, a Chinese online game gold farming company, he encountered the motivated wrath of angry gamers and vowed to harness that.
So between Gamergate's 8chan roots and Steve Bannon's white nationalist Brietbart support, it very quickly became a defacto modern white supremacist movement.
And at its core it was able to tap into so many vaguely angry young men both because of societal malaise, but also by trading their raised-from-birth consumer identity of Gamer™ and convincing them it was under threat by hostile invaders (women, LGBT, POC, etc)
What is was NOT -- a reaction to corporate pinkwashing.
Despite positioning itself as a consumer revolt, GGs targets were game journalists, game devs, women and marginalized folk who spoke up against GG's misogyny.
The movement itself was rabidly pro-corporate.
Despite positioning itself as a consumer revolt, GGs targets were game journalists, game devs, women and marginalized folk who spoke up against GG's misogyny.
The movement itself was rabidly pro-corporate.
In fact the only corporations that GG ever targeted were outlets that correctly framed what Gamergate was and corporations that publically sided with women who had been targeted.
As far as actual games went, their biggest boogeyman was an indie walking simulator about lesbians that got well reviewed. The praise was only ever seen as a conspiracy to take away the games they liked.
Like all fascist movements (MAGA, etc) it was an attempt by mostly straight white men who feared losing total societal dominance to freeze the status quo in place if not outright turn back the clock.
The "great replacement theory" that neo-nazis use to describe their fear that non-white people are breeding at faster rates is entirely similar to this vague feeling of looming irrelevance that Gamergate tapped into to fuel its supporters.
This is why so many of us who experienced or were targeted by Gamergate refer to it as a trial run.
The Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville was a logical real world extension of the movement and tactics that coalesced in GG.
The Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville was a logical real world extension of the movement and tactics that coalesced in GG.
And I'll just finish by saying if you've never really known what Gamergate was, you just knew it was a shit show, please watch @InnuendoStudios terrific video series that did an autopsy on the movement.
The other thing to remember that the origins of what led up to Gamergate was an escalating number of culture jamming attempts by channers to disrupt and embarrass feminism through fake viral campaigns.
The biggest one was EndFathersDay which purported that Fathers Day was sexist and should be abolished. Or FreeBleed which pushed a fake campaign celebrating having your period in public for all to see.
In each case, hundreds of sockpuppet Twitter accounts were made to push these fake campaigns in hopes that mainstream news would pick it up. Most of these accounts were black women so any pushback could be countered with accusations of racism.
The phrase "your slip is showing" became common when one of these sockpuppets was found as code for "fake channer account."
Many of these sockpuppet accounts were early defenders of Gamergate against accusations of misogyny.
Many of these sockpuppet accounts were early defenders of Gamergate against accusations of misogyny.
