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GamerGate Class 307: Why GamerGate does not run organized boycotts of game developers Over the past several weeks there has been a concerted effort by elements of the GamerGate consumer revolt to expand the efforts into a boycott of games developers who have either taken an openly hostile position against GamerGate, or have employees which are hostile. While it's always tempting to meet hostility with a response, boycotts are not actions to be taken lightly. Pulling off a successful boycott requires key elements for success, and the consequences for failure are severe and embarrassing. What is required for a successful boycott? Harvard Business Review's Daniel Diermeier outlines four key factors for a successful boycott: 1 Customers must care passionately 2. The cost of participation must be low BOYCOT There is no doubt that GamerGate participants are passionate about gaming. While getting people to boycott unethical games sites is easy, since there are dozens of other sources of information, asking gamers to not purchase the game they've been looking forward to playing for months or even years is a high price for participation. #2 is where a game dev boycott begins to stumble. 3. The issues must be easy to understand Communicating our desire to establish ethical guidelines in games journalism can be tricky, but add in another level, where we're punishing game developers who don't support establishing those guidelines muddies the waters to the point where no neutral is going take the boycott seriously let alone participate 4. Mass media support is crucial. Like it or not, boycotts cannot garner widespread support without media backing them. “While social media platforms have made it easier for activists to gain support, activists need coverage in the mass media for a boycott to be successful." (Diermeier) Add in issues where devs who already support #GamerGate are put into a situation where they can be accused of violations in law, as well as the fact that the game journalists and their supporters would desperately love for us to focus on attacking devs instead of their unethical behaviors, there simply isn't a good justification for going down this road. GamerGate does not dictate game content, nor do we attack game devs who make the games they want. We all understand the desire to make devs thick twice about bashing their customers, but keep in mind you don't go into a losing battle on principle, if it puts the entire war effort at risk of failure. https://hbr.org/2012/08/when-do-company-boycotts-work/

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Gamergate (harassment campaign) Article Talk From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia For other uses, see Gamergate (disambiguation). Gamergate or GamerGate (GG)[¹] was a loosely organized misogynistic online harassment campaign and a right-wing backlash against feminism, diversity, and progressivism in video game culture. [2][³] It was conducted using the hashtag "#Gamergate" primarily in 2014 and 2015.[1][4][5][6] Beginning in August 2014, Gamergate targeted women in the video game industry, most notably feminist media critic Anita Sarkeesian and video game developers Zoë Quinn and Brianna Wu, among others.[7][8][9][10][11] The harassment campaign included doxing, r--- threats, and death threats.[12][13][14] Gamergate proponents ("Gamergaters") stated that they were a social movement, but lacked well-defined goals, a coherent message, and leaders, making Gamergate difficult to define.[15][16][17] Gamergaters claimed to promote ethics in video games journalism, claimed to be protecting the "gamer" identity, and opposed what they asserted as "political correctness" in video games.[18][19][20][21][22] Read Date Target Gamergate, online harassment campaign in 2014-15 that targeted women in the video game industry. The attacks were attributed largely to white male right-wing gamers who railed against the rise and influence of women and feminism in the industry. Gamergate served as a recruiting tool for the growing alt-right movement and helped spur the online “Pizzagate" conspiracy theory, which soon spawned the wider QAnon conspiracy movement. …………………………....…..……….…..... Attack type Victims Motive View source Inquiry XA 28 languages ✓ Perpetrators Internet trolls, particularly from 4chan, Internet Relay Chat, and 8chan View history Tools ✓ Gamergate August 2014 - 2015 Women in the video game industry See all media Online harassment campaign Zoë Quinn, Anita Sarkeesian, Brianna Wu, and others Gamergaters created conspiracy theories falsely accusing Quinn of an unethical relationship with video game journalist Nathan Grayson.[23][24][25] More broadly, they alleged unethical collusion between the press and feminists, progressives, and social critics.[17][26] [27] These claims were widely dismissed as trivial, conspiracy theories, baseless, or unrelated to actual issues of ethics in gaming and journalism.[28] [29][30] Gamergate supporters frequently denied that the harassment took place, falsely claiming it to be manufactured by the victims.[31][32] Misogyny anti-feminism anti- progressivism FBI investigation Gamergate has been described as a culture war over cultural diversification, artistic recognition, feminism in video games, social criticism in video games, and the social identity of gamers.[28][33] [34] [35] Many supporters of Gamergate opposed the increasing influence of feminism and so-called "social justice warriors" on video game culture. [2][36] Gamergate led figures both inside and outside the gaming industry to focus on methods of addressing online harassment, ways to minimize harm, and prevent similar events. [37] [38] [39] [40] Gamergate has been viewed as a contributor to the alt-right and other right- wing movements.[21][41] Video game developer Brianna Wu
Jalen Hutchinson Studied Culinary Science at Culinary Institute of America (Graduated 2014). Author has 304 answers and 740.1K answer views. 5y Not that I care that much either way, but it did expose a lot of corrupt game developers and game journalists. X Journalists would make claims of people like Anita Sarkeesian "playing video games all her life" when she openly admitted many times she is not a gamer and only starter recently (when it wasn't for an interview). Various developers trading sex or money for good reviews got exposed, journalists who accepted got exposed. People became a bit more critical about supporting a game just because the developer has a victim complex stating tat their game could have only failed because of sexism, instead of their own poor developing skills. What really sealed the deal was opposition often faking their own harassment. Anita sarkeesian and Zoe Quinn have been caught multiple times screenshotting "harassment" while showing that the harrasser's account name in the login. Or when someone called the police to help Sarkeesian against a "very real threat" she was posting about, only for police to find the harasser's messages were coming from her IP address. I just want honesty from the community, and the lies were mostly exposed by the "dreaded" gamergate. 1.3K views • View upvotes 26
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