Women and videogames
Part 1: Background reading on Gamer gate Read this Guardian article on Gamer gate 10 years on: 1) What was Gamer gate? Ten years ago, a game developer’s aggrieved ex-boyfriend published a vindictive screed accusing her of trading sex for favourable reviews of her indie game. This was leapt upon by the least savoury corner of the 2014 internet, 4chan, and kicked off a harassment campaign that broadened to include all women working in video game development or the gaming press, as well as the industry’s LGBTQ+ community. Sensing blood in the water, “alt-right” agitators on YouTube and Steve Bannon’s Breitbart jumped on the bandwagon, and soon began to steer it – and Gamer gate, as this manufactured outrage became known, mutated into one of the first fronts of the modern culture wars, driven by social media, misogyny and the weaponised disaffection of young men. Many of its tactics became part of the Trump election playbook. 2) What is the recent controversy surrounding narrative des...