What Is Gamergate? A Brief Rundown of the Gaming Controversy

Huffington Post interviews 3 female Gamergate supporters

By William White, InvestorPlace Writer Oct 15, 2014, 4:08 pm EDT November 4, 2014

Gamergate may have been a term you’ve heard recently, but do you know what it’s all about?

Gamergate is a controversial movement within the game community. The movement started when indie game developer Zoe Quinn was accused of sleeping with a Kotaku journalist by her ex-boyfriend. While the accusations were denied, they did spark the movement as many gamers claimed there needed to be more transparency in game journalism, The Washington Post notes.

However, this movement has been accused of sending death threats and other forms of harassment toward Quinn and other females in the industry. Anita Sarkeesian, a feminist critic of video games, has called out the movement for being sexists. In response, the hashtag #NotYourShield was created. Those posting under this hashtag claim to be women and minorities that believe they shouldn’t be used against Gamergate, The Washington Post notes.

Sarkeesian had to cancel a speech at Utah State University on Tuesday following a death threat. The maker of the threat claimed they would make the speech the the site of “the deadliest school shooting in American history.” While Gamergate has been accused of the message, it wasn’t mentioned in the email threat sent to Utah State University, reports Standard Examiner.

In a Tweet posted to Twitter (TWTR) by Sarkeesian on Tuesday night, she said “At this point supporting #gamergate is implicitly supporting the harassment of women in the gaming industry.”

The Huffington Post released an interview on Wednesday with some women who support GamerGate. It can be viewed here.

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