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The Gamergate controversy began in August 2014. It concerns issues of sexism and progressivism in video game culture. It is most widely known for a harassment campaign against several women in the video game industry, including game developers Zoë Quinn and Brianna Wu, and cultural critic Anita Sarkeesian. The controversy began when a former boyfriend of Quinn wrote a lengthy disparaging blog post about her, leading others to falsely accuse her of entering a relationship with a journalist in exchange for positive coverage. Those endorsing the blog post and spreading such accusations against Quinn organized themselves under the Twitter hashtag Gamergate, as well as on IRC channels and websites such as reddit, 4chan, and 8chan. Harassment campaigns against Quinn and others were coordinated through these fora and included doxing, threats of rape, and death threats. Many of those organizing under the Gamergate hashtag argue that they are campaigning against political correctness and poor journalistic ethics in the video game industry. Most commentators dismissed Gamergate's ethics concerns, and condemned misogynistic behavior within it. Gamergate's supporters are largely anonymous, having no official leaders or spokespeople and no single united manifesto. Statements coming out of Gamergate have been inconsistent and contradictory making it difficult for commentators to identify any set goals and motives. As a result of this Gamergate has often been defined by the harassment its supporters have committed. Gamergate supporters have attempted to publicly dissociate themselves from misogyny and harassment. Such attempts have often been dismissed as insincere and being for the purpose of improving the group's public image. The controversy has been described as a manifestation of a culture war over gaming culture diversification, artistic recognition, social criticism of video games, and the gamer social identity. Many supporters of Gamergate oppose what they view as the increasing influence of feminism and social justice ideologies on video game culture. As a result, Gamergate is often viewed as a right-wing backlash against progressivism. Gamergate's journalistic ethics concerns have alleged perceived collusion of the press with feminists, progressives, and social critics. They argue that this has resulted in a press which is overly feminist and anti-gamer. These concerns have been dismissed by commentators as trivial, based on conspiracy theories, unfounded in fact, or unrelated to actual issues of ethics. Such concerns led users of the hashtag to launch email campaigns targeting firms advertising in publications of which they disapproved, asking them to withdraw their advertisements. Responses within the games industry to Gamergate have largely been negative. The heads of groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Entertainment Software Association, Electronic Arts, and Sony Computer Entertainment have strongly condemned Gamergate harassment. Intel, who temporarily withdrew their adverts from gaming news site ''Gamasutra'' as the result of a Gamergate email campaign, later pledged $300 million to support a "Diversity in Technology" program. Gamergate has led figures both inside and outside the industry to focus more on better methods of tackling online harassment. U.S. Representative Katherine Clark from Massachusetts has campaigned for a stronger government response to online harassment, gaining the support of Congress. Within the industry, organizations such as the Crash Override Network and the Online Abuse Prevention Initiative have been founded to provide support to those facing online harassment. ==History== In February 2013 Zoë Quinn, an independent game developer, released ''Depression Quest'', an interactive fiction browser game. The game was met with positive reviews in the games media, but a backlash developed among those who believed that it had received undue attention. Quinn began to receive hate mail upon its release, causing her to change her phone number and screen her calls.〔〔〔〔〔 By August 2014 Quinn had been the target of eighteen months of increasing harassment, which had created what ''The New Yorker'' characterized as "an ambient hum of menace in her life, albeit one that she () mostly been able to ignore".〔 In August 2014, Eron Gjoni, Quinn's former boyfriend, published the "Zoe Post", a 9,425-word blog post that quoted from personal chat logs, emails, and text messages to describe their relationship. The post, described by Nick Wingfield of ''The New York Times'' as a "rambling online essay", complained that Quinn had entered a romantic relationship with Nathan Grayson, a journalist for the Gawker Media video game website ''Kotaku''.〔 Though some claimed that the relationship had induced Grayson to publish a favorable review of ''Depression Quest'',〔〔〔 but this was quickly proven to be false, as ''Kotaku'' editor-in-chief Stephen Totilo immediately confirmed that Grayson had never reviewed Quinn's games. The only article Grayson had written at ''Kotaku'' concerning her was published before their relationship began.〔〔〔 After Gjoni’s blog post, Quinn and her family were subjected to a virulent and often misogynistic harassment campaign.〔〔〔 The people behind this campaign initially referred to it as the "quinnspiracy", the original name for their IRC channel, but quickly adopted the Twitter hashtag "Gamergate" after it was coined by actor Adam Baldwin near the end of August.〔〔〔〔 Baldwin has described Gamergate as a backlash against political correctness, saying it has started a discussion "about culture, about ethics, and about freedom". Some users of the term "Gamergate" accused gaming journalists of an unethical conspiracy to suppress discussion of the corrupt behavior they incorrectly ascribed to Quinn and Grayson.〔 Similar accusations and coordinated attacks occurred on imageboards and forums like 4chan and Reddit.〔 Commentators both inside and outside the video game industry condemned the attacks against Quinn.〔〔〔 The attacks included doxing (researching and broadcasting personally identifiable information about an individual) and hacks of her Tumblr, Dropbox, and Skype accounts; she was also subjected to rape and death threats.〔〔〔〔 The release of personal information forced Quinn to flee her home; she explained that "I can't go home because they have been posting around my home address, often with threats attached to it".〔 At a conference Quinn said, "I used to go to game events and feel like I was going home () Now it's just like... are any of the people I'm currently in the room with ones that said they wanted to beat me to death?"〔 One such threat, reported in ''The New Yorker'', proposed that: "Next time she shows up at a conference we... give her a crippling injury that's never going to fully heal... a good solid injury to the knees. I'd say a brain damage, but we don't want to make it so she ends up too retarded to fear us."〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Gamergate controversy」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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