“We Declared a Consumer Revolt, So They Declared a Cultural War”: The Development of Shared Narratives among Supporters of the #Gamergate Campaign

ABSTRACT

In 2014, an online controversy known as “Gamergate” erupted between members of the gaming industry and games consumers amid accusations of corruption in gaming journalism and development. The present study utilizes a narrative criminological approach to explore the controversy from the perspective of supporters participating in a Gamergate “megathread” consisting of over 20,000 posts. The supporters’ narrative unfolds in three parts: (1) framing the origins of the Gamergate movement, (2) addressing accusations of misogyny and harassment against Gamergate supporters, and (3) repairing the Gamergate image. These results are considered within the context of gendered cyberharassment, cyberwarfare, and shared narrative development.

KEYWORDS:

• Gamergate
• cyberharassment
• misogyny
• gaming
• social justice warriors

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Quinn has recently publicly come out as non-binary in their gender identity. We thus use “they/them/theirs” pronouns when referring to them. Pronouns used in quotes referring to them remain unchanged. Additionally, although we are naming Quinn here, it is important to remember that they have continued in their career and should not be solely defined by the hateful campaign that originated outside of their control. The authors deliberated on omitting their name entirely so as to not perpetuate this association between them and their victimization but decided against this approach as they have taken ownership of the narrative (as evinced by the publishing an autobiographical account of the ordeal in Crash Override) and thus omitting them from the narrative risks erasure.

2. For more complete accounts of the events of Gamergate, refer to the works of Bezio (2018), Chess and Shaw (2015), Massanari (2017), and Mortensen (2018) as well as Quinn’s (2017) autobiographical account.

3. Gamergate is also referred to as “Gamer Gate,” “GamerGate,” “#Gamergate,” and “#GamerGate.”

4. It is questionable whether Gamer Gate can be understood as a social movement in the traditional sense. That said, participants often described it as a movement and we thus use this term to reflect their perceptions.