the idea that they were a joke is undermined by the fact there were two tweets and encouraging responses from a senior. For the same reason, the 'gamers are dead' articles being 'not what you think guys, honest!' is undermined by being defended a month post-publish and a phonebook-thick collection of vitriolic tweets…

There have been Gamergate campaigns to contact our advertisers for weeks, mostly due to Luke's "we could be witnessing the death of an identity" piece linked to above.

Its all sort of undermined by those above you, Stephen. If your bosses are saying one thing, and you the other, it doesn't really help much.

Let me paint you a picture:

Agreed, and I've been guilty of using the term myself. A consumer-revolt using a hashtag to convey their concern is not a movement, political alignment or ideology. Most of the people who've used the hashtag consider themselves progressives.

the 'organised harassment' as you put it began when she started getting YT videos pulled, before that the story was still very much focused on why the journalists weren't covering the story., and every roadblock was deemed as evidence that the developer was immune to criticism, fuelling the suspicion of nepotism.

And if it was actually about ethics in video game journalism, it would have started a long time before Zoe Quinn made an indie game for a novel concept.

It also takes two minutes to understand that the originating event behind all of this was some jilted ex's sleazy gossip,

I think that, to be fair, that comes from Sports reporters coming from a love of sport, and gaming journos coming from a love of games. However, there are passionate movie-hype reviewers if you know where to look. You just don't see it in print, really.

I can't disagree with what you've written, but I'd say the corruption can swing too far in the other direction as well eg. op-ed "Gamers are dead" articles followed by vitriolic tweets designed to paint criticism of journalism in the worst possible light. There has to be some middle ground between PR spin-doctor and…

True

Escapist? Bridge built. Totilo himself asking a GG woman about her received harassment ? Bridge building.

I agree with everything you're saying so I don't really know where the disagreement lies?

posted to wrong message.

1. They are as much as they can. People have been doing this repeatedly, vocally and its easy to see on the tag. This tells me you aren't speaking from a position of knowledge, just parroting what other detractors have said.

I guess I'm just a bit more cynical, as I suspect if things moved the way you suggest, harassment would go back to being fringe-knowledge.

They'd just be carrying as they usually do, outside the tag, except it wouldn't be widely reported because the 'story' of the tag would no longer exist.

I agree with much of what you've said, but the point is that some are labelling 'gamers' as the attackers here as if that's their defining point. Also I don't think saying 'harassment of people/devs is bad' is a difficult way to account for every possible permutation.

For some of these shows, it's like Friends never happened. People forget how inclusive and fair it was to the female characters on that show.

Anecdotally, just watching the pre-game show for the NFL patriots game on Fox right now (don't ask why if I'm in the UK: its my job, it's complicated), and during a skit of some kind, a fat wife joke was made. There you go, I guess!