This is meant to be a blow by blow analysis looking over everything wrong with Zoey Quinn's Cracked article. Let's just say that I am super grateful to the guys at adblock, because this one is a doozy.
Editor's Note: A few weeks ago our message board and general inbox were bombarded with demands we address something called the "GamerGate Scandal", posts written with the urgency and rage one would associate with, say, discovering that Chipotle burritos are made entirely from the meat of human babies. It's apparently a big deal in some circles, so we followed the links and read the piles of data presented, and had to stop and take a deep breath just to grasp it all. "Gentlemen," we said amid the stunned silence, "do you realize that if what they're saying is true, then this is still the most pointless fucking bullshit anyone has ever forced us to read?"
The "scandal" turned out to be an excuse for an Internet harassment campaign against a random indie game developer who, like many such targets, was a female and a feminist.
Wow. Even the editor's note is a giant pile of bullshit. There's quite a lot to talk about in this short paragraph, but I think the most important bit is this claim that Zoey Quinn is at the center of GamerGate. She is not. She was merely a catalyst to a much bigger issue. It's also worth mentioning how it's already trying to force us to accept the fact that Quinn is innocent, before she even has the chance to say anything.
Also, it implies that everyone supporting GamerGate is a dude. I normally wouldn't think much of things like that, but with the media trying their hardest to pretend #NotYourShield never happened... Well, I find it questionable, is all.
This is the first image of the article. I think we can all agree that these tweets are, at the very least, cherry picked from a vast sea of reasonable arguments, I would like to bring your attention to the one thing they have in common: Jane Rustler, the person retweeting all of these horrible things. Well, who exactly is she?
A quick search on twitter will reveal that... ta da! Jane Rustler doesn't actually exist. Now, this could mean a whole lot of things. It could have been a troll account that has promptly been deleted, or it could have been Zoey herself, using another account that she immediately deleted personally in order to protect herself.
It's also worth nothing that Jane Rustler is the ONLY person to retweet this shit. If you were in the center of a vast conspiracy of hopeless virgins sending you threatening tweets all day... wouldn't they take the time to retweet and favorite other hateful tweets?
Again, we've known for a long while now that Quinn has been using tweets like this to garner sympathy from people who don't know any better, like Cracked's audience. This is nothing new for her, but its' rather telling how desperate she is when she can't even put together a convincing set of tweets.
It was all sparked by a single forum post from a jilted ex-boyfriend, but the ensuing outrage was so fierce and relentless that the story made it all the way to The New Yorker. This kind of spontaneous shitstorm is depressingly common these days, so we reached out to Zoe Quinn to see what it's like to be the Internet's Most Hated Person (well, for a couple of weeks, anyway). Here's what she told us
Again, this sort of damage control is nothing new. This sort of dismissive referral to Eron as the only reason we care about Zoey, a flippant claim that GamerGate is dead, and a referral to another article supporting these claims.
Again, this sort of damage control is nothing new. This sort of dismissive referral to Eron as the only reason we care about Zoey, a flippant claim that GamerGate is dead, and a referral to another article supporting these claims.
The New Yorker article isn't particularly interesting. It just spouts a whole bunch of nonsense about how Quinn was 'doxxed' (She wasn't) How she was harassed (Um. I doubt that, thanks.) and it even makes out Depression Quest to be some kind of masterpiece. Um. Yeah... this guy's name is Simon Parkin. His name hasn't come up in any of this, but the way he writes about Zoey bothers me. He really goes out of his way to defend her and the game. I could probably write another article just on this. He accuses Steam players for not liking the game because it's 'gloomy' for instance. Yeah... I don't think that's the problem, dude. At it's core, the article is pretty blatantly biased towards Quinn. It particularly tries to play up her game design talents, but, at the very end, it mentions GamerGate, and how Quinn valiantly managed to thwart it by posting a 4Chan chat log.
No, really.
Hi. My name is Zoe, and I make weird video games with some degree of success (and make them playable for free, if you're so inclined). My life is generally pretty uncomplicated, I guess, aside from the fact that a month ago the Internet decided to make me the center of a supposed global conspiracy. I made the mistake of dating a guy who would later go on to write a several-act manifesto about my alleged sex life and post it to every forum he could create a handle for. Normally, this would blow over with little more than a "whoa, check out THAT guy," but since I work in an industry that has very strong feelings about women, it quickly mutated from a jilted ex's revenge-porn to one of the most intense scandals in recent gaming history.
Long story short, the Internet spent the last month spreading my personal information around, sending me threats, hacking anyone suspected of being friends with me, calling my dad and telling him I'm a whore, sending nude photos of me to colleagues, and basically giving me the "burn the witch" treatment. During all of this, I found that ...
I like how she uses 'alleged' like she hasn't already admitted to it. Anyway, there's not much worth talking about in the first paragraph, except for perhaps the last sentence, specifically, the claim that the industry has strong feelings about women .
No, Zoey. People don't hate you for being a woman. People hate you because you a pathological liar who has shut down charities.
There's this weird mindset in Zoey Quinn's circle of game developers that if a female dev is criticized, it's always... ALWAYS due to her gender. In their eyes, women can't make mistakes or screw something up or commit crimes: If a woman is portrayed somewhat negatively in ANY context, that is inherently sexist and must be eliminated.
#5. This Can Happen to Anybody (but It Helps if You're Female)
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This sort of thing is hardly new -- forums like 4chan organize campaigns every month or so to try to stick it to feminists or just women in general. Just a few months ago, they organized a fake campaign to end Father's Day and harass black feminists. In January, a hoax was created to make women feel crappy about their bodies, and in February they went on the warpath against feminists bycreating a hoax about tampons. Or, the target may be a specific woman -- like the time they found a feminist on YouTube criticizing video games and unleashed a tsunami of death threats.
Each time they'll do it under the guise of fighting for some kind of justice (or rather, correcting the injustice feminists have perpetrated against males and/or video games). For instance, they figure the aforementioned game critic deserved the death threats because she incorrectly described a level from one of the Hitman games. Of course.
What? You mean we expect a critic talking about video games to actually play the video games she's looking at? How ridiculous!
All kidding aside, I sadly don't know enough about 4chan to make a call on how much Zoey is exaggerating the situation. It speaks volumes for what I think of her when I immediately don't believe anything she's telling us. Especially with that last sentence, there. The one referring to Sarkeesian.
This is a really blatant example of how Quinn twists facts in order to suit her agenda. She 'establishes' absolute nonsense claims about being harassed, and then links this back into one of Sarkeesian's more notable mistakes.
Like I said before, these people refuse to fess up to any mistakes on their part. They can do whatever they want, because they're women working in an industry that harasses women. Forget about all those beloved game devs around the world that just happen to be women: They don't matter!
Another cherry picked tweet. Amusingly, I don't even think this one is even that threatening, especially since Sarkeesian does deserve it. Like I said before: these people think criticizing women for poor work should be a crime.
In my case, I was at a bar with friends when I first caught a whiff of the impending shitstorm. We were having birthday drinks when someone reached out to tell me that my ex had written a screed about our relationship that had been posted to a forum I belong to. Slowly, horrifically, we discovered that he had posted it to several other popular forums (that had immediately nuked it) and created a Wordpress blog that was literally nothing but his 10,000-word rant about our failed relationship. Shortly after that, we found Wikipedia edits on my page that had altered my date of death to coincide with planned public appearances (or, in one case, simply "soon").
Wikipedia
We soon found threads about it on 4chan (apparently the only site willing to host a revenge-porn diatribe) and watched in horror as they dug into my past, desperate to scrape up any humiliating information that might potentially exist:
I just realized Zoey Quinn was born on the same day as me... awkward.
Anyway, reading this, I'm under the strong impression that she's referring to the incident when she and Adam Sessler went to 4chan to watch the hacking 'in real time.' You know, the time when we caught her faking all those threats against herself? And this, apparently, is no different.
This is all really funny, considering how someone on 4chan, to date, is still nuking entire threads dedicated to Gamergate. Even the people Zoey are trying to blame are defending her, to a certain extent anyway.
She says a bit more about this, but it's just describing how the situation made her feel. I don't doubt that this controversy has made her feel exceedingly anxious, but she obviously wants the reader to be sympathetic towards her. I am anything but.
#4. Internet Personalities Start Jumping on the Bandwagon
Bethany Clarke/Getty Images News/Getty Images
There is a whole network out there of anti-feminists -- bloggers, YouTube personalities, subreddits, etc. -- who live for this shit. Once they got wind of the post from my ex, they rushed to milk the story for all of the traffic they could, knowing that any "evil feminist caught in the wrong" story is instant traffic from their already frothing fanbases. It quickly went viral -- the most popular YouTube video about the "scandal" has over 850,000 views, as of the writing of this article. The "Quinnspiracy" has its own KnowYourMeme page, and there's even an entire subreddit about me, which is full of exactly the kind of misogynist bullshit you'd expect.
reddit... wait, what?
Just to reiterate -- I was not terribly famous before all this. This post from my ex wasn't like the world finding out the president participated in a Hollywood orgy and wound up giving the nuclear launch codes to Gary Busey due to an accidental pants switch. These people had never heard of me before. But they became obsessed with the tale, and in order to get more people involved they embellished the story into a bizarre wide-ranging conspiracy in which I use sex to control the entire gaming industry behind the scenes.
Quinn is exaggerating here. I also like how she doesn't actually link to The Internet Aristocrat's video. I haven't checked out that subreddit, but I think I will at a later date.
Now, the most important part of this segment is how she keeps insisting that this is nothing more than a sex scandal. Which, as you all know, is not the case at all. She isn't the one controlling the industry: The entire business is corrupt. She simply gave us the key to realize exactly how.
Our rampant attacking of Quinn is nothing more than us trying to beat it into the thick skills of her defenders that there is an issue here.
There's not much more to this part of the article. She says some more questionable things, but nothing really that incriminating. Then, she posted THIS.
I... what?
This guy is doing nothing but advocating being respectful towards you! Why do you think this is disgusting?
Oh, that's right. It's because he knows you did it. I forgot that you don't want anyone to think badly of you. Because women can't do anything wrong!
She then goes on to sarcastically say that she's controlling the entire industry, which says a lot about how delusional she is. No, Zoey. No one thinks that about you.
3. Then It Spills Over Into Real Life
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Recently, I had to have a very awkward phone conversation with my dad (who is recovering from a heart attack) about what 4chan is. My dad's an old-school biker dude who types with two fingers and has me fix the settings on his cellphone every time I see him -- I still don't think he quite understands what all this has been about. He just knows now to hang up when someone calls and screams "YOUR DAUGHTER'S A WHORE" into the receiver.
See, the angry mob engaged in a hacking spree, compromising a clutch of my friends' Skype accounts and, following that, the accounts of people they had in their contacts list, sending baiting and horrific messages to everyone they knew. The friend who supported me the loudest fell the hardest: they posted everything down to his social security numbers and bank statements on his then-compromised site. Any tactic was justified, in their minds -- after all, if somebody doesn't take down these female indie developers who make games about depression and give them away for free, who knows what will happen? There could be other women out there making games and having sex, right now, dammit!
Yeah, and we're supposed to take your word on this... why, exactly?
She's clearly referring to Phil Fish when she's talking about her very vocal friend. But why wouldn't she refer to him by name? Not only is he a 'respected' indie dev, he's also a fairly successful one.
Well, there's quite a few reasons why this is the case. For one thing, Phil Fish is exceedingly controversial. People just do not like his attitude, and by extension, everything he gets involved with has a tendency to sour. Two: There is very, very, very likely possibility that Phil Fish faked the doxxings himself. That would look bad on Quinn if that ever came out, wouldn't it?
Keep in mind has seen no problem with putting links to other people who on her side, while ignoring those who she feels could be a liability to her. Phil Fish, if convicted, could quickly cast a huge shadow on the image she wants to present to the public.
And they are making progress -- multiple talented women in the industry have decided it's just not worth it, knowing that they're one pissed-off ex away from being in my situation. Another friend who watched all of this unfold declared he was "fucking out of this" and deleted all of his game projects. And that's not even getting into whatever young girls are out there watching -- if they were hoping to break into this overwhelmingly male industry, the message is loud and clear: "This is what happens to women who cross us. And also, literally anything counts as 'crossing us.'"
And, yes, it was about to get even weirder ...
She mentions female developers quitting, and then refers to Phil Fish again, this time much more blatantly. Um. Sure.
I find it very odd how we don't know a damn thing about these supposedly abused and downtrodden women, especially in today's world.
Indeed, this entire segment of the article was supposed to be about how this has effected her in the real world, but, if you compare this to the online centric ones, there's a lot less 'evidence' to support her case. We have her WORD that her father is being harassed, when no one I know of has even been discussing her family, hometown, her past. She SAYS female developers are leaving the industry, but no one seems to have any idea on who they are or who they worked for. She SAYS her closest friends have been doxxed and harassed, but then she lists Phil Fish as an example twice, and those were both under somewhat suspicious circumstances.
#2. ... And Suddenly, It's National News
Somewhere along the line, for reasons that are utterly beyond me, TV's Adam Baldwin got involved. Do you know how weird it is to see an actor from a show you love repost conspiracy videos about how your sex life is somehow ruining video games? Pretty goddamned weird, it turns out. A friend suggested that ever since his stint as Jayne on Firefly, Baldwin is afraid of women named Zoe. That at least took the sting out of no longer being able to watch one of my favorite shows without scowling so hard I sprain my face.
Yeah, I don't know anything about what Adam Baldwin believes about all this. I'm kind of reluctant to sing his praises without understanding why he feels the way he does, but I do know that Quinn's supporters HATE him, as he's not someone they can silence or ignore. Unlike Boogie2988, Baldwin can't be threatened or blacklisted by these people, because he's not part of their field.
Once it finally hit the "real" news, the "movement" was such a confusing mess that some people assumed it had to be about a real issue -- otherwise, how could it have gotten so big? This can't all be about just petty slut-shaming and vague accusations of conflicts of interest that were immediately debunked, can it? But it's not that strange if you're familiar with certain corners of gaming culture -- for example, when the developer of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 tweaked the weapons in multiplayer, some gamers bombarded an employee with death threats against him and his family. Let's just say that some people have trouble keeping things in perspective.
She has the gall to link to a Kotaku article here, when referring to how the 'conspiracy' against her was immediately debunked. Yeah. Do I really have to explain what's wrong with this? It's the one where Stephen Totilo goes on about how Nathan Grayson is innocent in all of this.
And of course, people have already debunked this article anyway.
But strangest of all, their rage is always targeted at the most inconsequential bullshit (like, say, some relationship drama between relative nobodies) instead of the stuff that matters. There is a lot wrong with gaming and game journalism -- from industry workers' rights issues to the fact that outlets are being paid to review and feature games. The industry is undergoing huge changes that will affect the hobby we all love so much, but all of that stuff is boring and this story involves people having sex! Besides, that other stuff doesn't give you a chance to sit around and trade rape fantasies and long for the target of your hatred to commit suicide.
Again, she says nothing interesting here. She tells some more lies, posts some more cherry picked chat logs, and is generally all around infuriating me. People are believing her? I can't even wrap my head around that, at this stage.
1. Then, Finally, It Passes (Until Next Time)
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The saving grace of online harassment campaigns is that soon the trolls get bored and move on. The bad news is that often they move on to harass someone else (note that a few years ago, the target of their real-life harassment was an 11-year-old girl who said something mean about them). And if you don't go away, maybe they'll come back around -- this isn't the first time I've been the target of a harassment campaign. It won't be the last. I'm not going anywhere.
Twitter
When you're at the center of something like this, it's easy to get overwhelmed by fear that your friends won't ever look at you the same way again. But then someone you love finds out and tells you, "Hey, jackass, I know you, and I'm not stupid enough to believe a meme-spouting Internet mob over my own personal experience." And then you think, "Oh." And you feel quite silly about ever worrying about that part in the first place.
Again, this is really nothing more than her trying to tell her audience that she's a person too, and that she deserves sympathy.
Except... no she doesn't.
In fact, I've come to realize that most sane people can see through a smear campaign -- groups who actually have a righteous cause are usually able to express it without using the word c**t hundreds of times. It's hard to dress up petty harassment as a crusade, and the people who refuse to see it for what it is would find a reason to hate me regardless. Let's face it -- if they found any part of the campaign convincing, they clearly didn't need much convincing in the first place. Keep all of that in mind if you ever find yourself at the wrong end of something like this.
Considering how I didn't even know who she was until saw InternetAristocrat's video on her... I'm pretty sure I had to be convinced that something was off about her.
Again, you see this time and time again with all of these articles. "I did nothing wrong. The gamers are to blame." Bullshit.
Of course, that won't undo the damage to your personal life or make the crude Photoshops of you vanish. It won't stop the nightmares or the paranoia or the fear that someone will make good on those threats. But it (hopefully) won't be the end of the world for you. Eventually things will move forward, and you'll still have your friends to help you pick up the pieces. Hell, sometimes you even make new ones you wouldn't have expected.
TwitterBoom.
We know for a fact that Tim Schafer needs people like Quinn to keep making his games. I'm starting to seriously doubt that Quinn has any real friends... everyone she seems to talk to are all involved in the industry in some way, and people like Schafer have a vested interest to defend her.
By the way, fuck you Tim. You're a hypocrite, and you know it.
One last patronising editor's note later, and I absolutely do not regret doing my best to tear this article to pieces.
While we're on the subject, here's 10 Creepy Comments That Only Women Get on the Internet, a guide to How to Talk to Women (According to the Internet), and 4 Things Learned from the Worst Online Dating Profile Ever.
Editor's Note: If you found this article from another message board and are about to leave a comment that boils down to, "I don't condone the harassment, but let me explain why she deserved it!" please just take a deep breath, step away from your computer, and call your mother. Tell her you love her. Call a friend and ask if they need anything. Go outside, gaze up into the sky, take a deep breath, and really appreciate the fact that you're alive and that you should make the most of it. Thank you.
One last patronising editor's note later, and I absolutely do not regret doing my best to tear this article to pieces.
Quinn has shown, time and time again, that she has no real ground to stand on, and it shows in the article rather rather clearly. She only cites sources that are blatantly on her side, refuses to comment on any of the very real issues surrounding her, and expects us to believe everything she says about being harassed, when everything I have seen, from my side of things, has said simply the opposite.
Once more, I have to voice my absolute disgust with Cracked for allowing this woman to post an article for you. Not only is everything she gave you an outright lie, you outright support her for her doing this sort of thing. Disgusting.
Despite Quinn's claims, The Internet Aristocrat's words ring true here. "We hold all the power." I am no longer going to Cracked, and I expect all of you to do the same. They cannot simply get away with attacking an entire group of people with no ground to stand on. They've pulled exactly this kind of shit before, from the John Cheese incident to Wong's rampant misandry to J.F. Sargant thinking that Shadow was Sonic the Hedgehog, from Bell's ridiculous internet clauses article, to censoring any criticism towards Quinn on their forums... the entire site is a cesspool of shit.
Anyway, I think that's all I have to say about this particular instance. It's all in your hands now. Good luck!
