Timeline/August

Note: Dates are generally approximate. Gamergate is a worldwide scandal.



09 Aug 2014

 * Youtube group Chershire Cat Studios releases a video podcast discussing the history and present state of media scares and moral panics about video games. Earlier controversies about video game violence are covered, and the podcast also charts the emergence of the controversy about over sexism in video games, which has appeared in recent years. CCS had previously covered the role of gaming journalism in promoting the trend.

16 Aug 2014
The Zoe Post


 * Programmer Eron Gjoni publishes the Zoe Post:
 * The long post outlines Eron's breakup with a game developer called Zoe Quinn. In the post, Eron outlines that Zoe displayed what others would later note was a general pattern of abuse against him -- actions in contrast with her public persona as a social activist in the indie game development scene. The post also reveals that, throughout their relationship, Quinn had had affairs with several prominent individuals in the games industry. Of particular interest to members of the gaming community, the post revealed that Quinn had an affair with games journalist Nathan Grayson, who is noted to write for Kotaku—one of the largest game news websites in the world.
 * Though it is not mentioned in Gjoni's post, Nathan Grayson gave Quinn's game, Depression Quest, special attention in a Rock Paper Shotgun article he wrote on 8 January 2014. The game was mentioned as a highlight in the group of 50 games, and was given top billing in the form of being the headline image. Grayson also interviewed Quinn on a Rock Paper Shotgun video blog uploaded on 22 March. After moving to Kotaku, Grayson wrote about Quinn yet again on 31 March 2014, in which he mentioned her role in a failed game jam TV show and mentioned her interest in starting her own jam.


 * Eron first posts his revelations about Zoe Quinn in the somethingawful.com and Penny Arcade forums. The threads are swiftly deleted.


 * Eron subsequently begins publishing his revelations on a wordpress blog. (1)


 * A fellow somethingawful.com forum poster informs Quinn of the existence of Eron's post via twitter. (AT)


 * Approximately 6 hours after the first forum posts, the first imageboard threads discussing Eron's post appear on 4chan. Archived Versions: (1), (2), (3). There is little consensus among the anonymous posters. These threads are also deleted.

17 Aug 2014

 * Youtuber MundaneMatt releases a video discussing Eron's post, highlighting the hypocrisy in games journalism, and questioning the ethics and integrity of some in the games industry.


 * Zoe Quinn issues a Digital Millenium Copyright Act takedown notice on Mundane Matt's video, alleging copyright infringement due to the use of a static screenshot(DMCA notice). The video is taken down by Google. (The DMCA order would later be released on ~Aug 21st)


 * Threads appear in The Escapist Magazine forums discussing the controversy Thread. &#91;AT&#93;. Posting is subject to very heavy moderation.


 * Indie game Developer Phil Fish, of Polytron, makes tweets castigating gamers who are investigating the scandal, calling them among other things "witless manchildren". He also announces that Polytron is cancelling several projects, most likely the game Fez 2. (1)(2) (3). This is not the first time Fish has threatened to cancel the project. Quinn had previously worked on QA for Phil's game Fez.


 * After a long buildup discussing problems in the current "cliquey" "indie game royalty" scene, game designer Wolf Wozniak(@Ouren) alleges that he was sexually harassed by Zoe Quinn. He is castigated by twitter users including Phil Fish, backs down, and later deletes his tweets.


 * TFYC (The Fine Young Capitalists) alleged doxxing and harassment which their feminist production received from Zoe Quinn, in a Reddit thread discussing Quinn's earlier harassment allegations against Wizardchan. The company was later unable to get press or coverage in games media for its game jam, due to Quinn's influence and unfavorable view of the project. The project was to make a game based on the ideas of a female designer, with an internet vote deciding which woman's idea would be made into a game.


 * Female game developer "KC Vidya Rants", publishes a tumblr post on the scandal, accusing Quinn of hypocricy, of having set back women in gaming, and of having creating "a negative image for all current and future female game devs with her actions". KC Vidya is later misidentified as male by VICE.com, and has her Disqus account deleted by VICE.

18 Aug 2014



 * Youtuber InternetAristocrat (who had an already-existing peeve against game journalism since 2010 on his old channel MidLifeJim ) releases a video discussing the ongoing fallout from Eron's post, and its implications for the state of games journalism. The video also discusses the suppression of the TFYC scandal on game news sites.


 * The #BurgersandFries public IRC chatroom is created for discussion of the rapidly emerging events. The first recorded logs begin on 18 Aug 2014.


 * Female game developer "KC Vidya rants" publishes another Tumblr post on the scandal and the ongoing censorship.


 * Prominent Youtube video game critic and commentator John Bain—better known by his handle TotalBiscuit—makes a twitlonger post discussing the Quinn scandal, criticizing the use of DMCA requests to take down critical work and mentions that "Games journalism as a whole has a massive nepotism problem, encouraged by the publishers and developers and actively partaken in by many outlets.". He also notes the confusion and already intense debate surrounding the scandal. &#91;TW&#93; &#91;AT&#93;

19 Aug 2014
Enter the Streisand Effect


 * UK based gaming website GamesNosh is one of the first sites to publish an article reporting on the scandal. Their webhost subsequently blocks the article and asks them to remove it completely,. Gamers resort to viewing the article on The Wayback Machine. Zoe Quinn then asks for contact information and also asked them to remove it from the archives, resulting in the removal of the page from the archive. The article was later restored.

Censorship on Reddit


 * TotalBiscuit's twitlonger post is submitted on Reddit to the /r/gaming subreddit forum. To prevent discussion, /r/gaming moderators end up deleting almost 25,000 comments in the thread. One of the /r/Gaming moderators was revealed to have been in contact with Quinn. The same moderator stated that the mass deletions were to prevent "doxxing".


 * Gamers unable to speak in /r/gaming flood into related subreddits such as /r/games, which have also been deleting comments.


 * The moderator XavierMendel of /r/Games was later removed from their position for resisting the extensive censorship taking place on reddit, and gave an audio interview audio interview, and made two written accounts detailing the heavy censorship of the scandal which took place in the /r/Games subreddit alone between Aug 18th to the 22nd, including manual and automatic deletions, and shadowbanning of users. 1, 2.

GameJournoPros and The Escapist Forums
 * Most major gaming websites such as NeoGAF, and the Gamespot forums heavily moderate, edit, delete, and censor discussion of the controversy. 4chan /v/ mods are allegedly also deleting some threads. The Escapist remains one of the few major websites still permitting open discussion of the controversy.


 * GameJournoPros: It is later revealed in one of the GameJournoPro Email List Leaks that the Escapist's Editor Greg Tito was put under considerable pressure to shut down the Escapist forum discussion by other members of the secret mailing list, including Ben Kuchera of Polygon, and Kyle Orland of Ars Technica.

4chan's /v/ board
 * The other major gaming website where discussion of the topic is still quasi-permitted is the video games, or "/v/" board on the anonymous imageboard site 4chan. Despite thread deletions, discussion takes places owing to the sheer volume of gamers making new threads.


 * Zoe Quinn's tumblr and twitter accounts are allegedly hacked and her information doxxed by "4CHAN.ORG/V/". Members of the 4chan /v/ board are immediately skeptical, not least due to the uncharacteristic use of a capitalized /V/ to describe the board. Investigation shows the posted information to be unrelated to Quinn. The incident is viewed with skepticism by posters on /v/ and elsewhere. 4chan thread archives of incident 1, 2.


 * Steam users are reportedly being banned from the depression quest forums after critiquing depression quest. The bans are given for "abuse".

20 Aug 2014

 * Technology website TechRaptor publishes an article on the scandal, its implications for practices in the games industry, and the huge ongoing censorship of gamers trying to discuss these issues.


 * The Editor of Kotaku, Stephen Totilo issues a statement, saying that neither he nor the leadership team has found compelling evidence that Nathan Grayson was trading sex for positive coverage in the case of Zoe Quinn, while also confirming that a romantic relationship had occurred. Totilo states that he believes no breaches of ethics occurred in regards to an accusation that Grayson was trading sex for favorable reviews and no further action need be taken. Totilo had earlier made a series of tweets on this event. &#91;TW&#93;


 * TotalBiscuit reveals that he has been called a "misogynist" and "nazi" for making his previous statements &#91;TW&#93;


 * Youtube comedian and game critic Jon Jafari—better known as "JonTron"—tweets about his earlier encounter with Zoe Quinn during the failed Polaris GAME_JAM in March, and on the current concerns about journalism, and the behavior of social justice proponents. After linking to a NSFW satirical comic series on the scandal, also featuring himself and Phil Fish, Jontron receives a barrage of criticism.


 * It is revealed that Quinn's game Depression Quest was one of the selections for IndieCade's Night Games event, of which holding the main Curator chair is Robin Arnott, one of the people Eron alleges Quinn had an affair with.


 * NeoGAF forum owner Tyler Malka creates a thread mocking the emails he has received from users complaining about the censorship of the controversy on the NeoGAF forums

21 Aug 2014

 * Independent gaming website Niche Gamer publish an article on ongoing events, covering the corruption and hypocricy among games journalists, the heavy handed censorship of gamers, and the damage being done to gaming by nepotism and agenda-pushing.


 * The Fine Young Capitalists (TFYC), a gamejam dedicated to helping women get into the gaming industry, posts an interview video describing how Zoe Quinn tried to shut down their project and how one of her associates doxxed one of their members, which lead to their project almost shutting down completely.


 * The /pol/ and /v/ 4chan boards propose donating to help fund TFYC's feminist gamejam. Over the next few days, 4chan would help raise more than $23,000 for TFYC.


 * The website Internet Outrage Database publishes an article covering the extensive abuse and vitriol received by Youtubers TotalBiscuit, JonTron and BroTeam for speaking publicly about the scandal.

The Polytron Hack
 * Phil Fish's company Polytron is hacked. The front page is defaced by someone claiming to be "the head mod over at /V/ and leader of 4chan.org and Anonymous", and a link to a large data file dump containing Polytron data is placed on it. Phil Fish annouces this, on twitter, and also announces that he is leaving video game development and putting the company and Fez 2 up for sale. His twitter is subsequently locked. Image of tweets. | Article on incident | Reddit Thread | Adam Sessler "live" tweets. The place Sessler was taking that picture at is Vesuvio Cafe - a bar in San Francisco where Sessler is a regular patron both prior to and after this even. The man sitting by the Macbook browsing a 4chan thread is identified to be Alex Lifschitz.


 * Questions remain unanswered about the hacking. 4chan /v/ posters were again skeptical over a second use of an uncharacteristic capitalized /V/, and posters who later analyzed the incident discovered that the Polytron's Cloudfare server was extremely difficult to hack, and analysis of the linked data suggested it had been created from files on a portable drive, not a webserver, almost 5 hours prior to Polytron's webpage being defaced. 4chan thread archives: 1, 2, 3


 * The leaked data would later become a basis for investigations into the IGF.

22 Aug 2014



 * TFYC publishes a 4chan requested video on great female developers. The video charts the career and influence of Roberta Williams, the pioneering Sierra developer behind the games Mystery House and King's Quest

Vivian James


 * 4chan donates enough money to TFYC to unlock the reward allowing them to create a character for use in their game, resulting in the creation of Vivian James. The female gamer character is designed with input from 4chan users, and will appear the upcoming TFYC game 4chan posters are now helping to fund. Vivian James later becomes one of the major memes in the #Gamergate scandal.


 * Under the penname Gabriel Knight, A female game developer publishes an anonymous account of the Culture of Intimidation in the Indie Game Dev-Journalism Scene. The article alleges suppression of the ongoing scandal and general climate of intolerance and cronyism in the indie game development industry. (AT)


 * Youtuber Karen Straughan appears on the Honey Badger Radio discussing the ongoing scandal and the surrounding censorship : "Discussing Zoe Quinn and Feminist Mean Girls"


 * Youtuber InternetAristocrat releases a second video on the controversy, discussing the among games journalists and websites, contrasted with the intense interest among gamers. The video also contrasts the journalists omertà with their earlier frenzies over Max Temkin, and David Jaffe, and discusses the Patreon donations made by various journalists to Quinn, and the Polaris GAME_JAM controversy.

23 Aug 2014



 * Extensive censorship and shadow-banning of gamers continues on Reddit.


 * Polygon Editor Ben Kuchera is revealed to have been donating to Zoe Quinn's Patreon fund since Jan 2014. Kuchera wrote a positive article in Polygon in May about Quinn based on her alleged online harassment by WizardChan in Dec 2013, which lead to her game being green-lighted on Steam.

24 Aug 2014
TFYC IndieGoGo page hacked


 * The Fine Young Capitalists' (TFYC) indiegogo gamejam page is hacked and changed to appear as if the campaign has been "closed". The defacement addresses the capitalized "/V/". The account was hacked due to someone guessing TFYC's password. TFYC later restored their page and announced that no money was lost as a result of the hacking. Article on Incident. 4chan Thread Archive


 * Youtuber MundaneMatt is interviewed by Youtuber ReviewTechUSA, discussing events of the previous week, the DMCA takedown of his video, the emerging scandal surrounding Eron's post, the code of silence surrounding it, and Phil Fish's involvement.


 * Wolf Wozniak PAX Passes - http://i.imgur.com/cr6tfHr.jpg


 * Eron Gjoni, author of the original Zoe Quinn post, writes a long blog post about the events of the previous week. Gjoni also interviewed in the #burgersandfries IRC channel.


 * The KotakuInAction subreddit is created to avoid the ongoing censorship in other gaming subreddits. Reddit admin disruption and down-voting brigades remain a constant problem for the subreddit over the coming months.

More game journalism ethical breaches found
 * Despite their editor's previous statements, Kotaku is revealed to be breaking their own ethics policy. Kotaku Journalist Patricia Hernandez had written multiple stories about a games developer who is her close personal friend.


 * It is revealed that Kotaku writer Nathan Grayson is friends with game developer Robin Arnott. Grayson gave Arnott's game Soundself a glowing review in Kotaku. Grayson also promoted Arnott's work several times on Kotaku    during 2014, sometimes receiving an abnormal amount of coverage. At no point in his coverage did Grayson recuse himself or disclose his friendship with Arnott.


 * Polygon game journalist Danielle Riendeau is revealed to have appeared together with Gone Home score composer and good friend Chris Remo appear on an IdleThumbs podcast, one week before Riendaeu gave Gone Home a 10/10 review on Polygon.


 * More Conflict of Interest, developer promotion: http://imgur.com/a/x0NpT

25 Aug 2014

 * A short video is made covering the harassment and DDoSing that The Fine Young Capitalists TFYC experienced after their encounter with Zoe Quinn.


 * Journalist Devin Faraci, writer for badassdigest, tweets that Quinn's detractors were worse than ISIS. It is only one example of insults directed at gamers over the course of the scandal.


 * A thread is started in the /r/games subreddit of detailing conflicts of interest in published articles at Kotaku and Polygon.


 * In the middle of the ongoing furore, Feminist Frequency release their latest Tropes vs Women video. The video makes claims that several popular video game titles sexually objectify women, and even promote necrophilia. Over selected clips, the video claims that the games use exotic dancer, prostitutes, and even "mutilated eroticized female bodies";, to "sexually arouse straight male viewers". The video claims that several AAA games "capitalize on scenes of sexual violence [..] gleefully".


 * Gamers note that almost all the videos clips were taken out of context and it is later shown that have completely misrepresented the games shown. However almost all major game news sites heap praise on the new video. With games sites now censoring most discussion, gamers are unable to discuss the issue on most sites.

26 Aug 2014



 * Information surfaces that Kotaku writer Patricia Hernandez covered Drink and The Hunt for Gay Planet, which were games developed by her friend Anna Anthropy. Hernandez and Anthropy had been roommates for several months and shared a close friendship that was not disclosed in Hernandez's coverage.


 * In response to earlier revelations Kotaku editor Stephen Totilo releases a statement on their stance towards Patreon donations from writers to Developers, which Kotaku now regards as a conflict of interest which it is now "nixing".




 * After some pressure, Polygon editor in chief Chris Grant also releases a statement, saying they have asked all staff to disclose any Patreon contribution they have made to developers. Polygon did not state that it found such donations constituted a conflict of interest. Polygon also stated that articles would be retroactively updated to note such contributions, and that notices of such updates would be given. As of, 23 Nov 2014, no notices of any such updates have been made.


 * Hollywood writer and director Joss Whedon tweets in praise of Feminist Frequency's video(TS)(AT), saying that he has just seen "bunch of women get sliced up in video games". Whedon himself has previous stated that he does not play video games.


 * A blogger publishes an article contrasting Anita Sarkeesian's claims with those of Jack Thompson. The demonization of gamers as misogyists is decried, and the use of "culture of intimidation" being used to silence critics of gamer demonization is discussed.

27 Aug 2014
Creation of the #Gamergate hashtag


 * Hollywood actor Adam Baldwin coins the hashtag "#Gamergate" in a tweet linking to Internet Aristocrat's video. The scandal now has a name.


 * Baldwin later explains that the tag was a reference to the Watergate scandal, and the usual -gate suffix attached to scandals in the US.

Gamers' consumer emails proposed


 * The first 4chan post is made proposing the idea that will eventually become Operation Disrespectful Nod, gamers' consumer email campaign to advertising sponsors of corrupt websites.


 * The twitter user @MissAngerist, who had previously criticized TFYC for accepting donations from 4chan's /v/, makes a twitlonger post admitting that she had been unfair to 4chan and that she had subsequently learned how the TFYC feminist project was almost shutdown by Zoe Quinn. She also discusses how a lot of harassment around the issue is coming from the social justice side. &#91;TW&#93;

Feminist Frequency Tweets 


 * Feminist Frequency's Anita Sarkeesian receives twitter death threats from an "@kdobbsz" twitter user, and tweets that she has received them on the Feminist Frequency twitter account. She later tweets that she has notified authorites and is leaving her home. Some hours later, she posts a screenshot of the tweets. Twitter timeline (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6).


 * Polygon's sister site Verge is quick to tie the threats into the ongoing scandal between gamers and games journalists resulting from Eron Gjoni's post. Sarkeesian's threats will later be conflated with the ongoing scandal in the "Gamers are Dead" article barrage.


 * The first mention of the tweets only appears on 4chan over 12 hours after the incident.

28 Aug 2014
The "Gamers are Dead" articles


 * The "Gamers are Dead" articles - A blitz of anti-gamer articles begins to hit the web from various games journalist sites. Articles originate from a variety of sources including, but not limited, to Gamasutra, Destructoid, Kotaku, RockPaperShotgun, ArsTechnica, Vice, Buzzfeed, The Daily Beast, and Dr. Nerdlove.
 * 'Gamers' don't have to be your audience. 'Gamers' are over. Exclusive - Leigh Alexander of Gamasutra (28th Aug)
 * A Guide to Ending "Gamers" - Devin Wilson of Gamasutra (28th Aug)
 * We Might Be Witnessing The 'Death of An Identity' - Luke Plunkett of Kotaku (28th Aug)
 * An awful week to care about video games - Chris Plante, Polygon (28th Aug)
 * The Monday Papers - Graham Smith, Rock Paper Shotgun (1st Sep)
 * The End of Gamers - Dan Golding, Director of Freeplay Independent Games Festival (28th Aug)
 * The death of the “gamers” and the women who “killed” them - Casey Johnson of Ars Technica (28th Aug)
 * It's Dangerous to Go Alone: Why Are Gamers So Angry? - Arthur Chu, The Daily Beast (28th Aug)
 * Gaming Is Leaving “Gamers” Behind - Joseph Bernstein, Buzzfeed (28th Aug)
 * Sexism, Misogyny, and online attacks: It's a horrible time to consider yourself a gamer - Patrick O'Rourke, Financial Post (28th Aug)
 * The Independent Game Developers Association (IGDA), also releases a "Statement on Harassment" - IGDA Board of Directors

GameJournoPros : The articles constitutes a massive smear campaign by the online games media on the worldwide gaming community. Many of the articles explicitly tie the previous scandal stemming from Eron Gjoni's revelations into the recent threats faced by Anita Sarkeesian. Editorial collusion between games websites in the creation of this narrative is heavily suspected. These suspicions are later validated by the UK journalist Milo Yiannopoulos' exposure of the secretive GameJournoPros mailing list..


 * Evidence later emerges that the "death of gamers" had already been in planning for over a year among games journalism and social justice cliques.
 * Other articles released on Aug 28th:
 * Misogynistic trolls drive feminist video game critic from her home - Callie Beusman, Jezebel
 * A disheartening account of the harassment going on in gaming right now (and how Adam Baldwin is involved) - Victoria McNally, The Mary Sue
 * Feminist video bloggers driven from home by death threats - Jack Smith IV, BetaBeat
 * Anita Sarkeesian threatened with rape and murder for daring to keep critiquing video games - Anna Minard, The Stranger
 * Fanboys, white knights, and the hairball of online misogyny - Tauriq Moosa, The Daily Beast

Gamers Respond


 * In response to these articles, the #Gamergate hashtag explodes on Twitter over the coming days as gamers object to the slander and stereotyping of the gaming community by unethical journalists.


 * Youtuber MundaneMatt releases a video response to the ongoing onslaught of attack articles by journalists on gamers, stating that the gamer identity is is alive and well, and that it is the behaviour and attitudes of game journalists that have let down gaming.


 * Gamers' efforts to organize email campaigns to advertising sponsors intensify - markdownshare, screenshot, web.archive (30th Sep), &#91;AT&#93;, http://i.imgur.com/ZJ0nDpt.jpg

29th Aug 2014



 * A Co-Optional Podcast roundtable with TotalBiscuit, PressHeartToContinue, JesseCox, and Jontron, discuss how difficult it has been to have a discussion about recent events. Also discussed is the problem of Twitter and blog mobbing as an impediment to civil discussion, constructive criticism, and discussions of sexism.


 * Second wave Feminist scholar Christina H. Sommers makes a tweet on how gamers are not political, and are not hurting anyone. Sommers later notes that are being bullied by gender-war opportunists, and are no longer being defended by their own press. Her tweets prompt an insightful comment from twitter user @macdatmurphy, which is well recieved by gamers.


 * Gamers continue to discuss the recent attack articles and surrounding issue at the few sites still permitting discussion. Many gamers suspect orchestration and shutdown of criticism by games journalists. Suggestions of collusion similar to Ezra Klein's main-stream media JournoList scandal are made, and will later be vindicated by the discovery of the GameJournoPros secret email list.


 * Return of Kings posts an article questioning whether the death threats sent against Anita Sarkeesian were fabricated (AT). While the sentiment is held among many, users on 4chan's /pol/ board had previously verified that the threatening tweets were sent prior to Feminist Frequencies first tweet

30 Aug 2014

 * Independent gaming website Gamesnosh publish an article on the fallout from the "Gamers are Dead" attack pieces, referring to events using the term "#Gamergate".


 * The General Manager of The Escapist, Alexander "Archon" Macris makes a statment that their website will continue to use the word "gamer", and support gamer culture. The post also affirms the the Escapist's commitment to journalistic integrity.


 * The technology website TechRaptor, one of the few independent websites covering the scandal, is temporarily taken down after their webhost deletes their IP without explanation. Techraptor's main Reddit account and subreddit are also banned, but it is later claimed that the bans were unrelated to their involvement in #GamerGate. Techraptor receives a tweet telling them to "Get on the right side of history".


 * Youtuber MundaneMatt releases a video questioning Leigh Alexander's professional conflicts of interest in writing for Gamasutra, while also working for a private games PR consulting agency.


 * Youtuber InternetAristocrat releases the third video, covering the earlier denial and censorship of the games press, in contrast to the ballooning nature of the scandal and gamers' intense discussions. The escalation to derision of gamers culminating the in the "Gamers are Dead" article is noted. The connections of many individuals involved to the PR company Silverstring Media are also discussed.


 * Leigh Alexander calls Adam Baldwin a "washed up crackhead" on twitter.


 * A former co-worker of Maya Felix Kramer (aka @legobutts) of SilverString Media, alleges that Kramer exhibited a history of workplace bullying and career sabotage, as against TFYC.

31 Aug 2014



 * Youtuber LEOPirate releases a video, covering recent events, discussing journalists corrupt efforts to smear the gamer identity, and urging gamers not to support corrupt sites. The video also covers how gamers have raised over $20,000 to date for a feminist game jam.


 * Youtuber Boogie2988 makes a post on 4chan's /v/ board and supports gamergate


 * Niche Gamer publishes an editorial criticizing the viewpoints of many of the games journalists currently attacking gaming, particularly their assertions that "fun" should not be an important part of video games.