My Open Letter to Zoe Quinn – Censorship in the Gaming Media
While the subject of this article may seem as 2000-and-late as using the phrase 2000-and-late I’ve been getting more and more into the censorship of the media lately and was just curious about some events.
After posting my article giving my views on #GamerGate, I was shocked to discover that the doxxing, death threats and harassment were not only posted to those on the anti-GamerGate side but also to those on the pro. I was shocked to discover this because there has been relatively little in the mainstream media depicting the harassment of pro-GGrs, a prominent figure being the doxxing and subsequent harassment of GG Feminist, a mere twitter user who jumped into the fray and swiftly jumped out again due to the alarming number of hacks against her.
I would not like to post assumptions here, but there are basically 2 schools of thought as to why this is. The first is that anti-GGers and corruption in the media means that these articles and stories are simply not being published, the other is that the figures being harassed on the pro-GG side just aren’t as famous (infamous) as those on the anti.
I was thinking about this sort of silence in the media when the Zoe Quinn AMA appeared on the GamerGhazi subreddit. I was certainly intrigued by this because other than the post on Cracked I felt that Zoe Quinn hadn’t really been given a voice to stand up to her allegations and I was curious as to what she had to say in her defence. However, when I clicked on it all there was were people pouring out to her, thanking her for making Depression Quest, how much it helped them, and supporting her in her battle against harassment.
I thought it was great that she had found such a supportive space and then I kept reading and found that there weren’t any real questions for her at all. While I respect her wishes not to speak about her ex or any of her sexual relationships, I thought she would enjoy a platform to battle the allegations against her in terms of Wizard-chan, Rebel Jam and the Fine Young Capitalists, but there was none. Now that the wind has sort of died over her and she isn’t receiving 100 death threats a day, I thought she might like somewhere to discuss the allegations said against her, as I feel she hasn’t had to space up until this point.
Not one to make a complaint and do anything about it I decided to post what I believe is a respectful reply to her AMA asking her, her opinion on these three topics. Here is what I wrote
And here is the response from the moderators of GamerGhazi.
I would like to point out that Zoe Quinn likely didn’t even see my questions and has nothing to do with my being banned from the subreddit. I am not used to being censored. GameSided isn’t the biggest website out there, but we staff writers are given the freedom to write pretty much what we please as long as it relates to gaming. I really wasn’t expecting the ban, when people messaged me on Twitter that the questions were probably taken down as harassment I thought it was a joke. Then it happened to me. I did not intend the questions to be leading. I used the phrase “what would you say” to open up discussion on the topic, not to accuse.
Not all of the stuff that came out of this whole Quinnspiracy stuff was all bad. After allegations of her influence through relationships came out there was a cry for more transparency in the media, which is only a good thing. Through a lot of the support from people on the /v/ board of 4chan over $70,000 was donated to support the Fine Young Capitalist’s project to help more women into getting into the development industry. So that’s nice too.
I would still like to give Ms Quinn a chance to stand up for herself. While she probably will never read this I would like to address her personally. Ms. Quinn, please believe me when I say that I mean no harassment or offence, but if you would like, would you please answer my questions. I would love to hear your side of these stories which so far has not been told.
I would also like to open the floor to anyone who has been doxxed/threatened/banned/censored to give their side of the story. Please comment below, I’d love to give you all a platform.
The views expressed in this article explicitly belong to the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of, nor should be attributed to, GameSided as an organization.
EDIT: Zoe has responded to the question about the Fine Young Capitalists. You can see her response here https://storify.com/TheQuinnspiracy/tfyc-truth-finally-comes-out
We are yet to hear on the other two subjects.