Chloe Sagal

About

Chloe Sagal was an American video game developer and artist. The creator of the video game Homesick (later renamed "Project: The game formerly known as Homesick"), Sagal suffered from various mental health issues. Due to a controversial crowd-funding campaign for gender alteration surgery, she was the target of various forms of online harassment, particularly from the users of the website Kiwi Farms. Sagal committed suicide in June 2018. She was 31.

Online History

Homesick

On November 22nd, 2012, Sagal released the video game Homesick, a murder-mystery horror game, in which players attempt to catch a killer.^[1][2]

Indiegogo Campaign

In April 2013, Sagal launched a Indiegogo^[4] campaign for a medical procedure to remove shrapnel left over from a near-fatal car accident. Sagal wrote:

"A few years ago I was involved in a near fatal car accident. The doctors patched me up and I thankfully survived.

"However, several months ago, an object turned up on an x ray. The identity of the object is unknown, the only certainty is that the object is metallic, and it presumably was missed or left during the removal of the other foreign objects. Since the object is metallic, it is causing me to suffer from Metal Poisoning, a particularly nasty thing to get, as it makes me prone to illness, weakness, involuntary twitching, etc. I'm also more than likely going to suffer permanent brain damage (if I haven't already) if the object is not removed. Eventually it will kill me; at this point in time, my doctor gave me a few years before I had to remove the object."

Within days, she raised her $35,000 goal. However, after successful financing the surgery, Indiegogo shut down the campaing, citing "suspicious activity."

On April 9th, 2013, Eurogamer^[5] reported that Indiegogo had shutdown the campaign because Sagal, allegedly, was not planning on using the money for the shrapnel surgery but rather gender alteration surgery. The news made Sagal a target for the users of the website Kiwi Farms, who reportedly harassed her on various platforms.^[6][7]

The harassment followed her throughout her life. Friends say that the issue worsened as Sagal's her mental health issues went untreated. When they she post on Facebook about suicide, Kiwi Farms harassers would allegedly report her Facebook page, one friend recounts. They said, "One factor that made it much harder for her to get help was that whenever she talked about suicide, [they] would report her Facebook page and get it locked down. This had happened multiple times in the month prior to her death."^[8]

Suicide

On June 21st, 2018, Sagal committed suicide by self immolation in a park in Portland, Oregon. It is believed that her suicide was an act of political protest. In a note to friends, she wrote:

"My death cannot be silent. It has to be loud and political. My entire life, my experience, my education has led up to this moment. I can only expect trauma and death from my existence."

In a thread on Kiwi Farms, one poster argued that they should not be blamed for her death. They wrote:^[8][9]

"I mean, that isn’t really an indication that we didn’t do it--it’s not like something in (sic) she read in the thread a year or two ago couldn’t have lead (sic) to this. Not that it matters, or anything. Someone who really wants to kill themselves is going to do it eventually, nothing you can really do about it."

Criticism

Zinnia Jones, a trans activist, accused Sagal of harassment, including death threats. On August 21st, 2016, Jones tweeted a message from Sagal in which she threatens Jones. Jones wrote,^[10] "I feel like when I get a death threat it's probably a good idea to save it for the record. Here's one from just now." The post (shown below) received more than 50 retweets and 80 likes.

Search Interest

External References