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About

Zoë Quinn is an indie game developer involved in an online controversy surrounding her alleged affair with a number of men working in the video game industry, including a staff writer at the Gawker-affiliated video game news site Kotaku, supposedly in exchange for publicity for her and her 2014 text-based indie game Depression Quest. In August 2014, the scandal came into public's light when Eron Gjoni, her now-former boyfriend, chronicled the details of her affairs in an expose blog post, which prompted online discussions regarding the validity of Gjoni's claim and ethics in video game journalism at large, which subsequently spawned the GamerGate movement. Due to the scandal's online amplification in reaction to perceived media suppression, the event has been cited as an example of the "Streisand Effect".

Online History

On December 4th, 2013, Quinn submitted her game Depression Quest to Steam Greenlight[1] to be selected for release on the software distribution service. On December 12th, Quinn (@Quinnspiracy) posted several tweets complaining about harassment she had allegedly received for placing the game on Greenlight, specifically from the *chan board Wizardchan.[2] On August 11th, 2014 the game was released on Steam.[3]

Depression Quest Depression Quest is an interactive fiction game where you play as someone living with depression. You are given a series of everyday life events and have to attempt to manage your illness, relationships, job, and possible treatment. This game aims to show other sufferers of depression that they are not alone in their feelings, and to illustrate to people who may not understand the illness the depths of what it can do to people. Since the goal is to spread awareness, there is no minumum amount you need to pay to play the game. However, if you do choose to pay the developers for their efforts, a portion of the proceeds will be donated to iFred, a charity that aims to fight back against depression and the stigma against it. BEST ,此ATEGORY, IONORABLRY MNARRATIVE WINNER MENTION V Beston R Pay lhat Lou lanorPlay for Free (if the link is giving you problems feel free to paypal zoetquinn (at) gmail.com instead)

Note: click on the image to visit the website and play the game

On August 16th, Quinn's ex boyfriend Eron Gjoni launched a Wordpress blog[4] titled "The Zoe Post," featuring screenshots and pictures providing evidence that Quinn cheated on him with five different men, including her boss Joshua Boggs and video game journalist Nathan Grayson, who writes for Kotaku and Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Gjoni later released a video proving his chat-logs were authentic.[30]

I dated Zoe Quinn. I thought she was the most amazing, kind hearted person in the world. Turns out she was bullshitting pretty much everything I fell in love with her for, and is actually an unbelievable jerk. She effortlessly lied to and iuan!pulaisyril ini: i ()ni.hs si plytjecause i; was n(尤believalile i.hai. someone could be that selfish of a person, that convincing of a liar, and that good of a manipulator, while adamantly arguing against the very principles she espoused. Here's some stuff she did / does in no particular order or tense (which you can verify using the chatlog images in the footer of Act 11

Note: click on the image to read the original post in full-length

Notable Developments

Online Reaction

On August 17th, Redditor MannoSlimmins submitted a series of screenshots to provide evidence that Quinn faked being harassed by Wizardchan users to garner support for her game to the /r/TumblrInAction[6] subreddit. The same day, Tumblr[7] user KC-Vidya-Rants published a blog post denouncing Quinn for using Robin Williams' suicide to promote her game and faking harassment for sympathy. In the first 48 hours, the post gained over 940 notes. Meanwhile, Escapist Magazine Forums[5] member Rebant submitted a thread about the scandal, which criticized Quinn's behavior and video game blogs for ignoring the story. Later, on August 20th JonTron made multiple tweets about Zoe which garnered attention around Twitter.

JonTron @Jon TronShow ! 『net /oe Quinn back during Girne Jarn and I can say she is nothing io start an internet controversy over lol. JonTron @Jon TronShow Also no, i:hai is not a (ornplimeni. JonTron @Jon TronShow Objectively though I can see the argument people have about keeping journalisn ad op ery vl complainis. keeping open. Very valiad complaintsove Jon Tron @JonTronShow Totalbiscuit It's not social justice if you yourself become the new bully. Expand

Wizardchan Counterclaim

Prior to the release of Quinn's game, on April 11th, 2014, Wizardchan, the site Quinn said she had allegedly received harassment from for placing the game on Greenlight in December 2013, counterclaimed that they did not doxx her in a series of images that conveys their side of the story with a chronological breakdown and an explanation why they didn't target her.[15]

Wizardchan ZoeQuinn what you read what happened Zoe Quinn, author of the game "Depression Quest", recently accused Wizardchan, an imageboard for adult male virgins, of being the source of: a raid, perverted phone calls and harassment all aimed at her, just because of said game presence on Steam Greenlight (a platform for proposing the publication on Steam of one's own game). After denouncing said behavior on twitter, she got the support of some of the most notorious videogames sites and their readerships, along with a boost in fame. Did any of this ACTUALLY happen? Well, hold onto your butts for a long ride I wasn't even golng to sany anything about theTe facked up thing? This was an accepted raid becwase I wanted to laugh and wait for itrisk of putting Depression Quest on to be over. greenlight. The same thing happened last Zoe's screenshots of the imageboard "harassing" her, along with her comments on twitter First, who is Zoe Quinn? Well, she's an indie videogames developer, and she is -mature -loves her audience and peers a "social justice warrior supporter of Anita and Dina liceelt NNOWRIGHT Thot's why Inade a chrome edension a whie back hat changes "ganer to "you ite snits Aner a fan sentme a message aout eeing triogered by he ntert being crany and honte sorsetes been throing at you, sa sarry you hove to go thraugh th Zod SnowButt" Quinn @ PetiteMlistress you too! massive amounts of support<s Santa Zntu 2 Be sure bo vote for 2oeQuinners gane Depression Quest -open to any form of criticismm reenightpage optional and you could dable the dislike censorship, but I'm gonna do it anyway and I'd like to censor them from the start She should've tried to not actually censor people r to not wish for complete censorship then) @ltatoorg i quess rrr, just throa旨head uTBUT and thinks people should be rewarded on what they do instead of who they are Bt just go tuck yourseler f you think that ganes Now, what are the wizards, wizardchan's userbase, like? Well, they're adult male virgins and they are.. -hyperactive, arrogant jerks who don't know what being depressed is like -people who enjoy spending their time harassing other people CLEARLY they are the culprits of such heinous acts, but let's move on... In the real world, an accusation requires some sort of proof by the accusator Of course, on the internet nobody asked Zoe any proof besides those two cropped images, so let's see on our own if there are any The Raid At first, Zoe accused wizardchan, among other things, of raiding her. She never specified if it was her website, e-mail or whatever. What's more curious is. The raid she mentioned at first was never mentioned again in her recollection of the events. Maybe she doesn't know what a raid is, that didn't stop people's a wanrre even gangsa say anyting沚sur-11 because rroed to bugh and wait for t to be over 0uineel Guimsterling so you de berstey go to the nd espect ther to nyphone. Tmats hardy hamiess or ust douchey ConnolBue GinStering they called myphone but thonk you for aesuning nat shautout to the person who warmed ne of wadchan ting anout going ater ne othenvise iwouldve been nore freahed out dy
Wizardchan Zoe QuinnHiea what you read what happened VS The "harassment Here's the meat of the whole thing. First, what was the harassment? Well you've already seen it This was. Apart from the phone calls (which we'll see next), it was this Yes, just this misYwkbme look at that screencap again and guess. Where to even begin? Well, let's start with definitions: Definition of "harassment by the Oxford dictionary: -subject to aggressive pressure or intimidation Definition of "pressure" by the Oxford dictionary the use of persuasion or intimidation to make someone do something Definition of "intimidate" by the Oxford dictionary -frighten or overawe (someone), especially in order to make them do what one wants In other words, to harass someone you have to be in the presence of or communicate with) the person in question. The two posts in question were posted on wizardchan, away from the places Zoe frequents, where it is even forbidden to post if you're a female. They did not initiate any contact with her on the internet But wait! Those two posts clearly said they wanted to send her e-mails Yes. Did they actually sent them? No. How do I know that? Because Zoe NEVER MENTIONED THEM, not even in passing. She didn't mention ANY kind of attack via mail, or any other form of contact other than phone It was >Implied at best. She mentioned some kind of raid ONCE, but that mysteriously vanished in her descriptions like I said before Simply put: that WAS NOT harassment. That, of course, didn't matter to some of the people who supports her Even the posts alone count as harassment for them. Apparently you can't say anything bad about a person or a demographic, anywhere, unless it's on their own terms (because you can bet your ass they insulted wizards, even about their virginity, dragging in other adult male virgins unrelated to the site. So insulting people for their gender is a no, insulting them for their sexual activity or lack thereof is OK). In other words: fascists. -Insulting females for being females is a really bad thing to do, though. But why should the whole community pay? Please notice that she cropped TWO POSTS from a thread of more than ten (now deleted), which means she held a whole site responsible for the mean posts of ONLY TWO ANONYMOUS GUYS. For what she knew, they could have been trolls trying to stir up s---. It's not like the whole site supports misogyny nor it is only frequented by people who hate or dislike womern Yes, there are some people there who do hate women, but they shouldn't represent the community as a whole Want further proof of what Zoe considers harassment? Here it is Then you pei out the haassed card htsgoing to everything beter? m huting uess youne a happy This comment is ridicolous. Wizchan isn't a videogames community, there isn't a board exclusively about them, and it sure as hell isn't some kind of videogame. Whatever happens in there is not "in games". For what she knows, the two guys never played another game in their life. This case can't show or support a trend in the videogames community nor in their content. Let's move on to The phone calls: According to Zoe, wizards got her phone number, called her and, once she responded, jerked off while she was listening. Admittedly it's hard to get tangible proofs of such a thing (not that she gave any) However, some things don't add up She, somehow, knew for sure it was some wizards' doing (as she say so in the tweets above). The strange thing? Apparently, according to Zoe She got what could arguably be considered worse constantly, to the point she considered it normal, even about DQ (before wizchan's posts). If so, how can she be so sure it was someone from wizchan to make the calls? It even happened days after the last insulting post on the board, and the other threats happened all before the whole thing with wizchan started. Yet she has no doubts about the culprits. Lemme show you this too The first tweet is, simply, a blatant lie. Any 5 sec research on the net about controversies on feminism in videogames will prove it. Yet, as the other weets above show, she firmly believes that. Does she have a persecution complex? Maybe. Or maybe... maybe she's just trying to get attention out of pity. Maybe she knows she's lying, but doesn't care as long as people will support her and what she does. Is it possible then... is it possible that this whole controversy was...made up? CONTINUES
Wizardchan Zoe Quinn NO REST FOR what you read what happened THE VIRGINS PART TROIS VS But she wouldn't have any reasons to do so! She herself debunked all Zoe said a lot of things and a lot of lies. Let's see them all SHE SAID BUT THEN (she's clearly u Zo "SnowBut Quinn Fell e tomasshlstrom Can I offer a free option and a paid option? (talking about DQ of course) (all those players liked it so much the game What about the other side? How did the wizards react? he peopls calling toer? what? where? bing m bh Id ba depressed too ETwas as and to ifs up to a judge, and no judge or jury mh , wild cal that harassrmere read a book dv accuse her of mailing bu there's no wvidence she got harsssed andher game is Accusing someone of being an Accusing someone of being a perverted criminal Sure, why not Asking for proofroom blanng. F--- the whole nocent unbil proven guity" s---. Maybe Jumbo should do more nquisitions on how the law works and ss on pork chops ove & emp CLEARLY THE CULPRITS THESE guys are the average wizard, not the mysogynist ones. Not that you'd know, seeing as how everyone tries to make strawvirginmen out of them. One question remains: how did Zoe know about that thread on wizchan? Did she make it herself? Was she a habitual lurker? Maybe... but things Who would do such a thing? Why? Well This is a post from the forums of the CWCwiki, a site dedicated to the perpetual stalking of Chris-chan, a been "trolling wizardchan for quite some time. Yes, there are people out there who like to spend a good portion of their time pissing off anonymous people they'll never know or meet. Ignoring the irony of someone with this hobby" calling other people "wastes of life", you can see "who" did that and "why. It may not necessarily be that particular user but many others on those forums share his sentiment, so all evidence suggests it was an user from there. Zoe gladfully took the bait hook, line and sinker In light of all this... .how did things really go? You'll know it in the shocking, bone-shattering finale of this epicforthewin sagal g manchild. They also have CONTINUES IN THE FINAL EPISODE
Wizardchan Zoe Quinn what you read what happened VS THE END IS THE BEGINNING So, here's how things probably went: some frustrated guy from the CWCwiki forums decided linked to Zoe a thread on wizardchan about her game with 2 mean posts in it (that he probably wrote himself) Zoe at the time was unsatisfied with the lack of attention she had she thought she and her games deserved more recognition and notoriety, but didn't know how to get them. Her game "Depression Quest" didn't make the cut for Steam Greenlight to boot, and that was a hard blow since it could've brought her the fame she desired to create a shitstorm, soh So,when she saw the posts, she saw the perfect opportunity to get what she wanted: like many before she used those to make up a situation where she was the victim of harassment, hoping to get pity and, by proxy fame and recognition. It was the perfect crime:by claiming of being the victim of harassment that was sexist in nature, she would've got the attention and support of the "social justice warriors", who she knew well and knew they wouldn't have asked neither questions nor proof (by their ogic, a woman tells always the truth while the men lie until proven otherwise, this all hidden under the guise of "victim blaming") The victims? Social outcasts that nobody would ever think of defending, adult male virgins that confined themselves on a board that was "gasp forbidden to females! Why not 4chan? Because its userbase is also composed of females, and its reputation as the "internet hate machine" would have brought dismissive responses from the SJWs. Afterall, that's what 4chan does to ANYBODY, not just females! But the nature of wizardchan allowed her to twist it into an "oppressive males vs defenseless, pure females" war.The posts, however, were too "light" in their offensive nature to enforce the crusade she wanted, so lo and behold! She got harassed by phone too By those very wizards, even though she had no way to tell if they were actually wizards. It's the kind of harassment that can't actually be proved She thought of a raid too at first, but that way she should've given some kind of proof with screencaps or something, so she quickly discarded it 4 hature of wies Madfoot713 6 days ago We're bitter because a young, pretty woman with lots of friends who's depressed gets lots of empathy and shoulders to cry on, while us, as anonymous friendless, kissles virgins, we get called evil and sexist assholes. We don't think someone like Zoe can understand how it feels to be us and she herself has been verbally abusing on her twitter That, of course, was the perfect opportunity for the SJWs to promote their agenda: even if they knew there was something fishy in the story they didn't care, wizchan was the perfect scapegoat for them. So the case of Zoe was published and supported on all the radfeminists sites Giantbomb, Neogaf, Kotaku, Escapist and so on), then people voted her game on Steam Greenlight just to get back at those "pathetic virgins" which was put there a second time just 8 days before her plan was put into motion. Anybody who even dared to question her was met with amazing hostility and leaps of logic, and now here we are Now the game may actually get greenlighted, unless you help http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id-200770535 Mind you, the game isn't even decent, so don't worry. Afterall, how good can a game about "love &empathy& vulnerability" be if it's made by someone who loves nobody but herself, who has no empathy and who is in a position of power which she likes to abuse? In the end, her supporters should listen to her own words Zoë "SnowButt" Quinn Zoe uinnael I also have to say that just because you like someone or ther work, it doesnt mean that they're incapable of abusing someone 18 No THE END These images were made in date 01/02/2014, anything that may appear in a later date in her defense is very likely made up SPECIAL THANKS TO Anita "Hath not a jew a nose? Srksaaksian for giving us the blueprints of how a dishonest "gamergirl acts and talks. Jim Jumbo the zeppelin Sterling for being so comically fat and stupid Dina-Sand in my vagina" Flinstone for proving "gamergits' can get away with murder Mad "Wizard pride world wide" Foot7 13 for fighting the good fight. RIP in peace soldier.:7
What evervone saW Website for Lonely Men Harasses Depression Quest developer harassed for being a Female Game Developer female game developer Female Developer Verbally Abused After Submitting Game to Steam Greenlight Female Game Developers Can't Even Submit A Game lo Greeniight without Receiving Harassment What really happened Anonymage 1 2/1 4/13 (Sat) 04:02:04 No.11095 11097 I really wonder if it was anyone here that harassed her to begin with. I mean, we're pretty passive about everthing And apparently she got people calling her on her phone?I get andety attacks any time I have to call anyone. I cant see anyone here having the balls to do that Anonymage 121 4/13 (Saf) 07:0158 No 111551115 11157 11151 Thanks, it's good to hear that To be honest, we did have a thread about her game. However, I find it weird that she'd call people talking s--- about her or her game, harassment when it was discussed in a place where no one would expect her to see it It's not like we were spamming up her blog with it and being disruptive The phone calls and whatnot, I can understand. That actually is harassing and I hope that whoever it was, cuts that s--- out. I doubt it's a wizard since getting attention from outsiders only worsens wizardchan, but if itis. I hope whoever it is gets perma b& and commits suicide out or loneliness. F--- you·wnoever you are, for stirring up s--- for no reason. I just want to post and Teel here peace, damrnit. Anonymage 1214'13 (Sat) 07:2348 No.11157>11188 11155 l find it hard to believe it was one of us since most anons have social anxiety around phones Anonymage 1214/13 (Sat) 06:40:35 No.1115311220 File: 1rpulak6 wizardchan.image jpg (141.17 KB. 700 700, image jp9 11151 I'm just surprised because there's no evidence this raid even happened. There's people in the neogaf forums calling us the worst excuse for human beings, and saying they want to cut our balls off, when nobody even asked this chick for proof she was attacked. Somehow we're the bullies? Yeah right Anommage 1 2/1 4/1 3 (Sat) 02:17:23 No 1 1 085 1001 11082 What do you mean misogynist hyperbole? It's our side of the story, but it's basically what happened. Nobody here remembers any raid happening, someone last week made a thread about her on N9k and then suddenly she claimed people were calling her house telling her to kill herself. it doesnt add up Gender of developer wasn't the cause of nonexistant harassing but it was the reason for making all those news Also look-Im now writing "Phil Fish sucks cocks and chokes on them, his game is s--- and Iwish he would die". Is that harassing? Will there be articles about it? No there wont, because he's not a female He will not make a story about"muh matriarchy" how he as a male felt'harassed. And ifhe did nobody would care because people care only when women feel insulted Anonymous 12/14/13 (Sat) 12:52:27 No.1120711210 11201 Not the poster you're responding to, but I can't help being a·misogynist." I would criticize a male who has a partner, friends, a lob, etc tnat claims to be·depressed" wnen there is no reason for him to be. And if i s aid this opinion amywhere, probably absolutely nobody would give a single s---. But the fact that I'm criticizing a female with a partner, friends, a job, etc. makes me a "misogynist and now that whole internet is ater me How am I the sexist when every single person defending her would not defend a male in the same situation? In fact, I doubt many of them would even concede the point that a male in the same situation would be a problem, and say something like "You aways get some backlash when you publish something on the Intemet. Deal with it I'm dishing out equal opportunity criticism, and they're reacting to it unevenly depending on the victim's gender. So who's the sexist? Me, or all the people who are on y moved to act if the cti㎡ s a emale? Woman said she has some problems? Let's heip her, doesnt mater what she said is true Who's the real victim Anonymage 12/14/13 (Sat) 01:24:36 No.11142 >11144 » Dont do anything Get bullied Is like highschool all over again. All this crap is making my andety rise to the roof I'm going to sleep With luck tomorrow will be a better day ■ Anonymage 1 2門31 3 (Fri) 23:39:30 No.1 1 1 22 1125 File 1rpt351 u.wzardchan.1381830043666.gif (0o0.36 KB, 776000, 1381830043686.gif) 11121 I don't like how everyone is calling us bigots and creepy virgins and terrible people. Isnt that harassment by their logic? Where is the evidence we harassed her anyway? Nobody posted any threats directed at her in any articles I saw Ugh. It just puts a bad taste in my mouth Anonymage 121 313 (Fri) 23:39:38 No.11123 It honestly blows my mind that people can enjoy depression quest but have the audacity to turn around and say "HaHaHaHA Virgin Nerdl U mad bro? Basement Dweller" So our reason for being depressed isnt legitimate? We lust dont have the cool" kind of depression of being well off both financially and socially? Please, normie lurker ho's undoubtedly taking screencaps ofthe"Epic Fair on this board and sharing it with his friends on CWCiki, answer thsi for me Anonymous 12/1 4/13 (Sat) 11:14.52 No.11187 File: 1 rpwkkev wizardchan 1385398838357 jpg (48.20 KB, 512 512. 1385398838357 jpo) You have a neogaf account? Lurking that thread has p----- me off so much. People there have been saying awful things about us and even saying we dont deserve to be alive, yet anyone who even remotety treats us as human was banned. Banned from the whole site! We dont even get to say our side of the story

Note: click on the images to view and read the contents

Phil Fish's Twitter Rant

Also on August 17th, indie game developer Phil Fish defended Quinn on Twitter, calling those who were attacking her "cowards" and claimed he was "canceling projects" in retaliation (shown below).

DPHIL FISH ePHIL FISH 2h all you people attacking zoe are cowards. attacking a woman the easiest way you can. despicable cowards, all of you. 332 ★82 PHI FISHPHIL FISH 2h all you're doing is making her more visible, and giving her message more reach. £710 ★28 PHIL FISH @PHIL_FISH 2h and revealing yourselves as the subhuman little s---- that you are. わ£77 ★32 PHIL FISH@PHIL_FISH 2h absolutely pathetic, ball-less manboobs. 27 ★47
이 PHIL FISH @PHIL_FISH 57m i just cancelled a project you didn't ever know about. 100 ★157 PHIL FISH @PHIL_FISH 57m and anothor 746 ★71 PHIL FISH @PHIL_FISH 57m and in()i:her 《)ne! れ£739 ★68 ..。

Fish at one point went as far as to compare the people who were attacking Quinn to rapists. However, he deleted this tweet moments after posting it.

PHIL FISH @PHIL_FISH-1m you're essentially rapists.

Quinnspiracy Theory and "Five Guys Burger and Fries"

On August 18th, YouTuber Internet Aristocrat uploaded a video titled "Quinnspiracy Theory: The Five Guys Saga," which criticized Quinn for using sex to influence journalists and for portraying herself as a victim to receive donations and support (shown below). The name spawns from the fact that Quinn allegedly slept with five different men who had positions in the video game or video game journalism industries. The following day, the video was submitted to the /r/videos[14] subreddit, where it gained over 2,200 votes (87% upvoted) and 460 comments. The video was reuploaded after the Internet Aristocrat channel was deleted.

[This video has been removed]

In homage to this video, 4chan's /v/ (video games) board began using references to the Five Guys chain restaurant as a way to make threads about Quinn without it catching the attention of mods. On August 22nd, Internet Aristocrat published a follow-up video attempting to expose further speculation about Quinn using her relationships in the video game industry for personal gain. The video has since been deleted.

Hacking & Doxing Claims

On August 19th, Quinn claimed that her Tumblr and Twitter page were both hacked and that she had been doxxed by users from /v/. The post was subsequently deleted. That day, Tumblr[12] user The Spectacular Spider-Girl pointed out several inconsistencies in the story as evidence that Quinn fabricated the hacking.

Zoe Quinn Fake Doxx/Hack 19 August 2014 Zoe Quinn fakes a doxx on her Tumblr and Twitter, trying to be the victim. Nevermind that at the time there was no'submit' option and trying to reach a submit page resulted in a 404 QUINNSPIRACY HOME ARCHIVE MY GAMES TWITTER WRITING DEV BLOGS Not Found The URL you requested could not be found Copyright 2011 huo Thome, A. Rgts Reserved Hue Theme by Pixel Union Powered by Tumbir And given Tumblr's security features, which would disconnect users if more than one person tried to sign on to the same account, this makes no sense unless she herself is doing it. Multiple people trying to post from the account would be continuously disconnected and forced to log in again. In short, the 'multiple posters' that are posting on her blog are impossible. And given the inconsistencies in behavior, like keeping her blog name, blog theme, not interjecting code into her HTML to get her blog deleted by mods, not just posting her passwords and, very noticeable, capitalizing the v in/v/, suggests this is a false attempt. #Zoe Quinn

In addition, the phone numbers included in the Tumblr dox post were found to have no connection with Zoe. The number listed as "Dad's Work" is no longer functional and was associated with a closed down motorcycle store called, "Twin-Tech Motorcycle Shop." The number that was listed as "zoe's Cellphone" connected to a text to land line phone located in Hawaii.

Rebel Game Jam & The Fine Young Capitalists Doxxing

During the immediate fallout of Eron Gjorni's blog posts, a Reddit user going by the name of SillySladar has raised allegations that Zoe Quinn intentionally sabotaged a female-centric game development event on the grounds that the idea was oppressive, in order to promote her own similar event, Rebel Jam, which is currently being organized[18].

Depression Quest dev claims harassment and misogyny. Facts come out showing she's lying (imgur.com) 136 submitted 4 hours ago by MannoSlimmins (98-A 0h 4chan, please stop this literal r--- 71 commentsshare all 71 comments sorted by: best▼ ↑ [-] Sillysladar 156 points 4 hours ago She f------ doxxed me, ruined a production for women, refused to contact us and is currently taking money for a game jam with no start date, no location and no judges Okay here is my story We ran a group that literally said, "Any woman come up with an idea for a video game, we'll give you concept art so you can pitch your game, and we'll put all the pitches online. The internet will votes on the best one and we'll make that game and give the profits to charity. If you get a lot of interest online and want to make the game on your own, you can leave the contest at any time." Literally everyone that was in the top 5 didn't have programming experience so they couldn't make their game on their own. She was like "Why do you expect woman to work for free to make games." we said well they get 8% of the money as royalties and they just have to give an idea, other people will make the game and the profits go to charity Doesn't matter, it's oppressive. She started a f------ twitter storm, crashed our website, got my personal information doxxed, got us banned from Twitter. We email reporter what up and their like "Duhhhh if Zoey says it oppressive it must be true. Maybe you should give her money for Rebel Jam which has no start date, location or any other information but totally isn't a scam." This happen at 3 major online publications. We literally said we'd pay her to consult on future projects and we'd close down the contest if she would explain to us what is exactly offensive. No response, no response at all, unless a reporter contacted her and then she's the victim All this information is f------ online, the pitches are online, we did everything we said but no online journalist will publish the story http://www.thefineyoungcapitalists.com/Voting Please vote, even if we don't raise enough money if show there is enough of a interest we can get the winner a grant to make their game. I am literally making no money on this contest, I just wanted to focus on something other then woman being oppressed I wanted to show that they made good games and everyone said "That not what women in games want to talk about."

On August 19th, The Fine Young Capitalists released a SoundCloud recording as their explanation as what to what was going on and why they were doxxed.[20] On August 20th, the founder of The Fine Young Capitalists conducted an interview with Invision Game Community about the whole ordeal. The following day, YouTuber PressFartToContinue uploaded a video with the project's founder explaining the story behind how Quinn led a crusade against The Fine Young Capitalists game jam (shown below).

[This video has been removed]

Pepsi GAME_JAM

Around the end of March 2014, Pepsi was arranged to sponsor a televised 'Game Jam' that would feature game developers working in teams to create games. Zoe Quinn was one of the selected participants of this game jam. On the same day it began however, the game jam was halted due to disagreements about it's terms.[25] Some time after the failure of Pepsi's game jam, Quinn wrote a blog post vaguely detailing the events surrounding the game jam's failure, essentially indicting herself as the catalyst for the debacle.[26] On August 25th, Eron Gjoni, Quinn's ex, later shared his view on her role in these events in a Reddit AMA (shown below).[35]

GamesNosh Article

On August 19th, the video game news blog Games Nosh[10] published an article accusing Quinn of "exploiting games press for coverage." Hours later, the @GamesNosh Twitter feed announced that their host had asked them to remove the article (shown below). That day, the page was removed and redirected a HostGator 404 page. The article was subsequently mirrored on Pastebin.[13]

GamesNosh @GamesNosh Follow Host wants us to remove the article. Seeing if we can find a workaround to satisfy them. Reply ta Retweet * Favorite More RETWEETSFAVORITES 26 8 10:52 AM-19 Aug 2014

N4G Article

On August 19th, the video game rumor site N4G published an article that Quinn "was being accused of exploiting games press for coverage." Hours later, the article was removed. N4G has not made a public statement on why the article was removed.

Kotaku Staff Reported to Exchange Positive Game Coverage for Sex 750° being accused of exploiting the nepotism that tends to plague this industry by getting a bunch of favorable coverage from people she has supposedly slept with. In addition to this, videos supposedly critical of these actions have been taken down from Youtube with copyright claims, including a video by a smaller channel called MundaneMatt. It's difficult to tell what is true and what is not." (Culture, Depression Quest, Industry) Submitted by Dr Face Doctor 3h ago | rumor Update Gamesnosh is apparently down due to heavy load, google cached version is below. UPDATE #2: I have recently been sent a PM concerning a recent development in this soy possibly leading to the original Gamesnosh article being taken down or edited in the near future Read full story >> Comments (132) gamesnosh.com+ Like 3 81 38 8+1 Tweet3 Alternative Sources Related content from friends pastebin.com | By: Dr Face Doctor Zoe QuinnKotakuCheatina scandal . kc-vidya-tants.tumblr.com | Br Gorilla-Kila-X Gamesnosh Cached Article- webcache.googleusercontent.com | By. Dr Face Doctor Depression Quest WaiGuide-PC Depression Quest Walkthrough FAS PC Depression Quest Cheats Codes Tips PC It's true No way Hard to tell For sure s this rumor true? Rumor votes 618

Total Biscuit's Response

Also on August 19th, British video game critic Total Biscuit published a blog post which denounced Quinn if she had abused the DMCA to take down criticism of her product and lamented the cronyism present in the gaming journalism industry. The post was subsequently submitted to /r/gaming,[9] where comments were mass-deleted by a subreddit moderator. A screenshot of a Twitter conversation between /r/gaming senior moderator @ElChupacupcake and Quinn began circulating, with many speculating about his involvement in the deletions (shown below). Gamesnosh later wrote an article[19] about the situation detailing the hate Total Biscuit received. On August 21st, MundaneMatt confirmed that the DMCA takedown notice had in-fact come from Zoe Quinn.[22]

el Chupacupcake。EIChupacupcake . 3m @TheQuinnspiracy I'm sure you're frightfully busy, bu ch ce we exchange emails (through pm) so we have a line of communication? HIGH SCORE! 5Milion an o GAMING /r/gaming comments related Zoë 'GRANOS' Quinn @TheQuinnspiracy Follow How does reddit work? Click here to find out. TotalBiscuit discusses the state of games journalism, Steam @ElChupacupcake sure わReply Retweet * Favorite More 514 AM-19 Aug 2014 Greenlight, ethics, DMCA abuse and Depression Quest. twitlonger.com) submitted an hour ago by SpiritualSuccessors 78 comments share all 78 comments sorted by: best▼ [-1 [deleted] 1 hour ago [deleted] -] [deleted] 13 minutes ago [deleted] Reply to @TheQuinnspiracy @ElChupacupcake -] [deleted] 8 minutes ago [deleted] Profile summary -] [deleted] 1 hour ago [deleted] [-1 [deleted] 1 hour ago [deleted] TWEETS FOLLOWING FOLLOWERS -] [deleted] 1 hour ago [deleted] Follow 352 41 8 el Chupacupcake @ElChupacupcake Senior Moderator of Reddit's /r/gaming & /r/hardware. Devourer of media & munchables. Linguaphile. Opinions are my own, if even that. elchupacupcake.com [-] Bravens7 16 1 point just now Why is every comment deleted? -] [deleted] 16 minutes ago [deleted]

On August 28th, Total Biscuit released a lengthier second response on his blog[38] and subsequently as a SoundCloud recording[39]. In his response he expressed the perspective of the average "gamer" through the unfolding of this whole ordeal, and critiqued the style discourse taken by both 'sides' of the debate.

Kotaku's Response

On August 20th, Kotaku writer Stephen Totilo released an article on Kotaku[16] related to the questions surrounding their writer Nathan Grayson, one of the five men Zoe Quinn had allegedly cheated with. In the article, Totilo stated that Kotaku's leadership team found no compelling evidence that any of the claims surrounding the suspected cronyism between Grayson and Quinn were true. Totila also stated that Grayson had only written an article[17] that involved Zoe Quinn when they were still professional acquaintances, and that their romantic relationship didn't start until after that in early april of the same year, which allegedly provided evidence related to Eron Gjoni's claims regarding Quinn's romantic affair with Grayson around that time.

Search Stephen Totlo Filed to: FROM THE EIC 46 minutes ago 16,154 41 ★ In recent days I've been asked several times about a possible breach of ethics involving one of our reporters. While I believe no such breach occurred, I feel it is important for Kotaku readers who have questions to get clear answers.

As investigations into journalistic integrity continued over the days after the article was posted continued, Kotaku decided to make a second statement surrounding the events,[36] this time instilling a ban on all of their journalists from contributing to the Patreons of game developers.

Censorship Controversy

Soon after the release of "The Zoe Post,"[4] several online social media sites began deleting discussion threads surrounding the topic in attempts to prevent a "witch hunt". Sites involved in such activities included N4G, The Escapist, NeoGAF, Reddit's /r/games /r/gaming, Steam's Depression Quest Forums (shown below), and 4chan's /v/ board. Several of the blogs reporting on the Quinnspiracy issue (including Kotaku and Vice) also took part in heavily moderating and/or blocking comments on their posts[37].

aquapendulum Community Moderation Messages » Message Detail Community Moderation Messages > Message Detail Ban notification from a forum moderator-37 minutes ago You have been banned from Depression Quest Discussions You have been banned from Depression Quest Discussions by a forum moderator for your post in "Depression Quest General Discussions": The Fine Young Capitalists - a charity group is trying to make video games designed by women to promote their roles in the industry. Guys, please spend a moment and vote for their projects: http://www.thefineyoungcapitalists.com/Voting And support their IndieGoGo campaign: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-fine-voung- Do keep in mind: 8% of the profit goes to the women who designed the games. The rest of the profit goes to charity The creator of TFYC - Mattew Rappard receives no money from this. Here is what Zoe Quinn thinks about this charity project: http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images loriginal/000/814/183/c06.pmg Give them your support, guys! I voted for Lux by Lucy L Ban Reason: abuse

On August 23rd, an imgur album was published detailing reddit's automated banning of any users who had simultaneously visited 4chan, and participated in discussion threads.[23][24] Around the same time, a Reddit moderator leaked a private message he'd received from Zoe Quinn requesting for the deletion of posts about the incident (shown below).[33] Soon after the leak, reddit administrators took it upon themselves to remove the suspected leaker's moderator status. This resulted in a large backlash from users against reddit's mods and admins.[31][32] On September 7th, a SoundCloud interview with the banned /r/games moderator was published, detailing many of reddit's internal moderation practices.[40]

Tox Luci3nDM Toxing on uTox Some Guy Toxing on uTox Some Guy 7CF686B48226C64D85F52B3C022DC3CAODFE7F004411FOA016475C7A7B5D091A is no w kno wn as Tox User Luci3nD M Hi there Some Guy Would you prefer calling? l've got a lot of typing to do so it'd be easier for me, but I understand if that's bad for you 19:24 19:25 19:25 19:25 19:26 19:26 19:26 19:26 19:26 19:27 mr enigma I just so hate instant messaging Tox User Toxing on uTox Luci3nDM It's only bad because I have no microphone on my test laptop, nor camera Some Guy Cameras are for losers anyway. Ah well Luci3nDM but I have time to let you type, unless it's a novel haha Some Guy So a friend told me you wanted to talk Some Guy Toxing on uTox Some a------ yeah. I recieved the follo wing msg from your friend using this email: dms 7h3g+fomjz8@guerrillamail.com wouldn't kno w his thro wa way off the top of my head Anyway, he gave me a rundo wn of it the msg contained this Zoe Quinn sent the moderators of large gaming subreddits messages telling > >> Luci3nDM 19:27 19:27 19:27 Some Guy Luci3nDM them to take do wn everything to do with her. Posts, comments and all that > She did this through /u/zoequinn or from her twitter account. 1 know >>>> mostly about the two biggest, r/Gaming and riGames. Gaming accepted Games > >didn't. At first they kept it all up but were told by the admins that > >keeping it up would be very bad for their accounts and for the subreddit so they had to take it do wn. I only kno w one mod on each team willing to talk to me now because most of them don't want to say s--- to anyone > that's negative to Zoe or her friends When she told my contact to do things for her she revealed some information nobody else kno ws, but he's not allo wed to talk about >There's more but since I can't kno w whether or not you'll reveal the source of this information I'll leave at that Some Guy I'm one of the mods involved Luci3nDM sorry, just copy and pasted.. okay.. could you tell me what exactly happened? Some Guy She told us to delete everything regarding her. I told her no. The admins thought otherwise 19:27 19:28 19:28 19:28 Her boyfriend contacted us too zoe evidence ZoneAlarm Vibe SquirrelMail 1.4 Ox or Browser

thezoepost from zoequinn [H] sent just now I am going to take HUGE issue with the thread being deemed relevant to games, WITHOUT EVEN GETTING INTO HE-SAID-SHE-SAID, claiming that I slept with Nathan Grayson for positive reviews because A) The source material itself never claims that, and B) There are no positive reviews from Nathan at all during the time period the original material covers or coverage on Kotaku from Nathan at all (http://kotaku.com/tag/zoe-quinn and http://kotaku.com /tag/depression-quest) and C) No one else mentioned is a games journalist. It's spreading something that has caused me and the people I love death threats, doxxing, and spreading of nude photos of me, and it's not relevant to games because the ONE issue that anyone has with this that could have anything to do with games is demonstrably false Please, please have some sanity here. This is dirty laundry tabloid b------- at best. permalink source report block user mark unread reply mod full comments

First Impressio..." by AUTOMATON_Global (remove) 54 minutes ago an hour ago AutoModerator AutoModerator nalixor AutoModerator nalixor nalixor nalixor nalixor AutoModerator removed link "Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes removed link "Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes l AUTOMATON First removed link "Principia Beta Trailer" by rommik (remove) removed link "JH arl» removed link "Someone is making a version of Minecraft in Trials..." by zyx (remove) removed link "Principia 1.5 Trailer" by sdac- (remove) removed link "What's your relaxing time sink game?" by Nelo112 (remove) removed link "Path of Exile launched its 2nd mini-expansion (For..." by omlech (remove) removed link "Social Wars Hack" by karinas123 (removed spam) " by AUTOMATON-Global (remove) an hour ago -w" by Norman7 (removed spam) AutoModeratorremoved link "Marvel Avengers Alliance Hack" by hadzaha (removed spam) AutoModerator removed link "Car Town Hack" by konjko213 (removed spam) AutoModeratorremoved link "Mafia 2 Walkthrough Part 1 Gameplay Review Let's P.." by jonathandjango (remove) AutoModerator nalixor AutoModerator removed link "Phil Fish deletes Twitter account after Polytron a..." by Pyryara (remove) removed link "Dishonored and Borderlands 2 are free during the w..." by Tolkfan (remove) emoved link "Flappy bird free game download" by GamingM (removed spam) removed link "Baby Hazel Games" by iupx (remove) removed link "Haven't really been following Star Citizen, but re..." by beatin (remove) nalixor nalixor AutoModeratorremoved link "Haven't really been following Star Citizen, but re..." by beatin (remove) nalixor removed link "Swing Copters on Android, Game Over Again!!!!" by 3dsmm (remove) AutoModeratorremoved link "Phil Fish and Polytron hacked by 4chan and Anonymo...." by Darkprime (remove) AutoModerator AutoModerator AutoModerator nalixor nalixor nalixor nalixor nalixor AutoModerator nalixor AutoModerator nalixor AutoModerator Forestl AutoModerator Forestl removed link "Good Game Spawn Point - Series 5 Episode 27" by antdude (remove) removed link "Lords of the Fallen ! AUTOMATON First Impression" by AUTOMATON-Global (remove) removed link "Phil Fish & Polytron Doxxed, Phil Fish Quits Gamin..." by AustinG909 (remove) removed link "Buy Fifa 14 Coins Fifa 14 Long Shot" by Noviazhang (remove) removed link "FEZ and POLYTRON IPs are now for sale" by meowreka (remove) removed link "Searching For/Discussion About Bundles and Sales I..." by PratzStrike (remove) removed link "Oculus Rift multi-monitor idea" by throwable_pinapple (remove) removed link "What game sequel was so different it could've been." by badgraphix (remove) removed link "MundaneMatt Live discussion" by SuANH (removed spam) removed link "Polytron Twitter compromised, doxxing Phil Fish an..." by AttackTheMoon (remove) removed link "Phil Fish's @Polytron Twitter account, website, an..." by RequiemCOTF (remove) removed link "Polytron has been hacked, with much of Phil Fish's..." by Cevan (remove) removed link "Polytron has been hacked, personal info leaked" by AZ929 (remove) removed link "Searching For/Discussion About Bundles and Sales I..." by PratzStrike (remove) removed link "Polytron site hacked" by tservomst (remove) removed link "Polytron, creator of Fez, website has been hacked .." by MNCrizzle3 (removed spam) removed link "Silent Hills P.T. Demo Walkthrough Gameplay Part 2..." by ryannull (remove) removed link "Polytron hacked by 4Chan." by mbop (remove) utoModerator Forestl emoved link "Microsoft Research may have crac removed link "What is your dream developer/franchise mash up?" by ReclaimerDC (remove) emoved link "PlayStation Play Now--Why can't I load removed link "Insight on recent game del removed link "Female Indie Dev's Perspective on the Culture removed link "Female Indie Dev's Perspective on the Culture of nut to low. imatwo remove nalixor or or erpis (remove) er (remove ore g (remove orestl y athiest gamer (remove or mes hoxii(remove ore remove oModerator emoved link "Does alk ch..." by SureLockHome remove or let f the remove

Zoe Quinn's Response

On August 19th, Quinn published a post on her Tumblr[11] blog about the scandal, claiming it was about her private life, complaining that members of 4chan had doxxed her and thanking moderators for removing posts about her across the web.

This has nothing to do with games and is not a matter of legitimate public interest, but is simply a personal matter. I would hope and request that the games press be respectful of what IS a personal matter, and not news, and not about games. This is explicitly about my private life, which has been regrettably forced into the public and framed by people who pose a threat to my safety and well being as well as that of the people I love. I would hope that the effort people have gone through to dress it up as anything more would not be enough to have those who see it for what it is take the bait.

I am not going to link to, or address anything having to do with the validity of the specific claims made by an angry ex-boyfriend with an axe to grind and a desire to use 4chan as his own personal army. This is not a “she-said” to his “he-said”. The idea that I am required to debunk a manifesto of my sexual past written by an openly malicious ex-boyfriend in order to continue participating in this industry is horrifying, and I won’t do it. It’s a personal matter that never should have been made public, and I don’t want to delve into personal shit, mine or anyone else’s, while saying that people’s love and sex lives are no one’s business. I’m not going to talk about it. I will never talk about it. It is not your goddamned business.

What I am going to say is that the proliferation of nude pictures of me, death threats, vandalization, doxxing of my trans friends for having the audacity to converse with me publicly, harassment of friends and family and my friends’ family in addition to TOTALLY UNRELATED PEOPLE, sending my home address around, rape threats, memes about me being a whore, pressures to kill myself, slurs of every variety, fucking debates over what my genitals smell like, vultures trying to make money off of youtube videos about it, all of these things are inexcusable and will continue to happen to women until this culture changes. I’m certainly not the first. I wish I could be the last.

Because I’ve had a small degree of success in a specific subculture, every aspect of my life is suddenly a matter of public concern. Suddenly it’s acceptable to share pictures of my breasts on social media to threaten and punish me. Suddenly I don’t have any right to privacy or basic dignity. Suddenly I don’t get to live out normal parts of life, like going through a bad and ugly breakup in private. I have forfeited this by being a blip in a small community, while those who delight in assailing me hide behind their keyboards and a culture that permits it, beyond reproach.

My life and my body are not public property. No one’s life and body are public property.

Sexuality is one of the most personal, hurtful, and easy things to demonize a woman over, and also has nothing to do with my games. Yet large swaths of the gaming community are either unable or unwilling to separate the two. I’m convinced that my ex chose 4chan as the staging ground for his campaign of harassment and character assassination because he knew this; he knew that someone claiming to be “from the Internet” has shown up at my house once already, and he is counting on the most reviled hubs of our community to live up to their sordid reputations. This is another example of gendered violence, whereby my personal life becomes a means to punish my professional credentials and to try to shame me into giving up my work. I’m still committed to doing my small part to create a world where no woman is at risk of experiencing this. That said, I am thankful that even boards with a reputation for being the most hostile places online have been able to tell the intent behind these threads and banned them outright, seeing the hate speech for what it is, and not-news for what it is.

As much as those leading the charge against me will do mental backflips to make posting pictures of my tits about “ethics”, the real agenda is plain as day if you give it even a moment of sincere critical thought. No one who would terrorize someone and the totally uninvolved people they love in this way on such a massive and public scale could ever honestly claim to be interested in “ethics” of any kind. These kinds of accusations have been levied against any woman of status in any industry, ever. I have been judged because, if you are a woman, you are expected to constantly “prove” yourself, and even mere accusations can somehow undo all the good you’ve done and justify any measure of depraved brutality against you. Meanwhile, I see major support thrown the way of my male colleagues when they are accused of any sort of wrongdoing. Neither of these attitudes is correct, and they are patently unfair and reductive. Nobody exists in a vacuum, and anyone can change and grow into a better person. Heroes and villains don’t exist – just regular boring-ass people with scars and fuckups and moments of brilliance. And every single boring-ass person deserves the space to keep personal matters private and handled outside the shark tank of anonymous internet boards.

Once again, I will not be addressing the specific validity of any statements about my private life. If you have good-faith questions or doubts, I am more than happy to discuss private matters in private, where they belong. But I refuse to be coerced into making my private life or anyone’s private life a matter of public record, and I refuse to be continually emotionally terrorized by people who have long decided to hate me regardless.

I’m looking forward to moving on and getting back to work. To anyone else who has had to deal with this kind of indignity on any scale, you have my undying support and my ear if you ever want to talk to someone who might understand. To the people who support my work and can see this crusade for what it is, thank you from the bottom of my heart. To those people, I love you, I always have, and I always will.

Conflicts of Interest and Journalistic Integrity

As Quinn's intimate ties to journalists were being revealed, it was discovered that several games journalists were actively contributing money to her via Patreon.[27] Journalist Patricia Hernandez soon came under fire as well, as gamers began investigating other questionable journalist-developer relationships. Similarly, Robin Arnott, one of the "five guys" that were allegedly involved with Quinn, was also part of a game competition judging panel in which Quinn's Depression Quest won, despite having competition from other widely successful and critically acclaimed games.

Escapist Article Controversy

On February 5th, 2019, the video game news site Escapist[41] published an article titled "How Do We Finally Talk About Ethics?" In the article, writer Russ Pitts approaches the issues of ethics in gaming journalism while acknowledging that, to many, the GamerGate controversy dealt with issues "that had nothing to do with ethics and everything to do with hurting women." Following the publication of the article, Quinn accused Pitts of having "revived a GamerGate hub" without "contacting me or anyone else" who was involved in the controversy. In response, Pitts replied "I genuinely thought you'd probably be over this being all about you." Pitts tweets were subsequently deleted, but screenshots were subsequently reposted by Quinn (shown below).


That day, Pitts published an apology on Escapist titled "An Apology from Editor-in-Chief Russ Pitts," in which he expressed remorse for the article and his Twitter exchange with Quinn, announcing he would "be off Twitter for some time." On February 11th, Take This[42] published an announcement that Pitts had resigned from the board of the mental health charity. Meanwhile, Pitts published an open letter on Twitter, announcing he would be taking a "voluntary leave of absence" from Escapist Magazine to address his "failings."


Related Memes

5 Guys Burgers and Fries

In "The Zoe Post,"[4] Erjon makes the statement, "Now I can’t stop mentally referring to her as Burgers and Fries" as a reference to the fast food chain, 5 Guys Burgers and Fries. Though Erjon did explicitly state not to use this reference on "The Zoe Post," people found this reference to be humorous and continued to use it.

FIVE GUYS BURGERS and FRIES

Vivian James

Vivian James is a fictional character created through the cooperation of 4chan's /v/ board and indie game developer group The Fine Young Capitalists (TFYC) following a series of events in response to Zoe Quinn's attack on TFYC while they were trying to fund a Game Jam with the intention of encouraging women to get into the gaming industry.

*nods respectfully toward you*

*Nods respectfully toward you* is a phrase originating from the @Marcoos93 Twitter account following a tweet in which he shared his support towards Zoe Quinn. The tweet quickly made people brand him as a white knight, resulting in the phrase being used to mock both @Marcoos93 and other male supporters of Zoe Quinn.

Marc Threadingham @Marcoos93 13m @TheQuinnspiracy "nods respectfully toward you" stand your ground against these f----, an try to cope as best you can le nodding man hods respectuly towrd you

External References

[1] Steam Community – Depression Quest

[2] Storify (via Wayback Machine) – Depression Quest Harassment Campaign

[3] Steam – Depression Quest

[4] Wordpress – The Zoe Post

[5] Escapist Magazine – Zoe Quinn or how video game media may have been exposed as a pro-feminist hugbox (unavailable)

[6] Reddit – Depression Quest dev claims harassment and misogyny

[7] Tumblr (via Wayback Machine) – Zion Quinns Kotaku Staff Cheating Scandal

[8] TwitLonger – What the hell just happened??

[9] Reddit – TotalBiscuit discusses the state of games journalism

[10] Gamesnosh – Zoe Quinn Scandal (unavailable)

[11] Tumblr (via Wayback Machine)- Oh Dear God Bees

[12] Tumblr – TheSpectacularSpider

[13] Pastebin – GamesNosh Article

[14] Reddit – Quinnspiracy Theory

[15] Imgur – Zoe Quinn is a liar

[16] Kotaku – In recent days I've been asked several times

[17] Kotaku – The Indie Game Reality TV Show That Went To Hell

[18] Rebel Game Jam – Rebel Game Jam

[19] Gamesnosh – The Ugly Side of “Justice”; Total Biscuit denounced over Zoe Quinn Scandal Comments.

[20] Soundcloud – The Fine Young Capitalist Confession

[21] Twitter – @Marcoos93

[22] DMCA (via Wayback Machine) – MundaneMatt DMCA Takedown Notice

[23] Reddit ShadowBanning – Reddit ShadowBanning

[24] Reddit Banning Thread – Reddit Banning Thread (invite needed)

[25] Game Jam Failure (via Wayback Machine) – Game Jam Failure

[26] Pepsi Game Jam Blog (via Wayback Macine) – Pepsi GAME_JAM Blog

[27] Patreon – Patreon

[28] Zoe's Tumblr Acquaintance – Tumblr Acquaintance

[29] PAX Protest – PAX Protest (unavailable)

[30] Eron Video Proof – Eron Video Proof

[31] Reddit Admin Backlash – Reddit Admin Backlash

[32] Reddit Admin Testimony – Reddit Admin Testimony (invite needed)

[33] Reddit Mod Leaks (via Wayback Machine) – Reddit Mod Leaks

[34] Invisioncommunity – Journalists Game Developers on Zoe Quinn Fiasco

[35] Reddit r/Drama – I'm Zoe Quinn's Ex AMA (invite needed)

[36] Kotaku – A brief note about the continued discussion about Kotaku's approach to reporting.

[37] Kotaku Comment Moderation – Kotaku Comment Moderation

[38] TB's Second Response – TB's Second Response

[39] TB Response SoundCloud (via Wayback Machine) – TB Response SoundCloud

[40] Reddit Mod SoundCloud – Reddit Mod's SoundCloud Interview

[41] Escapist – How Do We Finally Talk About Ethics?

[42] Take This – Statement on Recent Events



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Zoë Quinn

Zoë Quinn

Part of a series on GamerGate. [View Related Entries]
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Editor's Note: Every discussion and media upload shall go under the related entry. For the related video gaming controversy discussion, see gamergate




About

Zoë Quinn is an indie game developer involved in an online controversy surrounding her alleged affair with a number of men working in the video game industry, including a staff writer at the Gawker-affiliated video game news site Kotaku, supposedly in exchange for publicity for her and her 2014 text-based indie game Depression Quest. In August 2014, the scandal came into public's light when Eron Gjoni, her now-former boyfriend, chronicled the details of her affairs in an expose blog post, which prompted online discussions regarding the validity of Gjoni's claim and ethics in video game journalism at large, which subsequently spawned the GamerGate movement. Due to the scandal's online amplification in reaction to perceived media suppression, the event has been cited as an example of the "Streisand Effect".

Online History

On December 4th, 2013, Quinn submitted her game Depression Quest to Steam Greenlight[1] to be selected for release on the software distribution service. On December 12th, Quinn (@Quinnspiracy) posted several tweets complaining about harassment she had allegedly received for placing the game on Greenlight, specifically from the *chan board Wizardchan.[2] On August 11th, 2014 the game was released on Steam.[3]

Depression Quest Depression Quest is an interactive fiction game where you play as someone living with depression. You are given a series of everyday life events and have to attempt to manage your illness, relationships, job, and possible treatment. This game aims to show other sufferers of depression that they are not alone in their feelings, and to illustrate to people who may not understand the illness the depths of what it can do to people. Since the goal is to spread awareness, there is no minumum amount you need to pay to play the game. However, if you do choose to pay the developers for their efforts, a portion of the proceeds will be donated to iFred, a charity that aims to fight back against depression and the stigma against it. BEST ,此ATEGORY, IONORABLRY MNARRATIVE WINNER MENTION V Beston R Pay lhat Lou lanorPlay for Free (if the link is giving you problems feel free to paypal zoetquinn (at) gmail.com instead)
Note: click on the image to visit the website and play the game


On August 16th, Quinn's ex boyfriend Eron Gjoni launched a Wordpress blog[4] titled "The Zoe Post," featuring screenshots and pictures providing evidence that Quinn cheated on him with five different men, including her boss Joshua Boggs and video game journalist Nathan Grayson, who writes for Kotaku and Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Gjoni later released a video proving his chat-logs were authentic.[30]


I dated Zoe Quinn. I thought she was the most amazing, kind hearted person in the world. Turns out she was bullshitting pretty much everything I fell in love with her for, and is actually an unbelievable jerk. She effortlessly lied to and iuan!pulaisyril ini: i ()ni.hs si plytjecause i; was n(尤believalile i.hai. someone could be that selfish of a person, that convincing of a liar, and that good of a manipulator, while adamantly arguing against the very principles she espoused. Here's some stuff she did / does in no particular order or tense (which you can verify using the chatlog images in the footer of Act 11
Note: click on the image to read the original post in full-length

Notable Developments

Online Reaction

On August 17th, Redditor MannoSlimmins submitted a series of screenshots to provide evidence that Quinn faked being harassed by Wizardchan users to garner support for her game to the /r/TumblrInAction[6] subreddit. The same day, Tumblr[7] user KC-Vidya-Rants published a blog post denouncing Quinn for using Robin Williams' suicide to promote her game and faking harassment for sympathy. In the first 48 hours, the post gained over 940 notes. Meanwhile, Escapist Magazine Forums[5] member Rebant submitted a thread about the scandal, which criticized Quinn's behavior and video game blogs for ignoring the story. Later, on August 20th JonTron made multiple tweets about Zoe which garnered attention around Twitter.


JonTron @Jon TronShow ! 『net /oe Quinn back during Girne Jarn and I can say she is nothing io start an internet controversy over lol. JonTron @Jon TronShow Also no, i:hai is not a (ornplimeni. JonTron @Jon TronShow Objectively though I can see the argument people have about keeping journalisn ad op ery vl complainis. keeping open. Very valiad complaintsove Jon Tron @JonTronShow Totalbiscuit It's not social justice if you yourself become the new bully. Expand

Wizardchan Counterclaim

Prior to the release of Quinn's game, on April 11th, 2014, Wizardchan, the site Quinn said she had allegedly received harassment from for placing the game on Greenlight in December 2013, counterclaimed that they did not doxx her in a series of images that conveys their side of the story with a chronological breakdown and an explanation why they didn't target her.[15]


Wizardchan ZoeQuinn what you read what happened Zoe Quinn, author of the game "Depression Quest", recently accused Wizardchan, an imageboard for adult male virgins, of being the source of: a raid, perverted phone calls and harassment all aimed at her, just because of said game presence on Steam Greenlight (a platform for proposing the publication on Steam of one's own game). After denouncing said behavior on twitter, she got the support of some of the most notorious videogames sites and their readerships, along with a boost in fame. Did any of this ACTUALLY happen? Well, hold onto your butts for a long ride I wasn't even golng to sany anything about theTe facked up thing? This was an accepted raid becwase I wanted to laugh and wait for itrisk of putting Depression Quest on to be over. greenlight. The same thing happened last Zoe's screenshots of the imageboard "harassing" her, along with her comments on twitter First, who is Zoe Quinn? Well, she's an indie videogames developer, and she is -mature -loves her audience and peers a "social justice warrior supporter of Anita and Dina liceelt NNOWRIGHT Thot's why Inade a chrome edension a whie back hat changes "ganer to "you ite snits Aner a fan sentme a message aout eeing triogered by he ntert being crany and honte sorsetes been throing at you, sa sarry you hove to go thraugh th Zod SnowButt" Quinn @ PetiteMlistress you too! massive amounts of support<s Santa Zntu 2 Be sure bo vote for 2oeQuinners gane Depression Quest -open to any form of criticismm reenightpage optional and you could dable the dislike censorship, but I'm gonna do it anyway and I'd like to censor them from the start She should've tried to not actually censor people r to not wish for complete censorship then) @ltatoorg i quess rrr, just throa旨head uTBUT and thinks people should be rewarded on what they do instead of who they are Bt just go tuck yourseler f you think that ganes Now, what are the wizards, wizardchan's userbase, like? Well, they're adult male virgins and they are.. -hyperactive, arrogant jerks who don't know what being depressed is like -people who enjoy spending their time harassing other people CLEARLY they are the culprits of such heinous acts, but let's move on... In the real world, an accusation requires some sort of proof by the accusator Of course, on the internet nobody asked Zoe any proof besides those two cropped images, so let's see on our own if there are any The Raid At first, Zoe accused wizardchan, among other things, of raiding her. She never specified if it was her website, e-mail or whatever. What's more curious is. The raid she mentioned at first was never mentioned again in her recollection of the events. Maybe she doesn't know what a raid is, that didn't stop people's a wanrre even gangsa say anyting沚sur-11 because rroed to bugh and wait for t to be over 0uineel Guimsterling so you de berstey go to the nd espect ther to nyphone. Tmats hardy hamiess or ust douchey ConnolBue GinStering they called myphone but thonk you for aesuning nat shautout to the person who warmed ne of wadchan ting anout going ater ne othenvise iwouldve been nore freahed out dy Wizardchan Zoe QuinnHiea what you read what happened VS The "harassment Here's the meat of the whole thing. First, what was the harassment? Well you've already seen it This was. Apart from the phone calls (which we'll see next), it was this Yes, just this misYwkbme look at that screencap again and guess. Where to even begin? Well, let's start with definitions: Definition of "harassment by the Oxford dictionary: -subject to aggressive pressure or intimidation Definition of "pressure" by the Oxford dictionary the use of persuasion or intimidation to make someone do something Definition of "intimidate" by the Oxford dictionary -frighten or overawe (someone), especially in order to make them do what one wants In other words, to harass someone you have to be in the presence of or communicate with) the person in question. The two posts in question were posted on wizardchan, away from the places Zoe frequents, where it is even forbidden to post if you're a female. They did not initiate any contact with her on the internet But wait! Those two posts clearly said they wanted to send her e-mails Yes. Did they actually sent them? No. How do I know that? Because Zoe NEVER MENTIONED THEM, not even in passing. She didn't mention ANY kind of attack via mail, or any other form of contact other than phone It was >Implied at best. She mentioned some kind of raid ONCE, but that mysteriously vanished in her descriptions like I said before Simply put: that WAS NOT harassment. That, of course, didn't matter to some of the people who supports her Even the posts alone count as harassment for them. Apparently you can't say anything bad about a person or a demographic, anywhere, unless it's on their own terms (because you can bet your ass they insulted wizards, even about their virginity, dragging in other adult male virgins unrelated to the site. So insulting people for their gender is a no, insulting them for their sexual activity or lack thereof is OK). In other words: fascists. -Insulting females for being females is a really bad thing to do, though. But why should the whole community pay? Please notice that she cropped TWO POSTS from a thread of more than ten (now deleted), which means she held a whole site responsible for the mean posts of ONLY TWO ANONYMOUS GUYS. For what she knew, they could have been trolls trying to stir up s---. It's not like the whole site supports misogyny nor it is only frequented by people who hate or dislike womern Yes, there are some people there who do hate women, but they shouldn't represent the community as a whole Want further proof of what Zoe considers harassment? Here it is Then you pei out the haassed card htsgoing to everything beter? m huting uess youne a happy This comment is ridicolous. Wizchan isn't a videogames community, there isn't a board exclusively about them, and it sure as hell isn't some kind of videogame. Whatever happens in there is not "in games". For what she knows, the two guys never played another game in their life. This case can't show or support a trend in the videogames community nor in their content. Let's move on to The phone calls: According to Zoe, wizards got her phone number, called her and, once she responded, jerked off while she was listening. Admittedly it's hard to get tangible proofs of such a thing (not that she gave any) However, some things don't add up She, somehow, knew for sure it was some wizards' doing (as she say so in the tweets above). The strange thing? Apparently, according to Zoe She got what could arguably be considered worse constantly, to the point she considered it normal, even about DQ (before wizchan's posts). If so, how can she be so sure it was someone from wizchan to make the calls? It even happened days after the last insulting post on the board, and the other threats happened all before the whole thing with wizchan started. Yet she has no doubts about the culprits. Lemme show you this too The first tweet is, simply, a blatant lie. Any 5 sec research on the net about controversies on feminism in videogames will prove it. Yet, as the other weets above show, she firmly believes that. Does she have a persecution complex? Maybe. Or maybe... maybe she's just trying to get attention out of pity. Maybe she knows she's lying, but doesn't care as long as people will support her and what she does. Is it possible then... is it possible that this whole controversy was...made up? CONTINUES Wizardchan Zoe Quinn NO REST FOR what you read what happened THE VIRGINS PART TROIS VS But she wouldn't have any reasons to do so! She herself debunked all Zoe said a lot of things and a lot of lies. Let's see them all SHE SAID BUT THEN (she's clearly u Zo "SnowBut Quinn Fell e tomasshlstrom Can I offer a free option and a paid option? (talking about DQ of course) (all those players liked it so much the game What about the other side? How did the wizards react? he peopls calling toer? what? where? bing m bh Id ba depressed too ETwas as and to ifs up to a judge, and no judge or jury mh , wild cal that harassrmere read a book dv accuse her of mailing bu there's no wvidence she got harsssed andher game is Accusing someone of being an Accusing someone of being a perverted criminal Sure, why not Asking for proofroom blanng. F--- the whole nocent unbil proven guity" s---. Maybe Jumbo should do more nquisitions on how the law works and ss on pork chops ove & emp CLEARLY THE CULPRITS THESE guys are the average wizard, not the mysogynist ones. Not that you'd know, seeing as how everyone tries to make strawvirginmen out of them. One question remains: how did Zoe know about that thread on wizchan? Did she make it herself? Was she a habitual lurker? Maybe... but things Who would do such a thing? Why? Well This is a post from the forums of the CWCwiki, a site dedicated to the perpetual stalking of Chris-chan, a been "trolling wizardchan for quite some time. Yes, there are people out there who like to spend a good portion of their time pissing off anonymous people they'll never know or meet. Ignoring the irony of someone with this hobby" calling other people "wastes of life", you can see "who" did that and "why. It may not necessarily be that particular user but many others on those forums share his sentiment, so all evidence suggests it was an user from there. Zoe gladfully took the bait hook, line and sinker In light of all this... .how did things really go? You'll know it in the shocking, bone-shattering finale of this epicforthewin sagal g manchild. They also have CONTINUES IN THE FINAL EPISODE Wizardchan Zoe Quinn what you read what happened VS THE END IS THE BEGINNING So, here's how things probably went: some frustrated guy from the CWCwiki forums decided linked to Zoe a thread on wizardchan about her game with 2 mean posts in it (that he probably wrote himself) Zoe at the time was unsatisfied with the lack of attention she had she thought she and her games deserved more recognition and notoriety, but didn't know how to get them. Her game "Depression Quest" didn't make the cut for Steam Greenlight to boot, and that was a hard blow since it could've brought her the fame she desired to create a shitstorm, soh So,when she saw the posts, she saw the perfect opportunity to get what she wanted: like many before she used those to make up a situation where she was the victim of harassment, hoping to get pity and, by proxy fame and recognition. It was the perfect crime:by claiming of being the victim of harassment that was sexist in nature, she would've got the attention and support of the "social justice warriors", who she knew well and knew they wouldn't have asked neither questions nor proof (by their ogic, a woman tells always the truth while the men lie until proven otherwise, this all hidden under the guise of "victim blaming") The victims? Social outcasts that nobody would ever think of defending, adult male virgins that confined themselves on a board that was "gasp forbidden to females! Why not 4chan? Because its userbase is also composed of females, and its reputation as the "internet hate machine" would have brought dismissive responses from the SJWs. Afterall, that's what 4chan does to ANYBODY, not just females! But the nature of wizardchan allowed her to twist it into an "oppressive males vs defenseless, pure females" war.The posts, however, were too "light" in their offensive nature to enforce the crusade she wanted, so lo and behold! She got harassed by phone too By those very wizards, even though she had no way to tell if they were actually wizards. It's the kind of harassment that can't actually be proved She thought of a raid too at first, but that way she should've given some kind of proof with screencaps or something, so she quickly discarded it 4 hature of wies Madfoot713 6 days ago We're bitter because a young, pretty woman with lots of friends who's depressed gets lots of empathy and shoulders to cry on, while us, as anonymous friendless, kissles virgins, we get called evil and sexist assholes. We don't think someone like Zoe can understand how it feels to be us and she herself has been verbally abusing on her twitter That, of course, was the perfect opportunity for the SJWs to promote their agenda: even if they knew there was something fishy in the story they didn't care, wizchan was the perfect scapegoat for them. So the case of Zoe was published and supported on all the radfeminists sites Giantbomb, Neogaf, Kotaku, Escapist and so on), then people voted her game on Steam Greenlight just to get back at those "pathetic virgins" which was put there a second time just 8 days before her plan was put into motion. Anybody who even dared to question her was met with amazing hostility and leaps of logic, and now here we are Now the game may actually get greenlighted, unless you help http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id-200770535 Mind you, the game isn't even decent, so don't worry. Afterall, how good can a game about "love &empathy& vulnerability" be if it's made by someone who loves nobody but herself, who has no empathy and who is in a position of power which she likes to abuse? In the end, her supporters should listen to her own words Zoë "SnowButt" Quinn Zoe uinnael I also have to say that just because you like someone or ther work, it doesnt mean that they're incapable of abusing someone 18 No THE END These images were made in date 01/02/2014, anything that may appear in a later date in her defense is very likely made up SPECIAL THANKS TO Anita "Hath not a jew a nose? Srksaaksian for giving us the blueprints of how a dishonest "gamergirl acts and talks. Jim Jumbo the zeppelin Sterling for being so comically fat and stupid Dina-Sand in my vagina" Flinstone for proving "gamergits' can get away with murder Mad "Wizard pride world wide" Foot7 13 for fighting the good fight. RIP in peace soldier.:7 What evervone saW Website for Lonely Men Harasses Depression Quest developer harassed for being a Female Game Developer female game developer Female Developer Verbally Abused After Submitting Game to Steam Greenlight Female Game Developers Can't Even Submit A Game lo Greeniight without Receiving Harassment What really happened Anonymage 1 2/1 4/13 (Sat) 04:02:04 No.11095 11097 I really wonder if it was anyone here that harassed her to begin with. I mean, we're pretty passive about everthing And apparently she got people calling her on her phone?I get andety attacks any time I have to call anyone. I cant see anyone here having the balls to do that Anonymage 121 4/13 (Saf) 07:0158 No 111551115 11157 11151 Thanks, it's good to hear that To be honest, we did have a thread about her game. However, I find it weird that she'd call people talking s--- about her or her game, harassment when it was discussed in a place where no one would expect her to see it It's not like we were spamming up her blog with it and being disruptive The phone calls and whatnot, I can understand. That actually is harassing and I hope that whoever it was, cuts that s--- out. I doubt it's a wizard since getting attention from outsiders only worsens wizardchan, but if itis. I hope whoever it is gets perma b& and commits suicide out or loneliness. F--- you·wnoever you are, for stirring up s--- for no reason. I just want to post and Teel here peace, damrnit. Anonymage 1214'13 (Sat) 07:2348 No.11157>11188 11155 l find it hard to believe it was one of us since most anons have social anxiety around phones Anonymage 1214/13 (Sat) 06:40:35 No.1115311220 File: 1rpulak6 wizardchan.image jpg (141.17 KB. 700 700, image jp9 11151 I'm just surprised because there's no evidence this raid even happened. There's people in the neogaf forums calling us the worst excuse for human beings, and saying they want to cut our balls off, when nobody even asked this chick for proof she was attacked. Somehow we're the bullies? Yeah right Anommage 1 2/1 4/1 3 (Sat) 02:17:23 No 1 1 085 1001 11082 What do you mean misogynist hyperbole? It's our side of the story, but it's basically what happened. Nobody here remembers any raid happening, someone last week made a thread about her on N9k and then suddenly she claimed people were calling her house telling her to kill herself. it doesnt add up Gender of developer wasn't the cause of nonexistant harassing but it was the reason for making all those news Also look-Im now writing "Phil Fish sucks cocks and chokes on them, his game is s--- and Iwish he would die". Is that harassing? Will there be articles about it? No there wont, because he's not a female He will not make a story about"muh matriarchy" how he as a male felt'harassed. And ifhe did nobody would care because people care only when women feel insulted Anonymous 12/14/13 (Sat) 12:52:27 No.1120711210 11201 Not the poster you're responding to, but I can't help being a·misogynist." I would criticize a male who has a partner, friends, a lob, etc tnat claims to be·depressed" wnen there is no reason for him to be. And if i s aid this opinion amywhere, probably absolutely nobody would give a single s---. But the fact that I'm criticizing a female with a partner, friends, a job, etc. makes me a "misogynist and now that whole internet is ater me How am I the sexist when every single person defending her would not defend a male in the same situation? In fact, I doubt many of them would even concede the point that a male in the same situation would be a problem, and say something like "You aways get some backlash when you publish something on the Intemet. Deal with it I'm dishing out equal opportunity criticism, and they're reacting to it unevenly depending on the victim's gender. So who's the sexist? Me, or all the people who are on y moved to act if the cti㎡ s a emale? Woman said she has some problems? Let's heip her, doesnt mater what she said is true Who's the real victim Anonymage 12/14/13 (Sat) 01:24:36 No.11142 >11144 » Dont do anything Get bullied Is like highschool all over again. All this crap is making my andety rise to the roof I'm going to sleep With luck tomorrow will be a better day ■ Anonymage 1 2門31 3 (Fri) 23:39:30 No.1 1 1 22 1125 File 1rpt351 u.wzardchan.1381830043666.gif (0o0.36 KB, 776000, 1381830043686.gif) 11121 I don't like how everyone is calling us bigots and creepy virgins and terrible people. Isnt that harassment by their logic? Where is the evidence we harassed her anyway? Nobody posted any threats directed at her in any articles I saw Ugh. It just puts a bad taste in my mouth Anonymage 121 313 (Fri) 23:39:38 No.11123 It honestly blows my mind that people can enjoy depression quest but have the audacity to turn around and say "HaHaHaHA Virgin Nerdl U mad bro? Basement Dweller" So our reason for being depressed isnt legitimate? We lust dont have the cool" kind of depression of being well off both financially and socially? Please, normie lurker ho's undoubtedly taking screencaps ofthe"Epic Fair on this board and sharing it with his friends on CWCiki, answer thsi for me Anonymous 12/1 4/13 (Sat) 11:14.52 No.11187 File: 1 rpwkkev wizardchan 1385398838357 jpg (48.20 KB, 512 512. 1385398838357 jpo) You have a neogaf account? Lurking that thread has p----- me off so much. People there have been saying awful things about us and even saying we dont deserve to be alive, yet anyone who even remotety treats us as human was banned. Banned from the whole site! We dont even get to say our side of the story
Note: click on the images to view and read the contents

Phil Fish's Twitter Rant

Also on August 17th, indie game developer Phil Fish defended Quinn on Twitter, calling those who were attacking her "cowards" and claimed he was "canceling projects" in retaliation (shown below).


DPHIL FISH ePHIL FISH 2h all you people attacking zoe are cowards. attacking a woman the easiest way you can. despicable cowards, all of you. 332 ★82 PHI FISHPHIL FISH 2h all you're doing is making her more visible, and giving her message more reach. £710 ★28 PHIL FISH @PHIL_FISH 2h and revealing yourselves as the subhuman little s---- that you are. わ£77 ★32 PHIL FISH@PHIL_FISH 2h absolutely pathetic, ball-less manboobs. 27 ★47 이 PHIL FISH @PHIL_FISH 57m i just cancelled a project you didn't ever know about. 100 ★157 PHIL FISH @PHIL_FISH 57m and anothor 746 ★71 PHIL FISH @PHIL_FISH 57m and in()i:her 《)ne! れ£739 ★68 ..。

Fish at one point went as far as to compare the people who were attacking Quinn to rapists. However, he deleted this tweet moments after posting it.


PHIL FISH @PHIL_FISH-1m you're essentially rapists.

Quinnspiracy Theory and "Five Guys Burger and Fries"

On August 18th, YouTuber Internet Aristocrat uploaded a video titled "Quinnspiracy Theory: The Five Guys Saga," which criticized Quinn for using sex to influence journalists and for portraying herself as a victim to receive donations and support (shown below). The name spawns from the fact that Quinn allegedly slept with five different men who had positions in the video game or video game journalism industries. The following day, the video was submitted to the /r/videos[14] subreddit, where it gained over 2,200 votes (87% upvoted) and 460 comments. The video was reuploaded after the Internet Aristocrat channel was deleted.


[This video has been removed]


In homage to this video, 4chan's /v/ (video games) board began using references to the Five Guys chain restaurant as a way to make threads about Quinn without it catching the attention of mods. On August 22nd, Internet Aristocrat published a follow-up video attempting to expose further speculation about Quinn using her relationships in the video game industry for personal gain. The video has since been deleted.

Hacking & Doxing Claims

On August 19th, Quinn claimed that her Tumblr and Twitter page were both hacked and that she had been doxxed by users from /v/. The post was subsequently deleted. That day, Tumblr[12] user The Spectacular Spider-Girl pointed out several inconsistencies in the story as evidence that Quinn fabricated the hacking.


Zoe Quinn Fake Doxx/Hack 19 August 2014 Zoe Quinn fakes a doxx on her Tumblr and Twitter, trying to be the victim. Nevermind that at the time there was no'submit' option and trying to reach a submit page resulted in a 404 QUINNSPIRACY HOME ARCHIVE MY GAMES TWITTER WRITING DEV BLOGS Not Found The URL you requested could not be found Copyright 2011 huo Thome, A. Rgts Reserved Hue Theme by Pixel Union Powered by Tumbir And given Tumblr's security features, which would disconnect users if more than one person tried to sign on to the same account, this makes no sense unless she herself is doing it. Multiple people trying to post from the account would be continuously disconnected and forced to log in again. In short, the 'multiple posters' that are posting on her blog are impossible. And given the inconsistencies in behavior, like keeping her blog name, blog theme, not interjecting code into her HTML to get her blog deleted by mods, not just posting her passwords and, very noticeable, capitalizing the v in/v/, suggests this is a false attempt. #Zoe Quinn

In addition, the phone numbers included in the Tumblr dox post were found to have no connection with Zoe. The number listed as "Dad's Work" is no longer functional and was associated with a closed down motorcycle store called, "Twin-Tech Motorcycle Shop." The number that was listed as "zoe's Cellphone" connected to a text to land line phone located in Hawaii.



Rebel Game Jam & The Fine Young Capitalists Doxxing

During the immediate fallout of Eron Gjorni's blog posts, a Reddit user going by the name of SillySladar has raised allegations that Zoe Quinn intentionally sabotaged a female-centric game development event on the grounds that the idea was oppressive, in order to promote her own similar event, Rebel Jam, which is currently being organized[18].


Depression Quest dev claims harassment and misogyny. Facts come out showing she's lying (imgur.com) 136 submitted 4 hours ago by MannoSlimmins (98-A 0h 4chan, please stop this literal r--- 71 commentsshare all 71 comments sorted by: best▼ ↑ [-] Sillysladar 156 points 4 hours ago She f------ doxxed me, ruined a production for women, refused to contact us and is currently taking money for a game jam with no start date, no location and no judges Okay here is my story We ran a group that literally said, "Any woman come up with an idea for a video game, we'll give you concept art so you can pitch your game, and we'll put all the pitches online. The internet will votes on the best one and we'll make that game and give the profits to charity. If you get a lot of interest online and want to make the game on your own, you can leave the contest at any time." Literally everyone that was in the top 5 didn't have programming experience so they couldn't make their game on their own. She was like "Why do you expect woman to work for free to make games." we said well they get 8% of the money as royalties and they just have to give an idea, other people will make the game and the profits go to charity Doesn't matter, it's oppressive. She started a f------ twitter storm, crashed our website, got my personal information doxxed, got us banned from Twitter. We email reporter what up and their like "Duhhhh if Zoey says it oppressive it must be true. Maybe you should give her money for Rebel Jam which has no start date, location or any other information but totally isn't a scam." This happen at 3 major online publications. We literally said we'd pay her to consult on future projects and we'd close down the contest if she would explain to us what is exactly offensive. No response, no response at all, unless a reporter contacted her and then she's the victim All this information is f------ online, the pitches are online, we did everything we said but no online journalist will publish the story http://www.thefineyoungcapitalists.com/Voting Please vote, even if we don't raise enough money if show there is enough of a interest we can get the winner a grant to make their game. I am literally making no money on this contest, I just wanted to focus on something other then woman being oppressed I wanted to show that they made good games and everyone said "That not what women in games want to talk about."

On August 19th, The Fine Young Capitalists released a SoundCloud recording as their explanation as what to what was going on and why they were doxxed.[20] On August 20th, the founder of The Fine Young Capitalists conducted an interview with Invision Game Community about the whole ordeal. The following day, YouTuber PressFartToContinue uploaded a video with the project's founder explaining the story behind how Quinn led a crusade against The Fine Young Capitalists game jam (shown below).


[This video has been removed]


Pepsi GAME_JAM

Around the end of March 2014, Pepsi was arranged to sponsor a televised 'Game Jam' that would feature game developers working in teams to create games. Zoe Quinn was one of the selected participants of this game jam. On the same day it began however, the game jam was halted due to disagreements about it's terms.[25] Some time after the failure of Pepsi's game jam, Quinn wrote a blog post vaguely detailing the events surrounding the game jam's failure, essentially indicting herself as the catalyst for the debacle.[26] On August 25th, Eron Gjoni, Quinn's ex, later shared his view on her role in these events in a Reddit AMA (shown below).[35]



GamesNosh Article

On August 19th, the video game news blog Games Nosh[10] published an article accusing Quinn of "exploiting games press for coverage." Hours later, the @GamesNosh Twitter feed announced that their host had asked them to remove the article (shown below). That day, the page was removed and redirected a HostGator 404 page. The article was subsequently mirrored on Pastebin.[13]


GamesNosh @GamesNosh Follow Host wants us to remove the article. Seeing if we can find a workaround to satisfy them. Reply ta Retweet * Favorite More RETWEETSFAVORITES 26 8 10:52 AM-19 Aug 2014

N4G Article

On August 19th, the video game rumor site N4G published an article that Quinn "was being accused of exploiting games press for coverage." Hours later, the article was removed. N4G has not made a public statement on why the article was removed.


Kotaku Staff Reported to Exchange Positive Game Coverage for Sex 750° being accused of exploiting the nepotism that tends to plague this industry by getting a bunch of favorable coverage from people she has supposedly slept with. In addition to this, videos supposedly critical of these actions have been taken down from Youtube with copyright claims, including a video by a smaller channel called MundaneMatt. It's difficult to tell what is true and what is not." (Culture, Depression Quest, Industry) Submitted by Dr Face Doctor 3h ago | rumor Update Gamesnosh is apparently down due to heavy load, google cached version is below. UPDATE #2: I have recently been sent a PM concerning a recent development in this soy possibly leading to the original Gamesnosh article being taken down or edited in the near future Read full story >> Comments (132) gamesnosh.com+ Like 3 81 38 8+1 Tweet3 Alternative Sources Related content from friends pastebin.com | By: Dr Face Doctor Zoe QuinnKotakuCheatina scandal . kc-vidya-tants.tumblr.com | Br Gorilla-Kila-X Gamesnosh Cached Article- webcache.googleusercontent.com | By. Dr Face Doctor Depression Quest WaiGuide-PC Depression Quest Walkthrough FAS PC Depression Quest Cheats Codes Tips PC It's true No way Hard to tell For sure s this rumor true? Rumor votes 618

Total Biscuit's Response

Also on August 19th, British video game critic Total Biscuit published a blog post which denounced Quinn if she had abused the DMCA to take down criticism of her product and lamented the cronyism present in the gaming journalism industry. The post was subsequently submitted to /r/gaming,[9] where comments were mass-deleted by a subreddit moderator. A screenshot of a Twitter conversation between /r/gaming senior moderator @ElChupacupcake and Quinn began circulating, with many speculating about his involvement in the deletions (shown below). Gamesnosh later wrote an article[19] about the situation detailing the hate Total Biscuit received. On August 21st, MundaneMatt confirmed that the DMCA takedown notice had in-fact come from Zoe Quinn.[22]


el Chupacupcake。EIChupacupcake . 3m @TheQuinnspiracy I'm sure you're frightfully busy, bu ch ce we exchange emails (through pm) so we have a line of communication? HIGH SCORE! 5Milion an o GAMING /r/gaming comments related Zoë 'GRANOS' Quinn @TheQuinnspiracy Follow How does reddit work? Click here to find out. TotalBiscuit discusses the state of games journalism, Steam @ElChupacupcake sure わReply Retweet * Favorite More 514 AM-19 Aug 2014 Greenlight, ethics, DMCA abuse and Depression Quest. twitlonger.com) submitted an hour ago by SpiritualSuccessors 78 comments share all 78 comments sorted by: best▼ [-1 [deleted] 1 hour ago [deleted] -] [deleted] 13 minutes ago [deleted] Reply to @TheQuinnspiracy @ElChupacupcake -] [deleted] 8 minutes ago [deleted] Profile summary -] [deleted] 1 hour ago [deleted] [-1 [deleted] 1 hour ago [deleted] TWEETS FOLLOWING FOLLOWERS -] [deleted] 1 hour ago [deleted] Follow 352 41 8 el Chupacupcake @ElChupacupcake Senior Moderator of Reddit's /r/gaming & /r/hardware. Devourer of media & munchables. Linguaphile. Opinions are my own, if even that. elchupacupcake.com [-] Bravens7 16 1 point just now Why is every comment deleted? -] [deleted] 16 minutes ago [deleted]

On August 28th, Total Biscuit released a lengthier second response on his blog[38] and subsequently as a SoundCloud recording[39]. In his response he expressed the perspective of the average "gamer" through the unfolding of this whole ordeal, and critiqued the style discourse taken by both 'sides' of the debate.

Kotaku's Response

On August 20th, Kotaku writer Stephen Totilo released an article on Kotaku[16] related to the questions surrounding their writer Nathan Grayson, one of the five men Zoe Quinn had allegedly cheated with. In the article, Totilo stated that Kotaku's leadership team found no compelling evidence that any of the claims surrounding the suspected cronyism between Grayson and Quinn were true. Totila also stated that Grayson had only written an article[17] that involved Zoe Quinn when they were still professional acquaintances, and that their romantic relationship didn't start until after that in early april of the same year, which allegedly provided evidence related to Eron Gjoni's claims regarding Quinn's romantic affair with Grayson around that time.


Search Stephen Totlo Filed to: FROM THE EIC 46 minutes ago 16,154 41 ★ In recent days I've been asked several times about a possible breach of ethics involving one of our reporters. While I believe no such breach occurred, I feel it is important for Kotaku readers who have questions to get clear answers.

As investigations into journalistic integrity continued over the days after the article was posted continued, Kotaku decided to make a second statement surrounding the events,[36] this time instilling a ban on all of their journalists from contributing to the Patreons of game developers.

Censorship Controversy

Soon after the release of "The Zoe Post,"[4] several online social media sites began deleting discussion threads surrounding the topic in attempts to prevent a "witch hunt". Sites involved in such activities included N4G, The Escapist, NeoGAF, Reddit's /r/games /r/gaming, Steam's Depression Quest Forums (shown below), and 4chan's /v/ board. Several of the blogs reporting on the Quinnspiracy issue (including Kotaku and Vice) also took part in heavily moderating and/or blocking comments on their posts[37].


aquapendulum Community Moderation Messages » Message Detail Community Moderation Messages > Message Detail Ban notification from a forum moderator-37 minutes ago You have been banned from Depression Quest Discussions You have been banned from Depression Quest Discussions by a forum moderator for your post in "Depression Quest General Discussions": The Fine Young Capitalists - a charity group is trying to make video games designed by women to promote their roles in the industry. Guys, please spend a moment and vote for their projects: http://www.thefineyoungcapitalists.com/Voting And support their IndieGoGo campaign: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-fine-voung- Do keep in mind: 8% of the profit goes to the women who designed the games. The rest of the profit goes to charity The creator of TFYC - Mattew Rappard receives no money from this. Here is what Zoe Quinn thinks about this charity project: http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images loriginal/000/814/183/c06.pmg Give them your support, guys! I voted for Lux by Lucy L Ban Reason: abuse

On August 23rd, an imgur album was published detailing reddit's automated banning of any users who had simultaneously visited 4chan, and participated in discussion threads.[23][24] Around the same time, a Reddit moderator leaked a private message he'd received from Zoe Quinn requesting for the deletion of posts about the incident (shown below).[33] Soon after the leak, reddit administrators took it upon themselves to remove the suspected leaker's moderator status. This resulted in a large backlash from users against reddit's mods and admins.[31][32] On September 7th, a SoundCloud interview with the banned /r/games moderator was published, detailing many of reddit's internal moderation practices.[40]


Tox Luci3nDM Toxing on uTox Some Guy Toxing on uTox Some Guy 7CF686B48226C64D85F52B3C022DC3CAODFE7F004411FOA016475C7A7B5D091A is no w kno wn as Tox User Luci3nD M Hi there Some Guy Would you prefer calling? l've got a lot of typing to do so it'd be easier for me, but I understand if that's bad for you 19:24 19:25 19:25 19:25 19:26 19:26 19:26 19:26 19:26 19:27 mr enigma I just so hate instant messaging Tox User Toxing on uTox Luci3nDM It's only bad because I have no microphone on my test laptop, nor camera Some Guy Cameras are for losers anyway. Ah well Luci3nDM but I have time to let you type, unless it's a novel haha Some Guy So a friend told me you wanted to talk Some Guy Toxing on uTox Some a------ yeah. I recieved the follo wing msg from your friend using this email: dms 7h3g+fomjz8@guerrillamail.com wouldn't kno w his thro wa way off the top of my head Anyway, he gave me a rundo wn of it the msg contained this Zoe Quinn sent the moderators of large gaming subreddits messages telling > >> Luci3nDM 19:27 19:27 19:27 Some Guy Luci3nDM them to take do wn everything to do with her. Posts, comments and all that > She did this through /u/zoequinn or from her twitter account. 1 know >>>> mostly about the two biggest, r/Gaming and riGames. Gaming accepted Games > >didn't. At first they kept it all up but were told by the admins that > >keeping it up would be very bad for their accounts and for the subreddit so they had to take it do wn. I only kno w one mod on each team willing to talk to me now because most of them don't want to say s--- to anyone > that's negative to Zoe or her friends When she told my contact to do things for her she revealed some information nobody else kno ws, but he's not allo wed to talk about >There's more but since I can't kno w whether or not you'll reveal the source of this information I'll leave at that Some Guy I'm one of the mods involved Luci3nDM sorry, just copy and pasted.. okay.. could you tell me what exactly happened? Some Guy She told us to delete everything regarding her. I told her no. The admins thought otherwise 19:27 19:28 19:28 19:28 Her boyfriend contacted us too zoe evidence ZoneAlarm Vibe SquirrelMail 1.4 Ox or Browser
thezoepost from zoequinn [H] sent just now I am going to take HUGE issue with the thread being deemed relevant to games, WITHOUT EVEN GETTING INTO HE-SAID-SHE-SAID, claiming that I slept with Nathan Grayson for positive reviews because A) The source material itself never claims that, and B) There are no positive reviews from Nathan at all during the time period the original material covers or coverage on Kotaku from Nathan at all (http://kotaku.com/tag/zoe-quinn and http://kotaku.com /tag/depression-quest) and C) No one else mentioned is a games journalist. It's spreading something that has caused me and the people I love death threats, doxxing, and spreading of nude photos of me, and it's not relevant to games because the ONE issue that anyone has with this that could have anything to do with games is demonstrably false Please, please have some sanity here. This is dirty laundry tabloid b------- at best. permalink source report block user mark unread reply mod full comments
First Impressio..." by AUTOMATON_Global (remove) 54 minutes ago an hour ago AutoModerator AutoModerator nalixor AutoModerator nalixor nalixor nalixor nalixor AutoModerator removed link "Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes removed link "Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes l AUTOMATON First removed link "Principia Beta Trailer" by rommik (remove) removed link "JH arl» removed link "Someone is making a version of Minecraft in Trials..." by zyx (remove) removed link "Principia 1.5 Trailer" by sdac- (remove) removed link "What's your relaxing time sink game?" by Nelo112 (remove) removed link "Path of Exile launched its 2nd mini-expansion (For..." by omlech (remove) removed link "Social Wars Hack" by karinas123 (removed spam) " by AUTOMATON-Global (remove) an hour ago -w" by Norman7 (removed spam) AutoModeratorremoved link "Marvel Avengers Alliance Hack" by hadzaha (removed spam) AutoModerator removed link "Car Town Hack" by konjko213 (removed spam) AutoModeratorremoved link "Mafia 2 Walkthrough Part 1 Gameplay Review Let's P.." by jonathandjango (remove) AutoModerator nalixor AutoModerator removed link "Phil Fish deletes Twitter account after Polytron a..." by Pyryara (remove) removed link "Dishonored and Borderlands 2 are free during the w..." by Tolkfan (remove) emoved link "Flappy bird free game download" by GamingM (removed spam) removed link "Baby Hazel Games" by iupx (remove) removed link "Haven't really been following Star Citizen, but re..." by beatin (remove) nalixor nalixor AutoModeratorremoved link "Haven't really been following Star Citizen, but re..." by beatin (remove) nalixor removed link "Swing Copters on Android, Game Over Again!!!!" by 3dsmm (remove) AutoModeratorremoved link "Phil Fish and Polytron hacked by 4chan and Anonymo...." by Darkprime (remove) AutoModerator AutoModerator AutoModerator nalixor nalixor nalixor nalixor nalixor AutoModerator nalixor AutoModerator nalixor AutoModerator Forestl AutoModerator Forestl removed link "Good Game Spawn Point - Series 5 Episode 27" by antdude (remove) removed link "Lords of the Fallen ! AUTOMATON First Impression" by AUTOMATON-Global (remove) removed link "Phil Fish & Polytron Doxxed, Phil Fish Quits Gamin..." by AustinG909 (remove) removed link "Buy Fifa 14 Coins Fifa 14 Long Shot" by Noviazhang (remove) removed link "FEZ and POLYTRON IPs are now for sale" by meowreka (remove) removed link "Searching For/Discussion About Bundles and Sales I..." by PratzStrike (remove) removed link "Oculus Rift multi-monitor idea" by throwable_pinapple (remove) removed link "What game sequel was so different it could've been." by badgraphix (remove) removed link "MundaneMatt Live discussion" by SuANH (removed spam) removed link "Polytron Twitter compromised, doxxing Phil Fish an..." by AttackTheMoon (remove) removed link "Phil Fish's @Polytron Twitter account, website, an..." by RequiemCOTF (remove) removed link "Polytron has been hacked, with much of Phil Fish's..." by Cevan (remove) removed link "Polytron has been hacked, personal info leaked" by AZ929 (remove) removed link "Searching For/Discussion About Bundles and Sales I..." by PratzStrike (remove) removed link "Polytron site hacked" by tservomst (remove) removed link "Polytron, creator of Fez, website has been hacked .." by MNCrizzle3 (removed spam) removed link "Silent Hills P.T. Demo Walkthrough Gameplay Part 2..." by ryannull (remove) removed link "Polytron hacked by 4Chan." by mbop (remove) utoModerator Forestl emoved link "Microsoft Research may have crac removed link "What is your dream developer/franchise mash up?" by ReclaimerDC (remove) emoved link "PlayStation Play Now--Why can't I load removed link "Insight on recent game del removed link "Female Indie Dev's Perspective on the Culture removed link "Female Indie Dev's Perspective on the Culture of nut to low. imatwo remove nalixor or or erpis (remove) er (remove ore g (remove orestl y athiest gamer (remove or mes hoxii(remove ore remove oModerator emoved link "Does alk ch..." by SureLockHome remove or let f the remove


Zoe Quinn's Response

On August 19th, Quinn published a post on her Tumblr[11] blog about the scandal, claiming it was about her private life, complaining that members of 4chan had doxxed her and thanking moderators for removing posts about her across the web.

This has nothing to do with games and is not a matter of legitimate public interest, but is simply a personal matter. I would hope and request that the games press be respectful of what IS a personal matter, and not news, and not about games. This is explicitly about my private life, which has been regrettably forced into the public and framed by people who pose a threat to my safety and well being as well as that of the people I love. I would hope that the effort people have gone through to dress it up as anything more would not be enough to have those who see it for what it is take the bait.


I am not going to link to, or address anything having to do with the validity of the specific claims made by an angry ex-boyfriend with an axe to grind and a desire to use 4chan as his own personal army. This is not a “she-said” to his “he-said”. The idea that I am required to debunk a manifesto of my sexual past written by an openly malicious ex-boyfriend in order to continue participating in this industry is horrifying, and I won’t do it. It’s a personal matter that never should have been made public, and I don’t want to delve into personal shit, mine or anyone else’s, while saying that people’s love and sex lives are no one’s business. I’m not going to talk about it. I will never talk about it. It is not your goddamned business.

What I am going to say is that the proliferation of nude pictures of me, death threats, vandalization, doxxing of my trans friends for having the audacity to converse with me publicly, harassment of friends and family and my friends’ family in addition to TOTALLY UNRELATED PEOPLE, sending my home address around, rape threats, memes about me being a whore, pressures to kill myself, slurs of every variety, fucking debates over what my genitals smell like, vultures trying to make money off of youtube videos about it, all of these things are inexcusable and will continue to happen to women until this culture changes. I’m certainly not the first. I wish I could be the last.

Because I’ve had a small degree of success in a specific subculture, every aspect of my life is suddenly a matter of public concern. Suddenly it’s acceptable to share pictures of my breasts on social media to threaten and punish me. Suddenly I don’t have any right to privacy or basic dignity. Suddenly I don’t get to live out normal parts of life, like going through a bad and ugly breakup in private. I have forfeited this by being a blip in a small community, while those who delight in assailing me hide behind their keyboards and a culture that permits it, beyond reproach.

My life and my body are not public property. No one’s life and body are public property.

Sexuality is one of the most personal, hurtful, and easy things to demonize a woman over, and also has nothing to do with my games. Yet large swaths of the gaming community are either unable or unwilling to separate the two. I’m convinced that my ex chose 4chan as the staging ground for his campaign of harassment and character assassination because he knew this; he knew that someone claiming to be “from the Internet” has shown up at my house once already, and he is counting on the most reviled hubs of our community to live up to their sordid reputations. This is another example of gendered violence, whereby my personal life becomes a means to punish my professional credentials and to try to shame me into giving up my work. I’m still committed to doing my small part to create a world where no woman is at risk of experiencing this. That said, I am thankful that even boards with a reputation for being the most hostile places online have been able to tell the intent behind these threads and banned them outright, seeing the hate speech for what it is, and not-news for what it is.

As much as those leading the charge against me will do mental backflips to make posting pictures of my tits about “ethics”, the real agenda is plain as day if you give it even a moment of sincere critical thought. No one who would terrorize someone and the totally uninvolved people they love in this way on such a massive and public scale could ever honestly claim to be interested in “ethics” of any kind. These kinds of accusations have been levied against any woman of status in any industry, ever. I have been judged because, if you are a woman, you are expected to constantly “prove” yourself, and even mere accusations can somehow undo all the good you’ve done and justify any measure of depraved brutality against you. Meanwhile, I see major support thrown the way of my male colleagues when they are accused of any sort of wrongdoing. Neither of these attitudes is correct, and they are patently unfair and reductive. Nobody exists in a vacuum, and anyone can change and grow into a better person. Heroes and villains don’t exist – just regular boring-ass people with scars and fuckups and moments of brilliance. And every single boring-ass person deserves the space to keep personal matters private and handled outside the shark tank of anonymous internet boards.

Once again, I will not be addressing the specific validity of any statements about my private life. If you have good-faith questions or doubts, I am more than happy to discuss private matters in private, where they belong. But I refuse to be coerced into making my private life or anyone’s private life a matter of public record, and I refuse to be continually emotionally terrorized by people who have long decided to hate me regardless.

I’m looking forward to moving on and getting back to work. To anyone else who has had to deal with this kind of indignity on any scale, you have my undying support and my ear if you ever want to talk to someone who might understand. To the people who support my work and can see this crusade for what it is, thank you from the bottom of my heart. To those people, I love you, I always have, and I always will.


Conflicts of Interest and Journalistic Integrity

As Quinn's intimate ties to journalists were being revealed, it was discovered that several games journalists were actively contributing money to her via Patreon.[27] Journalist Patricia Hernandez soon came under fire as well, as gamers began investigating other questionable journalist-developer relationships. Similarly, Robin Arnott, one of the "five guys" that were allegedly involved with Quinn, was also part of a game competition judging panel in which Quinn's Depression Quest won, despite having competition from other widely successful and critically acclaimed games.

Escapist Article Controversy

On February 5th, 2019, the video game news site Escapist[41] published an article titled "How Do We Finally Talk About Ethics?" In the article, writer Russ Pitts approaches the issues of ethics in gaming journalism while acknowledging that, to many, the GamerGate controversy dealt with issues "that had nothing to do with ethics and everything to do with hurting women." Following the publication of the article, Quinn accused Pitts of having "revived a GamerGate hub" without "contacting me or anyone else" who was involved in the controversy. In response, Pitts replied "I genuinely thought you'd probably be over this being all about you." Pitts tweets were subsequently deleted, but screenshots were subsequently reposted by Quinn (shown below).




That day, Pitts published an apology on Escapist titled "An Apology from Editor-in-Chief Russ Pitts," in which he expressed remorse for the article and his Twitter exchange with Quinn, announcing he would "be off Twitter for some time." On February 11th, Take This[42] published an announcement that Pitts had resigned from the board of the mental health charity. Meanwhile, Pitts published an open letter on Twitter, announcing he would be taking a "voluntary leave of absence" from Escapist Magazine to address his "failings."




Related Memes

5 Guys Burgers and Fries

In "The Zoe Post,"[4] Erjon makes the statement, "Now I can’t stop mentally referring to her as Burgers and Fries" as a reference to the fast food chain, 5 Guys Burgers and Fries. Though Erjon did explicitly state not to use this reference on "The Zoe Post," people found this reference to be humorous and continued to use it.


FIVE GUYS BURGERS and FRIES

Vivian James

Vivian James is a fictional character created through the cooperation of 4chan's /v/ board and indie game developer group The Fine Young Capitalists (TFYC) following a series of events in response to Zoe Quinn's attack on TFYC while they were trying to fund a Game Jam with the intention of encouraging women to get into the gaming industry.



*nods respectfully toward you*

*Nods respectfully toward you* is a phrase originating from the @Marcoos93 Twitter account following a tweet in which he shared his support towards Zoe Quinn. The tweet quickly made people brand him as a white knight, resulting in the phrase being used to mock both @Marcoos93 and other male supporters of Zoe Quinn.


Marc Threadingham @Marcoos93 13m @TheQuinnspiracy "nods respectfully toward you" stand your ground against these f----, an try to cope as best you can le nodding man hods respectuly towrd you

External References

[1] Steam Community – Depression Quest

[2] Storify (via Wayback Machine) – Depression Quest Harassment Campaign

[3] Steam – Depression Quest

[4] Wordpress – The Zoe Post

[5] Escapist Magazine – Zoe Quinn or how video game media may have been exposed as a pro-feminist hugbox (unavailable)

[6] Reddit – Depression Quest dev claims harassment and misogyny

[7] Tumblr (via Wayback Machine) – Zion Quinns Kotaku Staff Cheating Scandal

[8] TwitLonger – What the hell just happened??

[9] Reddit – TotalBiscuit discusses the state of games journalism

[10] Gamesnosh – Zoe Quinn Scandal (unavailable)

[11] Tumblr (via Wayback Machine)- Oh Dear God Bees

[12] Tumblr – TheSpectacularSpider

[13] Pastebin – GamesNosh Article

[14] Reddit – Quinnspiracy Theory

[15] Imgur – Zoe Quinn is a liar

[16] Kotaku – In recent days I've been asked several times

[17] Kotaku – The Indie Game Reality TV Show That Went To Hell

[18] Rebel Game Jam – Rebel Game Jam

[19] Gamesnosh – The Ugly Side of “Justice”; Total Biscuit denounced over Zoe Quinn Scandal Comments.

[20] Soundcloud – The Fine Young Capitalist Confession

[21] Twitter – @Marcoos93

[22] DMCA (via Wayback Machine) – MundaneMatt DMCA Takedown Notice

[23] Reddit ShadowBanning – Reddit ShadowBanning

[24] Reddit Banning Thread – Reddit Banning Thread (invite needed)

[25] Game Jam Failure (via Wayback Machine) – Game Jam Failure

[26] Pepsi Game Jam Blog (via Wayback Macine) – Pepsi GAME_JAM Blog

[27] Patreon – Patreon

[28] Zoe's Tumblr Acquaintance – Tumblr Acquaintance

[29] PAX Protest – PAX Protest (unavailable)

[30] Eron Video Proof – Eron Video Proof

[31] Reddit Admin Backlash – Reddit Admin Backlash

[32] Reddit Admin Testimony – Reddit Admin Testimony (invite needed)

[33] Reddit Mod Leaks (via Wayback Machine) – Reddit Mod Leaks

[34] Invisioncommunity – Journalists Game Developers on Zoe Quinn Fiasco

[35] Reddit r/Drama – I'm Zoe Quinn's Ex AMA (invite needed)

[36] Kotaku – A brief note about the continued discussion about Kotaku's approach to reporting.

[37] Kotaku Comment Moderation – Kotaku Comment Moderation

[38] TB's Second Response – TB's Second Response

[39] TB Response SoundCloud (via Wayback Machine) – TB Response SoundCloud

[40] Reddit Mod SoundCloud – Reddit Mod's SoundCloud Interview

[41] Escapist – How Do We Finally Talk About Ethics?

[42] Take This – Statement on Recent Events

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