I've spent the past year investigating GamerGate and interviewed 70+ people involved for a multi-volume series of books, Ask Me Anything!

[TachyonBlue]

Hello everyone, I'm Kevin McDonald (Tachyon Blue) and I've interviewed 70+ people involved with GamerGate in a variety of capacities for an upcoming multi-volume series of books. The first volume is already finished and now I'm running a Kickstarter campaign to raise money to pay artists, pay for a web domain, get a better home office setup, and other expenses. As part of the campaign to promote the Kickstarter and also engage with the public, I'm hosting an Ask Me Anything topic here, on the JoyFreak forums! Thank you to the staff and community for allowing me to host this, I very much look forward to reading and answering your questions! The Kickstarter will go live on December 9th!

I'm more than happy to answer any questions and hear out feedback that you may have. I will be responding to the Ask Me Anything posts live for at least two hours on Friday, January 3rd, 2025 from 7PM-9PM EST. However, by all means feel free to submit your questions ahead of time in this thread, as I will be going through both live questions and the pre-submitted questions. I'm posting this with the permission of the webmaster.

If you don't want me to read your username aloud on stream as I type my reply to your post, please say so at the start of your question.

TL;DR

I've interviewed 70+ people involved with GamerGate. These interviews are being transcribed into book format. Each of the main volumes will include several interviews with GamerGate people, most of which are available on my YouTube channel, though some are book exclusives. At the end of each volume, there is a "Tachyon's Take" where I give my perspective on a specific topic relating to the GamerGate conversation. There will also be a data volume, comprised of data that I've gathered on the persepctives of GamerGate supporters, opponents and neutral observers. Below is more information, mostly from the Kickstarter page, in case you have additional questions. A full list of people I've interviewed will be available on the Kickstarter page after it launches on December 9th.

The Story
In September 2023 I set forth on an ambitious adventure to investigate and document the stories of the people involved with GamerGate on both sides. In the year since that journey began, I've interviewed 70+ people on both sides for this multi-media project. Many of these interviews are publicly available on my YouTube channel, though others are exclusive to the book series.

So what was GamerGate? I went in without a definition and would try to see what I would find approaching things as neutrally as possible. What I found over the course of these 70+ interviews is a consistent message from the people involved; it was about ethics in games journalism. Nearly everyone involved who supported GamerGate is in agreement that GamerGate was about ethics. You would think that with near unanimous agreement, the GamerGate topic would be relatively simple to understand, though you would be mistaken, as some of the people wanted to add other topics to the conversation other than just ethics in games journalism.

Aside from ethics in games journalism, the two subsequent leading definitions of what GamerGate was about, are artistic freedom and opposition to censorship. Having input data from twelve of the pro-GamerGate interviews so far, these two contingents are both sitting at 41.7%, though with scores more interviews to go, it remains to be seen if these contingents will ultimately exceed 50% support or if other minority factions will emerge in the data. I am also collecting data from the interviews with neutral and anti-GamerGate people separately, though I haven't input enough data from those interviews yet to start drawing conclusions.

Why should we care? GamerGate is a topic that has been misrepresented to a degree that is almost unbelievable. The misinformation that one could find out there about this topic is so vast in scope, that it is difficult to overstate. Almost every claim imaginable has been thrown around a movement about video games. From mundane claims that supporters of the movement endorsed harassment against critics to outlandish claims that GamerGate elected Donald Trump to the American presidency, to frankly just bizarre fever dreams about the movement colonizing Mars. No, I'm not joking.

The topic of GamerGate looms large in the eyes of many a hack writer. While it may be humorous and generate ad revenue to write article after article about how GamerGate was responsible for the world's ills, it is irresponsible and it is misinformation. With so much misinformation out there on this topic, I think it is important that the true story of what happened be told, from the eyes of the people involved on both sides. Its important that historians, educators, journalists, academics, and anyone else interested in learning about the topic, have a reliable resource that they can turn to for understanding what happened.

About the Author
I'm Kevin McDonald, also known by my online handle, Tachyon Blue. I was involved with GamerGate from 2014-2018 under the alias "Netscape" and I organized the GamerGate meetups in Saint Louis, Missouri. I also organized panels at Arch Anime and Natsucon, two conventions in Saint Louis to discuss the topic with the public. In 2019, I wrote my first book, GamerGate: First Battle of the Culture War, to try and document what happened. In 2020, I largely left the internet and focused on real life.

In July 2023, I returned to the internet as a livestreamer focused primarily on political and gaming topics. I was mostly homebound due to some vehicle troubles at the time and was inspired by the livestreamer Destiny to try my hand at combining the worlds of politics and gaming on stream. I've made wide-ranging content since, everything from hosting panels, interviewing people on the ground in Ukraine, debating political issues, discussing films like Alien: Romulus and playing games on stream. I very much had and still have a "taking all comers" type of approach and have engaged with a wide array of people from various backgrounds and political values.

In September 2023, after much consideration, I decided to revisit the topic of GamerGate nearly 10 years later with fresh eyes for my first livestreamed project. I knew my own experiences and I knew the pro-GamerGate perspective, but I wanted to try and investigate what happened, see things from different angles, document the stories of the people involved, and create a thoroughly researched work for anyone interested in learning about the topic.

In "real life" I'm dedicated to getting this project finished. However, when I'm not working on this, I enjoy politics, gaming, history, science fiction and fantasy, fan conventions, festivals, holidays, camping, and tabletop RPGs. I also enjoy spending times with my friends and family.

Tachyon's Takes
In addition to the interviews, each standard volume of the book will also feature a final chapter written by Tachyon Blue that explores a specific area related to the GamerGate conversation. I am still in the process of determining the full list of topics that will be explored in each Tachyon's Take, but some areas I am looking at include:

• Games Journalism (Volume 1)
• Artistic Freedom (TBD)
• Cultural Conversations (TBD)
• Harassment (TBD)
• SPJ Airplay (TBD)
• The GamerGate Wikipedia Article (TBD)
• The Media Coverage of GamerGate (TBD)
• The Politics of GamerGate (TBD)
• And others!

The Data Volume
In addition to the interviews and Tachyon's Takes, I am also using two different data collection methods for this project. The first method is that I have mostly used three separate standard question lists for the pro-GamerGate, anti-GamerGate and neutral interviewees. The voice interviews go well beyond the question lists and the question lists have changed over time. However, as I am asking most people the same questions, I am gathering data from the interviews based on my good faith interpretation of how they answered many of the questions on their respective list. I ran the original question lists by Mist Sonata, who is anti-GamerGate and Yuune, who is neutral on GamerGate, to help make sure they were neutral.

Here are the three standard question lists as of November 12, 2024:

Pro-GamerGate:
Anti-GamerGate:
Neutral:

The second data gathering method I am doing is that I have sent out optional surveys to the people I've interviewed, with three surveys in total, one for pro-GamerGate people, one for anti-GamerGate people and one for neutral people. These three surveys are mostly identical, so the reader can compare how each group answered each question.

Interviewees had between March 22 until the morning of May 1, 2024 to complete the survey. Of the people I've interviewed, 27 pro-GamerGate interviewees took the optional survey, 4 anti-GamerGate interviewees took the optional survey and 6 neutral interviewees took the optional survey. I offered extensions to 1 pro-GamerGate, 1 anti-GamerGate and 1 neutral person due to them having major life events occurring during the survey period.

Here is a public demonstration of the questions asked in the surveys: GamerGate Optional Survey (Public Display)

The data collected from these two different data gathering methods will be in the Data Volume, which is included in hardcover with the Vivian James Bundle and The Complete Set, Hardcover+Digital. The Data Volume in digital only format is included with the Gilda Mars Bundle, Sealion Bundle, Lillian Bundle and The Complete Set, Digital. The Data Volume will be the final volume.

Support the Project!
Back the Kickstarter (Live December 9th):
Project Socials: Website | Interviews Playlist | Interview Clips Playlist | Twitter | Bluesky | Facebook
Follow Tachyon Blue: YouTube | Twitter | Bluesky | Facebook

 

[TachyonBlue]

The Kickstarter embed doesn't seem to be working, perhaps because it is still in pre-launch mode. You should still be able to access it if you click on the link in "Kickstarter campaign" above or by visiting: https://gamergatebook.com

 

[Osiris397]

Why were you interested in writing a book about GamerGate these several years later? What's the most commonly misunderstood position of GG? Why do you think there's such a strong real or percieved connection between GG and Anita Sarkesian? Based on what you know would members of GamerGate be for or against Avowed today?

 

[TachyonBlue]

I'm happy to announce that the Kickstarter has launched! I see we already have a question submitted! I look forward to going through your questions and comments live, please keep them coming!

 

[TachyonBlue]

Hi, I'm answering some questions (chronologically) in advance of the live AMA. I definitely be replying to everyone with the live AMA as well, though you may periodically see me reply to some questions in advance.

Why were you interested in writing a book about GamerGate these several years later?

I was involved myself and unfortunately saw the misrepresentation happen live. I wanted to create a resource that would show anyone interested in learning about it, what really happened and from a variety of perspectives. I think it's important that the world have an accurate accounting of what happened for a few reasons.

For starters, I believe the truth in and of itself is important. If people hold false beliefs, that is unlikely to be of benefit to humanity or help them make more informed decisions. This is perhaps even more true when it comes to GamerGate than other topics, given the amount of misinformation and wide breadth of it's scope. If one took claims about GamerGate from Wikipedia or some news/opinion sites seriously, they would come away thinking that evil misogynistic gamers changed Human history by electing Donald Trump in 2016 and caused many of the world's ills. This fake history isn't true though and any lessons learned from it by future historians, politicians, journalists or anyone else are going to be taking away conclusions that aren't substantiated by the evidence.

Right now I'm also concerned that we are experiencing a crisis of trust in institutions, both in the sense that people don't trust our institutions and in that some institutions have brought about that lack of trust themselves. GamerGate is a part of that loss of trust, particularly when it comes to media. If we're going to do the hard work of rebuilding trust in institutions, then we're going to have to make sure that they are able to self-correct and part of that self-correction is by correcting the record when they've messed up and harmed their own credibility. GamerGate isn't the only example of this happening, but it is perhaps one of the largest and most well known "mistakes."

And additionally, the GamerGate people themselves were the victims of a grave injust that occurred a decade ago. They deserve better than to be misremembered as misognyistic nazis who harassed women. It wasn't true then and no evidence has come forward to indicate otherwise in the years since.

What's the most commonly misunderstood position of GG?

That's a good question. There are two "anti-GamerGate" framings of GG that are fairly common. The first is the harassment campaign narrative that you see on Wikipedia. According to that narative, there was no ethical violation by Nathan Grayson and it was all a smoke screen to encourage harassment against Zoe Quinn, Brianna Wu and Anita Sarkeesian. The second is that GamerGate was a right-wing (sometimes framed as "far-right") movement that opposed diversity in games and elected Donald Trump.

Neither framing is accurate. The harassment framing relies on misinformation, the claim that there was no ethical violation. However, this isn't true. Nathan Grayson promoted Depression Quest over 47 other games for Rock Paper Shotgun and investigated the Polaris Game Jam failure involving Zoe Quinn for Kotaku without disclosing his conflict of interest. Grayson is thanked in the credits of Depression Quest, went to room parties at GDC together and Grayson had tweeted just a day after his Rock Paper Shotgun article that he would burn down the gaming industry if Quinn ever left the industry. Quinn's boyfriend at the time, Eron Gjoni, also alleges that Quinn cheated on him with Nathan Grayson.

It also isn't backed up by the data or the way the GamerGate people acted. There have been three studies (1 2 3) on GamerGate and harassment. All three show that the vast majority of people involved weren't engaging in harassment. The GamerGate people even created the GamerGate Harassment Patrol to self-police their movement and make sure there wasn't any harassment, as well as having strict rules on their communities against harassment like doxing. When Felicia Day was doxed by an unknown actor, GamerGate supporters swiftly condemned it. The reality is that people on both sides engaged in and received harassment during GamerGate, though for the most part the media only discussed harassment if it was against one side.

The second framing about GamerGate being right-wing or electing Trump isn't based in the data. The people making this claim, as with the harassment claim, are making the claim and the onus is on them to demonstrate it. We don't need to guess about the political leanings of GamerGate supporters, there has been empirical scholarship on this. Stetson University's Chris Ferguson and journalist Brad Glasgow surveyed GamerGate supporters in December 2015 and January 2016 and found that the movement leaned left and was more left-wing on every political question (except affirmative action) than the average American that they could compare their data to Pew Research polling. Their paper was published in the journal Psychology of Popular Media.

My own research has also found this claim to be untrue. GamerGate was a political diverse coalition involving people from all walks of life and political persuasions. Almost no one who supported GamerGate believes it was right-wing and the coalition that formed from 2014-2018 still remains politically diverse today. For instances, in the optional survey I sent people, American GamerGate supporters were almost completely evenly split on the last three presidential elections. A third going for the Democrats, a third going for Trump and a third going for third party or not voting. The 2012 election had Barack Obama winning a plurality with 38.9%. It should be noted that according to Ferguson and Glasgow's research, only a little over half of GamerGate supporters were American.

Why do you think there's such a strong real or percieved connection between GG and Anita Sarkesian?

Anita Sarkeesian may play into the GamerGate conversation in a few ways.

1. Anita Sarkeesian claims that GamerGate supporters are responsible for the harassment she received.
2. Some GamerGate supporters were involved with GamerGate because they supported artistic freedom, for these people they may have disagreed with Sarkeesian's pro-censorship stance or the perception that she was part of a moral panic about video games.
3. Some GamerGate supporters were involved with GamerGate because they believed that "social justice warriors" and thought the ideas that she was promoting were wrong or that she had misrepresented games.

Based on what you know would members of GamerGate be for or against Avowed today?

I wasn't familiar with Avowed until just now, I just watched the pre-order and story trailers on stream while typing this reply. The reality is that GamerGate supporters have widely varied tastes in games, so I imagine some of them may be interested and others not. I guess people have criticized the game for being "woke" and that's why you ask? If so, I'm not sure what specific aspect of the trailers or other information about the games were critcized or the reasoning. Here's a sneak peak from the optional survey of what GamerGate supporters say when asked if they enjoy playing some games with progressive or social justice themes. As you can see from the questions in the optional survey in the OP, I'm gathering a lot of data regarding the socio-political attitudes of GamerGate supporters, as well as attitudes towards gaming and their perception of a wide array of fictional characters.

 

[Osiris397]

The thing I would like to add here is that when you have a loosely defined and unfunded "movement" often times there's no one particular perspective that can clearly define the "ideology" of a group of loosely associated individuals. There may be some people that don't believe in harassment while others vehemently do.

The the term "Gate" in a group's name whether it's stated or unstated means that there is an intent to set a rigid boundary and different people will interpret that differently to the extent that the group can't disassociate itself from more proactive members that interpreted setting a "gate" up as a more corrosive act for one side to create space for the "gate."

 

[TachyonBlue]

The thing I would like to add here is that when you have a loosely defined and unfunded "movement" often times there's no one particular perspective that can clearly define the "ideology" of a group of loosely associated individuals. There may be some people that don't believe in harassment while others vehemently do.

The the term "Gate" in a group's name whether it's stated or unstated means that there is an intent to set a rigid boundary and different people will interpret that differently to the extent that the group can't disassociate itself from more proactive members that interpreted setting a "gate" up as a more corrosive act for one side to create space for the "gate."

Hey Osiris, thank you for your follow up. I'm not sure GamerGate was especially loosely defined, as the people involved seem to be nearly unanimous in that it was about ethics in games journalism. Where it gets a bit more complicated is that some of the people involved added other things to it, such as opposing censorship, artistic freedom or for a smaller cohort, opposition to "SJWs."

As for harassment, that's a positive claim, so I would say that the burden of proof on those making that claim is on them. There were some people in GamerGate and against GamerGate who engaged in harassment, though by all metrics it seems to have been quite a small number of people.

I'm not sure I follow with the term "Gate" in the group's name referring to a rigid boundary? "-Gate" is a pretty common suffix, I believe stemming from Watergate.

 

[TachyonBlue]

Thank you to the Joyfreak community and staff for allowing me to host the AMA here. Thank you, Osiris, for submitting your questions. I hope you all have an incredible new year and I am happy to report that we've successfully hit our funding goal of $6000! Thank you so much to everyone who has backed and if you haven't already, you still have until the very early hours of January 8th.

 

[TachyonBlue]

Thank you again for having me everyone and to everyone who backed, you have made this project a reality! I'm happy to report that the Kickstarter was successful and we are now just in the final 9 hours of the campaign. If you haven't already, please consider backing in the final stretch. Have an amazing evening and 2025, everyone!

 

[rickeey1]

It’s impressive to see such an in-depth investigation into Gamergate—especially with interviews from so many people directly involved. It’s a reminder of how complex and multifaceted online communities and controversies can be.