Quinn: All GamerGate has done is ruin people’s lives

Depression Quest developer Zoe Quinn has completely dismissed any notion that the online #GamerGate hate campaign has even the remotest link to ethics in games journalism.

It’s all based on utter stupidity,” she told The Guardian. Every single thing they’ve done has been doublespeak, everything they’ve done has been harmful and toxic. Not a single positive thing has come out of Gamergate – all it’s done is ruin people’s lives. It’s disgusting.

I have 16GB of evidence, I’ve got massive amounts of screen grabs. But proof doesn’t matter, logic doesn’t matter – the fact that the review they’re propping up as the excuse for their crusade doesn’t exist and has never existed, that does not matter – it still gets thrown at me constantly.

People can just make shit up and you can’t debunk it, they’ll just replay it. This is used to terrorise my family and go after my boyfriend, to ruin his life too for the crime of being associated with me. Now tell me it’s about ethics in games journalism.”

Quinn also expressed her frustration at those – presumably most notably a handful of prominent YouTubers – who have attempted to be more balanced in their approach to covering the GamerGate saga.

I am losing patience with people who say, ‘maybe the truth is somewhere in the middle’. Really?” Quinn asked. Who sees somebody burning down a house and says, ‘maybe we should get the arsonist’s opinion’? Fuck you.”

Quinn also revealed that thanks to the publication of her personal details online (a practice known as doxxing) she has been unable to return to her home since August.

How could I go back to my home?” she said. I have people online bragging about putting dead animals through my mailbox. What am I going to do – go home and just wait until someone makes good on their threats? I’m scared that what it’s going to take to stop this is the death of one of the women who’s been targeted.”

I never wanted this many eyes on me – I just wanted to make fun stuff in relative peace. It’s become this huge thing and there’s no going back from it. I can’t move on because that means giving up the thing I love. It means giving in. The takeaway from Gamergate can’t become that if you harass someone for long enough they’ll leave. Even though my heart’s not fully in it, I don’t feel like I have another choice that I can live with.”