GI alumna, and current Research Communications Officer, Dr. Emma Vossen was recently interviewed by Toxic Avenger Magazine about her research on games culture and online harassment.
Toxic Avenger Magazine is run by TrollBusters, an organization that helps journalists and other professionals affected by online abuse such as hate mail and death threats. This is familiar territory for Dr. Vossen who was a target of Gamergate and various figures in the alt-right during her time as a PhD student at UW and a Postdoctoral Fellow at York University and the University of British Columbia.
Dr. Vossen was interviewed by Ruby Winter about what the early days of Gamergate were like and how she feels about these experiences almost ten years later.
“I think the most important thing for people outside of games to know about Gamergate is that it was a specific manifestation of cultural events that had been happening in and around gaming and the games industry for years, and that continues to happen today. Gamergate was/is a reactionary and inherently conservative movement; these actors are reacting to the fact that oppression in and around games is being discussed. They don’t like that it’s being openly discussed as they enjoyed things how they were. I’ve heard Gamergate described as a fight for the soul of games culture; I think it’s more about a fight for the path games culture (and also the games industry) will take. Some want games culture to stay in the past, to be a place of oppression for everyone who is not a straight white cis male. Others are trying to drag games kicking and screaming into the present and show the world how amazing games can be, and how much more they can be.”
Dr. Vossen was also quoted in another article in Toxic Avenger Magazine looking at how misogynistic digital mob violence in the style of Gamergate continues today.