There are two ways to think about #GamerGate.

The short version is that it’s a loosely-organized mob of so-called “gamers” rallied around a Twitter hashtag focused on the harassment of women — primarily, but not only, female game developers — under the pretense of pushing for higher standards in video game journalism. 

The longer story is that the #GamerGate hashtag has all but taken over a large and growing corner of the web, starting back in August, when a jilted ex-boyfriend wrote a long (seriously, it’s basically a novel) blog entry accusing his former girlfriend, independent game developer Zoe Quinn, of cheating on him with a video game journalist (in the spirit of disclosure, that journalist is a friend of mine) in return for positive reviews of her games. Never mind that the journalist in question had never actually reviewed one of her games — the witchhunt was on. 

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