What’s happening in Gamergate?

Gamergate has been a huge topic of discussion at The Verge in the past few days. It’s become clear during that period that Gamergate is really, really confusing. It’s meant a lot of things over the past three (seriously! three!) months that it’s been around for. We’ve largely stayed clear of it, but in light of our recent piece, I want to know what everyone actually thinks is going on. Right, now, that means you. Our readers. I’m not trying to figure out whether people agree with it, or what they think should happen, or get two-word answers like “journalistic ethics” or “misogynist harassment.” I’m really curious what events you think started Gamergate, what specific problems people who support it are upset about (again, not “corruption” — I mean like “Ian Bogost paid IGN $50 million to write a good review of Cow Clicker”), what people have actually done (i.e. “Intel pulled sponsorship” or “a journalist said she would stop writing because of harassment.”) Oh, and if you have no idea what Gamergate is, or only a vague idea of what’s going on? Please post that. It’s one of the things I’m most interested in. I’m opening a thread in the forums, and I’ll be reading through it — I’m interested in explanations, but I want to keep argument and rhetoric there to a minimum. I know there’s an “operation” against our parent company right now, and this is emphatically not the place to promote it. Comments on this piece are closed, because the forum thread is where it’s at right now. In turn, I’ve tried to gather my own thoughts on the questions above. If you’ve ever read me or met me or probably even looked at a picture of me, I have obvious biases. So I can’t claim to be objective, especially because I’m incapable of giving a full, comprehensive look at absolutely everything that’s going on (you can head to Vox for that.) There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes discussion in 4chan, Reddit, and other forums that I’m not even getting into, and I’m likewise not going to be able to capture the breadth of harassment, threats, and other harm that’s come to specific people on any side of the debate. I’m not evaluating the reasonableness of most arguments, and I’m working under the charitable notion that there are people operating in good faith under the Gamergate banner, not just trolls. If you have strong feelings on Gamergate, I’m sure you’ll think I’ve left out something vital or come to at least one wrong conclusion. But I’ve spent weeks watching this and trying to keep up with what’s happened and why people are angry. So...