Wu: Defeating GamerGate would be an historic moment

One of the main targets of the #GamerGate hate campaign has said that ‘defeating’ the movement would be an historic victory for the games industry.

The effect defeating Gamergate would have is incalculable, one of this field’s most historic moments, remembered as the moment games development said: ‘This is going to have to get better’,” Giant Spacekat founder and Revolution 60 developer Brianna Wu told Develop.

Wu, who along with Anita Sarkeesian and Zoe Quinn has been the focus of GamerGate’s most vitriolic abuse, says that if the industry continues to fail to react to this new culture of abuse, it will alienate women for a generation.

I want to be very clear about this – every woman I know in the field is scared and terrified,” she added. They’re scared they will be next. They’re scared their colleagues will shun them if they speak up. They’re scared to enter the field in the first place.

The choice is clear. We either address this as an industry, or we lose a generation of women in development. This harassment is worse in games development compared to other fields like journalism or even the wider tech industry.

The gaming industry must adopt a level of professionalism and diversity commensurate with other industries. It’s time to look in the mirror and have an honest question about the consequences of keeping this field a frat house.

That’s the long-term solution. The short-term solution is for everyone in the industry, from journalistic enterprises to publishers and developers to unequivocally denounce this movement.”