The sound of silence: Intel's response to Gamergate

Industry giant Intel came under fire from #Gamergate supporters recently for their latest ad campaign on gaming website Gamasutra. After receiving complaints from #Gamergate members for involving themselves with Gamasutra, Intel pulled them from the market. The issue with advertising on Gamasutra stemmed from a pro-free press column written by Gamasutra's editor-in-chief Leigh Alexander that fueled the ire for many #Gamergate supporters.

For those that are unfamiliar, #Gamergate began after a scandal this August between indie developer Zoe Quinn and her ex-boyfriend Eron Gjoni. After an inflammatory post on Gjoni's blog detailing Quinn's alleged sexual misconduct during their relationship was made public, members of the gaming community drew connections between Quinn's involvement with gaming reporters and other developers. Cries of ethical misconduct and biased reviews of her game followed suit.

The ethical dilemmas that the gaming community pointed out in Quinn's case prompted a social movement, and its followers pledged to act on issues of journalistic ethics violations as well as push for reform within the gaming journalism community. From this debate, #Gamergate was born.

#Gamergate's mission has been to convince journalists working within the gaming community to abide by basic journalistic ethics. Those engaged in the movement claim that the ethical lines between reviewers and those being reviewed have become blurred. In addition to an overhaul of ethics, #Gamergate supporters have been troubled by the covering of social issues in gaming.

YouTube member InternetAristocrat criticized the gaming journalism community in a recent video. He claimed that the downfall of game reporting began with 'pieces that had nothing to do with gaming or game reviews, nothing to do with software or hardware, nothing to do with events and expos. It started to travel off into areas of social justice and feminism and opinion pieces and op-eds that had nothing to do with gaming.'

InternetAristocrat's video was well received within the #Gamergate community. As of Oct. 9, recode.net reported that the video had nearly one million views and a 96 percent like to dislike ratio on YouTube.

Those that argue against the #Gamergate community have claimed that ignoring social issue pieces within the community and replacing them with reviews of games and technology does not serve to benefit the group as a whole. They argue that this nullifies an integral part of gaming journalism.

Intel's ad removal came under scrutiny, prompting an immediate response from Intel officials. In their press release dated Oct. 9, Intel cited the cause for the removal as a desire to remain impartial in the debate between #Gamergate sympathizers and those in support of the current state of gaming journalism.

Intel ensured the gaming community that they support gender equality and that the removal of their ad content was not due to a condemnation of Gamasutra.

Intel's move to distance themselves from the controversy may be seen as polarizing, but picking sides on a movement such as #Gamergate would not be wise for the technology company. Trapped in a true scenario with no right answer, Intel chose the path of least resistance. While Intel's desire to remain neutral was the main focus of their apology, the fact that they refuse to re-submit their ad campaign speaks volumes.

By Victoria Wood