Not really as I don't play many video games. However, Quinn and Sarkeesian et al are pretty much the worst, making the entire situation something best avoided.
That's fair as far as it goes– but it might just be a good idea to care about harassment and death threats.
Death threats via the internet are some of the least credible things out there. You get death threats if you post something against the circlejerk on Reddit or against an SJW on Tumblr, for example, but you'd be a paranoid idiot to take either seriously. It's also hard for me to take internet harassment seriously (especially from strangers) compared to real life harassment as it's so incredibly easy to avoid it on the internet.
Now, it's certainly not a good or nice thing to do, but it's not really notable.
Dude, people like Brianna Wu have had their personal details exposed and have been forced to flee their houses for
months because of this; Sarkeesian had to cancel a talk because of a shooting threat that the authorities certainly took seriously.
You're comfortable dismissing that as "not credible"? You think that's equivalent to even the strongest words coming from Redittors or SJWers or any other community? Look, I'll gladly grant that a lot of these folks can use sloppy logic and be kind of a hive mind, it's okay to dislike them, but there's just no legitimate comparison between them and Gamergate and it discredits you to pretend that there is.
As for Sarkeesian... no matter how much "the worst" you think she is, surely you can agree that she has the right to engage in her critiques without fearing for her life? Surely you can agree she isn't worse than
Stormfront? Look, while I'm sympathetic to her general project, I don't necessarily think she gets all the details right; there are some overgeneralizations and uncharitable readings there that I'd certainly quibble with. But these Gamergate f**ks aren't poking holes in her logic, they're reacting with blind fury at the idea that how
dare anyone engage in cultural critique. That's something different. And, well, they're doing more to prove her right (or at least, on the relative side of right) than anything she could say or do herself.
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