GamerGate meetup gets sexy. Two weeks ago we reported that the Melbourne chapter of Gamergate, the group that began in August last year in response to women raising concerns about sexism in video game culture, would be having a meet up at the end of this month, promising the attendance of a Victorian politician. The group says its main focus is to call out ethical standards in video game journalism, but its members have also been accused of harassing high profile women such as Anita Sarkeesian and Zoe Quinn. Now the group has revealed which politicians they are courting and who is due to attend their meet up in a Melbourne pub next weekend. The reddit post about the event reads:
“#GGinMelb is excited to announce that the Federal Director of the Australian Sex Party, Douglas Leitch will be attending the #GGinMelb between 1pm and 2pm to meet with #Gamergate membership and have a chat about ethics, and the issues facing gamers in Australia.
Fiona Pattern [sic], the current sitting member in the upper chamber of the Victorian State Senate, was unable to attend due to being out of the city that day for another event.”
Leitch ran for the Sex Party in the seat of Gippsland in 2013, getting 2% of the vote and was made federal director this year. This is the invite, if any Crikey readers feel like they don’t know enough about ethics in video game journalism:
Of course, being Gamergate, that’s not just any woman to illustrate their invite. The character is Vivian James — a creation of anti-feminist gamers on 4chan, and her green and purple outfit is a reference to an explicit meme about rape (link NSFW — or life really). We called both Fiona Patten and Douglas Leitch this morning to ask their position on the group, but didn’t hear back by deadline.
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