#either the name or the title And both narrated by the author and snippets of the authors life in character form

[moss-reads]

" On earth we're briefly gorgeous" by Ocean Vuong is a work of art, its messy and complicated but beautifully poetic all the way through, i've never gave a book 5 stars so fast, and Ocean's narration of the audiobook is so perfect, my favorite thing is when authors read their own work and you can hear all their emotions they poured into their writing come up off the page

i have so many thoughts and none at all, it was a masterpiece and im so glad i gave it a chance

[erraticauthor]

When the Game of Life Goes Wrong: An Analysis of Gamergate

Blood, violence, and nudity are staples of video games today, with titles like Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, and Resident Evil topping the charts as some of the highest grossing games of 2017 (”2017’s Best Selling Games”). But with big profit comes big real-world consequences when that same violence is turned on women within the gaming community in events like 2014’s Gamergate controversy, which is still in effect today. Eron Gjoni, ex-boyfriend of game developer Zoe Quinn and blogger who started Gamergate, uses pathos, dark humor, and a specific platform to maximize target audience to argue that Quinn slept with a reporter to get better reviews on her game Depression Quest, while getting the audience to side with him despite not hearing the full story.  In her book, Crash Override, Quinn argues her side of the story in a different manner.  Using anecdotes of her past, casual tone with expletives, and inclusion of a larger audience, she examines how Gamergate affected herself and the gaming community, giving special light to marginalized groups and making her seem more selfless by comparison.

To understand what both writers are arguing about, one must first know what Gamergate is.  In 2014, Gjoni posted on his personal blog a ten-thousand-word account of his relationship with Zoe Quinn, who he claims was an emotionally abusive, compulsive liar that cheated on him with both her own boss and Nathan Grayson, a game reviewer for Kotaku, a popular website to learn about gaming news.  From here Reddit users began an internet witch hunt where they began harassing Quinn on social media, hacking into her personal accounts and releasing her home address and other private information to hordes of others who sent her death, rape, and abuse threats daily.  Quinn was forced to move households out of fear for her own safety, escalating the event further (Gawker).  

In this blog Gjoni claims that Quinn’s affair with her boss was not a means of “moving up” in her career, stating no one would risk their game development for “side benefits.”  However, he does manipulate the audience into inferring that she slept with Grayson specifically to gain better reviews for Depression Quest.  Writing in this way blurs the line behind blatant sexism and casual sexism, making Gjoni initially seem like a nice guy to dismiss the idea of sex as a means of “moving up,” and making it harder for the audience to pinpoint his real message which is that Quinn slept with Grayson to get better game reviews. Furthermore, this account was originally posted on Reddit, a site where the userbase is largely made up of other white, male video gamers who often hold neo-Nazi ideals was a prime place for disaster. Using Reddit as the platform to post his blog was likely a calculated tactic that Gjoni employed, as those most likely to relate and react to his story were fellow Redditors.  

Despite being the source of the controversy, Gjoni has since re-posted the blog, as it was removed from multiple sites for not following their guidelines.  Above his account on his newest blog he writes “I DO NOT STAND BY THE CURRENT ABUSE AND HARRASSMENT OF ZOE QUINN OR FRIENDS.  STOP DOING THAT.  IT IS NOT IN ANYONE’S BEST INTEREST.”  The bold letters and use of all capitals shows that Gjoni doesn’t seem to approve of the harassment of Quinn or of any women in the gaming community as it is not “in anyone’s best interest.”  Despite this, diction used in sentences like “and I keep thinking back on this and I’m like ‘Five guys.  Man. She cheated on me with five guys? Five guys.  And now I can’t stop referring to her as Burgers and Fries” (Gjoni) showcases his feeling on Quinn as a person, and hints to how he presently feels about their past relationship.  Using dark humor, by calling her “Burgers and Fries” creates a relatable voice in his writing and the simple word choice makes the text easy for the audience to understand and connect to.  

Use of images throughout the blog of previous conversations with Quinn that include lines like “ugh don’t tell her to go public fuck, don’t put that in her head” and “also uh to be upfront I feel irrationally weird about you crashing with [Name Redacted]” (Gjoni) in which Quinn begs or is “hypocritical” provide support for Gjoni’s claims and appeal to a reader’s sense of logos as they appear to be visual evidence.  But, the reader is given no context behind these images anywhere other than the text itself, making it easy for Gjoni to potentially doctor or edit these photos to fit his narrative and portray himself as the victim of the story when Quinn is given no voice to defend herself against these accusations.  Though Gjoni appeals heavily to reader’s senses of pathos and logos, what most readers fail to recognize is that he lacks true credibility.  While his story is a primary account of events, and how he and Quinn responded to them, overall the topic matter is still about a messy break-up.  Exes wanting to get revenge or seeking to harm the reputation of the other is not uncommon in events like these.  Since the target audience of this post was made up of people that were not directly related or involved in the relationship and matters of Quinn and Gjoni, they don’t have objective evidence of what happened.  And in this case, fell victim to the “shock value” of Gjoni’s story detailing in graphic account of “atrocities” like the “Cum Collage” (Gjoni) of sexual affairs that Quinn committed based only on face-value evidence and extortion of Western human ideals of morality and monogamy.

Quinn is not a wholly reliable narrator either, in her book Crash Override, but taking this into account, she poses her argument in a different manner, focusing less on the background of Gamergate but on how and who it effects in the community – largely marginalized groups such as black women and trans people.  Doing such makes her intended target audience much larger than Gjoni’s, including not only women in the gaming community but groups of people who experience harassment more frequently as well.  An effect of doing this is an appeal to pathos, given that marginalized people are very rarely given center stage for their voices to be heard. In giving them this opportunity Quinn creates a tie of support between these groups and herself.

Despite the book being a retaliation to Gamergate, Quinn gives very little background details on her relationship with Gjoni, so as not to “feed the trolls,” in a sense and create more harassment for herself. Taking this approach makes her seem above the break up in the eyes of her readers.  But she does add small snippets into her writing such as “I’ve experienced multiple researchers citing incorrect details about my own case, frequently leaving out key facts like Gamergate’s roots in domestic abuse or the movement’s extreme targeting of nonwhite women” (165).  It’s important to note that Quinn claims that Gjoni was the abusive person in the relationship while he himself claims the opposite.  Therefore, both of their credibility and honesty must be questioned with everything they write about the personal aspects of the issue. But Quinn points this out herself throughout chapter eleven, titled “I Was a Teenaged Shitlord,” writing,

When so much of online abuse is driven by a failure to empathize with someone on the other side of the screen, turning those who are abusive online into some unknowable, unstoppable force of nature is a damaging mind-set.  If we don’t try to understand them on a human, personal level, then we are moving forward in the dark.  By dubbing them “those people,” we are also explicitly setting ourselves apart as if we aren’t one of them and thus can’t be part of the problem. (175)

She then goes on to explain how when she was younger she was an internet “troll” as well, who had fun causing distress to others online. Offering this background to the reader puts her in a more honest light, and therefore makes her seem more trustworthy in what she is writing.  The use of the word “Shitlord” in the title and simple diction further humanizes her, making her seem more approachable, and therefore relatable.

Quinn then further goes on to offer possible solutions to the problem of harassment online, unlike Gjoni who just expresses a problem.  Thus, the authors have different goals in what they want their audience to do after reading their respective arguments.  Gjoni wants to connect to groups that feel outraged or upset at events like cheating and emotional manipulation and for them to react to his writing.  Quinn, on the other hand, focuses more on teaching the audience that there is no “us vs. them” in online abuse, and that everyone must work on rehabilitating themselves as well as abusers for the internet to truly be harassment free.  Thus, this portrays Quinn in a more altruistic light, making her seem wiser, and more like a martyr in the eyes of her audience.  Gjoni can be viewed either negatively or positively depending on how and where someone reads his piece.  Though, the formatting of sources likely plays a large part in the connotation surrounding both writer’s texts.  Gjoni posted his as a blog, a format that usually isn’t meant to be viewed in a scholarly way, as blogs are typically associated with emotions and opinions rather than facts and honesty.  Books on the other hand are viewed as more scholarly and believable sources because they go through an editing process before publishing, therefore giving Crash Override a more credible outlook in the minds of readers.  

Overall, Quinn gives a stronger argument for her cause despite relying heavily on pathos and logos like Gjoni did.  The main difference is that Quinn admits her own flaws in her life both on and off the internet, as well as by targeting a larger audience, and offering up both her analysis and solution to events like Gamergate as they continue in the future. These attributes give her a fuller, more developed argument as a whole.  Despite her use of extremely casual language, Quinn seems both approachable, but more professional than Gjoni does in what she writes about, citing her own business’s creation as a light in the wake of destruction that Gamergate left on her life.

 Works Cited

What is Gamergate, and Why? An Explainer for Non-Geeks.  Gawker, 10 Oct. 2014,

http://gawker.com/what-is-gamergate-and-why-an-explainer-for-non-geeks-1642909080.

Gjoni, Eron. The Zoe Post. The Zoe Post, 16 Aug. 2014, https://thezoepost.wordpress.com/.

Morris, Chris. Here are 2017’s best-selling games so far.  CNBC, 12 Jun. 2017,

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/12/2017s-best-selling-video-games--so-far-nintendo-microsoft-sony.html.

Quinn, Zoe. Crash Override. Public Affairs Books, 2017.