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Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026

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I wasn't really into Gemergate itself at the time, but it was multiple things at a time.

  • Games journalism being untrusted (for instance, Jeff Gerstmann being fired because he gave a mediocre review score to a game heavily advertised on the site),

  • Zoe Quinn allegedly sleeping around (which wasn't a review but her game was covered by the site)

  • Anita Sarkeesian was promoted on multiple sites for feminist critiques of video games, despite knowing nothing about video games and using incredibly old and simplistic evidence.

When the journalists tried to disparage and stop discussion of the above, that just fanned the flames.

Zoe Quinn allegedly sleeping around (which wasn't a review but her game was covered by the site)

Yeah, I remember her supporters were denying that such a review was ever published and obviously thought that this is a clever argument, but unsurprisingly it seems the truth is more nuanced.