Gamergate 2.0: Extremism in video games sees another reckoning

A decade ago, an online harassment campaign against three female video game professionals was dubbed Gamergate. It "formalized the playbook for online harassment used by hate groups and the far right," Wired said. 

Recently, a similar campaign against a narrative design company called Sweet Baby, Inc. (SBI) has some calling this Gamergate 2.0, "invoking the online harassment campaign that erupted into a culture war." The coordinated attacks share several similarities, including "attacks aimed primarily at women and people of color," based on the idea that video game culture is for cis white men alone and is being stolen from them. 

The firestorm that Sweet Baby and its defenders are facing is part of a larger problem that has caught the attention of the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), according to a recently released government report. Together, these events convey a growing problem with extremism in the video game industry. 

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How Sweet Baby Inc. became enemy number one

Wired said the backlash against the Montreal-based narrative development and consulting company started around the release of the "Spider-Man 2" and "Alan Wake II" games in fall 2023. Sweet Baby's social media comment section was overrun with hateful comments, many of which trumpeted the idea that the company was responsible for the "wokeification" of video games, Kim Belair, the company's CEO, said to Wired. In the following weeks, the abuse increased as conspiracy theories spread about Sweet Baby's involvement with the investment company BlackRock. "People want to believe that our work is surgically removing the things." Belair said. "That's just not the reality of it."

In truth, the company functioned like a Hollywood script doctor and had "no actual say on what makes it into the final game," PC Gamer said. Still, a group called "Sweet Baby Inc. detected" nonetheless led the charge against the company for pushing a "woke" agenda of diversity, equity and inclusion in video games. The group formed on Steam, a digital distribution platform for PC games, in late January 2024 and has since gained over 100,000 members. They highlight games they believe Sweet Baby has consulted on and discourage members from playing them. 

Kotaku senior editor Alyssa Mercante infiltrated the group's Discord and spoke to a few members, who said they were concerned about "ideological worldviews that I believe have taken hold of the Western world, media and gaming as a whole" and "race and identity group quotas." After her report was published, Mercante became the target of online harassment. 

This campaign gaining traction during an already contentious election year is not, to some, a coincidence. Large-scale organized harassment campaigns like Gamergate 2.0 "fuel — and are fueled by — political events,” mental health nonprofit Take This said in a statement. The organization's research director, Rachel Kowert, an expert on extremism and radicalization in video games, said that as "political rhetoric heats up" ahead of the presidential election, this type of online activity will increase, and it is "important to understand that these phenomena are interrelated."

The government is keeping track of gaming-world extremism

The growing presence of extremists on Steam and Discord has been well-documented in the last few years, and the American government has taken note. In its recent report, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) revealed that the FBI and Department of Homeland Security are coordinating with social media and gaming companies to "root out so-called domestic violent extremist content," Intercept said. 

The GAO noted that while the two agencies have tools for exchanging information about potential threats related to domestic terrorism, neither the FBI nor DHS has "developed strategies and goals related to such information-sharing efforts." The report draws from interviews with Roblox, Discord, Reddit and a game publisher and social media company that asked to remain anonymous. The GAO found that the DHS intelligence office regularly meets with companies to discuss possible online activities promoting domestic violent extremism or other activities violating the companies' service terms. The FBI also receives tips from gaming companies about content with extremist views that would warrant further investigation, and the bureau, in turn, conducts briefings with the companies about purported threats. 

Despite sharing information, the GAO warned that without a clear strategy or goals, the agencies might not be "fully aware of how effective their communications are with companies, or how effectively their information-sharing mechanisms serve the agencies' overall missions."