ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the long history of gaming discourse provides a foundation for organizing political attacks and harassment campaigns by GamerGate actors and adjacent groups. By tracing tactics from historical actions by 4chan members through GamerGate and beyond, this analysis aligns GamerGate mobilization of social media with Christopher A. Paul’s (2012) examinations of theorycraft in MMORPGs: “These theorycraftesque approaches work from outside the game to change how it is played, potentially in ways that were not anticipated by developers, radically expanding the influential forces relevant to games” (p. 380–386). Analysis of GamerGate tactics on Twitter demonstrates how network actors were able to “game” the platform to maximize results, much in the same way dedicated players research and develop optimal strategies far beyond standard game content.
