Wednesday, 27 August 2014


MundaneMatt
Overview of Eron & Zoe
Internet Aristocrat
Part 1
Part 2
So to start out, we had a guy named Eron release a blog about 'Zoe Quinn', and indie developer who has been part of a controversy for the last week. It lays out some relational problems they had, which includes cheating with five guys (and for our purposes, only three matter, and that will be laid out in the future.) It has quite a bit of info and evidence. He has also had follow up post here and here, as well as a Reddit post, here.
The spark of this controversy came when we had Totalbiscuit release a tweet criticizing game journalism, and basing it first off of the Zoe Quinn scandal. This brought Zoe into the spotlight of her relations with two key people who could of 'helped' her career forward, Nathan Grayson and Robin Arnott.

DMCA Takedown notice on MundaneMatt (I need screenshots of the counter)
MundaneMatt released a video over the controversy, which Zoe filed a DMCA take down notice on, only because it had a still of her game, Depression Quest. This is most likely her trying to censor him. This DMCA take down notice was counter by Matt and has now been re uploaded.

Nathan Grayson [Speculation]
Nathan Grayson was apart of the controversy because of possible positive reviews that he wrote for her. This is speculation since we do not know the exact time of their relationship, but it is worth bringing up since evidence does give is somewhat strength. The first review was on Rock, Paper, Shotgun, and the second mention was on Kotaku. In Eron's post, it says that the relationship between Nathan and Zoe was during their relationship, which ended between April 1st - 6th. Zoe was on a Youtubeshow with Nathan Grayson on March 22nd. The RPS article was written in January, but the Kotaku article was written on March 22nd. Nathan did not disclose this relationship until this controversy, where Stephen released his tweet and statement over Nathan and the controversy. Take that as you will.

Robin Arnott
Robin Arnott is a key player here because of him being a chair in the Indiecade game jam, a game jam that Zoe was given an award at.

The Fine Young Capitalist (I the screenshot or evidence of Zoe complaining about TFYC. Also need a picture of Zoe's game jam leading to her paypal)
Zoe also had criticism over the policy of TFYC in their women's only game jam. Its a long situation, but you can read it here. In the end, Zoe rallied support with know Social Justice Advocates to tear down any chance TFYC had of achieving its funding goals. Near immediately after, Zoe set up her own game jam, which has had no updates, but the donation button leads to her personal Paypal.

Joshua Boggs
Joshua Boggs is important because of him being Zoe's boss. This is a clear conflict of interest.

Wolf Wozniak
Wolf Wozniak came out on twitter and announced that Zoe had sexually harrassed him. What followed was a hurl of negativity and bullying from those close to Zoe, until he took the tweet down. Here is the link for the situation.

Wizardchan
A while ago, Zoe released a statement saying that she was getting harassment from a forum call 'Wizardchan', which was heavily covered by the gaming media. She used this to rally support for Depression Quest to get it greenlit on Steam, after it failed the first time. Recently, Wizardchan released some photos about what actually happened, as well as a picture that shows the photo of Zoe on the board named 'my_photo.jpg'.

Fake Dox
At some point, Zoe had tweeted that she was Doxxed, and used it to rally support. It was shown to be a fake dox here, here, here, here, and here. Also, in Eron's post on Reddit, he states that 'Zoe Quinn' is an alias, meaning that the doxes were using wrong information, anyway.

Trying to silence people and the media
When this controversy exploded, Zoe did what she could to try to get everyone silent about it. She was in contact with a Reddit mod who nuked a thread and a 4chan janitor who nuked many threads. There have also been chatlogs released of supposed Reddit mod discussion over the topic, that involves admin participation, but the admins released this statement, saying they had nothing to do with it. Just recently, a mod of /r/games commented about another mod getting booted, and it seems to bring the chat logs into credible territory.
She also told everyone she knew that she wanted 'Radio Silence' over the topic, and worst of all, many gaming media heads and writers support her financially, which would push them to be silent also.
A smaller point, is that on the Depression Quest Steam Page, Zoe is currently banning anyone who post any type of criticism, good or bad.

TFYC Recent Hack
In the chaos of this controversy, 4chan wanted to show support to TFYC, which is the game jam that Zoe helped to destroy. It got a major bump, up to 20k (a third of their needed amount), and was on track with being funded. With all this positivty happening, someone hacked their indiegogo and posted their own statement on it. Fingers are pointing at someone associated with Zoe, or someone trying to taunt 4chan.

Negative Media Reaction
During this controversy, many known figures have come out and insulted the many people who consume their products. Some outlets have posted stories about how people are overreacting and that there is nothing going on, while others are outright attacking them.
Many of the problems being brought up about the media can be referenced here. While some men have lost their jobs for some small issues, the media has been completely silent on Zoe.

PAX Protest
There was a group that was trying to set up a protest at PAX against the corruption, but have come under such heavy harassment, that they have shut it down.

Extra bits
Some extra bits here that don't really fit into a category. Any one who criticizes Zoe in the indie game scene is intimidated to file in or be an outcast. She insulted TB because of his post about the controversy. Some journalist corruption is coming to light. Jim Sterling made a statement.