By Oh, #GamerGate. While some true believers still insist that it’s actually about ethics in games journalism, the movement has become dominated by misogyny, nerd rage, and lots of other off-putting/alarming attitudes. There might be some tiny seed of good intention buried deep in the rabid dirtball of #GamerGate, but it’s mostly just confirmed all of the worst stereotypes about gamers and geek culture. It’ll probably remain in the news for a while given the recent controversies concerning SXSW panels, and it might also be getting the big screen treatment.
As reported by Deadline, Sony exec Amy Pascal won the rights to adapt Crash Override: How to Save the Internet from Itself, a forthcoming memoir by none other than Zoe Quinn. The project has attracted attention from a number of big-name actresses, most notably Scarlett Johansson.
The book Crash Override is due out on September 2016 from Simon and Schuster. Here’s a description of the memoir that was excerpted by /Film from Quinn’s book proposal:
Gaming and internet message boards used to be niche interests, mostly for young men. In the past few years, however, they’ve gone mainstream. Millions of people–including women and other marginalized people–have taken an interest in the platforms, image boards, and discussion forums that once belonged by default to a much smaller population. Most gamers give zero f**ks about this. Like the rest of us, they’re just here to play games. But a vocal minority are clinging onto the brand of Cheetos-and-Mountain-Dew exclusionary identity “hardcore gamer,” muttering “f**kin casuals” under their breath.
The film could be a few years away as it’s still very early in the development process.
I imagine the comments section for this story will be full of reasonable, level-headed discussion.
[Deadline via /Film]