I know how nasty backlash can be on the Internet.
— Zoe Quinn
I've been trying to reassert myself as a human and not just a current events story. I should not be the face of online harassment.
I've lived my entire life online.
If Gamergate had happened to somebody else, years earlier, I probably would've been on the wrong side.
A big barrier to people getting help with online harassment is the general attitude either that it's not a real issue - that it's 'only' online - or that it's limited to someone saying they don't like you, and all of that stems from a basic misunderstanding of what we mean when we say 'online harassment.'
There are few people I can talk to about the worst parts of what happened during Gamergate.
You don't really see many games that stand as a pure comedy games.
The topic is too big, there's too many people who live with it, and too many moving pieces for anyone to do a definitive statement on what depression is like for everyone. 'Depression Quest's' goal was to be a basic introduction to the concept and to get the conversation started.
The bulk of my work is comedy and I wanted to use the gaming world as a vehicle to deliver comedy.
It's very alienating to become a target, and it can be really difficult to try and explain to people, to family members.
I grew up in a super small town in upstate New York; my nearest neighbour was really far away.
I don't want to tell a story about how technological advancement is bad.
I was the funny-looking one who wore a trench coat and played hacky sack with the other greasy kids.
There's an idea that, 'Oh, the more technology you have, or the more you modify your body, the less human you are.' I think that's super gross, and inaccurate, and also offensive to anybody who relies on technology to live.
It's weird when you stop being a person to a lot of folks and just become a weird talking point. It's like you become a meme, and you're not a person anymore, and people don't mind stealing your life.
GamerGate and what it's been doing, is wrong.
I know that if enough people shout a falsehood, people start to think it's true and a lot of people don't do independent verification of everything they hear.
It's so weird, like, it's not like Gamergate is the only bad thing to happen to me. I've been homeless before, I've had to come through other stuff. A profoundly abusive childhood, but at least that stuff feels like I got to move on from it, that stuff is in the past.
My family are so proud of me for standing up for marginalised people in nerd communities.
Growing up in a small town in upstate New York, some of the first real friendships I had were in chat rooms.
I spent my 21st birthday chatting with my online friends because my husband had little interest in celebrating with me, and there was no other group of people I'd rather spend time with, even if they weren't there with me in person.
I would not have pretty much any of the good things in my life if it weren't for the Internet.
One joke coming from one person can land completely flat, while somebody else delivering it in a unique way can really elevate it.
Depression Quest's' tone is one of hope. Many players have told me they've tried to take steps in their life to get their illness under control. I tear up while reading my e-mail on subways a lot.
I was diagnosed with depression at fourteen, but I couldn't find any medication that did anything for me other than making things worse.
The reason I namecheck restorative justice so much is because that, to me, is the utopia.
Game development combines all this disparate art stuff I'd been doing into one single thing that I could use to say very specific stuff.
I like the weather in England.
I'm so tired of cyberpunk that says using machines to make your life better makes you less human.
I was nerdy and awkward and didn't know how to talk to people - except online.
For me, I don't think there's anything more human than technology. That's a big thing separating us from other animals: we make things, we build things, we create machines.
There have been a number of film, TV, and - actually - theater productions that have been based off of me. Pretty much none of them have ever actually spoken to me, and I die in most of them.
I just wanted to make video games.
The thing about astroturfing is that it can be really believable.
The No. 1 thing I've seen actually help with online abuse is when the person has a good community or a strong support network that's savvy and that can help them.
My entire career is online - I create games on the web.
Any kind of gender expression is performance for me, regardless of where it is on the spectrum.
I like the idea of using cool cyberpunk stuff to tell really stupid jokes.
I always want to find meaning in stuff that sucks - I don't want it to be the end of the sentence.
When you really boil it down, what comedy does is you expect one thing, and you get a totally different thing that's humorous, and we all laugh. That's generally how, just mechanically - super-distilled - comedy works.
Anyone can have depression. The illness doesn't care how much you do or don't have.
I get apologies from Gamergaters pretty regularly saying: 'I didn't think you were a real person.'
Our justice system is a punitive one that's there to sort of deal with what happens after someone's already offended.
A friend of the family gave me a Game Boy when I was very little, and it was amazing.
It always makes me super nervous how many tech companies don't have data ethicists.
A lot of people need technology to survive. And if you're renting it and you don't own it or have control over it, you're at the mercy of whoever does.
Being able to work in comics at all - I know I came into it from a different medium, but I'd like to stay here. It's not like a weird touristy thing for me.
Sailor Moon' was the first time I could say I was a super-duper-fan of something. I remember watching before school, at like 6 A.M. along with 'Dragonball Z' or 'Beast Wars,' depending on the months.
I'm still an engineer at heart. So if I can automate conversations that I find myself keep having to have, it seems like a good opportunity for me.
I'm an independent game developer - there's not exactly an offline version of that. This is where my community is; everybody I'm close to I know because of the Internet.
