Story highlights Intel has pulled ads from gaming news site Gamasutra

The chip maker was responding to a campaign by gamers upset with a recent column

The site and others are being targeted for challenging the representation of women in video games

On Thursday, a major tech company stepped into the middle of a vicious two-month-long battle among video game fans, scholars, developers and journalists over the representation of women in games.

Intel has pulled an ad campaign from popular video game news site Gamasutra. The move is in response to a online protest by a group of gamers upset with a column by the site's editor-at-large, Leigh Alexander.

A veteran games journalist, Alexander is one of many writers who have recently been critical of parts of the gamer culture and the male-centric "gamer" identity.

Gamasutra confirmed the action on Twitter , saying "Yes, our partners at @intel were flooded with complaints over a recent opinion piece, and they did pull an ad campaign."

The tension began in August when critic and academic Anita Sarkeesian released the latest episode in her YouTube show on female tropes in video games. Around the same time, a game designer named Zoe Quinn was attacked online by an ex-boyfriend who claimed she cheated on him with a games journalist.

Both women found themselves at the receiving end of graphic threats of violence from defensive gamers and Internet trolls. Sarkeesian contacted the police and had to temporarily leave her home.

The backlash against the two soon spread to journalists and others who were critical of the gaming status quo and the way women are treated in the medium.

On the other end are gamers who feel their subculture is being threatened. Some game players worry that activists will cause game makers to change their product to please a wider audience. They started rallying under the #Gamergate hashtag.

Supporters of the Gamergate movement, who are well organized and driven, say they are actually combating corrupt games journalism. In the case of Alexander, they say her columns were "offensive" and "racist." The emails to Intel were part of a larger campaign against sites that have published content they find offensive, including Kotaku and Polygon.