LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: If you live with somebody who likes to play video games - and millions of adults do - you won't have escaped hearing about Gamergate.

It's rocked the hundred billion-dollar video gaming industry with allegations of sexism and misogyny.

It started with an allegation against a female gamer of sexual favours for good reviews and quickly turned into an all-out culture war.

Monique Schafter reports, and a warning: this story contains scenes of video violence.

MONIQUE SCHAFTER, REPORTER: It's a Saturday in Melbourne and more than 30,000 hardcore video gamers are geeking it up at one of Australia's largest games conferences.

They're here to play and have some serious chats.

The topic getting a lot of people fired up is Gamergate.

VOX POP: Stop Gamergate 2014.

VOX POP II: There's just a lot of hatred and a lot of anger.

VOX POP III: It's making people feel really uncomfortable about gaming, which sucks.

MONIQUE SCHAFTER: Gamergate is a controversy that's lit up the internet since August this year and has threatened to turn violent. It started with an act of revenge.

STEPHANIE BENDIXSEN, HOST, GOOD GAME: It all kind of began when an indie game developer by the name of Zoe Quinn was accused by an angry ex-boyfriend of sleeping with someone in order to get good reviews for her game. And despite the fact that she was able to refute these allegations, it kind of stirred up quite an online backlash towards her.

MONIQUE SCHAFTER: Quinn was flooded with harassment and abuse online.

(male voiceover): "God i hate that c***."

(male voiceover): "She's a dumpy loser whose only claim to fame is her vaginal gape."

(male voiceover): "The whole "game" is without substance and is nothing more than an exercise in attention whoring."

(male voiceover): "All females are sluts and have no right to be depressed ...".

STEPHANIE BENDIXSEN: Gamergate sort of became an issue where people wanted to discuss ethics within games journalism, but because of the reaction towards her, it also became an issue about misogyny and the way women are treated in games.

MONIQUE SCHAFTER: It quickly exploded into an online culture war. They've been using the hashtag #Gamergate.

Things got even heavier when other women, like game developer Brianna Wu, came out in support of the woman at the centre of this revenge attack.

(male voiceover): "I hope you enjoy your last moments alive on this earth."

(male voiceover): "If you have kids, they're going to die too."

BRIANNA WU, GAME DEVELOPER: They threatened to murder me, to rape me. They threatened to sever my husband's genitals and choke me to death with them. They threatened to murder any of my children that I might have because they would grow up to, you know, want women to be equal."

MONIQUE SCHAFTER: Brianna Wu's personal address was posted online in an attack known as doxing.

(male voiceover): "Guess what, bitch, I know where you live. You and Frank live at ...".

MONIQUE SCHAFTER: The FBI are now involved. We believes it's a campaign to scare women out of the games industry.

BRIANNA WU: The video game industry's changing very rapidly. They kind of want things the way that they are, they kind of don't want girls in their clubhouse.

LEIGH HARRIS, GAME DEVELOPER & JOURNALIST: It's been a really difficult and sort of protractedly heinous time to be a woman in games. Numerous women have either been run out of their homes or have decided to stop writing about games or making them as a result of this.

MONIQUE SCHAFTER: Does it scare you personally?

VOX POP IV: No comment.

VOX POP: I've talked about Gamergate a bit on Twitter. I never use the hashtag because I know there's people sort of watching the hashtag and looking to pounce on anyone who uses it. ... It's just all gross sexist s**t and it needs to stop.

MONIQUE SCHAFTER: These online attacks have shone a light on what some people believe to be a deep-seated misogyny saturating video games.

Feminist pop culture critic Anita Sarkeesian, known for her YouTube series about the portrayal of women in games, was also attacked online. She was forced to cancel a talk at Utah State University after threats of a shooting.

A recent survey showed that nearly half of all gamers are women, but female characters and game developers are still few and far between.

REBECCA FERNANDEZ, INT. GAME DEVELOPERS ASSOC.: Yeah, I think this is kind of the catch 22 we find ourselves in. So we'd find more girls in the industry if there were games that kind of not targeted towards them, but games that included them a lot more. But we only get the games that include women a lot more if they are making them.

MONIQUE SCHAFTER: While a lot of the conversation online surrounding Gamergate has been pretty vile, it doesn't speak for all gamers.

ALICE CLARKE, GAME REVIEWER: I think on the internet, people feel a lot freer to just be a jerk. There's 35,000 people here or something like that and there's not a single problem. Everyone's been really great, really accepting.

BEN O'BRIEN, HOST, BIG HEAD MODE: Diversity has come to games and it's sort of the last cry of the people who don't want that change to come, hoping they can top it, but, like, it's already here. You know, you look around here and you can already see all the different games made by all kinds of different people. In the long run, Gamergate's going to go away and women are going to stay around, so it's easy to see who's going to win.

STEPHANIE BENDIXSEN: I suppose my hope is that something positive will come out of it, you know, for the games industry. People want this to be a safe place and a happy place and a positive place where we can all talk about games because we love them so much.

LEIGH SALES: Monique Schafter reporting.

DISCLOSURE: Ben O'Brien also works casually at the ABC.