Thankfully, gamers aren’t dead and neither is #GamerGate. The controversy that has taken over the gaming industry for well over a month has been primarily focused on accusations of collusion and cronyism on one side and misogyny and bigotry on the other. There’s also been doxxing, cyberbulling and a whole lot more. If you aren’t up-to-date about everything that’s been happening with GamerGate, I highly recommend reading TechCrunch’s piece to get up to speed and learn about both sides of the issue.



Source: LiveMint.com

And in the latest news, GamerGate took an interesting turn this week when Intel made a decision to pull their ad campaign off gaming website Gamasutra. As you might know, editor-at-large Leigh Alexander’s “Gamers are over” piece was published on the website back on Aug. 28 and met with much controversy. It was just one of several articles around the web that was highly critical of gamers.

Supporters of GamerGate apparently decided to make their voices heard about Gamasutra and the other websites by addressing the sites’ advertisers in an organized effort dubbed “Operation Disrespectful Nod.” Though opponents might say this was a sleazy tactic, it in fact was logical and upfront. When Intel received complaints from consumers about Gamasutra, they listened and they made the decision to pull their ads.



Source: Imgur

Since it was revealed that the ads were pulled, an onslaught of venom from opponents of GamerGate and “social justice warriors” has criticized Intel for the decision.

Here are just a couple gems from Twitter:

Wow, @intel, siding with violent misogyny is not a good look for you. I'll stick to AMD in the future. https://t.co/R3kcJuV88v — Ridley (@_Ridley_) October 2, 2014

@intel Are you aware that if you truly did pull your advertising from Gamasutra that your company is siding with misogyny and harassment? — Henroid (@HenroidT) October 1, 2014

Everyone is entitled to their opinion and I’m not going to tell you what yours should be, but attacking Intel with accusations of corporate misogyny is ludicrous. The company is being accused of aligning with “anti-feminists” and “misogynistic trolls.” A new hashtag was even created — #MisogynyInside. If you aren’t aware (and many people on Twitter appear to be oblivious), Renée J. James is President of Intel Corporation and has been with the company for 25 plus years. She’s a woman. Do you think James would allow her company to “side” with a bunch of misogynists?

The bottom line is that Alexander’s article on Gamasutra attacked gamers. Intel is targeting gamers with their advertising because Intel processors power almost every gamer’s computer. Therefore, when the company became inundated with feedback saying that gamers — consumers — were offended by a particular website, Intel had to take it seriously. It would have been unwise for Intel to ignore the complaints and alienate the core group they are trying to target.

Though Intel was the first company to pull advertisements from one of the websites in question, I’m sure it won’t be the last. Gamasutra insulted the audience Intel was attempting to reach with its advertising. By doing so, Gamasutra left Intel with no choice but to pull the ads. Gamasutra’s loss of revenue was, despite the assist by the “Operation Disrespectful Nod” effort, completely self-inflicted.

Money makes the world go round and it’s bad business to alienate your target audience.

Correction: Intel wasn’t the first company to pull ads regarding the situation, as noted by some of our awesome readers in the comments below.