THEY HAVE NO INFLUENCE

One of the most frustrating misconceptions that GamerGate operates under is that they exist in opposition to "Anti-GG" - an shadowy, organised group of "Social Justice Warriors" conspiring against them. Not so. "Anti-GG" isn't a group but the default position of  any one in opposition to GamerGate's hidden agenda of abuse, mockery, bullying and exclusion. In short, it's GamerGate - a group estimated to be around 4,000 to 10,000 active individuals at their peak - against anyone who chooses to stand against them. They're outgunned as well as outnumbered, but we'll get to that later. Two of my last drinking conversations with non-hardcore gamers revolved around how distressing they found GamerGate. The mainstream media has decried them. They aren't just toxic, they're radioactive.

What does this mean? It means GamerGate's sick gospel of Men's Rights Bullshit (or MRB, if you will) can only spread among their existing audience of pick up artists, con artists, sickos and literal Nazis. They're preaching to the gospel. GamerGate can't influence anybody. They can't change the world. They're impotent at everything except making their targets sick with anxiety - which was always their real endgame, after all.

THEY HAVE NOTHING TO SHOW FOR FOUR MONTHS OF CONSTANT EMAILING

If you consider GamerGate to be a cult - and there's plenty of evidence to support that analogy, like their harsh internal policing or unbounded attacks on anyone who tries to expose them, just like Scientology - then their email campaigns might just be their Hubbard Life Orientation Course. Using sites like KotakuInAction (a subreddit you''ll want to keep in mind for later!) and 8chan, GamerGaters have been bombarding advertisers, trying to deny any left-leaning or pro-feminist gaming websites income by panicking companies into pulling ad campaigns.  This kind of attempt to control thought through income is deeply unethical and runs counter to any claim of rooting out corruption, seeking instead to instill a corruption GamerGate likes. Aware of their toxic reputation, leaders encourage their initiates to hide their GamerGate affiliations at all costs, and embellish their emails heavily.

(The ethicssss musssst flow)

The result? Intel were scared away from Gamasutra, and Dyson pulled adverts from Gawker. Both companies were shamed in the media for falling for GG's scaremongering bullshit, and eventually returned to their respective website partners (something GamerGaters worked themselves into a considerable state of cult-like denial about, bleating "trust and verify!" as if reality was a SJW conspiracy).

So... after four months of constant email grunt work, GamerGate has nothing to show for it - no trophies, no victories, just a bunch of anxiety disorders they induced in innocent people. It's corrosive to the lives of the abusers within as well as the abuse victims without, and it's accomplishing none of it's wider political goals.

THEIR INFRASTRUCTURE OF ABUSE IS CRUMBLING

As history will record, GamerGate began when programmer Eron Gjoni went to 4chan with a heavily embellished sexual history of his ex, knowing full well she'd already recieved death and rape threats from those quarters. 4chan was previously known as the place that bullied, humiliated and sexually molested a troubled autistic man for seven years, but GamerGate was a disgusting step too far. 4chan followed the lead of multiple gaming websites by banning all gamergate discussion. Luckily for the leadership of GamerGate, they soon found a home at Reddit (used to co-ordinate mass email spamming) and 8chan, a "free speech" alternative to 4chan run by Fredrick Brennan, a New York City resident. While Reddit has allowed GamerGate's public face to pester advertisers repeatedly, 8chan's focus on zero consequences for antisocial behaviour allowed GamerGate to doxx, stalk and terrify anyone who stood against them.

GamerGate might soon be left with nothing: 8chan has been outed as a hub for pedophilia through the efforts of Canadian investigative journalist Dan Olsen, and Brennan has fled the country for the Philippines, where he's been photographed with some seriously young looking women. Meanwhile Reddit moderators have finally taken the step of forbidding GamerGate's regular "target of the day" campaigns.

GamerGate depends on the ability of malcontents from all over the world being able to unite on messageboards with dubious ethics, but they're going to run out of rocks to crawl under in 2015. Quickly.