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Crash Override: How Gamergate (Nearly) Destroyed My Life, and How We Can Win the Fight Against Online Hate Hardcover – September 5, 2017

by Zoë Quinn (Author)

4.6 502 ratings

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You've heard the stories about the dark side of the internet -- hackers, #gamergate, anonymous mobs attacking an unlucky victim, and revenge porn -- but they remain just that: stories. Surely these things would never happen to you.

Zoe Quinn used to feel the same way. She is a video game developer whose ex-boyfriend published a crazed blog post cobbled together from private information, half-truths, and outright fictions, along with a rallying cry to the online hordes to go after her. They answered in the form of a so-called movement known as #gamergate--they hacked her accounts; stole nude photos of her; harassed her family, friends, and colleagues; and threatened to rape and murder her. But instead of shrinking into silence as the online mobs wanted her to, she raised her voice and spoke out against this vicious online culture and for making the internet a safer place for everyone.

In the years since #gamergate, Quinn has helped thousands of people with her advocacy and online-abuse crisis resource Crash Override Network. From locking down victims' personal accounts to working with tech companies and lawmakers to inform policy, she has firsthand knowledge about every angle of online abuse, what powerful institutions are (and aren't) doing about it, and how we can protect our digital spaces and selves.

Crash Override offers an up-close look inside the controversy, threats, and social and cultural battles that started in the far corners of the internet and have since permeated our online lives. Through her story -- as target and as activist -- Quinn provides a human look at the ways the internet impacts our lives and culture, along with practical advice for keeping yourself and others safe online.

Print length

256 pages
Language

English
Publisher

PublicAffairs
Publication date

September 5, 2017
Dimensions

6.5 x 1 x 9.75 inches
ISBN-10

1610398084
ISBN-13

978-1610398084
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A worthwhile read for anyone interested in taking action against the realities-and devastating effects-of extreme internet trolling...an informative and inspiring book."―Kirkus Reviews

"I tore through this book. Zoe Quinn doesn't just present a clear-eyed examination of the internet's endemic sickness (though she does that beautifully), she contextualizes her personal nightmare within our current national one. It's a gripping read with historical merit."―Lindy West, author of Shrill

"We finally have a chance to hear what we've been eagerly awaiting: Zoe's real story in her own words. If you've been harassed, depressed, lonely, or lost, her story will inspire and empower you. After all of it, she still finds a way to be optimistic and a force for positive change. She gives me hope for humanity and the future of technology."―Ellen Pao, former CEO of Reddit, co-founder of Project Include

"At every turn, Zoe Quinn was utterly failed by the law enforcement agencies she counted on to protect her, and the social media companies that enabled her attackers. But she never gave up, refused to be a victim, and has used her experience to help countless victims of online stalking and harassment protect themselves. And she does it all with disarming humor and bracing honesty."―Wil Wheaton, actor, producer, author

"Zoe Quinn captures the irrational contours of the #gamergate experience in vivid detail and offers a compelling personal history of the woman with a bullseye on her back."―Anita Sarkeesian, founder of Feminist Frequency

"As the first target of the so-called #gamergate movement, and someone who fought it and won, Zoe Quinn is uniquely qualified to write this story. Think of this as Jon Ronson's So You've Been Publicly Shamed written from inside the eye of the storm."―Graham Linehan, writer and director of The IT Crowd

"Part memoir, part social movement manifesto, this engrossing journey by game designer Quinn takes readers into the darkest realms of social media and the Internet.... An important purchase that will interest social media users and enlighten them about the extent of online hate in some social platforms and the limits on personal and social protections available in society today."―Library Journal

"Quinn uses her personal experiences to advocate practical steps toward creating a safe and open internet culture.... For Quinn, winning the 'cultural battle for the web' starts with reframing the issue as not a matter of good vs. bad people fueling hate culture on the internet, but rather 'acceptable and unacceptable ways to treat each other.' It's a remarkably clear-eyed view that's all the more powerful in light of Quinn's backstory."―Publisher's Weekly, starred review

"The overwhelming message of Crash Override resonates across industries and experiences: When someone disagrees with you on the internet, you shouldn't have to go into hiding."―Latoya Peterson, NPR.org

"Crash Override combines a brisk pace, candid stories, and embedded insight. Quinn's first book has its uneven moments, but it's important stuff for anybody interested in how online discourse has shifted over the past two decades."―Ars Technica

"Engaging and powerful...In Crash Override, Quinn proves to be a thoughtful, accessible guide through this social, cultural, technological and political morass."―Toronto Globe & Mail

About the Author

Zoe Quinn is one of the most critically acclaimed, widely recognized indie developers in the gaming industry, and a leading voice in the fight against online abuse. She has testified about online abuse at the United Nations, and the issue continues to make headlines, from features in tech publications to national op-eds about political discourse online. Quinn's most famous game, Depression Quest, has been played by over two million people.

Prior to the #Gamergate explosion, Quinn's work was praised in such outlets as Forbes, Wired, the Wall Street Journal, Kotaku, Paste, and GiantBomb. Since August 2014, even more mainstream media have taken note, including MSNBC, the New Yorker, the New York Times, Vice, Playboy, BusinessWeek, and BoingBoing, and the UK's BBC, Guardian, and Telegraph. Fast Company recently named her the seventeenth Most Creative Person in Business for her work with Crash Override, and she appeared on Forbes' 30 under 30 list.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ PublicAffairs; Illustrated edition (September 5, 2017)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1610398084
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1610398084
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1 x 9.75 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,074,054 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #430 in Social Media Guides
- #1,653 in Internet & Telecommunications
- #3,636 in Popular Culture in Social Sciences

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Ann S. Sheridan

This book is amazing!

Reviewed in the United States on December 23, 2023

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Zoe Quinn wrote a gripping history of what she experienced by online harassment. Instead of letting it defeat her, she started a help web page for others who have been targeted. The book is part her experience, part a public education, and part cautionary tale. Her understanding of herself and the dynamics is impressive. Everyone online should read this book. Everyone who knows someone who has been targeted online should refer them to this book. I found the book both horrifying and inspirational. Good job Zoe! Well done!

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M. D. Birkenhauer

I'd like to welcome anybody who just came to post angry ...

Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2017

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Right off the bat, I'd like to welcome anybody who just came to post angry things about Zoe Quinn. Hi! It's blatantly obvious that you're trying to sink the rating of a book you haven't actually read! Then again, being completely ineffectual in tactics and obvious in ideology is so utterly Gamergate that there's no real point in complaining about it. Oh well!

Anyway, I was there when it happened. I remember when the first reports came out with scarce information, and I briefly joined the dogpile without knowing any better. What dogpile? The thing they called Gamergate--the waking nightmare that this book is about. Chances are, you know something about that trash fire if you're here reading a review. Maybe, like myself, you've been following it from the beginning. Maybe you heard about it on NPR, or through any of the other usual author circuits.

Crash Override doesn't have a "normal" structure, as far as these things go. It's partially a memoir, sure, but it's partly a guide to the way internet harassment works and to surviving it. Sure, it begins where you'd expect it to--with the first shots fired by Quinn's creeper of an exe--but it flashes back and forth between Quinn growing up, the dawn of the campaign against her, and the present weirdness of her life. It's about harassment, sure, but it's also a personal piece on growing up creative, queer, and pissed off on the internet.

Surprisingly, it's also very funny. Quinn got her start making goofy video games on the internet, and that sense of comedy shines through in her narration. While sometimes that comedic sensibility works against the dark subject matter, mostly it helps make the horrors she and others suffered a lot more bearable. To paraphrase Twain (badly), humor is one of the great weapons against evil.

And there's a lot of evil in this book. Even with the humor, Crash Override is a hard read. I'll never understand the callous disregard GG had for the personhood of their targets, for all of Quinn's efforts to try and contextualize it. The disconnect social media brings can only explain so much. My point here, I suppose, is that while the prose is breezy and sometimes even fun, the subject matter is not. At times, this book is exhausting.

If Crash Override has a flaw, it's in the drier sections towards the middle of the book. Despite Quinn's efforts to inject a little dark humor into her book, parts of it become a bit of a slog. A related problem is that sometimes the humor simply falls flat. That's not surprising either--laying jokes around a group that regularly calls the cops on people in an attempt to get them shot is going to get difficult after a while--but it's worth mentioning all the same.

Quinn ends the book by discussing her return to game design and her decision to move away from activism, and I can't blame her at all. Frankly, I would've ducked out a lot sooner or just snapped entirely. It's framed as a victory for Quinn and a return to normalcy. No one should have to refocus their entire life around fighting harassment, I'll agree with that, yet it left me with an odd sense of foreboding. Zoe Quinn wrote this book to give us the tools to fight this battle ourselves. There's beauty in that, but it left a bitter taste in my mouth. Who's next? It could be anyone, and they'll convince themselves it's all okay.

It's just somebody on a screen, after all.

We're not talking about real people. Because if Zoe Quinn was real, Gamergate, if you ever let yourself take her words at face value, if you entertained a single doubt, then...well.

You'd be monstrous.

And that's why August never ends.

44 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

I've actually read the book!

Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2017

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Overall, it is exactly what I expected when I ordered it: Quinn's own story of her experience, and the lessons she's learned from it. Most of those are quite good, and don't at all match what some of the 1-star reviewers claim is Quinn's goal. She isn't looking to have people tossed in jail, nor does she want to take away online anonymity. She's very aware that, "What might help keep abusive people accountable in the United States might be a tool in China for the government to surveil and destroy the lives of private citizens." Sometimes the "solutions" well-meaning people come up with are as bad as the problem they're trying to solve.

Another interesting part of the book is how Quinn uses this platform to boost the voices of people on the margins, like Tauriq Moosa and Katherine Cross, rather than trying to speak for them. She also displays a lot of empathy even for the people attacking her here and elsewhere, reminding us of "the most common trap we fall into when trying to make the internet a safer place: framing it as a war of good people versus bad people instead of looking at acceptable and unacceptable ways to treat each other. 'Good people' get off the hook for doing bad things, while 'bad people' aren’t considered worth understanding or empathizing with and aren’t encouraged to progress, evolve, and do better."

Finally, she closes out the book with some helpful tips for protecting yourself online, which I hope no one reading this will ever need. The only reason I'm giving this 4 rather than 5 stars is that there were some sections that got a bit repetitive, and could have used a good editor. But that's a quibble, really.

For a supposed free speech movement, gamergate followers spend an inordinate amount of time trying to get Quinn to just shut up. I for one am glad she hasn't. I hope Quinn continues to write, and to make goofy games. There are lots of us out here who appreciate their work! And this work is what Quinn deserves to be known for.

27 people found this helpful

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KS

Actually read the book

Reviewed in Canada on September 7, 2017

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Great book. The author finally gets to tell her story on her terms on permanent record. Do not let the trolls fool you. Anyone who actually reads the book will see that the author started out alot like her online abusers, lonely and disconnected from society. The difference is the author learned and grew from those experiences and found humanity and connection online as opposed to joining in the wailing mass of online hate that currently dominates many corners of the internet including popular platforms like Twitter. What will surprise the haters is how distinctly flawed and human the author portrays herself. This serves to contradict the mobs attempts to paint the author as anything but human. The authors insights into the indie-indie game scene are also highly valuable and her criticism of journalism, tech and the criminal justice system also feel relevant today as institutions are slow to react to online movements (that have many real world consequences). I urge anyone who affiliated with said movement to actually read the book and hopefully be able to find the common thread of humanity that lies there; For all our sakes and to make the online world a haven again for the lost and lonely.

19 people found this helpful

Alex

Devastating but an entirely necessary read..

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 18, 2017

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Here’s the thing - people in marginalised sections of society both online and offline will already know how this goes, because that’s the reality of life for many of them. Zoe highlights this in several places by amplifying their voices, whilst acknowledging that her social privilege grants her a better chance at many things, whilst further highlighting that even that didn’t help her one iota.

This isn’t an easy read but people owe it to folks in Zoe’s position to read it, no matter how hard it feels to get through it. She talks about her life crashing down around her in candid terms and the explosive effects it had on anyone close to her, and how it made impossible for her to secure any kind of safety and security for herself, and all because a violent ex bore her a grudge. It’s devastating but entirely raw and real. I don’t necessarily agree with every single point in relation to handling people who have been abusers in the past, when they seek help in the future, but then highlighting her own problematic behaviour in the past helps us understand where mob mentality comes from and how it manifests. Every angle is important.

Everyone should read this book - or rather I say everyone in a position of privilege should read this book, because then folks might understand what it’s like to exist as someone who is deemed disposable by those who hold all power over them.

2 people found this helpful

Dennis Treder

Tolles Buch

Reviewed in Germany on October 10, 2017

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Ein tolles Buch. Es übt nicht nur Kritik an vielen für bestimmte Peronengruppen furchtbaren Situationen, die durch das Internet entstehen können sondern ist auch eine Liebeserklärung an das Internet, in dem viele sich überhaupt erst "zuhause" und zugehörig fühlen können.

Auch bekommt man Vorschläge, wie man als außenstehender helfen kann, ohne die Situation für alle beteiligten schlimmer zu machen.

9 people found this helpful

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Melyanna

Well written and informative. A must read if you are in tech, STEM, or the videogames industry

Reviewed in Italy on September 7, 2017

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Despite of all the horrible things that happened to the author during the events she recounts in this book, she still manages to add a touch of humour and keep a positive attitude.
As a result, the book is depressing and funny at the same time.

This is a must read if you are in the gaming industry, if you heard of GamerGate but are confused about what it is, or even if you want to understand a bit more of the internet culture.

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Jamie D Jeans

An Informative, Humanizing Story of Harassment and Survival

Reviewed in Canada on September 22, 2017

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Crash Override was an intense and, at times, difficult reading in detail the emotional journey that the target of an online hate movement targeted as the focus for their outrage over a perceived threat to their hobby. At the same time, it was also immensely humanizing to read it and discover more about Zoe Quinn the human being instead of Zoe QuinnThe Gamergater target.

Throughout the book, she peppers her tale with bits of humour, and after the story of how it all started comes to its end, and her story of crreating Crash Override begins, there's a frank discussion of what can be done, good practical advice, as well as a general overlook of the kind of cultural shift needed to keep such hate movements from forming in the first place.

Another thing that Quinn does is that she uses the book as a platform to highlight the abuse that women of colour go through online, simply for existing. I thought this to be pretty admirable as the book could have been about only her abuse, but she made it into something more.

11 people found this helpful

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