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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
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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 length256 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPublicAffairs
- Publication dateSeptember 5, 2017
- Dimensions6.5 x 1 x 9.75 inches
- ISBN-101610398084
- ISBN-13978-1610398084
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"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
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 : 15.9 ounces
- Dimensions : 6.5 x 1 x 9.75 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,163,995 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #163 in Computer & Technology Biographies
- #651 in Privacy & Online Safety
- #1,874 in Internet & Telecommunications
- Customer Reviews:
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonReviewed in the United States on September 9, 2017
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CRASH OVERRIDE is very well-written. I'm honestly amazed that she could write such an emotional story and still seem so calm. I felt so bad about what happened to her and I think this might be a hard read for anyone who has depression or has experienced bullying. Even if you haven't, it's a lot to take in, and I kept having to take breaks to process what I was reading.
Content-wise, it's kind of like a cross between Felicia Day's YOU'RE NEVER WEIRD ON THE INTERNET (ALMOST), Chanel Miller's KNOW MY NAME, and Lindy West's THE WITCHES ARE COMING. It's simultaneously a love letter to gaming and geek culture while also condemning the bad actors who make it an unsafe space for women, the LGBT+ and people of color, and it analyzes the sociopolotical topography of the communities who make up said bad actors and how they relate to gatekeeping in the geek and game industries and contribute to the alt-right political scape.
Overall, I liked this book a lot, although I do think it fizzled out a little at the end. I got the impression that maybe Quinn wasn't sure how to end her book-- on a self-promotional note, a hopeful note, or a cautious note? I think it's great what she does with her nonprofit community (?? actually I'm not sure if it was nonprofit, or if she just does a lot of pro bono work, but that wasn't the most interesting to read about. It was definitely helpful to end on a note about how to respectfully support people who end up being the targets of this kind of abuse, though. So a 3.5 feels fair to me. I'm not sure I'd read it again but it's the type of book that everyone should read, if that makes sense.
3.5 out of 5 stars
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.
Top reviews from other countries
While there is not a whole lot of deep information about specifics of what happened to Zoe it still is a good account and while that only really takes up half the book the other half encompasses how she began to fight back and the steps she took including advice as to what you can do to prevent this sort of thing from happening to yourself and also how you can help those in need.
While a decent read I give it 4 stars as it was not over the top for me. That said there is a very good story here and some good advice so I recommend it to anyone who wants to read about what can happen to you on the Internet if you upset a troll and how you can fight back.









