> how emotionally charged the devotes were about something as inconsequential as ... video game reviews.
There's a good reason the phrase "it's about ethics in games journalism" was used to mock gamergaters. It was so transparently not about that in the slightest. I'm not one of those "gamergate caused trumpism" domino meme people but they are related phenomena. GG was a revanchist political movement based on using the novel organization structures of social media to harass women and minorities out of gaming culture.
I'm pretty sure Gamergate was a Russian shitstirring test case. Seriously. All I ever saw was two groups of people talking past each other, talking about completely different things, until things started to settle down... and some new account would roll a flaming tire into the thread and keep it going. Over and over, across the web.
It certainly fits the “it doesn’t matter what the truth is I’m acting out here and I have feelings about girls and video games” kinda vibe.