Intimidation Game

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Part of a series on Law and Order. [View Related Entries]

Overview

"Intimidation Game" is an episode of the American TV police drama Law and Order: Special Victims Unit which was based on the GamerGate movement and its surrounding events. Following its broadcast in mid-February 2015, the episode was quickly met with mostly negative reactions and mockeries from both pro and anti-Gamergate camps due to its corny screenplay, as well as its oversimplification of the actual events.

Episode Information

"Intimidation Game" aired on February 11th, 2015. The episode follows a female video gamer who is kidnapped and abused by a group of gamers who call themselves "Killed or Be Slaughtered" (KOBS) in allusion to Quinnspiracy and its aftermath. The episode also features references to 8chan and Reddit, as well as Anita Sarkeesian.

Online Reactions

The Law & Order episode was poorly received by those both for and against GamerGate in part for its perceived bad writing and cringeworthy delivery. The gaming news site Kotaku^[1] wrote a review of the episode, in which it heavily criticized the episode for "turning complicated conversations over misogyny in gaming into a cartoon caricature of good vs. evil." Other sites also covered the episode and its following online reactions, such as The Verge,^[3] Jezebel,^[4] Mashable,^[5] ArsTechnica,^[6] PC Magazine^[7] and The Washington Post.^[8]

The episode was also criticized for demonizing gamers and a perceived lack of knowledge of the gaming subculture. Largely due to its "so bad it is good" appeal, the episode quickly spawned an ironical fanbase who quote lines from the episode to the likes of Baneposting. On February 13th, 2015, the 8chan board /redchanit/^[2] was created, the name being a portmanteau of Reddit and 4chan, which is referenced numerous times in the episode as the online hub where KOBS members congregate.

PoV Pistol

One of the exploitables features a member of the group KOBS pointing a gun to a police officer in a similar fashion to a first-person shooter game. The image is often photoshopped with different items and HUD's from classic FPS games.

KOBS Uniform

This exploitable consists of changing certain characters to fit the pattern of the gamer terrorist group featured in the episode. Following the airing of the episode, the product page of the mask^[10] on headgear website ZanHeadgear^[9] received various fake reviews for the mask written in the style of the KOBS members or by using Baneposting. The page later redirected to the shock site Meatspin on February 14th, 2015, after it was discovered that Javascript could be embedded into the comments.