The Fine Young Capitalists' Game Jam

Overview

The Fine Young Capitalists' Game Jam refers to a charity event launched by Matthew Rappard to assist five women game developers in creating video games to raise money for charity. The event gained prominence in August 2014 after it was revealed that indie game developer Zoe Quinn had attempted to sabotage the event.

Background

On August 12th, 2014, an Indiegogo^[3] campaign titled "The Fine Young Capitalists" was launched, which asked for support in promoting games designed by women to give the proceeds to charity.

On August 18, Redditor SillySladar claimed that Quinn intentionally sabotaged a female-centric game development event on the grounds that the idea was oppressive, possibly to promote her own event Rebel Jam (shown below, left).^[1] On August 19th, The Fine Young Capitalists released a SoundCloud^[2] recording containing their explanation as to what was going on and why they were doxxed.

On August 21st, YouTuber PressFartToContinue uploaded a video explaining the story behind how Quinn led a crusade against The Fine Young Capitalists game jam (shown below).

Notable Developments

Vivian James

On August 22nd, users on the /v/ (video games) board on 4chan began promoting The Fine Young Capitalists' Indiegogo page. After $5,000 had been raised, a user suggested they created a custom character to represent the image board. The character Vivian James was subsequently decided on by the collective and was received by The Fine Young Capitalists that same day.

Indiegogo Hack

On August 24th, the campaign page on Indiegogo appeared to get closed and subsequently removed. It was rumored that the page got hacked and made to look as if were so. The Fine Young Capitalists subsequently shared this message on their Tumblr account,^[9] and said that they would try to get the project repaired with the help of Indiegogo.

On August 26th, the page was restored and updated with a message explaining that Rappard's Indiegogo account had been compromised and thanking 4chan users for their generous donations. By that day, the page had received over $32,000 of its $65,000 goal.

Search Interest

External References