Come to think of it, ignoring the misogyny, it really did nothing to alleviate the impending enshittification of gaming.
Let’s see where Gamergate failed.
It failed at addressing ethics in game journalism. I barely see gamergaters cover the ethics problem (which is sadly real) of game journalism. I can see a few ethical problems wtih game journalism like poor quality control (especially in research) in outlets such as IGN and Kotaku, publishers’ skewing coverage of games, lack of experience in video games and rampant ragebait as seen with the now infamous teabagging article.
It failed to attract meaningful allies. The rampant reactionary rhetoric and beliefs in the Gamergate movement has deprived them of meaningful potential allies who themselves share many of the same criticisms of late stage gaming such as the appalling state of game journalism, the rise of live service model and its disastrous consequences. This became especially dangerous when the corporations and their puppets accelerate the ruin of gaming while principled gamers waste their time pushing back against reaction in gaming. I have yet to see folks who do critiques of late stage gaming from a left-wing perspective other than Jim Sterling and myself to some extent*
*the only video I had on the subject was one about Bethesda having a union and why it’s a good thing.
Comrade it was never about ethics in journalism
It failed at addressing ethics in game journalism.
Because it was never really about that. They just found that it was a semi-socially acceptable framing for them to harass women and developers. Same with the more recent incarnation of gamergate, it is the exact same people trying to hide behind “ethics” as an excuse to execute extensive harassment campaigns. Some of them probably believe their own lines, others like that Grummz idiot are just trying to profit off it.
Response to the second point is the same as the first, it never attracted meaningful allies because it didn’t care to. That movement attracted exactly the people it wanted to.
Me?
I just miss Game Informer (they shut down recently).