Yet Another Game Developer Flees Her Home After Death Threats

Peter Andrew Hart
Updated
(Photo: )
(Photo: )

Threats have once again forced a game developer to flee her home.

On Friday night, game developer Brianna Wu left her home and filed a police report after receiving tweets that included threats on her life and contained her home address, Kotaku reports.

Wu, the Head of Development at Giant Spacekat and host of the Isometric podcast on 5by5, has been outspoken on the subject of harassment against women in gaming. Earlier this week, she voiced criticisms of Gamergate, a movement concerned with protecting the identity of gamers but has also been said to be a source of harassment towards women.

An anonymous Twitter account that has since been taken down by Twitter, launched the attacks on Wu Friday night, stating that they were in response to her support for women in gaming, VentureBeat writes. "They posted my address, and within moments I got that death threat," Wu told Kotaku on Saturday. She posted screenshots of the account and threats it made on her Twitter account. As of Saturday one of her posts had been retweeted over 7,000 times.

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The day following the attacks, she had not returned to her home, but she vowed that the harassment would not deter her from making games and affirmed that she would still be speaking at the New York Comic Con on Sunday.

Tweets sent from Wu's account late Saturday indicated that the attacks were continuing, saying that hackers were targeting the financial accounts of her company.

As VentureBeat notes, some members of GamerGate claimed that Wu had staged the whole thing to disparage the movement.

This is not the first time Wu has been the target of online harassment. In a piece she wrote for Polygon in July, Wu discussed attacks on women in gaming, revealing that she had received rape threats, attacks by someone else who had her address, and a barrage of hateful statements. Here too, her outspokenness fueled further harassment. Wu is certainly not the only victim. Game developer Zoe Quinn said she was driven from her home by threats from an early incarnation of the Gamergate movement earlier this year. Harassment over a video series criticizing video game depictions of women, prompted feminist Anita Sarkeesian to leave her home in August.

The gaming and technology is taking notice of the the trend of hostility towards women, as is the public at large. Calls for action are mounting. Kotaku's Stephen Totilo laments, "This is a potential new status quo," and "The kind of harassment that sends anyone in the gaming scene fleeing from their homes is detestable and should be condemned no matter where one stands on anything else."

#9: Ellen Kullman, CEO Of DuPont

PeekScore: 7.32 / 10.00 <a href="http://www.peekyou.com/ellen_kullman/78658725" target="_hplink">Ellen Kullman</a> began her <a href="http://www2.dupont.com/Our_Company/en_US/executives/kullman.html" target="_hplink">career at DuPont</a> about 24 years ago, working her way from marketing manager up through the ranks of executive vice president to president to her current position as CEO and chair of the board, which she began on January 1, 2009.

#8: Virginia Rometty, CEO And President Of IBM

PeekScore: 7.60 / 10.00 <a href="http://www.peekyou.com/ginni_rometty/333679852" target="_hplink">Virginia "Ginni" Rometty</a> was appointed to her current positions as president and CEO of IBM <a href="http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/biography/10069.wss" target="_hplink">just this past year</a>, on January 1. One of her biggest accomplishments over the course of her 31-year career at IBM was the acquisition she led of consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/26/technology/ibm-names-a-new-chief.html?pagewanted=all" target="_hplink">for $3.5 billion</a>.

#7: Cher Wang, Co-founder And Chairperson Of HTC

PeekScore: 7.68 / 10.00 In addition to co-founding HTC Corp., <a href="http://www.peekyou.com/cher_wang/167494999" target="_hplink">Cher Wang</a> founded the computer processor supplier VIA Technologies, Inc. <a href="http://www.htc.com/www/about/#leadership" target="_hplink">in 1987</a>. Last October, <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericsavitz/2011/10/26/cher-wang-the-most-powerful-woman-in-wireless-takes-on-apple/" target="_hplink">Forbes named Wang</a> "The Most Powerful Woman In Wireless."

#6: Safra Catz, President Of Oracle

PeekScore: 7.80 / 10.00 <a href="http://www.peekyou.com/safra_catz/51174974" target="_hplink">Safra Catz</a> assumed the role of president of hardware and software company Oracle <a href="http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/press/BoardofDirectors/016342.htm" target="_hplink">in January 2004</a>. <a href="http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2011/fortune/1109/gallery.highest_paid_women.fortune/index.html" target="_hplink">According to CNNMoney</a>, Catz is the highest paid woman in business, with total earnings of $42,095,887 in 2010.

#5: Ursula Burns, CEO Of Xerox

PeekScore: 7.89 / 10.00 <a href="http://www.peekyou.com/ursula_burns/57999322" target="_hplink">Ursula Burns</a> joined Xerox <a href="http://news.xerox.com/pr/xerox/ursula-m-burns.aspx" target="_hplink">more than 30 years ago</a> as a mechanical engineering summer intern and has held her position as CEO since July 2009. Shortly after becoming CEO, she led the <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125413413514545919.html" target="_hplink">$6.4 billion purchase</a> of Affiliated Computer Services, <a href="http://news.xerox.com/pr/xerox/ursula-m-burns.aspx" target="_hplink">the largest acquisition in Xerox history</a>.

#4: Susan Wojcicki, SVP Of Advertising At Google

PeekScore: 8.00 / 10.00 <a href="http://www.peekyou.com/susan_wojcicki/76320003" target="_hplink">Susan Wojcicki's</a> run with Google started even before Google began. Back in 1998, Wojcicki rented out her garage -- the tech giant's birthplace -- to its co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/corporatenews/2007-07-04-google-wojcicki_N.htm" target="_hplink">for $1,700 a month</a>. After Google got on its feet, Wojcicki served as <a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/person/susan-wojcicki" target="_hplink">its first marketing professional</a>, eventually reaching her current position as senior vice president of advertising <a href="http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/25/google-promotes-susan-wojcicki-advertising-executive/" target="_hplink">in October 2010</a>.

#3: Marissa Mayer, VP Of Location And Local Services At Google

PeekScore: 8.22 / 10.00 At just 37 years old, <a href="http://www.peekyou.com/marissa_mayer/3429432" target="_hplink">Marissa Mayer</a> is the <a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/person/marissa-mayer" target="_hplink">youngest member</a> of Google's executive operating committee. The talented exec joined the Google team fresh out of Stanford <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/06/google-marissa-mayer-women-in-tech_n_891167.html" target="_hplink">back in 1999</a>.

#2: Sheryl Sandberg, COO Of Facebook

PeekScore: 8.34 / 10.00 <a href="http://www.peekyou.com/sheryl_sandberg/365002232" target="_hplink">Sheryl Sandberg</a> also has some ties to Google -- she used to serve as the company's vice president of global online sales and operations. Nowadays, Sandberg is one of the most powerful women in tech as Facebook's COO, a position she <a href="http://allthingsd.com/20080304/sheryl-sandberg-will-become-coo-of-facebook/" target="_hplink">snagged in March 2008</a>.

#1: Meg Whitman, President And CEO Of Hewlett Packard

PeekScore: 8.98 / 10.00 Since becoming HP's new president and CEO b<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/22/meg-whitman-hp-ceo_n_976597.html" target="_hplink">ack in September 2009</a>, <a href="http://www.peekyou.com/meg_whitman/50531455" target="_hplink">Meg Whitman</a> has made some bold moves -- most recently, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/20/hp-pc-printer_n_1367656.html" target="_hplink">Reuters revealed</a> her plans to combine the company's PC and printing divisions in order to streamline sales. While it's <a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-meg-whitman-20120405,0,4066578.story" target="_hplink">still yet to be seen</a> whether Whitman can turn HP around, she certainly <a href="http://www8.hp.com/us/en/company-information/executive-team/meg-whitman.html" target="_hplink">has enough experience to help her out</a>: Prior to her current position, she served as president and CEO of eBay for 10 years, from 1998 to March 2008.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.