Zoe Quinn

I grew up in a super small town in upstate New York; my nearest neighbour was really far away.

The topic is too big, there's too many people who live with it, and too many moving pieces for anyone to do a definitive statement on what depression is like for everyone. 'Depression Quest's' goal was to be a basic introduction to the concept and to get the conversation started.

I was diagnosed with depression at fourteen, but I couldn't find any medication that did anything for me other than making things worse.

I get apologies from Gamergaters pretty regularly saying: 'I didn't think you were a real person.'

The bulk of my work is comedy and I wanted to use the gaming world as a vehicle to deliver comedy.

The reason I namecheck restorative justice so much is because that, to me, is the utopia.

Our justice system is a punitive one that's there to sort of deal with what happens after someone's already offended.

It's very alienating to become a target, and it can be really difficult to try and explain to people, to family members.

Game development combines all this disparate art stuff I'd been doing into one single thing that I could use to say very specific stuff.

A friend of the family gave me a Game Boy when I was very little, and it was amazing.

Anyone can have depression. The illness doesn't care how much you do or don't have.

I like the weather in England.

It always makes me super nervous how many tech companies don't have data ethicists.

I don't want to tell a story about how technological advancement is bad.

I'm so tired of cyberpunk that says using machines to make your life better makes you less human.

A lot of people need technology to survive. And if you're renting it and you don't own it or have control over it, you're at the mercy of whoever does.

I was the funny-looking one who wore a trench coat and played hacky sack with the other greasy kids.

I was nerdy and awkward and didn't know how to talk to people - except online.

Being able to work in comics at all - I know I came into it from a different medium, but I'd like to stay here. It's not like a weird touristy thing for me.

There's an idea that, 'Oh, the more technology you have, or the more you modify your body, the less human you are.' I think that's super gross, and inaccurate, and also offensive to anybody who relies on technology to live.

If Gamergate had happened to somebody else, years earlier, I probably would've been on the wrong side.

I know how nasty backlash can be on the Internet.

It's so weird, like, it's not like Gamergate is the only bad thing to happen to me. I've been homeless before, I've had to come through other stuff. A profoundly abusive childhood, but at least that stuff feels like I got to move on from it, that stuff is in the past.

The No. 1 thing I've seen actually help with online abuse is when the person has a good community or a strong support network that's savvy and that can help them.

I've been trying to reassert myself as a human and not just a current events story. I should not be the face of online harassment.

My family are so proud of me for standing up for marginalised people in nerd communities.

My entire career is online - I create games on the web.

I've lived my entire life online.

Growing up in a small town in upstate New York, some of the first real friendships I had were in chat rooms.

Any kind of gender expression is performance for me, regardless of where it is on the spectrum.

For me, I don't think there's anything more human than technology. That's a big thing separating us from other animals: we make things, we build things, we create machines.

I like the idea of using cool cyberpunk stuff to tell really stupid jokes.

A big barrier to people getting help with online harassment is the general attitude either that it's not a real issue - that it's 'only' online - or that it's limited to someone saying they don't like you, and all of that stems from a basic misunderstanding of what we mean when we say 'online harassment.'

I would not have pretty much any of the good things in my life if it weren't for the Internet.

I always want to find meaning in stuff that sucks - I don't want it to be the end of the sentence.

There are few people I can talk to about the worst parts of what happened during Gamergate.

One joke coming from one person can land completely flat, while somebody else delivering it in a unique way can really elevate it.

When you really boil it down, what comedy does is you expect one thing, and you get a totally different thing that's humorous, and we all laugh. That's generally how, just mechanically - super-distilled - comedy works.

You don't really see many games that stand as a pure comedy games.

Depression Quest's' tone is one of hope. Many players have told me they've tried to take steps in their life to get their illness under control. I tear up while reading my e-mail on subways a lot.

Mistakes, once owned, apologized for, and buried, need to be an accepted part of life.

I think as an author every character ends up low-key being some kind of self-insert.

I really, really, really love writing comics.

I know the first time I see a 'Goddess Mode' cosplayer I'm going to cry in such a loud, obnoxious way that it'll be audible from space.

The majority of my work in games, outside of 'Depression Quest,' has been experimental pushes into comedy games. I think there are a lot of intersections there.

I still strongly feel that a lot of people who participated in Gamergate, who participated in this sort of thing, are doing so because they go into it with - they'll believe the version of events that fits their world view.

People look to me for guidance or responsibility. People put a lot of stuff on me as a symbol of something, which is nothing I opted into, but it's a responsibility I take seriously regardless.

I'm a weird goofy dork.

Games are awesome. Stop letting jerks hijack them.

The first week of Gamergate, I didn't sleep or eat at all.