So I've heard of this thing called gamergate which I've been paying rougly 0% to, however it doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon so could someone care to explain:

1) What is it?
2) Why are people getting so worked up over it?
3) As a gamer, should I really care?

to be honest, I have almost no clue (something something videogame journalism is biased something feminism ), but I know some disgusting individuals use it as an excuse to harass, slander, threat and dox (release private information) other people, so I think I personally don't even want to care

It's long and complicated because of a lot of pointless internet drama, but the basics go something like this:

A woman named Zoe Quinn develops a game called Depression Quest and got a lot of buzz on various game sites such as Kotaku. Her ex-boyfriend then writes a Tumblr claiming that she cheated on him with five guys from the industry (one of whom worked for Kotaku) and tried to gaslight him about it, which would kind of contradict her claims that she cared deeply about mental illness since he has a history of issues.

This leads to a lot of people calling Quinn a whore and making unsubstantiated claims that she slept around expressly for the purpose of getting coverage for her game. This in turn, along with the negative reception to Anita Sarkeesian's Tropes vs. Women, causes several game bloggers to write posts about how gaming isn't just for straight white males anymore and to make the hyperbolic claim that, "Gamers are dead." At this point the whole thing erupts, with one side forming up to protest misogyny in gaming while the other side protests nepotism and corruption in game "journalism", meaning that both sides just talk past and harass each other and never shut the fuck up about it.

No, it's best not to care.

Basically a very small portion of "white males" in the gaming community upset claiming the world is getting too "PC" because now the media and devs care too much about diversity and feminism in gaming.

Then a very small portion of "females" in the gaming community upset claiming gaming is too misogynist and wrongfully hurts women.

gamer gate is stupid, one side feels it's rights are being taken from them and then the other side feels that they don't have rights.

My advice; the less you know of and better yet, the less you care of the whole gamergate thing, the happier you will be as a human being.

Many will tell you so many different things as to what or why it is, but its all just really a cesspool of people not being able to mind their business. Compounded by the very same people feeling that their opinions are more important than other peoples opinions. Trust me, the less you know about it the better for you.

People who think Gamersgate is a big deal live in the smallest bubble I've ever seen.

Sarkeesian doesn't even like games.She was never a gamer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afgtd8ZsXzI

This video explains it very well why you should care
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=45H25Sc6fig

No you shouldn't care, it's a load of nonsense that will blow over (both sides).