‘Law & Order: SVU’ season 16, episode 14 preview: Extended look at gamergate-inspired story

“Law & Order: SVU” has certainly done ripped-from-the-headlines cases before; as a matter of fact, they have done many this season! Even still, we were surprised but also pleased that the show is shining a light on the gamergate situation on Wednesday night’s new episode.

The implications of this story are ones that the gaming community (which we consider ourselves a part of for a long time) has been plagued with for years: Internet posters spreading a message of hate and misogyny that include threats of bodily harm to many women in the industry. Why? The reasons vary from their sole presence to proclamations of them carrying a “feminist” agenda or criticizing the current gaming landscape. We do not want to incite any sort of false impression; this is a very small minority group within the community that holds these terrible views, but it is oftentimes the most vocal minority that ends up drawing the most attention.

As for how Benson, Rollins, and the rest of the team will be getting involved in this case, we are going to meet in this episode a woman named Raina who is working to oversee a major international launch of her latest product. However, her views have caused her to be inundated with an amalgam of threats from all across the world, and some of them are terribly horrific and graphic in nature.

Will these threats ultimately cause her to cancel the event? Hardly. Raina believes that canceling the event would send the wrong message, and she wants there to be zero evidence at the event that she feels like she is going to be the target of an attack.

What is your take on this particular preview? Share some of your reactions with a comment below.

Photo: NBC