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Law & Order airs episode dedicated to harassment of women in gaming

"Wrong move, player."

Last night, US TV series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit aired an episode based around the harassment of women in gaming.

The fictional storyline saw developer Rayna Punjabi become the focus of a misogynistic hate campaign as she prepared to launch her new role-playing game, "Amazonian Warriors".

Punjabi is doxxed, swatted and receives death and rape threats surrounding an event where she is to speak publicly.

A female employee of hers is harassed and assaulted at a games convention.

The storyline is clearly inspired by the real-life events of last year, and the experiences of Anita Sarkeesian, Zoe Quinn and Brianna Wu.

But after raising such issues, the show's focus switches to its standard 'find the bad guy' formula. Punjabi is kidnapped and the show's heroes chase down the culprit while spouting some ridiculous one-liners.

"Level completed," the character played by Ice-T grunts. "They're playing a game. We gotta play too."

"No reset button in the real world."

Watch a scene from the episode below.

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Tom Phillips

Deputy Editor

Tom is Eurogamer's deputy editor. He writes lots of news, some of the puns and makes sure we put the accent on Pokémon.

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