Um, so like, my username goes back to playing Quake 1 online on the old MPlayer.com in 1998. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPlayer... TCK as a group specifically found a lot of the other Quake players to be super toxic, they felt they had to distance themself from them.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPlayer.c...
But you are completely right that #GamerGate was a turning point in the toxic gamer radicalization timeline. There was already a rich stew of toxicity for those seeking it, but GamerGate sure helped solidify it.