sure it did, a huge amount of the push back at the start came from the people in MRM, it also bled into comicon. I followed it all very closely as it unfolded from the beginning, used to watch all kinds of YouTube videos and read articles and posts and such about it for a long time. The MRM was a very small but very vocal fulcrum in the whole ordeal.

In a similar way the SJWs/Feminists were a catalyst on the other side of the issue, the story about the corruption in media reporting had been brewing between the 2 camps for years before it blew up in gamergate after the gamers got involved.