Next week’s episode of the popular NBC crime-drama Law & Order: SVU will offer a “ripped-from-the-headlines” story about a game developer facing death threats. Now, NBC has published a pair of promotional videos for the episode, giving viewers a first look at the hour-long show.
Titled “Intimidation Game,” the episode will follow a female video game developer named Raina Punjabi played by Mouzam Makkar who refuses to delay her game as she faces death threats, doxxing, and swatting from the “male-dominated gaming community.”
She says in the teaser video above that swatting efforts against her “went viral,” and actually elevated her profile, helping her become “the face of women in gaming.”
If she caves in to the cyber-threats, she says she’d be showing the world, “That I’m intimidated by cyber-terrorists. I won’t make the same mistake Sony did. It’s better to be called a bitch than a coward.”
A female employee working for Punjabi is assaulted at a gamer convention, according to a previously released episode synopsis. As a result, NBC writes that the cops, including detective Tutuola (played by Ice-T), will have to “level up” to protect her. The video below teases that the episode will contain some very real violence.
The trailers feature some gaming cliches, with detectives saying things like “This is a game to them,” and “What’s the next level?” There’s also one shot in the first-person perspective.
Intimidation Game airs Wednesday, February 11. The SVU episode will also feature series veteran Mariska Hargitay as Sgt. Olivia Benson, as well as guest stars Peter Mark Kendall, Susannah Flood, and Griffin Matthews.
SVU is not the first NBC show to take on a gaming plotline. An October episode of The Mysteries of Laura followed a detective tracking down a criminal inside of an MMO.
Stories about the harassment that Feminist Frequency creator Anita Sarkeesian has faced have made international headlines from a range of mainstream media in the past year.