The culture of video games is like no other. Sometimes than can be good, like the ability to wield influence over developers so they don't get away with dodgy things like spying on you from your always-on camera peripheral or ensure your every action is recorded by insisting your game can only be played when connected to the internet. Sometimes it can be bad, which is uniformly the case with GamerGate harassment campaign which is somehow still in existence. Besides being an opportunity for the grossest parts of gamer fandom to really flex their prejudices and to harness social media's unparalleled capacity for sending innocent people anonymous death threats, the very core of the GamerGate thing has a simple starting point: not Zoe Quinn's insane arse of an ex-boyfriend launching an attack on her, but the existence of Anita Sarkeesian. Sarkeesian is a cultural critic and gamer, whose Feminist Frequency video series has pointed out some sexist stuff in games. In a pop culture (and just culture) that's still a far way off from actual equality, that's not so wild. And she's not saying this makes the games bad, just it needs thinking about. And yet gamers reacted very poorly the same gamers who fight for games as a viable art form, but resist the criticism inherent in all art forms.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
