The resistance of criticism and considered (and even not-so-considered) critique has the same cumulative effect that forcing out the voices that bring them up does. The GamerGate campaign means that there are dozens, if not hundreds, of mostly women in the games industry developers, designers, journalists, fans who have been scared off of the entire form, because it's not worth all the rape threats and bomb scares called into public appearances. What happens when you have an art form that nobody critiques? It becomes stagnant and, honestly, boring. Without a wide and diverse base of people making and talking about games, you create a sort of echo chamber which ensures no new ideas ever come through, and the gaming industry becomes endless sequels and copies of Call Of Duty and Watch Dogs. Besides being a horrible, nasty and just plain bad thing to do to specific people, by ignoring the voices of anyone who isn't a triple A studio fronted by some macho dudes who like shooting things means that you're limiting games. It means that new developments and breakthroughs have less chance of happening, and that's the fault of the audience.
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/