10 Lessons The Gaming Industry Must Learn From #GamerGate

5. Attacking Your Fanbase Isn't The Way To Go

And no amount of back-peddling is going to make anyone forget that. Gamers are seemingly tired of being called €˜nerds€™ (Patricia Hernandez, Kotaku blogger), €˜Parasites€™ (Cameron Baker, game developer), and €˜dweebs€™ (John Thyer, game designer), by people who are supposed to be representative of them, or at least bigger than immature name-calling. Unfortunately, the gaming press handled this in the worst possible way. Very few attempts of discussion and understanding were made €“ instead what gamers were given was a pile of poorly written click-bait titles denouncing their very identity. Kotaku, Gamasutra, Destructoid, Rock Paper Shotgun, and more supposed gaming news sites participated in this desperate crusade to bury the issue, and in doing so, made it all the more apparent. Whoops.