Unfortunately the biggest controversy of the year in gaming must also count amongst its 2014s most scandalous moments. At least, it would be nice if it was simply a moment, but the #GamerGate train seems to just keep trundling on unabated, despite the widespread desertion from the movement of those that actually cared about ethics in games journalism, and a series of pieces in the mainstream press that rightly pegged it as rooted entirely in sexism, racism, and general awfulness. Sparked by revelations about the sex life of indie developer Zoe Quinn, #GamerGate positioned itself as some sort of radical movement to get more transparency in games reviews. What it more often did was attempt to silence the voices of women in the industry, by directly attacking them through social media and releasing personal details (like addresses and bank account info) online, often leading to IRL harassment and the involvement of police. Certainly sounds like a movement preoccupied with ethical standards. There were those that actually did care about ethics in games journalism - which is an actual problem, and one not spoken of enough - but siding with what was essentially a hate group made such concerns as easy to dismiss as the crackpot theories of people who use terms like feminazi entirely unironically and would probably bloody love to play Hatred. Its unfortunate that such a scandal will be the one to characterise 2014 in gaming, but its an event that shouldnt be forgotten. In many ways it spoke to the rest of the scandals on this list - remembering it might help them never happen again.
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/
