Gamergate - what is it and as a gamer should I care?

[ps4tw]

sundin13 said:

ps4tw said:

Hah. Sounds like if people are worried about that, they need more difficult lives. Frankly I've never paid much attention to game reviews unless they mention technical problems. The reason is why should I care what some other guy thinks? If I like a game, I like it regardless of IGN etcs rating. 

Because like it or not, the gaming media has a lot of power, especially over smaller games. If the games media choose to ignore a game or give it negative coverage, it could have a massive impact on sales, and as such, any issue over ethics in journalism are just as much an issue with what games get made and who makes money on their games (and therefore, who gets the privilege of making more games). 

This extends to certain companies and events getting blacklisted, or games being neutered as to not offend in order to get covered. 

Whether or not you care about game journalism, massive ethical holes could still very much affect you. Whether or not these holes are as massive as some maintain is certainly up for debate, however, a lot of the conversations that actually surrounded ethics were quite productive and many sites took steps forward to welcome improvements in their ethical codes, such as disclosure policies.

RCTjunkie said:
There are more important issues to care about in the world right now.

Ah, the fallacy of relative privation...gotta love it

True, but luckily I think this is where things such as crowd funded games remove the idiocy that can be found in AAA game publishing management. Most likely the devs and people making the game couldn't care less what a raving, albeit loud, minority thing, but it'll be management higher up the ladder, looking for some work to do who'll hop on that bandwagon so that they can feel like they are winning customers. Hopefully in the next few years we'll see the likes of Ubisoft and EA becoming less relevant, and games like Kerbal, Prison Architect and the monumental Star Citizen leading the way in terms of game management which should bypass any crazy going on.