I don't know why many of you guys seem so threatened by stuff like this.

Well, the threats being lobbed around should concern everyone, the shutting down of discussion is also rather concerning, and the issues with the IGDA, IGF and UBM are suspicious, to say the least.

If there is one thing that is legitimately holding video games back from being regarded seriously as an artistic medium, it is how some guys respond to the criticism of the sexism which exists in the industry, the games themselves and the gaming community.  The methodology and tone some guys take is eerily similar to the tantrum guys threw when women stepped up for the right to wear pants and the right to vote.

Be honest....

girls would you mind if characters in games looked like this:

Instead of this:

yes, poor anita, she cant catch a break. its realy hard if you call im the bomb threats yourself...

sexism exists in all industries so no i don't think that is it

the other thing is that sexism exists for a reason... what we should be doing is analysing why it exists first then taking the discussion past that

Except there isn't really a significant pushback against women in gaming. For the most part, GamerGaters embrace diversity (as shown by #NotYourShield). The pushback is largely against corruption and the sort of outrage culture that modern feminism has spawned. I think that the vast majority of people on both sides believe that harassment is wrong, but the ways that this harassment is being used as a means of furthering an agenda is disgusting to say the least.

PS: Also worth noting that when women stepped up for the right to vote, a large part of the opposition were actually women. I believe it was Feminist Christana Hoff Sommers who said something along the lines of "The men would have been easy to convince if the suffragists could just convince the women".

I wonder what lense you're viewing all of this, because that really has nothing to do with it at all. I'd say the corporate sponsorships and how games are covered are the real reason why it's a tier below.

I work in the tech industry with lots of women I've never seen this sexism before. I've been gaming for over 20 years never noticed sexism. In fact online women are often treated better then most.

If anything is an issue in the gaming community it's the mass amount of racism online. Makes me wonder how much that online racism spews into the industry.