While I agree with their views on that particular topic and while I would never buy the game because of the views of the director, I think banning discussion is never good. That's really bad in the long run. They probably have a good reason, but they're not seeing the full picture and the good side of allowing people to express their opinions, even though they suck.

It's not a cornerstone of the industry, the only people who will probably try to tell you that are the moderators that work there since they want to make it seem like a bigger deal than it actually is.  It's literally just another gaming website, it's not any more special than any others. In fact I would say it's the opposite considering how there's been actual people in the industry talking about how horrible both those sites are. It just happens to be that a lot of insiders go on it and leak stuff, maybe because it has a big audience. 

But wasn't the creator of Neogaf getting offers of millions for the site before the whole sexual assault thing? And while developers have talked bad about it so much of the gaming industry has used Neogaf in the past as a way to spread information. I don't know if I'd say Resetera is a "cornerstone" yet, but whether or not you liked the site it at least seemed to me like that's the reputation Gaf used to have. A necessary evil of sorts, except not necessary at all. 

Reading up on him, I find I rather quite like this guy. Some sections from an interview he did that ring so true:

Do you think gamer culture more toxic than other enthusiast cultures on the web (political enthusiasts, fashion enthusiasts, car enthusiasts, gun enthusiasts, etc.)? (I'm using "gamer" here to mean "core game enthusiast").

No. I only think that part of the audience is very young and these teenagers tend to be a bit ruder than adults. I believe that when it happens, they need to be educated or ignored. The worst thing you can do is to threaten, criminalize or patronize them, because that will make things even worse. Just like with all this harassment. When somebody calls people ugly neckbeard virgin nerds or terrorists, he shouldn't be surprised by rude response. It's the same as going to church during a mass and screaming that God doesn't exist at people. What do you think would happen?

What is the root cause of GamerGate? Do you see it as part of a larger "culture war"?

Over the last decade, media were taken over by people who think that their ideals, opinions and way of life are superior to others and so they have the mission to tell others how to live, what to think and what to do. Those people have learned that there is a very easy way of manipulating others with guilt and fake goodwill. They will tell you that you should be ashamed, because you are privileged. You are white, you are healthy, you are rich and it's your fault that there are others who are not as lucky as you. So you must redeem those crimes by doing what those social justice warriors think will please those who are not privileged enough. And if you don't, they will jump on you and give you a hard time. Nobody wants to be called sexist, misogynistic, rape culture supporter, and everybody kind of agrees that it's great to help people who were not as lucky as them, so for some time this works.

The problem is that this is not enough. At the same time, these people persuade those that are not so lucky that they are victims. They make enemies out of people. They ostracize different opinions. They usually speak in the name of others. A white male journalist from a magazine that employs only white males calls gaming company sexist and racist for not having enough black female developers. People who have no qualifications at all to get a job are making loud claims that it's because their gender, sexuality or beliefs, while the truth is that they are not able to code, write or make art. Nobody dares to say the truth to them. Everybody feels kind of sorry for them and nobody wants to be called names.

This whole concept of victimhood is bullshit. I grew up in a communist country without the freedom of speech, without comic books, without Lego, without videogames, without computers, without American movies. I couldn't even learn English at school. All this was considered to be capitalist evil and prohibited. You could hardly call me privileged. And you know what? I never blamed Americans for being luckier than me. I never wanted them to give me anything for free. I wanted to be like them! And here I am, making games, doing the stuff I always wanted. I never felt the need to blame anyone.

And that is the root cause of Gamer Gate. People had enough of those hypocrites that started to inject their ideology everywhere while they do exactly the opposite of what they preach to others. And the fact that the only reactions from them is pretending that nothing happened, or accusing millions of people of misogyny, or comparing them to ISIS proves that something is terribly wrong. Their "official" story about how the whole GamerGate started is one big lie that is repeated over and over by ignorants who want to tell the world their opinion without even trying or pretending that they investigated how it's started and what it is. It's not a 4chan misogynistic conspiracy. That is one big ad hominem attack: If you don't have arguments, accuse your opponent with the worst thing you can imagine. Some of those people should see a doctor.