So I'm not a gamer, and this is a whole issue I barely care about so haven't followed closely. Someone explain - and try to set aside your own allegiances here (because everything I encounter about Gamergate is frothing at the mouth and boring to read):

As I understand it:

• People talk like a bunch of thirteen year old knuckle-dragging troglodytes on Teamspeak or whatever it is people use, when they game.

• Some women and some guys who have aesthetics in common with these women don't like this.

• So there's a movement about sexism in gaming, be it in game design (Anita Sarkeesian's video series) where damsels are always being rescued by dudes or women appear as stripper NPCs and so on

• Lots of people are angry about this, for whatever reason.

Isn't it possible to set up game servers which have different rules? Like, if you're not into being told you're going to be face-raped with a chaingun, isn't it possible to start your own server and just not tolerate that?

Also why not start up a game company which hires and caters to women?

To me, the gaming world is like stomping around in a portajohn and complaining you got shit on your boots. I don't understand gamer culture nor why anyone would want to be part of it (I get games - playing them and so on, but what I've seen of the culture around it is...not something I understand.)

I don't get how something as mundane as video games where you move pixels from one side of the screen to the other has become some kind of social battleground.

What is there even to discuss in 'panels' on this subject? There seem to be a lot of videos and panels and I don't get it. Just don't buy shitty video games and don't use servers where people are dicks.

Or just turn off the damn sound or something.