It was closed because of the direction that the discussion was going.
There are female game reviewers. The problem is that they get a lot of rape and death threats. The article specifically mentions Gamespot’s Carolyn Petit and her review of Grand Theft Auto V (you can easily find similar examples). She gave it a 9/10, but also pointed out the sexism within the game.
The review page exploded with comments—ultimately topping 22,000—most of which viciously attacked Petit over her credibility, her gender, and her audacity to even raise the issue. A petition was signed by tens of thousands to get her fired from Gamespot for disrespecting GTA V. Three examples:
* Politically muddled and misogynistic. What a fcking surprise coming from this reviewer. Not even going to read this sht.
* Fire Carolyn.
* It’s GTA. Of course it’s misogynistic. F*ck your feelings.
The personal attacks against Carolyn in the comments are so vile, they should rightly give pause to any woman considering a job in the video-game industry. The message here is clear: consider gender in professional criticism and suffer personal consequences.
Those three examples are probably fairly mild compared to most of the other comments that she received. Most women probably do not want to deal with the harassment that happens when females discuss gender and video games.
