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I should say at this point that one of the upsides of this clusterfuck is that the mainstream gaming press and many of the men involved in mainstream game production have been so horrified by the onslaught (particularly those who know these women and have worked with them) that they have started to speak out against this and it may have actually prompted a serious reexamination of how the industry treats its female fans and contributors.
As to whether the mainstream welcomes women - here's a little anecdote:
The game The Last of Us has a key female character - when the game was getting ready for launch it was put out by the publisher to a focus group prior to tweaking - the focus group was 100% male. The games makers had to insist that there was a woman in the group - so they included 1 woman.
The game producers then had to fight to include a picture of this key female character on the box. the publishers didn't want her on there.
Apparently publishers think that including the picture of a playable female character who is central to the plot would put off male players.
I was talking to a graphic designer the other day. She was one of only 2 or 3 women working in a games company and they had to design characters for a sci-fi type shooter game. There were loads of male characters in the game, all wearing full on sci-fi type body armour. There was 1 female 'baddie' and the male designer who worked on her drew her with thigh high boots, a veil, gloves and a bikini. The female designer objected aand asked why she was the only character that was fighting half naked and was made to feel like a feminazi killjoy. They just didn't get why that was disrespectful of women. They eventually compromised and put her in formfitting latex.
That women like Anita Sarkeesian and Zoe whateverhernameis face death threats and a career threatening mob for making those kinds of points is just appalling.
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