First of all i want to say that fact i’m moderator here, all i say is my opinion is not Epic opinion. I know this topic is very sensitive, aspecially now days, so i want state that out.
I didn’t heard of any female gamer being called “fake gamer” other then female ultra liberals that talking about “change” the industry and being accused of not playing games. I think you base those opinions on that group of people, instead of real female gamers, especially that you also mention “death or rape threats” on twitter.
I don’t see issue for woman to join game development industry, in my opinion fact that male is majority here comes more of cultural alignment then some serious barriers that liberals think there is, it same as man is less interested in fashion shopping then woman. Before i joined more international groups on Internet (and i’m also from Poland btw), in my teen times for around year or two is was participating in “amature” e-sporting of RTCW:Enemy Territory, ofcorse majority of scene was male players, but if female appeared they usually been treated like a queen, being female you could easily get to clan, your skill don’t need to be high, just for staying for company. I believe this behavior was caused from fact that man feels alone in there hobby, majority of girls (atleast in my country) is not interested in gaming, not because boys won’t let them… because they simply not interested in gaming, i even meet girl once that was hurt that her boyfriend spend too much time on playing games then being interested with there relationship. I can also say something about LittleBigPlanet where i participate in community activities to this day (), it a game where if you get serious it’s a great entry point for game development industry, lot of people i know and that takes level making more seriuesly they aim for that goal (in fact since Media Molecule put LBP aside and give torch to Tasier and Sumo they hired a lot of top community members to make story levels for LBP and LBP3) and i know 2 female community members that are serious in aim on that goal. In this community males are still visible majority, but females part is not so small, at least to level that seeing female player or level maker is something common and not unusual. As somebody who gone deep in to this community i can ensure you i never ever seen or heard any female player or level maker being decriminalized female for sole reason of her being a female, if you meet aggression in this game (which sadly is common thing too) it’s mainly comes from immature kids or teens where there lot of them there too and male players get equile about of that stuff as much as female. And it not because character is uniform (in fact it still being called Sackboy, even through some gamers with liberal views protest to call him Sackthing all the time), it’s because game is more oriented on artistic work and hangout with friends (theres even house levels which only point is to sit there play around and talk) and fact that Sackboy is like doll which playing with is considered feminine thing, art is also thing that seeing woman in art is not something unusual (as eXi mention you see woman mainly in that part in game dev), so it makes LBP more attractive for them.
Thats why i don’t believe there some serious walls either in gaming and game development for woman to come in, in fact i believe majority of man would be more happy about it to shere there interest. If people really want to push female devlopers in to industry, i think best would be by pulling female artists where there a lot more of them. Working around indies teached me that any artist with skill regardless who he are and what kind of art he is doing is good to work with in game industry, if people really want to bring “change” they should start by doing that insited of accusing others for who they are not and for opinions that usually the don’t shere, i believe results would be more effective and at least more peaceful.
I also don’t think this thread should be closed as long as we have normal discussion, i think discussion is only good solution for industry boiling topics.