eSports has been one of the slower areas of the gaming industry to embrace diversity; so for Blizzard to highlight Pride in this way really felt like them sticking their head above the parapet. Sadly, but not surprisingly, there were those who were vocal in expressing their negative and sometimes hateful views; but it is for that very reason that these events are so important.

Alongside Blizzard, it seems a whole range of gaming companies have shown their support for Pride this year; from Discord and Playstation to PC retailers like Overclockers UK. It’s perhaps easy to dismiss this as tokenistic support (and yes, companies should be doing a lot more, like Blizzard, than just sticking a rainbow filter on their logo for a few weeks), but I think that these gestures, however small, still feel radical.

In the era of equal marriage, it can be tempting to think that LGBT equality is ‘a done deal’; but you only have to dip into the comments sections of any of those logo changes (the Playstation one had over 4,000 comments) to see just how divisive an issue it is, and just how much homophobia is still rampant in the gaming community. From full-on hate speech, to the, ‘equality means you don’t get special celebration/where’s our straight pride?’ comments (spoiler sweetie; you get celebrated every day), the controversy surrounding this support shows just how far we still have to go.

Change for good can be a slow process, but it’s been great to see gaming companies helping to make the community something we can all feel proud to belong to.

We wish everyone a happy Pride from London Gaymers, and hope you can join us at our Pre-Pride BBQ, cheer for us marching in the parade, or come to our Post-Pride Picnic on Sunday!