First off Charlie Brooker, the creator and showrunner of Black Mirror, is a wanker. Not just a little piss pot dribble of a man but a full on gushing geyser of pure urea from the Pogson organ played by a maniac chimpanzee on LSD fumbling 'Clair de Lune' in the Leslie Dawson style while dressed as Captain Chaos kind of wanker. He is the absolute pain in the arse at a party and spoils all the fun for everyone, and you hope he'll be at the next one. For all his faults, which are beyond counting, he produces the goods and does so with aplomb. Stunner of a wife too, and she's as sharp as a razor yet somehow kind hearted while snidey. God I hate this man!

Keith Stuart, the computer games editor for The Guardian whose first piece there was about a dating game app on Java for phones in 2001, before joining the team proper in 2004 (While freelancing for things like EDGE/Games Radar (That particular piece on 'Bodycount' led to the Codemasters Guildford studio closing down a year later)) compares himself to Charlie in this piece:

Plaything – how Black Mirror took on its scariest ever subject: a 1990s PC games magazine (April 14, 2025)

Now I'm not saying that there isn't a little overlap of art in culture and culture in art. I've long considered video games art and chess a sport (We'll fight about it elsewhere). But this man, this person, Keith Stuart surely can't be serious about comparing himself to Charlie Brooker. I mean Charlie could compare himself to Keith but that's just because he's an expert troll and poor Keith would wrongly feel complimented by his doing so.

Keith's been at the Guardian now for over 20 years, let's take a cursory glance at some of his articles from now till around Gamergate's start:

Video games can’t escape their role in the radicalisation of young men (March 24, 2025)

Hatred: gaming's most contrived controversy (Mat 29, 2015)

Zoe Quinn: 'All Gamergate has done is ruin people's lives' (December 3, 2014)

Brianna Wu and the human cost of Gamergate: 'every woman I know in the industry is scared' (October 17, 2014)

UK gamers: more women play games than men, report finds (September 17, 2014)

Gamergate: the community is eating itself but there should be room for all (September 3, 2014)

It would seem that his record keeps skipping on the same grooves; women, inadequacies and impotent rage. He has produced 3 books in the past decade too, all of which are prefaced like Nick Horby novels with the same crony-esque names lamenting them in their mediocrity wryly, so he does have some output. Perhaps not the High Fidelity he thinks it is though as this is the same Keith Stuart who gave Don't Nod's Lost Records: Bloom & Rage (Tape Two) a 4 out of 5 with the summary "The concluding half of this two-parter may be lacking in interactive challenges, but is profound, sensitively structured and emotionally resonant".

That particular 'game' is a graphic novel. I'm not faulty or praising it with that. Just stipulating that it isn't a game.

Thronglets, the game in the episode of Black Mirror being referred to by Keith, isn't a game either. But that's the point. An idea virus beyond human reasoning exploiting the opportunity to thrive would be one of the takeaways I'd put forward. The question is do we allow this virus to thrive or not?

Poor Keith doesn't see that he is already infected by the virus and is beyond help. Charlie is the immune system sending out a message to expel the dead and wasteful. The virus may not recognise that the live-attenuated vaccine has shown up. But we've been here all along and will do this every time.

The guzunder might think that it's an endless ocean because they both get pissed in. But an ocean is forever.

Games journalists eh?