The State of Game Journalism

[DANGERMAN]

For some strange reason even though my gaming time has decreased, I enjoy following games online more than ever.

Save it for 2015, the year of games!

[Uncle Dokuro]

Bard Wardell CEO of Stardock latest blog post touches on the toxicity and tabloidiziation of the gaming media, professional victims and the founding editor of Kotaku being the worst troll he ever had to deal with. He makes a lot of good points and It refeashing to hear a rational persons take on the subject.

[Craymen Edge]

As an aside Season 2 seems to be getting a lot less coverage now people's mates have left

I haven't been paying a lot of attention to coverage because I intend to play it at some point. I think the same reason I'm not playing it as it comes out is also one of the reasons it's not getting so much coverage: they've completely fucked up the episodic release schedule for the game. Now they just seem to come out at random intervals approximately a couple of months apart if you're lucky.

The impression I get is that generally people dont think it's as good

[Sambob]

Finally caught up with all the zoe quinn stuff. Personal life aside, this is a bit of a big deal for the gaming industry isnt it?

[Craymen Edge]

Finally caught up with all the zoe quinn stuff. Personal life aside, this is a bit of a big deal for the gaming industry isnt it?

If it was true? Maybe. As far as I can see it's mostly made up/the rantings of a bitter ex.

[Sambob]

I would normally agree, but how do you explain the cover ups and blanket ban on the majority of sites from even mentioning it. Tons of pages talking about it just totally deleted and people receiving bans.

[Craymen Edge]

I guess they don't want to write things that aren't true?

Less sarcastically, I've seen people from a few places comment to say that a number of claims are demonstrably false, and the rest of it is just stuff about an individual's private life.

There's also some ridiculous conspiracy theories about cabals of devs and journalists out to destroy AAA gaming as we know it; graphic rape and death threats being sent to women in the industry (along with their addresses and names of family members); and hacking of people/posting their personal and financial info online just for opposing harassment. It's no wonder some places don't want to touch it.

[Sambob]

Isnt the whole story that she falsified a lot of the initial harrassment anyway? Also fairly certain that at least some of the claims about certain gaming journalists are true and confirmed by the involved parties.

Also its just news, I can see what you are saying about nastiness involved within said news but at the same time, not reporting on things that are actually happening is kind of the problem. Thats like saying about the Saville news 'yeah it happened, but its not very nice is it, lets just not mention it' and eventually that becomes as a big a problem as the thing itself.

[Craymen Edge]

Isnt the whole story that she falsified a lot of the initial harrassment anyway?

You need to stop reading 4chan.

[Craymen Edge]

The true tragedy in this whole debacle is as a Firefly fan learning what a fuckhole Adam Baldwin is.

[Sly Reflex]

Isnt the whole story that she falsified a lot of the initial harrassment anyway?

You need to stop reading 4chan.

Even a broken clock is right twice a day, in this case the compose evidence pulled directly from source all correlates to what people are saying. The cover up only reinforces what people are learning, especially the ones linked directly to the duratiction of the cover ups. Don't you think it's a bit dubious when Quinn gets youtube videos taken down citing that 'copyright infringement' instead of citing 'libel or slander'. Understandably it's fucking shite if something like this blows up in your face and I think she's unfairly taken far too much shit, but when you join the dots it looks like everyone responsible for this shitstorm is guilty, particularly her for getting it rolling.

It doesn't help that nobody has really come forward and come clean about it. All we've had is a few statements from websites saying that they'll operate differently from now on. It's like an admittance of guilt.

[Craymen Edge]

I'm out. I don't really want to carry on talking about this right now because I find the wholesale harassment angle so depressing.

I think I'm on record here saying there are things that I think the games press really needs to clean up its image on, but everything gets buried under insane conspiracy theories and utterly vile bullshit whenever there's a woman involved that I don't want to keep up with it right now.

[Uncle Dokuro]

It's been like two weeks and you guys are still talking about this womens sex life? #TimeToMoveOn

[Sambob]

Thats fine dude, I can tell you are uncomfortable with it. No one would argue that she deserved any of the abuse she is getting but I do honestly think that at the same time the truth is everybody's business when theres cover ups of the scale there are.

I really disagree on a basic level with some of the things she has done, Sly said an example there about getting youtube videos taken off for copyright infringement, its gaming the system, but things like having charities shut down because she 'just doesnt like' some of their equality policies (not to mention having funds redirected to her own personal charity events) are very shady indeed. Its a case of two wrongs not making a right although it bears repeating that I dont agree with any of the harassment she has received or Phil Fish and her other cronies, much as I might dislike them.

[Sly Reflex]

Nobody mentioned sex life. It's more to do with people in places doing things that are unethical. It doesn't matter if they are a man or a woman, that deserves to have the whistle blown on it.

[Sambob]

Also Uncle Dokuro we are pointedly attempting NOT to talk about her sex life or indeed make a point of her gender/feminist outlook. I feel that the fact that its been two weeks is irrelevant too, as many of the truths take time to come to the surface in an issue like this.

[Uncle Dokuro]

Thats fine dude, I can tell you are uncomfortable with it. No one would argue that she deserved any of the abuse she is getting but I do honestly think that at the same time the truth is everybody's business when theres cover ups of the scale there are.

LMAO It called I was trolling you. Fucken moron.

[Sambob]

I was actually aiming that at craymen and in a sincere way. Youd have known if it was aimed at you because id have used a combination of big letters and small words.

[DANGERMAN]

while it's always nice to see someone call someone else a moron with a post full of spelling errors, can we all calm down please. This, surprisingly, has stayed a well-mannered thread considering the topics it's covered, can we try to keep it that way please

[Craymen Edge]

Thanks Sam. One last thing before I go and do something else: unfortunately a lot of stuff gets either twisted or made up in these posts and videos to beat the object of their rage with. It gets repeated often enough that people take it as truth.

On the charity game jam thing, the organiser has stated that Quinn isn't responsible for it getting shut down (although it seems to be running now). http://www.thefineyoungcapitalists.com/PeaceTreaty

Regarding our grievances with Zoe Quinn, an associate of hers, posted my Facebook information. Zoe did not add any information to the post, nor did she post my phone number or email. The subsequent death threat I received via email was not orchestrated by Zoe. Nor was the DDOSing of our website or the banning of us from Twitter. She was simply the most famous voice in a choir of people that did not understand the project.

I think they ran afoul of not having thought about including trans people in their games jam for women and got a pounding from "Twitter Liberals" (some of whom can be just as big arseholes as the people on the other side, sometimes)

The sleeping with journalists for review scores/good publicity thing: The only name I really know being bandied about is Kotaku/Rock Paper Shotgun writer Nathan Grayson who has only ever written this about Depression Quest as far as I'm aware:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/01/08/admission-quest-valve-greenlights-50-more-games/

Every day, approximately 43 billion new indie games spring into existence from mysterious ethers far outside the realm of human comprehension. We approach these portals into The Beyond with great apprehension, then we scuttle away with our bounty, arms and hearts full of excitement and terror. We call this process game development, and it will probably bring about the end of the world. Until then, though, someone needs to curate these things, so Valve blasts new finds with its organizational death laser, Steam Greenlight. Yep, thats exactly how it all works and this is not just me filling space because Ive written far too many Greenlight posts at all. Anyway, standouts: powerful Twine darling Depression Quest, surrealist Thief usurper Tangiers, and sidescrolling epic Treasure Adventure World.