Kotaku Controversy: Gamers Are Now Dead?

Over the past couple of weeks, the Zoe Quinn story has escalated to point of being the gaming version of Watergate, as proven by the #Gamergate trend flying around twitter...

[KiwiViper85]

Ive got no idea what this article is about.

Or how it relates to Zoe Quinn, Why is it news that an employee slept with her boss? It happens thousands of times a day according to the other sites I frequent.

[johndoe11211]

Ok then, let's apply your logic to other exact situations. Why should it matter if the president slept with his secretary? Why should it matter if a miss universe contestant slept with 3 of the judges? Why should it matter if the co-worker under you slept with your boss and got your promotion?

[KiwiViper85]

It was a joke bro, I was referencing Porn sites.

But anyway I read the Wordpress thing and I just got the feeling she didn't do it for promotions or favours, She's just addicted to cock. And lying.

[Godmars290]

To counter questions raised around the Quinn incident, or maybe just the outright contempt gaming journalist like at Kotaku have been holding for gamers, they're trying to instigate a movement to replace the term "gamer" with something else. Something of their choosing.

And the problem that the Quinn thing has exposed, is that many in the indie crowd as well as some journalist are too close. One using their influence to help and promote the other, as well as mess up if not ruin the careers of anyone not in their click.

Think of it as a hipster version of the old buys club, which is suppose to be everything that they, as social activist, are against.

[KiwiViper85]

Ah I see, thanks for clearing that up.

[3-4-5]

Question:

Did THIS Happen ?

* A.) "Hey your game sucks, but if you have sex with me I'll tell everyone it's awesome "

^ If so, then THAT IS WHY people are mad about it.

Nobody cares who shes sleeps with, until it calls into question her credibility.

* People then trusted that Reviewer, because they thought he reviewed the game honestly, on the merits of the game, and not because he got sex out of it.

* Then, when people SIMPLY ASK IF that happened, THEN she started throwing the feminism stuff out there, and crying wolf.

^ THAT is why people are upset.

* Just because it happens elsewhere in the shady corporate world, DOES NOT mean it's ok.

* But then IDIOTS had to go way too far and start harassing her because they think they are cool.

THAT is NOT cool. That crossed the line, and now ALL MEDIA is focusing on is THAT....the 1% of the story, instead of the 99% of FACTS.

IF you want the truth, you need to seek it peacefully and intelligently, NOT by harassing people.

THAT screwed this whole thing up for everyone and just caused more confusion.

[Joe913]

I agree that 1% screwed it for everyone we as gamers could have fixed game Journalism but instead made us look really bad and crazy.

[callahan09]

The narrative keeps coming back to the unimportant parts so we're distracted from the important parts. We keep hearing about how Nathan Grayson only wrote one article about Quinn and it was before they had slept together, and therefore there was no wrong-doing. What about Nathan Grayson's affiliation with Robin Arnott and the president of GaymerX, and then writing about them in positive ways without disclosing his personal relationships?

Why are they ignoring the more important person in the Kotaku situation as it relates to Zoe Quinn: Patricia Hernandez? SHE was a close personal friend of Zoe's at the time she was giving positive press to her and her ventures. THAT is a REAL conflict of interest!

Instead they focus on the sexual affairs, as if they matter, when in reality, they don't matter except in the context of a Zoe Quinn character assassination, when there are real issues at play here that matter much more than whether or not she personally has questionable ethics.

Zoe Quinn doesn't matter!

She is a cheater, she is a gamer (by that I mean, she games the system to take advantage of anything she can to move up in the world and get publicity and make friends in the industry... that's ethically questionable, but as far as I'm concerned it's the other people in the equation that are to blame for giving her what she wants with dubious public disclosure, not so much the woman herself for doing whatever she can to "move on up" in the industry), she is a liar, and she is a scumbag who uses sexism/misogyny as an excuse to brush off criticism and is inciting an unnecessary class war in the industry.

BUT, all of that stuff is able to happen because the journalism in our industry is falling head over foot to tow that line and push that agenda of "gamers are misogynists, the industry is a cesspit of sexism!".

Journalists are suppressing criticism and assigning the blame onto their audience rather than taking any accountability of their own.

It isn't right to silence critics via dubious DCMA claims. It isn't right to assign labels at people and push the narrative in a direction to control the public perception, when there are other angles that you're purposely suppressing. It isn't right, as journalists, to only cover one side of the story. It isn't right, as journalists, to give publicity and attention to your friends without full disclosure. It is downright immature that most of these journalists on Twitter are saying "F*** off and die" and "You're blocked, asshole!" to everyone who criticizes them or questions them, even if they aren't being misogynistic or offensive.

They approach all confrontation and criticism with the utmost defensiveness, brush off people's legitimate arguments, tell them to go away and that they aren't welcome, and then ride on in their insular little bubbles where they apparently can do no wrong don't need to account for their actions or give credence to their accusations.

They are no better than the absolute worst of the Internet trolls who are outlandishly terrorizing them. They are pushing the situation to its limit and refusing to discuss any angle of it outside their own pre-conceived agenda.

[mochachino]

In my experience hipsters are the biggest a-holes around. So much self-entitlement and the worst interpersonal skills. Wearing malcom x glasses doesn't make you unique, smarter, or superior to anyone. Get over yourself.

Look how smart and cute a monkey looks...

[Godmars290]

To be fair, the use of "hipster" might have been too strong if not just inaccurate. let's say People who went to college for social media degrees, became pseudo-intellectuals, then wondered into a career field that forced them to serve perceived intellectual inferiors.

Mind you, if they were so damn smart they should have come out and started using a new term, as well as realized that "Gamer" applies to more than just people who play video games.

Also those are more Groucho Marx glasses...

[-Foxtrot]

It's Kotaku, I don't see how they are still going...hell how they are STILL allowed on here

I mean look at the new discoveries people have made about Nathan Grayson, the guy who SHOULD of been fired because of his corruption and shit articles.

http://i3.kym-cdn.com/photo...

President of Gaymer X is all buddy buddy with Zoe and Nathan aswell.

Not to mention a guy from Destructoid

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photo...

God knows how far this actually goes.

Hell I'm pretty sure Kotaku have something going on with EA with the Sims 4, people are been calling them out on Facebook over it...like 3/4 articles in a row about how good Sims 4 is. Something stinks.

[Godmars290]

What's get me is the hypocrisy. That just like Quinn, this Grayson have publicly stated rules of conduct they've ignored privately as well as in their work.

[morganfell]

Well what gets me is the influence wielded by sites such as Kotaku. An influence that forces developers and publishers to change a game in production or to avoid certain things out of concern for media reprisal. In the end gamers recieve a game made for whimsical media pricks.

Such media claims to speak for the gamer but in reality only speak for their own bloated ego. I have rebelled against such influence for years on this site. They are harmful to our hobby. They rob us of experiences. These idiots feel they are rockstars and their sense of entitlement leads them to believe they are more important than the game on which they are reporting. Their so called reviews are nothing more than snotty fits over what they do not like. Even worse is the public has accepted that reviews are supposed to be opinions. So many gamers have either forgotten or were not even born when game reviews in the 90s offered a great deal more objectivity and far less me me me vindictiveness.

In this day and age of connectivity there is no longer a need for these media leeeches. Game developers and publishers can and should interface directly with their buying demographic and cease this currying of favor to these succubus media vipers.

[gigoran]

I got banned and reinstated about 3 times for criticizing kotaku articles on here recently. Kinda scared to say boo these days.

[pwnsause_returns]

why are they going? cause everytime a Kotaku Article appears on N4G, you guys keep giving them a click....

Click= more readership= more sponsorship=more money= staying relevant

how about you dont give em a click..

a simple "sry guys" isnt gonna help.. they'll continue to feed their cesspool that is called an agenda and continue to devolve journalism. do yourself a favor for journalistic integrity and not give em a click, and watch how they start getting rid of the waste...

[leemo19]

Kotaku, polygon, and the rest of those so called "journalist" are just upset that gamers finally have had enough and have expose them for the practices they've been doing in the gaming industry.

[Drithe]

These so called "gaming journalists" keep bringing this stuff up as if it is important to gamers. REAL gamers don't give a shit about who's screwing who! We only care about games and how good they are!

Game developers think they should be Hollywood stars. Gaming journalists want the same respect and pay as a real news journalists, and that isn't gonna happen!

You don't have to have a degree in journalism to know what a good game is and how to have fun. These self important jackasses need to be brought down to reality every time they post something up like this.

[gamer4lifeyo]

No, just means means kotaku is a joke. I'm sure they're not the only ones guilty of this

[FullmetalRoyale]

I do not identify myself as a gamer, so that ridiculous gamers are dead campaign does not offend me on a personal level. But I do find it to be ridiculous. Also, I love watching any person who does another person harm get their comeuppance. This far I have not participated, but have simply sat back and watched.
Idc with whom she slept with, or for what. That's not to say that I do not find those actions disturbing, because I'm a prude and I do. What it is that has made me root you lot not letting her off the hook, is simply how she took attention away from a good cause. Then again I haven't paid her much mind, so I'm sure I have missed some stuff, basing that upon what little of her I've bothered to learn about.

I do not have the drive, but you people here have the power. Don't let it go. I do not think they will show their hands again.

[fanboysmackdown]

She didn't screw me physically or figuratively so I don't give an asses rat on the subject. Never did like the Kotaku site so this has zero effect on me. People really need to get a life and get off the web once in awhile. We have turned into a society of computerized fuggin' zombies. I love my video games as much as the next person but it's entertainment.......that's all it is. It's not life and death.

[ibroman198]

What happened to the days where gaming journalism was about games? 'sigh'