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  1. The past two weeks have seen some of the worst that the internet has to offer, as well as some of the best. I am not going to go into detail about the events that transpired (and are still transpiring) as much as possible, as I want to avoid focusing on specific people, they as well as their personal dramas are but a footnote in the bigger picture, a facet of which has reared its ugly head just a few days ago, when virtually the entirety of the gaming press independantly published articles pushing the same, extremely questionable agenda. I am not going to link to these articles as to not provide any needless traffic for them, so here's a nice summary in image format.
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  3. http://i.imgur.com/qtHWDZ0.jpg
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  6. Another reason I refuse to talk about specific events or people any more than absolutely necesary is, despite my whole hearted attempts at indifference and neutrality, I do have a very strong opinion on the whole thing, one I am avoiding to disclose in fear of this whole article being dismissed the way most rational discussion has been dismissed and forgotten by people too blinded by their group affiliation and beliefs. What my opinions boils down to however, when all of my subjective feelings are stripped off is the following - nepotism and corruption has been rampant in game journalism (and beyond) for a very long time now.
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  8. Let's tackle this heaping mass one gooey bit at a time though, starting with the aforementioned articles. Up until reading these I was perfectly happy to identify myself as a gamer. Suddenly major gaming outlets tell me it's a dirty word. The unified agenda of these articles as well the extreme coincidence of them being posted on the same day, by websites and people all allegedly having part in a grand case of journalistic corruption makes me question myself - just how much straight up indoctrination is enough to rip the blindfolds off of the eyes of the average person? I would surprise no one by yelling 'GAMING JOURNALISM IS CORRUPT OMG", but the fact that everyone would just blink for a second, look at me as if I'm trying to reinvent the wheel, shrug and move on is what really gets me.
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  10. Now, do not get me wrong - I along with everyone else in the world am guilty of the very same thing to one degree or another, whether the subject matter is politics, movies or in this case, gaming. However, most of us subconciously assume that there is a line that, if crossed, will so obviously rile everyone up to fight for the good cause, yet nothing of the sort ever happens. Has that line not yet been crossed? Is the appearance of those articles not an indication of a much deeper agenda to "breed sheep" or to segragate the gaming population? Are the events of the past two weeks just a passing fad or just the entrance to the rabbit hole which is the corruption of video game journalism?
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  12. All of these questions seem like your over-the-counter doomsday talk, but it would be foolish to think that these things don't get out of hand - microtransactions and mobile gaming are still searing hot examples of this. So yes, it is important to consider every facet of this scandal extremely carefully and avoid outright dismissing claims from anyone based only on their affiliation, i.e. avoid to generalize and lump everyone under the same umbrella. Which ironically is exactly what the articles above did - portraying all gamers as essentially mysingonist pigs, when you strip out all of the sweet talk. I don't know about you, but I have absolutely no issue with women in video games, or women in general, so to see major gaming outlets label me and pretty much all of my friends like that does stirr up less-than-rational emotions.
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  14. Before dwelling into the subject matter any more, let's see how all of this got started, or rather, what brough it to light. Enter The Fine Young Capitalists, a campaign that asks women specifically to present ideas for games they'd want to see made. The campaign guys will create pitches for them, the best game will be voted by the internet (voting is up on their page, go and do it!) and the best one will get made, with 8% of the profits going to the author and the rest going to charity. It's a wonderful idea that got unjustly blacklisted from Kotaku & Co. in wake of the recent events. Due to all of this it has gained virtually no publicity outside of the people actively involved in the current events. Shout out for those guys, they're doing something really amazing.
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  16. If you haven't been keeping up for the past few days you might wonder what about this campaign could have stirred up so much drama, and if that's the cause then congratulations, you are perfectly sane. The answer, as with most internet drama is zealots, crazies. Radical feminists have unjustly attacked the TFYC campaign, cried wolf left and right, allagedly going as far as "doxxing" the author, and a lot of other nasty things. You might still wonder how this singular attack managed to cripple a campaign as much as it did. The answer is - so did everyone. People started digging and what ensued is perhaps the biggest stain on game journalism in the past 10 years. It goes without saying that both sides have both rational and radical snowflakes, but one would be a fool to take a stand for journalistic integrity in gaming and turn it into a gender war. Now, I don't know about you, but I have absolutely no issue with women in video games, or women in general (I love my wife), so to see major gaming outlets label me and pretty much all of my friends like that does stirr up less-than-rational emotions.
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  18. That being said, upon even the slightest scrutiny it is painfully obvious that the fight for equality in video games has crashed through the "equality" mark and is heading straight for radicalitytown. Unfortunately, that vocal minority has a very easy time stealing the spotlight. Combine all of that with lies, deceit, victimization, alleged bribery and worse and you have yourself an extremely juicy drama at hand.
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  20. But we won't fall into that trap, doing so would just be stooping down to the same level as the people who started all of this in the first place, and they have the home advantage there. So instead let's divert our attention back to the very dangerous "gamers are dead" phrase, and the cause behind it. If the allegations are true, then this would mean that the timing and agenda in the articles in question is everything but a coincidence. It would also completely obliterate any integrity that the offending sites might have had. After the initial wave of outlash, sites such as Kotaku and The Escapist both came out with perfunctory apologies and an "inquiry / adjustment of work ethics". But, as it usually goes with these things, the rabbit holes goes deeper. Since most of the stuff is still unconfirmed at this point, and the debate is still very much heated, there is little point to dwell on the poo-flinging any further.
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  22. What we should be talking about is journalistic integrity in game media. Kotaku and the likes have been the laughing stock in terms of journalistic integrity for years now and yet they still rake in a tremendous amount of traffic and publicity, all because of it. Yet they're a festering ground for articles that blatantly call their target audience sexist pigs with varying degrees of subtlety. Honestly, it's sickening, and to stay silent any longer is something I wouldn't be able to forgive myself for, because I love gaming. I love playing games, I love reading about them, writing about them, discussing them, wearing them on shirts, posters, keychains, and given the fact that I make a living by developing video games, I obviously also like to make them. It gives me great pain to see that people who's only interest is to bleed gaming dry of any profit (or any other sort of benefit) regardless of the long term consequences have taken such a foothold in the industry.
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  24. Again I hear a resounding "duh" among the audience for pointing out that there are evil people out to only make money, but this is worse than that, more vile. We've seen all of this play out on multiple occassions so many times now - the publishers become evil, we turn to mobile gaming as the future potential. It doesn't take long for mobile games to become worse than triple A, the remake of Dungeon Keeper being the most painful recent memory that comes to mind as an example. The last vestige of sanity thus remains within indie gaming, the place where people make games because they're good, not for the profit. A place where ideas can develop without censorship and where the only judges are the gamers themselves. It is, by all definitions, the most direct developer-to-consumer line, the purest form of community-driven organic game development, where we, the gamers, define what we want made.
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  26. If only.
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  28. As I said above, most of the stuff being posted has not been proven beyond reasonable doubt, but the thing is - it doesn't have to be. It doesn't matter that much at this point who wins and who loses, the fact of the matter is that these events transpiring in the first place have turned the indie (and the closely tied journalistic) scene into a soap opera. The effects of this will be felt for years to come. I will not be able to take seriously anyone who call themselves indie for a very long time, maybe never. Gaming as a whole has taken a giant leap backward in its efforts to be recognized as an art form by the "outside" world, and it makes me sick.
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  30. Kotaku & Co. aren't reporting on it despite it being one of the most prominent ongoing stories in the gaming community for the past two weeks, most people are too afraid to take a stand in fear of backslash, yet being silent is, the biggest danger of all, as it allows the people who are pushing their agendas above games to succeed in that, and before long it'll be microtransactions and online passes all over again. Thus, I implore of you - call them out, contact them and their advertisers, make it loud and clear that we, the gamers, will not lie down and just take these insults and attempts at segragation silently. We will not let people who do not care about games dictate their future. We are gamers, and we care.
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