Let’s talk about a way out.

Is there a way out? It’s a tough question. A common thing GamerGate proponents asked for is an apology from sites that vilified them, which might have sufficed in the early weeks of the controversy. But now that gaming sites have fed their own audiences to mainstream media, stabbed them in the back and pitched them to a pack of wolves, there’s no going back. An apology at this point will be little more than lip service.

Do you remember Geoff Keighley, Jason? He was that passionate, video game-loving kid next to Gabe Newell, eager to conduct an interview with him. He pursued a career in video game journalism.

January 21st 2008, Mass Effect came under attack by Fox News (right-wing outlet) to rouse up moral panic about sexual content in video games:

And Geoff was there, holding the line for us. Clumsily as he might have come off, he fended off the pack of wolves from mainstream media when they were waging a moral crusade on video games. He did not feed us to the wolves. Geoff might have fallen from grace after the DewXP promotional event, but at least he sold us off to the corporations, not to the mainstream media, or at least the right wing mainstream media. I will forever remember Geoff for protecting his audiences from the scrutiny of mainstream media.

This time when it’s the left-wing mainstream media waging a moral crusade, this happened:

No mere apology can undo this damage, any game journalist that fed their own audiences to this pack of wolves in support of their moral panic is really below Geoff Keighley. This is what being back-stabbed feels like, Jason.

Many GamerGate proponents are now firmly believing that there’s no way out for sites and journalists that smeared and vilified them at this point. But I don’t know, Jason, I can tell you that Polygon and their sister sites are unsalvageable, I can’t say anything about other sites, but for Kotaku? There might just be a way out, and I’m about to say some preposterous things to GamerGate proponents in the next few paragraphs. I think there is a way out for Kotaku, albeit it’s going to sound impossible and will require Kotaku to pay a heavy price. But read on.

One aspect of Kotaku that no GamerGate proponent seems to have a problem with is the review system (the Shadow of Mordor review for an example). It’s a system that doesn’t use scores (and hence, doesn’t boil down the quality of the game to a number), it sums up the pros and cons of a game in 2 boxes, a Yes or No recommendation from the reviewer and a tidbit that most sites don’t disclose: how much of the game they have played. This is kind of a brilliant system which draws the attention of the readers to the merits and flaws of the game instead of a number. Also, without scores, a Kotaku review would not be listed on MetaCritic, hence removing the relevance of the review to the marketing departments of publishers. The review now only exists to serve the interest of the readers, free of the pressure from the developer/publisher side. You know, with the score system, one of the methods I use to gauge how much the reviewers represent the consumers is by measuring the disparity between Metacritic’s critic scores and user scores. Try the Mass Effect 3 example. That disparity is how I can tell people still hold grudges against game journalists for misrepresenting how they feel about the game. Without the score system, it puts the reviews into perspective, it lets the readers attach their own weight into each pro and con bulletpoint and let them make up their own mind about the game. Some don’t play games for the story, some do, so they will have different weights attached to the story of a game. Giving a score is no different than telling the readers what to think, that you are attaching the weight of each items for them, that what matters is what you feel, not what your readers may feel about the game.

Also, any bias the reviewer may have as a result of the amount of play time they have invested in the game is worn on their sleeve, which is good.

John Bain credited this system to you, Jason. If that’s true then credit is where credit’s due. I actually voted the “Quality/Depth/Thoroughness of Games Reviews” criteria for Kotaku entry on the 6th Estate site a bit higher than other criteria, simply because of this review system. I really wish every sites would have a review system like this.

Also credit to you, Jason, for being the only Kotaku editor that vocally opposed financial ties with developers via Patreon.

This is why I found something salvageable from Kotaku compared to other sites being called out by GamerGate. This is why out of all sites, I’m giving Kotaku a way out. But it’s not going to be easy. To make peace, Kotaku is going to have to take some really drastic steps, some of which I have never seen a GamerGate proponent suggested. But I think if Kotaku would actually go through these steps, GamerGate proponents would be willing to bury the hatchet. These steps will involve burning a lot of bridges:

Go independent. Bring this up to Stephen. Gawker Media is falling down, and they are not going to last long. Not even some of the most notable public figures could stand by Gawker. Their sites have some of the worst reputation to advertisers right now. Find a way to buy Kotaku off Gawker so that Kotaku can grow on its own. The site will have to rebuild many of its parts from scratch, but it’s a small price to pay compared to what follow… Termination of employment of Nathan Grayson. I don’t care how much of a good friend Nathan was with Kotaku staffs, but this bridge has to burn. Nathan has a terrible tendency to provide undisclosed coverage for his friends. His GAME_JAM article was terrible one-sided reporting. His articles are worthless clickbaits more often than not. In particular, this one recently was an useless hype piece that conveyed a false state of the market to the consumers. First off, Shadow of Mordor is not based on the LotR movies but rather the general Middle Earth universe(that’s why it’s called Middle Earth: SOM, not LOTR: SOM, Warner Bros has been very careful to make this separation). Secondly, out of all licenses, LotR and Alien are the last ones you want to hold up as examples of terrible adaptations. The direct movie adaptation games were cool (especially the Return of the King game), the The Two Towers game on GBA was kinda cool, the War of the Ring game was a decent Warcraft knock off, The Battle for Middle Earth series were cool RTS games, the LEGO LotR and Hobbits games were cool platformers, the LotR Online is a mature, content-rich MMORPG. Alien series has a history of decent to great AvP games, the Alien games in the 5th generation were cool, and recently, Gearbox even co-developed a great Aliens game (Aliens Infestation on the Nintendo DS). He then went on to bring up non-movie-based games as examples of good games based on movies, then went on to hype on other non-movie-based games, such as Legend of Korra, which he ultimately gave a negative review to. Please, spare me of this editor. GamerGate has a point when they constantly insist that this editor is a terrible journalist. Getting rid of Nathan despite how good of a friend he is to Kotaku staffs will do much good to bury the hatchet. Termination of employment of Luke Plunkett. Just for writing that offensive “Death of an Identity” article that echoed the voices of Dan Golding (still don’t know who this man is) and Leigh Alexander to have a clickbait, sensational article is enough to cut off this editor. His one-sided reporting on the Spiral Games Studios case and ultimately led to the blacklisting of them at Kotaku was unethical and unacceptable. Clickbaits like that Dragon’s Crown hit piece and (letter update) a hit piece on Daniel Vavra’s Kingdom Come: Deliverance are also unacceptable. Termination of employment of Patricia Hernandez. This editor is like a worse version of Nathan Grayson. So many of her articles are low-quality clickbaits, as I laid out above (want more useless clickbait? Here you go). She shamelessly gave coverage to her friends. Most offensively, Patricia turned Kotaku into her personal soapbox to write a hit piece on a non-video game man and talked about non-gaming topics in the same article. GamerGate proponents can’t stand this editor and can’t stand the fact that she still has a job at Kotaku. I say it’s a good idea to let her go. Issue an apology on Kate Cox’s hit piece on Brad Wardell, acknowledge the damage it has done to Brad and his reputation in the last 2 years. Actually, just issue an official apology in the place of former staffs for what they’ve done to Brad, from the founding editor-in-chief Matt Gallant’s witch hunt on him to Kate Cox’s hit piece (who is no longer at Kotaku and currently writing for Consumerist) Issue a sincere apology for Luke’s offensive hit piece. This is a horrible mistake that Kotaku has to own up to, with some sincerity and humility on Kotaku’s part. I have advised another GamerGate proponent about how to gain acceptance and forgiveness and I really stand by it. It takes a lot to swallow your pride and take some humiliation on your part, but it’ll go a long way. This is a heavy price to pay for Kotaku because the moment you do this, your friends and other journalists from other sites will come down really hard on you. I have seen how GamerGate detractors treat people on their side for even giving a tiny bit of concession, let alone a complete acknowledgement of guilt. This is the step where that will burn a lot of bridges for you. On the other hands, you are very likely to gain forgiveness from GamerGate if you do express some humility in your apology. Just look at MissAngerist’s apology. She was very aggressive at the start of this controversy (hell, she coined the term “cathedral of misogyny”) and yet after doing a thorough research, she fully acknowledged her fault:

And then I thought: why am I against this again? Details emerged. The project was more or less killed by Zoe Quinn claiming that they were anti-trans and exploitative. This was a stance I absolutely believed, and I believed it because Ms Quinn said it. I didn’t do research. Why would I? Obviously someone as awesome as her would know what she’s talking about. And therein lies the problem. It’s so easy to misdirect and deflect blame or scrutiny from yourself by choosing your words carefully. I came to learn that 4chan is the way it is because of anonymity, NOT because of some deep rooted ideology. A friend came to me (not disclosing — seeing a pattern here?) and told me that they browsed their lgbt board. Another explained to me that it’s sort of like reddit in that the overall entity cannot be spoken for by its subdivisions, which have their own culture and often fight amongt themselves to boot. And then I started to get headaches, and sweat, and get cravings for the cigarettes that I gave up years ago, because I just made the kind of errors I constantly lampooned people for making: I did not do my research. For that I am sorry. I am sorry I insulted 4chan and I am sorry I insulted The Fine Young Capitalists. I even gave money, for what it’s worth. Don’t think this means I’ve ‘defected’ in some way. Anyone making twitter accounts solely to harass people with foul language and insults is a leech. But equally, any ‘SJW’ (shudders at using the term) who blindly defends Ms Quinn and thinks this is just about misogyny is WRONG. WRONG WRONG WRONG. This wouldn’t be going on for over a week if it was and there wouldn’t be THOUSANDS raised for charity and there wouldn’t be people demanding that Nathan Grayson resign (he should) or that Zoe Quinn should apologise for issuing false DMCA requests (she absolutely should).

And /v/ posters (subsequently GamerGate proponents) forgave and embraced her for that. I personally was there when this girl came into /v/ afterward and talked with the anons there. They were showering her with complements for admitting her mistake. Some of the responses were hilariously obvious that they were parodying the stereotype people attached to them (“Gurrrl, u done gud!”).

Imagine how quick peace could have been reached if the people on the other side could swallow their pride like this. I’m telling you, Jason, this is worth it. On top of addressing Luke’s offensive hit piece, the apology should acknowledge all the accomplishment that GamerGate has done and all the damage they have received (the doxx, the bully, the hateful vitriol), and acknowledge the blacklisting of The Fine Young Capitalists as well.

7. Stop treating Kotaku as a personal soapbox for political correctness. Remember, you are here to protect and represent your audiences — the consumers. Just keep anything political contained within your personal blog on Tumblr or something. The megaphone that Kotaku grants its editors should not be used to broadcast your political correctness or to tone-police developers. And your reviews are supposed to inform the consumers as a top priority, not to be another type of soapbox. Also, as the consumers’ representative, it’s not your job to control the market against the consumers’ will.

8. Stop with the tabloid, clickbaiting, sensational articles. GamerGate is fed up with this, I am fed up with this. And yet, everytime I open up Kotaku, the site is flooded with clickbaits. I know how hard this is, I even understand why Kotaku resorted to this kind of content. Gaming sites operate on an ad-based model, and you need traffic from your readers to sustain. But most of the time during the year there are slow news days, so you have to sensationalize stories every chance you got, you have to create useless hype pieces, all for purpose of attracting clicks and traffic. You know what that is gonna turn Kotaku into? A video game-centric version of Cracked, but more tabloid, because Kotaku also puts up a lot of non-gaming stuff when they run out of content to attract clicks. Right now, Kotaku content fits what this video describes to a T:

More clickbaits during a controversy also means more troll-feeding. More clicks and traffic in return. Even IGN is above this stuff.

9. Stop with the “loljapan” attitude. How many times has Kotaku made jabs and jeers at Japanese culture now?

These are just the kind of content that Kotaku put up while GamerGate is still ongoing. Kotaku will always out-Kotaku every parody articles from the WriteAKotakuArticle hashtag. Goddamn it, I am sick of this exploitation of a foreign culture to generate clickbaits. These are not even gaming-related, for crying out loud! Not to mention the fear culture that puts pressure on Japanese studios to gain acceptance in the Western market. You should know this, Jason, you contributed to it.

I’m not even going to dive into why this is subtly racist on top of that.

10. Cut all ties between Kotaku staff and people on the development/publishing side, especially with people in the indie game scene. The people within that scene have been openly saying that it’s a tightly-knitted community where everybody knows everybody. This is dangerous, especially considering that indie games live and die by the amount of exposure they gain from the press. Get out of there, burn all bridges with them. If destroying all of your friendship with the people in that scene is what it takes to maintain a professional distance, then so be it. You have to report on their unethical conducts such as abusing DMCA takedown system no differently from big publishers. I mean hell, journalists hanging out having casual chats with developers with zero professional distance like this is so harmful:

Oh look! They were sitting there with Phil Fish, poisoning and stereotyping the gamer identity 2 years before GamerGate happened on top of that!

Burn all bridges with your friends from other outlets as well. You are supposed to be journalists of competing sites, not friends hanging out cozily like highschool buddies. Don’t think I haven’t noticed. Journalists between the sites that GamerGate has called out: Kotaku, Polygon, RPS, GiantBomb, Destructoid,… they leave one just to join another, basically just cycling staffs between each other and provided no uniqueness. You can’t be having competition and securing each other’s job at the same time. There’s no push for competition between these sites anymore.

If you feel like you would destroy too many relationships with your friends because of this move, get closer to the community. Invite your audiences to talk with you on live podcasts, have conversations with them, build a sense of community with your own audiences instead of shutting them out from the conversations you have with the clique of friends you hang out with in the industry.

Props to you somewhat, Jason, for having enough sense to keep your distance from Andreas Zecher’s deceptive open letter.

11. Start practicing proper journalism, like many GamerGate proponents are saying. Start reporting stories fairly, give space to both sides of the stories, especially when they are controversial. Don’t do selective, deceptive reporting, fact-check and verify your sources, do investigation if you can. Don’t take self-published sources of facts at face-value, no matter your perception, verify them or otherwise, only attribute self-published statements the sources themselves. If your sources are humans and they tell you something, always question “Is that the truth or is that what they want me to believe to be the truth?”. Hell, so-called “Internet detectives” take little effort compared to physical legwork, yet can provide you substantial results if you’re just savvy enough with Google-fu and lurking archives. And especially, for crying out loud, do not draw conclusions or implicate them for your readers.