There is only so much surrealism you can take in your daily life. TFYC is quickly bringing me to that limit. But before I step off the deep end let me help #Gamergate with one last thing.

The issue that you guys/girls/otherkin/whatever are having problems within the video game journalism industry is something called “Kingmaking.”

So let’s get some history in 1983 there was something called the “Video Game Crash” also known as “Atari Shock” in Japan. It was for lack of a better word a massive recession in the video game industry that happened between 1983-1985. The video game industries revenue basically went from $3.2 Billion to $100 Million over the course of two years.

This was caused for a bunch of reasons, the largest one was that the industry got flooded with poor quality games, that saturated the market. The major reason for this was that so many games were being made, that the majority weren’t worth buying. And even games that were marketed well and should be good games like PacMan and E.T. were subpar. This eroded consumer confidence, preventing the market from growing and caused the crash.

This is why the first Nintendo in the USA was sold with something called a R.O.B. which was a robotic toy that was attached to the machine. This made it look less like a video game console and more like a toy. Yes part of the key to the first Nintendo’s success was to make it not look like a video game console. To prevent another video game crash, Nintendo actively worked with third-party software developers to allow them to make games but under Nintendo’s terms. Each Nintendo Cartridge has an authentication chip which would interact with the console, this was called the 10NES and would prevent games that Nintendo had not approved from running on the console.

Every video game console, since the Nintendo has integrated some type of content management system or DRM to police what software would run on their device. This artificially increases the barrier to entry to make a game on the system, as a method of protecting the consumer from poor games. It’s not perfect of course but arguably speaking there is less shovel ware on a console then there would be on the Apple Store.

So the PC doesn’t have any of this content management system stuff. Anyone can make a game on the PC, some of which are great, some of which are horrible. Because the barrier to entry is so much lower, most indie developers start there. The problem is being found in the market.

Now the previous KingMaker for the PC gaming scene was something called Steam. Steam is a digital content delivery service, I.E. a digital store. It used to be getting on Steam was a big deal, and it acted as gatekeeper to getting your indie game sold. This was good and bad, as many good games never managed to get on Steam for a variety of reasons, and a few horrible games managed to get on Steam for very bad reasons.

Steam is slowly opening its’ gates to allow more games on the system. In the coming years, Steam will be transitioning to an open gate policy, or for their system to be seen as a platform for any game designer to host their game. This has the potential to cause another indie game crash as the market gets flooded and consumer’s can’t find the quality among the crap.

The last KingMakers left are the journalists, with such a giant market they have the ability to push eyeballs to your product. To use their audience to make your game a success or a failure. What #GamerGate is about, is the general public becoming aware of the backroom deals of the last kingmakers in the indie video game market. And showing how a small group of friends have a remarkable amount of pull over what get’s made and where it is discussed. Gaming journalism has responded by attempting to discredit the public. Which is an interesting strategy to say the least but has successfully avoided discussing the real issues.

For the people still reading, anyone that is worked in media production has probably fallen asleep at this point, as this isn’t news. If you enjoy sausage don’t watch it being made. If you want to pretend that all you have to do to be a success in the gaming industry is to make a good game, please don’t ask me my opinion on Santa Claus. The fact that no one has mentioned the subtitle of TFYC’s name and how appropriate it is to the production of media has always confused me. In the end this is not a business that attracts people with integrity.

Both gamers and journalist you are both about to enter a time that could be very bad for both of you. The last time there was no gatekeeper for the videogame market it was destroyed. This time it will not be the entire video game market, AAA development will always go on with it its’ multimillion marketing budget, but there is the possibility of what could be a real indie game crash, and one that the industry may not soon recover from. You are having the discussion of what the relationship between journalist and developer should be, before Steam opens the gates and all hell breaks loose.

In the end, what TFYC was supposed to be about, was creating an alternative stream for people to make media, that was not profit driven, and was based around giving exposure to the new artists, and having the fans share not only in the process but the money generated. It was a good way to give a small number of underrepresented people the option of showing their ideas. We expected light media coverage, we got a media blackout and criticism from a kingmaker.

I would suggest the journalists and the gamer public actually discuss the real fucking issue about the indie game scene. Because if we don’t come to some answer there won’t fucking be one.