Let's Talk About: Zoe Quinn and Corruption in Gaming Journalism and #GAMERGATE

If you've been following game news over the past 2 weeks, you've probably stumbled upon the name Zoe Quinn; for those who haven't she's a game developer who created a game called Depression Quest and won an award for that and that's all well and good, but she did not do so off the merits of her own skill but rather through the use of personal relationships with game devs and journalists. I, along with others, find this to be an aggregious breach of professionalism on the part of game journalists but I am glad that this happened so we can have an open discussion about the state of gaming journalism as a whole.

Remember what happened to Jeff Gerstmann?

First and foremost I think everyone should watch this video by InternetAristocrat that beautiful explains the whole Zoe Quinn scandal from the beginning because it gives you an idea on what kind of environment the gaming journalism industry has become. Sites like Kotaku and RockPaperShotgun have shifted focus away from just talking about the actual games into talking about the perception of games in our culture. That would be totally fine except that they take an extremely biased view on gaming culture as a whole, painting those who consume and produce the product as misogynistic 12 year old boys who think women belong in the kitchen, they constantly release articles about how gamers mistreat women as if only men are gamers and almost never cover the positive aspects of gaming culture; you probably won't ever see an article on how the community works donates games/consoles to sick kids (save for the occasional mention of KidsPlay) or anything positive because there is no story in representing both sides of the community. Yes I said both sides because you'd have to be a delusional idiot to think there aren't any negative aspects of the gaming community, but to only show the negative is misleading and those who do so do it so that they can further their agenda and in this case that means filling their pockets. Way back in in 2007 Jeff Gerstmann, a reviewer from GameSpot, was fired because he gave a negative review for Kane and Lynch and Eidos threatened to pull ad revenue from the site (source); this was my first glimpse into just how corrupt game journalism is, you have veteran staff members getting fired because a game publisher didn't like the fact that their game got a score reflective of its quality. This firing caused a huge uproar in the industry and other gaming sites like, ironically, Kotaku were covering this story and it put GameSpot under the microscope for a long time. I find it funny then that Kotaku refuses to look into all the allegations levied against them and Zoe Quinn, they much rather dismiss it as misogyny even though it has everything to do with corruption and not the fact that Zoe is a woman. 

Ever since Anita Sarkeesian started her "Women vs Tropes" seriously, almost any valid criticism against a woman has been labeled misogyny and with that censorship has given rise to these types of women who spout out nonsense to further an agenda. Just look at how woman like Melody Hensley say things like how twitter harrassment gave her PTSD and how she then tried to get an actual Marine fired because he didn't buy it...there were white knights all over that, ready to take up the battle to defend her; same thing going on with Zoe Quinn and her white knights ( pretty much gaming journalists and even celebs like Wil Wheaton) ready to ridicule and even doxx people who dare criticize her actions. The corruption in gaming journalism has existed for quite sometime now but the recent scandal with Zoe Quinn has brought it to the forefront of gaming. You would think that with all the social justice going around that people would be glad that gamers are finally saying enough to the corruption, but you'd be wrong because instead of focusing on the corruption they are spinning it to be an attack focused solely on Zoe Quinn in an effort to cover their asses. 

That didn't stop gamers from continuing to dig deeper into the situation and this in turn led to journalists/game devs resorting to tactics such as comparing us to a terrorist group

It is almost comically hilarious how sites like Kotaku will write articles based off an allegation towards a male but when there is actually proof of wrong doing and the culprit is female then suddenly it becomes a non issue. These "journalists" see gamers as nothing more than a commodity to be exploited, I urge everyone who reads this to go to twitter and look at the #gamergate and see just how much these people actually care. The amount of derailment they are willing to do is amazing, this isn't about how a woman cheated, this isn't about shaming Zoe Quinn for cheating or for having sex with 5 men; this is about how she used her sexual relationship as a means to gain favorable reviews from sites, this is about how game journalists and developers have zero buffer zone between themselves and their subject, this is about how sites like Kotaku will go straight up demonize gamers as a whole and brow beat us with how sexist we are yet won't expose a corrupt game dev because she is a woman. If we are to have some semblance of equality in the industry than we have to treat women the same way as we do men right? We shouldn't have to constantly prove we aren't misogynists every time we disagree with a claim or product made by a woman because we sure as hell don't get crap when we critique/flame male journalists/game devs. I think the biggest irony of all is that the people who are spinning this as "gamers attacking a woman" are the ones who say they want to destroy the "all boys club" of gaming and yet they are upholding a different power structure that is hostile to outsiders. It would be an easy fix though, all they would have to do is admit what we all know and be more transparent but they rather make it a " Gamers hate girls and men are misogynist" thing because then everyone focuses on the gamers and not them, thus continuing the circle jerk of corruption they are oh so fond of. I am not pinning all of this on Zoe Quinn, I am not attacking Zoe Quinn, I am however not ignoring the part that she played and her actions, nor am I ignoring the response of the gaming media/celebs who stand with the corruption because as a consumer of this media and culture I have a right to be critical of it. I just hope something comes of this other than another Sarkeesian/Jack Thompson  type seeking to make a name for themselves by putting gamers and games under the bus, only time will tell I guess.
EDIT: I may have been incorrect in saying Zoe Quinn received favorable reviews based off her relationship, I do not like to spread falsehood but the overall sentiment of the post still stands.