Drama at Kotaku

[Scopa]

Upper echelon did a video on this and it's great! He is one of us!

Who is Upper Echelon?

 

[Orpheum]

I mean, generally, I feel bad for people in the games biz losing their jobs, because it's a tough industry in that regard.

In this case, though? Can't say I have much sympathy. What a cesspool that place became over the years.

This. Losing your job sucks and i hope they land on their feet. That being said....Kotaku is trash and won't be missed

 

[cormack12]

I'll be honest - I don't think labelling him as an 'investigative journalist' has done anything to squash that ego. If you write for a specific target audience and that audience gobbles down your content that's fair enough, but when your a slave to the content tone and bias you produce you lose the integrity and honesty. Let's give an example - again, sports teams are the easiest to provide because they have such partisan and definitive divides.

Lets' say you write two articles about this team. They both focus on the off season. One tries to find the positives in all the new players (despite price and quality), it paints a picture of positivity and transition sprinkled in with some appeals to authority. It reviews the owners performance and highlights key areas of investments like training grounds and commercial deals.

Let's say the other article is more negative . It criticises some of the off season purchases heavily as not being the right players to change the teams fortunes. It highlights the owners plans to increase merchandise costs and a 10% priceincrease to tickets. It laments the strides other teams have made in the off season and about how we are playing second fiddle and about to be overtaken as the resut of poor decisions.

Now article one might get 30,000 likes and 20,000 RT's and a shit load of views, with a lot of ego scratching comments. Second article gets a crazy amount of troll and negative comments aimed at you personally, gets laughed at and no one wants to hear it. Which articles are you going to continue writing. How will your coverage be slanted in the future? Which type of article will raise your profile in your target audience? Which side do you become a slave to?

Look at Jason's articles like Nicalis and Rockstar etc. They focus on telling a story. All they do is consolidate a 'theme' from various ex/disgruntled/unhappy employee's and try to paint a broad brush over the entire organisation. There's no empirical data, there's no context around the scopes of the sources, there's no cost:benefit ratio, there's no alternative side to the story. WHy not interview happy employee's and see what their take is. Because plenty of them come out on twitter afterwards proclaiming their love for a job that is tough (at times) but very rewarding. Completely contrary to the one side of the argment he decided to give voice to.

Long articles with citations from prejudice do not make good journalists. And when making your point relies on framing a particular aspect of the 'story' then maybe you're actually scared of bringing the truth into scope because the view your trying to push is actually more important than presenting both sides of the argument and letting the reader decide for themselves. The worst thing is those people online who then push these articles showing they are 'informed' or have something credible to back up their force fed opinion. I would rather speak with someone who challenges my viewpoint (however misinformed), in order that I can justify how I arrived at it.

I think Carl Bernstein sums it up quite well:

The famous Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein is fairly obsessed with the phrase......

On stage in Minneapolis Thursday night at the great Westminster Town Hall Forum, Bernstein introduced the phrase “the best obtainable version of the truth” (hereafter TBOVOTT) early in the talk and then circled back to it again and again as the summary of what journalism should but too often does not produce and what the public should but does not want.

“People are not looking for the best obtainable version of the truth,” he said, because much of the audience for news and information cares less about reading or hearing TBVOTT than on having its ideological biases confirmed. And “journalism is not committed to the presentation of the best obtainable version of the truth.”

As a result, “we can’t have a fact-based debate in this country,” he said. We have lost “the ability of each side to accept the sincerity and good will of the other. “ As a result, “Congress is totally dysfunctional” and there is “no good will” across partisan or ideological lines, and little ability to compromise for the greater good. Forty years of “scorched earth politics” and “culture war,” Bernstein said, “has depleted us.” As a result, he said, “I’m not optimistic about what is going on in the politics of this country."

Also N NickFire - enjoyed reading your posts in this thread. They have saved me typing on several occasions.

 

[Screamer-RSA]

Things happened

Are they going to stand by him outside the building?

 

[Scopa]

Are they going to stand by him outside the building?

Nah. They’ll be too busy having paid for lunches and drinks at the bar to attend. Unions are a big, fat scam.

Find me a skinny union leader. I triple-dare you.

 

[GooseMan69]

Sorry form them? Nope. They are just trying to mobilize the woke army they have pandered to for clicks. It's not actually working though and it's hilarious to watch. At the time of this post this story is not even on the first page of gaming on Resetera and it's struggled to stay there after everyone made thier drive-by support post.

Yeah, and why don’t all these journalists just start their own site and do what they want? Since their content is so well received and popular.

 

[Shmunter]

This. Losing your job sucks and i hope they land on their feet. That being said....Kotaku is trash and won't be missed

These journos crying it’s a tough day in the office etc. knowing how soft these people are it was probably just a smaller serving of tartar sauce with their fish fingers at lunch.

 

[Shmunter]

Who is Upper Echelon?

Suspect it’s this....

 

[hariseldon]

Are there any decent websites or publications left?
I stopped buying retro gamer magazine last year after I read an article where the author apologised for enjoying a leisure suit Larry game 20 years ago!
Now I never buy gaming magazines and avoid gaming websites because I’m tired of all the politics and virtue signalling.

You'd be missing out then. There's very little of that kind of thing in Retro Gamer, and the quality of investigative journalism is excellent - actual deep dives into retro gaming, interviews with all kinds of interesting people without a gender pronoun in sight.

 

[rofif]

Who is Upper Echelon?

yt news channel about gaming. Sorry I cannot link right now (work)

 

[Touch fuzZy. get BizZay]

What if there's a story out there waiting to be told about meeting FOUR good dogs?

Wouldn't that show these bigots

 

[cormack12]

What if there's a story out there waiting to be told about meeting FOUR good dogs?

Probably need a dogwhistle for that many dogs

 

[hariseldon]

Soo... it's a nothingburger then. Built my hopes up you bastards.

 

[GamingKaiju]

What’s that saying..... Go woke go broke. PC culture is a cancer.

 

[Touch fuzZy. get BizZay]

Probably need a dogwhistle for that many dogs

An Alt-right dog whistle!

All the pieces are falling into place

 

[nush]

Sorry form them? Nope. They are just trying to mobilize the woke army they have pandered to for clicks. It's not actually working though and it's hilarious to watch. At the time of this post this story is not even on the first page of gaming on Resetera and it's struggled to stay there after everyone made thier drive-by support post.

Quick recheck, it's still not on the front page of Resetera gaming 3 hours after I last checked. Ree don't care and if any Kotaku writer thinks those hypothetical pledges of support for a Patreon will ever follow through they are a bigger fool than they already show themselves up to be.

 

[Yoshi]

Nah. They’ll be too busy having paid for lunches and drinks at the bar to attend. Unions are a big, fat scam.

Find me a skinny union leader. I triple-dare you.

The current governor of Thüringen was a union leader from 1990 to 1999, I cannot find pictures that old of him, but some older pictures indicate he was not fat then:

 

[Scopa]

The current governor of Thüringen was a union leader from 1990 to 1999, I cannot find pictures that old of him, but some older pictures indicate he was not fat then:

I think you missed the point, Yosh.

 

[Yoshi]

I think you missed the point, Yosh.

I never do.

 

[Hado]

And who has a better story than Kotaku the Broken

 

[thief183]

This is kinda awesome to be honest. Been a while since the last drama.

 

[H4ze]

Honestly, I did not know Kotaku was as much hated as ResetEra, could someone clarify that for me a bit?
Never followed them, sometimes I read an article when it got linked at some forum but that's it.

Also, I always tought Schreier was some well regarded journalist and now I see a lot of hate for him here.

 

[AV]

Honestly, I did not know Kotaku was as much hated as ResetEra, could someone clarify that for me a bit?
Never followed them, sometimes I read an article when it got linked at some forum but that's it.

Also, I always tought Schreier was some well regarded journalist and now I see a lot of hate for him here.

Kotaku finds it incredibly difficulty to separate politics from gaming, and tends to inject it into almost anything they can. Naturally, every single person writing for Kotaku is left leaning. So what you get is a constant stream of preachy, propaganda-driven bile when what you wanted was video game coverage.

Schreier is a mentally unstable shrew that has a complete and total inability to engage in any criticism or disagreement with anything he says or does, and his preferred method of dealing with those people is immediately blocking them on Twitter and labeling them as alt-right.

 

[nush]

Honestly, I did not know Kotaku was as much hated as ResetEra, could someone clarify that for me a bit?
Never followed them, sometimes I read an article when it got linked at some forum but that's it.

Also, I always tought Schreier was some well regarded journalist and now I see a lot of hate for him here.

Last month they posted an article with animated/CG underage porn images. That's quite possibly the lowest they have gone on top of a bunch of historical stuff.

 

[H4ze]

Kotaku finds it incredibly difficulty to separate politics from gaming, and tends to inject it into almost anything they can. Naturally, every single person writing for Kotaku is left leaning. So what you get is a constant stream of preachy, propaganda-driven bile when what you wanted was video game coverage.

Schreier is a mentally unstable shrew that has a complete and total inability to engage in any criticism or disagreement with anything he says or does, and his preferred method of dealing with those people is immediately blocking them on Twitter and labeling them as alt-right.

Thank you for the write-up. Well then, it sounds like they deserved it.

 

[Sleepy Buddha]

Like Coding?

Nah, they'll follow the Phil Fish example and become lousy DJs or baristas. And hopefully fuck right off our hobby.

 

[Bryank75]

Had a lovely chat with Klepek, he used a lot of colorful language and a few hours later my account was suspended.
Ah well... it was worth it.

 

[GreyHorace]

Had a lovely chat with Klepek, he used a lot of colorful language and a few hours later my account was suspended.
Ah well... it was worth it.

Chat where? On REEra?

 

[Nero_PR]

I thought Kotaku has already been disassembled awhile ago. Well, better this way. Now I can see them burn for all the bullshit they published over these years.

 

[CurryPanda]

Y’all are so mean to Shitaku.

 

[Bryank75]

Chat where? On REEra?

Twitter. I'm suspended now though... again.

 

[ThePiddle]

Honestly, I did not know Kotaku was as much hated as ResetEra, could someone clarify that for me a bit?
Never followed them, sometimes I read an article when it got linked at some forum but that's it.

Also, I always tought Schreier was some well regarded journalist and now I see a lot of hate for him here.

Kotaku used to regularly post gaming-related news, and their biggest flaw at that time was probably that most of the news they posted was pulled directly from NeoGAF.

At some point, they started shifting towards more hot takes and clickbait articles. That eventually progressed into Kotaku pushing a political agenda into almost every article with less actual gaming news. They still have a rare article that's relevant, but ever since GamerGate they've been unbearable.

Schreier is well-regarded due to his status within Kotaku's organization, but he is petty and fragile. Much of the investigative journalism he does is only possible because of his position within a popular gaming website. I wouldn't shit on his work as quickly as others here, I appreciate many of his articles, however he dismisses anyone that offers any criticism and he has a huge superiority complex. He is a pretentious dick best illustrated by how he talks to YongYea in the following video:


He loves to shit on YouTubers all the time for stealing other people's work even though Kotaku built itself on that same premise.

 

[lock2k]

Kotaku used to regularly post gaming-related news, and their biggest flaw at that time was probably that most of the news they posted was pulled directly from NeoGAF.

At some point, they started shifting towards more hot takes and clickbait articles. That eventually progressed into Kotaku pushing a political agenda into almost every article with less actual gaming news. They still have a rare article that's relevant, but ever since GamerGate they've been unbearable.

Schreier is well-regarded due to his status within Kotaku's organization, but he is petty and fragile. Much of the investigative journalism he does is only possible because of his position within a popular gaming website. I wouldn't shit on his work as quickly as others here, I appreciate many of his articles, however he dismisses anyone that offers any criticism and he has a huge superiority complex. He is a pretentious dick best illustrated by how he talks to YongYea in the following video:


He loves to shit on YouTubers all the time for stealing other people's work even though Kotaku built itself on that same premise.

I'm thankful because Kotaku showed Neogaf to me. They were useful for that. After I started to browse Gaf I stopped visiting that site.

 

[hariseldon]

So... can anyone provide a summary of what happened?

 

[DanielsM]

Kotaku finds it incredibly difficulty to separate politics from gaming, and tends to inject it into almost anything they can. Naturally, every single person writing for Kotaku is left leaning. So what you get is a constant stream of preachy, propaganda-driven bile when what you wanted was video game coverage.

Schreier is a mentally unstable shrew that has a complete and total inability to engage in any criticism or disagreement with anything he says or does, and his preferred method of dealing with those people is immediately blocking them on Twitter and labeling them as alt-right.

They're not left-leaning, they're fucking bonkers.

 

[Scopa]

So... can anyone provide a summary of what happened?

 

[Jooxed]

So... can anyone provide a summary of what happened?

Some editor at deadspin was fired for not doing his job. Kotaku journalists are friends with him and unionizing or something and protesting. A bunch of deadspin writers resigned

 

[hariseldon]

Some editor at deadspin was fired for not doing his job. Kotaku journalists are friends with him and unionizing or something and protesting. A bunch of deadspin writers resigned

So Kotaku remains alive then. Bollocks.

 

[nush]

Kotaku used to regularly post gaming-related news, and their biggest flaw at that time was probably that most of the news they posted was pulled directly from NeoGAF.

At some point, they started shifting towards more hot takes and clickbait articles. That eventually progressed into Kotaku pushing a political agenda into almost every article with less actual gaming news. They still have a rare article that's relevant, but ever since GamerGate they've been unbearable.

Schreier is well-regarded due to his status within Kotaku's organization, but he is petty and fragile. Much of the investigative journalism he does is only possible because of his position within a popular gaming website. I wouldn't shit on his work as quickly as others here, I appreciate many of his articles, however he dismisses anyone that offers any criticism and he has a huge superiority complex. He is a pretentious dick best illustrated by how he talks to YongYea in the following video:


He loves to shit on YouTubers all the time for stealing other people's work even though Kotaku built itself on that same premise.

Damn, that's 90 minutes, I got through 45 of them. It gets interesting at about 30 minutes in. What I got was that Jason's lack of self awareness any hypocrisy was something we've already picked up on just through text.

 

[Terce]

Imagine being a literal blogger and being paid at least $50k a year to write clickbait articles. These guys have struck gold and now they're screwing it all up for themselves. A gig like this will not come around again

 

[rob305]

Imagine being a literal blogger and being paid at least $50k a year to write clickbait articles. These guys have struck gold and now they're screwing it all up for themselves. A gig like this will not come around again

Theyre mostly based in the bay area and NYC, more like theyre living barely above the poverty line. Schreiers wife is a corporate lawyer in NYC, we all know who makes the money in that household and who wears the pants

Edit: he also mentioned hes on paternity leave the other day lol

 

[Mattyp]

 

[DryPancakes]

Things happened

What a joke, this is a look into the future if game devs unionize, no wonder it is the journos pushing for it.

 

[Captiosus]

Schreier is well-regarded due to his status within Kotaku's organization, but he is petty and fragile. Much of the investigative journalism he does is only possible because of his position within a popular gaming website.

Exactly true. People think he'd be OK if Kotaku fell apart because of his supposed investigative journalist work. Sure, his work would probably get him more interviews than other Kotaku writers but it doesn't mean he'd be successful. Compared to actual, boots in the mud, investigative journalism, Schreier's work is mediocre at best. Not to minimize how much work goes into those long form reports he writes but his work is done mostly sitting behind a desk thanks to years of friendly contacts in the industry. I can't see him working outside of his comfort zone to cultivate new sources in order to write a piece outside the video gaming sphere.

Beyond that, his interactions on Twitter, here on NeoGAF in years past, and over on ResetERA show he's far too thin skinned to make it in a traditional, antagonistic, journalism environment. He'd fold and start complaining about being treated poorly.

 

[Zimmy68]

As someone who used Gawker sites (what I call them) as their daily driver this is all sad news to me.

Kotaku seems like a shell of its former self.
Deadspin staff are abandoning ship in droves.
Why buy the site and then try to change them?
I hated the auto play sound (the videos always auto played, the sound thing was new to me) but I didn't complain.

BTW, anyone recommend another decent sports blog?
TheBigLead is now awful also.

 

[zeorhymer]

Don't forget to buy Jason's book! He's the most trusted video game journalist.

He'd fold and start complaining about being treated poorly.

He's already complained that we're all alt-right chuds and that he can code....

 

[NickFire]

Basically. The good old two-face persona.

Say one thing for personal gain and agenda building, then do a 180 when it's a non-issue.

Kind of like game devs...... "Hey gamers, we got a great game, everything is better. Yup, AI is better. Yup, graphics are better. Yup. It's longer and harder to beat." Game gets a 55% meta score.

3 years later...... "Ya, I admit it. Our last game wasn't that great. We didn't have the budget or experience. But we had to launch it half done....... But trust me, our next game will be awesome!"

Personally, I think Obama deserves credit for standing up for free speech and genuine decency on the internet. I do hear and understand the argument that he should have spoken up much earlier when his voice would have made a bigger impact. But I see two very real possibilities that I think are more fair assumptions of why he didn't. First, as President I am guessing his day was much, much busier, and he may not have realized how bad cancel culture had become because he was focused elsewhere. The second is the simple possibility that his views changed over time, and that increased knowledge and/or reflection brought him to finally speak up.

Free speech is under attack. Defenders should not reject allies just because of past or current political differences. A healthy democracy includes robust debate and disagreement, but a mutual respect and defense of constitutional rights.

These journos crying it’s a tough day in the office etc. knowing how soft these people are it was probably just a smaller serving of tartar sauce with their fish fingers at lunch.

The journos should consider how tough they make other people's lives when they get people to buy into their propaganda. Imagine being in charge of paying the bills or preparing financial disclosures, seeing tremendous revenue or good will value disappear, being required to explain the situation, and knowing damn well that if they spoke honestly (a few employees decided to shun 40-80% of the the audience / customers) they'd be fired?

 

[GreyHorace]

For me, Schreier lost what litttle credibility he had when he posted this garbage:


You're a whiny and pretentious journalist who covers consumer products. What kind of fucking drugs are you on to not realize that consumers are your main audience for your overtly long blog posts that you like to present as journalism asshole?

Imagine being a literal blogger and being paid at least $50k a year to write clickbait articles. These guys have struck gold and now they're screwing it all up for themselves. A gig like this will not come around again

I'd kill to earn 50k a month. In Schreier's place I'd keep my mouth shut and focus on videogames. None of this social justice horseshit he seems intent on ruining his career for.

Theyre mostly based in the bay area and NYC, more like theyre living barely above the poverty line. Schreiers wife is a corporate lawyer in NYC, we all know who makes the money in that household and who wears the pants

Edit: he also mentioned hes on paternity leave the other day lol

Lol. Really? Man he really is a cuck if his wife is the breadwinner. And man, $50k and yet barely making ends meet? Living in New York must be insane.

 

[oagboghi2]

Nice thread title updates. I don't even care about Kotaku but it's fun to see that all of the salty ass dipshits in here will now have to come to terms with the fact that Kotaku isn't dead. Do you guys even realize that for as fucking dumb era is this place is just the same on the opposite end of the spectrum? Any time DERP SJWS/POLITICS/ETC get mentioned the majority here go full fucking retard? If anything it's just as enjoyable to watch you meltdown as those morons on the other site. Hard to figure why there are no insiders left here at all.

I wasn't aware that shitty-ass Kotaku was the mecca of videogame journalism that so many make out to be in here. Apparently it reaches and influences all videogame publications. Not to mention the dumbasses who comment that Deadspin should stick to sports. Guess what? It never was a sports only website. No sense arguing over it, I'll just let y'all go back to reading Kotaku. Have fun!

You keep seeing people post this crap and it makes me laugh.

“Deadspin had never been about sports.”

Yeah, and Deadspin has never made a profit. Maybe they should try not losing money by focusing on sports.

People are acting as if Deadspin’s narcissistic whining they call a blog is somehow sacred or something. It can’t be changed.

 

[iconmaster]

Things happened

Nobody's paying you to "speak truth to power," dude.