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[Redneckerz]

This is a topic that could go either in gaming or Politics, so bear with me, because i do think it deserves discussion.

Recently Eurogamer got into a lot of flak on a tweet they made regarding a question from a Twitter user if they could stop being political activists. In order to understand this part, ill provide the context below.

Eurogamer was celebrating something from a user named Hbomberguy for his charity stream and as such Eurogamer posted an edit of a Donkey Kong 64 ad, cheering on for Trans Rights.

Alright Context:
Hbomberguy was raising money in a charity stream for Mermaid's Gender, and is part of a bigger thing with Father Ted creator Graham Linehan.

According to Mermaids Gender's twitter, their message is ''Family & individual support for gender diverse & transgender children and teenagers''. Hbomberguy wanted to support them and did so with a charity stream playing Donkey Kong. He raised over 340.000 dollars.

This is where Eurogamer's tweet comes in.

The picture in question:

Eurogamer's Tweet:


''We’re all proud of you @Hbomberguy''

A user named Andree Barreiro asked the following:



''What? Can you guys stick to video games and stop bring political activists?''

Eurogamer's response caused a shitstorm:



''No, sorry''

Now i thought that was the end of it, but what didn't help is that Eurogamer 5 hours later repeats the stance in a different tweet on a comment by Fox Salazar:



''You realize gamers don't give a crap about politics and only care about games. Which is weird since you have Gamer in your title. Seriously we don't give a shit about your activism. Keep it off games because we don't give a shit.''

Eurogamer's reply:



''Ehh, nah'' (Its a movie scene of a lady making a gesture.)

Personal thoughts:
I am actually quite mixed with this situation. Politics in gaming nowadays is a hot topic and also a hot issue. There was GamerGate. There was the Cyberpunk 2077 story.

I am aware that certain Eurogamer members have their own outspoken views regarding topics that aren't in the gaming realm. And whether or not i personally would agree with that, i do think it is important that people hold these views.

However, i am at odds whether or not a site that has gamer literally in its title should subject itself to present political views aswell. In today's world, everything is already being politicized. Should a site sidestep its primary focus and incorporate elements that aren't necessarily needed in gaming? Or should Eurogamer focus on what it has been and should be doing, namely reporting the news?

Considering i am part of the Eurogamer Discord, i am pondering to show this thread to them. On one hand i believe that a discussion should be held regarding this, and without having to deal with the unfiltered commentary that can be Twitter and YouTube. On the other, it might just add fuel to a fire.

I believe that in making this thread i am trying to make a geniune and honest point and that, if any Eurogamer/Digital Foundry members would want to provide their views on this, they should be allowed to do so. In that sense i believe this thread has merit. And if not, it may be an interesting topic for GAF to discuss about: Should a game site affiliate itself with political elements or not in its reporting?

Tagging Ailynn for her view on this situation: Is this something a game site ought doing?

Staff, please move this to the appropiate section since it could be placed in both sub-forums considering its about a game site after all.

If i may have missed any additional backdrop, please reach out to me and ill modify the OP.

EDIT: Reworked some of it and corrected bits.
EDIT 2: Per this post:
If you want to target DF, target me, they were my words and my assumption when i wrote this post and they deserve none of the scrutiny.
EDIT 3: Added in text equivalent in case tweets will get deleted.

 

[Kamina]

I believe they should be able to report on politics related to gaming and games every now and then, but if it is the only stuff they talk about then they missed what they are intended to do.
I assume they need to post that way to stay relevant.

 

[Horsemama1956]

Yeah I don't care. If I'm reading something I don't like I stop reading it. Can't comment on Twitter etc though as I don't use that shit.

 

[a multicultural team of v]

To be fair to Eurogamer, just reporting on that event wouldnt be political (which they didnt necessarily do in this case, but still).
To be fair to myself, I stopped reading Eurogamer like 3 years ago for a reason.
To be fair to Neogaf, this thread is gonna last 2 minutes before it should be in politics lol

 

[The Elite]

If Eurogamer wants to be political in their reporting/stance that is their choice. No one is forced to read their content. Ultimately readership and ad views will be a deciding factor.

 

[TLZ]

If Mario and Luigi don't come out the closet I'm not playing.

 

[Thiagosc777]

They profit off hate clicks. They create bait articles to attract activists and gamers.

Just do like I do, I stopped visiting these sites 5 or more years ago. The only exception being the occasional Digital Foundry article talking about something technical.

When ExclusivelyGames is up, migrate there. Let's leave them behind.

 

[Verdanth]

In the end of the day it's up to the user to read or not these types of messages.

Sure being a videogames website that's their core issue, but I honestly don't see anything wrong here.

It's a mere post...on twitter.

 

[Redneckerz]

To be fair to Eurogamer, just reporting on that event wouldnt be political (which they didnt necessarily do in this case, but still).
To be fair to myself, I stopped reading Eurogamer like 3 years ago for a reason.
To be fair to Neogaf, this thread is gonna last 2 minutes before it should be in politics lol

We are 3 minutes in now though since your post so..

However like i said it was difficult. It is about gaming for most of the part, but the message is political. So yeah.

In the end of the day it's up to the user to read or not these types of messages.

Sure being a videogames website that's their core issue, but I honestly don't see anything wrong here.

It's a mere post...on twitter.

It is an extension of the site though, meaning those tweets need to be representative of the main site. If they aren't, it should be labelled as such.

Atleast that's one argument i can think of regarding that though.

 

[DonF]

I don't even understand the first photoshop of the donkey kong poster. Like, wtf.

Also, yeah eurogamer, just switch name to euro if your are going to start tackling this issues.

Real activism don't happen in this medium, come on. If you are that into social issues, just protest or call your representative. Don't be obnoxious on the internet.

 

[JimmyRustler]

I honestly think that all this crap is slowly starting to destroy modern gaming for me. I mean, I don't mind that much since I love to replay older games and still have a huge backlog but damn... I really hope that this is only a phase and will fade once Trump is out of office. So annoying.

 

[bosnianpie]

I don't really mind to be honest. It's their choice.

Eurogamer is a private company and if they came to the conclusion that they want to be a part of the political quagmire and let their social media accounts take a stand, then let them!

It's my choice to stop visiting their website and support their business and it's my choice to unfollow them on social media so I don't need to take part of their politically motivated messages. We have so many options to choice from when it comes to gaming news, I don't see any reason why we should waste our time fighting with Eurogamer about their content? Find a new site, youtuber, blogger or whatever that doesn't discuss trans rights and support them instead.

 

[KonradLaw]

Eurogamer's brand is kind of political though. has been for quite some time.
Generally I don';t think there's anything wrong with it. The problem is that pretty much all big sites have gone this route. If there was healthy split between political and non-political it wouldn't be an issue.

 

[llien]

I don't even understand the first photoshop of the donkey kong poster. Like, wtf.

Phew, so I'm not alone.

 

[Ascend]

Another one jumping on the progressive leftist bandwagon... And another site for me to throw in the dumpster.

Maybe they don't realize they are alienating their main audience. It will be their main loss, ultimately. So, to me, it's whatever. Do whatever you want. Just realize that it does have consequences, maybe consequences you don't like...

Kind of reminds me of the recent Gillette add.

 

[Codes 208]

That second response, oof.

Gamers evidently do care about politics if they’re getting bent over shape over a tweet.

That first tweet by Eurogamer seems like a non-issue to me.

 

[Mista]

What’s even the difference in both pictures???

 

[Redneckerz]

I don't even understand the first photoshop of the donkey kong poster. Like, wtf.

I am actually an idiot myself: Per the original tweet, it shows that Eurogamer posted that picture, Not Hbomberguy who i initially thought made that edit.

I am currently trying to check what it was that spurred Eurogamer into posting that.

 

[Musky_Cheese]

Can anyone explain the photo to me. What does Donkey Kong and friends and/or Apes have to do with Trans Rights?

But Eurogamer can do whatever they want. It’s your choice as a viewer whether you want to participate.

Exactly what I did with Kotaku and many others.

 

[Typhares]

Can anyone explain the photo to me. What does Donkey Kong and friends and/or Apes have to do with Trans Rights?

But Eurogamer can do whatever they want. It’s your choice as a viewer whether you want to participate.

Exactly what I did with Kotaku and many others.

Hbomberguy who is a somewhat famous youtuber did a liverstream of DK64 for a trans-right charity.
AOC even poped up during the stream I believe.

Edit: here is an article that details what it was about (biased article I might add but at least the factual events are also there): https://www.theguardian.com/games/2...twitch-stream-struck-a-blow-against-gamergate

 

[TBiddy]

I honestly don't give a crap whether or not Eurogamer go all-in on identity politics, but holy shit that image is cringey.

 

[hariseldon]

If one is to be political, and bat very clearly for one side, one must accept that some people will be on the other side. Eurogamer have form for not realising this, along with their stablemates at Rock Paper Shotgun. This leads to a very condescending tone. As noted above, they also profit from hate, by drumming up rage with incendiary articles such as "don't make games about Lovecraft because he was a bit racist" and that terrible cyberpunk interview where they spent 1/3 of the article on gender pronouns. They have surrendered the right to be taken seriously because at this point they're basically walking up to us, calling us cunts, insulting our mothers and kicking us in the nuts, and then wondering why we punch them in the face.

 

[Musky_Cheese]

Hbomberguy who is a somewhat famous youtuber did a liverstream of DK64 for a trans-right charity.
AOC even popup up during the stream I believe.

Oh ok thank you

 

[Mista]

Yup, Eurogamer got blocked. Who’s next?!

 

[Orta]

Eurogamer has been staffed by utterly loathsome sjw cunts the past year or so.

Yesterday they posted up links asking its readers to donate to some tranny organisation that fills kids heads with such associated nonsense.

Wtf is stuff like that doing on a gaming website ffs?

 

[Redneckerz]

Can anyone explain the photo to me. What does Donkey Kong and friends and/or Apes have to do with Trans Rights?

But Eurogamer can do whatever they want. It’s your choice as a viewer whether you want to participate.

Exactly what I did with Kotaku and many others.

PSA:
Independently of the user who explained to Musky i found the context in which this took place. I have added this to the OP.

Apologies to everyone for not providing more context, i simply didn't register this.

 

[JohnnyFootball]

The freedom of speech part of me wants everyone to be able to share their opinions freely without LEGAL consequence from the government and allow the market to decide if it's appropriate.

However, the business side of me thinks that politics is bad for business and would prefer businesses stay out of politics completely.

 

[lock2k]

Someone should send it to Nintendo and show what they are doing with our beloved Donkey Kong.

Bunch of SJW imbeciles.

 

[Breakfast at Noon]

If i see politics involved I just stop going there.

 

[Luffytubby]

I fucking loved Donkey Kong 64. Like collectibles were part of the fun back then. Big worlds with lots to explore. I wouldn't want that amount of collectibles today, but then again, I stopped playing platformers over a decade ago. I just remember really, having a lot of fun with DK64.

My N64 Rare rating scale:

1. Conker's Bad Fur Day
2. Perfect Dark
3. Banjo-Kazooie / Tooie
4. Goldeneye
5. Diddy Kong Racing
6. Donkey Kong 64
7. Jet Force Gemini



As for topic - I don't mind it. There is politics in everything, and games spilling into money in the cultural sphere will draw in political statements from all areas. You cannot have a growing segment like gaming and not have it become more political. Lots of non-gamers involve themselves with games, and games is becoming a core essential hobby like movies and music for most people in the world. It is going from a niche hobby to default cultural hobby. Games break boundaries, and so its going to be political. There is tons of political music and movies I don't fuck with.
To be against politics in game seems like pissing against the wind to me. It's happening. You can steer around content that talks politics and maybe find outlets that are shorter and sticks to factual game coverage rather than the opinion pieces that journalism has turned into lately.

 

[Innolis]

What's there to discuss? Someone used videogames to raise a shitton of money for a shelter that focuses on trans people. How can that possibly be bad? Every gaming site that covered the news gave him praise (which he deserves because again, he raised a lot of money for a shelter).

This is a complete non-issue.

 

[hariseldon]

L Luffytubby - The issue, I think, is that the politics in game journalism is particularly one-sided and condescending towards those who disagree with it.

 

[Fbh]

IMO they can write about whatever they want and push politics as much as they want. It's their site and it's up to us if we want to visit it or not.

What we can do is support and promote sites and publications that stay away from that stuff. Sure a lot of them aren't that big but maybe if people spent more time promoting good sites instead of complaining about bad ones we could change things

The freedom of speech part of me wants everyone to be able to share their opinions freely without LEGAL consequence from the government and allow the market to decide if it's appropriate.

However, the business side of me thinks that politics is bad for business and would prefer businesses stay out of politics completely.

Well the business side should automatically sort itself out.
If there's a big enough audience that likes having such a degree of politics in their gaming news they'll continue to get enough revenue to exist... if not they'll suffer economically.

 

[hariseldon]

IMO they can write about whatever they want and push politics as much as they want. It's their site and it's up to us if we want to visit it or not.

What we can do is support and promote sites and publications that stay away from that stuff. Sure a lot of them aren't that big but maybe if people spent more time promoting good sites instead of complaining about bad ones we could change things




Well the business side should automatically sort itself out.
If there's a big enough audience that likes having such a degree of politics in their gaming news they'll continue to get enough revenue to exist... if not they'll suffer economically.

Let's have a list please, because honestly I'm really struggling to find any that aren't fucking woke.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

The stream was gaming-related. Eurogamer was doing their journalistic duty by reporting it.

However, they also fell for the bait.Instead of pointing out the very simple and very obvious fact mentioned above, they climbed onto their ivory tower. This would not be a story if Eurogamer was self-aware enough to politely deflect the particular Twitter complaint and move on with their agenda in other articles.

To me, this isn't a smoking gun for an insidious political agenda at Eurogamer. Anyone can look up their history and draw their own conclusions. Rather, this is yet another example of terrible journalists lacking in all professionalism and long-term thinking.

 

[Dontero]

"for gender diverse & transgender children and teenagers"

Excuse me but... WHAT THE FUCK ?
How the fuck you can support child abuse ?

I love DigitalFoundry but no way i can support those guys anymore.
Fucking infuriating, i though cutting kids for this retarded ideology was just a fringe myth.
But here we are mainstream gaming site openly supporting it.

There is fucking reason why kids can't decide for themselves.
Because they are fucking stupid as fuck and don't know any better.

Fuck... my fucking day is ruined. Fuck.

 

[a multicultural team of v]

Someone should send it to Nintendo and show what they are doing with our beloved Donkey Kong.

This reminds me of that meme

 

[Redneckerz]

What's there to discuss? Someone used videogames to raise a shitton of money for a shelter that focuses on trans people. How can that possibly be bad? Every gaming site that covered the news gave him praise (which he deserves because again, he raised a lot of money for a shelter).

This is a complete non-issue.

It is that i forfeited the context due to my own stupidity and involves Father Ted, but the general question raised still stands though.

I didn't say it was bad, mind you, i simply displayed the facts, namely that Eurogamer came under scrutiny for posting that Donkey Kong picture. In my Personal Thoughts i give what i think about it.

Again, apologies for not adding that essential context in as to where the picture came from, that's on me.

The stream was gaming-related. Eurogamer was doing their journalistic duty by reporting it.

However, they also fell for the bait.Instead of pointing out the very simple and very obvious fact mentioned above, they climbed onto their ivory tower. This would not be a story if Eurogamer was self-aware enough to politely deflect the particular Twitter complaint and move on with their agenda in other articles.

To me, this isn't a smoking gun for an insidious political agenda at Eurogamer. Anyone can look up their history and draw their own conclusions. Rather, this is yet another example of terrible journalists lacking in all professionalism and long-term thinking.

Well thankfully i saw that coming so my question then can be addressed in a more general sense then regarding if game sites should do this.

 

[The_Mike]

I honestly think that all this crap is slowly starting to destroy modern gaming for me. I mean, I don't mind that much since I love to replay older games and still have a huge backlog but damn... I really hope that this is only a phase and will fade once Trump is out of office. So annoying.

But why does the leftists have to destroy everything because they are against something? Just accept there's someone you don't like that's ruling now, and change that when their time runs out. Doing damage like this gets you in a way much worse light than the guy you hate (not directed to the guy I reply but in general)

 

[Winter John]

"for gender diverse & transgender children and teenagers"

Excuse me but... WHAT THE FUCK ?
How the fuck you can support child abuse ?

I love DigitalFoundry but no way i can support those guys anymore.
Fucking infuriating, i though cutting kids for this retarded ideology was just a fringe myth.
But here we are mainstream gaming site openly supporting it.

There is fucking reason why kids can't decide for themselves.
Because they are fucking stupid as fuck and don't know any better.

Fuck... my fucking day is ruined. Fuck.

Your day is ruined because some children are getting help?

 

[Redneckerz]

"for gender diverse & transgender children and teenagers"

Excuse me but... WHAT THE FUCK ?
How the fuck you can support child abuse ?

I love DigitalFoundry but no way i can support those guys anymore.
Fucking infuriating, i though cutting kids for this retarded ideology was just a fringe myth.
But here we are mainstream gaming site openly supporting it.

There is fucking reason why kids can't decide for themselves.
Because they are fucking stupid as fuck and don't know any better.

Fuck... my fucking day is ruined. Fuck.

Hold up, this does not say that Digital Foundry actively supports Mermaid's Gender aswell, i just left that open so someone like D dark10x could raise his own voice instead of me assuming things.

 

[zenspider]

To be fair to Eurogamer, just reporting on that event wouldnt be political (which they didnt necessarily do in this case, but still).
To be fair to myself, I stopped reading Eurogamer like 3 years ago for a reason.
To be fair to Neogaf, this thread is gonna last 2 minutes before it should be in politics lol

That's not necessarily true - proper journalism isn't inherently political - only in today's polarized clickbait culture. Attention is the currency, and outrage is cheap.

 

[Orpheum]

They profit off hate clicks. They create bait articles to attract activists and gamers.

Just do like I do, I stopped visiting these sites 5 or more years ago. The only exception being the occasional Digital Foundry article talking about something technical.

When ExclusivelyGames is up, migrate there. Let's leave them behind.

absolutely. I can only second this.

 

[InterMusketeer]

I don't care about Eurogamer's tweets, they can do whatever they want, but I enjoy people speaking out against their political views seeping into their content.

We live in a time where all companies feel they have to pick a side, and it's just incredibly annoying to me.

 

[Nella]

Can you start quoting tweets after embedding them? Sometimes twitter embedding doesn't work for me and I can't read what's been posted.


On topic: I don't think that any of this is political at all, would this outrage over the tweet happened had the charity organization wasn't specifically a transgender one?

 

[hariseldon]

Your day is ruined because some children are getting help?

You don't think encouraging children to have life-changing surgery and other medical procedures that they're too young to fully understand is a bad thing?

 

[Winter John]

You don't think encouraging children to have life-changing surgery and other medical procedures that they're too young to fully understand is a bad thing?

I don't know if children are being encouraged to have life changing surgery. I would say it's far more likely that they're receiving some form of counselling to help them improve their lives.

 

[FranXico]

Should a game site affiliate itself with political elements or not in its reporting?

It's their choice to do so or not.
If it bothers you (in EG's case, it bothered me), there are alternatives.

 

[hariseldon]

L Luffytubby - The issue, I think, is that the politics in game journalism is particularly one-sided and condescending towards those who disagree with it.

If I can just expand on my post here as I missed a couple of key bits - the problem is that games journalism has been more or less taken-over by one side through entryism, and we're at a place where for instance if someone conservative, white and male tried to apply for a job at Eurogamer they'd struggle to get hired, and more importantly if they did it would become clear that he doesn't fit in, and would likely not last long. Now that's a problem in itself, but the bigger problem is that they have now infected most of the big gaming news sites out there, I'm not sure there are any left that aren't under SJW rule, which means that those of us who don't subscribe to that ideology are stuck with nowhere to go, no good places to get our gaming news.

I don't know if children are being encouraged to have life changing surgery. I would say it's far more likely that they're receiving some form of counselling to help them improve their lives.

Counselling I'm ok with, though I would caution that if the counselling is being offered by activists it runs the same risks as a smoking company offering help on giving up cigarettes.

 

[JimmyRustler]

But why does the leftists have to destroy everything because they are against something? Just accept there's someone you don't like that's ruling now, and change that when their time runs out. Doing damage like this gets you in a way much worse light than the guy you hate (not directed to the guy I reply but in general)

You mean that towards me or towards gaming media? Because I feel that media don't have to accept shit as they are the ones shaping the industry. So basically at the end of the day it's us gamers who have to accept what is going on or jump ship. It's sad but I guess that this is all that's left for me to do if this goes on like that. Not such a huge loss though as said, not in the least because in my opinion this mine dodging game creation is hardly going to spawn great games.