Incredible how much worse game journalism is since that was updated.
I read reviews/criticism and listened to podcasts from some people on that list but the few still in games writing are more pozzed than during Gamergate and just miserable to listen to.
Now I completely rely on word of mouth and listen to Spawn Wave's videos for the big news.
Remember Arthur Gies getting a Polygon tattoo when that junk website launched? He's writing for The Wirecutter now. Maybe he got a NY Times tattoo
They took a lot more damage from the Autism Holy War happening than any of them would ever be willing to admit. GG was fucking meaningless except as a major culture war flashpoint, but it also represents the first (and far from last) time the Journo class unambiguously lost - and they will
never fucking get over this. For them, it's their Tet Offensive, their Waterloo, the time they failed to capture Jerusalem in their crusade (hence my nickname for it), even though it was mostly a bunch of retards making fun of them and refusing to bend the knee.
Anyone making the argument that GG didn't accomplish meaningful long-term goals is being myopic; it was a grassroots hashtag consumer revolt forwarded by Autists and completely opposed at every level by the powers that be. People tend to forget that almost every social media platform, multiple government organizations (most notably DARPA, who funded fucking DIGRA), the entire SPJ, multiple NGOs and supporting politicians, every troon and loon they could find, and the fucking UN all were unilaterally in opposition to the movement. There was daily hitpieces. Supporting media constantly portrayed the usual suspects as innocent victims and their critics as literal fucking terrorists. At least two news networks tried to claim Jace Connors trying to street race Brianna Wu was a legitimate threat to her life years after the shitstorm had lost all relevance.
The bigger take-away has always been what they
had to do in order to stop a gaggle of angry Autists.
Since then, many of GG's lessons are now a part of the public perception, even if subsonsciously, and with that, the momentum has officially changed. No one wants the bullshit these groups are peddling. They have overseen countless corporate shutdowns and mergers, overseen countless high-profile failures, and are starting to rot out the very foundations of different companies. Sony gave its Californian branch the go-ahead to run things, based on some limited successes it had had, back in the mid-teens only for that branch to reward the company with a 6% profitability index after ten years and Sony to be considering completely retooling the brand. Game journalism is dead as a profession and, as
@AnOminous said, the only ones still actively in that field are those who couldn't effectively transfer their skills elsewhere and get the fuck out.
I've made several predictions in the past that things would turn around at various points, but all of those were based on the logical conclusion that many of these companies would ultimately shape up rather than ship out - and until recently (see also: The Washington Post as of last week), that shit just didn't pan out. You're going to see a lot more of them bleed out, and you're going to see many of them jump to different outlets like fleas escaping a carcass and making their way to other rats, but the opportunities for this are continually decreasing, and this is a big reason why SBI getting exposed for them was an existential threat.
Like I've said before and will doubtlessly say again: We can remain retarded far longer than they can remain solvent.
