The State of Kotaku 2021 - Or when will Kotaku shut down?

[HeyYou]

Jason Schreier for all his flaws (of which there are many) really was one of the best journalists Kotaku ever had. Their death warrant was signed after he left.

It was pretty damn funny when he posted that bitchy tweet telling people to knock it off with calling him "the only good part of Kotaku" because all his co-workers were just as good as him and then he left a couple months later.

 

[Smug Chuckler]

It's weird that even something as popular as NINTENDO can't keep a single magazine afloat, although to be fair they folded in 2012 when Nintendo was arguably in a slump, but post Switch it's weird that nobody has tried to bring it back.

They kinda stopped back in 2007, Future US took over for like 5 years before Nintendo decided to not renew the rights.

 

[Jack Awful]

I can recall people dunking on Kotaku as far back as '07.

This is one of my favorites.

Look who showed up in the comments.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

Same. I don't think there was ever a time Kotaku was viewed as a credible source of news among gamers. Forums I used to frequent back in '06-'07 were dismissive of anything with a Kotaku link and the people who shared the links were treated like the fags they probably were. I'm surprised that they've lasted this long given that I can't point to a single time where it seemed like Kotaku was accepted or liked by the people who should be their base.

Kotaku's bread and butter was pretty scummy, their articles was often made up of quoting 90% of someone elses article/blog/whatever with a link at the bottom "if you want to read more".

I went through a couple of pages to look who the writers were. They have ditched all the women and diversity hires writing about everything but games. It's like they're trimming the fat and only straight white cis men were left.

 

[Dom Cruise]

I can recall people dunking on Kotaku as far back as '07.

This is one of my favorites.

Oh yeah, /v/ would dunk on Kotaku constantly back in '07, calling them "Slowtaku" and stuff, they were always treated as the one gaming site that was just kind of stupid, I don't think I ever once actually visited the site back then, I only knew it as a name, my gaming site of choice back in '07 was Destructoid which was so much fun that I never had a desire to give Kotaku a try.

Destructoid is still in fact the only gaming website I take an actual gander at now and then, it's not shitty like a Kotaku but it's also just kind of boring now.

Remember back in the day when gaming culture felt like one big party? I sure do miss those days, but even back then people still knew Kotaku was stupid.

I still remember that article Tiffany Claiborne made up about breaking up with her boyfriend getting divorced because he let her die in Diablo 3. Then, people called her out on stuff that didn't make sense in terms of mechanics and she got all pissy about it. I remember that article in particular and RPS's general descent into contrarian twee hot takes being the signal to me that I wasn't the audience for that shit anymore.

Edit: Holy shit I found the best comment callout that even Totillo didn't have the balls to address or take down

Spoiler: Comment Callout

Look, I'm a seven-year Kotaku veteran: a shameless Crecente supporter and a living memorial to every broken webpage redesign, commenting system malfunction, and inane papercraft post that this website has ever unleashed on its undeserving readership. But like a true masochist, I always come back for more. I just can't help it—I love games too much. Besides, Joystiq gave me lupus.
Anyway, long story short, I've seen some shit. But never anything like this.
I can say without a doubt that this article is the worst I've read on a gaming blog. Mere ignorance is one thing—a dreadful thing, but forgivable nonetheless. It can be cured, like most ailments, with time. But ignorance stained with pretension, ignorance sopping with tactlessness, ignorance reeking of such complete vapidity and moral decay that Bobby Kotick himself would try to sell it on the Internet with intrusive DRM and day one DLC—that's something else entirely.
Stupidity. Stupidity never changes.
How far has gaming news fallen, how doomed is this former colossus of a website, that the chronicled infidelities of a cheeky would-be Feuilleton hack (who thinks that Blizzard's Auction House Simulator assassinated her marriage) constitute balanced journalism? Kotaku is better than this. At least it used to be.
Mrs. Claiborne, this jumbled semi-coherent orgy of English letters you call an article has nothing to do with Diablo III. It has nothing to do with gaming. It's just a period piece, a disgraceful sign of the times. What did I learn from this article? Staring at Nintendo DS during a date isn't rude. Cheating on your spouse is normal and acceptable. Engaging in a Freudian game of Portal 2 in which you and your paramour, breathlessly yelling each other's names through a microphone, venture into each other's virtual holes is what passes for courtship in the twenty-first century.
All this because your husband let you die? At least he wasn't a self-avowed "cheating cheater." You know what we do to cheaters in Counter-Strike? We ban them. Get out of here, Tiffany. Jump through a portal and leave the journalism world alone.

Wow, that is an amazing post.

To think that back in 2012 even a Kotaku reader would call out a female writer's bullshit in such a savage way is absolutely mind blowing, how did we get so far away from 2012's attitude? Why did we let people play the race and gender card so much to get away with bullshit?

2012 is when that kind of bullshit really started in a big way but as you can see people were more willing to fight back, why did we stop? Why did we let the assholes win?

It's sad, fuck do I miss the old days, it's time we start bringing the spirit of them back.

 

[peanus weenus]

Kotaku was dead website walking for years but the Harry Potter porn article was the straw that probably forced the handlers to turn it into safey corporate propaganda schlock

 

[Dark Edea]

Kotaku sucks.

 

[Maskull]

Same. I don't think there was ever a time Kotaku was viewed as a credible source of news among gamers. Forums I used to frequent back in '06-'07 were dismissive of anything with a Kotaku link and the people who shared the links were treated like the fags they probably were. I'm surprised that they've lasted this long given that I can't point to a single time where it seemed like Kotaku was accepted or liked by the people who should be their base.

You know after thinking about it, the site provided me years of entertainment. Prior to '14 the Kotaku hate threads were probably the most entertaining on /v/. I think when the site finally closes down I'll be looking wistfully back at those better times.

 

[Rich Evans Apologist]

I think Jason has like 2-3 close friends he went to school with or parties with in the industry that he relies on for all his stuff. It seems like he's very propped up by other people.

Whether he himself has any ability (he certainly doesn't seem to have the temperament), he fulfills a niche that it doesn't seem like anyone else really has interest in. For all his many misfires and duds, some of his exposes on abusive practices (that are actually abusive, rather than just "please work 50 hours this week, we'll have overtime pay and lots of amenities) are solid and informative.

It's true that most of his peers just kvetch about useless shit so he stands out, but it is curious that "real" journos are often nonplussed about what is probably the largest-grossing entertainment industry.

 

[Quintex96]

Two pages in and not a single mention of gamer gate. Are we finally starting to heal?

There was literally an 'Ethics in video game journalism' joke on page one

 

[Disc]

Jason Schreier's one big use is that he was good at a post mortem, analysing what went wrong, what lies were told, all that jazz, when the dust had settled and things didn't matter anymore. Any other time he was trash.

 

[Dom Cruise]

You know after thinking about it, the site provided me years of entertainment. Prior to '14 the Kotaku hate threads were probably the most entertaining on /v/. I think when the site finally closes down I'll be looking wistfully back at those better times.

It may have been fun to laugh at for a while but the trouble is Kotaku helped spread retardation that made video games and the culture surrounding it themselves worse.

If it was just Kotaku that was retarded, you would have a point, but their retardation spread, so I wish they were never a site at all.

 

[the fall of man]

I used to read gawker network sites pretty regularly because they seemed pretty tolerable, but now if I accidentally click a link to kotaku I close the tab quickly and glance around to make sure nobody saw.

Same for polygon

 

[Quintex96]

My favourite all time Kotaku-adjacent story was a screencap I fear is lost to time.

I don't remember all the explicit details, But this screencap featured someone representing Kotaku's sister site Jezebel screeching at who I believe was a Subreddit moderator for a main sub because all Jezebel content was blacklisted from main subs for some reason. The conversation in the screencap took place years after they were blacklisted which is hilarious because it implies one of two scenarios-

1) They only just realized they had been blacklisted and is likely chimping out at someone that possibly had nothing to do with the decision to block them.

2) They were aware of the blacklist the entire time and are still angry about it the entire time.

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

There were several times i remember where an article or photo was posted either accidentally or whatever then it was swiftly removed for various reasons. Like to the point a statement was made

 

[Dom Cruise]

I used to read gawker network sites pretty regularly because they seemed pretty tolerable, but now if I accidentally click a link to kotaku I close the tab quickly and glance around to make sure nobody saw.

Same for polygon

Polygon at least had the fun article about the making of the Street Fighter movie.

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

Remember that time Jason made an ass of himself all because the sorceress in Dragon's Crown had big titties? That was my introduction to his work. The artist for that game called him gay and sent him a picture of muscular men.

 

[Dom Cruise]

Remember that time Jason made an ass of himself all because the sorceress in Dragon's Crown had big titties? That was my introduction to his work. The artist for that game called him gay and sent him a picture of muscular men.

That right there was the "wait, they're serious" moment, the outrage over Dragon's Crown.

When Anita first came on the scene in 2012 I didn't immediately hate her, but only because I didn't get what she was really about, the thought of people genuinely wanting to scrub sexy women entirely out of video games was too alien a concept for me to imagine that there were really people that wanted that.

But when they raised a stink about the Sorceress's breasts being too big in 2013 that was when it was clear "there's something going on here" and that they really did hate big boobs and other sexy female characters, which to me was as absurd as male gamers complaining that Solid Snake is too muscular and has too nice an ass, we love that shit! Guys want to play as a buff, sexy, badass male character.

But even in 2013 I thought for sure that this trend that was so stupid it'd quickly go away, it didn't fully solidify into a movement until Gamergate in 2014, once it got politized and turned into actual movements and anti-movements that's when shit really hit the fan and here we are years later still stuck in that same battle with it culminating in The Last of Us 2.

Enough is fucking enough, anyone's who sane wants to play as sexy, fit characters, male or female, get the fuck over it already you fucking losers.

 

[StraightShooter2]

That right there was the "wait, they're serious" moment, the outrage over Dragon's Crown.

When Anita first came on the scene in 2012 I didn't immediately hate her, but only because I didn't get what she was really about, the thought of people genuinely wanting to scrub sexy women entirely out of video games was too alien a concept for me to imagine that there were really people that wanted that.

B when they raised a stink about the Sorceress's breasts being too big in 2013 that was when it was clear "there's something going on here" and that they really did hate big boobs and other sexy female characters, which to me was as absurd as male gamers complaining that Solid Snake is too muscular and has too nice an ass, we love that shit! Guys want to play as a buff, sexy, badass male character.

But even in 2013 I thought for sure that this trend that was so stupid it'd quickly go away, it didn't fully solidify into a movement until Gamergate in 2014, once it got politized and turned into actual movements and anti-movements that's when shit really hit the fan and here we are years later still stuck in that same battle with it culminating in The Last of Us 2.

Enough is fucking enough, anyone's who sane wants to play as sexy, fit characters, male or female, get the fuck over it already you fucking losers.

Nah, if it's just pure mindless voyeurism and doesn't fit into the plot at all (assuming the game is meant to have a serious plot), then it's totally natural not to want it in the game.

Example - the Witcher series has sex and nudity, but it for the most part fits into the plot and is in line with the tone and setting of the game - if some neckbeard made a mod which turned all of the enemies into Japanese schoolgirls with miniguns and DD tits, I sure as hell wouldn't play that.

(And if I was gay, I wouldn't play a Metal Gear Solid mod which makes Snake look like the Incredible Hulk, and lets him 1-shot every enemy by hitting them with his 12'' dong.)

And no, I don't think that anyone would want to play new Sonic the Hedgehog games either if they included pornographic scenes in the same vein as Chris-Chans Sonichu / Rosechu Porn.

I won't exactly say that fans of that crap such as games which feature 5'1'' girls with DD tits are "gay", but I'm pretty sure that someone could only find that appealing as a result of hours spent religiously masturbating to hentai porn, rather than sex with any actual living, breathing member of the fairer sex.

(And this isn't a "radically puritanical" standard along the lines of an Islamist thinking women who don't cover their faces should be caned, it's more along the lines of just decent taste, common sense, and not being a weeboo neckbeard who can't get aroused except to girls with tits bigger than her head).

Example - A game which is just pure mindless entertainment is Duke Nukem - I don't think most people, even if they were fans of Duke Nukem, would want Duke Nukem-tier shit in a more "serious" game, to the point that it became comical and ruined the plot and setting. (Also comparing Snake being "muscular" - when he's supposed to be an elite SpecOps soldier to unrealistic fake tits on a female soldier for no reason other than just pure voyeurism isn't a good comparison).

 

[Dysnomia]

Why are you visiting Kotaku in the first place? The site is pure, concentrated AIDS.



Even if these sites are already past their prime and nobody visits them anymore, the damage they helped cause on American society and culture is going to take longer to fix.

I still can't believe what happened in the 2010s really happened, that you had all these websites that embarked on this great crusade to basically ruin American society and culture, while they aren't the sole reason why it happened, to some degree they were also simply riding a cultural wave, they are nevertheless a huge contributing factor.

I sure miss the year 2010, the last year before all that shit started, why did everyone just go so fucking insane after 2010? Hopefully we can start working our way back to what pre-2011 society was.


It's weird that even something as popular as NINTENDO can't keep a single magazine afloat, although to be fair they folded in 2012 when Nintendo was arguably in a slump, but post Switch it's weird that nobody has tried to bring it back.

But print magazines about gaming are close to being extinct, at least in the US, I go into a grocery store and in the magazine section I see print magazines devoted to all sorts of topics but not a single one even remotely related to video games, I do see a few in bookstores but we're literally down to just a handful left that are still active and it's only a matter of time until there's none left.

It'd odd though because there's still plenty of print magazines that are still being published so it's not like the entire medium is dead yet, but somehow only video game magazines are the ones close to being extinct.


Yeah, you ever notice how little people talk about actual games anymore? It's mostly drama related to games, but not games themselves, one good example being the Animal Crossing hair controversy.

In the late 2000s and early 2010s people still talked about games themselves a lot even if it was mostly to hate on them, but not so much anymore.

Video games are simply not in a good state these days, a new generation has started but there's none of the buzz or excitement surrounding it like there was around a new generation in the past, not even a fraction of it, most people can't even get their fucking hands on a new console at all due to scalpers.

I think all the drama and all the political baggage surrounding video games sucked most of the fun out of it, it's simply no fun to get involved in the wider gaming culture anymore when there's so many lunatics who will literally try to destroy your life over petty bullshit (like say, you picked the wrong hairstyle in Animal Crossing, to use that example again), but there's also clearly problems with how games are even made these days (*cough*Cyberpunk 2077*cough*), everything just seems to be broken at a fundamental level at the moment.

I know personally I'm looking forward to and will definitely play RE8 but after that I really feel like I might be done, either stepping away from video games completely or stepping away from modern games and focusing on the good games of yesteryear I haven't played yet because man, what a fucking mess modern gaming has become, when even fucking Animal Crossing causes people to have meltdowns, you know shit's bad lmao.


It's incredible the downward spiral gaming journalism has been on when it was really looking like it was getting somewhere in the 2000s, now the entire thing is basically dead.

I still feel though like there's a market if a website brought back the vibe gaming journalism had in the 2000s, ie if it was actually about VIDEO GAMES.

It seems people are only interested in controversy and how #woke a game is or should be. The actual excitement over the gameplay itself is short lived and generally not cared about outside of the true fanbase. Like if you made a Mario game where Mario was a transman and Peach was an autistic POC on a wheelchair. Or a Mass Effect where part of the plot was your transitioning to the opposite sex and had twelve different sooper inclusive romance options plus trans women can get pregnant because it's the future in space. Well, even if the gameplay was the most innovative and fun thing to come along in awhile SJWs will only care about the woke. Or the controversy that comes when none of your twelve available romance options is a one armed Guatemalan demisexual with fibromyalgia.

Because nothing is ever enough.

I really miss the way things were. The forced inclusion almost always backfires. Andromeda and Cyberpunk come to mind strongly. At this point companies should just tell these people to go fuck themselves. They only buy the games to post screencaps of their self inserts and sperg about romances anyway. People who actually enjoy playing games aren't going to care if the next half finished pile lacks tranny representation. You spent too much time letting your diversity hires run wild and not enough making your games playable.