Back in 2014, Gamasutra's news editor, Leigh Alexander, wrote an article that would be one of the opening salvos from the social justice left against a developing GamerGate movement. What would later become known as the "woke left" had infected gaming journalism and it was pretty clear that the cabal of radical leftists in the elitist circles didn't like gamers.
As such, Alexander released an article titled "Gamers' don't have to be your audience. 'Gamers' are over," to the applause and echoes of many of her ilk in gaming journalism circles. Alexander not only looked down on the audience she'd been writing articles for, but she questioned why she was even doing what she did:
‘Games culture’ is a petri dish of people who know so little about how human social interaction and professional life works that they can concoct online ‘wars’ about social justice or ‘game journalism ethics,’ straight-faced, and cause genuine human consequences. Because of video games. Lately, I often find myself wondering what I’m even doing here. And I know I’m not alone. All of us should be better than this.
Alexander's article remains one of the most flagrant examples of an elitist lack of self-awareness and an egregious sense of self-importance ever put on display. It also cemented the fact for many, that these "journalists" weren't journalists at all, they were activists bent on destroying the hobby that gamers loved. It's a lesson we never forgot.
But gamers are made of hardier stuff than many people realize. When they pointed at us and told us to feel shame for being us, accused us of social sins galore, and claimed a moral high ground...we laughed. In fact, we did something they didn't expect; we fought back, and in a much fiercer way than they anticipated. We deconstructed their arguments, proved their claims false, and demonstrated a sense of community between races, ideologies, political affiliations, etc. that bordered on the miraculous.
This is a community of people who slay dragons for fun and oftentimes together. Our hobby teaches us to fight and keep fighting, no matter how many blows we take. If you fail, you press "continue" and try again until you win.
As such GamerGate became one of the biggest black eyes the radical left ever received and they've never forgiven or forgotten how bad gamers made them look...nor how much gamers cost them and continues to cost them.
READ: The New York Times Is Trying to Redefine #GamerGate, but Here's the Real Story
This brings us to the fall of another one of those sites that was once a fun place before wokeness claimed it, Kotaku.
In another life, Kotaku was a relatively fun place to go for gaming news and culture. If you wanted reviews on anything from a video game to a new popular snack for gamers, you'd go there. It was kind of like BuzzFeed but for the gaming and geek community.
This used to be @Kotaku's mascot back when they were relatively fun and about the culture. Wokeness destroys everything. pic.twitter.com/Jntbekqp0e
— Brandon Morse (@TheBrandonMorse) March 25, 2024
Then it was infected by wokeness, and soon it became a website known for doing what many things infected with wokeness do now. It became all about social justice, the social sins of others, and politics more than gaming. When GamerGate began, Kotaku was one of the sites that fought against gamers and subsequently lost that fight in a big way.
Fast forward to now, and Kotaku is a shell of what it once was. Its employees have embraced their activism fully and they attempt to utilize their platform for personal vendettas and cancel campaigns.
Kotaku Editor Alyssa Merante (@Alyysa_Merc) has a weird grudge against @MelonieMac and wants to fight her.
— Grummz (@Grummz) March 23, 2024
Now she has convinced @Kotaku to let her write a hit piece on Melonie, calling out to anyone with rumors for ammo.
This is not journalism, it's anger, and a power play.🧵 pic.twitter.com/wt4O4BfuTr
As Grummz on X noted, Kotaku's editor-in-chief, as well as several writers, have left the company after its parent company G/O Media, attempted to push the site into becoming something more useful. Writers have been tasked with writing 50 guides a week, giving readers something to click on and absorb. Kotaku staff didn't like this idea at all, wanting to stick with finger-wagging at everyone else and providing no real value except to a supposed "modern audience."
Here is the quick rundown on @Kotaku .
— Grummz (@Grummz) March 21, 2024
Jen Glennon, EIC, tweets she has resigned.
Mad Kotaku writers spill the beans. They must dump news and write gaming guides
Former Kotaku-head, Nathan Grayson, tells us SEVEN writers left, MUST churn out 50 guides PER WEEK. pic.twitter.com/M2mjxVepe8
Why are they having to resort to this?
Because we were told gamers aren't their audience...so we left.
I said gamers are costing woke sites like these but it'd probably be more accurate to say that these social justice-obsessed games journos are costing themselves. They told us they hated us so we stopped clicking on their articles and listening to their game reviews. They told us we were sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, and more, so we stopped taking them seriously. They're now suffocating under their hubris. Gamers picked up the toys they said we should be embarrassed by and went elsewhere.
These activists posing as journalists thought their audience was much bigger than it actually was. The "modern audience" they surrounded themselves by is very loud but incredibly minuscule. As I've noted in the past, if a modern audience did truly exist in any substantial way then everything from Kotaku to Star Wars would be thriving.
(READ: The Lie of the 'Modern Audience')
But they're not. These brands are dying because no one is interested. Kotaku is about to fall and its parent corporation is trying to keep it afloat but the activists that infect the site refuse to see the forest for the trees and would rather see Kotaku in ashes and their careers destroyed than ever do anything other than activism.
And this can be seen in many other ways as well. It's no accident that layoffs are occurring in many industries, including general news organizations like the Washington Post. Even game developers who hire woke advisory firms find themselves suffering at the hands of a fed-up gaming community.
(READ: Woke Company 'Sweet Baby Inc.' Is Lashing Out Like a Cornered Animal Thanks to Gamers)
And from all this, we can learn some good lessons.
Woke "journalism" fails.
Woke "movies" fail.
Woke games fail.
Woke companies fail.
Woke policies fail.
Woke people fail.
Sure, they may see a temporary surge of success but sooner or later their radicalism costs them because there is no "modern audience," and the number of people who will bend the knee to prove themselves innocent of accusations of social sins is diminishing by the day.
Kotaku's impending death isn't just one more stronghold of woke burning to the ground, it's a societal rebuke of what is one of the most damaging and, frankly, annoying social infections humanity has ever witnessed.
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
(READ: The Gaming Industry Is the Conservative Movement's Best Friend, It Just Doesn't Know It Yet)
Journalism takes on many different forms but even journalism done for the purpose of destroying something should be done for the purpose of trying to build up and improve society, not tear it down. Kotaku's brand of journalism doesn't just destroy to benefit society, it does so for the benefit of self-obsessed radical ideologies and selfish people. Myself and RedState do not hold to this.
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