Saturday, June 5, 2021

When Gaming Journalism Goes Bad

When Gaming Journalism Goes Bad



Being a video game journalist is both a blessing and a curse.
Blessing: you talk about games! It's every child and manchild's dream job!
Curse: you're incredibly dispensable and your work gets editorialized behind your back.

Unfortunately some journalists and gaming websites have committed multiple sins.
Corruption, conflicts of interest, politics, drama, and not even talking about gaming!
This article aims to showcase when gaming journalism goes bad.

NOTE: do not harass or even message anyone listed here. Don't give them attention or money.


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Sensationalism



Churning out clickbait and manufactured outrage to get them views.


* Destructoid's Jed Whitaker used a mistranslation of a scene in Fire Emblem: Fates to launch into a tirade without doing the due diligence to translate the scene himself.

* freelancer Brendan Keogh's blog post concerning one of Hitman: Absolution trailers, where he stated there is a 'rape culture' in video games and that 99% of all gaming protagonists are male.

* freelancer Laura Kate Dale claimed to have been misgendered at Eurogamer Expo 2013, and overreacted by taking to Twitter rather than seeking an explanation right then and there. Later on she discovered the truth and withdrew her allegations.

* GameRant's Dalton Cooper wrote a misleading article in which he claimed David Jaffe called The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom "bland" and "old looking", but Jaffe was referring to the graphics, not the game itself.

* GameSpot made a terrible first impressions video on the Borderlands 3 trailer that appears to be made for hate-clicks clickbait. 



* Kotaku's Andrew McMillen published an article about Silicon Knights' founder and CEO Denis Dyack. Said article was was extremely negative of Dyack, completely one-sided, and was basically an attack-article.


* Kotaku's Ethan Gach wrote a dumb clickbait article about Harvestella childishly using sexual innuendo like peaches and zucchinis (that Gach mislabelled as cucumbers).

* Kotaku's Heather Alexandra got very heated that Ronda Rousey was a guest fighter in Mortal Kombat 11. Her rant is nonsensical as she treats MK11 like actual MMA fighting game.


* Kotaku's Jason Schreier manufactured controversy by stating Lara Craft was going to get raped in 
the 2013 reboot.
* Kotaku's Kate Cox reported on Stardock’s CEO Brad Wardell's lawsuits without getting all the 
facts straight and making assumptions. This ruined Wardell's reputation.

* Kotaku's Laura Kate Dale thought that the song "Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There" in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate uses the word "retarded". It was so ridiculous it is speculated she made it all up for clickbait.

* Kotaku's Nathan Grayson did a shitty non-interview with Ubisoft’s Mark Thompson, bitching and moaning about alleged sexism without offering proof or using journalistic ethics.
* Kotaku's Patricia Hernandez article about online gaming in Gears of War. Her thin skin made her 
make a bigger deal out of trash talking than it needed to be.

* Kotaku's Patricia Hernandez made a despicable article where she stated Max Temkin, creator of Cards Against Humanity, defended himself too much and should just admit he sexually assaulted a woman.

* Kotaku's Sisi Jiang wrote a dumb article accusing Stray of racism, of how the game appropriates Asian aesthetics for robots with no race.

* many journalists and their supporters had a meltdown over a satirical article linked on Twitter.


* many gaming websites and journalists defended Brianna Wu faking fleeing her home, even in the face of sketchy evidence and her history of falsehoods. Most of the articles that covered this incident never corrected or updated it once the truth came to light.

* Mashable's Adam Rosenberg did a terrible clickbait article on Sniper Elite 5's mechanic to spare people, arguing that Nazis shouldn't be allowed to be spared. Rosenberg has since double-down on his Nazi Derangement Syndrome.

* PCGamer's Cara Ellison dreadful preview of Hotline Miami 2 where she raged against an implied sexual assault scene.

* PCGamer's Sam Greer’s horrible review of Monster Hunter World: Iceborne in which she called the monster hunters ‘colonialists’ and said the monsters were the good guys. She hated killing them despite the game recommending capturing them very early on.

* Penny Arcade's Andrew Groen review of King of Fighters XIII where he whinged about "casual 
sexism and cringe-inducing racial imagery" while providing poor examples.

* Polygon's Arthur Gies reviews of Bayonetta 2 and Killer is Dead, accusing them of sexism and thus giving them scores below the average. His account on SuicideGirls suggests he has no problem with sexy women and thus the reviews were manufactured for clickbait.



* Polygon's Colin Campbell complained that Grand Theft Auto V is misogynistic due to being able 
to kill prostitutes, even though it's entirely optional.

* Polygon's Danielle Riendeau review of Dragon's Crown  ranted against blatant 'sexist' character design and docked points.

* Polygon's Justin McElroy review of Codename S.T.E.A.M in which he didn't even finish the game for his review until a patch was released.

* Polygon's Phillip Kollar review of Mad Max in which he lamented the lack a 'progressive' agenda and docked points for it. 

* Polygon's Phillip Kollar review of The Last of Us in which he went out of his way to find things to complain about and deduct the score.

* Rock Paper Shotgun's Nathan Grayson accused Blizzard of being sexist for making their female 
characters sexy. He doubled down in a later article.

* Rock Paper Shotgun's Nathan Grayson did a piss-poor interview with Hotline Miami 2's developers Dennaton Games, escalating the non-issue of the implied sex assault scene.


* US Gamer's Kat Bailey preview for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 called Dracula drinking a woman's blood "blatant it is with its allusions to rape".






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Corruption


Bribery and threats get good coverage but it is akin to selling your soul.



* Activision gave various gaming journalists a free gift in their Call of Duty: Black Ops II bundle: a headset worth $280.

* Activision sent gaming websites an iPod Touch with the review code for Call of Duty: World at 
War Zombies for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

* Activision sent gaming websites a bribe to be flown to Ojai, California, to relax in the Ojai Valley Inn and Spa and play Call of Duty: Black Ops for their review, all for free. They even got to keep the flight helmet and the Mad Catz headset.

* EA sent gaming websites a $200 check as part of a publicity stunt (read: bribe). EA also awarded dinner and other gaming prizes if you take a photo of you doing "an act of lust" on an E3 booth babe.

* EA sent gaming websites a lot of goodies with the review copy of Godfather 2 including a cigar, a piano wire, and brass knuckles, which illegal in some US states.

* EA Norway sent gaming websites a survey to gauge who would be more willing to give Battlefield 3 a higher score.


* Electronic Gaming Monthly gave Titanfall a perfect 10/10, complete with purchased ads in the background.

* GameSpot's Frank Provo gave Shenmue a 6.8, which enraged readers and Sega. Greg Kasavin, 
executive editor of Gamespot, pressured Provo to revise the review and raise the score to 7.8 .

* Gamespy's Nick Marangos gave Donkey Konga 2 a 1.5/5 but it was edited to 3/5 without his 
knowledge or consent. They later re-reviewed the game, still giving it 3.5/5.

* IndieGameMagazine charged $50.00 to review a game; you pay them the fee and they write a possibly favourable review.

* Konami sent gaming websites a bribe to be flown to Japan to play Metal Gear Solid 4 with the dev team, have dinner with them, all on their dime.

* Konami told reviewers not to mention how long the cutscenes and game installation are. Kotaku 
defied this rule, leading to Hideo Kojima cancelling his planned interview with them.

* Kotaku's Mike Fahey accepted a bribe from NCSoft for their game Tabula Rasa. Fahey got to ride on a zero-gravity flight for free and keep the flight suit.


* Nintendo sends news websites food regularly, such as a giant sandwich to 1Up to promote the Nintendo DSi XL.

* The Dutch Game Awards are rife with corruption. Winners have turned out to be sponsored, and had game consultant Leonie Manshanden on the jury until they scrubbed that evidence in damage control.

* The Games Awards 2020 awarded The Last of Us Part II an astounding seven awards - a divisive game - leading to theories that the awards were rigged.

* The Games Media Awards brings games journalists and PR people together for bribery; games 
journalists were getting PS3s and Doritoes.


* Warner Bros. hired PR firm Plaid Social who offered a paid promotion to YouTubers: make a video review of an early copy of the game, send it up us for approval, and you'll get brand deals.


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Unethical actions


The underhanded tactics to promote their brand, silence their critics, and defend shitty practices.


* Adam Sessler stated at ScrewAttack Gaming Convention 2013 that he supports doxing as a means of 
combating trolls. Sessler believes that posting someone else's personal information online falls 
under free speech (it doesn't).

* Bloomberg News' Jason Schreier refused to give evidence behind the Hellena Taylor debacle as it would 'burn a source'.

* Eurogamer went all cancel culture on Joey Camen, trying to get him fired from voice acting in 
Devil May Cry 5.


* GameJournoPros: many gaming journalists and PR people were in a big mailing list in 
correspondence with each other. They claim it was to uphold 'ethics' but there are many suspicious activities were spearheaded by members of this group, such as allegedly getting Allistair Pinsof fired from Destructoid and blacklisted.



* GameSpot stole footage from YouTuber Ultraboy94fsr of John Romero's latest Doom levels without crediting him.

* Gawker's Sam Biddle posted Donald Trump's outdated cell phone number (this is probably illegal but nonetheless childish).


* GGAutoBlocker, a Twitter script used by many journalists, gaming websites, and their supporters, was used to block people allegedly connected to GamerGate. This sloppily-written script blocked many innocent people and those who used the script were seen as cowards.


* IGN issued a copyright strike to BLACKB0ND on YouTube for using IGN's footage as proof of their 
faulty logic.

* IGN published an article supporting Palestine, linking to several charities in support of Palestine, thus taking a side in the Israel-Palestine conflict.

* IGN stole footage from YouTuber iCEMANnoob of Monster Hunter 4. IGN removed the video and apologised within a day.

* IGN's Escape From Tarkov video had plagiarised content from GameSpot, overlaying their watermark over theirs.

* IGN's Gav Murphy called Tekken creator a "garbage man" for calling out SJWs, and said his game is "utterly garbage", even though his own company IGN gave it a 9.5.

* IGN's Max Scoville supports Antifa, a far-left terrorist organisation.

* Kotaku defended Antifa when they attacked a journalist.

* Kotaku defended Twitch streamer Alinity for abusing her cat.

* Kotaku hypocritically tries to prevent archiving websites from snapshotting their shame, yet 
uses the Wayback Machine for their reporting.

* Kotaku retaliated against Cyberpunk 2077 making a joke mocking SJWs by trying to get Cyberpunk 
2077's social media manager fired.





* Kotaku's Jason Schreier was fooled by 4chan's fake upcoming games photoshop and banned multiple Kotaku users trying to offer proof of the fakery. He sheepishly admitted he was fooled after Play.com corrected the record, though he denied banning people for criticising him.


* many gaming websites defended Alison Rapp, a Nintendo employee who is a man-hating feminist who is pro-child pornography and moonlighted as an escort.

* many gaming websites, from IGN to Eurogamer, called gamers 'entitled' for not enjoying the ending to Mass Effect 3. They raged extra hard when Bioware made a better ending for the game.

* many gaming websites support Feminist Frequency, an SJW project that is not inclusive and is anti-
gamer.


* Polygon dragged streamer Ninja's name through the mud when he said he wouldn't stream with women as he wants to be faithful to his wife.

* Polygon's Arthur Gies defended the rushed Simcity (2013) review, defended the game's always-online DRM and called gamers who wanted the DRM removed "an agenda-driven anti-online movement."

* Polygon's Ben Kuchera lied about being harassed by GamerGate supporters, but in the private GameJournalPros mailing list he admitted he was never contacted.


* Polygon's Chris Scullion wanted Doug TenNaple to not be involved with the new Earthworm Jim game due to his conservative views. He appeared unwilling or unable to fairly judge the game without bias if TenNaple is present. 



* Polygon wrote a hitpiece on Ethan Van Sciver for supporting Diversity and Comics and for being a 
Trump supporter.

* Rock, Paper, Shotgun's John Walker lied about receiving death threats from GamerGate.



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Shitty articles


Sometimes gaming journalists and websites do bone-headed things at times... or all the time.
NOTE: some/most of these may be sensationalist clickbait.


* Eurogamer's Ed Zitron wrote a terrible review of Darkfall Online. He only gave it a 2/10. Darkfall's lead developer Tasos Flambouras said that his game logs proved the reviewer only spent 2 hours playing and spent most of it in menus. Eurogamer's Kieron Gillen re-reviewed the game in a very snarky unprofessional cringe way.

* Eurogamer's Edwin Evans-Thirlwell wrote a terrible review on Outlast 2 where he droned on and on 
about 'misogyny' and how it ruined the game for him more than the lackluster gameplay. 


* Eurogamer's Emma Kent review of Spyro Reignited Trilogy compared the games to Dark Souls with its 'difficulty spikes'.

* Eurogamer's Tom Phillips' god awful interview with CD Projekt Red was less about the gameplay and story of Cyberpunk 2077 and more about identity politics and gender issues.

* Eurogamer lied that the Wii U graphics are on-par with its competitor consoles, maybe even 
better. Sumo Digital was talking about the Wii U version of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, not the Wii U hardware. Eurogamer later apologized.

* Eurogamer's Oli Welsh wrote a terrible review for The Grand Tour game, where he was very 
condescending to fans of the show, called the hosts idiots, and attacked the show for "xenophobia" 
despite the show being about a grand tour across the world to different countries. 

* Eurogamer's Robert Purchese wrote a terrible review of Kingdom Come: Deliverance. He complained about the lack of people of colour and treatment of women, in a game set in 15th century Bohemia. Eurogamer later brought on a 'historian' who doesn't have any articles or books published or any credentials, who failed to make a convincing case.

* GamesRadar's Ben Wilson attacked people who have the opinion that the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot 
isn't particularly good. Also, shilling for a movie on a gaming website.

* GamesRadar's Louise Blain wrote a horrible review for Crash Bandicoot N Sane Trilogy, calling it the Dark Souls of platformers. She mentions having nostalgia for it but seems to have forgotten what the games were really like.

* GamesRadar's Sam Greer whined that 'queer representation' isn't good enough in gaming, yet lists 
a rich history of LGBT content in games. She also wants developers to sacrifice gameplay for more 
romance mechanics.

* GamesRadar's Calum Marsh did a terrible preview of Far Cry 5, who sees it more a vehicle of progressive politics to combat the 'alt-right', and he barely touched on the game. 

* GameSpot's Carolyn Petit wrote a terrible review of Grand Theft Auto V, docking points for not 
conforming to her political opinions.

* GameSpot's Cian Maher wrote a terrible review of Weedcraft Inc in which he docked points for not 
providing a social commentary about marijuana in society.

* GameSpot's Eddie Makuch made a very one-sided article discussing online harassment in video games, when his own cited graph shows both genders are welcomed.

* GameSpot's Funké Joseph wrote a terrible review of SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini 
Bottom - Rehydrated, where he gave the game a 2/10 for being too difficult. Joseph appears to not like the SpongeBob Squarepants franchise much, making the review biased and not neutral from the get-go.

* GameSpot's Jordan Ramée wrote a terrible review for Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey, citing aspects of the game that did not exist, suggesting he did not even fully play the game before giving it a 4/10. The review discussion page adds disclaimers about this farce.

* GameSpot's Michael Rougeau attacked spy parody movie Kingsman: The Secret Service for a James 
Bond jokes because Bond is a misogynist. Also discussing a movie on a gaming website.

* GameSpot's Nick Capozzoli wrote a terrible review of Dead Rising 3 where he gave it a 3/10 for having "backwards stereotypes" and "mean-spirited overtones" for a game not meant to be taken seriously.

* GameSpot's Peter Brown wrote a terrible review of Crash Bandicoot N Sane Trilogy calling it too hard and wanted the devs to change the games (and ruin the faithfulness) to make them easier for today's gamers.

* GameSpot's Steven Garrett wrote a terrible review of Alien Resurrection for being too hard and criticized the controls as "its most terrifying element" even though they became the console FPS 
standard.

* Gamasutra's Leigh Alexander wrote a god awful hitpiece on gamers, which is so anti-gamer and nonsensical it borders on satire
.
* IGN's Avi Burke wrote a terrible review of Football Manager 2009 where he was unaware of 
football manager games and compared it to full-on footie games like FIFA and PES. IGN later 
removed the review with an apology.

* IGN's Chris Roper wrote a terrible review for God Hand, bashing the camera and called the gameplay "extremely tedious", in the end giving it a 3/10.

* IGN's Colin Campbell wrote a horrible preview for Rock Band 4, spending more time talking about the fancy press event than the game.

revised the review, disclosed his mistake, and raised the score from 8.8 to 9.0. 

* IGN's Dan Stapleton originally gave Prey a 4/10 due to a glitch erasing his save file, but he 
later gave it an 8/10 after a patch fixed said glitch.

* IGN's Douglass C. Perry gave The Guy Game a 7.7 even though it's a simple quiz game with nudity, and that's even before learning that one of the nude models was underaged.
* IGN's Kallie Plagge review of Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire in which she docked points for having "too much water".


* Kotaku's John Walker wrote a shitty article about the game Acquitted, proving he does not know what actually happened with Kyle Rittenhouse, and then called the developer's wife an actual Nazi (which is libel).

* Kotaku's Katie Gray published an article about video game porn complete with images featuring minors. These images were soon removed but now without the images the article is worthless.

* Kotaku's Luke Plunkett wrote a tone-deaf critique of gamers, and then got all dictatorial in the comments section.




* Kotaku's Sisi Jiang wrote a terrible article about Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp, lamenting that the game is too comedic and does not portray the horrors and atrocities of war. Jiang admits in the article that she never finished the game.

* Kotaku's Zack Zwiezen wrote an article on Alan Wake II's 1.15 update that claimed to be watering down the scare factor for crybabies when said features are accessibility options for those with disabilities like epilepsy and sensitivities to loud sound and flashing lights. Shortly afterwards the article was updated with a correction to address the accessibility implications.

* many gaming websites fell for fake screenshots from 4chan and did zero fact checking to see if the alleged games were real. Kotaku, Eurogamer, GameSpot, IGN, and Joystiq were fooled.

* PC Gamer's James Davenport cheated to beat Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.


* PC Gamer's Steven Messner made a list of the best penises in Assassin's Creed Odyssey, complete 
with pictures. There is no social commentary on the double standards of nudity between genders, this is just Messner obsessing over dick.

* Polygon rushed their review of Simcity (2013) on a beta version that did not have the always-
online DRM. Due to backlash they've revised the review four times and changed the score each time: 
9.5, to an 8.0, to a 4.0, to a 6.5.

* Polygon teased a possible Bully 2 release date in the URL, which the author Owen S. Good admitted was a joke.

* Polygon's Arthur Gies wrote a terrible review of Star Fox Zero, where he admitted he couldn't be bothered to finish the short game.

* Polygon's Arthur Gies wrote a terrible review of The Witcher 3 accusing the game of sexism and racism without taking into account that it's set in 11th century Poland, with different values and demographics to today.

* Polygon's Ashley Oh wrote a terrible review for Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, deeming it too hard for her and modern gamers.

* Polygon's Carta Monir drew a stupid webcomic praising the Hitman series as her favourite 'trans' game despite you being unable to equip female disguises in any of the games.

* Polygon's Charlie C. Hall wrote a terrible review of Kingdom Come: Deliverance. He found it 
weird that 15th century Bohemia doesn't have our current values to women and diverse demographics. 
He also got himself lost for six hours and blamed the game.

* Polygon's Chris Plante wrote a horrible review for Red Dead Redemption 2, calling the game 
bigoted and rife with 'white supremacy', not understanding or caring that values were different 
back in 1899.

* PushSquare's Liam Croft wrote a terrible opinion piece on Stray. He argued that the game isn't that great, his reasoning being that if you take all the good parts out the game isn't good anymore.

* The Escapist's Jessica Lab wrote a nonsensical opinion piece wishing for shorter JRPGs. Her reasoning was flawed: with Xenoblade Chronicles 3 she did all the side quests yet still felt compelled to grind even though the game tells you the enemy's level, not to mention the game is generous with exp.

* The Mary Sue's Brianna Wu and Ellen McGrody wrote an article claiming that Samus Aran was a 
transgender based on a joke in a Japanese Super Metroid strategy guide from 1994. Yoshio Sakamoto, co-creator of Metroid, rejected the claim.

* The Washington Post's Nathan Grayson whinged about the gaming industry staying silent about the Roe v. Wade repeal, not understanding that most gamers don't care about politics.

* VICE's James O'Connor god awful 'review' of Forza Horizon 3 that derails into a political rant about Australia and other crap that has nothing to do with the game.


* VG247'S Patrick Garratt wrote a tone-deaf article concerning Diablo III's always-online DRM, wherein gamers were unable to play the game when the servers are down.

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Horrible videos


Gaming journalism and fake news, hurting you audibly as well as visually.


* Adam Sessler's horrible review of God of War: Ascension in which he docked the review score due to a 'problematic' trophy name.


* GameSpot's awful video about how video games don't need to be fun. They poorly define what 'fun' means and their cited examples are walking simulators, which are barely games.

* IGN's awful video review of Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown where they played on Normal difficulty, thus barring them access to the Expert controls (such as barrel rolls), and thus docked points for it.

* IGN's awful video review of Alien: Isolation, where the reviewer played on Hard difficulty, hid in air vents and stood still near the xenomorph, dying constantly and thus called the game repetitive. He gave one of the better survival horror games a 5.9 for his ineptitude.

* IGN's awful video review of Doom (2016), who deemed the game a boring derivative with FPS cliches and called the multiplayer too modern, ultimately giving the game a 7.1.

* IGN's awful video review of Dragon Quest XI where the reviewer bitched and moaned about non-existent sexism.

* IGN's awful video review of Evolve who kissed its ass and gave it a 9/10, even though its shallow content lead to it crashing and burning within a few years.

* IGN's awful video review of Jurassic World Evolution, reviewed by someone who clearly didn't explore too deep and gave it a 4.8 for being shallow and boring.

* IGN's awful video review of Metro 2033 wherein they called it a standard shooter (meanwhile praising every new CoD game) and a difficult violent game, and gave it a 6.9.

* IGN's awful video review of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky where they call it repetitive and clearly hadn't finished the full game prior to review. A 4.8 is what the reviewer gave the game.

* IGN's awful video review of Pokémon Sword and Shield wherein they called the game near perfect despite the designers taking most of the Pokemon out of the game, and only criticizing the soundtrack, one of the best parts of the game. 
 
* IGN's awful video review of Sonic Lost World where the reviewer bashed Sega for trying something different and not the same old games. Verdict: 5.9.

* IGN's awful video review of Sonic Unleashed, where the reviewer blamed 'faulty controls' while jumping over ramps and speed panels, and hating on Sonic as a franchise.

* IGN's awful video review of SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated where they gave it a mediocre score for being too kid friendly with incredibly easy platforming... in a kids game.

* IGN's awful video review of Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury, where they docked points for it being a re-release albeit with quality of life improvements, but were bothered that the invincibility leaf doesn't save you from jumping to your death.

* IGN's awful video review of The Last of Us Part II where they kissed the game's ass and gave it a 10/10... this being the same reviewer who made the awful video review of SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom - Rehydrated.

* IGN's awful video review of Torment: Tides of Numenera. They initially said the game was developed by Obsidian, not inXile Entertainment. They later uploaded a fixed version but raised the score from 85 to 88 for some reason.

* IGN's awful video review of Warcraft III: Reforged where they gave it a 7/10 and focused too much on nostalgia and not critiquing what the controversial Reforged version didn't do, with broken promises and faulty online play.

* IGN's awful video review of Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition, rife with constant mispronunciations, incorrect facts, and showing footage of unmarked spoilers. 

* IGN's awful video reviews of most Kirby games, from Return to Dreamland to Triple Deluxe, the reviewer will deduct points due to the game being easy.

* IGN's Colin Moriarty did a horrible video in which he called gamers entitled for not liking the original Mass Effect 3 ending and for pleading EA to make a better one. Years later he admitted he went a bit overboard but still thinks believes in his bad take on gamers.

* Polygon made a video revealing gameplay to Doom (2016). The person playing the game was so shit it did the game a disservice. The comments and ratings were disabled in a bitch move at damage control.

* VentureBeat made a gameplay video of Cuphead and failed very hard, especially in the tutorial. To his credit Dean Takahashi has taken the heat in stride and owns up to it.

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Conflicts of Interest


Undisclosed friendships and financial support jeopardize the needed neutrality of journalism.


Outdated list of possible conflicts of interest: https://pastebin.com/dRYg8v95
Outdated individual cases of conflicts of interest: https://pastebin.com/u/RobinGale/1


* Aevee Bee wrote positively about gamer writer Christine Love without disclosing their relationship.

* Destructoid's Dale North wrote positive about game developers Harmonix without disclosing his 

* Feminist Frequency, run by Anita Sarkeesian, has been covered by journalists with undisclosed friendships and/or financial support for her. Examples include:
 - Critical Distance
 - Gamasutra's Katherine Cross
 - Game Informer's Matt Helgeson


* freelancer Laura Kate Dale wrote about developer Gemma Thomson, with both of them supporting each other via Patreon.

* Gameranx's Holly Green wrote about Jim Sterling without disclosing their friendship and him supporting her Kickstarter.

* GaymerX, pro-LBGT gaming website, has been covered by journalists with undisclosed friendships and/or financial support for them. Examples include:
 - Gamasutra's Katherine Cross
 - Kotaku's Nathan Grayson
 - Kotaku's Patricia Hernandez
 - Polygon’s Danielle Riendeau
 - freelancer Cara Ellison
 - Gamasutra's Leigh Alexander
 - Kotaku's Kirk Hamilton
 - Polygon’s Danielle Riendeau


* Kotaku's Chris Priestman wrote a piece on developers Aevee Bee without disclosing he was supporting them on Patron. A disclosure was added after the article's initial publishing.


* many reviewers did not disclose the 'review camp' they went to play Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.

* PC Gamer's Tyler Wilde wrote positive things about Ubisoft while in a relationship with Ubisoft employee Anne-Marie Lewis.

* Redshirt, developed by The Tiniest Shark, has been covered and reviewed by journalists with undisclosed friendships and/or financial support for them. Examples include:
 - freelancer Cara Ellison
 - Kotaku's Kirk Hamilton
 - Rock, Paper, Shotgun's Alec Meer

* Sacrilege, a game Cara Ellison, has been covered by gaming journalists that did not disclose their friendship or financial support of her. Examples include:
 - GotGame's Tyler Colp
 - New York Times' Chris Suellentrop

* Zoë Quinn, indie developer, has been covered by many gaming journalists that did not disclose their friendship or financial support of her. Examples include:
 - Critical Distance's Cameron Kunzelman
 - Destructoid's Jonathan Holmes
 - freelancer Brendan Keogh
 - freelancer Jenn Frank
 - Gamasutra's Katherine Cross
 - Gameranx's Ian Miles Cheong
 - Kotaku's Nathan Grayson
 - Kotaku's Patricia Hernandez
 - Polygon's Ben Kuchera
 - Polygon's Phillip Kollar


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more to come...

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