Crescent's Thoughts On: Zoe Quinn or What the F* is Gaming Journalism Suppose to Be?

This was the nicest picture I could find... I'll try to find a better one later.

Okay, originally I didn't want to talk about this. Yes I do go off on Anita Sarkeesian every time she opens her mouth and says something that is clearly wrong, but this story is such a tangled web of sex, lies, and Video Game "Journalism" that it's hard to keep my level of journalistic integrity. And if you are giggling at me claiming to have journalistic integrity, then at least the speck of integrity I have is mountains more than most main gaming news sites. However, when I realized that the anime I was going to review had a second season to it, I couldn't do a half-assed job of reviewing it now, which means I'm left with this crap to deal with. I'm sorry for this cluster F* of a topic, but I have to get this off my chest.

This sounds like a cheery game.

 So who is Zoe Quinn and why the hell is the internet so dead set against her? Zoe is the creator of a flash text-based adventure game called Depression Quest, which is pretty much what you think it is so long as you don't think it's any kind of clever parody of Dragon Quest. From what I understand it is a game where you are suffering from Depression and thus any and all paths that can lead to seeking help for your depression is crossed out. Despite almost universal negative reception of the game for being poorly written and barely even being a game, Depression Quest eventually found it's way on Stream's Greenlight and is now publicly available via the service. How did this happen? Because Zoe whined that mean things where being said about her on the internet and various Gaming "Journalism" sites came to her defense shielding her from the worse thing that the internet has to offer: Criticism. Thus, the minimum effort project "Depression Quest" got massive support from people who don't want to be considered a sexist, and the game eventually made big news. Does this sound familiar? A woman makes something a lot of people don't like, gets negative feedback because of it, whines about to people calling themselves "Journalists," gets massive amounts of public and financial support, calls everyone who disagrees with her a sexist or misogynist, Step 2.... Step 3 PROFIT! Yes, Zoe Quinn used the same tactic that Anita Sarkeesian used to get her game Greenlit, and if the story ended there it would have been "Different Day, Same Crit Fail;" however, new information has come out that while this was happening Zoe Quinn was cheating on her boyfriend with at least five other guys. The worse part? One of these guys is Nathan Grayson of Kotaku and Rock, Paper, Shotgun, who was one of the "Journalists" who supported her. What's worse is how nearly everyone within Gaming "Journalism" is trying to hide or mitigate the damage that this revelation has caused. What the HELL is wrong with Gaming "Journalism"?

At some point this stopped being a joke and became an accurate representation.

Let's not mince words here, this is a full blown scandal. And matters are made worse by the game media trying everything in their power to keep this revelation under-wraps. Videos have been DMCA'ed, comments have been deleted, and there is even a thread on the Mighty No. 9 forums about "Video Game Journalism" that has been locked and the original post has been removed by our community manager Dina before I even got to it (Does anyone have a screencap of that post before it was deleted, because I'm pretty sure I know what is was about). I always had an aspiration to become a Video Game Journalist, even when it became obvious that Video Game "Journalists" are the furthest thing from actual Journalists you can get. I thought it was fine because the bar would be set so low that I could easily cross it, but now it is so low that I can step on it and not even notice it was there in the first place. These people have no integrity, they are incapable of being unbiased especially when it comes to this bullshit political correctness Social Justice Warrior movement that has completely overshadowed gaming news. At this point, I don't want to be a Video Game "Journalist" because they are not "Journalists," they are spin-doctors, propagandists, and at some times the worse thing a journalist can be a liar. I want to review games. I want to review anime. I want to do this for a living. But if this is the state of Gaming "Journalism" then I much MUCH MUCH prefer staying on my small blog, with only a handful of views a day, then stoop to this level.

I'm sorry this became very vitriolic towards the end. This is why I DIDN'T want to talk about this crap, I want to be happy and optimistic. I want to talk about games and anime I love and had fun with. But this is what has been going on with gaming these days. It's more about combating invisible misogyny within video games and video game culture, rather than I don't know, GAMES and having fun with games. Anyway, next week should be more cheerful. Why? Three words: Azure Striker: Gunvolt.

For more information
InternetAristocrat' Quinnspiracy Theory (Part 1) (Part 2)
The Zoe Post: http://thezoepost.wordpress.com/
Zoe Quinn is a Liar: http://imgur.com/a/4VOcx
Until next time.

-Crescent, there a good picture of Zoe Quinn... Wait, that's not Zoe Quinn?