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[cormack12]

Source: https://kotaku.com/hello-kotaku-its-me-your-new-eic-1847192727

Lots of emotive blog style garbage padding it out, but the key parts seem to be:

Of course I want more readers, of course I want to publish fearless writing, criticism, and reporting, and of course I want to foster a community where everyone feels welcome. Somehow, that’s the easy part—many of these things are a continuation of what Kotaku is already known for.

But also, I want to dismantle and redefine what a video game website can be. I do not like what I see. Where to even begin?

I hate that nearly every website’s day to day is predicated on the release schedule and news cycle set by publishers. I hate the coverage cycle of big-budget video games, and how a game is never more important than when it doesn’t exist yet—or when it just launched. I hate that so much of what video game websites consider worthy of coverage is often written for a specific type of presumed reader. It does not matter if a website is considered “progressive.” It says everything that, when writing about certain issues, video game websites often have to take care in explaining basic-ass concepts like “racism is real.”

At some point, having to explain power dynamics over and over again is not a question of informing the readership. It is a tacit acknowledgement that our audience likely has a specific background. And consequently, that reality means that even as we cover more mainstream subjects or marginalized identities, the writing is not truly for that wider audience. This haunts me. The presumed reader looks or sounds nothing like me, and yet here I am, leading a video game site.

It’s not a matter of being “woke.” It is a matter of survival. Video game websites, as they exist now, repeatedly fail to represent the wide swath of people who play games. And every year that passes, this failure becomes more and more evident. “Everyone” plays games now, yet most of these people hardly frequent video game websites unless they need to know how to do something.

Hilariously, gaming websites fail the capital G gamer repeatedly, too. The perpetual focus on what’s coming next is not compatible with the idea that we are here to cut through the hype. Don’t preorder games, we say, while dutifully covering the big event that exists to get you excited about the next big thing. Meanwhile, advances like Xbox Game Pass destroy the release cycle modern gaming websites have relied on for years. What’s new and shiny has no bearing on what will actually take off with the public, as evidenced by Among Us.

I do not want to tell my writers to grow thicker skin, though inevitably they do. I want the world to be a kinder place. It shouldn’t require bravery to write about fucking video games.

But what I’m getting at here is that I am terrified about my tenure at Kotaku because I am an idealist. Failure seems inevitable. But I am the sort of cursed person who cannot shoot for anything less than changing the way the game is played. What would that even look like, anyway?

I want to print stories that you’d be able to tell a friend about at a bar, even if they don’t play games. The way that we talk about games on the site should be the same way that we’d talk about it in an actual conversation. I do not care if the language or attitude at Kotaku appears proper and respectable. Fuck that. Games are human, and so are we. Any time there is a discrepancy between what we actually think and what lives on the page is when we betray not only our readers, but ourselves.

We live in a world where your exercise bike has a leaderboard, and language apps have daily challenges. Maintaining anyone’s attention now necessitates treating platforms, their algorithms, and their functions like systems that can be gamed and won. Games provide a crucial framework for parsing modern life, and Kotaku will now be an attempt to capture that.

I believe a different type of video game site is possible. I hope you want to believe in that, too.

I don't think she has fully grasped why the site is laughable in most cases personally. And I can't make out what angle she is going for from quote 2, 3 and 4. Logic would say that if you're making those statements, you are effectively acknowledging it is pointless to repeatedly state them across many articles, but then she goes on to say about the articles aren't for that wider readership - which it sounds like they are trying to reach.

They also want people to talk about their articles in mature settings and part of everyday conversations yet paradoxically say they don't care if the language they use is professional or respectable?? Wat.

 

[West Texas CEO]

 

[bender]

Failure seems inevitable.

Good job setting a reachable goal, I guess.

 

[PuppetMaster]

 

[kiphalfton]

Easy fix. Don't hire anybody that has neon colored hair, and people may take you seriously

 

[Zeroing]

I drank too much coffee... but here is my take, good for having a critical mind and trying to set apart from the clones of "click bait gaming journalism" BUT I do not read/visit any... because all of them use controversy, drama and so on for clicks...

 

[nush]

They ran a story this weekend based on nothing but a tweet of an anonymous source AND they didn't have the backbone to even credit the article to a writer just "By Kotaku staff".

The new editor is being setup to fail, the site has lost all credibility but still has enough legacy traffic to be barely viable. Youtubers came in and ate your lunch because you refused to adapt when it mattered at the time. You filled the ranks with SJW's who took over your platform for their political views and you did nothing until it was too late.

Kotaku has a year, year and a half at best before it's closed, sold or folded in with something else.

 

[kyussman]

I wish them all the best in their crusade to educate ignorant video game fans across the world.

 

[SCB3]

Source: https://kotaku.com/hello-kotaku-its-me-your-new-eic-1847192727

Lots of emotive blog style garbage padding it out, but the key parts seem to be:

















I don't think she has fully grasped why the site is laughable in most cases personally. And I can't make out what angle she is going for from quote 2, 3 and 4. Logic would say that if you're making those statements, you are effectively acknowledging it is pointless to repeatedly state them across many articles, but then she goes on to say about the articles aren't for that wider readership - which it sounds like they are trying to reach.

They also want people to talk about their articles in mature settings and part of everyday conversations yet paradoxically say they don't care if the language they use is professional or respectable?? Wat.

Ok Kotaku, money where your mouth is, let a writer that voted for Trump publish an article

 

[TaylorSwiftFan]

A wall of text to say nothing basically.

 

[godhandiscen]

I remember when I used to visit Kotaku back in 2007, I eventually stopped since everything got posted here on GAF and they were horrible takes.

 

[SCB3]

I remember when I used to visit Kotaku back in 2007, I eventually stopped since everything got posted here on GAF and they were horrible takes.

A reminder that Patricia Hernandez, the new EiC of Kotaku, once wrote an article that killing women gamers online was akin to rape

 

[[Sigma]]

 

[captainnapalm]

Patricia Hernandez is a SJW moron, going back all the way to the Gamergate days. She's ground zero for that bullshit and like most people possessed by that ideology, it trumps everything for her. If she's taken over, the site is only going to go further down that rabbit hole. I wouldn't trust a thing she says.

 

[Bartski]

good, seems like it's gonna be an even bigger shitshow

 

[TrueLegend]

A reminder that Patricia Hernandez, the new EiC of Kotaku, once wrote an article that killing women gamers online was akin to rape

She needs to go to the hospital for ffs. Also,

 

[Pejo]

But also, I want to dismantle and redefine what a video game website can be.

“racism is real.”

 

[STARSBarry]

A reminder that Patricia Hernandez, the new EiC of Kotaku, once wrote an article that killing women gamers online was akin to rape

Not that I often defend Kotaku... but...

Kotaku | Gaming Reviews, News, Tips and More.

Gaming Reviews, News, Tips and More.

www.kotaku.com.au

Its kinda funny that there are still people who hold this view, bring it up, but have never actually gone the extra step to try and find the article, because if they had they would know this.

 

[Shmunter]

Victims, victims everywhere!

 

[TrueLegend]

Not that I often defend Kotaku... but...

Kotaku | Gaming Reviews, News, Tips and More.

Gaming Reviews, News, Tips and More.

www.kotaku.com.au

Its kinda funny that there are still people who hold this view, bring it up, but have never actually gone the extra step to try and find the article, because if they had they would know this.

Fair point. But I am not going to take either side's view as a fact, unless provided evidence to the contrary. That was a fake article is also an easy thing to say. They could have deleted it.

 

[NahaNago]

A reminder that Patricia Hernandez, the new EiC of Kotaku, once wrote an article that killing women gamers online was akin to rape

That is a name I haven't heard in a while. I'm pretty sure she was the reason I stopped going to Kotaku and now she is the editor-in-chief.

 

[Relativ9]

They want to reach a wider audience, I can respect that...but she seems to be saying that in order to do that Kotaku needs to double down on pandering and targeted content that address specific preserved injustices in the video gaming space. It's ironic because whenever you ask these wider audiences what they care about it's the same things we all care about...how to beat a spesific boss in a game, information about upcoming games, lore, esports, ect ect...very rarely do you ever hear the minorities themselves talk about the lack of social justice in video games or how Drake seems to be only shooting brown people. Pretty much the only people who care enough about those things to read about them on a videogame centric blog are the kind of people who already read Kotaku...white, 20somethings from the US with a very left-leaning political view...so in other words as narrow a demographic as can be.

 

[Fluo]

So fearless, so brave.

 

[STARSBarry]

Fair point. But I am not going to take either side's view as a fact, unless provided evidence to the contrary. That was a fake article is also an easy thing to say. They could have deleted it.

ROFL OK dude you go with that.

Wayback Machine

archive.org

You have a date and time of the fake article that the screenshot is taken from and an archive tool link... do it or don't do it up to you, but it'd easy to just punch in the site and punch in the date.

Would anyone else like to claim the article is real without a single shred of evidence or are we done here?

 

[MayauMiao]

Protip: When you have to read the article from the Kotaku, be sure to read the archived version, or fully utilize your adblock.

 

[West Texas CEO]

Not that I often defend Kotaku... but...

Kotaku | Gaming Reviews, News, Tips and More.

Gaming Reviews, News, Tips and More.

www.kotaku.com.au

Its kinda funny that there are still people who hold this view, bring it up, but have never actually gone the extra step to try and find the article, because if they had they would know this.

 

[MayauMiao]

We live in a world where your exercise bike has a leaderboard

Imagine how the writer is so out of touch with the real world where she assumes everyone has an exercise bike that features leaderboard.

 

[SoggyBiscuit]

Remember when Kotaku used to be good?

No?


Me either.

 

[Bitmap Frogs]

ROFL OK dude you go with that.

Wayback Machine

archive.org

You have a date and time of the fake article that the screenshot is taken from and an archive tool link... do it or don't do it up to you, but it'd easy to just punch in the site and punch in the date.

Would anyone else like to claim the article is real without a single shred of evidence or are we done here?

The problem is that the fake article is believable…

 

[Hollowpoint5557]

When Kotlu dies nothing of value will be lost. The bad thing about it dying is that it's writers will go out and infest other websites and drag them down the same. It's like Californian moving to Texas to get away from the bad dem policies and then voting for the same policies that got them their to begin with. Morons.

 

[nush]

The problem is that the fake article is believable…

This one is real though, after they cleaned it up.

Animated Video Game Porn Could Be A Lot Sexier And Less Gross

Editor’s Note - 5:25pm: This story, part of our regular coverage of the intersection of sex and games, originally included screenshots from several porn parodies with a note that they were Not Safe For Work. We’ve since removed those images. While the intent of this article was to provide a...

kotaku.com

 

[STARSBarry]

The problem is that the fake article is believable…

I mean she has a bunch of huge issues, but every time her names brought up this is given as an example...

Patricia Hernandez, Kotaku

www.deepfreeze.it

I would always bring up the Christine Love articles which she wrote while being in a relationship, a glowing recommendation for her games in those articles.

Those are real examples of her moral bankruptcy, yet all everyone criticises her for is fake articles she didn't even make.

 

[captainnapalm]

The problem is that the fake article is believable…

Exactly, it's a satirical example of the kind of garbage she regularly used to peddle in.

 

[strange headache]

You know the rats have already fled the sinking ship when Hernandez is allowed to take the helm.

 

[MayauMiao]

Remember when Kotaku used to be good?

No?


Me either.

I remembered when it was used to be about video games.

Nowadays its just about how games they are reviewing hurts their feelings and how the whole world is unjust.

Oh yeah, being upset with exercise bike leaderboard too.

 

[Ic3man]

Just shut it down please.

 

[Topher]

Kotaku was better when Brian Crecente was running it. Now it is just a shitshow.

 

[drganon]

So, Kotaku will continue to suck. Good to know.

 

[NinjaMouse]

What a garbage site…I’m glad I deleted my bookmark for it years ago. Hernandez is the absolute worst and her crusade for telling us all why we’re awful people in one way or another will gladly be the final nail in the coffin for it.

 

[ManaByte]

This one is real though, after they cleaned it up.

Animated Video Game Porn Could Be A Lot Sexier And Less Gross

Editor’s Note - 5:25pm: This story, part of our regular coverage of the intersection of sex and games, originally included screenshots from several porn parodies with a note that they were Not Safe For Work. We’ve since removed those images. While the intent of this article was to provide a...

kotaku.com

And here’s Kotaku defending the hooker Nintendo fired and instead trying to blame “Gamergate” for getting her fired instead of her fucking strangers for money under the name Maria Mint:

Nintendo Employee 'Terminated' After Smear Campaign Over Censorship, Company Denies Harassment Was Factor [UPDATED]

Nintendo employee Alison Rapp, who’s been a target of harassment over censorship controversies in recent months, said on Twitter that she has been fired. “Today, the decision was made,” she wrote. “I am no longer a good, safe representative of Nintendo, and my employment has been terminated.”

kotaku.com

 

[mortal]

I can't even recall the last time I clicked on a link to Kotaku or visited the site of my own volition.
They can take whatever direction they please, and I'll continue not using their site.

 

[nush]

And here’s Kotaku defending the hooker Nintendo fired and instead trying to blame “Gamergate” for getting her fired instead of her fucking strangers for money under the name Maria Mint:

Nintendo Employee 'Terminated' After Smear Campaign Over Censorship, Company Denies Harassment Was Factor [UPDATED]

Nintendo employee Alison Rapp, who’s been a target of harassment over censorship controversies in recent months, said on Twitter that she has been fired. “Today, the decision was made,” she wrote. “I am no longer a good, safe representative of Nintendo, and my employment has been terminated.”

kotaku.com

That Alison Rapp story was the most fucking amazing gaming journalistic self-own of all time. It would have been legendary if talking about her "Part time job" didn't get you banned. To be fair, if your a Nintendo fan soyboy that ponied up the cred of "I fucked a girl from Nintendo" would have been gold.

 

[SoggyBiscuit]

And here’s Kotaku defending the hooker Nintendo fired and instead trying to blame “Gamergate” for getting her fired instead of her fucking strangers for money under the name Maria Mint:

Nintendo Employee 'Terminated' After Smear Campaign Over Censorship, Company Denies Harassment Was Factor [UPDATED]

Nintendo employee Alison Rapp, who’s been a target of harassment over censorship controversies in recent months, said on Twitter that she has been fired. “Today, the decision was made,” she wrote. “I am no longer a good, safe representative of Nintendo, and my employment has been terminated.”

kotaku.com

Didn't she defend child porn or some heinous shit too? I don't remember the specifics but didn't she tweet something that sounded like it supported overt sexualisation of children?

 

[nush]

Didn't she defend child porn or some heinous shit too? I don't remember the specifics but didn't she tweet something that sounded like it supported overt sexualisation of children?

Yes in some university thesis.

 

[GymWolf]

Meh, who gives a fuck about kotaku.

 

[A Most Virtuous Cat]

She needs to go to the hospital for ffs. Also,

WHAT? She really said that?

 

[ManaByte]

Didn't she defend child porn or some heinous shit too? I don't remember the specifics but didn't she tweet something that sounded like it supported overt sexualisation of children?

That and I believe she also went on a “support sex workers” rant…because she secretly was one.

But like nush said, at the time if anyone here even hinted at her secret job being a hooker it was a ban because Kotaku was leading the narrative that Gamergater harassment got her fired (because that’s what she claimed on Twitter).

So instead of even checking with Nintendo, Kotaku fanned the flames of a lying hooker who got caught and crafted a huge conspiracy. That caused Nintendo to make a statement debunking what she said, and when they confirmed that she was fired for moonlighting, the new crusade was to crush the truth and Kotaku was fully behind that.

 

[BaneIsPain]

People talk about video games in a bar? seems odd.

 

[nush]

"She claims moonlighting is allowed at Nintendo, despite Nintendo previously saying her second job was in “conflict with Nintendo’s corporate culture.”

Family friendly Nintendo, uh huh let's blame "Corporate culture".

 

[ManaByte]

"She claims moonlighting is allowed at Nintendo, despite Nintendo previously saying her second job was in “conflict with Nintendo’s corporate culture.”

Family friendly Nintendo, uh huh let's blame "Corporate culture".

And then after her naked pictures leaked from the escort site, and despite them being a 100% match to her tattoos, Kotaku tried to pass them off as a Gamergate hoax made up to smear her.