An industry that doesn’t want you to see behind its curtain will get defensive. The more defensive, the worse the things are. The Zoe Quinn issue, while a front to the whole issue with the relationship with electronic game press and developers, in itself is noteworthy. It is a noteworthy issue that the hardcore seem are surprised that this isn’t a common thing. The way the video game news sites and the industry overall reacted in a very defensive manner shows that the shred of integrity and validity any of these sources had are now gone. It’s laughable to assume that any site that has not made investigate news reporting would have have any sort of validity in this case anymore.
However, because Zoe Quinn is now as a centre of attention at the moment, her situation will be used as an example here. The rumours of her spreading herself to men for better reviews or whatnot is taken value for the sake of argument, because without a doubt that has happened and will keep happening.
Edit; Here’s some links to get you onto the page the issue is going. This, this and especially this are nice and rather objective overviews.
A total and complete shake from grounds up has been necessary for years now. Any and all electronic game press sites that have connections to the developers at any level have always been automatically invalid. Their journalistic integrity has been nil for years now, and getting surprised that somebody getting a good review in exchange for sex is, for all intents and purposes, exactly same as giving a good review because of money or other contracts. There is a need for a completely third party site that would push objective information forwards.
There is another issue here, which is the developer Quinn and her associates. There’s no reason us to ever hear about them. Quinn herself is pushing political agendas and her game shows this. Players do not want politics in their games. Consumers play games to relax and get rid of the daily routine and junk it pours on them, to get rid of politics for few minutes. Papers, Please is highly unpolitical game despite how well it portrays certain elements in the history of Soviet nations. It doesn’t force any issues on the player. It doesn’t try to make a thing about government, communism or capitalism. If there’s a view about something some way, it’s the player’s own decision what it says to a very large extent.
I repeat the core of my last post; the customer doesn’t need to hear from you or see you on the Internet. The service provider does not matter. Zoe Quinn or whoever don’t matter. Their products and the service they provide are the only things that matter. These people are not worth the attention they’re getting. Yet they have shoved themselves to the limelight and showing themselves alongside their product. If they had wished act more accordingly, none of this would have happened. If you’re putting yourself on the podium, you better be ready to take the heat of your actions, both regarding your product and everything surrounding it. Quinn herself has acted like a social reject during this whole thing. While the game industry has always attracted all sorts of nerds and geeks, nowadays the industry has attracted these low class hipsters. I hate the put in this way, but they’re almost like degenerates. They represent the society at large as well as a stone represents the animal kingdom. Zoe Quinn and people like her have some validity only in their small communities and have practically no voice outside it. Furthermore, no serious outlet would actually take notice of these people outside as being a mob of sorts.
Perhaps they are acting accordingly to their industry to some small extent. We are getting a lot of entertainment from them, after all. it may not be good entertainment, but there’s some humour value in this whole deal.
It doesn’t matter if Zoe Quinn is a woman. Customers overall don’t care who is behind the product. The discrimination of this is blind; be it man, woman, white, black, venusian, gay or anything like that, it doesn’t matter. How many of us go and check the chef in the restaurants? Nobody gives a damn about the chef as long as the food is good. I doubt any person who eats a sausage thinks about the race or sex of the person who made it. You may meet a salespeople at the cashier, but online you don’t even need that.
I checked out Depression Quest, Quinn’s game that is sort of in the middle of this shitstorm. It’s a lacklustre game. It’s barely a game. It’s a game that doesn’t deserve any attention. It’s exactly like a choose-your-own-adventure text stories we wrote in Pascal in high-school computer classes as an introduction to coding. Interactive (non) fiction game my ass, this isn’t even a game. This isn’t even a bloody visual novel. I didn’t pay any money for this and I feel like I was just scammed money.
I understand very well why anyone would use sex in exchange for positive reviews if their product is like Depression Quest. The software doesn’t stand on its feet at all. It more or less requires a whole drama to surround it and sell with the developer’s name. It’s a very sad thing. Quinn clearly wanted to tell a story with choices given to the player. She should’ve have written a book, or even better, created a campaign about depression where Depression Quest would have played as a small window how depressed people mosey around in their lives.
However, as now we have this full blown event, we might as well see where it takes us. The hot discussion at large with the hardcore community who, to put it bluntly, care enough for these people and resources have voiced their distaste on how the industry functions. Personally speaking, I agree. I hold no game news site in any regard simply because they have no journalistic integrity. They are tertiary news sources at best, a place where to start looking for the main sources. It is very sad to say that often they themselves are the main sources with interviews and other resources. The relationship between the press and developers needs to be severed and have a clear and distinct separation between the two. In any other, far more valid place in journalism, this sort of thing would lead into direct termination of contract and apology. The amount of conflicts of interests is phenomenal. If the mainstream public were ever to take video game news or press as valid journalism, a complete reconstruction of the industry is needed, and I’m afraid that is only possible with the electronics game industry crashing on itself.
Aaltomies 