Support NeoGAF

[cormack12]

Shots fired...

I think sophnar0747 has been doing fucking excellent work about the journalism and integrity issues for a while now, exposing frauds like Laura Kate Dale etc. Generally speaking the articles are well sourced, express an opinion without forcing an agenda and are just balanced. I'm not sure what her relationship with nichgamer is like these days but I do also think her actual gaming articles are solid as well. At the moment, she is the only 'champion' for those who despise the 'journalists' who write articles about a current political hot take and inject the most factitious links in there - worthy of infowars podcasts. While this is great, I do think there's a danger of the gaming content being lost amongst the 'bigger stories' like ESA, LKD, Ion Fury.

If you read other content such as reviews of Days Gone, Rage 2 and Steel Rats, you can just 'feel' the history and affinity she has with games. I genuinely feel like she was there as a youth playing through the same games I was (though I'm a little older). The level of detail and cutting straight to the mechanical detail that gamers want harks back to mid 90's magazines, that concisely hit the sweet spots of what you wanted to know.

Days Gone Review

Since its announcement trailer and gameplay reveal at E3 2016, hype for Days Gone has been middling to say the least. In a generation with an already overabundance of not just zombie games…

nichegamer.com

Rage 2 - Review

Releasing during the Fall of 2011, the first Rage was an unremarkable game which only seemed to disappoint those that played it at the time. Coming out to massive hype, aided in large part by its…

nichegamer.com

Steel Rats Review - Trials by Combat

In concept alone, Steel Rats is an unusual concoction of game design. It’s what you get when you add a pinch of science fiction to the recipe of Trials HD and mix in a heavy whipping of vehicular…

nichegamer.com

The games journalism thing at the moment is like UK Parliament. There's no leader of the 'opposition', and the work in fracturing those who can put something together is largely working. The sources of authority are large, monolithic companies like Kotaku, Polygon and Waypoint. Meanwhile you have an enormous amount of regular game fans who just want fucking relevant information. These people are on the likes of Twitter, KiA, GAF and even the chans and KF and all they have is the occassional scrap/video from TheQuartering, CLS, Sophia, Mister Metokur. I know independence is a tool to keep creators honest but I think you all need to see a bigger vision here, free of the shackles of the current climate or editorial limitations. I know Jeremy is trying with EE but that's solely focused on gaming, though it is bitesize rather than the longer form of sophnar0747 articles.

Ginx has 100 million monthly subscribers (because it's a steal), but the audience is there. I think at the moment that is what is missing, a credible large scale opposition to these outrageous charlatans.

 

[nikolino840]

Your article is really hard to find on medium.com. It doesn't help that there are like 10 topics with nonsensical names (at least I have almost no idea wtf they are) and that there are plenty of ultra-left wing articles like "in defense of antifa", lots of insanely biased anti-Trump articles etc.

Under which category/topic is your article? If I didn't have a direct link I would never find it.

Is on the tweet of the OP

 

[mcz117chief]

Is on the tweet of the OP

Can't see it. Which topic is it?

 

[cormack12]

Reading shit like this makes me want to not live anymore.

I shall think on my crimes as I have my cold bath, eating leftover pizza and considering how toxic I am. Like I said in the era thread, the forum is full of Daniel Balints equiavelence.

 

[Xaero Gravity]

Your article is really hard to find on medium.com. It doesn't help that there are like 10 topics with nonsensical names (at least I have almost no idea wtf they are) and that there are plenty of ultra-left wing articles like "in defense of antifa", lots of insanely biased anti-Trump articles etc.

Under which category/topic is your article? If I didn't have a direct link I would never find it.

I just searched Ion Fury and it was the third article.

 

[nikolino840]

Can't see it. Which topic is it?

 

[mcz117chief]

snip

lol, I asked which topic is it, not where the direct link is. Have you even read my post? I suppose you haven't.

I just searched Ion Fury and it was the third article.

It still doesn't say where it is on the site.

 

[woopWOOP]

Man, situation is just a bummer all around. Hope this doesn't discourage the team to continue working in this field, especially the team member dealing with that disability.

Atleast there's the tiny silver lining of people like me who didn't hear of this game until this blew up, think it looks cool and will likely buy it down the line.

 

[EviLore]

lol, I asked which topic is it, not where the direct link is. Have you even read my post? I suppose you haven't.



It still doesn't say where it is on the site.

Medium is an open self-publishing platform. You're expected to publicize your content yourself if you want exposure.

 

[mcz117chief]

Medium is an open self-publishing platform. You're expected to publicize your content yourself if you want exposure.

Ah, I see. Thanks, that answers my questions.

 

[Dacon]

Someone plz change the thread title to " Sophia Narwitz destroys ResetEra with Facts and Logic".

 

[Shmunter]

Wtf I had no idea it was only white guys acting like this!! Fellow wybois we need to do better like our PoC brethren!

White guys, aka western culture. The only culture that embraces equal opportunity for all religions, race, sexuality, LGBTQ. So ashamed to be a white guy.

 

[Michele]

Hopefully other media will pick up on sophnar0747 's article. Sure, right now it sounds unpopular, only 59 claps at most, but sooner or later it's gonna be inevitable.

Also Sophia in the previous post asked other users who had access to a ERA discord or two, to search for 'Soph' or 'Nar', as she wanted to complite something regading that, in case you forgot or didn't see her post

 

[sophnar0747]

Hopefully other media will pick up on sophnar0747 's article. Sure, right now it sounds unpopular, only 59 claps at most, but sooner or later it's gonna be inevitable.

Also Sophia in the previous post asked other users who had access to a ERA discord or two, to search for 'Soph' or 'Nar', as she wanted to complite something regading that, in case you forgot or didn't see her post

Sadly I don't think many other sites will report on it. They'll just drop the subject, especially as I'm the one who broke the details. And, being I'm no longer affiliated to any websites, traffic to my posts are slower than you might think. At Niche I could get thousands of fews within a day, but right now my Ion Fury post is sitting at around 1500. But I expected a slow start when I branched off on my own.

 

[InterMusketeer]

This regrettably led to a public apology, a donation to clear the air, and a claim of sensitivity training occurring sometime within the near future.

Various devs knew how it would be seen and the division it would cause. Fears which came true as the moment the apology came out, fans turned their back on the company.

While I feel bad for the devs, especially since they were seemingly forced to apologize by their publisher, what else are fans supposed to do to convince companies (whether it's the devs themselves or PR companies, or publishers) that you shouldn't respond and apologize to this kind of nonsense? It has happened too many times at this point, and yet it keeps happening. People just don't learn. Apologies are never enough for extremists anyway, and you only end up pissing off another large group of people. Never apologize for unpopular jokes or opinions.

 

[sophnar0747]

Shots fired...

I think sophnar0747 has been doing fucking excellent work about the journalism and integrity issues for a while now, exposing frauds like Laura Kate Dale etc. Generally speaking the articles are well sourced, express an opinion without forcing an agenda and are just balanced. I'm not sure what her relationship with nichgamer is like these days but I do also think her actual gaming articles are solid as well. At the moment, she is the only 'champion' for those who despise the 'journalists' who write articles about a current political hot take and inject the most factitious links in there - worthy of infowars podcasts. While this is great, I do think there's a danger of the gaming content being lost amongst the 'bigger stories' like ESA, LKD, Ion Fury.

If you read other content such as reviews of Days Gone, Rage 2 and Steel Rats, you can just 'feel' the history and affinity she has with games. I genuinely feel like she was there as a youth playing through the same games I was (though I'm a little older). The level of detail and cutting straight to the mechanical detail that gamers want harks back to mid 90's magazines, that concisely hit the sweet spots of what you wanted to know.

Days Gone Review

Since its announcement trailer and gameplay reveal at E3 2016, hype for Days Gone has been middling to say the least. In a generation with an already overabundance of not just zombie games…

nichegamer.com

Rage 2 - Review

Releasing during the Fall of 2011, the first Rage was an unremarkable game which only seemed to disappoint those that played it at the time. Coming out to massive hype, aided in large part by its…

nichegamer.com

Steel Rats Review - Trials by Combat

In concept alone, Steel Rats is an unusual concoction of game design. It’s what you get when you add a pinch of science fiction to the recipe of Trials HD and mix in a heavy whipping of vehicular…

nichegamer.com

The games journalism thing at the moment is like UK Parliament. There's no leader of the 'opposition', and the work in fracturing those who can put something together is largely working. The sources of authority are large, monolithic companies like Kotaku, Polygon and Waypoint. Meanwhile you have an enormous amount of regular game fans who just want fucking relevant information. These people are on the likes of Twitter, KiA, GAF and even the chans and KF and all they have is the occassional scrap/video from TheQuartering, CLS, Sophia, Mister Metokur. I know independence is a tool to keep creators honest but I think you all need to see a bigger vision here, free of the shackles of the current climate or editorial limitations. I know Jeremy is trying with EE but that's solely focused on gaming, though it is bitesize rather than the longer form of sophnar0747 articles.

Ginx has 100 million monthly subscribers (because it's a steal), but the audience is there. I think at the moment that is what is missing, a credible large scale opposition to these outrageous charlatans.

Wow. Thanks for the high praise! I'm definitely glad to see my reviews come off that way, it's what I am going for with them. I want people to understand how it plays so they can know if it's right for them or not. I'm also 30, so I grew up on the same magazines I'm sure you did, and they've been an influence on me. EGM especially. I think what separates me from the people now coming into the medium at the mainstream sites is that they don't have a history with the hobby. Meanwhile I've been gaming since before I was 5. It's even kept me alive at various points. As an abused kid at home, a bullied person at school, and then after the Army as I battled PTSD, the escapism it offers has just always provided me with somewhere to go. More so when I was at my lowest of lows, so I just have a deep rooted passion for it.

And, I don't suck at them. So that helps too!!!

As for NicheGamer, I left the site over a month ago. I wanted to brach out and do my own thing, and I wanted to be free to do reporting as I see fit. Various websites have too much baggage, and it also prevents honesty if I feel like I can't report on the misdeeds of others because they're affiliated to the same site as I, so now I have full journalistic freedom. I actually plan to launch my own blog in the coming weeks. For now it will host just my content, but as time passes I hope to grow it into something else. You can read about it here.

Anyways, enough sucking my own dick. LOL

Edit: in case no one is aware, I have a Youtube channel as well. I host original video editorials, as well as Game impressions, here my most recent one for Metal Wolf Chaos XD:

 

[BAW]

Just as good a thread to hijack as anyone I guess...
Do you consider yourself a supporter of the GamerGate movement or not, and would be highly interested to hear your thoughts on the whole GG ordeal in general as well.

 

[Shmunter]

Just as good a thread to hijack as anyone I guess...
Do you consider yourself a supporter of the GamerGate movement or not, and would be highly interested to hear your thoughts on the whole GG ordeal in general as well.

I'm interested in your definition of Gamergate?

 

[BAW]

I'm interested in your definition of Gamergate?

Gamergate (harassment campaign) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Musky_Cheese]

Gamergate (harassment campaign) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

It says it’s used as a blanket term...

Honestly, I still to this day don’t know what exactly it means.

 

[Shmunter]

Gamergate (harassment campaign) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

So you’re asking if she agrees with....?

The Gamergate controversy stemmed from a harassment campaign conducted primarily through the use of the hashtag#GamerGate

 

[nush]

Just as good a thread to hijack as anyone I guess...
Do you consider yourself a supporter of the GamerGate movement or not, and would be highly interested to hear your thoughts on the whole GG ordeal in general as well.

Nobody can agree on what Gamergate was.

 

[Tesseract]

Just as good a thread to hijack as anyone I guess...
Do you consider yourself a supporter of the GamerGate movement or not, and would be highly interested to hear your thoughts on the whole GG ordeal in general as well.

 

[Ballthyrm]

I shall think on my crimes as I have my cold bath, eating leftover pizza and considering how toxic I am. Like I said in the era thread, the forum is full of Daniel Balints equiavelence.

Going back to the 14th century.
When everything was "natural" and we didn't have bigotted game dev /s.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Sophia's articles are going to be the ones that wont get tons of exposure, but deep down will resonate with gamers and devs.

Problem is most game devs are too chicken to do anything because if they do, every self hating left winger will cry foul and bomb their game on Twitter and forums. So they have to keep their mouths shut for sake of sales or go with the flow and say Resetera users are the greatest gamers ever in hopes in leads to another 500 copies of their half assed game.

 

[Acidizer]

Can't wait to see the REEaction from REEsetEra.

I honestly don't think there will be one. Bullys and cowards don't admit they are wrong. Unless they want to double down, but I think mods will shut it down to save face.

One user noted the censorship getting overturned in the review thread - even saying he's glad OGAY stays! Bold!

 

[The_Mike]

Sophia's articles are going to be the ones that wont get tons of exposure, but deep down will resonate with gamers and devs.

Problem is most game devs are too chicken to do anything because if they do, every self hating left winger will cry foul and bomb their game on Twitter and forums. So they have to keep their mouths shut for sake of sales or go with the flow and say Resetera users are the greatest gamers ever in hopes in leads to another 500 copies of their half assed game.

Well it turned out great for the Kingdom Come devs to fuck the leftists.

 

[petran79]

This also shows how fragile Resetera is, ready to collapse with the slightest doubt. They constantly need to find or invent external threats to justify their actions. Or else they are doomed.

Thanks for your hard work and I hope the mob leaves you alone without orchestrated online and offline threats

 

[PhilipDoesMatter]

ResetEra was the most toxic, false moral place I've ever been on the internet.

 

[HotPocket69]

Narwitz is a good egg.

She works for Colin Moriarty too which automatically makes her an enemy of the ree.

 

[MayauMiao]

One user noted the censorship getting overturned in the review thread - even saying he's glad OGAY stays! Bold!

Hold it. Let's see how long it takes before he gets ban from REE.

 

[Musky_Cheese]

Sophia's articles are going to be the ones that wont get tons of exposure, but deep down will resonate with gamers and devs.

Problem is most game devs are too chicken to do anything because if they do, every self hating left winger will cry foul and bomb their game on Twitter and forums. So they have to keep their mouths shut for sake of sales or go with the flow and say Resetera users are the greatest gamers ever in hopes in leads to another 500 copies of their half assed game.

I'll say the same thing here as I just said in the Wolfenstein thread, Stop responding to extremists.

Stop pretending they (Right and Left extremists) are different from each other. That one is Bad and one is Good. They are both bad.

Extremists are bad M'Kay. And it shouldn't matter what side of the aisle they are on.

 

[trikster40]

Funny thing is I saw that thread on the other forum and thought the exact same thing. The irony of the dev saying how crazy people will try to ruin your career if you say something that offends them, and then the OP and thread do exactly that.

Why not prove them wrong by being tolerant? Just don’t buy their game if it offends you, but quit throwing people and careers to the wolves.

Just a tip for future reference: there’s going to be people in life who believe differently than you. Find common ground and get along.

 

[Whitecrow]

The 'massive' increase in sales this will generate (it has already begun) should send a clear message to the industry.

 

[KiNeMz]

Someone plz change the thread title to " Sophia Narwitz destroys ResetEra with Facts and Logic".

No need They will destroy themselves. Slow and painfully too

 

[Musky_Cheese]

The 'massive' increase in sales this will generate (it has already begun) should send a clear message to the industry.

And that's why its incredibly important that sophnar0747 story gets exposer.

You notice that all coverage by major and even minor sites stopped at the apology? Never mentioning that things like user reviews tanked as soon as the bending over to extremists started.

I wonder why

Spoiler

Sarcasm

 

[Gifmaker]

Holy shit, someone actually linked to the article at Resetera. Totally expecting a ban for that user, but I admire his/her courage. They have banned Sophia Narwitza's material before because "alt-right", no?

 

[nush]

Holy shit, someone actually linked to the article at Resetera. Totally expecting a ban for that user, but I admire his/her courage. They have banned Sophia Narwitza's material before because "alt-right", no?

This post?

Ion Fury to retain homophobic content after all

Here is a good article that explains everything: [Mod Edit: Removed article from source linked to a hate movement]

www.resetera.com

Fuck Ree, anything that shatters thier bubble is "hate movement".

 

[DeepEnigma]

This post?

Ion Fury to retain homophobic content after all

Here is a good article that explains everything: [Mod Edit: Removed article from source linked to a hate movement]

www.resetera.com

Fuck Ree, anything that shatters thier bubble is "hate movement".

Ree is a hate movement. It is all projection from them chan-lite trolls.

 

[cormack12]

The thread title was already updated from no longer censoring to 'retaining homophobic content' Also they've already cancelled Sophia

abracadaver said:
Here is a good article that explains everything:
...

[Mod Edit: Removed article from source linked to a hate movement]

 

[ROMhack]

As is expected in today’s media climate, the coverage was almost entirely one-sided, with the developers being painted as bigots. This only extended further as the days passed and websites such as Eurogamer, MCV, GameIndustry, and IGNlabeled the Discord comments as transphobic.

That's fair enough but I imagine a lot of people being positive were simply choosing to focus on the game, not the politics behind it.

I mean really, it's all so insufferable. People whose lives are lost without agreeable politics to determine their value. They've already lost themselves... a long time ago.

 

[Acidizer]

Holy shit, someone actually linked to the article at Resetera. Totally expecting a ban for that user, but I admire his/her courage. They have banned Sophia Narwitza's material before because "alt-right", no?

... and boom goes the dynamite.

Hate movement WTF they need to take a look in the mirror.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

Holy shit, someone actually linked to the article at Resetera. Totally expecting a ban for that user, but I admire his/her courage. They have banned Sophia Narwitza's material before because "alt-right", no?

And they got permabanned for it. It's, uh.... kind of shocking how violent their reaction to this sorta stuff is.

 

[GHG]

"Hate movement"

We're under atttaaacckkk.

 

[Thabass]

Suppressing information. I wonder who was good at doing that?

 

[sophnar0747]

Fly free my brave hero, I will never forget you.

 

[Acidizer]

When you CONSTANTLY need to ban people left and right, lock threads and mark users that ask for bans as "troll accounts" you know there is something very wrong.

That site is untenable. You don't need to stage manage reality or authenticity, but propaganda and agenda, you do.

Phoney fucks. Only a matter of time until game devs dessert that site so they don't get stink on them.

 

[JORMBO]

A lot of their users get 100% of their news and information from their site...be it gaming or real world topics. They hope they can control the narrative so their users never know any better. Anything that goes against their message is labeled as “right wing” or “hate” and the drones stay in line.

 

[Thabass]

A lot of their users get 100% of their news and information from their site...be it gaming or real world topics. They hope they can control the narrative so their users never know any better. Anything that goes against their message is labeled as “right wing” or “hate” and the drones stay in line.

Don't log in and just scan for news. That's it.

 

[BAW]

So you’re asking if she agrees with....?

The Gamergate controversy stemmed from a harassment campaign conducted primarily through the use of the hashtag#GamerGate

Well, yeah.
Because regardless of her investigative chops and her scorching hot looks, which are quite impressive indeed, it's important to know if she is against the whole conspiracy theories and harassment campaigns that people wrongly suffered by members of the GamerGate movement. She can denounce that. Right here, right now.
Otherwise I will be a sad puppy