Source
r/KotakuInAction•
f3yleaf

Why I care (Its about the indies)

The thing that really "triggers" me that is talked about way too less is:

These people are shitting up the lowest entry point for new talent in the industry, by setting themselves up as nepotistic little gatekeepers, this will shape the future of the industry and not just destroy the hopes and dreams of real people trying to break thru.

Indie-dev is mostly about sweat/tears and talent and could be a near perfect meritocracy, but they seem to want to make it about something entirely different, it pretty much looks like a reputation cartel at this point.

This narative needs to be pushed more, its too important to ignore.

Posted Oct 20, 2014, 9:33 PM UTC

1211
Pinworm45•

Yep. I've been outspoken on #GG, got in a fight with chief editor of gawker.

Few months ago I left my job to persue developing Virtual Reality (space pirate game) full time. Any chance I can ever get it out there now? hell to the no fucken way.

I just wish my game could be judged on its own merits. I want all games to be judged for that reason, not who knows who, or who agrees with whos politics. No chance of that ever happening now. pretty demoralizing, but.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4OGQw7mYQA

7
fluoridedeath•

dude I want a VR space pirate game so bad...

1
Pinworm45•

Tell me about it! I seriously think done right, this could be the next game of thrones level world. There really hasn't been ANYTHING in the hard sci-fi world since BSG, so fine, I'll make it myself!

I've been creating this "world" ever since I was a kid, it wasn't until I got my Rift that I felt like there was a medium for it to be portrayed the way I want. Now I'm just going crazy with ideas that, I think, are pretty decent.

Anyway, hopefully you hear more about it if I'm successful in pursuing this!

2
neohephaestus•

There are new sites now you know.

1
savionen•

As an indie myself that's part of why I was so interested in GamerGate at first. It directly affected me. We've dealt with cronyism and nepotism in the past. Wev'e gotten bad reviews because the reviewer was good friends with our competitor. Lots of cases of not being covered because we weren't BFFs with writers at various sites.

We've ironically barely received any coverage from major outlets, even though our last game features a female protagonist and 3 women worked on the project, while Depression Quest gets a free ride across the world.

3
Annoying_Arsehole•

Well there is no outrage involved in your project, no click bait there.

Court controversy for publicity like that genocidal maniac game whose trailer just came out, name of which I've already forgotten as it looked like a boring game. They really got the attention.

Otherwise a good tactic seems blowing some journos, I wouldn't even blame any indie dev for doing it, just the journos accepting. If you have a team whose income and future depend on good reviews and sales its your responsibility to ensure as good chance for success as possible, do your PR as well as possible. Its journos responsibility to report objectively, ignore the BS and find the truth.

Do I find the close relationships between devs and journos distasteful? Sure, but from the devs point of view, if others are already doing it you really can't not do it if you wanna be competitive unless your product can really stand on its own head and shoulders above the competition.

1
VidiotGamerTrigger Warning: Misogynerd•

I agree 100% I wrote a post about this a couple of times.

I'll ignore the nihilists right now who just want to destroy all gaming magazines because they are pissed by the abuse they are getting in the media.

Let's assume this shit comes around. Let's assume they go and start having some standards and practices that aren't garbage.

They still control the indie scene. They still decide which games get press and by extension get money.

We know they are shtiheads and they are going to pick games made by their buddies or by people who have the "right" politics, or the games are going to be pretentious arthouse wank fests.

All the while people who pour their lives out into making actual games with game play are going to get shit on because they didn't make a gay trans-otherkin main character.

It fucking sucks. That's why pretty much any victory in this is going to seem hollow to me. These people have managed to become the gatekeepers of the indie scene, the one exciting thing that brought about the revitalization of the PC market and a heap of new games.

And they're turning it into a clusterfuck of shitty non-games like Depression Quest, Dear Esther and Gone Home. It makes me want to vomit.

1
OracleofGaming•

I agree whole heartedly. Send this post to the front page.

1
Zarosian_Emissary•

Whats needed is some new way for indies to be discovered. Depending on reviewers would be flawed even if everything were perfectly fair. The major hurdle for any new project by an unknown creator is getting that product seen. Being friends with a reviewer, even without getting preferential press, removes that first hurdle. Which makes it easier to get your game seen. There are too many indie games at the moment to expect anything near a meritocracy unless there was some new way to get the indie games discovered.

1
coldacid•

Hopefully all this stuff Steam's been adding lately will help with the discovery process, but for the non-PCMR types, the question is still out that they'll engage in that for PC games, and there's still nothing comparable for console indies.

1
Kiltmanenator•

The indie scene was supposed to be free of all the dirty influence of payola and lavish launch parties. Since the barrier to entry into game development is so low, there are hundreds of indie game developers out there. They all have their projects and dreams which live or die on the press coverage that they get. Scene there is so many indie devs, journalists can only cover so many at a time.

The problem we see now is that some games journalists are using their platforms to plug the projects of their friends, over total strangers whose requests for a coverage gets lost in their inbox every morning with hundreds of other such pleas. Journalists should no be covering games or developers with whom they are friends with, with whom they live, with whom they have financial connections, or with whom they have romantic relationships.

It's not much to ask for journalists to avoid conflicts of interest, and to disclose any connections they have with people that they covered. But when we have asked for those things, despite condemning threats and harassment, we are told to we are bigots at worst, or useful idiots for evil scum.

Basically, some games journalists are behaving like the popular "in crowd", who doesn't have to destroy you by saying anything, they just have to not mention you at all. Every time an article is written by a journalist about their friend, roommate, or patron, someone, somewhere misses out on a chance to get their project coverage.

To those people, those developers who have connections in the press, nothing but their games and their skills to speak for themselves, this is the most important thing. This is their livelihood.

1