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Ex-Kotaku staff go independent and launch Aftermath

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Re: Ex-Kotaku staff go independent and launch Aftermath

#41

Post by MrMember »

klondike_klive wrote: post #22
greg_gorrell wrote: post #16

Not that I am much into gaming, but I just checked out the site and the one article I clicked on was literally the writer bitching about how the coffee machines were depicted in Starfield. I miss the gaming sites of the 90s and early 00s, you could expect to read passionate articles from gamers. Just reading the headlines on the main page makes me feel like they have some agenda to push, in a political kind of way, a…

Check out Rock Paper Shotgun. One of the few sites whose articles I read purely for pleasure.

RPS is a shell of its former self. The amazing writers from the early days all left years ago and it's mostly just an SEO spam site now.

Re: Ex-Kotaku staff go independent and launch Aftermath

#42

Post by ncallaway »

mcphage wrote: post #24

Interesting timing—a bunch of people from The Escapist either were fired or quit yesterday, including Yahtzee Croshaw.

Holy shit, I had missed that entirely.

Thanks for that heads up, I’m subscribed to their discord community (sigh, why is it discord), and excited to hear what comes next from the leaving employees.

Re: Ex-Kotaku staff go independent and launch Aftermath

#43

Post by throw3823423 »

It's a turbulent time in games media: See how Yatzhee just quit The Escapist, taking with him most of the video team.

Either way we slice it, we'll all soon see what is what brings people to certain publications? The brand? Long form, high research articles that just take too much research? The wokeness/andti-wokeness posturing? Is it a matter of just a few extremely talented people, carrying a publication?

We all can make our guesses, but the market will say who is right.

Re: Ex-Kotaku staff go independent and launch Aftermath

#44

Post by notjoemama »

smcl wrote: post #11
lloydatkinson wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this a good or bad thing? I don’t really know much about kotaku. But I do know game journalists don’t exactly produce the greatest content, everything from “the game is too hard 1/10” to IGNs obvious paid for scores to “this game has a male character, therefore it must be sexist”.

This is a pretty hyperbolic take on games reviewers, other than the paid reviews which does exist but is pretty easy to identify and ignore. I've seen games being criticised for being too hard but even Elden Ring, Lies of P et al aren't getting 1/10 for that. I've seen people lamenting the same lazy copy-pasted male character being the protagonist again and again, but never decrying that it's outright sexist that a m…

Isn’t there a discussion to be had about journalists (and activists) needing to insert intersectionality into fantasy worlds in a genre for a demographic that didn’t ask for it?

I’m detecting an air of elevated ego in your reply. I understand the toxicity that has and does (now to a much lessor degree) exist, but can’t we recognize when social justice jumps sharks? I think we can. It’s ok to admit when activism goes too far, wandering into the territory of enforcing morals onto other people; making the same mistake the religious right has done…

Re: Ex-Kotaku staff go independent and launch Aftermath

#45

Post by fells »

netbioserror wrote: post #17
greg_gorrell wrote: post #16

Not that I am much into gaming, but I just checked out the site and the one article I clicked on was literally the writer bitching about how the coffee machines were depicted in Starfield. I miss the gaming sites of the 90s and early 00s, you could expect to read passionate articles from gamers. Just reading the headlines on the main page makes me feel like they have some agenda to push, in a political kind of way, a…

Frontpage littered with activism and first-world whining. Looks like it was the worst parts of Kotaku that left.

Turns out lots of people play video games!

Re: Ex-Kotaku staff go independent and launch Aftermath

#47

Post by netbioserror »

fells wrote: post #45
netbioserror wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Frontpage littered with activism and first-world whining. Looks like it was the worst parts of Kotaku that left.

Turns out lots of people play video games!

Turns out a lot of people don't care about those people's political hot takes when they just want to read news about video games!

Re: Ex-Kotaku staff go independent and launch Aftermath

#48

Post by Wurdan »

hnreport wrote: post #29
greg_gorrell wrote: post #16

Not that I am much into gaming, but I just checked out the site and the one article I clicked on was literally the writer bitching about how the coffee machines were depicted in Starfield. I miss the gaming sites of the 90s and early 00s, you could expect to read passionate articles from gamers. Just reading the headlines on the main page makes me feel like they have some agenda to push, in a political kind of way, a…

I’d you all you talk about is games, eventually you’ll have to talk about the fucking coffee machine in the video game.

I get the sentiment of people who are only interested in game reviews and recommendations. But as a gamer myself, if that’s all a site offers then I’m not paying $7 per month for it. I wouldn’t be willing to pay anything for that content to be honest. I can get a better sense of the quality of a game from aggregated steam reviews. I’m not the target audience for this site, but I do recognize that they can’t just write dry game reviews if they want to make a living.

Re: Ex-Kotaku staff go independent and launch Aftermath

#49

Post by mplewis »

netbioserror wrote: post #47
fells wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Turns out lots of people play video games!

Turns out a lot of people don't care about those people's political hot takes when they just want to read news about video games!

No one is making you read this specific gaming news site.

Re: Ex-Kotaku staff go independent and launch Aftermath

#50

Post by KoftaBob »

What is it about news media, newsletters, etc that makes them so bad at pricing their subscriptions? When you consider the fact that the average reader will want to read a variety of publications/newsletters about topics, charging $7/month for JUST your news site is, I'm sorry to say, delusional.

This isn't to single out Aftermath specifically, I see this kind of thing all over the place. Lots of substack newsletters are particularly detached from reality when it comes to what they charge.

Yes, journalists need to be adequately paid of course, but I think this can be done much more effectively by charging a more reasonable monthly rate that will broaden the customer pool.

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