@Devi Ever
Now that you're all burned out on gamergate, social justice the and transgendered community, are there still any internet communities at all that you consider yourself to be a part of, or care about in any meaningful way?
I've never felt comfortable being a part of any community. I just like doing the things I do and being around like minded people who dig on whatever I am doing at the time and who inspire me to be a better creator. That's why, at the end of the day, I really like twitter for the various small circles of illustrators and game devs who don't get too involved in drama, and why lately I've been incredibly strict with blocking people who only tweet about bullshit, suck the dick of people who do, and then I make sure to only follow people who inspire me on a day to day basis.
I will say this much... ever since I've started following more Japanese game devs, as well as illustrators (worldwide), I've been exposed to much less SJW / GG bullshit.
It's really interesting how you can get really fixated and wrapped up in what amounts to e-celeb drama and lose the forest for the trees.
The world isn't falling apart. No one is going to take yuh freedoms away. Who cares if some notable person demonizes you.
We live in a day and age where it's easier than ever to spend time creating the things you want to create... living the fantasies you want to live... yet so many people treat the here and now like at any moment we are going to revert back to the dark ages or something.
I mean fuck, even if the power got cut off and telecommunications were fucked, we are drowning in so much robust technology and information that it'd be no problem rebooting society or at the very least continuing to enjoy an experience of a post-technology apocalypse.
Worst case scenario is that Aliens torturously enslave humanity, and even then, yay aliens!
While researching Destructoid's Jonathan Holmes, I couldn't help notice that he's
somewhat friendly with you. This leads me to believe that you are in a position to shed some light on DT-related drama and antics.
I spoke with someone close to Destructoid's dealings and my understanding is the DT is a non-business oriented blog that sprung out of a passion for gaming / geekery back in the early days when there was a smaller core group of people reporting on all things nerd way back when.
The difference between DT and other blogs, as I understand it, is that they were never interested in making it big. It was apparently genuinely a labor of love that never made money and didn't even have any offices. Apparently the entire thing was and is still run in an extremely casual manner.
Jonathan Holmes has indeed been very friendly with me in the past, and in fact was one of those early SJW types who always seemed to follow and comment on women and trans folk more often than others to a point it creeped me out since he always seemed to have an interest in my work, even when my work was clearly shit. I kept going back and forth in my online friendship with him because I was still feeling very insecure with my place in the gaming scene and he seemed to always have very nice things to say about my work, even when I was losing my mind and being a real shitlord.
The thing is, he never followed through on his support (for instance saying forever he was going to get me on Sup Holmes but never committing), and he always had a million excuses why.
He was also incredibly passive aggressive in regards to stuff related to gamergate and the more I saw him support some plainly awful people, and constantly play dumb about a lot of things, I just got fed up and he's now on my list of people to avoid in the industry.
I really feel like him and DT really fall into that clique of gaming where it's very much "I'm going to support these people so that I look / feel like a good person." rather than supporting people based on genuine creative merit (of course that's subjective... but I think you know what I mean).
Other than that, I honestly don't know much about DT other than all the research I did on the history of Jim Sterling, which of course included some time being a part of DT.
Oh, and the source of mine close to Destructoid was a dude who, at the beginning of gamergate, suggested I contact Ben Kuchera to tell him my story as a trans woman (when I was still identifying as such) in the gaming industry. I actually decided to give it a shot, and Ben was ready to setup an interview with me until he found out I was supporting gamergate, and then he mysteriously declined the interview.
I was pretty pissed off at that point.... that was pretty much the final straw for me dealing with hypocrites in the industry and what really drove me into the arms of gamergate. The funny thing about it, I never even mentioned that "friend" of mine at Destructoid who suggested I talk to Ben, but when he saw me ranting about how awful Ben was on twitter, this dude started attacking me saying it was so rude of me to be upset.
I'm pretty sure this is also the same guy (among MANY other people I talked to back in the day) who were close to Phil Fish and felt nothing but sympathy for him, playing up this story that Phil didn't have any money and was ruined or some bullshit.
Thinking back to those early days I was in the indie scene just makes me tired. I'm glad to be away from all of it now.
[ edit ] But yeah, I wouldn't take anything that happens in DT seriously ever. They don't really pay anyone. Holmes has said time and time again they are not a journalism oriented site, and it seems pretty clear to me if you spend anytime really reading up on the history of DT or looking at their articles, the entire place is just a really poorly run blog that has a big name because it's been around forever.