I hate that gamergate someone buried itself into our understanding of games journalism and games criticism. Frequently I find ostensibly left-leaning (or explicitly leftist) groups and communities who will parrot gg talking points about game reviews or criticism without a hint of self-awareness and then react angrily when called out about it.

It’s lazy and dismissive to say that a two thousand word review, published weeks after the game’s release, is merely clickbait design to get ad views. It’s the basest kind of critique, requires no defense, and allows no discussion. It is its own kind of clickbait, a jingoism for terminally online nerds to feel like they’ve seen through some veil of reality. And it comes directly from the gg playbook, a simple means of derailing conversations and sowing distrust and discord.

Anyway, I’ve loved the Facebook group “I’m begging you to play another rpg” but seeing the mods delete my comments and reward this shitty behavior has really soured my feelings.

Ah well, all communities rot eventually.