The old Kotaku
November 7, 2011
So, this is awkward.
Within hours of my publishing that last post, Kotaku did their best to convince me that they were not, in fact, improving with articles like “Korean Pop Is Better with Chun-Li Cosplay,” “When the Street Isn’t Safe for Work,” and “It’s Ladies Night Here on Kotaku’s Cosplay Roundup.”
Meanwhile, my cynical tweet from January started making the rounds again for some reason. As it turns out, it was picked up by rather more Twitterers this time, including some heavy hitters like Notch. The ironic upshot of my attempt to praise Kotaku was putting some ten-month-old snark in front of half a million people. I was then in the odd position of trying to defend them against my past self while their new posts actively discredited my position.
Among the people who saw that old tweet was Joel Johnson, who I had championed as the man potentially responsible for pulling Kotaku out of the gutter. We had this conversation via Twitter (keep in mind that the first message is from January):
danbruno Why do girl gamers get so little respect? I DUNNO, KOTAKU. YOU TELL ME. http://is.gd/ydHoiy (article: http://is.gd/kaNqKn)
joeljohnson @danbruno I suspect it might be because of some male gamers’ lack of nuance.
danbruno @joeljohnson FWIW, that Tweet is from January and is getting RTed again (out of context) because of this: http://cruiseelroy.net/2011/11/the-ne…
joeljohnson @danbruno Got it. I appreciate the write-up. But I also am the person who came up with the “Fetish” column, so I’m the problem, too.
danbruno @joeljohnson Ah! The plot thickens! :-) Well, I hope it was food for thought, if nothing else.
joeljohnson @danbruno I enjoyed it and appreciated it. I’m simply of the mind that there is room for a lot more in gaming w/o losing the sex, etc.
danbruno @joeljohnson Agreed, but I think there’s a qualitative difference between e.g. one of Leigh’s Aberrant Gamer columns and a cosplay gallery.
joeljohnson @danbruno Just read Kotaku for the articles.
That last comment may have been tongue-in-cheek, but there’s a kernel of truth there — because to some extent, this does resemble the Playboy model of pairing intellectual stimulation with the other kind. They’ve improved on the former, as I tried to highlight in my last post, but I now worry that I misinterpreted its significance and it won’t be at the expense of the latter. If so, that’s a shame, but it’s their choice to make.
Anyway, that’s probably enough for now. There are games that need critiquing!