It has been one year since I posted MONTHLY ‘ON CULTURE’ MISSIVE - JUNE 2024 in which I attempt to clearly explain the failure games media at large committed when it failed Nathalie Lawhead. Not much has changed since that time, and new failures have transpired since then.
Medill has awarded the 2025 John Bartlow Martin Award for Public Interest Magazine Journalism to Olivia Carville and @cecianasta.bsky.social for their series "Unsafe Online" published by Bloomberg Businessweek in 2024.
Stain-of-a-journalist Cecilia is still out there winning awards. Others involved–or making themselves involved–still spend their days accruing social clout and posting awful takes online. Nathalie continues to be subjected to harassment and exposure and mockery wherever they go online. Despite this, they continue to work, to create, to write, to host workshops, give talks and not stop speaking out. Similar to Nathalie, I’m not going to shut up about this.
Games media remains incapable of doing hard things. They remain incapable of doing even the easy things.
There is a significant lack of simple acknowledgement of the BDS call to boycott. Is the knowledge of it being suppressed? Is it not proliferating through social circles? Are people just not acknowledging it? People are so quick to assume a posture of resistance online yet I see so much failure in this simple area. I’m not asking for participation or advocacy, just simple acknowledgement! Then working from there, not even simple solidarity! Don't fucking post about how you're playing Oblivion Remastered or Doom: The Dark Ages! It's really easy! I acknowledge websites like IGN have executives who are not going to allow posting about the BDS boycott but don’t you think that is something you should be publicly pushing against? Have you no convictions, no spine? I would like to believe the individuals who make up these companies would love to participate and refuse coverage of Microsoft published games. Several years ago a Palestinian fundraiser post was removed by IGN’s higher ups—much to the chagrin of its staff.
IGN Management Says Palestine Charity Post Was a 'Process Failure'
“While our post impacts everyone at our company,” said Schneider, “this is a clear editorial process and department issue and to imply otherwise is incorrect and distracts from our goal. We own the power and ability to resolve this.”
Not much has come out of that confrontation since. The avoidance of mentioning the mere existence of this boycott makes it clear that no such acknowledgement will ever be published. Regardless of the staff’s opinions or beliefs, stick to videogames is the instruction and it is being followed to the letter.
Gamergate was successful: “politics” are now being kept out of how we talk about videogames. And so it is business as usual: countless articles for Oblivion Remastered go live, Doom: The Dark Ages gets reviewed at embargo time like anything else. Searching the social media posts of current IGN staff active on Bluesky for the past 30 days [as of May 9] there is zero mention of Palestine, Israel, Boycott, or BDS. [I would like to amend this statement as I recently came across Rebekah Valentine speaking out against Bluesky removing Gaza fundraisers.] The one person who did screenshot the actions to take from the Paste Games writeup on the boycott has not been with the company for four months. Perhaps IGN has shed anyone with moral convictions since that confrontation in 2021? Maybe since then they have cultivated a body of yes-men. Or maybe they actually just don’t care, which would be one of the greatest moral failings of those with a platform such as theirs. Or maybe their continued employment relies on not stepping out of line, whether officially or through personal profiles. What kind of life is that?
Xbox Will Return to IGN Live This June
Fans can expect an official Xbox watch party plus deep dives into games featured in the studio’s summer showcase.
Other failures include CNET, The Verge (whose only mention of the boycott is because they are quoting an email sent by Vaniya Agrawal who disrupted a Microsoft 50th anniversary event to protest the company’s participation), GameSpot, Digital Trends, PCGamer (only reference is reciting the story of Vaniya Agrawal and the ensuing terminations of other employees who voiced their protest), GamesRadar, Kotaku (whose only mention is snuck into an article titled: “GameStop Meme Deal Might Be The Perfect Time To Trade In Your Xbox Series X” [sorry Ethan but it is not good enough]), Eurogamer (whose only mention is due to Tenderfoot Tactics being removed from Xbox’s storefront in response to the boycott), GameDeveloper (whose mentions include the Tenderfoot Tactics and as a context paragraph in a Q3 financial report news story), PCGamesN, VG247, GameRant (again Tenderfoot Tactics), The Escapist, Dualshockers, Inverse (mentions are as context for Xbox price hike and for Diablo 4/Berserk crossover content), The Gamer, and Video Games Chronicle. Most of these mentions also include it near the bottom of the write up, signaling its marginal importance.
The only sites that explicitly posted about it are:
Paste: BDS Calls for a Boycott of Xbox Due to Microsoft's Partnership with Israel (freelancer Grace Benfall)
Rock Paper Shotgun: BDS calls for boycott of Microsoft and Xbox gaming products over alleged Israeli military connections | Rock Paper Shotgun (news editor Edwin Evans-Thirlwell)
Polygon (RIP): Palestinian-led BDS movement adds Microsoft’s Xbox as priority boycott target | Polygon (freelancer Ian Walker [his name wasn’t listed on the masthead pre-sale so I am assuming he was a freelancer as he also doesn’t list “formerly Polygon” on his Bluesky account])
Aftermath: Games Media Can't Ignore BDS Xbox Boycott - Aftermath (freelancer Autumn Wright)
¾ of these came from freelancers, which confirms that any noise about this is going to come without established games media and not from within. Rock Paper Shotgun and Polygon both reporting the boycott as news is great but sadly cannot find it within themselves to participate as a Doom: The Dark Ages review came along with everyone else's once the embargo lifted. Tenderfoot Tactics developer Badru seems to have had the greatest effect in terms of getting the word out as their explicit removal because of the boycott gave multiple websites the opening to report on the existence of the boycott in the first place, as otherwise it would clearly have gone uncommented and unacknowledged. However, even with Badru’s action some sites still refused to acknowledge what is going on.
Perhaps we are doomed because so many are incapable of acceding to any organization or movement that causes the slightest discomfort or one which they have the slightest disagreement with.
The sale and subsequent layoffs at Polygon are a damning example of a lack of solidarity within the larger games media space. IGN is happy to piggyback off of the work done by those writing underneath Polygon (all within the past year):
Example 1: According to court documents seen and reported on by Polygon,
Example 2: Spotted by Polygon,
Example 10: over on Polygon
Example 11: In an interview with Polygon,
Example 12: In an interview with Polygon last year,
However, when it comes to Polygon being sold off and gutted, specifically targeting those a part of the WGA East, total silence.
With only a month left until the current union contract expires at Vox Media, the Company yesterday announced it sold Polygon and laid off the bargaining unit at the site. [WGAE statement]
IGN is not alone in this lack. GameSpot, Digital Trends, GamesRadar, PCGamesN, VG247, Game Rant, The Escapist, Dualshockers, Inverse, and The Gamer [Eurogamer snuck it in an opinion piece with a GTA6 headline, Rock, Paper, Shotgun snuck it into their Sunday Papers column, Shacknews did likewise] all similarly benefitted from and piggybacked off of the work done by Polygon yet remain silent as it becomes the latest victim of profit seekers. Are you not all fellow workers within the same field? Polygon’s death—and Giant Bomb’s temporary death—accrued much more social traction than the boycott, yet the official front pages remain unsympathetic.
I would love to be proven wrong. You work at these listed websites and somehow are reading this and want to vocalize support for the boycott, want your website to officially acknowledge the losses at a fellow outlet, please do. Make some noise! I know lots of people were sympathetic towards the Polygon layoffs and share Palestinian fundraisers on their personal accounts, I would love to see more rage towards the lack of volume from the larger platforms you serve.
Another failure has been coverage of Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, a game funded by Saudi Arabia and starring alleged rapist Christiano Ronaldo. However this is better detailed by Will Borger, who wrote the excellent review for Digital Trends that discussed the game as a part of the greater culture and not divorced from reality.
A lot of people told me they respected what I’d done, that they considered my review the last word on CotW, but I was surprised to learn I was one of the only people who had written about it that way. I wasn’t alone, of course. My boy Connor Makar, one of the best reporters in the business, wrote an excellent, uncompromising review for Eurogamer. Skybox co-founder Lucas White didn’t pull punches over at Restart.run. And Ashley Schofield, whose work I’ve admired for a long time, covered it admirably for Edge in Issue 411. There are others, too. But we were the minority. Mostly, Ronaldo’s inclusion and the Saudi Public Investment Fund’s ownership of SNK were glossed over as a “controversy” or not mentioned at all. Few noted that the soccer star was a credibly accused rapist; fewer still said that he allegedly admitted to it in a leaked legal questionnaire. Ronaldo’s lawyers deny the veracity of that document, of course. Draw your own conclusions.
My point here isn’t to gas up my own work, or that of my colleagues, though I’m happy to go to bat for my friends whenever I can. This isn’t about any of us, and what we did or didn’t do; it’s more to convey my dismay at how few people in this space seemed to care when the time came for them to step up to the plate. To them, the prospect of a new toy far outweighed the moral calculus of what playing and promoting City of the Wolves meant signing their name to.
A woman writing about videogame culture is harassed, threatened, and hounded off of social media for covering the bigoted policy and attitude of an online talent agency as well as the conservative talking points and conspiracy theories being put forward by a separate talent. The individual in question then threatens legal action leading to the outlet pulling her articles. Games media at large leaves this scenario unremarked upon. This is not 2014, it is 2025.
Ana Valens is a contributor for Waypoint who covers porn and fetishism within games and tech culture. The most recent harassment began after a June 1st article titled, “These VTubers Want You in Their Lewd Game. You Might Want To Pass,” which covered the agency VAllure and their informal policy regarding transgender talent and the attitude of the first generation of VTubers under the agency.
VAllure will accept transgender talent as long as they “go by female pronouns,” “live life as a woman,” and “sound like a woman.” The Gen 1 team laughed as the issue was discussed; at one point, Shibi said transgender talent asking about the issue should “shut the fuck up.”
This was followed on April 21st by, “Why Is This ‘Gamer Supps’ VTuber Pushing the Great Replacement Theory?” which called into question whether a VTuber known as Kirsche would have their sponsorship dropped due to their espousing conspiracies and edgy statements on a wide range of current events, as it was a topic being discussed within the greater VTuber community. Simply put: Gamer Supps (energy drink company) continued sponsorship of Mythic Talent’s (co-owned by Asmongod) Kirsche Verstahl (individual who gleefully engages in and promotes edgy alt-right conversations) was called into question.
In February, she said trans women advocating for trans rights are “autogynephiliac [sic] males” with “graphic murder fantasies.” She praised Mythic Talent co-owner Asmongold for arguing, “Every trans kid is actually a victim of a parent with a mental illness.”
In one clip, Kirsche gives weight to the “great replacement theory,” a racist conspiracy theory suggesting people of color are ethnically cleansing white people through demographic changes and cultural diversity. In the clip, Kirsche argues that a mosque should not be built in Northern England, declaring a “hostile takeover” is happening in the U.S. “via illegal immigration” and through the U.K. “via the migrant crisis nonsense and refugees.”
“Our politicians are assisting these people with both demographic replacement, as well as just making citizens’ lives worse in general. They’re changing the entire culture of these countries,” Kirsche said, essentially implying both the U.K. and U.S. are intended for white Europeans and Americans, respectively. “It is still going to change these countries irreparably in the future.”
This thread culminates on May 8 with the article, “VTubing Has an Elephant in the Room: Bigotry.” Covering the additional developments since their April 21st writing, further linking to and detailing not only the harassment other VTubers have faced due to speaking out against Kirsche’s behavior but also against Valens herself.
I suspect lurid fantasies of anger, jealousy, and envy also permeate, culminating in a strange sexual obsession with me as a trans critic. This exact same right-winger also spread the rumor that I criticized VAllure because I applied for its Gen 1 auditions and was rejected, concluding “they don’t pass and thus was the reason why they got rejected.” This erroneous claim spread like wildfire across the English VTubing community. Even though I directly stated in 2024 that I refused to audition for VAllure given concerns with the agency’s radio silence on trans talent.
None of her coverage or writing justifies the hate she has received online. From intentional deadnaming and misgendering, images and descriptions of violence sent directly to her, there is no justification for this behavior and targeted harassment. This campaign has extended to the usual bad faith posse of culture war grifters we are all familiar with.
Valens faces all this because she refused to only write articles such as, “PlayStation Stars Loyalty Program Shutdown Announced After 3 Years” or “Mario Kart World - 14 New Details Nintendo Just Revealed” or “Cyberpunk 2077’s sequel features a second city that ‘feels like Chicago gone wrong’, reveals creator” but instead wrote about not only the games themselves but the greater culture that they exist within.
There has been no official recognition of this occurring from any websites formerly listed, even those who intentionally include the greater culture around games and existing online. Asmongold (as previously mentioned, someone with stock in Kirsche’s management as well as making videos on it) has been covered by Kotaku due to his racist rant against those being killed in Gaza and subsequent temporary ban from Twitch on his alt channel. ArenaNet crumpled to pressure and fires a writer who dared to snap back at someone on Twitter. Nintendo fired Alison Rapp after a harassment campaign. Near took their own life after a coordinated attack by an online forum site. Existing online as a minority or woman is so fraught that Polygon wrote an explainer in 2018 that could be applicable to 2007, 2014, 2025, and likely extending forward infinitely.
I am again astounded at the lack of plain acknowledgement that this is happening. I see friends of Ana consistently posting on her behalf asking people within the industry who should be loudly decrying what is happening to even acknowledge what is going on. It is a repeat of Nathalie's refusal to stop asking the Kotaku article be deleted. We can all look back at gamergate and declare the reactions and handling of it at media outlets a colossal failure towards those who were targeted and continue to be. And yet here we are, continuing to fail to do anything, to even acknowledge that this is going on. Gamergate is still happening and you are doing nothing about it! I see several reasons why.
They don’t want to talk about it due to editorial brass above them refusing to acknowledge it as it is not related to games (stick to sports) and they don’t want the heat that comes with reporting about it, even if they stick to a bullshit neutral news reporting tone.
Ana Valens writes about porn and that risks demonetization on places such as YouTube and is too icky a subject to be covered by the Serious Games Media. There is a juvenile discrediting of games delving into fetishes not being a “real” game, the same argument thrown at games such as Flower, Noby Noby Boy, and who knows how many other worthwhile titles that didn’t subscribe to the traditional videogame archetype.
This kicked off at the same time Giant Bomb was about to implode and Polygon was sold and gutted.
Valens did this work for Waypoint, the game subsidy of Vice and formerly piloted by Austin Walker. Waypoint accrued a lot of goodwill amongst industry players and was, like so many other outlets, squashed by corporate interests. Surprising everyone Vice reopened Waypoint shortly after its death with a new staff who began pumping out articles. This created a lot of ill will towards the current staff there, most notably the EIC Dwayne Jenkins. Jenkins chose to post, in the wake of Giant Bomb’s pending implosion,
This will be the only time I address this. Either here or “publicly” on social media. I’m about to answer the million-dollar question: “Why did you take this job, you filthy scab?” Because this was going to happen with or without me. So, since it was happening regardless, I saw an opportunity to at least take creative control and try to steer the Titanic away from the icebergs I knew would pop up.
This caused quite a stir on social media, including within the writing I previously linked to by Will Borger. It also had the effect of overshadowing what has happening to Valens, which, to his credit, Jenkins does attempt to highlight not only in that piece (now removed from the website) but also in a follow-up (also removed), “Waypoint Stands With Ana Valens.”
Whatever disdain we may hold towards Jenkins for his ill-advised captaining of the Titanic (what a metaphor to pick!) does not mean we get to disregard a responsibility to acknowledge and refute the harassment, and then support and stand with Ana, all due to highlighting bigotry within a section of the games culture space ignored by most staff writers. This should have been done in 2014, it should have been done even before that explosion, it should have been done continuously since then. Don’t let petty matters get in the way of showing solidarity. Do not let your diagnosis in hindsight blind you from doing something today about the same problems, with Nathalie, with Ana, with the countless additional victims such as Near, such as Alison Rapp, such as Jessica Price, such as Alyssa Mercante.
Given harassment, slander, & egregious lying about me continues at a pretty heavy scale, I will no longer be accessible on Bluesky for the indefinite future I will have friends post article and audio announcements on my behalf Everyone, please remain vigilant against ongoing slander, lies abt me (@acvalens.net)
Ana is not alone in facing harassment. Others who are involving themselves on Ana’s behalf are also facing the same campaigning of hate.
These assholes are emboldened by the posturing of the current heads of government in the United States, the same ones whose intimidation successfully led to the removal of a documentary about Narcissa Wright, a prominent speedrunner, and her time building back an audience after transitioning.
Following the law of “things keep happening,” we are currently [May 22] seeing this hatred and violence towards transgender individuals become legalized: “The House Republican reconciliation bill will now ban both surgeries and HRT prescription under Medicaid for all Americans.” I do not understand how anyone can look and read the reaction against Ana, at the current process of eliminating all transgender individuals going on within the government, and remain silent.
Being despondent about the state of games media is evergreen. And yet, failures such as this seem to dig a deeper and deeper hole that the remainder of worthwhile writing to be found there will be buried inside of. The biggest game sites reflect the biggest games, in that they are bloated corpses to be picked at to try and find something worthwhile within and consistently not being rewarded. Just like the domination of AAA, at some point I need to state nevermore and turn exclusively to the more genuine, interesting, substantial, and sadly neglected writing that has always been done on the margins. This is a conclusion Nathalie also came to in their recent writing about a fresh wave of harassment in light of a remastered version of Oblivion being released.
With the fall of mainstream publications, and the rise of independently owned ones, the same issues still persist.
If you don’t count the constant catty dunking on someone like me, then it’s the fact that BDS put out a call to boycott Microsoft products, but the same outlets that are now independently owned (not answering to a parent company “forcing” them to do things) still write about Oblivion.
Some of their founders even argued the effectiveness of boycotts, much like they argued if the article about my assault can come down or not. It’s all nuanced to death, without actual stances being taken.I have to reflect on all this and wonder what the point of being an “alternative” is if you do not have alternative values? What’s the point of behaving like a mainstream outlet when that has so clearly failed everyone?
There’s no parent company to blame anymore. No G/O Media to point to and say “they wanted this, we don’t have a choice.”
To me, the hypocrisy is obvious.
We can’t count on anything that came from the mainstream. We have to be our own answer.
[Following the law of “things keep happening,” this past week Ana deleted their Bluesky after arguing in defense of their positive opinion about a right-wing VTuber named Pippa. I still don’t believe this excuses or justifies the previous harassment they were receiving, or the silence for the past month before this happened.]
What follows are others who have raised their voice in support of Ana Valens in opposition to the resounding silence to be found within institutions, both corporate and celebratorily independent. This is not an exhaustive listing but the ones I connected with most when searching the internet on May 22.
https://www.reddit.com/r/youtubedrama/comments/1knlak8/ana_valens_journalist_who_broke_the_kirsche/
