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Did Destructoid just send a picture of a pig taking a shit to Oliver Campbell?

I think it´s safe to say that video games journalism as a whole has hit yet another all-time low. You see, just the other day I spotted a tweet about “Dead Rising 4” by Destructoid. Well, that shouldn´t rise any eyebrows right? Correct, as that would (and should) be no big deal. However, in this case, Destructoid made a “little” mistake by stating the following in their tweet:

“Frank West is a millennial, and that’s more dangerous than any zombie apocalypse http://dlvr.it/MGzkHy” – Destructoid

No, Frank West is NOT an millennial. In the matter of fact, West is 51 years old in DR4…

It takes less than ten seconds to find this page via Google with the search term “Frank West Dead Rising”.

Video games journalism done wrong

So what mistake did Destructoid make? Well, two actually. The first one would be the fact that Brett Makedonski (Managing Editor at Destructoid) used the headline “Frank West is a millennial, and that’s more dangerous than any zombie apocalypse”, because West is not a millennial…As he is 51 years old in “Dead Rising 4”. So naturally it didn´t take long before gamers started to call Destructoid out on their mistake, thus the following tweet by Oliver Campbell (Contributor at The Escapist Magazine):‏

“So Frank West is a 51-year-old millennial, eh? Do some basic fact checking, for Christ’s sake.” – Oliver Campbell ‏

Well, the story could have ended there (this is where the second mistake comes into play). As all that Destructoid needed to do was to correct their error and apologize for their mistake. However, that was not the case. As Steven Hansen (features editor at Destructoid) became very salty and angry over the whole thing, so Hansen started to act extremely unprofessional towards Campbell in response to Campbell’s tweet to Destructoid. So much so that Hansen event sent a picture of a pig releasing feces to Campbell…(as seen in the picture down below).

This is not how you act up on people who have pointed out mistake (s) in your post (s).

This response by Destructoid´s Hansen is nothing more than a kindergarten kind of tantrum.

When you´re a features editor for a big gaming site such as Destructoid, then one would expect that you would act professional towards your audience and critics.

So one would think that the embarrassing ride would end there, but it didn´t. As Hansen continued to send truly salty tweets to Campbell:

steven hansen vs oliver campbell games journalism

Hansen obviously doesn´t know when it´s time to stop. In my opinion, he should have taken a break and let off some steam elsewhere.

It´s one thing to think about doing something like this, but to actually do it. That´s a completely different story…

The joke that wasn´t funny

You know. It´s not about being perfect because no one is flawless. However, one should always act professional instead of acting out towards those who point out your mistakes (especially when you’re a journalist). I mean, we (TGG) have made mistakes in the past (facts, spelling, grammatical errors and so on), but we have apologized each time and have corrected the error(s) in question right away. I would also like to point out that it´s a good thumb rule (aka “journalism practice”) to avoid writing about topics which you don´t know all that much about (the person with the know-how on the subject in question should always be assigned to get the job done).

So I´m not quite sure what to make of Steven Hansen´s statement about Destructoid Dead Rising 4 tweet, as I´m not an “Dead rising” expert:

“real games journalism is looking up a character’s wikia page and badly missing a joke lmao” – Steven Hansen, Destructoid

If Hansen didn´t write the “Dead Rising 4” post, then why did he get so upset when people called the post out?

Simply put, where´s the joke in being super salty towards Oliver Campbell (and others) all while stating that Frank West is a millennial even though his +50 years old? Well, at least I don´t get the funny part of it all…Furthermore, this kind of behavior will most definitely reflect poorly on Destructoid. So one would think that it would (and should) be in the best interest of Destructoid to avoid unprofessional acts like those of Steven Hansen.

And with that said, what´s your take on this matter? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section down below!

***Disclaimer***
This is a personal opinion of the writer, and it doesn’t necessarily represent the other writers (nor The Gaming Ground´s) opinions.

Sources:
Destructoid
Steven Hansen
Oliver Campbell
Best Mom Eva