Mark Kern and the VG247 hit piece - The after effects

This week has been rather crazy for me. But then again. I spend a lot of time on social media (24/7).

Because when you´re close to 39K followers on Twitter, you see and hear a lot of things (and haven’t even mentioned any of Brianna Wu´s or Leigh Alexander´s, crazy tweets).

And this week has been a lot about VG247´s hit piece on Mark Kern (CEO, MEK Entertainment)

And for those who doesn´t know who Mark Kern is, then let me give you a brief introduction of Kern. He was the producer on Diablo II, Starcraft, and former CEO for Red 5 Studios (“Firefall”).

So Kern ain´t exactly a noob in the video game industry (his been around for a long time now). That’s why i felt somewhat uncomfortable when i read VG247´s hit piece “Developers shooting the messenger: stop blaming the press for sexist extremism in games“.

Because i´m not going to lie to you guys, it was a really heavy read (in more than one way. But read it yourself and form your own opinion).

Total Biscuit tells it like it is. But will the industry listen?

I was not all that surprised to see the following lineup of keywords in the article though (either in the actual article itself, or in the comment section):
– SJWs
– Feminists
– Gamergate
– Zoe Quinn
– Anita Sarkeesian
– Death threats
– Games journalism
– The GamerGate episode in “Law and order SVU”

As each and every one of them has been a part of the whole war between Pro-GamerGate and anti-GamerGate supporters since day one (pretty much).

I should also point out that “yellow journalism” is a huge part of this as well (when it comes to professional games journalism Vs unprofessional games journalism).

And for those who don´t know what “yellow journalism” is, i took the liberty to add Wikipedias explanation to it down below:

“Yellow journalism, or the yellow press, is a type of journalism that presents little or no legitimate well-researched news and instead uses eye-catching headlines” (in other words, 100% clickbait) – Wikipedia

But let´s get back to Mark Kern and VG247. Kern stated in a tweet not so long ago that he wanted to “heal gaming”, Kern also expressed the importance of freedom of speech.

Thus, Kern created a petition at change.org, which he named “kotaku lead the way in healing the rift in video games” (An Open Letter to Kotaku and Polygon and VG247.com).

Will Mark be allowed to speak up? And will the industry reach out to Mark?

And the thought (idea) behind that petition would be to heal the video game industry (as it´s both corrupted and toxicated).

And to get some kind of peace truce between both sides of GamerGate (as i understood it).

But apparently things are not going that well for Mark Kern. At lest not with VG247. As Kern stated the following on his change.org petition page:

“VG247.com refuses to let me respond to their hit-piece about this petition I’ve added VG247.com to the petition because of their refusal to allow reasonable, moderate discourse about this petition to heal gaming after publishing a piece warning people not to sign it.”

However, VG247 had a change of heart on the 20th of February: (VG247 responds! Will it blend?)

“Feb 20, 2015 — I recently had a very polite and constructive e-mail exchange with Pat Garratt, the publisher of VG247.com and the author of the article about this petition. I’ve reproduced our responses in their entirety below. Civil discourse is a fantastic way to bridge the gap. I encourage everyone to e-mail the press whenever you have concerns, in a polite and constructive manner.

This petition is already making a difference, as you can see. Pls sign it and show your support!” – Mark Kern

So i think it´s safe to say that Kern has shaken the industry quite a bit (in a good kind of way). It´s a start at least, and Mark Kern might even speak up about all of this to either David Pakman (The David Pakman Show), or Totalbiscuit.

And IF Kern choses to do that. Then i bet that send shockwaves throughout the industry for sure.

So, #letmarkspeak. let Mark speak…

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