Quinnspiracy - Zoe Quinn internet debacle

[Ryllharu]

The true problem is that thanks to the indie development scene exploding, combined with members of the gaming press often being personal friends with developer(s). Kotaku has admitted that the indie dev-game reviewer social dynamic is very cliquish, the same people travelling in the same circles and all having the same friends...who are either developers or game journalists.

It's kind of an evolution of the Kane and Lynch Gamespot Controversy more than it is anything about feminism. The indie dev asks his/her friends the game reviewers to promote, preview, or review their games rather than the developer getting angry about bad reviews. Indie games live or die based on exposure or word of mouth, because there are so damn many of them.

The Sun at Night was a good example. It's a sub-par game from a nothing-of-note indie developer about Laika the Russian Space Dog Puzzle Platformer. Failed its Kickstarter, by the way. There's only five reviews on metacritic, all below average. Joystiq in particular has sixteen stories about this game, following every stage of its development. Compare this to Transistor, which has 18 stories, and is the second game from an already extremely successful indie dev. Very successful Kickstarter game Shadowrun Returns got 26 stories and a AAA release like Wolfenstein The New Order gets an average 20 stories. A lot of indie games are lucky if they get 5 stories.

It's pretty obvious what went on there.


This controversy is about gaming journalism trying to circle the wagons and passing the issue off as a feminist issue (because of the allegations toward Quinn for her barely-a-game Choose Your Own Adventure title) rather than the backlash to their pervasive lack of integrity. Then the trolls found it.