I really have to disagree with Mundane Matt, here: Jim Sterling didn't really say a whole lot in his new video that I agree with. Actually, I would even go so far as to say that he's trying to control the situation in his own way. That, coupled with the way The Escapist's new 'policies' makes me think that The Escapist is actually trying to come out of this mess smelling like a rose... by trying their hardest to please both sides of the argument.
Now, I'm sure you've all heard of the Streisand effect, after recent events. As you know, a big part of the reason this became such a controversy was due to the way sites such as Reddit, Neogaf, and even YouTube attempted to prevent certain information from becoming known to the public. Now, The Escapist has always been a bit of an oddball. Rather like NEOgaf, they had put up a facade of discussion. If you thought Zoey was a saint, you had a billion other people agreeing with you. If you cited anything that didn't paint her in the best possible light, your post was deleted, your account banned, and the discussion went on without you.
I really don't think it's a coincidence that The Escapist, as a whole, has actually been rather tame during this whole fiasco. Sure, they had a few articles decrying the whole situation, including that ridiculous Sarkeesian article, but they're nowhere near Kotaku's level of ridiculousness. They've certainly kept a lot of the heat off themselves... I don't think I've heard The Escapist mentioned at all during this whole fiasco...
Anyway, videos like Jim's, I think, show what The Escapist's plan for dealing with the controversy are: by putting up a facade of listening to the 'gamers' all the while continuing with what they had been doing to please the SJW's. So basically, The Escapist's new policy changes won't really amount to anything, but they'll tell us they're listening just to keep us happy.
Jim's stance on the issue makes me uncomfortable for one reason, and one reason only... he still gives absolutely no indication that he understands the issue. Watching the video just felt like him slamming people for daring to stick up for issues they believe in.... Especially since he kept implying that gamers were the problem, without giving us a shred of evidence to back this up.
It wasn't gamers who drove Boogie2988 back into depression. It wasn't gamers who started #IstandwithGanondorf to deride JonTron for having an opinion. It's not gamers who are censoring information related to the industry for highly suspicious reasons. It's not GAMERS who have absolutely no evidence to back any of their claims up.
The Escapist isn't interested in changing the way they do business. They're interested in changing the way people THINK they do business. By putting on a false face of neutrality, they are trying their hardest to appear attractive to both sides of the argument. It's a PR move that's riding off a controversy. They'll be going back to openly condemning gamers again.... that is, if they even stop.
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