Unfair advantage

Receiving coverage from game outlets is often the difference between success and obscurity, especially for indie developers.

The endorsement of many journalists, though, seems to be based not on merit, but on connections. Starting in August 2014, numerous conflicts of interest were progressively uncovered, with the same names constantly popping out and giving the strong appearance of a systematic web of cronyism and corruption, where privileged access to the gaming industry is given to those in the right journalists’ clique.

Friends at Kotaku

Several writers working at Kotaku, Gawker’s gaming outlet, have been accused of giving disproportionate and biased coverage to their friends.

Controversial Kotaku writer Patricia Hernandez has lived together with her close friend Anna Anthropy, and has given her positive coverage in six articles. Four of the articles were published after Hernandez had lived with Anthropy, and none of them initially contained any form of disclosure.

In addition, Hernandez dated visual novel developer Christine Love, and wrote about her game Hate Plus twice. Both articles have a disproportionate number of links encouraging the purchase of Love’s work and, once more, no disclosure.

Hernandez has also promoted two Kickstarters by GaymerX while being on friendly terms with the organization's president Toni Rocca and some of the other GaymerX staff. She has also given positive press, without disclosure, to her friends David Gallant and Zoe Quinn.

Kotaku’s more famous conflict of interest with its guest writer Zoe Quinn, however, involves Nathan Grayson. Grayson and Quinn have been long time friends, with Grayson also having financial ties with her, being a playtester for her game Depression Quest and being mentioned in its credits—while giving her positive press without disclosure both on Kotaku and at his previous outlet, Rock, Paper, Shotgun. In August 2014, this conflict of interest came to public attention when it was made public that Quinn had an affair with Grayson behind her boyfriend’s back, with the subsequent censorship and aggressive response to this scandal widely considered to be the cause of a still-ongoing consumer revolt against the gaming press.

While this is the most famous case of cronyism involving Grayson, it’s not the only one—he also wrote without disclosure about former colleagues like Robert Young and Porpentine, as well as friends such as mini-game developer Nina Freeman, developer Deirdra Kiai and the staff of mobile game company White Whale games, among others. Grayson also covered GaymerX without disclosing his friendship with Toni Rocca — another conflict of interest he shares with Hernandez.

Perhaps, though, Grayson’s most blantant impropriety is the overwhelming coverage given to his friend, sound designer Robin Arnott. Author of Oculus Rift game Soundself, Arnott received an abnormal amount of coverage from Grayson. Grayson plugged him six times in three months, with the bulk of the coverage for Soundself coming from Kotaku.

Arnott also ties back to Quinn — with whom he had an affair with at roughly the same time as Grayson had his. He was the chair of the “Night Games” branch of independent games festival Indiecade where Quinn’s Depression Quest was featured.

Kotaku editor-in-chief Stephen Totilo has talked about some of the cases exposed here.

He first addressed the Grayson-Quinn conflict of interest, and stated it was not a breach of ethics, since it was not a review and, according to Grayson, their affair happened a few days after it. He handwaved the fact that Grayson and Quinn are proven to be acquainted since long before this article, including a trip to Las Vegas together.

When more conflicts of interest surfaced and GamerGate protests escalated, Totilo