Jonathan Holmes

12

Jonathan Holmes

Destructoid

Twitter GamerGate Wiki

Collusion

Possible

Collusion

About

His “There are gamers at the gate, but they may already be dead” article is considered to be part of the “Gamers are dead” media blitz, despite having been published a few days after the first blitz.

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possible

Date

Not on file

Filed

2015 May 15

Corruption

Apparent

Corruption

About

Covered Axiom Verge on two occasions without disclosing that the game’s creator Tom Happ had backed the Kickstarter campaign for his webseries Sup, Holmes? for an undisclosed amount. Disclosure was likewise not included in the video interview embedded in the first article. Stated the Kickstarter money didn’t go through him when asked about the Kickstarter previously, and reiterated it when informed about this specific instance, stating he wasn’t aware. Co-creator of Sup, Holmes? Conrad Zimmerman also previously covered Axiom Verge, but added disclosure to his coverage as soon as he and Holmes were informed.

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Date

2016 Aug 21

Filed

2016 Sep 20

Wrote two times about Til Morning Light without disclosing that the game’s creator Adam Tierney had backed the Kickstarter campaign for his webseries Sup, Holmes? for an undisclosed amount — apparently over 50 dollars. States the Kickstarter money didn’t go through him.

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Date

2015 May 17

Filed

2015 Jul 30

Wrote about #Fortune without disclosing that the game’s creator Zach Gage had backed the Kickstarter campaign for his webseries Sup, Holmes? for an undisclosed amount. States the Kickstarter money didn’t go through him.

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Date

2015 May 02

Filed

2015 Sep 04

Wrote about the Boston Festival of Indie Games and its organizer Dan Silvers without disclosing that Slivers had financially supported the Kickstarter campaign for his webseries Sup, Holmes? for an undisclosed amount. States the Kickstarter money didn’t go through him.

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Date

2014 Sep 27

Filed

2015 Jul 05

Wrote about the game Neverending Nightmares without disclosing that it was a sponsor for Kickstarter campaign for his webseries Sup, Holmes? for an amount of 120 dollars, as proven by the sponsored logos appearing on episode 117, awarded to highest tier Kickstarter backers. States the Kickstarter money didn’t go through him.

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Date

2014 Sep 12

Filed

2015 Jul 05

Wrote about the Fangamer company without disclosing that they had financially supported the Kickstarter campaign for his webseries Sup, Holmes? for an amount of 120 dollars, as proven by the sponsored logos appearing on episode 113, awarded to highest tier Kickstarter backers. Holmes states the Kickstarter money didn’t go through him. The article also mentions the work of Ashley Davis, who worked at Destructoid with Holmes, and Jake “Virt” Kaufman, who composed the “Sup, Holmes?” intro song.

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Date

2014 Aug 23

Filed

2015 Jul 05

Wrote about the game I’ve Got To Run! without disclosing that the one-woman company creating it, 4 Corner Games, had financially supported the Kickstarter campaign for his webseries Sup, Holmes? for an amount of 120 dollars. States the Kickstarter money didn’t go through him.

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Date

2014 Jul 12

Filed

2015 Jul 05

Corruption

Amended

Corruption

About

Reviewed Xeodrifter without disclosing that the game’s creator Jools Watsham had backed the Kickstarter campaign for his webseries Sup, Holmes? for an undisclosed amount — apparently over 60 dollars. States the Kickstarter money didn’t go through him. Destructoid added disclosure after DeepFreeze’s filing, apparently without Holmes’ knowledge.

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patched

Date

2014 Dec 25

Filed

2015 Jul 29

Cronyism

Apparent

Cronyism

About

Gave positive coverage to Zoe Quinn without disclosing their friendship. Has discussed this relationship both facetously and seriously after it was filed on DeepFreeze.

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default

Date

Not on file

Filed

2015 May 06

Dishonesty

Apparent

Dishonesty

About

Has stated he was not aware of the identity of his Kickstarter's backers he gave coverage to, but he discussed the rewards with several subjects before his articles. This includes Adam Tierney, six months before the coverageDanny Silvers, five months before, and Syrenne McNulty, just two weeks before.

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Date

2015 Jul 06

Filed

2015 Jul 30

Sensationalism

Amended

Sensationalism

About

Wrote about the copyright claim takedown of River City Ransom: Underground. The article mostly consisted of the statements of said game’s composer Alex Mauer — who filed the claim over an alleged lack of payment — and concluded with heavy criticism against the “sadistic feeding frenzy” against Mauer, led by “ambulance chasing, opportunistic video game pundits demonizing her in long winded, fruitless Youtube rants”. As likely pointed out in the heavily censored and soon-disabled comment section, the article omits a lot of key information in a very long controversy— Mauer not only filed multiple unfounded copyright claims towards games they scored, sent spurious takedown requests (an act of perjury) to several dozen of Youtube and Twitch videos featuring these games and sent multiple documented death threats, but also changed their story multiple times and explicitly stated their actions were malicious. Mauer’s claims were called fraudolent by both Youtube and Steam, and during this controversy Mauer was served with a restraining order and even involuntarily committed for psychiatric evaluation. Before the article, the controversy had already been covered by extremely large Youtube channels, and apparently Holmes had been explicitly informed of the death threats issued by Mauer by one of the recipients. Following the backlash, Destructoid moved the article to its blog section, with Holmes adding a through update apologizing for the article, with apologies also being issued on his personal Twitter.

Modifier

patched

Date

2017 Jul 15

Filed

2017 Sep 10

Dishonesty and Sensationalism emblems may be based on subjective criteria.

Readers are encouraged to take entries critically, and form their opinion independently.

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