Because there’s nothing I’d rather do on my day off than spend the next two hours carefully choosing my words in response to what I can still only hope is a misunderstanding.

Before we even begin, I would like to remind everypony that at no point in my little rant did I state any position against those pushing for better ethics in game journalism. I think it’s a waste of effort, I will explain why shortly, but I have nothing against the effort itself.

A very intelligent professor once told me that there will be ponies in life that’ll insist that “If you’re not with us, you’re against us,” and that such a statement is nothing more than coercion. Consciously removing yourself from a conflict leaves only those engaged in the conflict. You help or hurt neither. I care for neither side of the debate. I didn’t care yesterday. I don’t care today. And I won’t care tomorrow.

The reason I don’t care is because in the grand list of everything wrong with the video game industry, and it is monumental, ethics in game journalism isn’t even on the top 10. For my money, the biggest issue right now is random number generation being used as a crutch in place of staged content to form progression. The worst kind too; where you can wind up with the same thing you already have or something worse, and you effectively get nothing for your win. It’s migrated from MMOs and Roguelikes and it’s turning up everywhere. It’s becoming accepted and is destroying content by forcing you to do the same thing over and over again for little more than a chance to get something better. And even that’s not new. Pokemon’s had it since the beginning of the series.

But instead of worrying about game development, like RNGs and the even worse gachapons (or otherwise directly paying for an RNG roll), or day-one DLC, or Triple-A being so expensive to make that even when a game sells decently it’s a colossal failure, or publishers forming teams to make a game knowing in advance that they’re going to fire all of them once the project is complete; instead of worrying about unethical distribution practices, like content gated behind preorders to specific locations, or virtual copies costing the same as physical copies, or publisher specific game launchers that are required to play/must remain on during play, or required anti-piracy programs that are literally spy-ware, or my favorite declaration of how stupid the industry thinks we are “temporary exclusivity”. Instead of ponies standing together and shouting No! to something that actually affects the games themselves, a movement is formed (regardless of what they’ve done since, the need for it before, or how they’ve broadened their views) because an otherwise inconsequential game developer may have slept with a game reviewer.

And I’m not saying that ethics in journalism isn’t an issue. In fact, it’s a massive issue. Before computers, sure; but since the advent of the internet and the ability of any random individual to throw around their one-sided, completely biased, and under-researched views like they’re fact, professionals in every branch of the the news industry have taken that as green-light to do the same. Factual news has been replaced with persuasive essays.

But trying to cleanse wrongful journalistic practices in the gaming industry alone is a job for Sisyphus. It doesn’t matter how much anypony tries; as long as unethical journalism exists elsewhere, it will return to the gaming atmosphere. There is a meaningful battle to be fought, but it’s much bigger than a single industry.

Analyzing your choice of words at the end of your message leaves them strikingly familiar to the ones in my last sentence on the subject, which tells me you think they were aimed at you. The intentionally unnamed “some other reason” I mentioned was with regards to those who are purposefully attacking others in an effort to push them out of the industry. Arguments are to exchange ideas and create new ones, not throw around threats of violence (yes, I’m aware of the threats being thrown by both sides) and I condemn anypony that resorts to such a thing.

Regarding the need for research, there has been an extreme disconnect with what this movement actually wants, if it’s already won, or if it’s even still going. So you’ll have to excuse me if I skewed or omitted some information. I have at this point spent three hours on this thing I don’t care about solely because I consider you a good friend and am trying to reach some kind of conclusion.

I consent that, if I commented on it at all, I should have done so in a separate, more detailed manner from the beginning and not after having worked two awful shifts in a row. I’d like for this to be over now, but I respect you enough to not drop a “So there! Hmph!” and end all discussion. I’d like for you to not hold anything against me when this is past, so if you have something else to say, please do so.