The game is on as gaming journalists strike back against Elon Musk’s recent remarks against the profession.
On the 9th February Elon Musk posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) simply saying: “Video game ‘journalism’ is garbage”.
Many gamers strongly agreed with the post, believing that gaming journalism had gone downhill in recent times due to an excessive focus on identity politics, though there were just as many people unconvinced by his stance.
It was only today, on the 11th February, that Kyle Tarpley, writer on the Did You Know Gaming YouTube channel, would show his disdain towards the remark, quoting it with: “Fuck off idiot”.
Did You Know Gaming currently has 2.39 million subscribers and covers the development history of many games as well as interviewing developers to get further insight into scrapped ideas.
It also wouldn’t be long before Kyle would further comment on the remark by shouting out fellow independent video game journalists such as: Video Game History Foundation, The Video Game History Hour, Gaming Alexandri, Time Extension, The Hidden Palace, VGDensetsu, All Source Gaming, Hardcore Gaming 101, Hard4Games, and Gaming Historian.
The channel did receive some pushback however, as some fans believed it was a mistake to speak so openly about their own politics, believing they could alienate a part of their fanbase by doing so.
Others also believed that the reply only proved Elon’s point since there were no mainstream recommendations, such as IGN, Kotaku or the PCGamer, listed, possibly validating claims that mainstream journalism isn’t what it used to be.
Most mainstream platforms remained silent, though senior journalist at Kotaku, Ethan Gach said: “‘They ruined my toys’ is the sophistication level of the animus driving the current reactionary takeover,” clearly mocking Elon Musk.
Regardless of the quality or lack there of concerning mainstream platforms, the controversy has at the very least showcased that gaming journalism is so much more than just a few large corporations.
