Hello fellow gamers,
We're the people who will be implementing the next chapter for OAG.
As many of you have noticed, there is a lot of controversy and concern about the site's future under new management. This, in part, is owed to how we went about announcing the next chapter of our journey together. For this, we apologize and are here to dispel any and all rumors going around as well as address any questions you our audience have for us.
We will show you with our action and our product's quality that we are serious about our mission and respect for you - the consumer. To begin this process, we are setting up an AMA to answer questions you have about the transition, staffing, what is going on, or who is best girl and why traps are most assuredly gay. Anything you are curious about, we will attempt to answer.
Ask us anything!
Proof: https://twitter.com/OneAngryGamerHD/status/1323646163317383169
We'll start answering your questions in 3 hours.
https://kotakuinaction2.win/u/OneAngryGamerHD/ ( Lead Editor ) https://kotakuinaction2.win/u/Kevin_Green/ ( Legacy Writer ) AKA Kevin : )
I'm only gonna argue for pushing free speech absolutism on the internet because it's way easier to try to create a bunch of sites with wild west rules from 10+ years ago than it would be to try and establish a legitimate and fully-functional libertarian/ancap paradise in real life. So I don't have much internal conflict for taking a hard stance for it online. I can defend pedos online without worrying about being assaulted or abducted, unlike real life public spaces, for instance. Same with other highly volatile topics. Free market of ideas, and all that.
I appreciate the argument about losing one battle in a bigger war you're trying to win, but I want you to not attribute all possible bitterness the OAG brand receives towards idealism. There's another major factor, in that OAG was a figure of hope (maybe not a top10 hope, but still) for people who are feeling trapped in demoralization, but the leadership has changed hands and there's little reason to expect the same under new leadership. Such an audience has been burned too often to have use of promises; all you can do for them is make a good product, consistently (which was hopefully already a goal).
I love when people say "Wild West" because most do not understand the only thing the Wild West lacked was a uniformed system of law, not law. In fact, as the federal government expanded several provinces and cities gained rights and lost laws that were blatantly unconstitutional, such as the Wild West's prolific anti gun laws.
I appreciate that you are firm on your position. Do you consider the dangers of an encroaching authority to be your driving motivator or is your position based on principle? I'd love to have this discussion with you, as I'm sure you are aware it is rare to have someone willing to talk about the merits and philosophy of matters.
I don't dismiss people's anger and disdain for what has happened. It was unfair and probably would not have occurred in a fair free market. They have the right to be upset and to not participate with us going forward, but I hope they do. If only in giving us tips so we can signal boost good stories or do research into what matters to readers.
That sounds like some bullshit tagline, so let me explain why I'm serious. I'm not a simp or a rug, but I appreciate the concept that in the creative arts such as writing and youtube one is only able to do their work so long as it is consumed by others. This interaction gives the work a grander meaning outside self satisfaction for having created something. I shout into the void on social media, so I'm used to doing both, but it is better when the work is consumed. For this reason it is in my best interest to appreciate the concerns of the audience to maintain good relations with them.
Yes there is some emotion in there, no I will not sell myself out to please them, but it at the end of the day is a rational decision.
Well, I'm no history buff. If I say "wild west" in reference to an era of the internet, the odds are good that others will understand my meaning. Although what you say about the wild west actually reinforces what I cared about. I think individual sites should be allowed to have awful rulesets if they want, but only as long as it's possible for another site to pop up with a good ruleset and take all the traffic. This modern stuff of payment processor cancellation and host corruption makes me sick.
For the free speech thing? Some of both, I think, but it depends on definition of authority. I'll assume the modern definition that means that anyone who is given an authoritative title is an authority, typically for the purpose of being allowed to wield power over other people legally (sometimes even reversed, where, say, a forum moderator can be called an authority just because he can wield power over users). I like to think that I'm mostly driven by the principle of the matter, but I acknowledge that seeing the grip tighten on speech online makes me double down.
I don't want the next generation to be denied the opportunities mine had growing up. I want kids to be able to shout nonsense in their headsets during pvp. I want teenagers to be able to misuse their creativity and time with elaborate troll operations. I want people to be able to find others with opposing ideas and have the chance to debate them in a no-holds-barred smackdown, and then I want the text left online for everyone to bear witness to.
There are some cracks in the principle, like trying to deal with spam (which is woefully simple to accomplish with bots now). No one really gets any use out of it, so it's usually a low resistance issue to widely ban it somehow, like having a moderator oversee all output. I think the better idea is to give each user the ability to mute others so they can have the exact kind of curation they desire - something which isn't really common sense to a lot of people because you can't do it in real life. In real life, if someone's being a nuisance in the movie theater, you can try to tune them out, but that's a big effort and will spoil your leisure. You could confront them, but what if they ignore you? Use force? That only works if they aren't one of the protected classes. Report to employees? What do you do if the employees don't care? Manager won't do anything unless he cares. (I haven't gone to a theatre in over 10 years, can you tell)
I think you have a good attitude for a creator. You sound like you've overcome the common issues that trip up small time creators. I keep an eye on a couple of amateur game dev groups (not the same as writing, but still a creative field) and they can be a real sorry lot. Lecturing doesn't do much, the important stuff like motivation and priorities have to be discovered by the individual. Lot of people with big rockstar dreams that get caught up in promises of easy victory.