In the late hours of December 11, 2018, Jeremy Hambling from The Quartering YouTube channel exceeded all expectations and managed to raise $132K from fans in a mere 14 days for a new gaming website that promises to be free of the suffocating yoke of politics. The site will be called Exclusively Games.
In recent months, Jeremy has been a truth teller and a rare voice of sanity and reason in the gaming community and because of that, he’s been attacked by social justice warriors both in person and online.
Here’s some info about his new site from his Indiegogo funding site:
My only goal is to create a place for fans of escapism. This website will provide a forum, videos and articles covering topics related to just about everything gaming with just one rule, NO POLITICS! We’ll cover video games, coin-op, retro, card games, tabletop games & everything in between.
Exclusively Games is a space for fans of all sorts of games. Fans of gaming that want to enjoy topics related to gaming without the infection of politics ruining it. My goal is to create a website full of articles written by fans of that particular thing and a forum full of purist escapism fans.
I don’t want any infection from politics or modern day “journalism” which is of course just activism parading as games journalism. I got sick and tired of reading the same BS “Hot Takes” from our existing options in terms of “video game news” websites and rather than just complain I have undertaken doing something about it myself.
I supported Exclusively Games and wholeheartedly support Jeremy and his effort to create video game website free of the propaganda from social justice warriors masquerading as journalists. Jeremy’s site will be a much-needed breath of fresh air for an industry increasingly inundated with identity politics. Be sure to check out Jeremy’s YouTube channel and his Exclusively Games Indiegogo page.
-Wolfshead
I think the vast majority of people have a good sense of what “politics” looks like, and avoiding off-topic political commentary is very achievable.
But what happens when news breaks about a video game (or a producer or developer thereof) that is inherently political? Will Jeremy censor the news article in its entirety? Or will he allow a link to the news article to be published, but forbid any discussion about it? Or will he allow limited discussion as long as it remains apolitical (e.g., “this incident is surely going to delay the release of said game”). I’m genuinely curious.
That’s a great point and something I have been concerned about too. It’s an admirable thing to want to keep politics out of video games but if politics is being thrust upon you by external forces (SJW devs, journalists, etc.) then it makes no sense to not deal with it.
If someone declares war on you, you can’t put your head in the sand and hope it goes away. You must defend yourself.
I think he should require his staffers to take pledges of ideological neutrality when reviewing games. That doesn’t mean that reviewers can’t identify and discuss attempts by other reviewers and other sites to indoctrinate readers.
For example, what happens if a high profile developer or employee gets arrested for marijuana possession? Will people be allowed to discuss the tangential issue of whether marijuana should be legalized or decriminalized? That’s political. Or perhaps criminal justice more broadly. Also political. Or what if a gaming company outsources it’s American jobs to a foreign country? That’s political, too.
And if “hot button” social issues are incorporated into a game itself, what then? If a game allows you to create a character with twenty possible genders, will that issue just be ignored? Voicing criticism of that issue is just as political as voicing support of that issue.
After watching some of Jeremy’s videos, I wonder if “politics free” actually means “free from politics he disagrees with.” What’s your take?