Welcome to Aftermath, a worker-owned, reader-supported information web site masking video video games, the web, and the cultures that encompass them.
You may keep in mind most of us from Kotaku, the place we broke information, lined occasions, and introduced you hard-hitting investigations. You may also have seen us at Motherboard by Vice, The Verge and The Washington Submit’s video games vertical Launcher. We acquired again collectively to start out this web site not simply so we might all weblog collectively once more, however to strive one thing new for ourselves and for video games journalism.
As of late it’s robust for journalism, particularly about video games. The previous few years have seen mass layoffs and web site closures, with remaining writers being requested to do an increasing number of with much less and fewer. The ad-supported mannequin is crumbling, social media is a large number, and the businessmen and personal fairness companies shopping for up information retailers do not care about staff, readers, and high quality writing, they solely care about income. The 5 of us noticed our websites closed, ourselves and our colleagues laid off, and our workplaces turned hostile in administration’s pursuit of progress in any respect prices.
This couldn’t be occurring at a worse time for the video games beat. There’s quite a bit occurring: widespread labor organizing, industry-changing mergers and acquisitions, sweeping layoffs, and someway by all of it a ton of wonderful new video games from large studios and indies alike. We want a curious, unbiased press to carry energy to account, to chop by the advertising hype, and to raise the voices of these affected by the gaming {industry}’s upheaval.
We’re going to do all that–and more–here at Aftermath. We all know slightly group of bloggers with an internet site can’t save video games journalism. However we predict there’s a greater means than the exhausting rounds of layoffs and barely-functioning websites we’ve acquired now.
As staff and house owners, we’re beholden to nobody however ourselves, and to you, our readers. Once you subscribe, you’ll get entry to writing that pursues the reality and casts a crucial eye on gaming and the web, that doesn’t have to placate capital or kowtow to PR. You’ll be supporting the form of journalism our previous expertise has proven us you want finest: sincere and irreverent, written for individuals somewhat than website positioning. You’ll get a web site that prioritizes the reader expertise, with no invasive popups or adverts that dissipate your system.
By our totally different subscription tiers, you’ll have entry to articles, feedback, podcasts, a publication, a Discord server, and extra. We needed to offer you flexibility not simply in how a lot you need to spend to assist us, however in how a lot you need to work together with the neighborhood we hope to develop across the web site. We hope you’ll need to speak to us, and to one another, however you can too simply learn the articles, the place we’ll maintain you updated on the worlds of video video games, board video games, comics, motion pictures and television, nerd tradition, tech, streaming, and the labor points that encompass them.
If you would like to get in contact, you’ll be able to attain us right here:
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Aftermath rejects stability and performative impartiality as journalistic virtues. We try to acknowledge the total humanity of these we cowl, and try for all cheap equity in our protection. Sincere reporting might be painful to topics, and we acknowledge the consequences such reporting might have on them. We take severely our duty as journalists and try to mitigate all pointless hurt our reporting might trigger.
Aftermath rejects the “view from nowhere” in favor of sincere, individualized editorial voices. We make use of any and all rhetorical units in our writing, together with opinion, humor, and sarcasm. On the similar time, we acknowledge that our phrases and tone have penalties, whether or not or not we intend them to. We try always to be humane, no matter kind our editorial content material takes.
Aftermath is an unbiased media group, beholden solely to our readers and ourselves. We don’t let PR, advertisers, or corporations dictate or affect our protection. We take good religion reader suggestions severely and try to include it each time possible.
Aftermath values range in editorial content material and personnel. We try to uplift under-served people and voices in our editorial content material. We try to make use of anti-oppressive language and promptly appropriate such cases the place we would fall brief.
Aftermath values human-created journalism. We reject AI-generated editorial content material and don’t publish it besides when it’s required for a narrative. In such cases, AI-generated content material will likely be clearly recognized as such. We reject and don’t use AI-generated artwork besides in such cases as a narrative requires it, and we clearly determine it as such.
