NeoGAF Founder Addresses Controversy, Sparks Outrage

When I first wrote about the frailty of games journalist sites, I didn't exactly expect it to be posted on the same weekend NeoGAF exploded and The Escapist admitted that it was inches away from death. One of those wild coincidences, I suppose.

However, the NeoGAF incident is far from over. In fact, you could say it's just begun, as not soon after, it went dark. The owner of the site, Tyler Evilore Malka, released a lengthy statement on the forums denying the claims of sexual harassment and that he could prove they were false. Specifically, he started his statement with:

An allegation of sexual misconduct has been made against me by an ex. It's not true, the individual making the accusation isn't credible, the story doesn't reconcile logically with the facts, and there's plenty of evidence and witnesses to corroborate that. It'll be a process.

After some lengthy writing about the allegations and its impact on him, he wrapped things up with:

We've all become increasingly stressed and weary this year in ways even I'm not accustomed to by now, and discussions on heated news, political issues, and social issues on the off-topic side of the site have become areas no one has wanted to moderate in the open for fear of backlash or just general exposure to the inevitable toxicity. I've gone in there myself to take the heat, since it's very much my responsibility to do so before anyone else's, but there's been little headway, mostly just more anger and resentment and a lot of bans. I don't think this necessarily reflects on our community; more so the tone of the entire internet this year with regards to heated issues.

That's all going to inform the way forward for NeoGAF as we refocus on what the main goals are supposed to be for the site. The mod team will talk about more specifics on what that will entail below.

And as you can imagine, his response was not well-received by the general public. The overwhelming number of new threads popping up are expressing outrage at the allegations and the site, and are currently in the process of being locked down by what must be an overworked mod team.

The rage of gamers, as I've said before, is fierce but brief. I don't doubt that eventually people will calm down again. But only if NeoGAF or its founder, is still around to see that day; that's looking questionable at this point.

We'll keep you posted.