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Erik Kain - One of the Worst Voices in Video Game Journalism


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So recently I had the misfortune of stumbling across the work of Erik Kain, a longtime contributor of Forbes. And by God, is this guy a real piece of work. Endless contrarian, oozing with pretentiousness, with a facade of neutrality when really he's just trying to score cheap hits against popular media. Take his reviews for The Walking Dead, for example. Actually, don't, because they aren't even reviews. They're hyperbolic diatribes filled with strawman arguments, nitpicking, and the journalistic integrity of an Infowars comment section. It's one thing to hate TWD, especially in its later seasons. But this guy is clearly just a contrarian who hates popular things because they're "cool". 

 

But that's not even the worst part. The worst part is his gaming "journalism". It's an insult to even call it journalism, really. This guy makes James O'Keefe look like Woodward and Bernstein. Not only are his articles full of lies, misinformation, and bias under the guise of neutrality, but he was one of the foremost voices in the Gamergate controversy who cozied up to "gators" and actively encouraged harassment of his critics. And yet somehow many people call him "one of the best names in video game journalism." That is absurd. He is not even a journalist. He is a talentless, spineless hack, and I urge anyone, ANYONE, who is a fan of gaming to avoid him like the plague. He's basically the Armond White of video game and television journalism. If you want a voice of reason in video games, try someone like Dan Hardcastle. Yeah, he's not perfect or completely unbiased, but he's a lot more intelligent (and likable) than Erik "My-Parents-Didn't-Love-Me-Enough" Kain.

 

/rant 

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Forbes devolved into a blog/tabloid years ago, excepting a few staff writers. It's how they pay their bills. It's similar to the rise of opinion pieces - low bar of entry, unpaid positions, that generate lots of controversy (ad revenues).

 

This isn't about whoever the Eric guy is, just in general.

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48 minutes ago, EG Bot said:

Forbes devolved into a blog/tabloid years ago, excepting a few staff writers. It's how they pay their bills. It's similar to the rise of opinion pieces - low bar of entry, unpaid positions, that generate lots of controversy (ad revenues).

 

This isn't about whoever the Eric guy is, just in general.

 

Probably explains why Kain-in-the-Ass has been employed there for six years

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Read some of his stuff, to be honest I don't see what you're complaining about. 

 

Critics are critics, just because they don't like the things you like doesn't make them bad people.  Hell, he writes several 3-4 page articles per day, I don't think that qualifies him as a hack.  (and mind you he also has to watch/play whatever he's writing about in that time period as well.)  His articles are pretty on point with popular opinion anyway, and a lot of them are just straight up factual reporting.  Of the three months worth of articles I read, not one of them said anything that wasn't either blatantly true, or a reasonable opinion.

 

And BTW, it's pretty naïve to think that any journalist is "neutral."  Every single person has an agenda that seeps into their work, whether they want it to or not.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Journalism died a while ago. All news is now nothing more than glorified opinion pieces. It's for that reason that I generally I recommend finding articles from ideologically diverse sources - where they intersect is where the truth is.

The rule of thumb seems to be "When we can't pander to those who love us generate controversy by going against those who don't". Not surprising since controversy and pandering are the only two things that generate real revenue.

It worked too, I didn't even know who Eric Kain was, but now I'm googling his name to see what his opinion is. The only way to win is to cease being outraged by such things.

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