Alonzo DeLeon
Alonzo has been an avid gamer ever since he fired up his first Atari 2600 as a child. He has spent most of his adult life working in the IT industry, including several years for several game publishers. He now lives in Eastern Europe, and spends his time doing various projects, including writing and helping to develop games for classic gaming consoles. Be sure to follow him on Twitter: @Alonzo_DeLeon
Those of us who follow GamerGate (and gaming news as a whole) are most likely familiar with Ben Kuchera, the balding SJW who tries to silence critics of SJW beliefs and who thinks that Tetris brainwashed us with Soviet propaganda. In a recent opinion piece on the gaming journalism ghetto known as Polygon, Mr. Kuchera announced that he is taking a break from gaming. While he is hyping up his exile from gaming as being self-imposed, there is reason to believe that he may actually be getting fired from his position/pulpit at Polygon.
According to recent tweets from Breitbart’s Milo Yiannopoulos, rumor has it that Mr. Kuchera is one of the victims of a recent clearing-out at Polygon. This would be no surprise to anyone, of course, as Ben Kuchera has been notorious for being a poor gaming journalist, among other things.
Who Is Ben Kuchera?
As most everyone knows, Kuchera has been putrifying the landscape of gaming journalism for years now after having been a contributor and later staffer of Ars Technica (through being a blowhard know-it-all in the forums for years prior to his employment), and then later running Penny Arcade’s “Penny Arcade Report” into the ground. He was most recently hired at Polygon as a Senior Opinion Editor, a position that seemingly isn’t going to last for much longer.
Mr. Kuchera has been a long-time foe of GamerGate, having been one of the members of the infamous GameJournoPros mailing list that tried to blacklist Allistair Pinsof from the industry. He was an alleged big-dog on the aforementioned mailing list, and apparently bullied his way to holding a high level of influence over the other members before its shuttering.
Later, he seemingly joined forces with Jonathon McIntosh, the boyfriend/sponsor and well-known huckster boyfriend of harpy Anita Sarkeesian, parroting the ridiculous idea that all games have political meanings behind them, including the ludicrious idea that Tetris was Soviet propaganda, among other absurdities.
If all of that info isn’t enough, Ben’s further follies have been well-documented all over the Internet, including right here on Reaxxion.
What This Means For Gaming Journalism
It’s no secret that many game journalism websites have been falling on hard times lately, with the recent shuttering of Joystiq and the financial difficulties experienced by Kotaku’s parent, Gawker Media. The recent crusade against their core audience has left many of these sites feeling the pinch, and when this happens, the staffers responsible for this crusade end up getting hit in their wallets. It’s possible that Mr. Kuchera may have lost his joy for gaming, as he not-so-eloquently states in his recent diatribe, but this is quite possibly spurred on by the fact that employers are starting to realize that he’s been a cancer on the gaming journalism industry for far too long.
Ben explaining the significance of his own writing.
What This Means For Gamers
Gaming as a safe space for men has suffered some severe intrusions and setbacks over the last year or so, in no small part due to the efforts of Mr. Kuchera and his SJW-afflicted colleagues who have tried their best to ruin a once great hobby. A world without Ben Kuchera’s whiny voice crying about the injustice of GamerGate for calling out corruption in game journalism would be a world in which game developers are free to practice their profession without fear of being shamed or bullied into censoring their life’s work, and in which gamers are free to participate in rich and vibrant medium of entertainment without worry of being shamed for being gamers.
While the rumors of his demise may not be true (he’s been publishing articles on film and TV since his recent admission), we can only count this as a victory for GamerGate. With a little more luck and a lot more effort on our parts, the remaining voices of political correctness that pollute gaming journalism may find themselves without an audience.
Read More: Ben Kuchera Thinks Tetris Brainwashed You With Soviet Propaganda
