Alyssa Mercante Goes Full Nuclear Defending Kotaku Australia Shutdown

By this point, most who care about this topic have already heard the news. Kotaku Australia is shutting down. In complete honesty, I never knew that Kotaku had an Australian branch. I struggle to figure out what the value of this would even be. However, since plenty of outlets and organizations are doing this, I am sure there is some value. As stated, though, Kotaku Australia is no longer a thing. It will come as no surprise, but most people are not exactly upset by the news.

In fact, many are openly mocking the news, and some are even celebrating. While I will stop myself from actively celebrating, I find it hard to feel bad. To be clear, I feel bad for the people working there, but not for the outlet. You cannot build a career by attacking everyone who disagrees with you and then expect people to feel bad. When you express your opinions online, automatically, you will have at least 40% of people disagree with you. This is at least true when talking about politics, religion, or social issues. That is completely normal.

However, when people disagree with you, it is not exactly normal to freak out and call everyone racist sexists because they think differently. It is even less normal when the people you are calling all of those isms are your audience. To top of this onslaught, when you label yourself a gaming journalist and gaming publication and all you do is social activism, it becomes much worse. All of this is a long-winded way of saying no one cares about Kotaku. This is how most people feel. Notice, though, that I say most because there is one person going nuclear.

Alyssa Mercante Speaks Out After Kotaku Australia Shutdown

In a statement on Twitter, social and political activist masked as a game journalist Alyssa Mercante wrote the following. “Sending solidarity and love to the amazing writers at Kotaku AU and all the other sites affected. You are all stars and deserve better. Capitalism is cruel. Your work remains, always. The internet and the rats infesting it are even crueler, but a reminder: cheering for good people losing their jobs while men get rich off their labor is morally bankrupt. And by the way, I hate that I even have to say this, but let’s stop the reactionary ride before it gains speed; we are not affiliated with Kotaku AU, and we don’t share anything except a love for games and good reporting.”

Now, we need to break down a couple of things here. Firstly, I do not think Capitalism is to blame here—at least not in the way that you think it is. You have the right to write and publish what you want. However, people also have the right to choose not to read what you put out. Sites like Kotaku and IGN already have extreme site authority. That means any topic these sites cover automatically appears at the top of Google search results. With this massive boost, if you still cannot get people to click, that is on you.

Calling people rats on Twitter is probably not the best use of your time when your site is dying. If you stop tweeting 200 times a day and instead focus on gaming articles gamers want to read, you may not have to shut down a different branch every other day. Saying it is bad for people to celebrate is extra hypocritical from someone who just bragged about shutting down a website.

Conclusion

I will agree that people losing their jobs is never good. Innocent people will always get caught up in these types of things. It only takes a few crazy people to ruin it for everyone. The truth is, I do not even know if Kotaku Australia is bad. However, considering that many Kotaku people also write for the Australian outlet, I have to assume there is some overlap. The point here stands. People like Mercante give the entire Kotaku name a bad reputation. In fairness, though, she is one of many bad people there.

The disease in Kotaku runs from the top down to the bottom. That was proven when the parent company mandated that Kotaku revert to writing gaming content. Many, including the editor and chief, quit. Keep in mind that this is a site that calls itself a video game writer. I am not celebrating people losing jobs. It is hard to root for people who will dance when you fail.