The Gamergate 2.0 Timeline: ft. Smash JT and Alyssa Mercante
A Case Study in Crybulling Ah, the gaming industry - where the journalists act like rockstars, the YouTubers play watchdog, and everyone thinks they’re the main character. Enter Jeff Tarzia, aka Smash JT, a former game industry insider turned YouTube commentator, and Alyssa Mercante, the (now former) senior editor at Kotaku, a site once known for actual game journalism way back in the day, before it pivoted to clickbait and culture war commentary.What kicked off as a few spicy tweets and YouTube videos quickly devolved into a digital food fight: Mercante accused Smash of harassment, Smash fired back with receipts, and the internet, as always, grabbed popcorn. But let’s be clear - this wasn’t some unprovoked attack by a rando on the internet. It was a public figure throwing punches from her soapbox and then crying victim when someone dared to respond […]
