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breakingarrows · 1 year ago

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Dirty Laundry: Easy Allies and Last Stand Media

What was originally supposed to be breaking down the recent online drama between Easy Allies and Last Stand Media has devolved into me scouring Twitter and forums to try and nail down what it is that makes Colin Moriarty such a lightning rod for arguments online.

Originally I was attracted to this recent collaboration due to being a former fan of both Easy Allies, made up of former staff of the website GameTrailers, and Colin Moriarty, from his Podcast Beyond and early Kinda Funny days. I use the term former more strongly in regards to Colin as while I was a fan for a long time I eventually grew tired of his shit. I had already begun to wobble on my commitment to Kinda Funny by March 2017, the same month he made his infamous tweet that led to his ousting at the company, was also the release of The Legend of Zelda: The Breath of the Wild. In an episode of the Gamescast the quality of the game and games media’s response to it became a subject and Colin had some really out there takes that I detailed in a post at the time. He was shortly afterwards pushed out and started his own Patreon and rarely appeared on my feed mainly when people were dunking on whatever opinion got traction and passed around in screenshots or quote-tweets.

This most recent drama was due to a guest spot on a recent Easy Allies podcast called Frame Trap with guest Dustin Furman of Last Stand Media. The episode is business as usual with nothing outlandish going on. The next day Easy Allies community manager Gabby Montoute posts on the Easy Allies discord this message,

Hi guys, just wanted to quickly address the latest episode of Frame Trap. To first explain our thought process: Brad & Dustin are friends and Dustin is a fan of ours, so Brad wanted to have him on FrameTrap. We unfortunately did not think it through beyond that & that is entirely our fault. Please understand, Brad has known and trusted Dustin for many years, but we hear your concerns and will take more time to discuss & vet new guests before bringing them on. We sincerely apologize for any and all drama this has caused. Thank you so much for understanding and please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions or comments!

This seemingly was posted due to individuals reaching out to members of Easy Allies to voice their displeasure that they would associate with someone from Last Stand Media, namely due to its ownership by Colin. A follow up was added afterwards

Guys, read the apology before you jump to any conclusions. No one is apologizing for being friends with Dustin, but there is unfortunately some inherent messiness (to put it lightly) when it comes to LSM that we would rather avoid than participate in. It was a mistake, but let's all please be mature about this. If you want to discuss it again, feel free to message me, but any bad faith conversation about it in this Discord is over.

Additionally Daniel Bloodworth would pin his comment on the episode on YouTube

I want to offer my deepest apologies to everyone for my failures regarding this week's Frame Trap and its aftermath. I tried to address some people's questions in our Discord about bringing Dustin Furman onto Frame Trap, and unintentionally made Brad and Dustin look bad in the process. I failed to properly account for potential reactions, and I failed by rushing out a statement which has harmed one of our guests and biggest fans. There are few things that hurt me as deeply as knowing that I've hurt others. And it's my own mistakes that have led to this absolute turmoil for Dustin, Brad, Gabby, our staff, and our community. This is my responsibility, and I'm sorry. -Daniel Bloodworth

That same day Washington Post reporter and Last Stand Media contributor Gene Park would join the ResetEra thread for Easy Allies defending the reputation of Last Stand Media.

I really want to push back on the idea that LSM, a company I contribute to, is any kind of political show or holds any kind of political or ideological stance. It does not and it is not. My employer, The Washington Post, would not have greenlit my involvement if Last Stand Media was in any way a show about strong political viewpoints. The leadership vetted it. It simply isn’t. Social issues are rarely discussed, and if they are, they’re addressed with some nuance, and Colin has always been very careful in stating his own inherent bias and ignorance on certain issues. However lightly social or political issues are addressed, it is a centrist approach, which is largely aligned with how mainstream media orgs like The Post operates. Literally all the content is about games, the business of games, the culture of games. I would not have gotten involved if that was not the case. But it is. It’s just a gaming media platform. To say otherwise is simply inaccurate and based on hearsay and memes.

Gene’s posts eventually led to a (1) month ban due to, "Dismissive commentary around banned source and transphobia." Last Stand Media would post on October 23 a tweet stating, "“We’ll see about that.” with a photo where a sign states, “Warning Poaching is Strictly Forbidden. Violators will be prosecuted.” stirring speculation on its meaning in regards to the situation between themselves and Easy Allies, namely on if Bradley Ellis would be jumping ship from Easy Allies to Last Stand Media as a result. That same day Last Stand Media would upload the episode Is the Skinsuit Complete? | Sacred Symbols, Episode 277 with timestamp “0:52:24 - The Easy Allies Situation.” During this segment Colin goes off on Easy Allies and his prior conversations with Brandon Jones which he misinterprets as ending by being thrown under the bus. Brandon Jones’ video and posts online at the time were non-committal and bore no condemnation or judgment towards Colin and were simply him becoming wary of the reputation Colin had accrued for himself online. Colin is just so thin-skinned that any pause to contemplate whether there is merit behind why a portion of your audience is saying, “maybe don’t work with this guy,” is equivalent to “being thrown under the bus.” I also find it humorous that Colin felt the need to send a strongly worded email about how the two were done and would never work together again.

Easy Allies should have handled the situation better. To suddenly denounce the guest you had on shows that no vetting was done beforehand, or the word of Bradley Ellis was held as verification enough. If the latter, to suddenly turn becomes a critique of Brad’s judgment. All of their wording has been vague-posting, meaning you leave everything to speculation and the matter would have been passed over in a short time had it just remained unaddressed. Let the segments of your audience that find Dustin’s guest appearance vilifying to move on, to peter back and forth between condemnation and apologizing just makes into the mess it is today. According to Dustin he is no longer welcome on Easy Allies’ channel and Brad is not allowed to go on Last Stand Media content going forward.

You can’t please anyone, and Easy Allies needs to be smarter about who they are aiming to please. It is often said to ignore a vocal minority, and it might have ended up being the best course of action for Easy Allies. Listening to Brandon’s old Cup of Jones, the one in which he “throws Colin under the bus”, it is clearly apparent that he is desperate to appease all the voices that are coming through the channel’s various platforms: Twitter, their forums, comments, and emails. Appeasing one group means angering a separate one, and teeter-tottering back and forth between them all will eventually shake all the leaves off your tree, namely your Patreon subscriber base. Colin echoes, more harshly, the attitude that dominated the former Easy Allies subreddit in that the company is failing and on a downward spiral that can’t be sustained, and I doubt this recent controversy has helped at all as the terminally online are the ones more likely to be giving you money on Patreon than the casual observer on YouTube who will likely never follow Dustin to his home channel and watch Colin’s rant.

Combing through Colin’s tweets (something I don’t recommend but the fruits of which are listed on my timeline at the bottom of this post) is a confirmation that not much has changed. He has always loved the term “echochamber” and frequently lacks the self awareness that this is what he cultivates for himself. Colin consistently states he loves being challenged and disagreed with but always antagonistically responds to criticism and frequently only engages with the most offensive and weakest responses to his stances on Twitter. His favorite is to pick a random Twitter user who makes claims of racism, sexism, transphobia, etc towards him and then asks for the specific instances and says he’s made plenty of pro-[social issue here] arguments in videos online.

He loves to bring on people such as Filip Miucin, Vince Ingenito, and Kara Lynne not so much as to do any sort of questioning but instead to just let them talk unopposed. Miucin plagiarized throughout his career and is met with weak opposition to his claims. Ingenito who was the subject of a sexual harassment investigation within IGN that was so mishandled it led to the entire staff walking out in protest when it was revealed but was unjustly “excommunicated” by the industry. Colin would write in June 2023 about Vince, “He has one of the greatest critical minds in the history of games media and it's unfair that audiences have been robbed of him for so long. I'm proud that Last Stand is giving him a place to speak. He'll return.” Kara Lynne who was fired from Limited Run Games after a campaign by an admitted internet bully discovered a tweet by Lynne pushing forward the myth that perverts would benefit more from transgender bathroom laws than anyone else. This is a problem I have with the same softball journalism employed by the bane of Colin’s existence, games media. He literally opens the episode with Miucin by saying, “You don’t hear very much from me. I’ll let Filip speak for himself, tell his story to you, and take from it what you will.” Where is the pushback? Where is the spine to confront someone over lies and instead just let them say their side with no inspection? It drives me crazy. People hail him as a “real journalist” because he brings people on and “just lets them speak.” as if that’s journalism. This is the same man who recommended the book Elements of Journalism by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel as essential reading for anyone wanting to do journalism but seemingly has not learned any of the lessons taught within its text. No journalist would let an interview subject just put forward their narrative with no attempt at verification or skepticism questioning.

Colin really hates games media, not for the reasons I criticize games media, but instead seemingly just because they’re all out to get him, save for the individuals who still engage with him online, they’re okay. Waypoint writes about how Horizon Zero Dawn devs responded to accusations of appropriating imagery and cultural elements from native american tribes and he calls it outrage culture. Kotaku, Polygon, and Waypoint “pedal almost entirely in outrage.” Games media’s real diversity problem isn’t in the color of your skin but instead one of ideologies. Games media is adversarial to game developers, publishers, and PR so of course those same institutions should be adversarial to games media. An article from GameSpot explaining how bra sizes work in response to people freaking out over Tifa’s bust in Final Fantasy VII Remake is mocked as why games media is dying. Games media needs to be dispassionate because they are purposefully ignoring that PAX West dropped my panel and won't refund my fans who are now boycotting the convention in response. “Who do enthusiast outlets write for? It sure doesn't seem like they write for any of us [the REAL gamers].” Game reviewers who play on easy mode don’t actually like video games (despite the average gamer never actually even finishing a majority of games they play).

Another obsession of Colin is to give the appearance of being a gracious host who just wants to debate people in the common interest of knowledge and progress. He tried to bait Bob Mackey into coming out to see him in person to debate about Bob’s accusations of Colin’s political leanings and actions while working at IGN. He frequently talks about how he would love to have people who disagree with him on his show, as if that would lead to anything other than two people talking at each other with Colin’s fans heralding his great victory and the opposition's cringe loss. Most recently he responded to his friend David Jaffe, himself posting in response to Jeff Grubb screen posting a tweet of Jaffe’s and was offensive because Grubb didn’t “tag” Jaffe(?), “The types of people that do this will never, ever sit and talk to you, just like they won't with me. They're scared. I'd be scared to defend my positions, too, if I spent years flailing around an echochamber. Thankfully, iron sharpens iron and you and I have no such issues. <3”

As I mentioned before, Colin really loves to play the victim. He was able to leverage his Kinda Funny ousting into a very successful Patreon, one whose membership outnumbers the likes of Nextlander, NoClip, Game Makers Toolkit, Jeff Gerstmann, Kinda Funny’s individual patreons, and Retronauts (among many others you can find on the Game Biz sheet I try to keep up to date). He talks about building this successful Patreon despite “Virtually no games PR or publisher goodwill.” though also would tout in 2018 that, “They gave me God of War early, too. Don't let the games media echochamber fool you. Every publisher I've approached has been more than happy to (and often eager to) work with me.” Something changed in 2019 as that same company that gave him Detroit: Become Human and God of War early would blacklist his outlet. “PlayStation has blacklisted Sacred Symbols for reasons entirely unknown, so we won't be getting anything from them moving forward.” Probably the most perfect example of pity party Moriarty comes in this response, “Hundreds? Try thousands. [of people attacking him online] Hit pieces written about me in renowned publications [I’m unable to find anything other than the usual summary of events news stories from the time of his exit]. Thrown away by people I knew for years and treated with respect [This at least checks out from his perspective of events]. Blacklisted [only by Sony as far as his statements have shown]. Defamed and lied about. Intentionally misrepresented [This is likely just the usual twitter posting being referenced]. No. He will never experience 1% of what I did. It's fine. I lived.” It’s quite melodramatic. Colin can cry in his dollar bills though, as he’s tweeted already, he has become much more successful than he ever was before, transforming his tears into financial compensation and playing on people’s apparent need to adulate him with praise.

Lastly, Colin made a big deal of him leaving the GOP in 2016 after Trump’s nomination, as if being a proud Republican for his lifetime prior bore no consequence simply because he was “socially liberal�� during it. His words on there needing to be more diversity of ideas within games media reads as naive in terms of how leftists and liberals are as divided and argumentative amongst themselves as he believes they should be, they just lack a Republican review giving the latest Mario a 9/10. Nobody wanting to debate him nowadays is mostly due to a degradation of tolerance for people who are stymying progress, especially as we grow ever nearer to climate disaster, as the rich hoard more and more wealth as costs go up and wages stay as they are. We’re tired of this shit and don’t have the patience for those who want to present the insidious mask of thoughtful discussion between those who want us dead and those who are dying. As Austin Walker wonderfully put it in Febraury 2017, “While you encourage me to debate a brick wall, I'll be busy trying to keep it from fucking falling on my head.”

Tracking this stuff is exhausting, and I can see why I didn’t really do much with the “Dirty Laundry” series after the first handful of episodes in 2015. There is no shortage of drama, but actually tracking down solid information takes too much time for too little reward. Colin’s fans will read these same tweets and think they’re examples of his strong convictions and character and is correct in his assertions because he’s just so smart. Those like me will find renewed annoyance at his continual whining and bad take posting while he profits and those who actually are the, “greatest critical minds in the history of games media” continue to do so part time and scrape by on Patreon. Shit sucks! Fuck him!

Colin Moriarty: wrote guides and posted them on GameFAQs throughout the 2000s, started guide writing for IGN in 2003, was hired in 2007, jumped from guide writing to editorial in 2009, left IGN to co-found Kinda Funny in January 2015, is ousted from Kinda Funny in March 2017, creates Colin’s Last Stand on Patreon that same month, January 2021 rebrands as Last Stand Media, continues to work there to this day.

December 13, 2012: Colin Moriarty “I love being challenged, I love people disagreeing with me, giving me a different view. Living in an echochamber must be a lonely existence.” [source]

June 29, 2015: Colin Moriarty “Here's my argument: the Confederate flag is a symbol of racism created by traitors to their country. Pretty simple.” [source]

March 3, 2017: Colin Moriarty “Was his response "I wrote a game about a woman fighting robot dinosaurs, why is everything cause for faux outrage?" That'd be a good answer.” In response to a Waypoint article about the appropriation of native american imagery for the groups within Horizon Zero Dawn. [source]

March 8, 2017: Colin Moriarty “Ah. Peace and quiet. #ADayWithoutAWoman” [source] this quickly led to his departure from Kinda Funny.

September 26, 2017: Colin Moriarty “Asian Americans blow the entire White Supremacy/Racism bit to smithereens. Expect the fringe left to chase ‘em hard over the next few years. Compared to whites, Asian Americans are better educated, make more money, live in more affluent areas, and live longers. Where’s the racism?!” [source]

Also, “To reiterate: If @bobservo wants to have a productive debate, I will fly him to LA, put him up, and donate $2,000 to a charity he chooses.” [source]

October 9, 2017: Colin Moriarty “All of those people are welcome to come record an episode with me should they ever find themselves in LA. Would love to host them.” This is in response to someone on Twitter saying he should have Austin Walker, Patrick Klepek, Danielle Riendeau, Gita Jackson, and Zoe Quinn on his show [source]

November 22, 2017: Brandon Jones responds positively [source] to Colin Moriarty’s invitation [source] to be on his show, there was some pushback for and against this. [source]

November 29, 2017: Colin Moriarty “The illustrious @TrailerJones joined me for this week's CLS: Fireside Chats! We chat about Easy Allies and Patreon, and open up about our time at GameTrailers/IGN, the good 'ol days at Kinda Funny, and the storm surrounding this podcast happening at all. https://patreon.com/posts/15613489“ [source]

December 3, 2017: Brandon Jones “Last week my words were upsetting to some. I worried anything else I said might make things worse. I’ve been doing a lot of reading and thinking lately, but not a lot of talking, and that’s rightfully frustrated people I care about in the EZA community. ⅛” [source]

December 5, 2017: Brandon Jones posts a Cup of Jones on Easy Allies patreon, some bit of it includes comments on Colin's situation. [Colin later cites this as an example of not liking Brandon]

April 11, 2018: Colin Moriarty “Games media has a diversity problem, but it's not the one ably written about here. Can you name a single conservative or libertarian writer working at any mainstream games outlet? Just one. I'd like diversity of thought and ideas. Skin deep is just that. https://eurogamer.net/articles/2018-04-11-why-the-games-media-has-a-diversity-problem-this-website-especially. I love and respect IGN for a lot of reasons, but this reason may be paramount: When they brought me on as a freelancer in 2002 (and full time in 2007), they knew damn well I was a passionate, political conservative, and they embraced it. They never tried to shut me up, ever. I'd love to see some of these outlets hire a Trump voter. Hire an evangelical. Hire a libertarian. Hire a social conservative. These people also play and love games. Millions of them. We're so focused on gender and skin color that we've forgotten about, y'know... the mind.” [source]

November 8, 2018: Colin Moriarty “My favorite game of 2018 is STILL Detroit: Become Human. I bid you good day.” [source]

May 10, 2019: Colin Moriarty “I said it during Kingdom Come: Deliverance, and I’ll say it again: Game devs, publishers, and PR have nothing to lose by being adversarial to a games media that is perpetually adversarial to them. Right or wrong, it’s certainly tactically sound.” [source]

May 24, 2019: Colin Moriarty “There's no doubt that YouTube is an Outrage Fest, but websites like Kotaku, Polygon, and Waypoint pedal almost entirely in outrage. No one would care about Kotaku (at all) if not for Jason S. It's safer to call out the YouTubers destroying his media circle than honestly assess.” [source]

June 21, 2019: Colin Moriarty “It’s almost impossible to believe that old guard games media is dying. [photo of a GameSpot article ‘We Need to Talk About How Bra Sizes Work’” [source]

August 1, 2019: Colin’s Last Stand posts: Introducing CLS' First Full-Time Employee: Dustin Furman [source]

August 3, 2019: Colin Moriarty “The lack of coverage is proof, above all else, that games media isn't dispassionate. If you don't have a dispassionate media, why even have a media at all? The lack of coverage doesn't hurt Chris and I. It hurts our ripped-off fans, who the media also doesn't care about.” [source]

September 22, 2019: Colin Moriarty “It’s their prerogative not to invite us! It’s no big deal. We’ll continue to cover everything thoroughly and fairly regardless of the way publisher PR treats Sacred Symbols. We have more than 50,000 people that rely on us, and we’ll always do our best for y’all regardless. <3” [source]

Colin Moriarty “Nah. PR (and CMs/marketers) hold the cards in this regard. We'll continue to keep the lines of communication open with all publishers and they can work with us if they want. Our show will continue to grow and prosper with or without 'em, and we're happy to buy the games we need.”

October 17, 2019: Colin Moriarty “We've been asked a ton, so: No, @ChrisRGun and I don't have Death Stranding. PlayStation has blacklisted Sacred Symbols for reasons entirely unknown, so we won't be getting anything from them moving forward. We're happy to buy any game and treat it fairly, so it's no biggie. <3” [source]

November 8, 2019: Colin Moriarty “This week's all-new episode of Sacred Symbols+ is dedicated to the decaying mainstream games media. In the wake of Deadspin's self-destruction, it's worth asking: Who do enthusiast outlets write for? It sure doesn't seem like they write for any of us.” [source]

February 13, 2020: Colin Moriarty “This is the perfect encapsulation of intersectionality's complete failure. Trans women can be accepted as women. That's great. But they were born men in male bodies, and they're destroying biological women in sports. It's not fair, and it shouldn't be controversial to say so.” [source]

February 20, 2020: Colin Moriarty “With all due respect, Mr. Bloomberg, your debate performance last night was arguably the worst I've ever seen. Trump would absolutely eat you alive. I think you should step aside and let one of your better-equipped competitors take it from here. Fund 'em, if you like! My 2¢.” Directly responding to Mike Bloomberg’s tweet [source]

March 8, 2020: Colin Moriarty “Hundreds? Try thousands. Hit pieces written about me in renowned publications. Thrown away by people I knew for years and treated with respect. Blacklisted. Defamed and lied about. Intentionally misrepresented. No. He will never experience 1% of what I did. It's fine. I lived.” [source]

March 24, 2020: Lillymo Games Inc publishes Twin Breaker: A Sacred Symbols Adventure on PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4 with ports later on Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.

May 30, 2020: Colin Moriarty “If you watch the interview (which I suggest), MLK talks extensively about the immoral and intolerable racism the black community faced (and which the community still faces). But he never condoned violence. And he knew it wasn't a useful tool. Peace is the most potent weapon.” [source]

June 2, 2020: Colin Moriarty “I absolutely loved what he had to say, top to bottom. Understanding the results of systemic racism. Holding people to account that perpetrate violence against blacks. Reinforcing your own home instead of burning it down. Planning. Responding. Organizing. Voting. It was perfect.” In response to someone mentioning Killer Mike’s speech. [source]

June 3, 2020: Colin Moriarty “We built this with:✅ Virtually no mainstream games industry support. ✅ Virtually no games PR or publisher goodwill. ✅ Persistent defamation and misrepresentation by games media and their acolytes. But the people have spoken. Thank you so much for that. <3“ [source]

This is seemingly in direct contradiction with an earlier tweet from May 24, 2018: Colin Moriarty “They gave me God of War early, too. Don't let the games media echochamber fool you. Every publisher I've approached has been more than happy to (and often eager to) work with me.” [source]

June 29, 2020: Colin Moriarty “Colin's Last Stand has acquired 49% of @LillymoGames, and I will be its Chief Creative Officer and Lead Writer moving forward. Also: Side Quest will now be a tandem operation between @DustinCanFly and @G27Status Plus: Other things in a letter from me! https://patreon.com/posts/38682170“ [source]

September 1, 2021: Colin Moriarty “I think we can all agree that Kotaku has somehow, some way assembled the Anti-All-Star Team of Games Media.” [source]

September 25, 2021: Colin Moriarty “The types of people that do this will never, ever sit and talk to you, just like they won't with me. They're scared. I'd be scared to defend my positions, too, if I spent years flailing around an echochamber. Thankfully, iron sharpens iron and you and I have no such issues. <3” Response to David Jaffe posting a Jeff Grubb video featuring a Jaffe screen grab and being blocked by Grubb. [source]

July 14, 2021: Colin Moriarty “If you can’t or won’t beat games on anything harder than Easy — and you’re reviewing them from that perspective and not from the perspective of the average player — then your criticism is worthless. Seek out critics who actually like video games. It’s all getting a little trite.” [source] [this in response to Natalie @heartimecia saying she only plays games for reviews on easy after Xbox posted a tweet saying beating a game on easy is still beating the game. Souls-likes, difficulty, accessibility, etc etc etc]

July 19, 2021: Colin Moriarty “The very games media that limply tossed itself head-first into Palestine/Israel (and otherwise goes out of its way to shove every sort of fringe political view down everyone's throat) seems awfully mum about communist China-aligned entities slowly gobbling up our industry.” [source]

January 4, 2022: Sacred Symbols+, Episode 152: The Excommunication of Vince Ingenito [This is the same Vince Ingenito who was laid off by IGN in March 2017, Kallie Plagge came out and shared that Ingenito sexually harassed herself and another female staff member and felt HR’s response was irresponsible. This led to a walk out by IGN staff until management put out a response addressing it. [source]]

April 26, 2022: Gene Park “had a very quick, pleasant chat with Colin about the trajectory of my career and my life. "games media being in its death throes" is colin's view on it but i do talk about how all aspects of media are slowly being overtaken by a creator-led revolution of coverage and distributing information. folks, try not to fight with the journalists in my mentions. i understand their concerns and why they might be upset about this. but as i say in the interview, i see this as Colin giving ME a platform. his audience includes many of my own followers, people who are good. many of you haven't followed my career closely but during my career as an audience engagement editor, i found much success in talking to audiences with an antagonistic view of the press. on reddit, i talked with fervent Trump supporters who HATE us all the time. even in Hawaii, i held in person meetings with groups of people who have every reason to hate the media. this is just how i've always operated, but it's something i passionately care about. this isn't about "validation" it's about reaching out to audiences.” [source [end of thread post]]

January 25, 2023: Last Stand Media has Kara Lynne on their Sacred Symbols+ podcast, she was fired from Limited Run Games after Twitter user Purple Tinker [source] [someone who in June 2020 posted a five page apology for being an internet bully within the brony fandom of which they were a founder of bronycon] found an old tweet [archived version] where Lynne said, “If you think the # of trans crying about using a bathroom is higher than the perves using the excuse, you are what is wrong with this world.” as well as following various conservative people on Twitter.

April 29, 2023: Colin Moriarty “Waypoint's collapse is the most recent reminder that games media is largely finished. But it's important the void fills with passionate, knowledgeable people who care about games. Not people who didn't know there would be a third Horizon. Sacred Symbols x Defining Duke is live.” [source]

May 11, 2023: Last Stand Media YouTube uploads Kingdom Hearts Anniversary Retrospective feat. Brad Ellis | Sacred Symbols+, Episode 291

May 16, 2023: Last Stand Media launches Punching Up: A Nintendo Podcast [we need to talk about co opting that term] and also announce Gene Park as a regular member.

June 28, 2023: Colin Moriarty “It was awesome having Vince on the show to talk deeply about games. He has one of the greatest critical minds in the history of games media and it's unfair that audiences have been robbed of him for so long. I'm proud that Last Stand is giving him a place to speak. He'll return.“ [source]

October 12, 2023: Easy Allies YouTube uploads Everything Going Crazy - Frame Trap Episode 195 with Bradley Ellis, Daniel Bloodworth, Michael Huber, Michael Damiani, and guest Dustin Furman of Last Stand Media.

October 13, 2023: Easy Allies staff member Gabby posts in their Discord, “Hi guys, just wanted to quickly address the latest episode of Frame Trap. To first explain our thought process: Brad & Dustin are friends and Dustin is a fan of ours, so Brad wanted to have him on FrameTrap. We unfortunately did not think it through beyond that & that is entirely our fault. Please understand, Brad has known and trusted Dustin for many years, but we hear your concerns and will take more time to discuss & vet new guests before bringing them on. We sincerely apologize for any and all drama this has caused. Thank you so much for understanding and please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions or comments!

...

October 15, 2023: Pinned comment on Everything Going Crazy - Frame Trap Episode 195: I want to offer my deepest apologies to everyone for my failures regarding this week's Frame Trap and its aftermath. I tried to address some people's questions in our Discord about bringing Dustin Furman onto Frame Trap, and unintentionally made Brad and Dustin look bad in the process. I failed to properly account for potential reactions, and I failed by rushing out a statement which has harmed one of our guests and biggest fans. There are few things that hurt me as deeply as knowing that I've hurt others. And it's my own mistakes that have led to this absolute turmoil for Dustin, Brad, Gabby, our staff, and our community. This is my responsibility, and I'm sorry. -Daniel Bloodworth

October 15-16, 2023: Gene Park joins ResetEra thread on Easy Allies to talk about Last Stand Media (Gene Park has been banned from ResetEra for “ User Banned (1 Month): Dismissive commentary around banned source and transphobia”) [source]

October 23, 2023: Last Stand Media Twitter posts “We’ll see about that.” with a photo where a sign states, “Warning Poaching is Strictly Forbidden. Violators will be prosecuted.” [source]

October 23, 2023: Last Stand Media YouTube uploads Is the Skinsuit Complete? | Sacred Symbols, Episode 277 with timestamp “0:52:24 - The Easy Allies Situation”

October 24, 2023: Easy Allies Patreon 5,973 members, $1 lowest tier membership

Last Stand Media 15,895 members, $1 lowest tier membership

#Easy Allies #Video Games #Writing #Critcism

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