Let me tell you the best thing about being editor in chief of Kotaku.
There is a writer or producer on the team. They have an idea. It is something real, something they need to tell people, something that is worth knowing. They write. They post. And readers appear. I may have helped to open up that space for them, but it is actually them. They did this. And I’m rooting for them.
And that’s it.
You can probably tell where this is going, right?
Since May 2009, first as deputy editor of Kotaku and since 2012 as editor-in-chief, I have tried, more than anything else I have done here, to make these successes happen. During the good and bad times, in the midst of the growing chaos that the different versions of our company perpetually brought, I put my energy to keep Kotaku going and keeping Kotaku truth. In doing so, I had in mind that what you did Kotaku wonderful in 2009, 2012, 2014, 2019, whatever they want, has been their team: their writers, editors and producers, each of them from the past and the present, putting their journalism, their criticism and the rest of their ideas on the page. And my main job was just to make sure they could and to support them as they did.
I’m leaving Kotaku. Today is my last day, as I prepare for a glorious month of vacation. Maybe I can do some long runs, teach my kids to ride a bike, really finish Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (does it ever end?). So I’m going to start my new thing, still video game journalism and more as a return to a time when I wrote and reported my own things. I lost a lot in the last few years. No, I’m not saying where yet. Follow my Twitter, folks.
Kotaku, like all Gawker Media sites, was born in rebellion. Deadspin was designed to stick to ESPN, Jezebel to fight backward women’s magazines, Gawker to hit everyone and Kotaku to challenge the establishment of Gamespot and IGN (or eventually take charge of one of them – keep kicking the butt, Tina!).
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The purpose of all of our sites was to get closer to the truth. In Kotaku the truth involved games and game culture. We should deliver the ideal, as articulated by Gawker founder Nick Denton, of the real story. He expected us to show the public the reality that press reporters at the establishment did not publish in the newspaper, but would tell each other after hours at the bar – or we would get as close as we could. I liked Nick’s guideline, definitely more than the one where he suggested we take pictures every day of people making funny faces playing (uh, thanks for the suggestion, boss!). This journalistic value was not exclusive to Gawker Media, but the fervor in pursuing it will motivate me forever. I hope you continue to drive the team Kotaku, current and old, always dig deeper, always avoid artifice, always work harder to bring the reader to what you know, always find ways to be more real.
Over the years, I have had many hopes of Kotaku, so that our report gets to the necessary details that otherwise would not see the light of day, so that our criticism improves our appreciation and thinking about a medium still little understood.
My main goal was to challenge people’s expectations of what a great gaming site would write and who would write it. I was inspired by small websites and brave voices, especially those on the innovative website The Border House, who recognized the need to cover politics and people, and to reach and target a diverse audience, at a time when big vehicles did not. Year after year, I was motivated by bold employees who covered taboo topics because they were important. I wanted one Kotaku that seemed bold and inclusive, that made a more diverse set of readers feel welcome and seen on the site. I hope we have made some progress there. Much work remains to be done.
This has been a dream job, although, of course, occasionally a nightmare. Worth it. I’m thankful for that Kotaku exists, that there is a website where readers will show if EiC is interviewing the head of Nintendo or some random “boring” commentator. So, thanks to the readers for that. Really, thanks to the millions of people who read this site every month. And thanks to everyone who spoke to me for a story and who endured my last five questions.
Thanks to Brian Crecente, Nick Denton and all the leaders of Gawker Media and their permutations that believed in me and my team and / or just got out of the way. (And speaking of energy brokers, thank you to The New York Times for running Kotaku assessments on its pages a few years ago. That was also really cool.)
Thanks to everyone I worked with – every reporter, critic, blogger, producer, artist, social media editor, financial worker, salesperson, office manager, event coordinator and anyone else who was part of Kotaku or provided support. Some of you are still in this company, others have changed. I am hoping that all of you will prosper. I also want to greet the teams at our sister sites, who embody this rebellious spirit of encouragement.
I want to thank our current team – Alexandra, Ari, Ash, Brian, Ethan, Ian, Lisa Marie, Luke, Mike, Nathan, Zack, Tim and our frequent partner John – for their unbelievable courage in this most recent and difficult of years. What you all did on the site during what we had to live and work together is impressive. You are as big as Kotaku team as it always has been.
I also want to give a special nod to Riley MacLeod, longtime managing editor and, most recently, general editor. He’s an excellent team fighter, critic and trusted friend. It worked so hard to keep this place together during so many storms and has been my indispensable, indeed deputy for this challenging last year.
It is an honor to serve this team and the readers of our website. For the Kotaku, just one last request: please don’t relegate my comments to gray.