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Game Mess Mornings 09/22/2022

Grubb is joined by @merrittk to discuss Logitech, Game Publishing, and more!

News expert Jeff Grubb is here to dish out all of the hottest news!

Sep. 22 2022

Posted by: Jason

34 Comments

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shtinky

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It costs $350, and is just a streaming / Android device? Why would anyone buy that over a $399 Steam Deck?

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therusseller

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I'm sorry, wasn't there a big to do when Abby had Merritt on a Beastcast?

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daltimond

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Edited By daltimond

@therusseller: Yeah I thought the same thing and so I went back to that Beastcast and there was. I wasn't in the show live so I don't know what chat was like during this show. I thought I was going crazy when i was starting the VOD earlier because I wondered the same question. Maybe all is forgiven?

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jeansberg

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I'm sorry, wasn't there a big to do when Abby had Merritt on a Beastcast?

@therusseller: Yeah I thought the same thing and so I went back to that Beastcast and there was. I wasn't in the show live so I don't know what chat was like during this show. I thought I was going crazy when i was starting the VOD earlier because I wondered the same question. Maybe all is forgiven?

If I remember correctly Merritt had said something bad around that time. She has since apologized. My memory is fuzzy which is why I'm able to provide such great detail.

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therusseller

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@jeansberg: I wasn't familiar with the controversy when Merritt appeared on the Beastcast and am still not, but I went back over the comments on that Beastcast and the objections include several allegations against Merritt, including grooming, biphobia, and conspiring to get others fired from Fanbyte.

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nophilip

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Yeah very strange to see someone on that the site had previously apologized for platforming.

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ALLTheDinos

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@jeansberg: Has she apologized? I did some googling to see if anything came up after that Beastcast and she seemed pretty dismissive of the existence of any allegations / controversy.

Since there’s very little information on the topic, I guess it depends on everyone’s individual comfort level on merritt k as a guest again. I believed Abby back then and still feel she acted in good faith. Still, I think I’ll skip this episode of GMM and just piece my gaming life back together tomorrow.

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brono_trigger

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@nophilip: Yeah I wasn't in the live chat for the episode today but wonder if anyone in chat had anything to say about it like they did the day of that Beastcast episode.

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LyndBako

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I was wondering when Merritt would show up on one of these. Between this show and Arcade Pit it seems like everybody else from Fanbyte has been a guest recently

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himbovoorhees

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@jeansberg: it wasn't something she just said - she just has a long history of abuse allegations and toxicity that she has continually denied. All of which comes from other marginalized people, and enough people that it can't just be someone making things up. One specific allegation comes from a former member of Merritt's polycule that says she and the other household members were manipulative, even using illness to exert control. There is at least one other person supporting this claim.

Article that has sources: https://kritiqal.com/articles/games-media-failed-us

All that in addition to a history of biphobic jokes, jokes about asexuals, platforming articles that normalize sexual assault, allegations pushing other queer writers out of spaces simply because she didn't like them, the list goes on.

Disclaimer: I don't know her pronouns, she doesn't list them, I am simply using the ones I last saw her use before I made a point to avoid her work. Apologies if they are incorrect.

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DrM2theJ

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Sigh. This is a bummer, man.

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Dizzyhippos

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jeansberg

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Shoeblazer

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Yes! Glad to see Merritt K on Giant Bomb again!

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VectortheAngel

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VERY interesting to see the reaction to Grubb having Merritt on compared to Abby. VERY interesting indeed.

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himbovoorhees

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Edited By himbovoorhees

@vectortheangel: I think part of the problem is that the userbase is a lot less involved than it was back in the day. (Though misogyny was still a major issue then and every time people had a problem with Abby.)

Abby was also a lot more willing to address these issues and put herself out there, for better or worse, and people really took advantage of that. Which is heartbreaking because she is a treasure and I adored her time at GB.

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himbovoorhees

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@allthedinos: she hasn't apologized. Every time it comes up she openly mocks people and that's the extent of addressing it.

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mrlogical

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I don't know what to make of merrit - she's someone I've been vaguely aware of for a long time, and I've been aware that some people think she's bad, yet other people I tend to think of as not associating with bad people are friendly with her... But it definitely came to mind that Abby had her on a GB show and then apologized for it and said it was a mistake, which made it real weird for her to show up on this show without comment. Feels like it has to be addressed.

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Shoeblazer

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I feel ridiculous for caring about this, but I would suggest that many of the people in this comment section go touch some damn grass. None of us have ever met any of these people. What is it that you think you know that people making decisions at Fanbyte and Giant Bomb don't?

When they apologized for having Merritt on last time, I looked into the allegations, since I was a fan and I hadn't heard about it before that. I followed everything to the sources, and there was nothing but the vaguest talk of an unfortunate living situation, and bitterness from her doing her job as an editor and choosing what's a good fit for a website. That article being linked is baseless. If you follow the links in it, you can read for yourself how nebulous and brief the accusations are. I have never seen anything that gives me reason to think anyone acted maliciously. If the aggrieved can't even articulate the supposed abuse, I'm not inclined to believe it.

It's one big game of telephone. Leave that in elementary school where it belongs.

Merritt does excellent work, and I hope all the former Fanbyte folks find their footing.

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paugerot

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Merritt is fine and she always has been. This rumor mongering about Merrit K was embarrassing for the GB community when it first came up a few years ago and it’s especially embarrassing now, when she was just laid off.

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Hype

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@shoeblazer: I wanted to say something similar to this but you said it better than I could, so I will just say that I also did a lot of reading the last time this came up, and then again today to see if anything more concrete had come to light since then, and I have come to the same conclusion that the whole "merritt k controversy" is pretty suspect. All of the receipts I've seen from people trying to prove that merritt is some biphobic bigot have been screenshots of twitter jokes and obvious hyperbole taken out of context, and the actual serious allegations (grooming, abuse, etc) came from one person who by multiple accounts seems rather toxic themself.

I've followed merritt on twitter for years and while she does have a wry sense of humor I can't recall ever having seen her punch down at any marginalized community. Lots of the people that she publicly associates with on a daily basis are queer as hell and I've never seen any of them have anything bad to say about her. It seems to be exclusively weirdos who come out of the woodwork to try and get her canceled whenever she shows up in a guest spot somewhere.

And finally, I hate to say this because I love this site and this community but I think a lot people around here were eager to throw merritt under the bus just for an excuse to sling shit at Abby and accuse her of failing to properly vet her guests after the site publicly distanced itself from Matt Pascual. It's telling that so many people were eager to outright dismiss allegations against Matt as dirty laundry and nobody's business and then are suddenly very disappointed in staff at Giant Bomb for "platforming" somebody who had some real vague accusations against them that couldn't even be found unless you searched for very specific terms on google. For all the talk of Giant Bomb staff needing to Do Better™, I think it's some people in this community who need to do better.

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Shoeblazer

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@hype: Very well put. Thank you for contributing!

Imran Khan has spoken out on Merritt's behalf on Twitter as well. https://twitter.com/imranzomg/status/1573468355473833987

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mrlogical

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It's helpful to see some context from folks who support Merritt. I agree the stuff about her living situation or her professional situation struck me as vague and personal in a way that was not relevant to me. Stuff about offensive jokes I can't weigh without seeing the jokes, but I gather some people were offended and some not. For me the real issue is that GB had her on once, then said oh God so sorry we won't do that again, and then had her on again without comment. Different people, different era, but still, confusing to see from a viewer perspective without any explanation.

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Jeremy808

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@mrlogical:

But it’s like you said, different people, different era. Grubb wasn’t working for Giant Bomb when that originally happened. I’m not sure how you think it should have been handled. Or what explanation you might be looking for. Was Grubb supposed to start that stream and say “I understand there was some controversy last time you appeared on the site. I wasn’t working here so I can’t really speak to it”?

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mrlogical

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Edited By mrlogical

Nevermind, looking at other parts of the community, this issue is very weird and hostile, and while I am confused by GB's policies and think they should be clearer about them, I don't want to participate in more mess! I hope GB uses good judgment and is fair to people and truly have no position on this specific person, the end!

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onlineatron

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HildaTilde

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For anyone still confused: merittk has consistently mocked nonbinary and bisexual people on twitter, expecially during Pride Month. She has never gone back on any of the hateful jokes she's made. The stuff about her personal relationships is a bit hard to parse, but from what I've gathered she was part of a polycule where many people involved were scumbags who brought people in only to abuse them. I don't really know what to make of it, but I do know that I have dear friends who are nonbinary and family who are bisexual, so I think she sucks, to put it politely. I'm sure she has been a good friend to Imran Khan and many other people who are not nonbinary or bisexual, and that's made it easy for them to ignore her bigotry.

Giant Bomb would not have had her on a second time, but this website is GB in name only now. The people who made it what it was are gone. I know for a fact that nonbinary people left this community when merittk was on the first time, and having her back on after all that controversy has made it pretty clear that this website and community are not a safe place for nonbinary or bisexual people.

Thanks to GB for the years of entertainment and all the friends I made through the community, but I don't think I'll be opening this website again. Good luck with...whatever it is you guys are trying to do.

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shtinky

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@shtinky: Or a 199 switch lite.

That doesn't do cloud streaming, or play the latest AAA games, though. If you want the same thing this does, for $50 more, a Steam Deck would be better.