Yesterday it was announced that a number of English-language gaming sites, as well as the German Eurogamer, would be taken over by IGN, which is backed by the media group Ziff Davis. Some positions were eliminated that same evening. You don’t want to put up with that everywhere. The strategy site Rock Paper Shotgun is sending a nice greeting to the new owners today, May 22nd.
This was the message:
The Rock Paper Shotgun site specializes in PC games, especially role-playing games and strategy games like Crusader Kings 3:
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On the evening of the purchase, news of layoffs came
That was the not so nice news: News came relatively quickly that long-time editors of the pages had been fired. The positions at Eurogamer and Digital Foundry were apparently secure. But it cost jobs at GamesIndustry.biz and strategy site Rock Paper Shotgun. The employees reported: Apparently many, perhaps even all, employees who were not based in the UK were fired (via aftermath).
Aftermath reported critically: The takeover had been discussed for a long time, but the news that people had to leave was new. Some employees had previously been expressly assured that their jobs were secure.
The last editor of a games magazine has to leave – didn’t expect it
The dismissal is particularly painful: So Alice Bell, an editor at the strategy magazine Rock Paper Shotgun, had to go.
The magazine, which specializes in PC games and focuses on strategy and role-playing games, was founded in 2007, but the founders gradually left the company. The last ones left in 2019. Gamer’s Network bought the site in May 2017.
Alice Bell was at Rock Paper Shotgun for 6 years, since June 2018, and was still holding down the position there as “Deputy Editor”. Her downfall was, as she believes, that she lives in Ireland. She didn’t expect to be fired because she was the only editor still working at Rock Paper Shotgun. Without them there would be no editorial management there. That’s why she was particularly surprised by her own dismissal.
She said goodbye on Twitter on the day of the takeover, May 21st, with: “Guess who has two thumbs and became redundant after my company has new owners” and sent two thumbs.
Article publishes list as a subversive greeting
How does the magazine react? Rock Paper Shotgun published an article today titled “The Best Alices in PC Games” (via rockpapershotun). The article is the featured article on the page in the features section.
In a slightly subversive way, without mentioning the editor, they say: At Rock Paper Shotgun, you like Alices. If you meet an Alice, you should greet her respectfully and say “Alice” to her. You shouldn’t take an Alice like that lightly and you shouldn’t leave her unattended. An Alice is a force to be reckoned with.
Then you list some Alices from video games, of course “America MCGee’s Alice”, plus three more and end with: These are all the Alices that come to mind.
You add a poll asking whether people still support Rock Paper Shotgun, with some nasty answer options like “I used to support it, but can’t justify it right now” and “No, but I might, now that it’s cheaper than before.”
Readers are also asked if they know another Alice that they might want to celebrate.
The comment with the most likes then says: “This feels a bit redundant” – a clear reference to the editor’s dismissal.
This is a subtle way to rebel against the prevailing conditions on a website. Someone at MeinMMO also rehearsed an uprising, but it was put down quickly and mercilessly: Cortyn’s everyday work – a downtrodden demon unpacks