I’ve recently been involved in an email discussion with David S Gallant regarding a recent interview posted by Ian Miles Cheong of Gameranx where he stated that our site (along with TechRaptor and One Angry Gamer) “spread false information about (David’s) actions”.
The timing of the mention was rather a shock to me (I had gone to the site to examine Ian’s article regarding HuniePop), I had long put David’s hilariously antagonistic attitude towards his customers to the back of my mind and gotten on with my life. I don’t know about you dear reader, but I’m not particularly fond of being called a liar, so I felt compelled to contact Ian back directly to clarify the matter.
As David declined to make an amendment and maintains that the articles in question are incorrect, my views on the matter, as relayed in the emails that were sent between us, are as follows. I have removed references to quotes of David’s from the correspondence, but I’m happy to release the full email chain if he will oblige me to allow people to make up their own minds.
To begin with, the section of the article that I take issue with:
“Clarifying this in a Storify did not help; GG continued to spread false information about my actions, contacting my storefront partners and publishing articles about my actions on pro-GG sites (TechRaptr, PowerGamer, and OneAngryGamer).”
The wording of this segment creates the implication that PowerGamer was spreading misinformation regarding the situation that David found himself in. I was not under the impression that this was Ian’s or David’s intent.
My request was that a small unedited statement be added beside the allegation or appended to the article (Since it would be unfair to the other two outlets that have allegedly dispensed false information, I have no qualms with the allegation remaining), along with links to the articles in question (archived or otherwise).
To clarify:
1. There are two articles posted on PowerGamer (which you can view here and here) where we quote David’s Tweets in relation to the debacle, in which David makes clear that he planned not to deliver Steam keys to individuals who supported GamerGate. This is not a matter which is under question. We reported on the tweets made by David, and made no further allegations against him.
2. Whilst the article states that we planned to contact the storefronts (much like Ian has done so with Valve regarding HuniePop’s alleged violation of the Steam Code of Conduct), we were not required to do so when Desura spoke to David directly over Twitter. The result of this was IGTCED being removed from the platform. We covered this in the second article (along with Tweets directed at our Twitter feed which resulted in a degree of abuse from his followers).
Let’s go through the corrections that were requested (and which I published, in full, within the update article)
“I Get This Call Every Day was never pulled from Steam. The game has been Greenlit, but has not yet launched on Steam. My initial decision was to not launch it on Steam in the first place, a decision I later rescinded.”
We updated the article in question to include David’s statement regarding the games availability on Steam. I stand by my original wording on the statement given that this is how I interpreted his previous stance on the issue, but I’ve provided his own statement alongside this in order to allow our readers to make up their own mind.
“My Storify made no reference towards Valve’s stance on GamerGate.”
Again, the article has been amended to reflect this and to note the change. I do believe that Steam is indeed central to Gamer culture and was inferring its position as a main gaming platform for a large majority of GamerGate supporters (myself included). My apologies if David felt he was misrepresented.
“FastSpring and Sellbox cannot distribute Steam keys so they will not be asked to comply with the request. Customers who purchased using those storefronts have been migrated to Humble.”
No correction required, David stated himself that he would be speaking to them in order to clarify their position, and as Ian has shown, there is nothing wrong with contacting a storefront in relation to specific concerns about a product. I did however note David’s response to this specific qualm in the article.
There is absolutely no problem with contacting a store front for information gathering purposes. I expressed great regret that David felt he had to remove the game from Desura as a result of proceedings (I would agree that the dressing down, whilst appropriate based on how he was acting, was not necessarily professional of Desura).
“My name is not spelled with a period after the S. It is “David S Gallant”.
The Queen would disagree with you David, but c’est la vie.
David describes himself as an “Active Industry Unprofessional”. Based on his interactions with the people who actually pay for the product? I do not set a high bar for him in terms of professional standards.
In reference to my comment on “a petty anti-capitalist protest”, petty is defined as “little importance; trivial” and this accurately portrays the extent of the protest. I did the courtesy of linking people to the game and made appropriate amendments to the article in question as requested. Whilst David should be thanking me and my site for providing publicity for his game, he claims that links from PowerGamer brought no discernible increase in revenue.
A quick search of Twitter indicates that those using the hashtag are more interested in mocking David for thinking about the movement whilst cracking one off. I don’t blame them for trying to add a degree of levity to the rather bizarre proceedings. Topsy indicates that there has been very little activity for his name on the hashtag aside from the isolated incidents (which he himself has sparked).
We make no accusations about fraudulent activities. The word fraud is included three times in the first article and does not appear in the second article. All three times the word is mentioned in the first article from direct quotations made by David.
David refused to make any further comment to Georgina Young of TechRaptor other than to state his familiarity with her site and to refer her to the Storify, which is where our original report emanated from. There are no significant modifications on either article from Georgina or William Usher of One Angry Gamer which significantly compromise the accuracy of either article. On the contrary, Gameranx makes no mention at all of any interactions with Desura, and does not provide site readers with the ability the view the articles released by the other sites in order to allow them to make up their own minds.
I have maintained my patience with David even whilst he cast aspersions on my character and that of other GamerGate supporters in the wake of the extensive abuse that we have received.
To conclude, David has repeatedly insisted that he has attempted to hand hold me through “correcting” the articles that I’ve produced, this is despite my greatest attempts at total transparency with my readership by showing the demands that have been placed upon us. My statement remains the following:
I do not require your hand holding as I do not serve you, I serve the people who read my website and consume a medium that I’m sure we are both equally fond of. If you TRULY wished to have nothing further to do with me, you would have done well to allow myself and Ian to discuss the matter and reach an agreement which serves both sites readers best.
This is my last comment on the matter, David has deemed that further correspondence with him shall be considered spam, so I shall do him the same courtesy. Such is the life of a consumer led outlet.