Hardcore video game community NeoGAF imploded over the weekend after allegations against the site’s owner went viral. A Facebook post appearing to accuse Tyler ‘Evilore’ Malka of sexual misconduct emerged on Saturday, prompting a moderator exodus as threads on the subject were shutdown. A statement was apparently being prepared but failed to materialise, and after chaos ensued on the forums, the entire site was pulled offline early on Sunday morning and has yet to return.
While the message board certainly has its critics, it's widely regarded as being the “pulse” of hardcore gamers – and it has, historically, housed numerous industry professionals and insiders. At this point, it’s unclear if the forum will ever return, though it’s hard to imagine a community of its magnitude breaking up entirely. Apparently, some of the site’s more active members are moving to create alternatives, but only time will tell as to whether these materialise.
NeoGAF itself is over a decade old, and was born out of the Gaming Age Forums, which is where its moniker comes from. In addition to its cutting commentary, the message board is also infamous for its ruthless moderation policy and wealth of historical video game sales data – the latter of which all appears to be lost if the site doesn’t come back online.
[source neogaf.com]
Comments 32
it's about to get real tough for us men out here soon....
@RoyalD What do you mean?
The hivemind echo chamber is dead. Outside of a leak here or there and the sales data, good riddance
Spent many an hour over the years reading through NeoGAF rumours, information stockpiles, and the infamous E3 hype threads (never forget the GIFs). When NeoGAF was at its best, it was a great place.
However, as the years went on, I can't help but feel like the forums became more and more negative and critical. Reading certain threads started to become exhausting because of how much hyperbole users would throw out and how defensive/abrasive everyone was.
I think something like this was inevitable. Something was bound to burst the bubble.
@get2sammyb with all these allegations coming out against men, it's going to make it that much harder to communicate with the other sex. Mark my words..
@RoyalD Having seen the allegations, Malka purportedly did much more than simply talk to the opposite sex in this instance.
Nevertheless, I think this is probably not the venue nor time for a conversation such as this, so let's end that particular line of discussion here and focus on the topic at hand.
@get2sammyb topic is in the realm of this discussion, but okay..
@ShogunRok It definitely did take a negative turn in recent years, but there was still so much value and insight to be gleaned from the website once you sorted through all of the anger and overreactions.
Perhaps a break will do everyone good.
You guys had best get pushing your forums! I have nowhere to go now that is as active as gaf was.
I only got into it just before the pro came out but I liked it. Lots of information.
This comes straight from Kotaku:
''In a phone conversation with Kotaku, Leupp said that even after the alleged shower incident, she’d continued her friendship and even had a brief physical relationship with Malka until they had a falling out at E3 2015.''
That's why I find it difficult to care about things like this. You only get to hear half the story, even less in most cases. Seems like there was more going on. But hey, what do I know, it's difficult to say. I have no idea, so I find it difficult to care too much about this.
Sad to see NeoGAF is gone, plenty of insider's info came from that place. Although, the way people described the site, it's not something I wanted to be a part of anyway.
@Octane I also saw this and thought much the same thing. I think there's a sense of poetic justice here, though: Malka helped created this kind of climate, and now he's getting a taste of his own medicine.
I'm just sad that I'll no longer have access to the insight of the many intelligent people that did congregate on the site.
@get2sammyb I mean, I don't know the guy, but from what I've heard, he (or NeoGAF for that matter) were the ones that would go after people with pitchforks based on allegations alone. So maybe you're right about it, if that's what you mean at least.
Anyway, I think most of the industry insiders will find another place, another forums, so the good things that came from that site can live on elsewhere.
@Octane Yep, the witch hunts that started on NeoGAF — particularly in recent months — were insane, and anyone who dared comment something like you did above would be banned.
So like I say, poetic justice.
Didn't one of the mods turn out to have certain disgusting images on their computer? I never was a GAF user, but it seems like some of the upper management were distinctly the shifty nasty sort.
I have no doubt another place will rise up, it's one of the best things about the internet. Lots of phoenixes.
It seemed an extremely negative place to me and I strongly dislike the witch-hunts and trial-by-media.
There's a lot of good thread there, like game OT, psn card discount info, and e3 hype thread, I hope all of it is not lost just because one person.
I don't like the witch hunt aspect of neogaf though, when discussing some people like collin from kinda funny the discussion suddenly turn toxic with no moderation at all, some people free to say/lie anything even when collin himself go to the thread and posting there.
Guess I'm not a "hardcore gamer" then since I've never even been to that site (on purpose, anyways). Seems like another "me too" bandwagon jump. Maybe if the people that got paid off for $100k+ had said something, you know, 20 years ago, about people like Weinstein, we wouldn't be in this sort of mess today. Greed trumps dignity apparently.
Video game sales should improve now that people will actually play the games instead of just talk about them.
Good riddance, terrible site.
@Cassetticons Yeah, he went by the username Amir0x. He had a bunch of child porn on his computer.
I'm sure something else will pop up. Some of the bigger sites will probably try to make a go of it - FB, Twitter, Twitch, even IGN - but things come and go on the internet, I started on AOL, Prodigy and Compuserve, using email from Juno and Earthlink, getting my social media on MySpace and Digg. Several attempts to pick up the slack will appear over the next few weeks and months, by the end of next E3 we'll probably have settled on a new NeoGAF.
Good luck to anyone who can succeed against the known entities.
@Orpheus79V
There is no such thing as child porn. Porn is a legitimate business which abides by laws. They are child abuse images. I often see this in the press and its a term that should never be used.
Live by the sword, die by the sword. He was consumed by the monster he actively helped to create.
So good riddance.
@Orpheus79V @dryrain Alright, this isn't the place to correctly classify such reprehensible material.
The place had become a cesspit of toxicity and bullying, It wont be missed. It's sad for the few genuinely intelligent and less troublesome posters over there, but hopefully they will move on to other more friendly welcoming places or start something of their own.
@RedMageLanakyn The #MeToo is not necessarily a bandwagon to jump on but a scarily large amount of women coming forward about allegations just like this. I feel the more important issue here isn't that they should have spoken up earlier but more about the culture in Hollywood and places like this that meant that women felt like they couldn't speak up at all. We men should be supporting the women who come forward instead of accusing them of lying, which is exactly why many felt they couldn't come forward earlier.
@nessisonett I've seen how false allegations can ruin someone's life. The entire process of going to court and investigations took five years, and it turned out to be all for nothing, a bunch of lies. Meanwhile, the "accused" is still getting weird looks and is still out of a job. So I'm always a bit hesitant to take a side. That's why I'm not a fan of taking all of this to the internet, we aren't a courtroom, we aren't judges, and we don't know all the details. And we all know how the internet likes to overreact and jump to conclusions. Not a great combo IMO.
@nessisonett It just doesn't sit right with me that Rose McGowan was given $100k to keep quiet, basically allowing him to keep abusing women, and then when the scandal explodes she's on the front lines. She accepted hush money. If it was such a traumatic event, she should've stood up to him when it happened and fought to expose him then instead of allowing him to continue doing it. That's just my two cents, my opinion, and like Octane said above, this isn't a courtroom, so i'll refrain from making anymore comments about it.
@Neolit apparently the allegations are supported by information he has shared with NeoGAF's team.
@Neolit this isn't a political witchhunt unless you have proof, what the heck are you talking about?
With or without controversy, Internationally or unintentionally, it's probably about time NoeGAF died out. People would say the most stupid and d-baggy things just to stay on the forum. I assume they tried so hard to stay because it was of legend and cited by gaming news.
@get2sammyb
There was intelligent discussion on NeoGAF? I try not to go on here and bash other websites but honestly, I had visited NeoGAF a few times over the years and unfortunately can't say I remember too much intelligent conversation. Especially in recent times.
@Gamer83 It definitely did exist if you looked for it.
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