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Updated: GOG.com apologises for accidental GamerGate tweet

Updated: GOG.com apologises for accidental GamerGate tweet

Update: GOG has responded to the criticism of its tweet. 

In a thread on Twitter, the company apologised, saying that it did not realise "the association between the image, the date, and an abusive movement."

The firm has also said that its aim wasn't to hate. 

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Original story: DRM-free PC games storefront GOG.com has found itself under fire after putting out a tweet that appears in favour of GamerGate.

The post- which has now been deleted - was meant to be promoting Postal 2: Paradise Lost, and depicted someone urinating on a tombstone with 'Games Journalism' on. So far, just crass, right?

The headstone continues 'Committed Suicide, August 28, 2014'.

For those not in the know, this was the date that Leigh Alexander published the now-infamous 'Gamers are Dead' article that was seen to fan the fire of the then-burgeoning GamerGate movement... despite none of those involved seemingly having actually read the piece and thus missing... well, all of the nuance of Alexander's well-designed argument. We deeply suspect that many just took the headline and decided to use that as a reason for their outrage - but that's just us!

The tweet has resulted in media outlets such as Gamer Network's VG247 pulling all coverage of the storefront. GOG.com had garnered a positive reputation for being the best alternative to Steam in the PC games space, something that it has - for lack of a better term - possibly pissed away.

While the tweet seems incredibly ill-advised regardless of the GamerGate connotations - especially in these times where the media is massively under fire - it is possible that whoever is manning the social media account simply didn't notice the date and GamerGate references. That said, someone handling such community management work should definitely know better in 2018.

We've reached out to GOG.com for comment.


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.