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Drama Brandon Orselli & Niche Gamer: A tale of cowardice, negligence and One Angry Revolt.

Thread Description
A personal tale of a long-time Niche Gamer reader's interactions with founder Brandon Orselli.

NretsewThePerv

varishangout.com
Regular
So there's been a bit of an update recently:


Brandon is now charging money for access to Niche Gamer's comment section. 'True free speech' is what he claims to offer.

dont know if you can call it "free" speech if you have to pay money for it lmao

ok, shitty wordplay aside I guess the money is not really rolling in for niche as of late. kinda understandable as their rep has had a fucken nosedive. so tbh none of this shocks me.

I have to wonder if there is even any interest in such a news site anymore. I think most people are getting most of their news from youtube and Twitter osmosis as of late. having a dedicated news site is better in terms of archival. but I feel like the format has grown less useful for me over time. but maybe that's just me. all I know is a bearly even go to niche or any news site anymore
 

Ebicentre

varishangout.com
Regular
dont know if you can call it "free" speech if you have to pay money for it lmao

ok, shitty wordplay aside I guess the money is not really rolling in for niche as of late. kinda understandable as their rep has had a fucken nosedive. so tbh none of this shocks me.

I have to wonder if there is even any interest in such a news site anymore. I think most people are getting most of their news from youtube and Twitter osmosis as of late. having a dedicated news site is better in terms of archival. but I feel like the format has grown less useful for me over time. but maybe that's just me. all I know is a bearly even go to niche or any news site anymore
As someone who is working on a video talking about Sony's censorship policy, I can vouch for the existence of news sites for the simple fact that I can provide archived evidence. You have no idea how hard it is to find One Angry Gamer articles from before Billy sold it off, because the new owners deleted almost everything he wrote.
 

NretsewThePerv

varishangout.com
Regular
As someone who is working on a video talking about Sony's censorship policy, I can vouch for the existence of news sites for the simple fact that I can provide archived evidence. You have no idea how hard it is to find One Angry Gamer articles from before Billy sold it off, because the new owners deleted almost everything he wrote.
indeed. as I said I can agree from the archival standpoint

but im looking at form a more... how to say I put it. "normie end user" kinda view. why would people go to a news site for news they could get faster and elsewhere by just following the right people on youtube/Twitter? as depressing as that sounds

and it's a shame billy went off the deep end and we lost a lot of his more classic reporting
 

Ebicentre

varishangout.com
Regular
indeed. as I said I can agree from the archival standpoint

but im looking at form a more... how to say I put it. "normie end user" kinda view. why would people go to a news site for news they could get faster and elsewhere by just following the right people on youtube/Twitter? as depressing as that sounds

and it's a shame billy went off the deep end and we lost a lot of his more classic reporting
It's easy to forget that not everyone uses Twitter. And YouTube presents its own problem when creators spend half their videos promoting themselves - 'Click Like and Subscribe' and all that shit.
 

Migi

varishangout.com
Regular
So there's been a bit of an update recently:


Brandon is now charging money for access to Niche Gamer's comment section. 'True free speech' is what he claims to offer.
I saw it two days ago. I think he had a better chance when Free Speech was under attack, but at that moment he sold his own readers out by caving into the whole woke crowd.
It's pretty pathetic that he's begging his readers for money to simply use their free speech.
As someone who is working on a video talking about Sony's censorship policy, I can vouch for the existence of news sites for the simple fact that I can provide archived evidence. You have no idea how hard it is to find One Angry Gamer articles from before Billy sold it off, because the new owners deleted almost everything he wrote.
The "wayback machine" has some, but is tiresome to use and very slow. I tried to find some more of his articles or somebody who backed up the shit, but it's not easy.
 

Ebicentre

varishangout.com
Regular
I saw it two days ago. I think he had a better chance when Free Speech was under attack, but at that moment he sold his own readers out by caving into the whole woke crowd.
It's pretty pathetic that he's begging his readers for money to simply use their free speech.
I think at the time, not a lot of people would've been willing to pay money for something we've used for free since the Internet began. Nowadays people are more receptive to Walled Gardens, but we still rely on leftist infrastructures for that stuff.

The "wayback machine" has some, but is tiresome to use and very slow. I tried to find some more of his articles or somebody who backed up the shit, but it's not easy.
I've been using it religiously for a while, mostly because Archive(dot)whatever has a lot of connection issues for me.
 

Migi

varishangout.com
Regular
I think at the time, not a lot of people would've been willing to pay money for something we've used for free since the Internet began. Nowadays people are more receptive to Walled Gardens, but we still rely on leftist infrastructures for that stuff.
Personally, I would be willing to pay until the left wing oppressive structures van been dismantled, and we have a more free speech orientated society. I think there are more people like that, but I would like full free speech and no limitations pushed on it. In general, free speech should be a given, but these days with all those left wing groups and organizations it's looking to be something precious and rare in the future.
I've been using it religiously for a while, mostly because Archive(dot)whatever has a lot of connection issues for me.
I know what you mean, it keeps freezing on me to a point where I can barely navigate it.
 
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PhantomXero1x

varishangout.com
Regular
I used to really enjoy niche gamer for covering all the good Japanese stuff but now, they've fallen from grace quite hard sadly.
 

PhantomXero1x

varishangout.com
Regular
just noticed nicchiban has folded over into niche gamer, not surprised really since most of it was really just seasonal shit just to follow the hype
 

versvlees

varishangout.com
I do wonder how the comment section looks like behind that paywall. Just wanna know out of curiosity :anime-think: If there is any one commenting at all :ohohoh:
 

AizomeNoel69

varishangout.com
Who fucking knew that so many of these former Pro-GG " News Outlets " were Venom-Inducing Snakes and Grifters all along. They never fucking cared about Fighting SJW scumbags and winning , their entire goal was the Grift and to actually sabotage people who WANTED to " FIGHT AND WIN BIG " against Anti-Japanese Racist Scumbag SJW and Tradcucks who wanted to destroy and censor Otaku Hobbies.
 

PhantomXero1x

varishangout.com
Regular
Who fucking knew that so many of these former Pro-GG " News Outlets " were Venom-Inducing Snakes and Grifters all along. They never fucking cared about Fighting SJW scumbags and winning , their entire goal was the Grift and to actually sabotage people who WANTED to " FIGHT AND WIN BIG " against Anti-Japanese Racist Scumbag SJW and Tradcucks who wanted to destroy and censor Otaku Hobbies.
The best thing we can do as individuals is create our own shit, to combat against right leaning and left leaning urinalism as tradweebs are as big time hypocrites as the left leaning "anime fans" are.
 

AizomeNoel69

varishangout.com
The best thing we can do as individuals is create our own shit, to combat against right leaning and left leaning urinalism as tradweebs are as big time hypocrites as the left leaning "anime fans" are.
Yes both the Pax types and Commie/Xyzern types are equally scumbags. I noticed there does seem to be an unwritten form of alliance ( as there always has been ) between the Trad-Fascists and SJW Communists even more recently when it comes to going after Otakus and Japanese Culture.
 

Ebicentre

varishangout.com
Regular
Niche Gamer refuses to cover Elon Musk's recent tweet regarding Microsoft's Head of Marketing making racist comments against white male gamers.


Archive here.

GJz0_NtakAASKUP


A few thoughts:

1. NG has posted 99% engagement-farming memes for over five years by this point, so I struggle to call them a journalistic outlet.

2. This is NICHE Gamer. Not AAA Gamer. That was kind of the whole point of the name.

3. I'm pretty sure NG has been on the blacklist of many AAA studios for a long time now, long before the Sweet Baby drama (remember the advertiser drama that caused the NG forums to shut down? I sure do). Appeasing the industry that explicitly breeds contempt for you is not a brave business strategy.
 

versvlees

varishangout.com
Niche Gamer refuses to cover Elon Musk's recent tweet regarding Microsoft's Head of Marketing making racist comments against white male gamers.


Archive here.

GJz0_NtakAASKUP


A few thoughts:

1. NG has posted 99% engagement-farming memes for over five years by this point, so I struggle to call them a journalistic outlet.

2. This is NICHE Gamer. Not AAA Gamer. That was kind of the whole point of the name.

3. I'm pretty sure NG has been on the blacklist of many AAA studios for a long time now, long before the Sweet Baby drama (remember the advertiser drama that caused the NG forums to shut down? I sure do). Appeasing the industry that explicitly breeds contempt for you is not a brave business strategy.

IIRC wasn't Brandon Orselli always boasting how he could tweet with Musk. You might think this is kind of tweet Brandon would love to jump on. Apart of the engagement farming memes I'm also seeing those weird gambling articles popping up on NG. Which are obviously ads shilling gambling sites without stating its a goddamn ad. (you know which was one the points of gamergate.)

but yeah rip Forums. I miss that FUCK NISA 100+ page thread.
 

JX475

varishangout.com
Regular
Niche Gamer refuses to cover Elon Musk's recent tweet regarding Microsoft's Head of Marketing making racist comments against white male gamers.


Archive here.

GJz0_NtakAASKUP


A few thoughts:

1. NG has posted 99% engagement-farming memes for over five years by this point, so I struggle to call them a journalistic outlet.

2. This is NICHE Gamer. Not AAA Gamer. That was kind of the whole point of the name.

3. I'm pretty sure NG has been on the blacklist of many AAA studios for a long time now, long before the Sweet Baby drama (remember the advertiser drama that caused the NG forums to shut down? I sure do). Appeasing the industry that explicitly breeds contempt for you is not a brave business strategy.
Orselli's main problem is he tries to grift a little too hard and then lands himself into these odd situations where he realizes he is in too deep and decides to take a neutral position. I do not know if it is true but if i remember right he is a dad correct? Maybe that plays into the role of why he grifts and tries to care more about money and advertising than anything else and plays it safe at times and needs games to review. If not then i can just say he does not have as much principals and should draw lines in the sand when it comes to comment moderation and coverage. I can understand a site being somewhat free speech so as long as it talks about censorship being bad but does not constantly use obvious /pol/ language that has you deplatformed and demonetized from everything.

I also think it's important to cover SBI at points and follow investigative journalism into these organizations. He needs to just be bold and clear about what he wants to do and not care about anything else. Even if he has to use payment platforms for everyone to buy him games to play and review, that would help overall. But he just looks like a walking person who has no idea what his goal is other than try to be a reply-girl to every single thing, post memes and then kind of hope for more traffic than creating something that creates traffic automatically and organically grows due to everyone wanting to share the site as a source.
 
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