I personally agreed to this AMA without doing my proper due diligence to understand the history and the controversy of the site. I do not condone child pornography, white supremacy, or racism in any shape or form. I am terribly sorry for the short-sightedness of my (!) decision and promise to be far more vigorous in my assessment of these activities in the future. This was not about being edgy, this blew up and I very much regret to have done it in the first place.
Oof. I don’t really keep on top of these “chan” sites or what they’re about but it appears that “8chan” has some rather seedy umm… interests? Not THQNordic’s brightest move, by all accounts.
Yeah, that’s how I wandered onto it… was watching one video and I seen it in the suggested ones on the side and I was just like, “Huh? What’s this about THQNordic?”.
Just a bit of random oddness coming at us from out of left-field.
It’s a pretty ridiculous situation for THQNordic to have “stumbled” into but I am not surprised in the least.
In the age of information quantity/speed is far more valued then quality. People tend to consume said information and then react to it without processing much beforehand - enter THQNordic not taking the time to review what platform they are hoping to use for communication.
This is also greatly effecting News and Journalistic Investigation (or lack of) in the Mass Media which often times generates more misinformation based on emotion rather then actual fact and logic. Censorship with Rotten Tomatoes due to targeted articles “mistaking” a movie interest/disinterest poll for actual reviews is a recent example.
It’s kinda sad too because while I’m not a big THQNordic fan I have given them props for attempting to support the older games they own when they didn’t really ever have to.
And then they go do stupid shit like this. In the Ars Technica article I link in the OP there are well over 300 comments on the article alone… none of them good. People have definitely taken notice.
Well, personally I’d never heard of it myself tho I do know enough to be “wary” of these “chan”-type sites. If my job was PR I would have certainly looked into it and made a wiser decision I’m sure :D:rolleyes: His statement after does seem to indicate they had foreknowledge of the reputation to some degree, which makes the decision to go forward with it a bit perplexing.
I find their excuses lacking, 8chan was iirc formed by people who thought 4chan was too polite. Imagine that. Five seconds in google would have told them that.
Avyctes, I think outside of the US they are pretty much unknown. I’d never heard of them until I saw this stuff and others I’ve talked to say the same. That said, some effort to research them before agreeing to participate should have been undertaken. Basic common sense really, even if you do want to connect with your fans by any means available.
While they were founded by Americans in both these cases it appears that 4chan was originally for people to discuss anime type stuff and was in turn inspired by a similar Japanese discussion forum. These places are initially innocuous but due to their penchant to push “free speech” it inevitably attracts more deviant types which is where they start running in to issues and begin attracting a different sort of reputation.
Anyway, not the best venue for a game publisher to host an AMA. Should probably stick to reddit for that kinda gig.
I’m Dutch, but I speak fluent English. I had read about the various chans a few years ago, I think during gamergate as that was one of the main hangouts for that particular clusterfuck.
Lol that little bit in the 8chan wiki article about it:
“During late February, an unknown member of THQ decided to start an “Ask Me Anything” in order to boost publicity for the video games company, unfortunately, the AMA was filled to the brim with questionable content and Anime breasts.”
PR and marketing manager Philipp Brock had agreed to hold a question-and-answer session on the board that is known for child pornography, a haven for white supremacy, and a bastion of GamerGate activity. After a mere two hours, THQ Nordic reversed course.
Or, rather, Brock did. In a statement posted to Twitter on the THQ Nordic account and shared with the media directly, Brock said he takes full responsibility for the decision. He says he made the call “without doing my proper due diligence to understand the history and the controversy of the site.”
