Video Game Reviewer Will Dock Points Over Gulf of America
Here’s your seemingly daily reminder that games journalism, just like regular journalism, has devolved into little more (oh, who am I kidding – nothing more) than political activism. You’ve probably heard that, upon assuming office, President Donald Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. Most people had some laughs (because it’s pretty funny) and a few patriotic fist pumps – the latter of which I believe was the reason Trump did this, not only to stoke that feeling in Americans but to let the rest of the world know where his priorities lay as he prepared to get to work – but the left had one of several thousand meltdowns that defined the past few weeks for them. One such tortured soul was Leana Hafer, a games journalist and reviewer for IGN and PCGamer, who posted on X that she would deduct a point when reviewing games with maps that labeled the Gulf of America accurately. Soon after taking this public hissy-fit, Hafer locked her X account, but Pirat_Nation has a screenshot:
IGN journalist threatening to reduce points on games calling it the Gulf of America. pic.twitter.com/XCtdvrBo7t
— Pirat_Nation (@Pirat_Nation) February 12, 2025
The sentiment behind this is petty anger with a touch of lunacy, of course. There seems to be something ingrained in the brains of that side of the divide where they simply have to lash out at anything that offends their sensibilities, even something as small as the name of a body of water, no matter the consequences. How often did you think about the Gulf of America when it was the Gulf of Mexico? Unless you lived near it, worked on it, enjoyed sailing through it, or had to learn its location for a geography class, I assume it rarely crossed your mind. President Trump renaming it has affected the lives of almost no one, and I’ll bet that, considering she lives in Colorado according to her X bio, Hafer has thought about it exactly zero times since junior high. And yet, here she is, throwing away any shred of journalistic integrity because the President renamed it after her own country and thinking it makes her look tough. (“You think I’m joking?” No, ma’am, nobody thinks you’re sane enough for this to be a joke.) And there really is a difference; people on the right were angry about some of the things Democrats have renamed for obnoxious woke reasons, but I never heard of anyone knowingly destroying their career over it, which Hafer seems to understand is a possible result of her announcement. (“I can start some fires on the way out.” You tell ‘em, Sundance.)
The question now is whether or not there will actually be consequences. While it’s funny because it’s so crazy, Hafer is admitting to docking points from a review over her politics, and not because the content affects the game’s quality (which is people’s problem with modern woke “entertainment”) but because she disagrees with it. An outlet that’s at all concerned with its credibility would at least have her retract her statement and assure people she was just venting and won’t really do that. But how much do media outlets – gaming or otherwise – care about credibility anymore? Mainstream video game reviews aren’t trusted because people suspect sociopolitical biases heavily affect the ratings they give video games. If this is how IGN and PCGamer want to be perceived – mask-off political activists – that’s up to them, but they’ll have a hard time convincing anyone to feel bad for them when they’re mocked and distrusted by gamers. And that may be the case; Hafer is either being honest about her kamikaze intentions with these posts, or she’s so secure in her belief that the outlets she writes for won’t care that she’ll shout her intentions to give politically biased scores from the (metaphorical, digital) rooftops. I give it 50/50.
Let us know what you think about video game reviewers docking points over politics in the comments!
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If you want to know what kind of political leanings movies have or just talk about cinema, check out the movie ratings community Criticless.
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