Alexander Macris

Alexander "Archon" Macris is the owner, co-founder, and General manager of The Escapist; senior vice President of Alloy Digital (now known as Defy Media); and co-founder of Autarch, a Tabletop Games publisher that has published two games: Modern Spearhead and Adventurer Conqueror King System. He has also given talks for TEDex about the importance of reading quality content.

He is the man responsible for the creation and endorsement of an improved ethics policy for The Escapist and all Defy media's publications. This made The Escapist the first site that improved its policy due to complaints brought out by the GamerGate scandal.

Opinion on TheQuinnspiracy
On August 30, 2014, Macris posted for the first time about on the Zoe Quinn's scandal thread which included many ethical breaches from many gaming sites (The Escapist included on the lazy research department). His response issued the topic of journalistic integrity, the conduct of his contributors on twitter, and The Escapist's concept of gamer and how they don't believe gamers are dead.

On September 3, 2014, he stated that regardless what opinion one may have about the origins of the controversy, it has raised issues in gaming journalism that need to be handled seriously.

"This controversy has raised some important issues that deserve to be handled in a serious way, whatever one's opinion about the *origins* of the discussion. (Put another way, did the Allies' harsh terms on Germany at the end of WWI lay the groundwork for WWII? Probably, sure. Even so, once WWII started, the appropriate answer to "our troops are being overrun by the German blitzkrieg!" was not "That's what you get for earning the hatred of Germans back in 1917!" I hope this metaphor makes sense.)"

- Alexander "Archon" Macris.

Opinion on Gamergate
On September 3, 2014, along with his statements regarding TheQuinnspiracy, he reaffirmed that he doesn't see #GamerGate as an attack on women.

"No, no, I think you think I disagree with you, but I don't. I'm very, very aware of what ideologies are on the rise. Ideological pattern-watching is like a hobby of mine. That's another issue. The post I responded to asked that I not view #GamerGate/this thread as an attack on women. So I was stating that *I*, personally, do not view #GamerGate as inherently an attack on women, BUT that doesn't mean there aren't other places with other ideologies where there are attacks on women occurring; AND there are ideologies that DO believe this thread is an attack on women."

- Alexander "Archon" Macris.

Gameovergate and #Burgersandfries interview
On September 6, 2014, Alexander Macris interviewed #Burgersandfries (a public IRC channel)for their side of the story regarding Zoe Quinn's accusations towards them.

On September 7, 2014, The Escapist released the interview with the IRC logs. In it was explained that most of the screenshots leaked by Zoe Quinn were taken out of context and how she drew strange connections out to them. They then gave the complete logs of the channel to Macris which can be found in the article.


 * A comparison between the IRC screenshots showed by Zoe Quinn and the real quotes in context can be seen here. And the full log of #burgersandfries from August 18 to September 6 can be found here.

The Escapist's ethic's policy change
On September 4, Alexander posted an update message regarding the new ethical guidelines, explaining the reason of the delay and the impact this new guidelines will have on The Escapist and other Defy media's publications.

"As I have mentioned earlier, I have been drafting a Publisher's Note relating to some of the topics being discussed here. Among other things, the Publisher's Note will include a complete set of revised ethical guidelines for The Escapist. These guidelines have been completed and are currently being reviewed by Defy Media's in-house counsel. The bad news is that in order to give our counsel time for the review, the release of the Publisher's Note has been delayed until tomorrow. These guidelines are important and are being given a high standard of review. The good news is that the ethical guidelines in my Publisher's Note will also become the foundation for a set of public guidelines for other properties within our division. You'll have impacted not just The Escapist but dozens of other websites in segments as disparate as humor, mixed martial-arts, fashion, and motherhood, with a total reach of more than 50 million people per month.

That is a noble accomplishment. Perhaps it will go unnoticed by oblivious web visitors who are unaware entirely of the battle you have fought. You will probably never receive a thank you from any of the millions of working mothers, fashionistas, comedy fans, and others who will be the beneficiaries of more transparent and candid online journalism you demanded. But I salute you for it."

- Alexander "Archon" Macris.

On September 8, Macris published a lengthy article, "The State of Gaming", detailing many of the concerns raised during the GamerGate scandal, followed by a revised ethics policy. In addition, he offered an apology for the incorrect reporting involving Zoe Quinn and Wizardchan, stating that the article did not cite credible proof.

Inclusion on the GGBlocklist
-pending-