Blacklisting

In employment, blacklisting refers to denying people employment for either political reasons (due to actual or suspected political affiliation), or due to a history of whistleblowing, for example on ethical or corruption issues. Blacklisting may be done by the media as well as by private companies.

Slade Villena

 * BLACKLISTED BY GAMASUTRA: AN INTERVIEW WITH SLADE VILLENAMirror

Russ Roegner
Tweets and emails from the GameJournoPros suggest that Russ Roegner may have been blacklisted by the video games press.

In May 2014, Roegner replied to a tweet by game developer Rami Ismael, stating that "There's no issue with gender equality in the game industry. I wish people would stop saying there is." This was met with much criticism from both game developers and journalists. Leigh Alexander published a threatening tweet, stating "be careful with me. I am a megaphone, I am much less kind than Rami and I won't mind making an example out of you." She continued by stating "by now the entire industry you want to work in is chastising your comments and you're still arguing". Other game journalists such as Ben Kuchera and Ian Miles Cheong wrote "You really should quit while you're ahead." and "This has been an amazing look at someone just starting out burning every bridge possible. What a wreck." Leaked emails from the GameJournoPros show Daniel Starkey voicing his opinion as well: "we just saw career suicide".

Laralyn McWilliams commented on the situation, stating "keep in mind that you're in front of a group of people that do a LOT of hiring in the industry. Like me", and "it's great to see en masse spontaneous ridicule like this". Likewise, Brenda Romero responded by suggesting Roegner to "back away from his keyboard", affirming that he was "being discussed at the highest levels of the industry, but not for reasons one would aspire to." Dustin Clingman, Chair Emeritus of the IGDA, also weighted in on the situation, stating that Roegner was receiving responses from "thought leaders in the industry".

Kevin Dent
As shown in leaked emails from the GameJournoPros , former Giant Bomb journalist Patrick Klepek made a request to "stop quoting [Kevin Dent]", stating "that guy is a known creep, and I'm not sure why we keep giving him a spotlight". This request was met with approval from other members of the GameJournoPros. Adam Rosenberg wrote "done and done", and Alex Navarro replied by saying "we as a collective industry would do well to pretend he no longer exists". Following the alleged blacklist, Kevin Dent was no longer quoted, referenced or promoted in any major capacity by the GameJournoPros with the exception of a single mention by Kotaku about the game Rekoil, following the July 25th, 2013 post by Klepek.

Allistair Pinsof
In April and May of 2013 Allistair Pinsof investigated an alledged Indiegogo fraud. Alistair Pinsof wrote about the scam and was subsequently fired from Destructoid and blacklisted from the video games press via the GameJournoPros list.

Public (Passive Aggressive) Threats
On November 2, Ben Kuchera published a threatening tweet, stating "you MAY get 4,000 supporters at the expense of LITERALLY EVERYONE ELSE" A few days later, Arthur Gies suggested people to heed advice and "shut up",

Game developer Jane Ng has insinuated that she will not employ pro-GamerGate students, stating "not hiring them [does not] equal discrimination". Likewise, game developer Jonathan Blow mused on blacklisting pro-GamerGate developers from the industry: "I wonder what percentage of #gamergate people hope to get a job in the industry someday?"