Cool People Like Website Despite Its Many Flaws

If you haven’t already heard, it’s Aftermath’s first birthday! (We’re doing a sale about it, which you can learn more about here.) Like most one-year-olds, the site still has some growing to do; while it does not whine, wear diapers, or throw up on itself, it is prone to irritating login issues and business-related woes that – like an infant’s shrieks – keep Riley up at night. Despite these known issues and the many character flaws of the people who own it, Aftermath is nonetheless loved by a great many people, some of them important – and all of them important in our hearts. 

As part of our one-year anniversary celebration, here’s what they had to say:

Chris Person’s blogs about some hobby he’s gone incredibly deep down the rabbit hole into are my favorite part of the site, full-stop. He got me into the flavacol + whirly pop meta, and I am very thankful. I love how this site never feels constrained by the conventional boundaries of the games/media industry. It's the spontaneous blogs like ‘I learned a new skill/hobby’ or ‘isn’t that thing neat’ that keep me coming back.

– Drew, Aftermath community member

I really appreciate Aftermath's mixture of piercing moral clarity and insanely specific deep dives into, like, how to build your own gamer mouse out of bits of metal you buy on hobbyist websites. Chris Person's list of still-thriving online forums was one of the best blog posts I read this year. Very happy to support one of the last corners of the internet where a human heart still beats. Aftermath forever!

– Adam Conover, creator of The G Word, Adam Ruins Everything, and Factually 

This Discord is the best Discord channel I follow. Supportive in many ways while also confronting in ways to make everyone their better selves.

As for the actual news coverage: This is an outlet I wish existed during my troubled times working in the game industry. I'd likely would have opened up sooner to Aftermath as I would have felt seen and appreciated for being a part of the labor workforce of video games. Obviously many things were different over a decade ago, but my initial choice to be a subscriber is the hope you can be the voice I didn't have for others who need it now. 

– John “Seg” Seggerson, developer and Aftermath Discord regular

For me Aftermath is more about what they don’t cover than what they do; so many sites push whatever is trending, Web3, crypto, AI, [and] even when they aren’t pushing it, they are covering it and legitimizing it.  Whereas on Aftermath I always see conversations around games that you would have with your friends, your smart friends, the one smarter than you, so when they say something, you just nod your head and agree but [are] secretly writing it down in your head to post it later as your own thoughts.

– Chet Faliszek, CEO at Stray Bombay and former lead and writer at Valve

I love Riley's (often self-described) role as the curmudgeon. Also appreciate keeping up on the actual journalism industry. Reporting layoffs and critiques and stuff about other game sites. Basically none of the corporate owned ones are going to do that, so having people who are actually caring about the hardships and stuff that this industry (this this industry, not that this industry... though you guys do also highlight that) is going through is great. 

– Cind, Aftermath community member

I read Aftermath because, frankly, I’m glad something like this exists. Gaming news is easy enough to get from other places, but what’s been harder to find is gaming perspective. I appreciate that the writing here comes from a point of view, because regardless of [whether] I agree 100% of the time, it’s interesting to see the ‘why’ behind a piece, and not just read the ‘what.’

Also, as someone who wrapped a lovely interview about our studio’s first game with Game Informer three days before Game Informer was effectively deleted from the internet, it really drove home how important having independent voices in the space can be.

– Mike Laidlaw, CCO at Yellow Brick Games and former creative director on Dragon Age and lead writer on Jade Empire

I learned about this site and the writers behind it via The Games Press podcast and was initially won over by that interview to support Aftermath. I've been bowled over ever since. This community is wonderful and I'm treated to insightful podcasts and fascinating blogs each month. I've also got a sick ass mug out of it.

– Jak, Aftermath community member

At the book launch event for LAN Party with the Aftermath crew we split a case of Bawls Guarana and became so caffeinated that we invented the sequel to LAN parties. They're called LANG parties and they're like LAN parties except you play the discography of Canadian singer-songwriter k.d. lang while you're doing Quake II deathmatches. You're welcome.

– Merritt K, writer, author, and game developer

I love that Aftermath isn't just obsessed with covering New Big Game That Everyone Is Talking About. There's a million games coming out right now, but there's also a BILLION games that never got the attention they deserved. And I want to read about 90s naval strategy games, dammit!

– Dayten Rose, Aftermath community member

I'm a big fan of Aftermath's clickbait. Seriously. 

Some video game websites run headlines that withhold key information in order to bait you to click. They dangle headlines such as  ‘Beloved EA Game Gets Sequel’ or ‘Hideo Kojima Names His Second Least Favorite Metal Gear’ or ‘Nintendo Racing Franchise That Includes A Princess, An Ape and A Plumber Is Somehow Nominated For The Booker Prize.’ You read these headlines and can feel the manipulative tug. Must click. Must find out just what they are talking about.

Aftermath? They do that, too, but in a fun way. 

Aftermath tells me: The Bean Influencers Got Me. And I click, because I've got to know.

I Just Wanted To Talk To A Human... Click

Folks, We Got Another One... Click 

Alarmo... Click

I Am Fine With The Robot Spider... Click

Just Give Me A Damn Second, Netflix... Click

They could run headlines for a week that are just crayon colors and I'd click each one. Indigo? Burnt Sienna? Yellow Green? Click, click and click. I trust this crew and am happy to click to find out.

– Stephen Totilo, guy we know from somewhere (and also owner/reporter, Game File)  

I just want to shout out everyone at AM:

• [Discord creator/moderator] Apple because she runs a tight and awesome Discord ship
• Riley for all the semi-obscure games I discovered through his articles
• Luke for his righteous anger at the industry
• Gita for their anime/manga/pop culture takes
• Nathan for his incredible knowledge of the streaming world
• Chris for his eternal tinkering

Just a few examples, I love everything you guys put out. You all are such incredible writers, every article or blog is a delight to just read. Thank you!

– BraveSirDave, Aftermath community member

just put down that i love aftermath and i am glad it exists <3 you get a sappy message instead of ‘eat shit’ because i am in too good a mood due to being on vacation while writing this

– Maddy Myers, deputy editor of games at Polygon

Simply put, the high quality of everyone's writing [is my favorite thing about Aftermath]. Get a bunch of good writers together who are allowed to actually write what they want instead of being endlessly stymied by financial ghouls, and the results speak for themselves. 

“That being said, my least favorite thing was Nathan's line in an article about the Washington Post being both behind the times and behind the Times, which I still don't think I've forgiven him for.

– Darth Sunshine, Aftermath community member

I’ve described my dear friend and Aftermath writer Chris Person as ‘a man comprised entirely of special interests,’ and I love him for that reason (and more); but thinking on it, I love Aftermath because it’s a website comprised entirely of special interests. Whenever I load it up I’m treated to whatever the staff really felt like writing about that day, whether it’s games, streaming, industry chatter, or something Chris found on Facebook Marketplace. It’s all your most passionate friends at one party, only you don’t need to pretend to need to pee when one of them corners you and starts talking about, fuckin’, Valorant or the immortal science of Marxism-Leninism or something. 

– Stella Sacco, narrative designer and karaoke superstar

Everyone who writes for Aftermath is unabashedly, and fearlessly, THEMSELVES. The lack of corporate politics and agendas isn't just a breath of fresh air, it's a fucking hurricane of fresh air. Every word written for every article comes from the heart of the author, not from being forced to meet a quota or to jump on the latest trends. I love this website.

– Smi1ey, Aftermath community member

You're worker owned and funded by the people who read what you write. It's not just a cool thing to do, but also allows you to really dig into what companies are really doing instead of worrying about whether you're going to lose a potential revenue stream.

You're not only aware of labor issues in the games industry, but you can also speak well to what we face and also who is ultimately responsible for it being the way it is. I trust that if a worker talks to you about what's going on in their workplace, they will be treated with care rather than as a means to an end for a story that will be popular.

And lastly, I love the in-depth blogs about stuff you all personally enjoy. It's fun reading about things I know nothing about when the person writing it is clearly interested in the topic.

You all are doing a good thing and I'm really happy to see you thrive.

– Austin Kelmore, co-founder of the IWGB Game Workers Union

Do you also miss gaming sites? Do you click on a video game news story on your phone and get bummed out by a wall of pop-ups while you try to scroll and not accidentally touch any ads like it’s Operation? Thank God for Aftermath. Every time I visit the site it’s a sweet wave of relief: ‘Oh, a clean and pure gaming site can still exist in 2024.’ If you want to keep this anomaly going, you need to support it. Congratulations on your first anniversary, Aftermath!

– Ben Hanson, founder of MinnMax

When I was laid off from my job as the head of a video game section in September 2022, I thought I would bounce back quickly. A lot of my games journalism peers reached out offering freelance work or told me full-time roles were about to open up, so I was hopeful I could get something. But that was just the setup for an awful punchline. Over the next few months, most of those people would also be laid off. I didn't do the math, but I'm confident that as of now, over two years later, the remainder have lost their jobs. I even know people who were laid off during this period, pivoted to game dev, and then lost those jobs. It was, and still is, extremely dire.

I remember the one question people kept asking in the aftermath (oh hey) of all those initial 2022/2023 games journalism layoffs: Where's the Defector of video games? Defector sprung up in the wake of an explosive journalism moment, so why couldn't it happen here? I kept posting through it, many of us did, dreaming of starting an independent media outlet or supporting all of our struggling friends. This was something I wanted to work on, but I didn't have the money nor the social clout to do so. Most of us didn't.

That's why it was so, so nice to see people who did have those things go for it. Aftermath is arguably the ‘Defector of video games’ since it literally runs on the same platform and is, you know, mostly about video games, but there's also Rascal for tabletop games, Second Wind for a post-Escapist world, Remap Radio to fill the gap Waypoint left behind, and others I'm definitely forgetting. I wouldn't go so far as to say the ‘independent games journalism’ revolution is here, but as more and more sites lay us off or will only hire us for literal pennies, it's the one piece of hope we have.

Same goes for the rest of journalism. I subscribe to 404 Media for explosive and deep technology coverage and Flaming Hydra for insightful essays. I look at The Onion's comeback as an independent outlet actually run by a person actually in media (can you imagine?) with pride and endless cackling. The more independent outlets set up successful Kickstarters or publish one-of-a-kind work, the better I feel.

However, the vibes in games journalism right now are, frankly, bad. They're ‘take off for the rest of the afternoon because you're too depressed to function’ kind of bad or ‘black out on edibles’ bad. Just rancid. Everybody's competing for the one job that pops up every six months and for a tiny slice of any meager freelance budget that still exists. We all have Discords, we talk about this probably once a week. When I can make it out to conventions, every conversation is just... so sad. Not even hours of drunk karaoke or some great games on display can lift the mood.

I've had a few temporary and freelance opportunities since my layoff, but I'm still unemployed. After two years, I've finally had to accept that I'm done. I'm applying to jobs in other industries, but it's all tinged with a bit of sadness. And with Trump coming back into power and bringing every power-hungry billionaire with him, I don't think I can get a job in any industry, let alone one I might be a bit qualified for. Do you think media can survive yet another Trump presidency? Another day of Musk, Zuck, Bezos, Altman, or whoever's in charge at Google today hollowing out this institution?

Aftermath and independent media isn't going to be the thing that solves games and culture journalism's systemic problems. Or maybe it will! I don't know, I'm not a scientist. But the people need video games journalism beyond the same SEO crap, the guides, and the regurgitation of press releases. I know people want it too. They might not do anything about it, but they want something different. They just don't know where to go to get it.

But it's doing something. It's giving people work, producing excellent articles that I read every day, and is creating a space to move forward. And hey, that's something that can give us hope, the inspiration to do our own thing, or just not spiral further into despair. We're all going to spiral, so we should at least have some cool stuff to read as we go.

– Carli Velocci, very good games journalist (hire her, jfc)

There are lots of things worth celebrating about Aftermath on its one-year anniversary. There's reading a video game site in 2024 that doesn't have a giant car insurance ad in the middle of the page hijacking your web browser. There's the daily mix of scoops, no-bullshit criticism, and honest to god blogs. And there's a bunch of people terrible with numbers who decided to run a business with math in the name. Most of all there's the fact that it's succeeding, not despite all of these things, but because of them. But my personal favorite thing about Aftermath is how it's always logging me out of the site every time I close the tab. It's not the roguelike I wanted but it's the one games journalism needed.

– Ethan Gach, senior reporter at Kotaku

I love Aftermath. I wrote about video games for years. I think it's great to have a platform disconnected from the tropes of games journalism with a willingness to speak as a gamer. 

On one night where I felt lonely and sad, where a karaoke party had fallen apart, Nathan Grayson refused to quit. He would simply not let me sit and be sad and lonely, and found a coterie of karaoke gargoyles. For hours we sat blasting the dumbest shit imaginable. It was a wonderful night, and I'm glad I left the house. Nathan would simply not accept the concept that my night was done, that I had nothing else to do, or that I was not worth the time.  

On one night, where I felt self conscious, worried that nobody would want to talk to me, Chris Person walked over and told me about how he was in the process of working out how to use a certain kind of compound to create sugar free ice cream - the formula of which was yet to be finalized - and how it might work.  He then listened to the minutiae of my day with the kind of intense focus usually reserved for counselors or mentors. Chris cares. Chris simply gives a fuck more than 99.9% of people. 

In both of these cases, Grayson and Person showed a level of empathy that most do not, invigorated by their own passion. That's what you get from Aftermath. You empower and embolden personalities willing to be vulnerable, to dig into random shit, to take joy in the impossible or irrelevant, to disconnect from what might be expected or demanded, and talk about what matters, which might be beyond esoteric or niche, but matter so deeply to them that it disarms you and makes you consider a world beyond algorithms, beyond the norm, and beyond what you may think you want, and you will be surprised, and ultimately you will be better from having heard it. You will be richer for it. 

I cannot tell you how media empires are made. Most of my success has come from brute forcing creative ideas empowered by a perpetual sense of having to work out the rest of my life. What I can tell you is that both Nathan and Chris have been loving, caring people in my life, despite me, in my opinion, never providing much more than being a guy who says ‘hey.’ They deliberately and cavernously love the things they love, and have such unplumbed depths of creativity that they are yet to explore. 

Aftermath allows them to. Back them. I have done so since the moment they allowed me to give them my credit card. 

In a world increasingly focused on selfishness over love and product over passion, Aftermath operates as a beacon of what's beyond the norm, and beyond the unrelenting slop of genericism and emptiness.

– Ed Zitron, CEO at EZPR, writer of Where’s Your Ed At, and host of Better Offline

Happy first birthday Aftermath! They say the first anniversary is the paper one, so I hope you stack big in 2025. I want to shout out Chris Person’s blog about how the Challengers score sounds like a PS1 game. I've listened to and thought about that album a lot this year and basically nobody else put it into this context, and I totally agree with it and think it and he and you guys rock. Please do more chess blogs next year, or else.

– Patrick Redford, staff writer at Defector

Amazing blogs, but have you guys considered sticking to Games?

– Ari Notis, guides editor at Polygon

I'm Gita. 

– Emanuel Maiberg, co-founder at 404 Media