Anti LGBTQIA+ rhetoric, actions, and lawmaking have surged lately—particularly against the trans community. I want to believe it’s just the vocal minority, but the voices on the right side of these issues need to WAKE THE FUCK UP AND GET IN THE GAME. 🧵 We’re two weeks into pride month, but for anyone paying attention things feel a little different this year. I never thought I’d miss the capitalistic performance of corporations pretending to deeply care about inclusivity, but the relative silence this year is deafening.

Newzoo does a great job of regularly updating these figures, but in my experience the data is often misunderstood & misused. Let's unpack these numbers to see what's happening on the business-side of the industry.

Monetization of esports, a thread...

https://twitter.com/esportsobserved/status/1369305174687252486

The Newzoo numbers are an attempt to capture the DIRECT monetization of esports, and only part of it at that. Some major things aren't included here.

Random, off the cuff thoughts on the Epic Games complaint v Apple. I'm writing these as I read, so it'll be stream of consciousness

1. This was written w/ far more than just the suit in mind. It tells a compelling story intended for public consumption.

cdn2.unrealengine.com/apple-complain… The framing is also super broad. Epic's story here is one of monopoly and anti-trust, so they get to characterize the full marketplace - makes it clear their fight is on behalf of everyone suffering Apple's "oppressive" 30% tax on app sales.

This is a super common take, so let's discuss why it's wrong.

Innocent until proven guilty in criminal court makes sense; we're setting the process by which someone's freedom is taken by the state. But twitter isn't criminal court - we shouldn't have the same process/standard.

https://twitter.com/summit1g/status/1275878825037987840

Ever wonder why OJ won his criminal case, but lost the civil suit? Part is what happened at court, but it's also the standard:

Murder: 12/12 jurors had to find him guilty beyond all reasonable doubt.

Civil: 9/12 jurors had to find the preponderance of evidence showed he did it

This looting debate is such utter nonsense. It’s a red herring argument. Let me break it down for all the people that seem to only want to talk about looting right now... You’re focused on the wrong thing. I’m not saying looting is good, but when you compare the relative harms of some businesses being damaged or even a police station getting burned to the widespread injustice of racial inequality in America you’re missing the bigger picture.

I have something I’ve needed to get off my chest for a while. I’m a huge believer in the esports industry. I bet my career on it, after all. But the industry as a whole needs to do a better job of representing things accurately to outsiders. A thread... All eyes have been on esports for a few years now, and rightfully so. It’s a fun & relatively new space w/ insane potential. There is no doubt in my mind that in 30 years, when we list the biggest sports in the world, the top 2 on the list will be soccer and a video game.

I'm so tired of the bullshit narrative that violent video games cause mass shootings. There have been dozens of studies on this point and NONE support that conclusion.

To all the spineless politicians using video games as a scapegoat: try doing your job instead.

A thread... In the wake of every mass shooting, politicians - particularly in the US - rush for something to blame. Far too often, video games are the thing they point to. They'll reference "studies" to support their claims, but they haven't read them and don't know what they say.

I have so many thoughts on the Tfue-Faze situation. Tweet storm incoming...

TLDR:

1. There are some non-standard & bad things in Tfue's contract.

2. People misunderstand how esports businesses work. The economics look worse in a vacuum than they are with proper context. Before I dive into the contract or the macro dynamics for the industry, I want to note that my goal here is to enhance the quality of the debate on this topic. Reasonable minds can differ about some of the substance, but you need to understand the bigger picture to do so.

I wanted to like this piece. I really did. But the number of misses here are just overwhelming. This article is superficially positive but the condescension throughout is hard to miss for anyone paying attention.

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"All We Want to Do Is Eat Junk" --> and food that helps prepare for the incredible mental challenge. Feels like patronizing headlines are a mainstream media requirement at this point.