Critics.
Critics. Whether we adore them, despise their very being, or simply agree or disagree with them, we cannot deny that critics are vital forces in shaping how we interpret the things that make us culturally diverse individuals. Independent studio Digital Homicide can’t deny this fact, either, and they’re none too happy about it. For over a year, they’ve been exchanging digital blows with popular YouTube-based media personality and video game critic, Jim Sterling, after he posted a scathing video review of one of the studio’s games: The Slaughtering Grounds . The most recent culmination of Digital Homicide’s ire has materialized in the form of a lawsuit and an attempt to sue Sterling for a whopping $10 million US in “damages.” What follows is a saga of intrigue, witty wordplay, and a maelstrom of events that ultimately invites us to question the meaning of free speech and the limits – if any – of critics when it comes to reviewing pieces of pop culture.
Our story begins with a review of The Slaughtering Grounds that Sterling posted on his channel on November 1, 2014. After laying bare many of the games numerous faults in his usual wry manner, Sterling denounces the game as being “beyond the pale.” You can view the original review below:
Sterling’s review began to quickly make its way around the Internet, and it wasn’t long before The Slaughtering Grounds rose to notoriety on Steam as being a particularly awful game; its aggregate reviews are listed as “mostly negative.” What Sterling had not anticipated, however, was a “meltdown” emanating from Digital Homicide itself, whose anger manifested in a flurry of DMCA takedown requests for Sterling’s video and counter-videos attacking Sterling himself(which have since been taken down, but are nonetheless archived on Sterling’s own channel).