At this point, I think Era's reputation is worse than pre-implosion Gaf's ever was while having a fraction of the relative influence. It's one of those entities where if you exist outside of it, you're going to be shittalking it. The odd Dennis Dyack here and there doesn't compare at all to large swathes of gaming media and developers calling the site an aggressive echo chamber with few redeeming qualities. And the funny thing is the long-standing staff (outside of Nep) is aware of all this, but can't do anything about it because they're straight up afraid of their userbase. The only winner in all of this is Cerium, at least until the site's radicalization breaches the "real world" and he has to start giving interviews like Fredrick Brennan did.
You can't jump out the window demanding absolute bans/abstinence/etc from consuming Harry Potter while not applying similar standards in other ways. Many of the people making these rabid demands are doing so from an iPhone that includes multiple parts that were mined via child slavery. Tweeting from an app that is owned by an avowed transphobic billionaire. To take it another step, at least 40% of Era discussion seems to revolve around consuming (trash) Disney content. A company founded by a Nazi and currently run by multiple execs who donate to MAGA politicians who persecute trans people more directly than JK Rowling.
I understand that everyone is a hypocrite to some degree. I don't listen to R Kelly music yet still enjoy Polanski films. But I'm also not pretending to be the white knight of ethical capitalist consumption.
They've painted themselves into a corner. Previous stuff that gotten banned was either small and inherently problematic enough where no one would kick up a fuss about (Criminal Girls, Hatred, etc) or targeted niche communities that weren't very well liked in the first place due to prevalent biases that exists all over the western internet (Azur Lane, other gacha boat game I forget the name of).
But now they pulled the trigger on the 8th highest grossing franchise in the world, one that didn't have a consensus-based cancelling like Kanye did. Suddenly, the hypocrisy is on full display and they have to think about why so much other stuff is okay. Why is a company that didn't get punished at all for a sexual assault controversy that literally led to an employee's suicide okay? Why are companies consistently using conflict minerals for their hardware okay? Why are movies starring anti-vaxxers and transphobes who will use their success as a justification of their views okay? Why are companies with unresolved racism controversies okay? Why are companies with a large percentage owned by the Saudi Arabian government okay? These aren't necessities controlled by an evil monopoly, these are luxury products that not a single person "needs", just like none of the people currently playing it "need" Hogwarts Legacy.
I'm still saying the site will weather the storm, but I'm less confident in that belief than I was a day ago.
