Popular gaming forum NeoGAF has gone offline after sexual assault allegations surfaced about the site’s owner. At one point Saturday evening the site came back online, but it has since been taken down once again.
It all started when sexual assault allegations surfaced against Tyler Malka, better known as Evilore on the NeoGAF forums. This isn’t the first time that Malka’s reputation has come under fire, mind you, but it appears to be the straw that broke the camel’s back within the GAF community.
As stories continued to surface, the NeoGAF mods decided it best to separate themselves from Malka and his site, which left the forum in a state of disarray. Members began protesting the site and posting messages in support of those that came forward against Malka, but most of the forum posts were taken down and eventually the whole site followed suit. It’s unclear who took the site offline, but without a community to support it, NeoGAF wasn’t going to last that long anyway.
About 10 years ago, NeoGAF was the pinnacle for gaming enthusiasts to geek out over new releases, trailers, and to share unique findings. These were the gamers that pore over resumes to try and find evidence of new sequels, and who look at financial documents for trends and industry changes.
Over time, though, there have been many challengers to NeoGAF and more direct avenues for relaying the same type of information. Reddit has grown to become a community engagement tool for anything and everything, and Twitter has allowed gamers to get the info instantly from trusted sources. Granted, many of those sources were simply relaying findings on NeoGAF, but things were still shifting.
Now, it’s hard to see NeoGAF surviving if Malka continues to be the owner of the site. If he relinquishes or sells the site then things could continue and the mods could conceivably return. But right now there is a lot of confusion and disappointment, which is a shame for a site that loved to celebrate the success of the gaming industry, regardless of console preference.
NeoGAF is reportedly preparing a statement, which should give us a better idea as to how the site will rebound from this controversy. As we mention, there are numerous replacements for the forum, and no one wants to support a site owner with criminal allegations against them.
