Gameology: Commentary and Resources for the Game Studies Community

Thanks all for the comments and encouragement. The more I've thought about this, the more I realize that this is just silly. There really isn't even a claim being made in the letter that I could reasonably respond to. That is, I have removed statements that were false and misleading, because as far as I know, there aren't any. So for now, I guess the ball's back in their court. Even if they just made public what specific statements or phrases they're complaining about, we'd have something to work with, but I haven't seen anything yet.

I did try to add this letter to the Chilling Effects database, but got a server error. I guess I'll try again, though I'd bet others have already added theirs by now. On that note, it appears that Kotaku got seven of these letters.

Also, I want to add that, at least rhetorically, I don't think it's the best tactic to criticize Mr. Katz personally, as some have been doing in the Game Politics and Destructoid comments. Whatever his personal involvement in deciding to send these letters out, he was hired by someone to do it. And unlike the DailyKos diarist, I don't think it matters where Mr. Katz lives or practices law; as long as he's licensed to do so, his threats have some weight behind them. That's why I excised his address from my quote. I also removed his client's phone number for the same reason, since someone pointed out that it appears to be her home phone.

My point is just that these people deserve to be criticized, but not harassed, and ad hominem's never encourage a productive dialog.