• Comment: The sources provided don't make it clear that this website is notable beyond plagiarism, and even those reports on the plagiarism come from non-reliable sources. As stated by VRXCES, this still reads like an argumentative essay and is not neutral at all, with the only discussion of the site beyond the self-descriptions of the editors being a long "controversies" section. These types of articles are discouraged regardless - see WP:CRITS. Reconrabbit 14:16, 30 July 2024 (UTC)
  • Comment: Unfortunately I have to decline. This is a tricky one that I can be dealt with on two fronts. Firstly, the article's subject matter, the website, needs to demonstrate it's had external coverage from reliable secondary sources. The few websites that have commented on its reporting are not reliable (see WP:VG/S) and therefore there isn't enough here to substantiate general notability. Secondly, even if there is notability, the article is currently not neutral per WP:NPOV and reads like an argumentative essay contradicting things the website has reported on. Inaccurate as aspects of the site's reporting may be, an external source needs to identify and report on this contradiction to suggest its inaccurate reporting is notable or controversial. Otherwise it's undue editorialisation. Please reach out if you have any questions on my talk page. VRXCES (talk) 01:49, 25 April 2024 (UTC)

Niche Gamer
Type of businessPrivately Held
Type of site
Video game journalism, Politics
Headquarters
Created byBrandon Orselli
Founder(s)Brandon Orselli
EditorBrandon Orselli
Key peopleBrandon Orselli, Jonathan White, Brandon Lyttle
IndustryVideo game industry, Anime industry, News industry
URLnichegamer.com
CommercialYes
RegistrationOptional
Launched2013

Niche Gamer is an American news website based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[1] Their articles are mainly on video games from Japan, however they also make articles on politics and other forms of media and pop-culture from around the world.[2] Their political articles are usually heavily bias and misinformative.[3][4]

History

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Niche Gamer was founded and launched in 2013 by Brandon Orselli. Orselli is the founder, owner, chief writer and editor-in-chief of Niche Gamer.[5] He describes himself as a "Nicchiban" and an Outlaw.[6] Brandon said that the reason he founded Niche Gamer was to "to bring original content, insightful opinions and the full and accurate news without any fluff or political agenda."[7] Another writer for Niche Gamer is Brandon Lyttle who describes himself as "A basement-dwelling ogre, who's fan of indie games and slice of life anime and has too many games and not enough time."[8]

Controversies

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Plagiarism

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Gaming news site Gematsu has accused Niche Gamer numerous times of "very blatantly stealing content from Gematsu".[9] Niche Gamer's response to the accusations were that a "ghostwriter" was the one who plagiarised the content.[10] On 19 December 2019, Niche Gamer owner and founder Brandon Orselli admitted that he lied about the ghostwriter and apologized to Gematsu.[11] On 7 December 2022, Niche Gamer was once again caught plagerizing work from Gematsu Editor-in-Chief Sal Romano.[12]

Misinformation

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On 16 August 2022, Niche Gamer writer Jonathan White wrote a hit piece article on a mod for the video game Spider-Man.[13] The article claimed that the mod wasn't even a mod and that it simply changed the game from the American version to the Middle Eastern version. The article was later taken down after backlash.[14]

On 11 November 2023, Niche Gamer wrote a hit piece article on CNN correspondent Hanako Montgomery[15] who had previously worked for Vice News and wrote the controversial Emmy Award winning documentary "Inside the Pedophilic Manga Industry in Japan".[16] The article claimed that the documentary "slandered Japan’s freedom of expression, manga industry, and labeled its consumers child abusers". The article called Hanako a "hack-journalist".[17]

On 4 December 2023, Niche Gamer published an article defending Korean artist "Dorontabi" who had been accused of creating child pornography. The article defended Dorontabi and claimed that Korean feminists had bullied him off the internet.[18] The article was later deleted on 3 September 2024, after it was found that Dorontabi had fantasied about sexually abusing children and had created numerous NSFW drawings based on Japanese children's gravure magazines. However, the Facebook and X posts about the article were not deleted.[19]

On 7 December 2023, Niche Gamer published an article claiming that Italy had just passed a law that classifies lolicon content as child pornography. They cited a Twitter user by the name of SlyPreformer who claimed that any anime artwork and fanart could be classified as child pornography under Italian law.[20] However, the image that they posted was from a court case against a man convicted for the possession of explicit photos of minors.[21] Furthermore, Italy has classified lolicon as child porography since February 2022.[22]

On 12 December 2023, Niche Gamer published an article claiming that the song Idol by Yoasobi topped the song Try That in a Small Town by Jason Aldean as the Top Trending 2023 song.[23] However, neither song was the top song of 2023. The song Flowers by Miley Cyrus was the top song of 2023.[24] The song Idol also never topped the song Try That in a Small Town on any chart.[25][26]

On 25 March 2024 Niche Gamer published an article claiming that American multinational corporation Microsoft made a set of rules to developers to avoid "curvy female characters".[27][28] However no such set of rules were ever made and it was actually just a suggestion that Microsoft had made to help Video game developers.[29][30]

On 28 March 2024, Niche Gamer founder Brandon Orselli wrote an article about the recently deceased Jewish-American Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman who had died at the age of 82 after compications from a fall.[31][32] The article mocked Lieberman for his view on video games and Jewish beliefs and ranted about the removal of the game Night Trap from store shelves and claimed that Lieberman was responsible for the creation of the Entertainment Software Rating Board.[33]

On 28 March 2024, Niche Gamer writer Brandon Lyttle wrote an article about claiming that the Japanese Communist Party was encouraging Japanese citizens to "report fanservice manga" to the UN. The article also had a section voicing support for Liberal Democratic Party member and manga artist Ken Akamatsu who notably wrote the manga Love Hina in 1998.[34] However, the Japanese Communist Party has made no such statement.[35]

On 17 July 2024, Niche Gamer published an article claiming that "Numerous (English) voice actors for Genshin Impact accused the game of whitewashing and racism." The article also claimed that the voice actors called the game racist.[36] However, no voice actors were mentioned other than Chinese-English voice actor June Yoon and English voice actor Anne Yatco who only made posts on X (formerly known as Twitter) asking for player criticism to be taken into consideration.[37][38]

On 26 July 2024, Niche Gamer published an article claiming that Erika "Nekurokage" Ikeda, an artist for the manga Apothecary Diaries who plead guilty to tax evasion, managed to evade charges.[39] However, she was given an 11 Million Yen (72,000 USD) fine, a 10 month prison sentence and a 3 suspended sentence.[40][41][42]

References

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  1. ^ "Niche Gamer | LinkedIn".
  2. ^ "Niche Gamer's Reviews".
  3. ^ "Niche Gamer Breaking News Headlines Today | Ground News".
  4. ^ "Gematsu Calls Out English Site for Plagiarism [Update] | Kakuchopurei". 19 December 2019.
  5. ^ Team, Anewstip Developers. "Brandon Orselli - Founder, Owner, Publisher & Editor in Chief @ Niche Gamer". Anewstip. Retrieved 2024-03-29.
  6. ^ "Author: Brandon Orselli". Niche Gamer. Retrieved 2024-03-29.
  7. ^ "About".
  8. ^ "Author: Brandon Lyttle".
  9. ^ "x.com".
  10. ^ "Niche Gamer Accused of Plagiarizing Content, Claims a Spooky Ghost Did It".
  11. ^ Baculi, Spencer (2019-12-19). "Niche Gamer Admits To and Issues Apology for Plagiarizing Gematsu Content". Bounding Into Comics. Retrieved 2024-03-29.
  12. ^ "NicheGamer Caught Plagiarizing From Gematsu Once Again". Noisy Pixel. 2022-12-07. Retrieved 2024-03-29.
  13. ^ https://muckrack.com/sybaritictrance
  14. ^ "Spider-Man mod to remove "Pride flag" doesn't actually replace anythi…". archive.ph. August 17, 2022. Archived from the original on August 17, 2022. Retrieved July 1, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  15. ^ Kumar, Tarini. "Hanako Montgomery - International Correspondent". CNN. Retrieved 2024-03-29.
  16. ^ Inside the Pedophilic Manga Industry in Japan. Retrieved 2024-03-29 – via www.youtube.com.
  17. ^ "Vice News "documentary" that slandered anime/manga industry wins Emmy". Niche Gamer. 2023-11-11. Retrieved 2024-03-29.
  18. ^ https://nichegamer.com/blue-archive-artist-bullied-off-internet-korean-feminists/
  19. ^ https://x.com/nichegamer/status/1732075436220301461?lang=en
  20. ^ "Italy Supreme Court reportedly rules loli content as child abuse". 7 December 2023.
  21. ^ "Cassazione, pornografia minorile e manga - Un'analisi sulla recente vicenda - MegaNerd.it". December 2023.
  22. ^ "F. Costantini | Legge europea 238/2021: Modifiche al c.p. In tema di pedopornografia".
  23. ^ "Oshi no Ko theme song "Idol" tops "Try That in a Small Town" as top-trending 2023 song". Niche Gamer. 2023-12-12. Retrieved 2024-03-29.
  24. ^ "The Official Top 40 Biggest Songs of 2023". Official Charts.
  25. ^ "Jason Aldean | Biography, Music & News". Billboard. Retrieved 2024-03-29.
  26. ^ Rowley, Glenn (2023-05-04). "Miley Cyrus' 'Flowers' Hits 1 Billion Streams on Spotify in Record Time". Billboard. Retrieved 2024-03-29.
  27. ^ "Microsoft cautions developers to avoid curvy female characters". Niche Gamer. 2024-03-25. Retrieved 2024-03-29.
  28. ^ "x.com".
  29. ^ "Product Inclusion Action: Engage Local Markets". Microsoft Game Dev. Retrieved 2024-03-29.
  30. ^ "Microsoft Investor Relations - FAQs". Microsoft.
  31. ^ "Former Sen. Joe Lieberman dies at 82 | CNN Politics". 27 March 2024.
  32. ^ "Joe Lieberman, 2000 vice presidential nominee, dies at 82 - POLITICO". Politico.
  33. ^ "Former U.S. Senator and anti-video game critic Joe Lieberman dies at 82". 28 March 2024.
  34. ^ "Japanese Communist Party encourages members to report fanservice manga to the UN". Niche Gamer. 2024-03-28. Retrieved 2024-03-29.
  35. ^ "日本共産党". 日本共産党 (in Japanese). Retrieved 2024-03-29.
  36. ^ "Genshin Impact English voice actors accuse game of whitewashing, racism". 17 July 2024.
  37. ^ https://x.com/JuneYoon_/status/1812274905557475398/
  38. ^ https://x.com/annejyatco/status/1812215122888437830?t=DTrbz3qrcEQ9siFV52zISA&s=19
  39. ^ "Apothecaries Diary mangaka evades jail time, manga will continue". 26 July 2024.
  40. ^ "The Apothecary Diaries Artist Sentenced in Tax Evasion Case".
  41. ^ "Apothecary Diaries Manga Artist Nekokuragem Sentenced for Major Tax Evasion | What This Means for the Series' Future". 26 July 2024.
  42. ^ "The Apothecary Diaries Manga Artist Found Guilty of Tax Evasion". 24 July 2024.