In regards to my curated page having "sponsored content" on it. This isn't the case. There are two games on my recommended list that I did sponsored content for, but the videos linked were not sponsored. The timeline for Guns of Icarus is this. I did my video on Guns of Icarus on October 28th 2012. We were contracte to do a "battle royale" on May 11th 2013. My policy is if we're doing this kind of competitive lets play promo stuff, it's either on a game I have no intention of critiquing to begin with, or previously critiqued some time before. The other game I put on my curated list was Planetside 2. I've since removed this and here is why. While I linked to a non-sponsored video, my involvement in that game was unique and unusual.

I was a huge Planetside 1 fan, the most profilic poster on their forum and played the game for years. I went out to SOE to look at the game early, as did some other youtubers and journalists, though I was able to post footage of the game first. After that I was contracted to do play by play commentary for the game at E3, SOELive and PAX, due to my previous experience commentating Starcraft in a live environment. I then did the Ultimate Empire Showdown promotional event. All of this was fully disclosed. I never did a proper straightup assessment of Planetside 2 because frankly how could I? There's no way to do that without the appearance of bias. I did create some videos critical of elements of it, but they weren't full assessments. I know I like the game, but the appearance of improprietity is clearly there. It's similar to Giantbomb doing a ton of content for Bastion leading up to the game but then not being able to review it once it came out, because of their personal connections with Greg Kasavin. As a result of all of that I've removed Planetside 2 from the recommendations list, because it could potential pose a conflict of interest. Guns of Icarus will remain, the timeline on that is clear, I assessed the game far before doing any sponsored content for it. Honestly last night we were just trying to go through our back catalogue as quickly as possible, so things like that might have slipped through.

As far as I'm aware there are no other games on that list that we ever engaged in promo content for and my policy as of now is, if we engage in sponsored content for a game, it will not be placed on that list, ever, due to the appearance of impropriety. The timeline on Guns of Icarus is in my opinion beyond reproach, so it stays. This whole curation thing is very new and there are no guidelines as to what should be listed, no code of ethics. If you think there is anything unethical going on you are more than free to bring it up with me and we can discuss it.

I have no doubt that somewhere down the line some people will be offered money to place games on their list. All I can say is, we won't do that and just like everything else, you're going to have to make the decision as to whether or not to trust me on that, based on my actions in the past. After all, we can't prove that we're NOT doing it, that's just not possible and neither can anyone else