Stances and Policies

Stop Caring prides itself on welcoming writers, essays, and topics that mainstream or even independent publications might ignore or deny. We do not shy away from talking about potentially upsetting or sensitive subjects. However, I have to draw some lines in the sand.

Here are the three stances Stop Caring currently holds:

*We refuse to publish work that is inherently discriminatory. We do not tolerate racism, sexism, transphobia, classism, xenophobia, or any form of discrimination. Which isn't to say these are topics we shy away from: we need to have discussions about systemic issues. But if the premise of your essay is, for example, anti-Black, or transphobic, or punches down at any oppressed group: go die in a hole.

*Stop Caring is complying with BDS's request to boycott Microsoft Gaming /Xbox products. We will not publish essays about games owned or published by Microsoft Gaming/Xbox until Microsoft ceases abetting and supporting Palestinian genocide. Even after that, if Xbox is removed from the BDS list, we reserve the right to prolong this stance. We do not come crawling back just because you washed the blood off your hands.

*Stop Caring has a strong anti-AI policy. This is two-fold:

1) We will not publish work on games that explicitly used genAI or LLMs, unless the piece itself is contending with a game's AI use. Even then, we refuse to publish pro-AI essays. As a community, we are currently contending with the fact we are going to be downstream of a lot major and minor genAI/LLM use in the world of game development. Due to the systemic lack of meaningful AI disclosures, and my reluctance to cultivate paranoia and bad-faith, I do not feel comfortable denying essays on games with suspected AI use, but I do feel comfortable denying essays on games with confirmed AI use.

2) I ask writers to follow the same AI policy as our friends startmenu. All credit to KM Nelson, who wrote these guidelines.

No Generative AI use is permitted in any work published on the site. This is inclusive of:

a) Writing generated by LLMs like Claude, ChatGPT, etc.

b) Using generative AI software to “edit” a written draft.

c) Using generative AI software to “research” and citing results given by the software.

Google’s Gemini AI summary in search results counts. Instead of relying on what appears at the top of a Google search, you need to navigate to real sources when you are researching and fact-checking.

There is a lot of “AI-integration” in otherwise normal software right now, so it is understandably difficult to avoid. A good yardstick to go by is “when in doubt, don’t.”