How do I put this...
Fuck the gaming media and the indie-gaming oligarchy (look up the word, it applies frighteningly well). A relatively small group of people have hijacked the indie-gaming world and give their friends preferential coverage.
If you somehow don't know about this, watch the
very well researched series by InternetAristocrat for the details. He also has some good videos on Anita Sarkeesian and other related persons. (Disclaimer: I don't agree with all of his opinions, but he definitely did his homework in this case. Kudos to him and he won me as a subscriber.)
What can we do to fight back?
First of all, stop frequenting their websites... Fuck them and their clicks. Unsubscribe to their feeds and don't feed the frauds.
Second, use word of mouth to promote games you like instead of sharing links to their articles. Find under-exposed games/developers/artists/etc and promote them to your friends. There are lots of people creating great stuff or showing enormous potential for creating great stuff, and because they get universally ignored, they often will get discouraged and quit or just not have the output they are actually capable of. Note to self: I've gotta get around to making more "VM reads" videos and actually start a series where I play random games from GameJolt or other places where small developers post their work.
Just woke up this morning, so still pretty sleepy. Having trouble coming up with more...
Any thoughts, people?