Let me start off by saying I am not a tabletop gamer nor did I know who Katie Aidley was prior to learning of this story. That said, my research into this issue has revealed that Katie Aidley was something of a big deal among tabletop gamers. Aidley’s Katie’s Corner blog was started in 2017 and it featured her thoughts on board games, war gaming, mental health, and inclusivity. Katie was even able to get some big names in the tabletop industry to do guest posts on her blog. Katie was riding high in the industry, even listing Communication Manager for White Wizard Games on her Linkedin profile. On July 3rd 2019, everything came crashing down as accusations of plagiarism surfaced against her in a closed Facebook group.

Two days later Punchboard Media, a board game content creator network, severed ties with Katie’s Corner. In a statement released by Punchboard Media, which can be read here, it was revealed Katie admitted the allegations were true. In the post, they stated the following:

“Katie Aidley and their blog, Katie’s Game Corner, has been with Punchboard Media since its inception. Finding out Katie had plagiarized many of their articles — and that some of those articles had been posted to the Punchboard Media site — came as a shock to all of us.

“After these allegations surfaced, Katie reached out to Punchboard Media, admitted them to be true, and apologized. The Punchboard Media board decided, after discussing the matter with Katie, that it would be best if they step away from network. As such, Katie’s Game Corner will no longer be a member of Punchboard Media going forward.”

Shortly after Punchboard Media released their statement, Katie Aidley released an apology. The apology was put up on her personal Facebook page and I have included it in it’s entirety.

“Hi, I just wanted to come on and post an apology. I have made some poor judgement and some bad choices and I completely understand that I was in the wrong. I didn’t realize the consequences of my actions or think about other people’s feelings and that is something I am deeply sorry for. I have learned a valuable lesson and I am working to fix things and apologize to anybody I have effected. “

The scandal was also covered by YouTuber Vara Dark.

Well, that’s the entire story. Nothing left to talk about. Everyone go home and be happy lessons were learned.

Now, that is what they want you to do because if you stop and take a closer look at this whole situation you will realize there are ungodly amounts of piled up here.

Aidley wisely tried to close or privatize all her social media accounts, however the internet never forgets and we can get a glimpse into her by taking a look at things like her Twitter via the Wayback Machine.

It will come as no surprise that Aidley has both personal pronouns and a declaration of being “queer AF” in her Twitter bio. This is why they want this whole situation to go away. You see, Katie was pushed as this queer, non binary, land whale-type that proved how much weirdos like her not only belonged in the table top gaming space but “owned” it. This whole scandal only proves how easy it is for grifters to enter a space desperate to virtue signal. So much so that they didn’t realize, or at least pretended they didn’t realize, that the writing style on the articles were vastly different. You see, those of us who write on a continuous basis develop a style uniquely our own. Any good editor or avid consumer of a particular writer would easily be able to notice the various pieces not matching.

Furthermore, the apology by Katie is the worst apology I have ever seen and I only hope it too was plagiarized and not a representation of her writing skill. She says she didn’t realize the consequences of her actions as if she has no capacity to think beyond the immediate gratification of posting another person’s writing as her own. She further says she learned a valuable lesson. What lesson? Not to steal other people’s stuff, because the rest of us learned that when we were five. As far as her comment that she is working to fix things, should we take it to mean she is going to edit all the posted articles so no one can see the now obvious plagiarism?

Let me make one thing perfectly clear: Katie Aidley. She not only stole the work of other people and passed it off as her own but she profited off of those articles through donations and job offers made to her based on those stolen works. Her skullduggery makes Anita Sarkeesian and Zoe Quinn look like amateurs. I mean, Anita and Zoe actually did some, work to earn their ill-gotten gains. Katie, she couldn’t be bothered putting in that much effort. With that said, I will leave you with one last thought: Like Katie Aidley steal positions that should go to actual writers and are the reason no one respects anyone in journalism.