Kinda Funny's Colin Moriarty resigns following controversial tweet

Colin Moriarty, a prominent member of the games press, has resigned from the Kinda Funny media channel he co-founded less than a week after publishing a tweet widely regarded as sexist.

Moriarty, who founded Kinda Funny with three colleagues from IGN two years ago, announced his decision to resign, "effective immediately," in a Facebook post.

"This morning, the guys and I had a constructive conversation, and feel that, with our separate visions for the future and for the direction of the company, it's time to go our separate ways," Moriarty wrote, emphasising his "heavy heart and great sadness" at the choice. "I want to be clear that this was my decision. Just as we collaborated as friends, so too do we part."

Moriarty talked about his desire to "reconnect" with subjects closer to his heart, including politics, history, philosophy, and reading books - "talking about things I feel are most impactful and essential for a person like me." He also said that new "opportunities" already existed that would take him in that, "new, different, and exciting direction, a direction that I feel makes perfect sense for me."

However, Moriarty's post didn't refer to the delicate situation that preceded his resignation: a tweet, published on International Women's Day, that was criticised by observers and his peers and former colleagues.

Gregg Miller, one of Moriarty's co-founders at Kinda Funny, issued a response the following day, in which he placed himself, "into the camp that believes the tweet was in poor taste."

"Was Colin's tweet a joke? Sure, but that doesn't make it OK," Miller said in the statement, which you can read in full on Twitter. "Context is important... On Twitter (as I've learned so many times), there's no tone or contextual clues. The number of times I've said something only to see it interpreted a different way is enumerable. That happened here. I wish it hadn't. We're talking about this as a group."

One of the outcomes of that discussion was for Moriarty to pull out of Kinda Funny's commitments at PAX East; a decision that Miller claimed had come directly from Moriarty, who wanted the channel's fans to, "enjoy our panel without distractions."

Miller addressed Moriarty's departure on a Twitch livestream yesterday, as reported by Polygon. "We had a long conversation today," he said. "The long and short of it is, we've been moving in two directions for a long time. There's no hurt feelings; we're not mad at him, he's not mad at us. We're just going in two completely opposite directions in terms of what we want to do and that's OK."

"The tweet and the whole exchange last week, while upsetting, obviously, [Colin's resignation] is not because of that. That is a symptom, if not the most public expression, that there was something happening in terms of us growing apart."