View source for Babycastles Nepotism

On September 17, 2012. [[Leigh Alexander]] wrote an article for gaming and development website [[Gamasutra]] entitled, &quot;Why indie games make meaningful sports&quot;.<sup>[[#cite_note-1|[1]]]</sup> This article was primarily advertorial content and a promotional profile for [[Ramiro Corbetta]] and affiliated NYC art and gaming collective/venue [https://www.facebook.com/babycastles Babycastles]. Within the article Corbetta's game &quot;''Hokra''&quot; (part of the [http://sportsfriendsgame.com/ Sportsfriends] collection) is promoted with direct links to a purchasing portal.

Subsequently, dilligent readers have brought to light that Alexander had a pre-existing personal relationship extending back over a year with both Mr. Corbetta as well as Babycastles. While this demonstrates a clear conflict of interest, no such disclosure was included in print alongside the article.

== Contents ==

* [[#Establishing_Relationship_with_Ramiro_Corbetta|1 Establishing Relationship with Ramiro Corbetta]]
* [[#Establishing_Relationship_with_Babycastles|2 Establishing Relationship with Babycastles]]
* [[#Allegations_of_Conflict_of_Interest_and_Bias|3 Allegations of Conflict of Interest and Bias]]
* [[#References|4 References]]

== Establishing Relationship with Ramiro Corbetta ==

Based on information extracted from Alexander's Facebook account, she has been friends with [[Ramiro Corbetta]] since as early as May 2010.<sup>[[#cite_note-2|[2]]]</sup> Also during that month, Alexander and Corbetta started to communicate through Twitter<sup>[[#cite_note-3|[3]]]</sup> and socialize in person with each other.<sup>[[#cite_note-4|[4]]]</sup> On August 5, 2010, a status update<sup>[[#cite_note-5|[5]]]</sup> from Alexander's Google+ account shows her in the presence of various indie gaming figures such as [[Phil Fish]], Corbetta and [[Indiefund]] member [[Simon Ferrari]], threatening to &quot;drunk dial&quot; former Gamasutra Editor, and [[Independent Games Festival]] Chairman [[Brandon Boyer]] from [[Babycastles]].

On November 4, 2011, a tweet<sup>[[#cite_note-6|[6]]]</sup> demonstrates that Alexander and Ramiro were again being social with a group of indie developers at Babycastles.

Furthermore, this Twitter search<sup>[[#cite_note-7|[7]]]</sup> demonstrates not only additional conversation, but also Mr. Corbetta referencing the article that Ms. Alexander wrote to promote his game.

== Establishing Relationship with Babycastles ==

Leigh Alexander became a facebook friend of [[Kunal Gupta]] and [[Syed Salahuddin]]<sup>[[#cite_note-8|[8]]][[#cite_note-9|[9]]]</sup> on April 2010. On August 15, 2010, Alexander wrote an article for the Los Angeles Times entitled &quot;In a Queens neighborhood, the birth of indie video games&quot;<sup>[[#cite_note-10|[10]]]</sup> which profiled Babycastles and it's co-founders, Gupta, Salahuddin and [[Arthur Ward]]. The article included no disclosure regarding Alexander's friendship with the founders of Babycastles, depsite the fact that Alexander explicitly referred to them as her friends in both a blog post published a month before the LA Times article<sup>[[#cite_note-11|[11]]]</sup> and likewise in another blog post that was published a couple of days after said article.<sup>[[#cite_note-12|[12]]]</sup>

On July 15, 2011, Leigh Alexander curated an admission-only event entitled &quot;Bad Bitches&quot;<sup>[[#cite_note-13|[13]]]</sup> at Babycastles that featured two games from close friend [[Anna Anthropy]].

This event was profiled and promoted by [[Mike Fahey]] in an article at [[Kotaku]] entitled &quot;To-Do in New York: Explore Alt-Sexuality Gaming at Future Babycastles&quot;<sup>[[#cite_note-14|[14]]]</sup>

== Allegations of Conflict of Interest and Bias ==

It is a documented fact that [[Leigh Alexander]] had a non-professional pre-existing relationship with [[Ramiro Corbetta]]. In addition to this, several readers have leveled charges against Ms. Alexander that she may have had a preexisting business relationship or had otherwise been compensated by [[Babycastles]] for curating their event as well as organizing publicity for it through her relationship with [[Kotaku]] journalist [[Mike Fahey]].

In response to the allegations that Ms. Alexander may had been compensated by Babycastles, the following comment was made by Syed Salahuddin, co-founder of Babycastles:

Objection! No she was not. We are an entirely volunteer based group.<br />
— Syed Salahuddin <sup>[[#cite_note-15|[15]]]</sup>

No such mention of relationship between Ms. Alexander and Mr. Corbetta were disclosed by either Ms. Alexander or [[Gamasutra]] at the time her article went to press.

== References ==

<ol>
<li><div id="cite_note-1">



</div>
[[#cite_ref-1|↑]] [https://archive.today/bKMdY#selection-1429.1-1429.49 Why indie games make meaningful sports, Leigh Alexander]</li>
<li><div id="cite_note-2">



</div>
[[#cite_ref-2|↑]] [https://archive.today/AvAiY Leigh Alexander's Facebook account]</li>
<li><div id="cite_note-3">



</div>
[[#cite_ref-3|↑]] [https://archive.today/poEpm Archives of twitts exchanged between Ramiro Corbetta and Leigh Alexander]</li>
<li><div id="cite_note-4">



</div>
[[#cite_ref-4|↑]] [https://archive.today/grUa6 Twitter Status Ramiro Corbetta]</li>
<li><div id="cite_note-5">



</div>
[[#cite_ref-5|↑]] [http://imgur.com/wxkTUoo Google+ Leigh Alexander Status Update]</li>
<li><div id="cite_note-6">



</div>
[[#cite_ref-6|↑]] [https://archive.today/pG9hX Twitter Status Richard Lemarchand]</li>
<li><div id="cite_note-7">



</div>
[[#cite_ref-7|↑]] [https://archive.today/Ojz9I Twitter Search, Ramiro Corbetta and Leigh Alexander]</li>
<li><div id="cite_note-8">



</div>
[[#cite_ref-8|↑]] [https://archive.today/UZIrl Leigh Alexander's Facebook account]</li>
<li><div id="cite_note-9">



</div>
[[#cite_ref-9|↑]] [https://archive.today/pOAq4 Leigh Alexander's Facebook account]</li>
<li><div id="cite_note-10">



</div>
[[#cite_ref-10|↑]] [http://articles.latimes.com/2010/aug/15/entertainment/la-ca-babycastles-20100815 In a Queens neighborhood, the birth of video games, Leigh Alexander] (Archived versions of pages 1 and 2 can be seen [https://archive.today/zuxM5 here] and [https://archive.today/kCHiQ here])</li>
<li><div id="cite_note-11">



</div>
[[#cite_ref-11|↑]] [https://archive.today/EGOb2 What Does A Gamer Look Like?]</li>
<li><div id="cite_note-12">



</div>
[[#cite_ref-12|↑]] [https://archive.today/84tjM All Work, A Little Play]</li>
<li><div id="cite_note-13">



</div>
[[#cite_ref-13|↑]] [https://archive.today/YIMlp Babycastles Facebook Event]</li>
<li><div id="cite_note-14">



</div>
[[#cite_ref-14|↑]] [https://archive.today/XNT2D To-Do in New York: Explore Alt-Sexuality Gaming at Future Babycastles, Mike Fahey]</li>
<li><div id="cite_note-15">



</div>
[[#cite_ref-15|↑]] [https://archive.today/Sj9mH#selection-1809.1-1809.69 Twitter Status, Syed Salahuddin]</li></ol>

 last modified on 24 January 2015, at 23:14.</li>

[[Category:Corruption]]
[[Category:Collusion]]