Mothership’s editorial remit — to examine games through the lens of gender and identity — necessitates a strong sense of ethics towards subjects and writers alike. The team at Mothership will always approach stories and sources with curiosity and respect, employing the tenets of intersectional feminism and class consciousness to ensure the site accurately represents people of all walks of life.
Our editorial ethics are also rooted in a few longstanding principles of journalism: tell the truth, hold those in power accountable, and shed light on stories that are happening in our world. All of the writing and video content produced by Mothership undergoes several rounds of editorial scrutiny. That includes calling in experts, such as lawyers or sensitivity readers, for subjects of import or subjects about which the editorial team lacks first-hand knowledge. Mothership has an internal ethical review process for editors or writers — freelance or otherwise — who may seek to raise any issue with any story.
Mothership requires access to the media we critique, and as such, the publication accepts free game and subscription codes granted by public relations representatives, game studios, and individual developers. When press access is not provided, Mothership may use company funds to purchase games. Editorial coverage will specify how the media object in question was obtained. Mothership’s editorial team will never exchange access to a game for anything, including the promise of coverage. Mothership does not accept gifts, though its editors and writers may occasionally accept physical products for review purposes, again, never with the promise of coverage.
Mothership’s journalism and criticism are not “promotion,” because we do not accept payment in exchange for good favor. Therefore, Mothership cannot participate in consumer boycotts, but we will cover boycotts as newsworthy in our coverage of the games and studios to which they pertain. Our editorial team will constantly be evaluating relationships with publishers and studios in positions of power. We reserve the right to examine those companies and their actions, as well as the media they may create, while also seeking to consistently provide context to readers so they, too, can understand the powers at play in the games industry.
We’ve seen first-hand the rise of AI-generated writing on websites that are devoted to publishing a high volume of content. We condemn the AI systems explicitly built upon stealing creators' work without compensation. While we do allow for the discrete use of non-generative AI tools for internal administrative tasks such as transcribing interviews, we do not allow for the use of AI as a creative or ideational tool, nor do we use AI to assist with editing processes. We carefully examine the terms and conditions for the AI tools we do use, and we will do whatever we can, including changing tools or paying human experts, to avoid predatory or unethical use of AI. We believe strongly in the value of human reporters, critics, and editors; only humans can produce wholly original work, and that’s the only thing we publish here at Mothership.