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The State of Game Journalism


DANGERMAN
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Giant Bombcast probably should have left this alone. When they're not talking about games, food or entertainment, they don't particularly know what they're talking about.

They seem to miss the point and tone of Rab's original article calling it bitter, and Patrick thought the person at the centre of the shitstorm is called 'Laurence' :facepalm:

They did eventually make some salient points, but it was painful for a little while.

For what it's worth, I think that despite them having close relationships with some parts of the industry, they think a lot more carefully about if it is having any effect on their output than most other places. You dont see Giant Bomb making grand proclamations about their code of ethics/ changing the status quo, then publishing a copy & paste press release for Halo 4 and Pizza Hut as news (hi, Polygon).

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VG247 have gone way over the top in an attempt to justify themselves: http://www.vg247.com/2012/10/31/doritosgate-after-the-storm-lets-clean-ourselves-up/

I applaud their hardline stance but I fail to see how not accepting flights and accommodation for coverage trips makes any sense from a business point of view. As mentioned in the article: that shit's expensive. They're not a small site anymore and paying for that stuff is going to put a massive dent in their earnings.

It's a shame it's come to this, that they felt so strongly about the situation they've put unnecessary financial pressure on the company and it's employees. I just hope it was a unanimous decision as I'd be feeling more than a little trapped if I was working for them and didn't agree.

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if you're a journalist, a proper journalist not a games journalist, it's part of the charter that they aren't allowed to accept travel and expenses. It's commendable that they're trying to ape that, and who knows maybe press trips like that are rare enough, or localised enough (I imagine most press events for the UK is located around Bath/Brighton) that the site can afford the expenses. I will say though it wasn't something I ever took issue with, it's not ideal but I'm more concerned with them reviewing games under PR conditions than having a free drink

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Giant Bombcast probably should have left this alone. When they're not talking about games, food or entertainment, they don't particularly know what they're talking about.

They seem to miss the point and tone of Rab's original article calling it bitter, and Patrick thought the person at the centre of the shitstorm is called 'Laurence' :facepalm:

They did eventually make some salient points, but it was painful for a little while.

For what it's worth, I think that despite them having close relationships with some parts of the industry, they think a lot more carefully about if it is having any effect on their output than most other places. You dont see Giant Bomb making grand proclamations about their code of ethics/ changing the status quo, then publishing a copy & paste press release for Halo 4 and Pizza Hut as news (hi, Polygon).

on the whole I didn't think it was that bad, like you said they did eventually get around to admitting there it a problem, and even talked about their relationship with PR/developers, and how PS/marketing want just a bit more coverage even if that's just an unboxing video. But then there's this disconnect where it's all a foreign problem, or not a problem because some people who are shady dont identify as journalists, and it is a witch hunt, and they can have friends with pr people have it cause a problem but it still not mean they the industry is too close.

There seems to be precious few people that see all or even most of the bigger picture, and I think a big part of the problem is that whenever anyone responds to the criticism of the whole industry they do so by defending themselves

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there's something about Gerstman's attitude to it that doesn't sit quite right with me admittedly. Other people have pointed out him saying he was up for doing a mock review at one point, but wouldn't hire people that had done one, I think that may be oversimplifying things a possibly (it might not too), but he does seem to think pr influence is a problem for everyone else that he isn't affected by. It's a shame how few people have come out of this well

and on that note, Weekend Confirmed handled this better this week, Andrea wasn't on but Garnet seemed to have spent time understanding the topic this week, and Christian Spicer was really good, actually challenging the others. It's a shame Canatta couldn't see past himself, he was ultra defensive and then tried pulling the "I'm not a journalist" card, which Spicer called him on. It's odd because I do trust him, as far as I'm aware no one has found that he's done anything wrong, but he seems to be the most defensive while being the most vocal about guarding his opinions

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Florence is moaning about something else now. Apparently David Braben has asked for a million pounds for a kickstarter project, but his pitch is basically along the lines of 'remember Elite? give me money'

Robert Florence ‏@robertflorence

I'm David Braben. Remember Elite? Give me a million pounds.

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Rab is always moaning, I wouldn't worry too much about it. He's kinda right on that topic too, though. Even in his pitch video he says something like "when we know we have financial backing we can make the game" which just sounds like he doesn't really want to make it... or at least he doesn't want to take a risk.

It was the same with Mercenary Kings. I remember seeing that game and was baffled to why it ever needed a kickstarter. It has art from the guy that did the Scott Pilgrim game, it looked polished, and there seemed no reason why it couldn't of got funded by more regular means... I mean it has things that look like this in it

fBdo8.gif

But back to the topic, Kotaku did a good round-up of everything, even if it does come across as a bit defensive. They speak some PR and get Wainright's side in the aftermath. It seems she just bricked herself and panicked, and seems dead apologetic about it now.

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neogaf aren't happy with that article, I haven't read it myself (so don't can't comment on it), they feel Totilo accepted her comments at face value. For example she has written reviews and previews of games she's consulted on (according to them). Like I said I haven't read it, but Totilo is one of the people who have come out of this worst for me, the article might change that though

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As an article it's one of the better ones I've seen over at Kotaku.

I still find all this shit a shed full of shady. Out of all the people chiming in I think John Walkers probably the one I most agree with.

"Where once [expertise] was desired, it's now considered arrogant oppression. So when a review disagrees with a reader's strong opinion, it's much more satisfying to conclude the discrepancy is the result of corruption. This desire to bring down all who put themselves in this now-arrogant place is a strong motivating factor to find them deeply at fault. So when stories emerge that suggest an individual has acted inappropriately, this is then generalised across the entire industry to satisfy that belief."

I really couldn't have put it any better if I'd have had a million monkeys on a million typewriters. Every time a big game comes out you get people talking shit that the review got off lightly or was scolded too badly. Blops is out soon and you can bet that there'll be arguments over it's scoring. Dare people give it a low mark for being a bad game, dare people give it a high mark for being a good game? I'm guessing it'll pull 8's and piss both camps off that want to see it fail/succeed.

It goes back to that statement about all game journalism being carbon copies of each other because they are all scared of pissing off the PR.

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im not sure how that quote pertains to this 'crisis' though sly? isnt this about the how the journalists might be influenced to reach those review scores rather than the fanboys/trolls reactions to them? Like you i hate that fanboys go to town on reviewers that give halo less than a 9 or trolls that split a log when a reviewer mistakenly enjoys a cod game but there are myriad examples of some of the games press being a little corrupt, its a problem with them not the readership

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I think that part of the issue here is that we are now effectively looking at the second generation of 'gaming' journalists, the people doing it now grew up reading the people who were really just finding their feet at the time.

Gaming journalism is rooted in gaming magazine history, and I dont mean any offence by this if a certain member is reading, but if you read a GamesMaster mag from back in the day, and still now quite a lot, it sets itself completely apart from something like Edge nowadays. For me it was always aimed at kids and that side of gaming, the side of you that just loves gaming and how cool it is, not necessarily cutting to the heart of the matter and certainly not taking itself too seriously.

Not to dismiss a lot of the stuff that this topic is about, but I really think a lot of it is people getting into the industry and just wanting to have a good time of it, be a big kid, certainly if I found myself in that job then thats what it would be about for me, just being part of the gaming industry and trying to feedback that excitement to any readers, it wouldnt be about ripping out the rotten heart of the multi million dollar conglomerates and laying it out for all to see. So these people are just getting caught sort of in the middle of everything, maybe its naivety as people here have said of some of the cases that were reported, maybe its just that they, possibly understandably, didnt expect to come under such intense scrutiny.

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good post sambob. i think the way the press has reacted to these observations, whether they try to sweep it under the rug, get ridiculously defensive and deflective, or just agree with rab, says to me they know its kinda messy to be reviewing games and simultaneously snogging the PR men (or in the worst cases being, for all intents and purposes, in business with them). if they know its wrong, yet some do it and some dont want it to change, that leaves a real bad taste. take it seriously games journos!!

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im not sure how that quote pertains to this 'crisis' though sly? isnt this about the how the journalists might be influenced to reach those review scores rather than the fanboys/trolls reactions to them? Like you i hate that fanboys go to town on reviewers that give halo less than a 9 or trolls that split a log when a reviewer mistakenly enjoys a cod game but there are myriad examples of some of the games press being a little corrupt, its a problem with them not the readership

I think it can be cut both ways. Whether the reviewer is pressured by readers or has had his hand crossed by silver for a good review, the leniency for giving something a better mark than they usually would give is still being corrupt whichever way you look at it. How often does something come out and wildly surprise us with its review score?

In other news, it looks like Robert Florence has found a platform to shout from.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/11/11/cardboard-children-venice-gone/

Shout away Rab!

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I thought it was odd that someone I sub to on youtube was putting up games he usually wouldn't play. You can see

in the description something which is a bit alarming.
"As a perk of being a Machinima partner, I received a free copy of "Need for Speed: Most Wanted" and a monetary bonus for posting this video as part of a promotion for NFSMW!"

I can't blame the guy for doing this, as I know he makes money off yt that puts him through school. I have to admire his honesty that he put that comment in the description bar. I know he's not a game journalist, in fact he openly admits he doesn't follow who makes what, where or when and just plays the games he likes and delivers whatever he's enjoying or has saved up at the time. If you look at this guys sub count it's over 40k subscribers, which although seems big is actually tiny compared to some uploaders. That's a lot advertising space delivered straight into peoples sub boxes coming from people they like or trust.

What does make me wonder is how often this happens. These big youtubers have some huge following and throwing them games to play and offering them a bonus for uploading footage makes me very suspect of the companies coming up with this shit. It's must be cheap advertising for them or something, I'm not sure. It's not something I'm entirely sure I sit well with, but then again how am I to know that other big youtubers aren't on the same gig and are getting monetary benefits on top of their partnerships with yt channels.

Thoughts?

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