Game journalists ;rage; against EA and BF3

[Luigi]

NEWSFLASH
readers ultimately decide the proper level of journalistic integrity

Some decent effort, links at the bottom:
http://www.nma-fallout.com/content.php? ... ures&id=28

 

[Luigi]

Ross Atherton | Editor | PC Gamer (UK)

And Half-Life 2 is 96% as far as we're concerned. It came close to 97%, by the way

Considering that HL2 is such a mediocre and boring piece of shit, that gem above makes me laugh oh so slightly.

 

[thesoup]

Why did this get no attention anywhere?

This is exactly the perfect new blow EA needs after their shittastic Origin.

Someone make an escapist conspiracy thread saying this isn't getting enough attention and should get it, you probably get banned but at least you get some sheeple to spread this

This is exactly what crossed my mind. I remember quite a few threads over there getting wide internet attention. Might actually work. I'll do it in the morning (eurofag), if no one's beaten me to it, because I'm not capable of writing coherently in 4 am.

EDIT IMPORTANTE
Looks like the escapist DID cover it after all. I wonder how this will turn out.

 

[DwarvenFood]

A Dutch magazine I regularly read has been going on about shit like this a lot lately. Press review copies only being let free at the last moment so they won't get in that month's magazine because the publisher counts on sales being highest in the first weeks and they don't want shit reviews to ruin that, early copies only being presented to a chosen few, review copies being presented as the latest beta so the mag can get a review out early and will go easy on the bugs only to find that the bugs are still in the game when shipped, strict rules and NDA's in pr events, magazines and sites that write critically being blacklisted... It just goes on. The industry turned from hobby to pro and then they handed the reigns to the guys in accounting and marketing. They (Gameplay Magazine) also had a pretty good interview with the founder of Larian. Guy basically ripped publishers and the industry a new one. Creative bankrupcy, suits, money, blah blah. Maybe I'll translate and post it. Codexers would love it.

GamePlay Magazine ? Have not seen it around, is it commonly available ? And do you remember the excellent Software Gids from back in the day ? I have almost all issues lying around somewhere (I hope!!)

 

[Gerrard]

Sellouts at gram.pl refuse to cover this. Not surprising seeing how you have EA ads all over the fucking place.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Gaming "journalists" ruined gaming long before the kwa hollywood jews took everything over. I remember how every fucking FIFA/NBA/whatever iteration got 90+ while original games were given shit reviews and left in the dust to be forgotten and their publishers and developers to fail.

And now these same people who are responsible for 90% of the decline DARE TO WHINE ABOUT THE STATE OF THE INDUSTRY?!?!

Maybe in Kwa but not in Europe. At least, not in the 80's or 90's.

 

[Trash]

GamePlay Magazine ? Have not seen it around, is it commonly available ? And do you remember the excellent Software Gids from back in the day ? I have almost all issues lying around somewhere (I hope!!)

Gameplay magazine was first known as PC Gameplay but they switched to a broader coverage. I think it actually improved the magazine. Quality is varying wildly though. They almost exclusively use freelancers (aka students out to make a buck) and while most can write their knowledge and journalistic capabilities vary wildly. Meh, I find it to be a fun read most of the time.

Never had the Software Gids but did buy HoogSpel for years. Goddamn shame that fanzine turned real magazine went down. Those guys wrote like the Codex on steroids. Ironically they went down (according to themselves) because the sheer amount of negative reviews they gave made advertisers turn to other more willing bootlickers.

Talking about bootlickers. Gamekings on TMF is a program by the same guys that make the Power Unlimited mag (the one that got popular during the decline and fall of HoogSpel). They pretend to be games journalists but when you look at the holding (Blammo Media) that owns both Gamekings and Power Unlimited you'll find that they also offer pr and events for upcoming game or console releases. The guys offer to do that pr are the same that write and present the mag and show. They even go as far as to claim that the 'credit' they build as game 'journalists' will help in promoting whatever game product they get hired to promote. How fucking shameless do you want it?

 

[baronjohn]

Gaming "journalists" ruined gaming long before the kwa hollywood jews took everything over. I remember how every fucking FIFA/NBA/whatever iteration got 90+ while original games were given shit reviews and left in the dust to be forgotten and their publishers and developers to fail.

And now these same people who are responsible for 90% of the decline DARE TO WHINE ABOUT THE STATE OF THE INDUSTRY?!?!

Maybe in Kwa but not in Europe. At least, not in the 80's or 90's.

No, in Europe.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Well, not in my limited experience of Finnish and British magazines from the 80s and 90s. Those serial sports games usually got decent scores but nothing spectacular, they covered hardcore flight sims and strategy games using reviewers who were experts on their own genre.

 

[Trash]

Most of the older magazines looked and read like fanzines with experts for every genre who usually had pretty opinionated (?) articles. The fail came during the 90's with (yeah, I said this a dozen times already) gaming gradually changing from a niche hobby into a full fledged entertainment industry.

 

[DwarvenFood]

Well, not in my limited experience of Finnish and British magazines from the 80s and 90s. Those serial sports games usually got decent scores but nothing spectacular, they covered hardcore flight sims and strategy games using reviewers who were experts on their own genre.

I used to love PC Format, in the time Syndicate got released.. it had great humour and lot of content. I do not know what became of it.

@Trash: Software Gids pre-dates HoogSpel a bit, I read a few but I must have missed the overall criticizm that you speak of. SG was in the era when 256-color just came in, release of Wing Commander, and such. Real shame they went out of business and it's hard to find any info on it.

 

[DwarvenFood]

Well, not in my limited experience of Finnish and British magazines from the 80s and 90s. Those serial sports games usually got decent scores but nothing spectacular, they covered hardcore flight sims and strategy games using reviewers who were experts on their own genre.

I used to love PC Format, in the time Syndicate got released.. it had great humour and lot of content. I do not know what became of it.

@Trash: Software Gids pre-dates HoogSpel a bit, I read a few but I must have missed the overall criticizm that you speak of. SG was in the era when 256-color just came in, release of Wing Commander, and such. Real shame they went out of business and it's hard to find any info on it.

That Blammo thing with Skate the Geat and stuff - yeah it's pretty much worthless but they are smart to have the "monopoly" on most gaming stuffies in the country. I even liked that Veronica-show more but hey what can you expect from mainstream media, even a channel just showing gameplay wouyld be more amusing (they are out there).

 

[Destroid]

I really liked the magazine PCPowerplay when I was a kid.

 

[Archibald]

Ross Atherton | Editor | PC Gamer (UK)

And Half-Life 2 is 96% as far as we're concerned. It came close to 97%, by the way

Considering that HL2 is such a mediocre and boring piece of shit, that gem above makes me laugh oh so slightly.

Whats the fucking difference betwean 96 and 97 ffs.

 

[MetalCraze]

When talking about 91-100% mark you should subtract 90 and treat it like 1/10 - 10/10.
Meaning anything higher than 90% is a rating dedicated to retarded readers.

Today games worth playing are usually in 70s and 80s and never get frontpage features.

In fact if some game gets on a magazine cover chances are it's a very very stinky piece of shit.

 

[Morkar Left]

The decline started already in the 90's. I remember an interview/chatprotokoll with an ex-owner of a german mag that went down where he clearly stated, that they faked some scores and reviews, e.g. the beat'em up One must Fall.

 

[Raapys]

There's been a change though. You've gone from magazines that people actually bought for cash, to websites that people don't pay for and which rely strictly on advertising( largely from the people whose games they are reviewing) to continue running.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Yeah, PC Gamer UK went to shit already during the 90's, but much later than PC Gamer US which has always been a ad-bought shill.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

There's been a change though. You've gone from magazines that people actually bought for cash, to websites that people don't pay for and which rely strictly on advertising( largely from the people whose games they are reviewing) to continue running.

That's why professional magazines/sites are generally worthless. Also, most of magazines also run on advertising.

 

[Damned Registrations]

There's been a change though. You've gone from magazines that people actually bought for cash, to websites that people don't pay for and which rely strictly on advertising( largely from the people whose games they are reviewing) to continue running.

I think the cause of the shift actually has very little to do with the magazines/websites themselves. It's an effect of all the mergers.

Telling one out of 30 competing publishers they can go fuck themselves and their ads if they don't like how you review games is fine. Telling off one out of 6 competing publishers, especially the largest one that makes up 50% of the market anyways, isn't really a viable business decision.

 

[Trash]

Yeah, PC Gamer UK went to shit already during the 90's, but much later than PC Gamer US which has always been a ad-bought shill.

Yeah, I remember it being pretty good untill at least '96. US mags seem to have been always publisher and marketing tools. Perhaps the early 'hobbyist' mags weren't but hey, those weren't around here.

 

[thesoup]

This discussion makes me rage because it reminds me how I used to write reviews for a site that has grown very much in popularity over the years. You've never heard of it because it's not in english, though. But anyway, we started as stupid enthusiastic kids. We grew older, the site matured with us and our man in charge (aka also our editor) started seeing possibilities in profits. He used to bitch because I didn't write for the readers with the lowest reading comprehension level imaginable (aka 13 year olds) and the scores we gave had to be close to metacritic because "that's professional". I'm not kidding, that's what he literally said.

I wrote a long article what an overrated game one specific popular 2010 Bioware title is. Of course, the editor left a footnote saying this was just my subjective opinion and not "our" objective opinion which was written in the review which was also appropriately linked. The reviewer gave a score of 95% and the review itself was pure fanboyism, of course. Basically, he wanted some "controversy" which will get some drama and attention, but he didn't want to alieanate his dear 13 year old readers so he resorted to something akin to shitting on my credibility.

Nowadays you can't really have a successful gaming magazine / ezine without selling out. I hate that and I would personally rather not write anything than having to censor myself. I guess what I've learned is that I wasted almost 7 years for nothing as my childish dream of being a gaming journalist is impossible.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

That's some seriously disgusting stuff.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

Dunno, PC Gamer US was a good magazine in the 90s, maybe it catered a bit too much to the publishers at times but the rest of the magazine still had decent reviews and coverage of everything. They even had a column about children's pc games for a while!

It started going downhill as the whole advertising revenue shrank because of the Web's expansion.

I also think that US magazines are very handicapped compared to those of smaller European countries since it costs so much more to distribute the same product across all of the US and Canada.

 

[Morkar Left]

That's some seriously disgusting stuff.

For a fanzine indeed. Especially if you keep in mind for how much (or better how less) he wants to prostitute himself.

If it's your sole income I can see why they start to change from journalism to marketing. If you have the decision between struggling to not become bankrupt or have your nice monthly income, a nice car, being able to pay rent for your house and travel in holidays with your family (and all this by constantly getting affirmatons from your surroundings about how well you made it with all that), the decision is easy. Especially when you just write about some entertainment product. It's not that you are responsible for accidents or something serious.

The biggest problem was probably the uprising of the internet with affordable connection and the transition towards it. Before gaming journalists and their magazines were your door to the world of gaming and gaming lifestyle (besides maybe a computer club) and often the only source you could form your opinions from.

In older magazin issues review games were often sponsored (sent) from (small) software shops which got mentioned therefore in the review and advertisements from shops. Plus reviewers had more time to write their articles. Nowadays you have to rely on exclusive content. Testing a game when it's released is too late. Publishers did their homework.

To be able to run a mag nowadays you have to either sell out to the publishers (aka you are a marketing agency for them) or you have to rely on content that's not fecused (typo but I liked it) on reviews. I would like to see a mag that focuses on quality and things about gaming and maybee geek(counter)culture. But on the other hand there are rarely games nowadays I'm interested in...