So here's the reason of all this:
(also screw Blizzard for not getting me a review copy, seriously if the stuff I write sells them even 10 copies is that not worth it?)
Man, I enjoyed reading some of the articles you wrote, but you gave yourself away this time. That is as much of a games "journalist" mindset and behavior as possible, even if only for the sake of a free game rather than for actual cash, dinners etc, it still is very dishonest to do that and no matter what you claim, this comment is just too much of a slip to not take it for exactly what it implies: "Will give positive reviews for free copies."
Get out of this whether it is a hobby or a 2nd job, it will eventually turn you into a dishonest person trading opinions for peanuts like free games or cause you immense frustration, unless you have enough willpower to refuse such deals and don't feel bad about missing them, or about limiting your content to a few sites that aren't sellouts, and by that comment you did that seems to be unlikely from you.
A reviewer who gives his honest opinion, can be critical, won't contribute to great metacritic scores and says he cannot be bought? That kind of shit is dangerous. Be happy they don't ban you for clicking the wrong button.
Pretty much, you either give up this activity, pay up the games you review in one of the few truly independent sites like RPGCodex, or join the rest of the PR mouthpieces and liars.
It's like a politician joking that an oil company didn't loan him a private jet, so how's he supposed to write energy laws. You shouldn't have even gone there. Making a joke about a legitimate and rampant concern like reviewer integrity is fucking stupid.
Giving the benefit of doubt? It is always convenient to make a "LOL it was sarcasm" or "LOL it was a joke" or "LOL I troll u" after you let something demeaning about yourself out, or after making a stupid comment. Of course this is the Internet so it's impossible to guess intentions from body language, but I think that, given sea's admittedly eccletic taste in games, this is most likely a straight opinion rather than a joke or sarcasm and in the field he is in it's natural for people to either develop a behavior similar to that of the usual games "journalists", restrict themselves to a limited set of sites that have some independence and make only occasional articles, or give up. And I think sea is hanging somewhere in the line between the first and the second. And he isn't part of the Codexers that tend to use sarcasm and jokes like that either. Of course I could be wrong.
*Edit: Nvm WaywardOne, I sort of half-read your post. If it was a joke comment then it was indeed stupid.
tl;dr: I'm too jaded and cynical to be forgiving about potential evidences of posers in KKKodex to at first assume they were jokes rather than slips. And I have no Xbox360 to tell others on Skype about and never will have one.
