NDAs should not exist. Change my mind.

[taxalot]

The practice of NDAs should not be allowed to exist. Journalism is not about witholding information for the editor's sake. It is only allowed to exist because the journos do not want to be blacklisted and be at an unfair disadvantage with competitors. It is, in any case, a practice that is disloyal to the public and customer and put the press into a situation of submission to the editor.

NDAs cannot be actually enforced legally and practically : the editors need the hype of the press. A fair numbers of NDA clauses are actually illegal since the press does not work for the editor.

Let us go further : if you are not employed by the press, want to speak about the game you are currently testing, but do not because you signed a NDA, you are one motherfucking idiot.

Thank you for your time.

 

[Nerevar]

Well I had to sign one when I did I.T for a medical company because I had access to patient records. It didn't hypothetically stop me from looking up my friends allegedly and surprising them by telling them what is wrong with them by me "guessing".

Actually it might better if they were public access. That way you can look up "girl you like" and see what's this she was taking birth control pills and feeling depressed? What a piece of shit roastie enjoy your life.

 

[Infinitron]

The practice of NDAs should not be allowed to exist. Journalism is not about witholding information for the editor's sake. It is only allowed to exist because the journos do not want to be blacklisted and be at an unfair disadvantage with competitors. It is, in any case, a practice that is disloyal to the public and customer and put the press into a situation of submission to the editor.

NDAs cannot be actually enforced legally and practically : the editors need the hype of the press. A fair numbers of NDA clauses are actually illegal since the press does not work for the editor.

Let us go further : if you are not employed by the press, want to speak about the game you are currently testing, but do not because you signed a NDA, you are one motherfucking idiot.

Thank you for your time.

Don't tell me you're still upset about that scorpion.

 

[taxalot]

The practice of NDAs should not be allowed to exist. Journalism is not about witholding information for the editor's sake. It is only allowed to exist because the journos do not want to be blacklisted and be at an unfair disadvantage with competitors. It is, in any case, a practice that is disloyal to the public and customer and put the press into a situation of submission to the editor.

NDAs cannot be actually enforced legally and practically : the editors need the hype of the press. A fair numbers of NDA clauses are actually illegal since the press does not work for the editor.

Let us go further : if you are not employed by the press, want to speak about the game you are currently testing, but do not because you signed a NDA, you are one motherfucking idiot.

Thank you for your time.

Don't tell me you're still upset about that scorpion.

I wear it as a badge of honor, sir !

 

[rusty_shackleford]

imagine actually speaking with a gaming ""journalist""

 

[Daedalos]

NDAs are fine. You wanna keep your unreleased game a secret to the public to generate hype and not to spoil and ruin it for the consumer.

The consumer think it wants to know everything, but he/she doesn't, not always.

Also, having people spout dumb shit because of NDA might harm your game, eventho its evidently a WIP.

Like some dumb asshole will convince 50 other dumb assholes that the alpha he just played is TOTALLY the final and finished game, and FUCK THE DEVELOPERS .. wah wah wah wah.. and so on.

I can perfectly understand why NDAs are there. Sometimes they don't make alot of sense, but sometimes they do.

It's the same reason why Early Access isn't always a good thing to do, because you got joe dumbfuck mouthing off.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

There is no game journalism, only a gaming media.

 

[DalekFlay]

NDAs in the sense of "we're firing you and if you don't want us to sue you then you'll never complain in public" are evil. NDAs in the sense of "you know valuable patent information and can't get a job elsewhere and share it" make sense and are fine. NDAs in the sense of "don't talk about our videogame until the 12th" are... I don't really give a shit honestly. I haven't read a traditional video game review in years, and it doesn't really matter for the press release regurgitation sites like Eurogamer do.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Hmm.. I certainly agree with Taxalot that as a consumer, NDAs are bad. The press and users should be able to report freely so that we have a better idea of what is really going on. OTOH I can understand why some companies would want an NDA to keep blabber mouths from completely tanking a game's rep when it's still at the stage of being developed and balanced. Ever since Early Access became a thing it has become quite clear to me that many users don't know the difference between a finished game and a work-in-progress, so having a bunch of cretins ruin a game because they thought it was too buggy at the Alpha stage is not a desireable situation. At the end of the day I'd still choose not to have NDAs since I'm a consumer and don't really give a shit about corporations interests.

 

[J_C]

The practice of NDAs should not be allowed to exist. Journalism is not about witholding information for the editor's sake. It is only allowed to exist because the journos do not want to be blacklisted and be at an unfair disadvantage with competitors. It is, in any case, a practice that is disloyal to the public and customer and put the press into a situation of submission to the editor.

NDAs cannot be actually enforced legally and practically : the editors need the hype of the press. A fair numbers of NDA clauses are actually illegal since the press does not work for the editor.

Let us go further : if you are not employed by the press, want to speak about the game you are currently testing, but do not because you signed a NDA, you are one motherfucking idiot.

Thank you for your time.

If journos didn't adhere to NDAs, publishers wouldn't give them review copies in advance, so the reviews would be published days, weeks after release. So you have two options:
a) there are no NDAs, but you will only get the game on release day. The review is 1 week late.
b) you get a review copy in advance, and everyone can publish their reviews on launch day.

Guess which one is more adventageous to the consumer.

The fault is not on the journos, it's on the publishers who are only giving you review copies is you adhere to NDAs.

 

[abija]

Let us go further : if you are not employed by the press, want to speak about the game you are currently testing, but do not because you signed a NDA, you are one motherfucking idiot.

You should finance a game and not have the QA team sign NDAs.