Editorial RPG Codex Editorial: Games Journalism Scandal

[evdk]

Fighting the Prometheans grew stale very quickly

So why the hell should I play it?

 

[Jaesun]

Robert Florence ‏@robertflorence
Not surprising to see editors and deputy editors of "Official" magazines thinking "Doritosgate" is paranoia and nonsense.

 

[Taluntain]

Wait, did "EPIC!!!!!!111" go out of vogue already... or is that one reserved for RPGs only?

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

The biggest problem with the AAAwesome big sites, apart from corruption it's the reviews. I tried to read them but when you want something more specific about game it's just buzzwords and rambling all over that is so good, and if you like x genre you must buy it. You could copy-paste it and change some details and it could be another review. Mechanics, gameplay problems, we don't go there, no sir. In film review which you disagree you know when someone has at least some knowledge, comparing, making you think about it. This is the worse thing - there is nothing to read. In early days, even the amateurs at least had some passion, wanted to inform.

 

[Jaesun]

http://www.videogamer.com/features/article/videogamer_com_ethics_and_policies.html

2012. The year of ethics and policies.

 

[Emily]

I stopped reading "professional" reviews long time ago. It is just a bunch of corrupted buzwords put together in order to sell product. I couldnt care less about it honestly

 

[circ]

That Halo 4 review reads almost word for short word like the recent CoD BlOps review, down to the minor complaint and similar score. And both reviewed by the editors themselves! Must be something truly special to get that kind of treatment.

 

[SCO]

Editors are always plants from outside interests

 

[Jaesun]

Ben Lawrence, 2K Games UK PR Manager

https://twitter.com/TheMoop/status/263268293106876416
"People made homeless by Hurricane Sandy send their condolences to all those affected by this latest, terrible, heart-rending games scandal."

https://twitter.com/TheMoop/status/261130838941519872
"Hungry for a bag of Doritos and a cool glass of refreshing Mountain Dew. In other news - The British Legion Poppy Appeal was launched today."

https://twitter.com/TheMoop/status/261131595111612416
"Such a small pond of squabbling guppies. Reality check people - NO ONE in the wider world gives a flying **** about games 'scandals'. xxx"

https://twitter.com/TheMoop/status/262886285570605057
"Totally ****ing entering this, it sounds ****ing brilliant! pic.twitter.com/T2p1MXOi"

EDIT: Now with an awesome quote from the EPIC neoGAF thread:

Holy FUCK do I hate this line of reasoning. I hope he never complains about anything EVER as there's always someone worse off than you. And unlike this cunt, I live in NY and was in the heart of the storm, and I was glad when I got internet back and was able to continue reading this thread.

In summary, fuck right off Ben Lawrence, you juvenile slope-browed moron.​

 

[evdk]

Ah, the good old "how dare you argue about about stuff, there are children dying in Africa" ploy.

 

[skuphundaku]

Ben Lawrence, 2K Games UK PR Manager

https://twitter.com/TheMoop/status/263268293106876416
"People made homeless by Hurricane Sandy send their condolences to all those affected by this latest, terrible, heart-rending games scandal."

https://twitter.com/TheMoop/status/261130838941519872
"Hungry for a bag of Doritos and a cool glass of refreshing Mountain Dew. In other news - The British Legion Poppy Appeal was launched today."

https://twitter.com/TheMoop/status/261131595111612416
"Such a small pond of squabbling guppies. Reality check people - NO ONE in the wider world gives a flying **** about games 'scandals'. xxx"

https://twitter.com/TheMoop/status/262886285570605057
"Totally ****ing entering this, it sounds ****ing brilliant! pic.twitter.com/T2p1MXOi"

You would think that PR people would be more diplomatic. The fucker knows that the sheeple buying his company's slop don't care about journalistic integrity anyway, so he can publicly gloat to his heart's content. As a wise man once said: Fuck that loser!

 

[Brother None]

You would think that PR people would be more diplomatic. The fucker knows that the sheeple buying his company's slop don't care about journalistic integrity anyway, so he can publicly gloat to his heart's content.

It's a weirdly insular circlejerk society, this whole PR and top-level journalists world. That's why so many of them are acting so incensed that we dare criticize them. Look at it this way: there's a huge contingent of videogame fans who could only dream of getting games for free and reviewing them for a living, so the ones that do actually do feel special and privileged. Not thankful, obviously, but better than the rest. It's an interesting mindset.

I don't really tell people in real life that I'm a paid video game journalists, or that I get games for free occasionally. I find it rather shameful.

Also haha, Halo 4.
(I have never played a Halo and have no idea if Halo 4 is bad or good)

PS: yay VideoGamer tho. Good policies.

 

[Jaesun]

holy shit.

EDIT:

Kotaku responds (via the EPIC neoGAF thread):

I don't think I did. This is a screw-up, especially if you're being absolutist about what should be done with swag. In this case, it seems I failed to communicate clearly what my expectations were with swag. That's on me, no one else.

When folks were talking about the flag earlier this week, I was going to comment specifically about how much I disliked the letter, but then I realized that I couldn't remember what happened to the flag, which I figured was either still in the office in the wooden box it came in or given away (not publicly, by the way, because I've always felt that that is as much a free ad as anything else). We'd been sent two flags, and I can't recall where either wound up. Granted, with a flag, disposal is more of a hassle than with other stuff. The bigger point is that this reminds me to remind my team about our swag standards. It's not a standard if we don't enforce it. My error. I've asked Chris to take the flag down and we'll find a way to get rid of it.

We get sent a ton of stuff, and dealing with it is a pain in the ass. Many will say: "Then just tell people you don't want it." It's a little more complicated than that, but that's ultimately the right response. I'll have more on swag, among many other issues, when I run my full piece when Kotaku is restored.

Frankly, I'm glad this was caught because it helps me see where we had a blind spot. You can still take my answers to that Q&A as the standards I believe are proper.​

 

[Infinitron]

 

[grotsnik]

The exact same shitty diversionary 'PRIORITIES, PEOPLE' fallacy was brought up after the UK phone hacking scandal. The journalists under fire even used their publications to suggest that coverage of the story was leading to a lack of attention on the Somalian famine, i.e. covering this story = killing African babies.

Spoiler

Also, if we're still keeping count, this

Robert Florence ‏@robertflorence
Not surprising to see editors and deputy editors of "Official" magazines thinking "Doritosgate" is paranoia and nonsense.

is in reference to a fascinating new article by Pocketgamer's Keith Andrew, expanding upon his original Twitter rant of 'having rules is an admission of guilt/having rules means I can't let industry figures buy me a pint, which would destroy all possibility of top-quality games journalism'.

Florence, bless him, has begun to sarcastically retweet editors who've praised the article, although it did give me a slight shock for one moment when I saw his feed and assumed it meant he agreed with it.

 

[Jasede]

From Kotaku:

The Microsoft facial we received was very thick and confusing.

"Halo 4 is an emotional, beautiful look at Master Chief's struggles in war."

This is a joke, right? You photoshopped this, didn't you?

 

[felipepepe]

"Halo 4 is an emotional, beautiful look at Master Chief's struggles in war."

This is a joke, right? You photoshopped this, didn't you?

I wish I was that creative bro, but some real facts are far more amusing that fiction will ever be.

 

[Syl]

Ethics - hard to spell, hard to pronounce, hard to understand.

Fucking morons.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

Ben Lawrence, 2K Games UK PR Manager

https://twitter.com/TheMoop/status/263268293106876416
"People made homeless by Hurricane Sandy send their condolences to all those affected by this latest, terrible, heart-rending games scandal."

This just goes to show how far out of touch and insulated are these folks in the industry. Every quote I have seen from a games industry insider or journalist has been to brush it off or to ridicule the people who show concern. Notice there hasn't been any denial that this kind of gift giving and favorably treatment occurs. Not one journalist has denied this goes on. Not one CEO has taken a moment to self-reflect and say 'You know, I can see why there has been cause for alarm. Maybe we should consider changing the way we do business.'


Update and Correction: Looks like someone here just mentioned that the folks at Kotaku are saying this very thing about stepping back and examining the way they operate.

 

[felipepepe]

"People made homeless by Hurricane Sandy send their condolences to all those affected by this latest, terrible, heart-rending games scandal."

This is the new version of that whole "entitled gamers" shit, a new retarded line of thought to discourage people thinking on their own. A gamer should not feel entitled to a game just because he payed to it... A gamer should not worry about games game journalism while people die.

"Shut the fuck up and buy our shit" would be more straightfoward.

 

[tuluse]

"People made homeless by Hurricane Sandy send their condolences to all those affected by this latest, terrible, heart-rending games scandal."

This is the new version of that whole "entitled gamers" shit, a new retarded line of thought to discourage people thinking on their own. A gamer should not feel entitled to a game just because he payed to it... A gamer should not worry about games game journalism while people die.

"Shut the fuck up and buy our shit" would be more straightfoward.

Isn't this basically tacit admission something is wrong? If nothing was wrong, that would be the response. Something is wrong so the response, shouldn't you be more concerned with other things?

 

[felipepepe]

Isn't this basically tacit admission something is wrong? If nothing was wrong, that would be the response. Something is wrong so the response, shouldn't you be more concerned with other things?

They are on step 2 already:
- Hey guys, aren't you a bit corrupted?
- WHAT? HELL NO, WE ARE PURE BRO!
- You sure? Because, we may have some proff that you're all a bunch of PR bitch...
- BRO, PEOPLE ARE DYING! HOW CAN YOU WORRY ABOUT THAT NOW? Now go buy Halo 4 (10/10 GOTY) & Mtn Dew, it's your civic duty to save US economy or some shit...

The hilarious part is that worrying about journalism corruption mid-Sandy is having wrong values, but reviewing AssCreed & Halo 4 at that time is being professional.

 

[SCO]

'emotional, beautiful look at Master Chief's struggles in war'

This requires we resurrect George Orwell's Zombie

 

[Metro]

I lost most of my stuff in Hurricane Katrina (hooray for insurance)... but I still think game journalists are a fraud.

 

[Gozma]

Ain't no river of shit wide enough to keep a normal from a bullshit do-nothing middle class job