Totally Not Corrupt Professional Objective Gaming Journalism DRAMA

[Kane]

 

[Whisky]

That's hardly a "game journalism only" thing. A few examples from potatoland from the top my head:

1. A newspaper printing a picture with pedobear and claiming it's one of the mascots for the winter olympics.
2. One of the biggest daily papers naming various NS black metal bands as a concert setlist for the festival of Jewish culture (on the front page too).
3. The biggest daily paper printing pictures of "Russian pirate edition dvd" covers in their movie reviews section.

Mass media journalism is dead.

My favorite.

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

A newspaper printing a picture with pedobear and claiming it's one of the mascots for the inter olympics.

http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...t-happends-when-you-are-net-illiterate.40871/

Behold.

 

[Whisky]

To be fair, when I first saw our mascots unveiled, the first thing I thought was Pedobear.

 

[JarlFrank]

There have been occasions of serious newspapers quoting newsposts from the Onion.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Can't really blame the newspaper intern in charge of googling a picture for the article, pedobear fits so perfectly with the others.

edit: http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkai...y-review-part-one-such-a-beautiful-ugly-game/

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

A newspaper printing a picture with pedobear and claiming it's one of the mascots for the inter olympics.

 

[Infinitron]

Ben Kuchera is an asshole: http://www.somethingawful.com/d/video-game-article/king-ben-kuchera.php

Congratulations to Ben Kuchera of the Penny Arcade Report. When no one was paying attention, he ascended to the throne, assuming his rightful place as the King Of Good Games Journalism. His first act? To call for the ruination of another writer.

He's talking about Erik Kain, of Forbes. Earlier that day, Kain had posted an article about the upcoming retail release of an SNES game which had been cancelled in the 90s. Kain's post commented on the unusual situation, noting that the game had been widely emulated for years, including a link to a browser-emulated version of the game. After receiving criticism, he updated the article to remove the parts that dealt with emulation and provided a summary of the edited parts to be as transparent as possible. His intent hadn't been to condone piracy, but he realized that the piece could have been better handled and apologized while explaining his reasoning.

This angered Kuchera, who claimed that Kain's article had been a "call to piracy". From his royal throne the king spent most of the day issuing royal decrees on Twitter, wielding his power to smite Erik Kain. How dare someone make an error, then address it publicly and attempt to learn from the situation? What audacity! One should simply never be wrong in the first place! King Kuchera's seemingly disproportionate reaction to the situation certainly had nothing to do with the fact that Forbes is seen as something of an outsider to the often incestuous enthusiast press, or that Kain has openly questioned aspects of video game coverage such as review practices and the recent trend of writers dismissing fan criticism as "entitlement". None of these factors had a part in Kuchera's righteous anger. After all, he had never even heard of this Erik Kain guy before!

Also, the only time he heard of this Kain guy before was when people told him how bad Forbes was!

See? Airtight case. Unfortunately, the plebes were too stupid to understand the king's point of view. They had no concept of the heavy burden of the crown and its many responsibilities, such astalking down to others dozens upon dozens of times instead of being remotely civil. As Kuchera's game journalism liegemen from provinces as far away as Kotakustan raised their banners and flocked to his side in a glorious and necessary battle, the peasant readers began a revolt against their king. The uncultured urchins criticized Kuchera's oddly aggressive behavior, presumably because they were entitled. In reaction, the king bravely changed his avatar to a Deal With It sunglasses dog and refused to admit that he had gone overboard. This act removed any doubt that his elevated position put him above their meaningless opinions. His royal ears would not be dirtied by their drivel.

Some people were super mean to the king, apparently, which was totally unfair! A few of the comments directed at him went too far. Because of this, all of the arguments against him were invalid.

I hate to have to correct the King Of Good Games Journalism, but this statement might not have been properly researched! Goons are pretty scary. I'll grant you that. Something Awful has had its fair share of morons attempting to be edgy by "ironically" using slurs in multiplayer games. It's important to understand that our community ridicules these people, though. Our front page content is decidedly progressive, our forums ban anyone that uses racist or sexist language, and we have a long history of making fun of bigots. Attributing terrible behavior to our entire site seems more than a little unfair. It suggests a lack of research. Coincidentally, I swear that I just read something about a journalist's job as it relates to fact checking and being thorough at all times. Where did I hear that?

Oh. Well, no worries. After all, everyone goofs up occasionally, right? Besides, his dig at our site wasn't all that bad. Our own users have leveled far worse insults at Something Awful and its readers, because they are self-loathing and insulting things is a great way to have fun. I won't hold the king's mistake against him. It's not like it would be fair to wish ill on someone for making an error.

Hm. If that applies to someone who actually admitted to a mistake and tried to address it, what about someone that refuses to own up to any sort of wrongdoing at all, ever? Sorry, Ben. It looks like your second and final act as King Of Good Games Journalism will be to exile yourself. Good luck in your future endeavors. We hope you can find another field that involves ridiculing others while deflecting criticism of your own genuinely mean-spirited and childish behavior.

(too bad SA had to shit up their own article with the "we're actually totally liberal here really we are!!" stuff)

 

[evdk]

GAME JOURNALIST DRAMA

We need a new tag.

 

[Infinitron]

Grr, unfortunately the best article I could find describing this is by Rex Exitium.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

Pot calling the kettle black, both SA and these douche journalists should go away and never be heard from again.

 

[CrustyBot]

http://archive.foolz.us/v/thread/174086059/

"Say it to my face, Ben" might also become a meme.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

"Something Awful has had its fair share of morons attempting to be edgy by "ironically" using slurs in multiplayer games. It's important to understand that our community ridicules these people, though. Our front page content is decidedly progressive, our forums ban anyone that uses racist or sexist language, and we have a long history of making fun of bigots."

No wonder Somethingawful is so shitty and how they can milk so much money out of their forum users.

 

[evdk]

It's kinda sad that the gaming industry is more entertaining than the products it creates.

 

[Kattze]

Infinitron, other links/sauces regarding the drama?

 

[Kane]

why do people pay attention to twitter?

also, pointing out something very obvious on that spergtrain picture above me: The archivement is awarded when a moderator starts a conversation with you, not the other way around. That means Kuchera didn't run to the mod and complain about the thread closure, more likely the moderated PMed him why the thread was closed.

I don't think we should condone shitposting and spergpictures from twitter/9gag/whatever, this shit is basically synthetic concentrated decline.

Edit: I am also In favor of instantly banning everyone who opens up a post regarding some inane twitter discussion. (Though I guess we can let this one slide, because gaming journalists killing each other is kinda a good thing and because Infinitron is a Jew.)

 

[evdk]

why do people pay attention to twitter?

Because it's real time drama, as is handily proven by this case.

 

[Jick Magger]

And then he gets forgotten, goes back to writing for a journalism blog that probably has less credibility than Kotaku, and the world keeps spinning. Whoopee.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

"Something Awful has had its fair share of morons attempting to be edgy by "ironically" using slurs in multiplayer games. It's important to understand that our community ridicules these people, though. Our front page content is decidedly progressive, our forums ban anyone that uses racist or sexist language, and we have a long history of making fun of bigots."

No wonder Somethingawful is so shitty and how they can milk so much money out of their forum users.

But of course, all other slurs are perfectly acceptable.

 

[Roguey]

SA's fauxgressiveness is sickening.

As for Ben,

https://twitter.com/BenKuchera/statuses/183636008078807040

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Zewp]

SA's fauxgressiveness is sickening.

As for Ben,

https://twitter.com/BenKuchera/statuses/183636008078807040

Yes, Ben. It's easier to block out the truth than face it.

At least Kain is part of a business-related site. He can write whatever he wants about the gaming industry without fear that their site is going to tank by publishers not renting ad-space and/or sending them free games to review.

 

[Zewp]

Also, lol. I've never heard of Ben Kuchera before today.

 

[Infinitron]

From Crusty's 4chan link:

-Erik posts an article a SNES game that was getting a full release on an original cart for $60
-Says in article that game has actually been free to emulate for years now, and posts a link to an emulator (NOT THE ROM).
-Some interpret this as endorsement of piracy, so Erik removes the link and apologizes.
-But for some fucking reason, that isn't enough for Ben Kuchera, who proceeds to throw a total bitchfit about how "unprofessional" Erik was being.
-Ben even says in emails that ruining Erik's career would be a good thing.
-It is revealed that Ben had previously written several VERY in-depth articles promoting the bSNES emulator in Ars Technica.
-Ben goes into full damage control mode, deleting tweets and denying all the bullshit he said. He even changes his avatar to the "deal with it" dog, and repeatedly starts saying "deal with it" to anyone who calls him out on being a shithead.

The shitstorm's only been getting juicier ever since.

 

[Vicar]

Now I start to pity that Ben dude