Totally Not Corrupt Professional Objective Gaming Journalism DRAMA

[Dexter]

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



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

Oh boy xD

 

[Angthoron]

And another loser was fucked this day.

 

[Infinitron]

Yeah, I don't think anybody here mentioned that Lauren Wainwright was quietly fired from MCV back in November.

Not that it wasn't obvious that it would happen.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

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.

Looks like something you'd see at a highschool

 

[Infinitron]

Oh noes, they lost respect!

 

[Zewp]

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.

Looks like something you'd see at a highschool

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2011/08/accuracy-takes-power-one-mans-3ghz-quest-to-build-a-perfect-snes-emulator/

The article from that list.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Looks like something you'd see at a primary school/gimbaza

Fixed.

 

[Hellraiser]

Bloody hell, game journos hit a new low. I thought that was physically impossible considering the already high retardo-levels of "game journalism".

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Bloody hell, game journos hit a new low. I thought that was physically impossible considering the already high retardo-levels of "game journalism".

You're sure an entitled little ableist. Who are you to decide what's physically impossible?


brb, ruining Hellraiser's reputation

 

[grotsnik]

The Kotaku mob have also been throwing that exact same 'Forbes is an amateur-hour content-farm and its gaming blog's existence is an insult to the high professional standards of proper games journalists like us!' line about in public recently. Looks like Kain's really caused some resentment.

Also-

Twitter is such a perfect vehicle for dissembling and smokescreening during all these petty spats.

"So...are you going to consider that perhaps you've been behaving vindictively or childishly?"
"Oh, sure, that's what the internet racists want me to do! Do you think I should let myself be intimidated by a bunch of internet racists? Well, that's not the kind of man I am!"

 

[CrustyBot]

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.

Looks like something you'd see at a highschool

It's something you might see anywhere. People are petty. Though it is disappointing that supposed professionals would so blatantly and incompetently be so malicious and disingenuous on a consistent basis, all the while never leaving their high horse.

That's what really gets me. We can call them hypocrites, corrupt, retards, whatever language we can throw at them but at the heart of things, they're like children playing adults with absolutely no self awareness or outside perspective, insistent on maintaining the facade to the point of arrogance. Well, I suppose that shouldn't be too surprising, considering this is video games we're talking about.

It's not limited to the gaming community (though the gaming "culture" certainly encourages such a mindset) and the accessibility of social media can cause situations to escalate remarkably quickly. So I wouldn't say this is something I can level purely at game "journalists". Still, that won't stop me from popcorn.gif'ing at it every time something new happens.

As our comrade troglodyte points out, I guess the games industry needs to find an alternative way to entertain us, since it's certainly not the games that will do the job.

 

[Zewp]

Oh noes, they lost respect!

I wonder how many people lose respect for a guy who sits and tries to start a witch-hunt against someone who has criticised mainstream games journalism, all because of a simple mistake in an article?

Oh wait, nobody has heard of Ben before now and you can't lose respect for someone you've never heard of.

 

[evdk]

I wonder how many people lose respect for a guy who sits and tries to start a witch-hunt against someone who has criticised mainstream games journalism, all because of a simple mistake in an article?

Oh wait, nobody has heard of Ben before now and you can't lose respect for someone you've never heard of.

Well, nobody would lose respect for Ben in the much important "people who could hire me next" demographic, as all he is doing is preaching the party line.

Trying to mess up things for Kain who got himself (probably for lack of any other available figures) made into the voice of reason in gaming journalism mostly by not associating with it. Seems to me this whole show is just for the benefit of those sheep who can still be discouraged from venturing out of the pasture by scaring them with the tales of the big bad thieving wolves out there, because nobody sane would buy Bob's line of reasoning and I am pretty confident in saying that Forbes does not care either - especially if that "content farm" narrative coming from Kotaku (double points for irony there) would be true, as this controversy is free publicity. The only thing that could conceivably hurt his career would be if they'd succeed with linking his name to promoting piracy, but that didn't go anywhere, so Ben focused on that weird "never make mistakes and besmirch journalism's good name" thing.

The backlash of the entitled masses might be hilarious here, but of course it will do little to dent the popular gaming sites' profits - the only thing that could do that would ironically be if they started to do their jobs competently and the ad dollars dried up. Not going to happen any time soon, but if even a few people see that there are other alternatives out there then this has not been a completely wasted.

 

[Kane]

It's something you might see anywhere. People are petty. Though it is disappointing that supposed professionals would so blatantly and incompetently be so malicious and disingenuous on a consistent basis, all the while never leaving their high horse

Welcome to the real world.

 

[Fat Dragon]

This isn't the first time Ben has attacked Forbes, he got onto them a few months back when a different Forbes writer Paul Tassi posted something about Black Ops 2 sales. Paul then wrote a counter-article directed at Ben, who never responded back but did insult him on the Penny Arcade forums like a child.

Not much to see here really, Ben's just another hack butthurt that Forbes of all sites is doing his job much better than he is. If you read some of Ben's shit at PA, you'll quickly see the guy has a huge ego and likes to think of himself as some bigshot leading journalist.

-Edit
It should be noted that Eric Kain recently posted an article criticizing game "journalists" (specifically someone at VG247) for doing the same shit to DMC fans that they did with ME3 (insulting them and calling them entitled for not liking the new DMC). Of course publisher mouth-pieces like Kotaku and the like will take any chance they get to bash him.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkai...e-call-people-who-complain-about-video-games/

 

[Infinitron]

This isn't the first time Ben has attacked Forbes, he got onto them a few months back when a different Forbes writer Paul Tassi posted something about Black Ops 2 sales. Paul then wrote a counter-article directed at Ben, who never responded back but did insult him on the Penny Arcade forums like a child.

Here it is: http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2012/12/06/when-is-a-billion-not-a-billion/

 

[CrustyBot]

Welcome to the real world.

Keyword was incompetently. In the real world (tm), most people aren't stupid enough to fail so badly when doing stuff like this.

Like Kotaku calling Forbes a content farm, or Kuchera talking about emulator piracy when he's written numerous articles with similar links and instructions that were easily found. Or like that Wainwright meltdown where she deleted proof of her shilling after it was already found, continued her denials and simply hid under a rock until it blew over. Or that whole fucking Doritosgate thing.

I mean FFS, if you're going to be cliquey decline-munchers with poor taste in games and zero integrity, at least be competent cliquey decline-munchers with poor taste in games and zero integrity.

It's like watching children pretending to be adult-like, only showcasing to the world how immature they really are. Ironically enough, that exact notion is part of what defines the games industry today. Simply look no further in the insecure desire for gaming to be seen as an "adult" medium of entertainment.

tl;dr: gaming journos are manchildren playing at adult professionals and it's embarrassing how juvenile they get.

 

[Xavier0889]

Uh.. who are these people, and why should I care for them?

 

[evdk]

Simply look no further in the insecure desire for gaming to be seen as an "adult" medium of entertainment.

I've never understood this one - I mean, why would you bother? Even if computer games magically started being considered a mature medium, most of the content is rehashed genre stuff, which would suffer only more under the wrathful eye of Academia.

 

[Zewp]

It's pretty funny that gaming 'journalists' can get so angry when gaming journalists from a predominantly business-focused site call them out on being idiots.

 

[Metro]

Ben Kuchera = shill for Penny Arcade. Two dopes that put together a moderately funny web comic and parlayed it into a million dollar empire off of people's idiocy.

 

[Zewp]

Although, it pisses me off that Kotaku criticizes the journalistic integrity of any other site. Fucking tabloid.

http://kotaku.com/5893802/i-didnt-know-la-noire-involved-smashing-zombies-with-paddles

Quality articles from Kotaku.

 

[felipepepe]

Simply look no further in the insecure desire for gaming to be seen as an "adult" medium of entertainment.

I've never understood this one - I mean, why would you bother

Because they must get quite pissed when someone ask them their job, they reply "Gaming Journalist!" and people laugh.

 

[Delterius]

Simply look no further in the insecure desire for gaming to be seen as an "adult" medium of entertainment.

I've never understood this one - I mean, why would you bother? Even if computer games magically started being considered a mature medium, most of the content is rehashed genre stuff, which would suffer only more under the wrathful eye of Academia.

Its merely natural for a former counter culture that became popular and lives a period of euphoria to try and advance itself. And to immature mediums, words like 'art', still have some sort of authority, even though that's exhausted everywhere else.

Calling it "artistic" and "transcendental" or whatever is also another good thing to say when you're not really being critical, especially when you can't - as a game journalist is often required to fill more genres than he cares to understand.

But more importantly, its a marketting jargon that EA sought to explore since its foundation, meaning that "games as art" is as intertwined with the business of gaming as the very structure of mass publishing.

 

[Lancehead]

The desperation to achieve mainstream acceptance for games as art, mature medium is pretty unbearable.