Totally Not Corrupt Professional Objective Gaming Journalism DRAMA

[Grunker]

"Just chiming in to say the author is the most disgusting, vilest, corporate lick spittle I have ever seen and should be castrated lest his disgusting toadying habits be passed on to another generation."

Someone give this guy a medal

 

[Jashiin]

Without the used market sucking up all those sales and all that consumer money, it's very possible we'll see Steam-style sales on older or bundled games on the Xbox One. It's not a sure thing, but killing used games is going to free up a ton of money for companies to try new ideas in terms of sales and pricing. The people who get innovative and take advantage of this structure will thrive. The rest are likely to slowly choke on the new economics of game development.

 

[Infinitron]

Without the used market sucking up all those sales and all that consumer money, it's very possible we'll see Steam-style sales on older or bundled games on the Xbox One. It's not a sure thing, but killing used games is going to free up a ton of money for companies to try new ideas in terms of sales and pricing. The people who get innovative and take advantage of this structure will thrive. The rest are likely to slowly choke on the new economics of game development.

Yes, they will drop prices AFTER eliminating the competition

 

[Jashiin]

Liked your first response better but yeah. This guy is a total shill.

 

[Infinitron]

http://penny-arcade.com/report/arti...w-you-can-pay-the-publication-mactrast-to-rev

When bribery becomes policy: how you can pay the publication MacTrast to review your game

It can be frustrating for developers to pitch their game to publications for coverage consideration, but it's even more frustrating when that publication openly asks for payment in exchange for editorial consideration. One developer ran into this issue with the publication MacTrast, and received the following e-mail in response to their enquiry:

Hi,​

Thanks for getting in touch with us! We have several options available for those who'd like their app featured on MacTrast. You can choose to have us publish a sponsored tweet about your app for $120, in which we push out an advertisement for your app via Twitter to our nearly 185,000 followers. We can also do a full feature and review of your app for $50, which includes the following:​

• A full review of your app
• Featured on our homepage in the review section
• The review will be posted twice to our 184,000+ followers
• Posted to our Facebook page (8,000+ fans)
• If your review gets a rating of 3 out of 5 or more, it will featured twice more in our “App of the Day” tweets.

Let us know if you are interested in any of these options.​

Cheers,​

Glenn​

“Glenn” is J. Glenn Künzler, the managing editor at MacTrast. I contacted him to see if he'd discuss what paying for coverage in his publication entails, and his response was to ask if I'd guarantee his anonymity. I told him that anonymously discussing the policies of his site was… an odd request.

“I agree this is a topic that must be openly addressed - and one I am passionate about. But until there's greater understanding and acceptance of ANY sort of paid review coverage…I don't want to get myself or MacTrast blackballed by other sites, media institutions, or developers,” he said via e-mail.

I'd like to point out that at no time during these e-mails did he ask for anything to be off the record, nor did I ever agree to speak off the record or anonymously. I stated that I was gathering information for a story on those practices in my very first e-mail on the subject.
He said he wanted to talk about this issue with his team, and then dropped this bomb on me:

As it stands, I want to clarify right up front that, as of this particular moment, I have NOT yet authorized you to make any mention of us or our policies - or the contents of this private conversation - in any form whatsoever. Just so we're clear on this. Please let me discuss this with the team before I say anything further.​

I want to be clear: if you consider a conversation with a reporter private, you need to say so at the beginning of the conversation. You don't get to “authorize” the use of your own site's policies, or statements said to reporters when they make it clear they're gathering information for a story a few e-mails down the line. The e-mail they send to developers asking for money in exchange for coverage is, to put it frankly, news.

When it comes to dealing with sites charging for coverage, I'm unwilling to grant editors anonymity when asked to discuss their policies, and I don't respond well to being told I need their authorization to write about their business of trading payment for coverage.

If you're a developer, and a publication asks for money in exchange for a review, don't do it. Send the information to a reputable site so we can try to eradicate these practices.

Künzler has stated that he may pursue this matter legally if we discuss his site's policies.

 

[evdk]

It's nice that he sees himself as a reporter. It's almost as if he thinks he's people.

 

[Infinitron]

Update: We were just sent this official statement about the “pay for coverage” policy. I'm publishing the statement with no edits of any kind.

Cormac here from MacTrast. Glenn has filled me in on the discussion between you both.​

Yes. We charge a fee to cover apps. We receive 100's of enquires per month from developers to have their apps covered. App reviews tend to be consume a lot of time. A single review could take anywhere from 2 to 5 hours to complete.​

Reviews account for a small portion of our traffic too. Our main writing staff cover Apple rumours and “how-to” guides.​

The vast majority of reviews published on MacTrast are covered by a small team of writers who specifically cover reviews. They receive $40 of the $50 charged for reviews to compensate for their time in reviewing the app.​

In return, the app developer gets featured on our site, on our Twitter, on Facebook, and in other sources.​

Paid reviews do not at all guarantee a positive review either. I have the threats to prove it! ​

We can't possibly fulfil the volume of enquires for apps to be reviewed. It would be counter intuitive for us to operate like that.​

Because of this, I decided to introduce a charge. Plenty of app developers are happy to pay for the coverage. Others are not. I'd love to be able to cover more apps on MacTrast than any other Apple news site, but it's possible for us. We also have to compensate our reviewers who take the time to review the apps.​

I hope this shines a bit of light on the logic of why we decided to charge for apps.​

 

[Fat Dragon]

Ben Kuchera has got to be the biggest fucking hypocrite in the games industry, jesus christ.

 

[evdk]

Update: We were just sent this official statement about the “pay for coverage” policy. I'm publishing the statement with no edits of any kind.

Cormac here from MacTrast. Glenn has filled me in on the discussion between you both.​

Yes. We charge a fee to cover apps. We receive 100's of enquires per month from developers to have their apps covered. App reviews tend to be consume a lot of time. A single review could take anywhere from 2 to 5 hours to complete.​

Reviews account for a small portion of our traffic too. Our main writing staff cover Apple rumours and “how-to” guides.​

The vast majority of reviews published on MacTrast are covered by a small team of writers who specifically cover reviews. They receive $40 of the $50 charged for reviews to compensate for their time in reviewing the app.​

In return, the app developer gets featured on our site, on our Twitter, on Facebook, and in other sources.​

Paid reviews do not at all guarantee a positive review either. I have the threats to prove it! ​

We can't possibly fulfil the volume of enquires for apps to be reviewed. It would be counter intuitive for us to operate like that.​

Because of this, I decided to introduce a charge. Plenty of app developers are happy to pay for the coverage. Others are not. I'd love to be able to cover more apps on MacTrast than any other Apple news site, but it's possible for us. We also have to compensate our reviewers who take the time to review the apps.​

I hope this shines a bit of light on the logic of why we decided to charge for apps.​

So, somebody from marketing has obviously taken control of the dialog, as it has moved from "You will soon hear from our pet lawyers" to creative spin doctoring. I have to say though, that I would expect less typos from such an e-mail.

 

[Blaine]

I have to say though, that I would expect less typos from such an e-mail.

That should be "fewer typos," not "less typos."

 

[The Glitterdust Golem]

My God, that agenda-addled moron. "Bribery: How to get your game reviewed", with an article that's focusing on Apple exclusive apps, of all things. So desperate the little toady, with such a fragile ego that he needs to make such reaches to try and justify his own PR-bloated, fanboyistic 'journalism'? What a bloody creep. A downright, shit-stirring waste of space. In fact, what a downright cunt Ben fucking Kuchera is.

And a perfect fit for Penny Arcade.

 

[Misconnected]

Not suggesting English should fuck off and die already, but seriously, when was the last time you saw someone write well and in proper English in a professional capacity - not counting novels & short stories?

 

[Blaine]

Not suggesting English should fuck off and die already, but seriously, when was the last time you saw someone write well and in proper English in a professional capacity - not counting novels & short stories?

It's rare.

 

[evdk]

I have to say though, that I would expect less typos from such an e-mail.

That should be "fewer typos," not "less typos."

D'oh! But a) I do not write in any professional capacity b) my post is not a press release c) I usually do not read what I've written

But yeah, that was a stupid mistake to make.

 

[Blaine]

D'oh! But a) I do not write in any professional capacity b) my post is not a press release c) I usually do not read what I've written

But yeah, that was a stupid mistake to make.

I know, but if someone's in the process of correcting grammar, I scan their writing with laser precision in an attempt to find some fault with it.

...FUCK, I hate gaming journalists. Did you know you could earn easily three times more in a year than they do by diving for abalone, gastropods and shellfish to supply restaurants? At least then you'd be accomplishing something tangible and useful. You just need a cheap boat, some snorkeling gear, and a dive knife.

 

[tuluse]

Not suggesting English should fuck off and die already, but seriously, when was the last time you saw someone write well and in proper English in a professional capacity - not counting novels & short stories?

Whenever I don't read something written by an editor for a shitty pay-per-review site.

 

[Harg Harfardarssen]

D'oh! But a) I do not write in any professional capacity b) my post is not a press release c) I usually do not read what I've written

But yeah, that was a stupid mistake to make.

I know, but if someone's in the process of correcting grammar, I scan their writing with laser precision in an attempt to find some fault with it.

...FUCK, I hate gaming journalists. Did you know you could earn easily three times more in a year than they do by diving for abalone, gastropods and shellfish to supply restaurants? At least then you'd be accomplishing something tangible and useful. You just need a cheap boat, some snorkeling gear, and a dive knife.

To be fair, laser precision was not necessary. I couldn't read past "enquires" used as a noun without flinching. Typos and other careless mistakes are one thing--god forbid I use my message-board-post standards of proof-reading when writing in a professional capacity--but mangling the distinction between parts of speech is just a basic writing competence fail from someone whose writing is their profession.

Also, I've seen comparable stories about various second-tier blog-type journalists doing this kind of stuff in other industries. So I think its as much about the blurring lines between advertising and journalism generally as it is about the game industry in particular. See e.g., sponsored stories in major publications.

 

[evdk]

To be fair, laser precision was not necessary. I couldn't read past "enquires" used as a noun without flinching. Typos and other careless mistakes are one thing--god forbid I use my message-board-post standards of proof-reading when writing in a professional capacity--but mangling the distinction between parts of speech is just a basic writing competence fail from someone whose writing is their profession.

That probably was just a typo - he meant to write "enquiries."

 

[DragoFireheart]

God this shit is so degenerate. Watching it all come crashing down can't come soon enough.

 

[Harg Harfardarssen]

To be fair, laser precision was not necessary. I couldn't read past "enquires" used as a noun without flinching. Typos and other careless mistakes are one thing--god forbid I use my message-board-post standards of proof-reading when writing in a professional capacity--but mangling the distinction between parts of speech is just a basic writing competence fail from someone whose writing is their profession.

That probably was just a typo - he meant to write "enquiries."

Yeah I was being a bit over-dramatic about what I thought was a misspelling of "inquiries", but your post made me google a bit further and learn that British English uses both enquiry and inquiry.

I think there has to be some kind of fundamental moral order to the universe that causes anyone who corrects someone else's grammar in a mocking fashion to make a mistake of their own.

 

[mikaelis]

I know, but if someone's in the process of correcting grammar, I scan their writing with laser precision in an attempt to find some fault with it.

I am the person who hates pointing out petty grammar mistakes and misspellings especially as I am not native English speaker, but I must say, I noticed the sloppiness of the message as well. The thing is, if a non-native speaker (as evdk, I presume) finds numerous eye-striking mistakes in text that was written by a native one who happens to work in journalism - it is plain embarassing.

 

[Metro]

I'd love to be a paid editor that doesn't actually edit anything.

 

[tuluse]

I'd love to be a paid editor that doesn't actually edit anything.

http://jobs.kinja.com/open-positions-at-gawker-media-477561225

 

[Gerrard]

I'd love to be a paid editor that doesn't actually edit anything.

I'd love to be a "market analyst". It's the modern version of a fortune teller/astrologist.

 

[bot]

Reposting the classic.

http://opa-ages.com/forums/topic/59463-full-thing-unedited-uncleaned/

Spoiler