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Bioshock "Exclusive Review" IGN edition - A lot of annoyed journos (Ironcreed wow).

ElRenoRaven

ElRenoRaven

Member
Clear said:
For someone who apparently cares so much about his readers you seem to have a shockingly low opinion of our intelligence.
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I don't think they do. While I may for the most part may not be a Kotaku fan I will give Stephan and them props for a couple things. As mentioned they don't just add a score to their reviews and they do engage with critics as seen in this very thread. So if they thought so little of their readers I think they'd just ignore them or do nothing but talk shit about them the way others in the industry do.
 
A

antitrop

Member
ironcreed said:
Especially when combined.

tumblr_mgihkbxZRz1qimttgo1_500.png
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735
 
S

Syriel

Member
jschreier said:
haha I'm surprised more of you guys aren't upset about this. Exclusive reviews help two groups of people: publishers and the outlets that run them. The one group they don't help is the group we're here to serve: readers. It's super gross.
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Honestly, the thing that annoys me most about "games journalism" is the current blog model.

By and large sites ignore the basic tenets of proper journalism, don't bother to source worth a damn and freely lift content from other sites without permission, let alone verification of the information.

That's what you do when your business model is dependent on traffic rather than quality of content. And it is the outlets with that business model that will be most hurt by other outlets having exclusives.

Sites which rely on quality of content know that their readers (and thus their traffic) will come for their content regardless of when it is published.
 
K

Kifimbo

Member
Now, they are mostly right, exclusive reviews are bad.

But I feel like many journalists are now hopping in the integrity bandwagon, when they were doing similar despicable things six months ago. Some of them a few weeks ago. It's now "cool" to act like a "defender of integrity".
 
U

unbias

Member
PsychoRaven said:
I don't think they do. While I may for the most part may not be a Kotaku fan I will give Stephan and them props for a couple things. As mentioned they don't just add a score to their reviews and they do engage with critics as seen in this very thread. So if they thought so little of their readers I think they'd just ignore them or do nothing but talk shit about them the way others in the industry do.
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Ya I agree, whether you like them or not, I dont think they, at least here, show any sort of malice or lack of respect for us.
 
M

Meatvillain

Banned
I don't really see what the big deal is about the things Gies is saying in that image whoever put together. Silly internet outrage.
 
I

inky

Member
jschreier said:
nah, that's really not true, at least for us. No joke: our late reviews get just as many clicks as our early ones. I just brought this up in another topic - my Ni no Kuni review was like two weeks late and it still got 70k pageviews or so, which isn't half-bad for a late review of a fairly niche JRPG
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Well, it's fine for Kotaku then, I guess. Sessler and Grant in the OP are implying less resources should be allocated due to this, which clearly makes it fall under business more than: "our readers deserve better". After all, Polygon had no problem getting the Sim City review out as possible, even when it wasn't indicative of the real thing.

And you have to admit, Ni no Kuni is not Bioshock. I can understand how the word of mouth can roll a little slower there, thus people seeking out reviews much later, when the word out has had time to make the rounds.
 
N

Ninja Scooter

Member
I don't have a problem with exclusive reviews. For one, everything else in this industry (and every other media industry) is whored out to the highest bidder. And two, becuase ultimately it's the content of the review that should matter. As long as there is full disclosure, then read what the guy has to say about the game. If it sounds like he's hiding something or not being completely honest, or if it seems like ti doesn't jive with the rest of the reviews that are coming out, then you can start asking questions. Ultimately though, it's just one person's opinion. The issue isn't that journalists need to change the way they review games, it's that we as consumers (and also publisher) need to quit putting so much stock into them as the be-all/end-all and stop obsessing over meaningless review scores. The reason getting an exclusive review is even a "thing" is because there is a fairly large segment of gamers who salivate at the first numbers to come out so they can talk about how they knew a game would be awesome/shitty and compare it to other review scores.
 
I

Ivan A Nguyen

Member
Mess with a gamer's $s and their complaints are entitled.

Mess with a reviewers $s and their complaints become an ethics issue.

Makes sense.
 
J

jett

D-Member
jschreier said:
haha I'm surprised more of you guys aren't upset about this. Exclusive reviews help two groups of people: publishers and the outlets that run them. The one group they don't help is the group we're here to serve: readers. It's super gross.
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Why would we be upset about something that has been going on for years? We all know to ignore exclusive reviews. Actually, some of us are smart enough to ignore all reviews.
 
R

ReturnOfTheRAT

Member
ironcreed, too GOOD.

Edit:

The film industry is way beyond this. Variety and Hollywood Reporter might be the first to put up a review, but then you see the floodgates open up with everyone else posting their reviews. The cries over exclusivity ends a long time ago.
 
T

TheBaronOfNA

Banned
unbias said:
It is in context of the SimCity stuff, they are responses about that.
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Is still kind of childish dismiss his complain (even if is bussiness driven) because of that. Specially because exclusive reviews are as bad for the consumer as the Polygon's Simcity review.
 
G

grimshawish

Banned
Thoraxes said:
Just like we gamers are entitled, I feel the press is now, too.
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Certain members of the press who basically leech on the promotional output of big games and don't bring any content themselves certainly do feel entitled to readers/viewers. They're not.

Y2Kev said:
What sites actually get exclusive reviews? Does anyone besides ign do it?
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Can't think of many at all. Only really fits IGN tonal wise.
 
A

awa64

Banned
jett said:
Why would we be upset about something that has been going on for years? We all know to ignore exclusive reviews. Actually, some of us are smart enough to ignore all reviews.
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Enthusiasts know to ignore exclusive reviews. Casual gamers will hear "oh, this game is out, and there's a review for it?," look it up on Google (or get linked to it), and that's as far as their critical thought on the subject will go.

The issue here isn't JUST that it's going to influence the quality of the sole review available before the game's launch. It's ALSO that it's going to hurt the bottom line of every company that didn't get the exclusive review. It's a system that not only encourages a biased review but financially rewards it and punishes anyone who tries to remove themselves from the competition.
 
S

Syriel

Member
NullPointer said:
Has there ever been an exclusive bad review?
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I can't recall if it was exclusive, or if it was just the lead review (the page count and placement in the issue had been decided when it was assigned to me), but I wrote the review of Auto Modellestia for PSM (Imagine/Future) back in the day.

To the editor's credit, he didn't touch the review content.

I was freelancing for the magazine at the time (this was a decade ago) and got the assignment. After playing through the game I called him to give him a heads-up and say "hey, this game sucks, are you sure you want a full two page spread?" It wasn't an offer to change the score, just to find out if the mag would rather highlight a better title.

The answer came back that the spread was locked in and that the mag had already told Capcom that the game was getting two pages. But I was also told that so long as my review text was solid, they would back whatever I wrote.

The Auto Modellestia review ran in that issue of PSM with a 4 out of 10. If it wasn't the first review to hit, it was certainly one of the first.
 
F

Foffy

Banned
This month has been heaven for me. God, from SimCity to this, Arthur Gies has given me a new perspective on happiness and joy. Dorito Pope complaining about exclusive reviews when he does a show that often pimps out that it has exclusive content is absolutely fucking hilarious. He stopped posting here after DoritoGate, didn't he? Or at least, he's said nothing about it (despite saying he'd make a response to it a few months ago).

I love you all, GAF.
 
X

x-Lundz-x

Member
Well, IGN is certainly going to give it a good score. If IGN gives out a good score it must be a terrible game right? Right?

This game is going to MetaCritic in the low to mind 90's anyway, sounds like a lot of butthurt from people who wished they had the exclusive first review.
 
N

Ninja Scooter

Member
Lucius86 said:
Really? Us people on Internet forums are just but a small percentage who buy games. Marketing and review scores are key.
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People on internet forums care just as much as anyone else. Lets not act like hardcore gamers and enthusiasts are above this. Review score threads generate a ton of traffic here, most big games get dedicated threads JUST FOR review score discussion, hell back in the old print EGM days, people on GAF would spend pages and pages arguing back and forth over the review scores for games THAT WEREN'T EVEN OUT YET (?!?)
 
TwoDurans

TwoDurans

"Never said I wasn't a hypocrite."
Reluctant-Hero said:
Exactly. Still blows my mind that video game reviews hold so much power.
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You're not thinking fourth dimensionaly. People on Gaf aren't the target demo for review scores or magazine ads. That's for people who have never even heard of Gaf and trust these sites' opinions.

Which I think is what this whole integrity thing is about. Gaf is white knighting those kids who trust these "news" sources without realizing that these sites are basically a form of marketing.
 
B

BearPawB

Banned
kms_md said:
first post GAF wins again.





this was my thought as well. they had exclusivity for a review the weekend prior to the monday embargo.
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Their review came out at the normal time...its just that several other sites delayed theirs.
It was not an exclusive at all
 
R

Replicant

Member
Wait Arthur Gies actually criticizing IGN for exclusive review?

Pot, kettle, black.

And smh @ all of the journos who suddenly grew moral conscience when they so readily discard it any other time when it suits them and their pocket. If only we have someone who track every single thing they've said and prove how much of hypocrites these 'journalists' really are.
 
K

kms_md

Member
Foffy said:
This month has been heaven for me. God, from SimCity to this, Arthur Gies has given me a new perspective on happiness and joy. Dorito Pope complaining about exclusive reviews when he does a show that often pimps out that it has exclusive content is absolutely fucking hilarious. He stopped posting here after DoritoGate, didn't he? Or at least, he's said nothing about it (despite saying he'd make a response to it a few months ago).

I love you all, GAF.
Click to expand...

see 16 posts above yours.
 
Y

Yawnier

Banned
Foffy said:
This month has been heaven for me. God, from SimCity to this, Arthur Gies has given me a new perspective on happiness and joy. Dorito Pope complaining about exclusive reviews when he does a show that often pimps out that it has exclusive content is absolutely fucking hilarious. He stopped posting here after DoritoGate, didn't he? Or at least, he's said nothing about it (despite saying he'd make a response to it a few months ago).

I love you all, GAF.
Click to expand...

Right on this page.

Edit: Beaten

geoffmk said:
Viacom does not write or compete for exclusive reviews.
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