• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Games Journalism! Wainwright/Florence/Tomb Raider/Eurogamer/Libel Threats/Doritos

Status
Not open for further replies.

sephi22

Member
of all the problems in the world, this ranks really high on the list.

no wonder the world is in shambles.
Terrible post.
You're at the gaming section of a gaming forum reading a gaming article posted by a gaming website. In the gaming community, yes, this is a problem. No one's acting like this is the greatest problem in the world
 
The image really, truly is hilarious, and very telling. Rab Florence wrote a solid article but nothing even necessarily had to be written about it. The image completely speaks for itself.

kLHUo.png

Is this for real? It looks like something out of Idiocracy.
 

Zeliard

Member
However - the doubting/questioning Lauren simply because she likes Tomb Raider is really rather distressing. Are journalists not allowed to be excited for games any more? Lauren has been someone who bounced with excitement for Tomb Raider forever. Since before she was in the job professionally, when she was just doing it for fun on her blog and whatever. If all our journalists are meant to not be fans of games or excited for them, it leaves us in a pretty fucking sad place.

--

But what kind of world do we live in where somebody can't simply be excited?

Rab Florence is the same guy who once wrote a poem about Dark Souls in excitement at the game coming to PC. His point isn't at all that people writing about games shouldn't show enthusiasm.

This might have been covered in the last two pages already, but I've seen it a lot in the thread so far.

I'm pretty sure Rab writes for Eurogamer on a freelance basis so it's not like it's walked straight out of a job or anything. Not that makes his actions less noble or somehow questionable; it's good to be able to afford morals in this business.

It's just as impressive, if not more so. Freelance writers aren't generally swamped in a deluge of work, so for Rab Florence to refuse to put his columns on one of the biggest gaming sites on the web speaks to how adamant he is.
 
It's amazing what's happened to the integrity of an article that was looking at the integrity of games journalism.

Also:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBqB5LUKh8A

Still my favourite review of all time, I love you Rab!

*continues to miss consolevania*

Hah, what a kick. I need to check out more of this guy's stuff. In fact, I think GAF should put together some list of recommended journos/outlets. People like Rab, or John Walker, or Ben Kuchera and the guys from PA, people who have consistently shown to be, well, consistent.
 

Zaptruder

Banned
I'd like to know if this is an issue with other specialist press too. There are hundreds, probably thousands of publications on specialist areas - movies, knitting, music, dogs, whatever.

Surely most of them rely on advertising at least partly from the companies they write articles about. Most of them review products supplied by said companies.

I suppose they have to have good relationships with the PR teams of the car/movie/knitting companies in order to get hold of products to preview/review on time and sell in advertising.

Is games any different?

It's a pretty good question. I suspect the nature of the audience also factors into how critical journos can or can't be of the products that they are also advertising.


My feeling is a lot of the PR and bullshit is interwoven into things like exclusivities, previews and early access, which doesn't seem to be as much of a problem with other industries (at least not from the perpsective of my casual observations).

So the nature of the gaming audience is to want to hunt for new information about the latest games, and the importance of this facet; the novelty intrinsic to the hobby is what drives a lot of that behaviour.


After a game has been released, it tends to fade from the gaming press and is picked up by fan sites that disseminate and break down any relevant details of the game in the weeks, months and years following release.

I get that the unslakable thirst for new information and media is just part and parcel of any enthusaist press coverage... but it does seem to effect gaming media more deleteriously for some reason.
 

jett

D-Member
Have to say Mr Walker hits on one of the things I find most bizarre about the entire incident. You're a journalist, your job is to write, why didnt Ms Wainright simply write a response to Mr Florence's article? If she had she could have garnered some respect and at least the appearance of professionalism. As it is she not only makes herself look guilty, she makes herself look like something of an idiot as well

Exactly. It's just a pathetic attitude from this woman.
 

Haunted

Member
Disgraceful display. Completely behind Florence (and Walker and Kuchera, and anyone else who publicly calls this out and stands by integrity), how could you not be.

Journalists defending Keighley or keeping mum about this are on the shitlist. I mean, I assume there won't be much to read from these corporate cocksuckers for much longer, they'll find community manager jobs soon enough. But as long as they're "press" or at least calling themselves that, they should be fucking ashamed of themselves. Look in the mirror and tell yourself honestly that you're doing a good job, go see how well you can lie in your own face.

Most of these shits are on a level with Fox News writers as far as credibility is concerned.

Yeah, Rab walked.

Pretty amusing that one of the best writers about games doesn't call himself a games journalist and has the most ethics of any of them.
Yup. We always lose the ones with integrity first.
 

clockpunk

Member
Hmm.. I did feel sorry for Wainwright yesterday - having 'known' her (in the sense of interacted with her through forums/twitter) for several years - as she has long been excited by any Tomb Raider-related news.

However, these actions are beyond questionable. She should be ashamed of herself, and presented her own viewpoint through the not-inconsiderable mediums open to her. You can judge a person by their actions, and in this case... well... they speak for themselves. Which is a shame, as she had potential.

MVC just needs to close down, fullstop - it is a shockingly bad PR rag (just as bad as The Sun - it is a shame she works for such questionable groups...)
 
Meaghan worked for Game Informer before she ended up as the community manager at CD. It seems pretty common in the industry. Didn't some big HALO fan from 1up end up the the community manager job at Bungie?
Also ign had one of their senior editors a while ago become a community manager for Zipper I believe.
 
Meaghan worked for Game Informer before she ended up as the community manager at CD. It seems pretty common in the industry. Didn't some big HALO fan from 1up end up the the community manager job at Bungie?

Makes you imagine that being a gaming journalist, you can force yourself into a certain company after shilling for them for too long.
 

jwhit28

Member
Enthusiast and fan bloggers just need to stop the "look at me guys I'm a big important journalist" thing. Whats really sad is that some of these people's opinion are tied directly into developer bonuses and taking into consideration when planning future products.
 

edbrat

Member
I wonder if a lot of this suspicion could be somewhat alleviated if along with any review of a particular game there was a breakdown of whatever shit the Publisher sent them along with the review disc

So if say the reviewer was flown out to a foreign and was asked to review the game under controlled conditions like GTA IV I think it was then there would be disclosure of this somewhere in the article.

I think this level of transparency and accountability may be the only way for UK games media to regain any credibility: every review listing the PR engagement which has happened to support the title eg, "Publisher X flew reviewers A and B to City X for 2 nights in the Y Hotel, hospitality included drinks at Q and dinner at wherever which cost roughly £5.50. We then received a customised Xbox and PS3 with two review discs which were all returned to the publisher (or are being auctioned for needy kids or are the prizes in a reader comp) on publication this morning. Editor X also received a box of branded cupcakes and a t-shirt this morning which he ate and is wearing respectively, photo here.

Some serious concerns were raised and the reaction has been absolutely woeful. At least Dave Cook got onto the EG comments and fronted up (agree or disagree) - journos suing each other is just pitiful. At least we know who doesn't want to engage in a needed debate about the state of games journalism. Walker and Rab have done the UK games media a huge service by raising these issues even if some of the sector are too dumb to realise it at the moment.
 
D

Deleted member 30609

Unconfirmed Member
Has Lauren actually written anything that doesn't read like prime GFW Radio fodder?
 

vazel

Banned
I just read about this on reddit. Thread title here needs to be changed so more people can know about the latest gaming journalism fiasco.
 

Pendulum

Member
Michael French ‏@Michael_French
Some clarity: There was no legal action taken from Intent. We asked Eurogamer to remove cruel content about a staff member. They obliged.

Suuuuure.

Edit: Damn, I'm slow today. Must be all this Doritos dust on my fingers.
 

Margalis

Banned

Lol. This rabbit hole is deep.

The funny thing is the idea that her Tomb Raider tweets might be PR shilling was not a serious accusation, just an illustration of what you have to consider once someone loses credibility. But since then there is mounting evidence that she really is a PR shill.

I almost feel sorry for her. She could have just said "in retrospect using my twitter feed to spread PR as part of a contest was very poor judgement" and that would be that. Now instead she's opened Pandora's box.
 
Hearing Geoff speak on the Giantbomb E3 podcast really suprised me, I thought the way he acted was just for show... then found out that he is that way. Like half of the people there were all looking at him like "This guy must know he is a joke, right?".

I think he showed that he was just a dude on the GB podcast. Don't get why so many people dislike him.
 

Empty

Member
no legal action doesn't mean no threat of legal action, and asking doesn't mean asking nicely. could be weasel words.
 

jett

D-Member
Lol. This rabbit hole is deep.

The funny thing is the idea that her Tomb Raider tweets might be PR shilling was not a serious accusation, just an illustration of what you have to consider once someone loses credibility. But since then there is mounting evidence that she really is a PR shill.

I almost feel sorry for her. She could have just said "in retrospect using my twitter feed to spread PR as part of a contest was very poor judgement" and that would be that. Now instead she's opened Pandora's box.

Some people just don't understand how the internets work. Now she's screwed. I don't feel one bit sorry for her, everything I've read about this woman leads me to believe she is a despicable human being.
 

Bedlam

Member
As for this other controversy. I think the article calling people out is a little low. Just do it in generalities or subliminals. No way calling people out by name song giving then the rundown was going to end well.
Why not? Those people themselves decided to put their tweets out there and you should be free to quote them. I think naming names is exactly what needs to be done.
 

sephi22

Member
I'm only vaguely aware of who Jim Sterling is, so maybe it's only me who had no previous knowledge of Miss HNNGNGFNGNGNNNGGNGNG.
Oh I dont thing so HNNGNGFNGNGNNNGGNGNG
Preorder Tomb Raider today and get premium season pass access to lauren's tweets. HNNGNGFNGNGNNNGGNGNG
Had never heard of this lauren wainwright character. Overnight internet sensation much? From nobody to poster-child for all that's wrong with games "journalism."
HNNGNGFNGNGNNNGGNGNG
The fuck is this shit?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom