It's exactly this. Too honest for his own good.
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Jim Sterlings PS4 Top Ten(MS PR wont talk to him?)
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It's exactly this. Too honest for his own good.
Cliffs antics, imo, take away from all the other people who worked on the games he gets a lions share of the credit for(but I'm fine with his antics because it gets his name out). Adam is great as long as no one is disagreeing with him, and Garnett... We will just have to disagree on him. I see nothing that Jim does as any less mature then I've seen a large majority of people in the industry act, is my main point, but also those are not isolated incidences either with the people I've mentioned.
And yes, they are sending him games and that is what matters, but also poking at the PR for not talking to him is fine, and I find no convincing argument that what he is doing is a bad thing. He is by no means having a fit, he is having a go at them and that is fine.
I think they are saying that they wont talk to him because he could very well give it a 3(or a 6). So just giving him the game and not talking to him is their way of dealing with him. That isn't tin foil hat, that sounds quite possible and easy to believe.
Damn, I do enjoy reading your posts like this, haha. Straight to the point, no bullshit.
Jim Sterling
Member
Clarification:
Sony's reaction to the Escapist hiring me was to congratulate the site.
MS' PR department's reaction was to hope the Escapist puts a leash on me.
Sony's reaction to the Escapist hiring me was to congratulate the site.
MS' PR department's reaction was to hope the Escapist puts a leash on me.
Thanks for the info. Sounds about like what I thought happened. MS hoping they put a leesh on you sounds kind of odd... I mean, Escapist hired you for you, seems if they would put a leash on you would completely defeat the purpose of hiring you. I dunno, maybe I'm being crazy.
Ingueferroque
Banned
And in doing so they have un-leashed the beast instead.
You made this big a deal out of someone not being nice to you in a casual conversation? I wonder why they think of you as a PR liability.
fuck the establishments! vegetable rights and peace
I don't think they are trying to slow or stop his poor review, I just don't think they want to talk with him, currently, because they dont know what he will do. That sounds like just "dealing with him", to me.
Jim Sterling
Member
No. In fact, you kind of don't know what you're on about. There's no actual conversation, and that is the thing I am talking about. MS' PR wing has been doing a lot of talking ABOUT me, and no talking TO me.
Usually, publishers are actually very accepting of my opinions and coverage, even if it's harsh, and even if they don't agree. Very rarely, a company pulls the kind of stunt where it strings someone along and talks vaguely to them without having the stones to actually tell that person what the problem is, and then they hear about it from friends and colleagues.
And then they make smarmy little tweets one morning for no reason other than to highlight the problem with not actually telling someone directly what the problem is.
He mentioned it in a video in a joking manor, and made 7 tweets about it? And half of those 7 tweets was responding to people... I made the topic and tried to turn it into something more. Besides, again you have given no reason as to what he did was so horrible. He had a go at them, if they cant handle something this soft...umm.
It sounds like MS PR is run by scared children or some shit lol
You have such nice opinions!
Jim Sterling
Member
Apologies to those of you who thought my comments today were making a "big deal" out of something. For my part, I was merely trying to make some sort of lightheartedness out of a situation I actually find quite troubling (PR attempting to make the media complicit in the dampening of a person's opinion). I felt people would want to know that and tried to communicate it in a comedic way, if only for the fact that I *don't* like throwing tantrums.
But a tantrum is what some people are apparently seeing. My bad.
But a tantrum is what some people are apparently seeing. My bad.
FranXico
Member
Sorry to say, but MS PR sounds like teenagers in a highschool.
Neuromancer
Member
You're a loose cannon, Sterling! Turn in your gun and your badge.
PJV3
Member
They sound like dickheads.
Ol No Bones
Banned
This guy is a joke.
For the record I was talking about MS PR in my last comment. From your description of what's going on it really does sound like high school behavior.
Don't apologize to them. It's not a tantrum to inform your potential readership about facts like this. It's good shit. The industry needs more willing to out companies and their PR wings when they do things like this. It allows us ALL to understand what's really going on behind the scenes.
I can tell you now, because of this, I personally will be reading what you have to write far more often.
Majmun
Member
This.
60 second comedic mention on a video and 7 random tweets half of those in response to people... If that is a tantrum all the interwebs is always tantrum.
Jim Sterling
Member
Hilariously, few people have said what you just said MORE than I have. The reason I am pointing this out is *because* it is so unusual as to prove anomalous.
Monty Mole
Member
If he publishes early, he can forget ever being given review copies ever again. Otherwise everyone would publish early, whether they signed anything or not.
That's the threat - or the carrot on the stick - whichever way you wish to look at it.
Jim Sterling
Member
FYI NeoGAF I wrote those tweets this morning while spinning around with a copy of Skyrim in my hands.
Claude Kenni
Member
I really don't know how much I can blame a company's PR arm for being reluctant to talk to someone who is very likely to take whatever he was told and speak very negatively about it. Sony of course is willing to talk to anybody because consumer sentiment is very positive.
It may not be the most ethical option but I have a hard time faulting the PR arm of a company dealing with rather negative consumer sentiment for trying to avoid any further and especially unneeded bad PR.
And I get the frustration but I'm not sure shaming them for doing their jobs is the best option. It's likely to reinforce their beliefs that not talking when the expected result is bad PR no matter what they say is the right one. A belief which is quite arguably correct, we all know what PR is for.
It may not be the most ethical option but I have a hard time faulting the PR arm of a company dealing with rather negative consumer sentiment for trying to avoid any further and especially unneeded bad PR.
And I get the frustration but I'm not sure shaming them for doing their jobs is the best option. It's likely to reinforce their beliefs that not talking when the expected result is bad PR no matter what they say is the right one. A belief which is quite arguably correct, we all know what PR is for.
theviolenthero
Member
I've read this entire thread and i still don't get whats going on.
In another thread it says when the embargo's for reviews are lifted.
Is Jim Sterling able to release his reviews on these dates or not?
In another thread it says when the embargo's for reviews are lifted.
Is Jim Sterling able to release his reviews on these dates or not?
Seems to me that the week before they launch their multi-billion dollar new device in countries around the world that the Microsoft PR department has more important things on their plate than to deal with someone who might be considered "trouble." This isn't a high school mentality, just a simple cost-benefit analysis.
Sorry but I am not sure how 'throwing their toys out of the pram' qualifies as doing their job.
This right here is FUD. People already have perceptions on PR. All this is, to most, is more of the same. This just highlights the stupid nature of PR in general. The point of this thread was to point out the stupid of PR. Seems like you want to turn it into something more as well, to try and discredit the idea that the way PR/Media works is silly.
Jim Sterling
Member
Here are my grievances:
That nobody had the nerve to directly tell me what was up.
That the sentiment seems to be a hope that the Escapist will actually impose some sort of control over my opinion.
The idea of being blacklisted doesn't worry me. I've been blacklisted before. I find blacklists petty and impotent things. It's the inability to come to me directly, by people I've spoken to for years and have never been unreasonable with, coupled with that desire to see a writer toned down against his wishes. That's the bit that I find just a little bit unsettling.
This isn't even about them not "having time" to deal with me. Certainly enough time was had to try and get assurances I could be controlled.
Not a tantrum. Ignore those comments and keep fighting the good fight. Those of us with any sense appreciate the insight. Cheers
This isn't about the embargo dates/reviews. It's about MS PR ignoring Jim.
I would like to hear MS's side of this. So far it looks like they don't like him and don't want to talk to him.
Neuromancer
Member
We've been hearing for weeks that the embargo dates for MS stuff were, themselves, embargoed. Many sites had no idea what the embargo actually was. Maybe MS's PR gave different dates to different sites hoping to massage the best scores out of them? Just a guess.
FranXico
Member
Excuse me?
Actively cutting communication is more of a waste of effort to try to deal with a measly troublemaker than just treating him like all the other journalists.
Impeccable
Member
Do the right thing, Jim.
I'm not sure how ignoring someone who you gave a review copy to is resembling of anything called a good idea. Now if they didnt send him a copy, then I would agree, but that isn't what they did. They sent him toys and then didnt talk to him; in what way, outside of what Joseph Merrick said, does that seem like a good way of controlling "trouble"? To me, it does sound high schoolish.