maybe.. but they could have lend it to them then,..? not give it..?
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Games Journalism! Wainwright/Florence/Tomb Raider/Eurogamer/Libel Threats/Doritos
- Thread starter papersleeves
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maybe.. but they could have lend it to them then,..? not give it..?
Probably cheaper to just give them out than having track x amount of people around the world to return them after reviews.
https://twitter.com/JoeThreepwood
so score a game high and you (can) get an earlier embargo, confirmed..?
Jimmyfenix
Member
I remember when 2k gave ign an exclusive review embargo of bioshock infinite for them to publish the review 5 days early. Funny enough the game got a 9.4 from them.
Ridiculous sure, but something about this payoff tells me wii u owners wont be missing out on much if they need to sweeten the deal for good coverage.
Sub-par game incoming.
Seriously? Oh ffs.
Sylverstone14
Member
https://twitter.com/JoeThreepwood
so score a game high and you (can) get an earlier embargo, confirmed..?
I'm glad this thread is back from the dead. I was recently listening to a bunch of Steve Gaynor's Tone Control podcasts that I had missed out on through being too busy at work. It was weird, two different podcasts with separate guests mentioned in passing this 'icky' thing that some journalists would do during press events, and how this behaviour coloured their own attempted transition from writing about games to getting involved in their production.
The thing in question was to openly solicit for jobs with a studio, in translation / writing stuff was the impression I was left with, while conducting their normal media interview/preview coverage. The two podcasts it was mentioned in was 11-Ryan Payton, and I think 5-Tom Bissel. Just to say again, it was neither of those guys doing it. It was something that happened that they found unpleasant, and I was left with the impression that it was a regular enough occurrence that it was notable.
Is this really a thing? Are some journalists covering studios openly hustling for jobs? I was pretty amazed this was something that happened without a huge amount of public fuss being made of it.
The thing in question was to openly solicit for jobs with a studio, in translation / writing stuff was the impression I was left with, while conducting their normal media interview/preview coverage. The two podcasts it was mentioned in was 11-Ryan Payton, and I think 5-Tom Bissel. Just to say again, it was neither of those guys doing it. It was something that happened that they found unpleasant, and I was left with the impression that it was a regular enough occurrence that it was notable.
Is this really a thing? Are some journalists covering studios openly hustling for jobs? I was pretty amazed this was something that happened without a huge amount of public fuss being made of it.
WeylandxYutani
Member
This is news to you? It's been happening for ages. Yet another reason review scores are worthless and toxic.
Jimmyfenix
Member
I urge everyone to listen to this 4 part bombcast snippet again on the ethics of games journalism.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5e3uMwFGaLVKzCZZrdO2Y070j58DCucv
Warning hilarity may occur when Jeff is confused on how you shorten Robert to "Rab"
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5e3uMwFGaLVKzCZZrdO2Y070j58DCucv
Warning hilarity may occur when Jeff is confused on how you shorten Robert to "Rab"
chaobreaker
Member
You'd think with all the testimonials by frustrated game journalists over the years and twitter making this harsh truth more ubiquitous that these publishers would take a hint and stop bribing reviewers for good scores.
Kadayi
Banned
Careful there bud. Bringing reason to things is a no no. One must let the outrage flow.
Yeah, obviously buying everyone Nexus7 devices was the easiest, cheapest and least morally questionable way of showing off a second screen functionality.
Yeah, this is worthy of its own discussion. No need to necro a dead thread, however related the topics may be.
Wildarmsjecht
Member
Wasn't there a guy from IGN openly asking someone from Xbox on twitter if he could help host the Xbox E3 this year?
I can't get it off the top of my head exactly, but wouldn't that constitute as openly applying for a job?
This topic never stops being interesting.
I suspect it's sort-of the opposite: Not that they're not confident about the reception, but their business plans for the future are dependent on it being dominant; it needs to sell in accordance with the expenditure used to make it, and they're scared it won't.
It may, of course, still be shit, but I think the key here is that they cannot afford for the reception to be merely okay-to-good.
As I suggested up there: I suspect this is more *because* budgets are out of control, rather than a *reason* budgets are out of control.
Saintguine
Member
Meh, it's something you have to live with to be honest at this point. Much like herpes.
RedNumberFive
Banned
Yes, and it was absolutely shameless and embarrassing.
I'm sure all of these reviews will include that they were given a free tablet at the review event. Probably not. Most likely someone will keep it. The only response to someone giving you a free item of that size is to not accept it. The fact that items like this are given out without a second guess demonstrates the free-for-all of gifts and looseness of ethics within the gaming press.
Some may do things the right way, but there is very little happening in terms of pushing back against these types of practices and trying to clean up the profession. Most seem to just be okay with going along with the ride. That's fine, but don't pretend like your individual outlet is entirely clean or has nothing to really worry about.
This is part of the problem right here. It was never journalism in the first place. Games writers who refer to themselves as games "journalists" are deluded. Its just a cheap and narcissistic attempt to fluff themselves up.
As soon as somebody refers to him or herself as a journalist, expectations rise when it comes to writing, content and integrity. All in all, no gaming site even comes close to fufilling those standards.
I think you're missing the point: $30,000 on gifts isn't going to raise Ubi's costs by much, but a row of 6/10's can bankrupt a studio.
Either way, WD looks like another boring open world game...but it may review well regardless.
I don't think a blanket statement like this is necessarily true. Writers for sites like Polygon put a lot of work into their massive feature-length articles that can involve something baseline like interviewing creators to something longer-term like analysis, opinion gathering from multiple sources, etc, etc. But the preview/review cycle would fall outside this arena pretty much by definition.
Nymphae
Banned
lmfao, yeah that's it.
To be fair, I don't think too many people who write for gaming magazines and/or websites self-identify as "journalists." They're just writers. The journalist label is usually applied by people from the outside looking in. But I'd agree that, in its current form, coverage for the games industry is not journalism.
Bit of a bump, but I thought this note from Stephen Totilo (Kotaku EiC) today was worth bringing up:
I think the whole Zoe Quinn thing is a non-story that has been discussed to death, but I really wanted to highlight the bolded.
Critics funding dev Patreons is fucking weird and I'm really glad that if anything positive has come out of this mess it is that outlets are concious of the more subtle ways readers think the critic/dev/pub relationship is messed up. I doubt any sane person here thinks publishers are distributing brown bags of cash, but there is a continued sentiment that these technically separate industries aren't as clearly defined as they should be.
But, disappointingly, once again it's Kotaku leading the charge and thinking this warrants mentioning - even some of my favourites like Giant Bomb are silent on the issue.
Stephen Totilo said:
I think the whole Zoe Quinn thing is a non-story that has been discussed to death, but I really wanted to highlight the bolded.
Critics funding dev Patreons is fucking weird and I'm really glad that if anything positive has come out of this mess it is that outlets are concious of the more subtle ways readers think the critic/dev/pub relationship is messed up. I doubt any sane person here thinks publishers are distributing brown bags of cash, but there is a continued sentiment that these technically separate industries aren't as clearly defined as they should be.
But, disappointingly, once again it's Kotaku leading the charge and thinking this warrants mentioning - even some of my favourites like Giant Bomb are silent on the issue.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Polygon just added an Ethics Disclosure section to their writer's profiles where they have to disclose any Patreons they are donating to and other things like review events, etc. For example, here is Tracey Lien's:
Wow. She sure is taking it seriously.
Yup. I read this on /v/ and was surprisingly pleased.
No matter how innocent it may be behind the scenes, writers directly funding developers they report on looks extremely bad, and the fact that it had to take this shit storm for at least some of them to see that shows how problematic the current state of game journalism is.
deltatheta
Member
Polygon just added an Ethics Disclosure section to their writer's profiles where they have to disclose any Patreons they are donating to and other things like review events, etc. For example, here is Tracey Lien's:
I might be oversensitive but that sounds like she's making fun of people for being concerned about journalists getting free stuff from the companies that they cover.
TatteredHat
Member
Can't say I'm surprised, the old gaming media's stance towards journalistic integrity isn't exactly stellar. They're more like tabloids than proper news outlets.
TotalBiscuit released a video a few hours ago regarding the whole hype-training and conflicts of interest coming from the gaming media, it's worth the watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd13fE5WJ3c
that's a really classy note by totilo. fair play to him.
it's also a good comparison in its willingness to be self-reflective and engaging in a fair relationship its audience (even when criticisms are surrounded by so much ugliness and nonsense that's its legitimately hard to do so), with polygon whose editors seem permanently outraged that anyone would dare to criticize them and treat readers with dripping contempt.
RockTurtle
Member
some big balls from Totilo to bring to the light the elephant in the modern gaming "journalist" sphere.
Gaming journalists and their mingling with indie/hippie developer scene.
you have game journalists making playdates publicly on twitter with the same indie developers they are supposed to either cover or give light to their projects.
and then when you call them out on it, it's always a tangent to some social progressive issue that overshadows the subject
Circle Jerk
Member
Polygon just added an Ethics Disclosure section to their writer's profiles where they have to disclose any Patreons they are donating to and other things like review events, etc. For example, here is Tracey Lien's:
And then you go to her twitter and see Mitchy D congratulating her for doing so. What a gross fucking industry, seriously.
That is exactly what she is doing.
Talking to sources is a good method of finding information when you're trying to cover that source.
The Blue Jihad
Member
Baby steps are better than nothing, I guess.
kitschykitty
Member
I wouldn't care if someone put this on their twitter as a joke but c'mon show some professionalism on your work profile, especially for a hot topic right now.
Zuhzuhzombie!!
Member
Good think they're not journalists.
IAmRandom31
Banned
I'm to the point to where I do not even pay attention to game sites anymore unless there is a preview of a cool game or something. Enough sources out there to determine what games I should be paying attention to and what I can blow off.
PedroLumpy
Member
Funny. Ethics disclosure isn't about you deciding what's appropriate to disclose. You disclose everything, and your readers can decide if they feel that's appropriate.
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