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[Shard]

Detective GAF is once against most impressive.

 

[Dmax3901]

I'd love to see a tv show take an honest a look at games journalism, something like The Thick of It.

 

[Angry Fork]

People complaining over nothing.

thisisneogaf.gif

A guy who was trying to do legitimate games journalism/commentary was censored and the people who employed him threatened with a lawsuit simply for doing his job. By people who claim to be part of the same profession he is but are bribed by corporations to do their bidding. This is not nothing unless you don't care about the game industry at all then why are you in the thread to begin with.

 

[Zeliard]

I still can't believe there's such a thing as Mountain Dew Dorito cupcakes.

And I live in the land of the heart attack that is the Krispy Kreme cheeseburger. I thought I'd be immune to this stuff.

 

[Sadist]

Could someone please explain what the hell is going on?

Gaming Journalism lowering the bar yet again.

 

[JABEE]

ok back in for one more. You mean her friend at....Square Enix

http://uk.linkedin.com/in/korinaabbott

Thank you Korina I loves you!

Holy shit.

 

[Foffy]

ok back in for one more. You mean her friend at....Square Enix

http://uk.linkedin.com/in/korinaabbott

Thank you Korina I loves you!

Oh goodness. How much of a hole are we finding here?

 

[Dennis]

A lot of this stink would just go away if we stopped using the term "games journalism." We set our own expectations with the label.

If we just replaced "games journalism" with "enthusiast press" or "fanboys without marketing degrees", we wouldn't have to complain that the journalism side has failed us.

Some of them are straight up paid shills.

 

[Meccanical]

I still can't believe there's such a thing as Mountain Dew Dorito cupcakes.

And I live in the land of the heart attack that is the Krispy Kreme cheeseburger. I thought I'd be immune to this stuff.

The world is more majestic than we give it credit for.

There's a lot to discover.

 

[Shard]

I'd love to see a tv show take an honest a look at games journalism, something like The Thick of It.

I want to see how far the rabbit hole goes.

 

[Neuromancer]

RE: Amazon Tony's ban: it's a permaban.

What was the thread that did him in?

 

[RedNumberFive]

Detective GAF is the best GAF.

 

[Magna_Mixalis]

Just realized we went through all of this in 2005 when Dan Hsu tried to burn bridges and salt the earth as he left 1up a while back. Here is a link to his original editorial as well as the backlash that followed. Sadly, not much seems to have changed in 7 years...

http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=6228583&publicUserId=5379799

Would've pasted the original article, but it's long...oh-so-very-long...

 

[Randolph Freelander]

Some of them are straight up paid shills.

Yeah, some.

Actually, the paid shills are at least more respectable than the unpaid shills.

 

[Foffy]

The world is more majestic than we give it credit for.

There's a lot to discover.

This sounds like something deserving for the cosmos, not corruption.

 

[Toma]

What was the thread that did him in?

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=497097

In my opinion for this reason:

I'd always go with the user OT's. Publishers making an OT will result in nothing but advertisement. I dont know about you, but I consider "advertisement" and "enthusiasm" two entirely different things. This also raises the question which GAF user impressions in those threads will be bought, which ultimately, are the ones you want to believe in.

Nono situation.

Its not about how he said it, its about his connections and that there are interest groups behind him that are interested in buying user posts.

 

[Kinyou]

What was the thread that did him in?

This one

 

[Baconsaurus Rex]

A guy who was trying to do legitimate games journalism/commentary was censored and the people who employed him threatened with a lawsuit simply for doing his job. By people who claim to be part of the same profession he is but are bribed by corporations to do their bidding. This is not nothing unless you don't care about the game industry at all then why are you in the thread to begin with.

Yeah I just read about the whole Tomb Raider thing but I don't see How Keighley comes to play into this. Is it to symbolize that video games journalist are just complete sell-outs?

 

[Boss Man]

I really hope something comes of this. I don't mean that in a popcorn.gif kind of way, but that this has been a real problem for a while and this whole ordeal has just unfolded perfectly to present it in the clearest way possible.

 

[Toma]

This one

Ha! Slowpoke.

 

[Randolph Freelander]

I was thinking the publishers already wrote the OTs. Might as well, they're close enough to marketing materials as it is.

 

[Huevos de Oro]

One has to wonder what else hides deep down that rabbit hole. What other things take place among the sheets of the bed that industry and journos share so unabashedly.

 

[SolidSnakex]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=497097

In my opinion for this reason:

Holy shit...I never understood why people got so upset over some of the more elaborate OT's, but I guess I can understand after seeing that.

 

[Wallach]

Just saw that thread Tony made, hahaha. What the fuck.

 

[Toma]

Yeah I just read about the whole Tomb Raider thing but I don't see How Keighley comes to play into this. Is it to symbolize that video games journalist are just complete sell-outs?

He was the center of the first article published on this issue based on this pic:

 

[NHale]

A lot of this stink would just go away if we stopped using the term "games journalism." We set our own expectations with the label.

If we just replaced "games journalism" with "enthusiast press" or "fanboys without marketing degrees", we wouldn't have to complain that the journalism side has failed us.

Even an "enthusiast" should know that you can't review products from a company that hires you to be a consultant.

 

[prwxv3]

The game community as a whole needs to change as well because assuming every single reviewer that gives a anticipated game a good score "paid off" does not help anything.

 

[Sadist]

Yeah I just read about the whole Tomb Raider thing but I don't see How Keighley comes to play into this. Is it to symbolize that video games journalist are just complete sell-outs?

Correct.

 

[Kinyou]

Ha! Slowpoke.

Guess I could work for Kotaku


ZIIIIINGG!!!

Just realized we went through all of this in 2005 when Dan Hsu tried to burn bridges and salt the earth as he left 1up a while back. Here is a link to his original editorial as well as the backlash that followed. Sadly, not much seems to have changed in 7 years...

http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=6228583&publicUserId=5379799

Would've pasted the original article, but it's long...oh-so-very-long...

The funny part is that he gets criticized for not naming names. So when this time Rob Florence has some actual examples, he gets sued over it.

 

[Huevos de Oro]

Guess I could work for Kotaku


ZIIIIINGG!!!

Nah, you still posted about it today. Too fast for them.

And lol Tony can't catch a break (from his CAG thread):

EDIT: Sorry for asking you to direct questions here, don't do that, apparently it is bannable.

Cheers,
Tony

 

[Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew]

ok back in for one more. You mean her friend at....Square Enix

http://uk.linkedin.com/in/korinaabbott

Thank you Korina I loves you!

My head!! It hurts!!

 

[Neuromancer]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=497097

In my opinion for this reason:

Oh Tony

Tony Tony Tony

 

[D4Danger]

I guess now we know the dews and don'ts of the game industry.

yes. yes.

This one

EviLore doesn't mess around.

 

[tsigo]

ok back in for one more. You mean her friend at....Square Enix

http://i.imgur.com/IPNyV.png

http://uk.linkedin.com/in/korinaabbott

Thank you Korina I loves you!

Just as I was thinking "Korina's kind of a unique name, I bet someone could find her info", boom, it magically appears.

 

[Boss Man]

The game community as a whole needs to change as well because assuming every single reviewer that gives a anticipated game a good score "paid off" does not help anything.

Whose fault is it that we don't trust them?

 

[Zeliard]

Just saw that thread Tony made, hahaha. What the fuck.

I guarantee you PR departments looked at the old crazy multi-post OTs - and probably some of the current ones - and just thought, "holy shit, these guys are doing our work for us, and for free!"

 

[Victrix]

I think games journalism is a similar issue to games-as-art. Just accept the truth instead of being so damn pretentious.

It is, and to some extent its stupid on both ends.

We complain that games journalism is terrible or whatever, but at the end of the day, do we need investigative writing for previews or reviews or hype pieces or whatever? No, not really.

Do we need investigative writing for incredibly shitty work conditions and borderline exploitation of college grads? Maybe, but I expect that to break from a real news outlet, not a gaming webpage (and the latter is true everywhere until they wise up and exploit some grads of their own :V).

I appreciate people who write about games with wit, humor, and with the self awareness that they are biased. For me, most of those people are making snarky posts on forums, not writing for mainstream media pages (whatever that means, I don't even know what it means anymore).

Ultimately its just not that big of a deal. You can get the same information from other sources that are unbiased as a group in totale, not individually.

Reviews? They all ape each other. It's rare to see a huge mark outside the margins, and it's really easy to evaluate a new game if you're any sort of longtime gamer based on developer/publisher/genre/sequel. In the rare case where you're genuinely not sure, you wait for a day after release and you'll have 2394082340972095723 youtube videos, forum impressions and live streams to check out, assuming you don't just rent it.

I'm not sure why there still seems to be some sort of pervasive 'look, a smoking gun!' surprise, when this sort of shit has been happening, publicly, for years now. Better to embrace it than dance around it.

I do think it's hilarious and sad that metacritic averages can have a real impact on struggling developers, so that aspect at least is definitely unfortunate. Anyone have any legitimate numbers on how review scores impact actual sales?

 

[Megasoum]

Ok I think I missed an episode... Who's that Korina?

 

[Lancehead]

The game community as a whole needs to change as well because assuming every single reviewer that gives a anticipated game a good score "paid off" does not help anything.

Yeah, Uncharted 3 Eurogamer review comes to mind. Media outlets can't disappoint the fans as much as they may not want the PR departments.

 

[D4Danger]

I guarantee you PR departments looked at the old crazy multi-post OTs - and probably some of the current ones - and just thought, "holy shit, these guys are doing our work for us, and for free!"

Some of them look better than any official press. It's a little worrying at times.

The joke ones are the best though.

 

[Toma]

Ok I think I missed an episode... Who's that Korina?

Its a friend of a journalist who said she is not affiliated with SE and simply likes to tweet about their games since she likes them.

Not affiliated with SE:

- Ad for Tomb Raider on her Twitter
- Twitter messages to advertise
- Friend at SE who works in marketing

Forgot something?

 

[DopeyFish]

Ok I think I missed an episode... Who's that Korina?

her friend who was originally at ubisoft that got her into press events.... someone she was using as a gateway into games journalism

supposedly.

 

[braves01]

This question is related to the games journalism, but it's a different story I haven't really been following. I heard Polygon was given a large sum of money by Microsoft for some reason (a...documentary or start-up cash or something). This is pretty damn shady too, no? Or am I not understanding it right?

 

[grimshawish]

ok back in for one more. You mean her friend at....Square Enix

http://uk.linkedin.com/in/korinaabbott

Thank you Korina I loves you!

And BOOM.

 

[Boss Man]

not a big deal

It's not the end of the world, but what's the purpose of video game reviews if they can't be trusted? We're being lied to, and although it's not the kind of lie that will cause serious harm, it is at least enough to cost people $60. Since we're on a video game forum, I think it's worth discussing a huge, glaring problem with the industry.

 

[SolidSnakex]

Yeah, Uncharted 3 Eurogamer review comes to mind. Media outlets can't disappoint the fans as much as they may not want the PR departments.

But aren't the reviewers to blame for that? They've basically created a 7-10 scale for AAA games. And a lot of the time it's really just 9's and 10's with the occasional 8.

 

[Megasoum]

Its a friend of a journalist who said she is not affiliated with SE and simply likes to tweet about their games since she likes them.

Not affiliated with SE:

- Ad for Tomb Raider on her Twitter
- Twitter messages to advertise
- Friend at SE who works in marketing

Forgot something?

Ah right lol, missed the part about her being a fan of the journo.

 

[TheSpoiler]

Wrote a parody article for the hell of it. It's probably not funny at all, but since I'm done with "serious" journalism, it's just another step on the road to deluding myself about being funny.

http://theawkwardglitch.com/2012/10...-with-legal-action-after-telling-truth-fired/

And with that, I've killed any chance of getting a job at Eurogamer. Feels good.

 

[Foffy]

This question is related to the games journalism, but it's a different story I haven't really been following. I heard Polygon was given a large sum of money by Microsoft for some reason (a...documentary or start-up cash or something). This is pretty damn shady too, no? Or am I not understanding it right?

Nope, you got the jist. I'm not sure if we know the specifics of what it entailed, but they received about $750,000.

 

[TheContact]

thanks for recap

I'll do a short recap:

• Keighley surrounded by doritos followed by gaming bloggers retweeting a hashtag for advertising to win a PS3 makes Florence of Eurogamer curious.
  
• Florence writes an article saying how things are shady and some sound like straight up PR e.g. Wainright orgasms for everything Squenix.
  
• Eurogamer/Wainwright send libel threats to Eurogamer, at which the article was edited to remove mentioning of Wainright.
  
• Wainwright responds in twitter "Apology accepted" and something in the vain of applying her law classes to use.
  
• Florence either steps down or is forced to resign to avoid any libel threat.
  
• Both sides deny any threat or are not talking about it directly, but twitter posts hint that such threat existed. Florence is not confirming or denying whether he was fired or he stepped down.
  
• "GAF and 4chan combine forces to see this standalone complex issue" alongside digital protest from Penny Arcade and more, showing what happened.
  
• Wainwright's profile shows she is a freelancer for Square Enix. She admitted it and denied doing any reviews for Square Enix or shilling (she is wrong. She reviewed Deus Ex, Tomb Raider and did countless previews).
  
• All this fiasco is too much for her and she privatize her twitter account. Next thing you know, she starts deleting tweets, videos and articles, and edits her profile to remove any mention of Square Enix freelancing.
  
• David Jaffe offers Keighley Mountain Dew.
  
• Gaming journalism.