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Gamespot Veteran Freelancer Quits Over CNet Management
- Thread starter Zzoram
- Start date
beelzebozo
Jealous Bastard
yeah, good luck frank. takes nuts to walk away from a solid gig.
I'm just going on what some reviewers have told me so don't get all snipy. It's hard to write a game review in one week so I wouldn't blame anyone for surveying a game and knocking out a quick review. I knew at least a few people would get indignant at that comment though. I'm sure no one on this board would resort to such crass tactics I'm just saying it does happen.
DeathWasHere
Banned
lol who even talks about gamespot lol joke thread?
Lilsnubby said:
I personally will only review about two or three games a month. That's because I take great pride in my reviews and devote almost a full-week just to writing and editing.
Of course, I'm in a place where I can get away with doing that. Some other outlets simply don't expect that type of devotion.
Writing a videogame review isn't hard.
But writing a videogame review that doesn't make you sound like someone who hasn't progressed past the 4th grade certainly is a challenge.
boutrosinit
Street Fighter IV World Champion
CNET to become a **** perhaps?
You think that's insane, I know freelancers whose monthly output puts mine to shame... and Alex @ GameSpot has so little fear of the English language that, for him, the entire time committment is basically the play-time (at least it seems so to me *grin*).Joe said:
Still, look at it this way, for most of those 8 years, playing and writing about videogames has been my ONLY job. 40 hours per week, 160 hours per month... usually more. And then consider how many games actually have 10 hours of first-run play time, let alone more than that in replay value. I rarely do RPG's and I tend to specialize in handheld stuff, where replay value is a RARE commodity. In any case, the writing process is what takes longest for me -- I'm no slouch at playing video games.
Of course, I'm not saying I finish EVERY game I play... I do try to, though. Lord knows I've missed deadlines to do the job right.
SouthernDragon
Member
Mosiac/Provost, I'd like to join the choir of:
Good show, sir! While I do not read reviews much, or at all, I can still appreciate the ramifications of what you have done as a reviewer and as a person. Kudos to you, sir!
Good show, sir! While I do not read reviews much, or at all, I can still appreciate the ramifications of what you have done as a reviewer and as a person. Kudos to you, sir!
Segata Sanshiro
Member
Good on you, mos. Can't have been easy to do, but I'd like to think I'd have done the same thing in your position. Hope everything works out for you.
I still don't see how I'm hedwig though
I still don't see how I'm hedwig though
Segata Sanshiro
Member
I'd say if you were there on a consistent basis for 7 years, we can consider it quitting in the colloquial sense at the very least.Woo-Fu said:
Guybrush Threepwood
Banned
I hate CNET.
They killed my very first internet forum (GameFAQs).
They killed my very first internet forum (GameFAQs).
Guybrush Threepwood said:I hate CNET.
They killed my very first internet forum (GameFAQs).
Has the mob gathered to burn down CNET HQ ? Like the scene in Disney's Beauty and the Beast ?
To Mosaic :
Good luck. Hope you can find new job soon.
I have been there (unemployed), and with family and 3 kids, I know the kind of pressure you have trying to balance integrity vs. survival instinct. Nice to see that some people still have integrity in this modern world. May God (or who ever you believe in) be with you.
My synapses aren't firing as a result of this portion of your comment. Enlighten me? For my part, if I called someone Hedwig, it could be for a number of reasons. Are you androgynous? Do you look good in a poofy blonde wig? Do you turn out some energetic singing numbers? Are you searching for love at its purest despite society's pressure forcing you to fit into a gender role?Segata Sanshiro said:
... my mind, it... it works funny.
Mr. Mister
Member
how bad does this "freelancer" want attention?
Mr. Mister
Member
mosaic said:
i work 160 hours a month for rpgs.
what have you done for me latley?
dr3upmushroom
Banned
Don't be an ass if you're not going to read the thread.Mr. Mister said:
Also big ups to Mosiac, good thing you don't live in Frisco or you would have been a crazy bum by now.
Thunderbear
Mawio Gawaxy iz da Wheeson hee pways games
PantherLotus said:
What's wrong with you people? Does integrity not matter at all? I can understand people that wouldn't have the balls to have integrity, but what mosaic did benefits everyone and he knows he put his own future on the line. In my book that deserves respect. What cnet did is wrong. If you argue that then you are saying that it's ok to mislead and deceive for corporate gain. Mosaic took a stand. I don't know who this dude is, and likely to never know, but it encourages me to know there are people out there who still respect the truth.
Fuck, this forum is the ultimate cynical place.
Mr. Mister
Member
dr3upmushroom said:
read the thread been around since vidgames! understand the game. look there are times to take a stand, times to wait a long time to take a stand, and times to not care. i will let you guess which time this is....
Mr. Mister
Member
Gazunta said:
right but lets not kid ourselves. we are still very close to this mentaility. people just learned how to stretch the english language further.
one problem with game reviews is that they are the opinion of just one member of staff - I think games should be reviewed by at least 2 (or 4 like in famitsu) - different people like different things. Rather than softening down reviews, gamespot etc should just consider spreading reviews across more than one person so they can contradict eachother where necessary.
The problem with that is that it requires everyone to be in the same office...and also, 4 people on one review = 4 times the amount of manhours devoted to one review.HiVision said:
It's much more efficient, especially in the day of freelance via internet, to just get everyone doing their own things.
Ziff still do this in their publications, and especially on things like the 1Up Show. Zzap! 64 was doing it 22 years ago and I'd love to see a site do it again.
Mr. Mister
Member
Gazunta said:
not contesting man hours but why does everyone need to be in the same office?
Mr. Mister said:
He didn't like how things were being run, and he didn't like it enough to actually consider leaving his line of work, so he did. Then, he made a blog post telling everyone that cared that he wouldn't be writing reviews anymore, and why he wouldn't be writing them. I'm not going to say "cut him some slack!" because there's no need to. He just didn't like what was going on, and left. Sites such as Kotaku pick up on this though because they still want to take jabs at CNet for what they've done the last couple of months... and really, I'm fine with that, because CNet's done some really stupid shit and needs to be called out on it.
You can call him out all you like, but he already said that it might have been a mistake to open his yap about it, and also said he didnt expect it would become news at all. I just dont understand why everyone feels the need to try and tear the guy down all of a sudden for making a stand where he felt he needed to.
Mr. Mister
Member
Ten-Song said:
if a tester farts too loudly kotaku is going to cover it. i am not trying to rip the guy apart, i like him. this entire thing has just runs it course.
Gaz:
I agree it is hard to foster debate. I just don't know why debate between reviewers is important. Unless we are saying that challenging someones opinion is important to formulating an objective review -- which will open up an entirely new can of worms.
Welcome to GAF.Ten-Song said:
The rest of your post pretty much summed up my intentions and thoughts perfectly. I don't crave attention. I didn't set out to re-stoke any fires. I just wanted to say goodbye and state the beliefs that led me to do what I did.
Lord knows if I wanted attention I'd have been more vocal and e-mailing sites left and right. I did create the big Penny Arcade topic here, but only after they posted their comic. Yeah, I've posted about the situation a bunch in my personal blog, but to me that's what a personal blog is for. And I respond to people on NeoGAF for the simple reason that this is the forum I go to the most... if people ask me questions here, I'm most likely going to answer them.
*shrug* Kelly Clarkson!
Mr. Mister
Member
mosaic said:
And that is the crux.
Mos:
Sorry my friend but you brought it up (defensively) before anyone else did and honestly that is what is calling you out.
Mr. Mister
Member
mosaic said:
Sure.
Gaming-age is a fairly fast moving videogame forum....dare I say the fastest. Someone (you) posted the Penny Arcade comic very quickly after it was posted. The penny arcade comic had a rumor that you confirmed to be true. Had it not been for that comic (which relied on a leak) and your confirmation it was true there would be no "giant" gamespot controversy. Well there would have been it just would have come from someone other than you. All things adding up just don't add up to me.
Its just odd that you pushed this out there and then say "no no no I didn't want to press any issue I am just doing this because I have standards." If anyone should know what news is it should be you, you forced the news out the last time.
Mr. Mister
Member
cedric69 said:
Thankfully, I have not. I would like to think that if I do I will not interject myself into the news story three weeks before I myself become part of the news story.
I do not question his position or what he has done. I quesiton how surprised he really is by it "coming out".
Ahhh, I see your point now. I don't necessarily agree, but I certainly do see why you'd see things that way. All I can say, really, is that even at the ripe ol' age of 32, I still have some naivete' left in me.Mr. Mister said:
I think it's a stretch to say I "forced the news out." Penny Arcade has a HUGE readership and far-reaching influence. Kotaku is a rather well-trafficked gaming site. By the time I posted to GAF, the story was well on its way to exploding. Again, that probably shows my naivete'. I've been posting to GAF so long I honestly forget how many people use it as a first-stop source for news.
*shrug* I am genuinely surprised that my farewell post at GameSpot generated even this much attention. In hindsight, had I had an inkling, I probably would've made the original post a bit more brief... if only because I'm never comfortable when people are talking about me.
SouthernDragon
Member
Well, then, let's talk about you some more.
I think Mr. Mister's perspective is skewed. Mosiac broke the news... on GAF. Like he said, Penny Arcade were probably the first to break the news, then Kotaku followed up. Mosiac, being rather close to the event and an avid GAF poster, was the first one to post it up. He didn't have anything to do with the breaking story, other than confirm it.
Since he worked at the place of controversy, obviously him quitting is going to be part of that controversy. He could not quit immediately; he'd promised to review certain games, and write for a certain amount of time (till certain date). He obviously couldn't quit 3 days after Gertsman was ousted, even if he wanted to do it that quickly.
Come on, guys.
I think Mr. Mister's perspective is skewed. Mosiac broke the news... on GAF. Like he said, Penny Arcade were probably the first to break the news, then Kotaku followed up. Mosiac, being rather close to the event and an avid GAF poster, was the first one to post it up. He didn't have anything to do with the breaking story, other than confirm it.
Since he worked at the place of controversy, obviously him quitting is going to be part of that controversy. He could not quit immediately; he'd promised to review certain games, and write for a certain amount of time (till certain date). He obviously couldn't quit 3 days after Gertsman was ousted, even if he wanted to do it that quickly.
Come on, guys.
Mr. Mister
Member
mosaic said:
I hear ya man, I used to think this was just an odd extension of vidgames!
It's huge now.
Segata Sanshiro
Member
* See VGU #2 for details, true believers!mosaic said:
- Smilin' Segata
Hahaha! Page 35! I'm pretty sure you ended up with that unfortunate nickname because I'd been watching Hedwig & The Angry Inch again while I was editing strats for that issue. On the upside, in my bizarro world, being called Hedwig is a compliment 9 times out of 10.Segata Sanshiro said:
Thanks for that blast from the past -- my magazine pile thanks you too, it needed dusting. *cough, cough, hack*
Reno said:Are we doing a VGU staff roundup? Cuz HERE I AM!
Hi! I'm here too! Whoooo!! I never saw a single copy of that magazine
Shame, because I really enjoyed the work I did on it. My fake news story about the next GTA being set in the time of King Arthur and instead of stealing cars you steal horses actually got believed by a few forum kids. GTA: Getting Medieval