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

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E

EternalGamer

Banned
Htown said:
Oh fuck.

Reworded press release CONFIRMED.

Polygon:
i5B9GDqUf34jp.PNG


Videogamer.com
iy6n46eEwRbdR.PNG


EGMnow.com
ibs8I7OBa5y5IA.PNG


Three unrelated sites.

GAMES JOURNALISM YOU GUYS
Click to expand...

Hey guys, this is cool. We now have an easy barometer for determining the integrity of gaming websites akin to the "Crate Review Rating System."

It's called the News!: Pizza, Halo, Avatar Test or NPHAT for short.
 
P

PaulLFC

Member
Gomu Gomu said:
rycYu.png


Glad to see other big site readers doing the BS calling.
Click to expand...
Hopefully anyone else from here with a Polygon account can jump on for a few seconds and let them know how poor stuff like that is - maybe they'll eventually take notice... wait, what am I saying? They won't.
 
F

FStop7

Banned
Kenshin001 said:
I wonder how many indignant games journalists are in on that sweet little deal then.
Click to expand...

Keighley's Live account got FIFA'd back when Microsoft was still denying there was even a problem. While normal slobs were stuck in limbo without access to their live accounts he got his fixed in like a day.
 
M

MYeager

Member
Zaph said:
Huh, coincidentally somebody asked that very same writer (also based in the UK) if they were going to cover the Florence story. Her reply:


Link
Click to expand...

I know that folks may have an issue with this, but I have to ask, Polygon reports on video games, Halo 4 is one of the larger releases this year, is a deal between Pizza Hut and MS for a Halo giveaway not information that they would be expected to report on?

And as for the other, is he not correct that delivering his opinion would be an editorial? Right now they're set up for deliver news about games, not editorials about those who write about video games. While this is certainly a perfect time, especially for a new site, to open a dialog with their audience about what standards they have, but I can understand what the guy is saying. Their website is for covering video game related new, and technically the Pizza Hut article has more to do with a video game release than an opinion piece about other sites journalistic standards.
 
R

RedNumberFive

Banned
Gomu Gomu said:
They weren't immune to criticism. Go read the first pages. The fact that Jeff actually posted here multiple times and said what he said gives him and his site a break, in my opinion. Especially when you consider the absolute silence or being dismissive or joking about it by others.
Click to expand...

Kotaku had a pretty similar response and was chewed out for about 10 pages, but GAF puts Giant Bomb on a pedestal. You can't accept free gifts, trips, and perks and then claim - "It doesn't effect us, trust me." They need to be held to the same level of scrutiny as we're laying down on every other site mentioned here.
 
F

Flavius

Member
EternalGamer said:
She is the one that dismissed and constantly tried to shut down the entire conversation about this topic last week. She could have addressed it then. Before she got caught with her hand in the damn cookie jar. But instead, she didn't even try to talk about anything remotely like this as a "grey area." She just said that the whole discussion was "popycock" while she was doing the exact fucking thing she was dismissing. How can you possibly defend that?

It doesn't help that she is generally vapid, reactionary, and non-reflective in general anyway. Those are perhaps even better reasons for her not to be the show but this stuff is pretty unacceptable as far as I'm concerned.

You don't have to agree and that's fine. And if they want to gamble that there are more people like you than like me, they are welcome. I have been following Garnet since the EGM days. I listened to every single 1up Yours and I followed him to Shack News for Weekend Confirmed. I will not keep listening if she stays on the show. Just on the principle of what we have been exploring in this entire thread about what we actually want out of games media. Her behavior is the antithesis of that in pretty much every conceivable way.
Click to expand...

While I can appreciate this zealous pursuit of ethics and accountability in the enthusiast press, what I hope you can appreciate is that, occasionally, a modicum of evenness and reality make for a more productive discussion, whereas too often, the highly impassioned response leaves important things like logic and cogent rationalizations in the proverbial dust.

Also, like...if you're not going to bother listening, then why the fuck would they continue to discuss?
 
G

ghst

thanks for the laugh
Htown said:
Still looking for more sites. I've got a couple more minor ones already.
Click to expand...

while with other websites, it's just a continuation of the same sorry narrative, it's really polygon who need to be made examples of.

how this new burning star of journalistic integrity, already under fire for conflicting interests due to their IE sponsorship, can shamelessly and obliviously puke out a microsoft advertorial is beyond both my business sense and ethical comprehension.

deleting comments as i speak, too. classy.
 
Z

Zaph

Member
How to get free advertising on major blogs (written as someone who during an internship in a unrelated industry had to do this):

1. Write up a press release for the feature product
2. Time your Mailchimp campaign to send in the early hours of the morning (US time) to catch the graveyard shift writers.
3. Be thankful of the 24hr news cycle we now live in.
4. ???
5. Profit

So, for the expensive price of one email campaign, you now get this for free:

o8EuG.jpg
 
P

PaulLFC

Member
bigdaddygamebot said:
I'm about to as well.

Nice to see there's one less site to follow.
Click to expand...
Yup, weren't Polygon saying they were going to "revolutionise journalism" or something similar? Nice to see rehashing press releases is how they plan to do it. Doesn't seem that revolutionary to me. Now, commenting on actual important issues within the industry, on the other hand...
 
B

bigdaddygamebot

Member
RedNumberFive said:
Kotaku had a pretty similar response and was chewed out for about 10 pages, but GAF puts Giant Bomb on a pedestal. You can't accept free gifts, trips, and perks and then claim - "It doesn't effect us, trust me." They need to be held to the same level of scrutiny as we're laying down on every other site mentioned here.
Click to expand...

Kotaku's original response was from Totilo and couldn't have been more dismissive and patronizing.

I suppose there's not much bandwidth left after a super-compelling "Who Has The Best Titz in Videeo Gamez?" article.
 
E

Empty

Member
MYeager said:
I know that folks may have an issue with this, but I have to ask, Polygon reports on video games, Halo 4 is one of the larger releases this year, is a deal between Pizza Hut and MS for a Halo giveaway not information that they would be expected to report on?

And as for the other, is he not correct that delivering his opinion would be an editorial? Right now they're set up for deliver news about games, not editorials about those who write about video games. While this is certainly a perfect time, especially for a new site, to open a dialog with their audience about what standards they have, but I can understand what the guy is saying. Their website is for covering video game related new, and technically the Pizza Hut article has more to do with a video game release than an opinion piece about other sites journalistic standards.
Click to expand...

much of the polygon mantra is that games are about more than just the games themselves. that's why they have a god-awful self-aggrandizing documentary and talk up their features the exploring people behind the games. given that a piece about games journalism is absolutely within their purview.
 
E

EternalGamer

Banned
Flavius said:
While I can appreciate this zealous pursuit of ethics and accountability in the enthusiast press, what I hope you can appreciate is that, occasionally, a modicum of evenness and reality make for a more productive discussion, whereas too often, the highly impassioned response leaves important things like logic and cogent rationalizations in the proverbial dust.

Also, like...if you're not going to bother listening, then why the fuck would they continue to discuss?
Click to expand...

I don't think it is at all idealistic to expect that people who work in gaming media not take money from game companies and then outright dismiss any criticism of relationships between PR and games media as "popycock."

There are plenty of gaming websites and games media writers that have rightly expressed horror at this kind of thing. This is not a pie in the sky standard. It a bare minimum that is easily achievable.

And I will give them one more week to see how they address the issue.
 
J

JABEE

Member
Zaph said:
How to get free advertising on major blogs (written as someone who during an internship in a unrelated industry had to do this):

1. Write up a press release for the feature product
2. Time your Mailchimp campaign to send in the early hours of the morning (US time) to catch the graveyard shift writers.
3. Be thankful of the 24hr news cycle we now live in.
4. ???
5. Profit

So, for the expensive price of one email campaign, you now get this for free:

o8EuG.jpg
Click to expand...

I'll keep this in advise in my back pocket.
 
B

Bedlam

Member
Talon said:
This is all I'll say regarding rewritten press releases (I worked for a business magazine for a year, reporting to the EIC).

There are only a few ways you can rewrite a press release and, frankly, if it's really minor ass news - you're told not to spend much time on it other than changing some verbiage.
Click to expand...
The point is it is not news at all. It should be labelled "(payed-for) advertisment", not "news".

I have zero issues with looking at junk food ads next to my news but when you label a game/foodchain cross-promotion thing "news", that's embarrassing.
 
A

Air Zombie Meat

Member
JABEE said:
The second I hear someone saying "demo" like it slips off their tongue casually, it makes me think about what that person's role is in all of this.
Click to expand...

True, it gave me douche chills just typing that out. Also calling products like that iconic is a bit weird for a normal person to say.

re the pizza hut "news" I'm sure the defence for that will be that readers might be interested in getting a halo avatar costume. Which sadly has a bit of truth to it. Its still a good example of pr messages being printed as news though.
 
H

HoosTrax

Member
Makes you wonder where franchises like Halo and GoW would be if the press wasn't so complicit in helping to hype them up. Is the press merely reporting on gamer-generated hype, or are they themselves actively feeding it -- I wonder if they ever ask themselves that.
 
E

Effnine

Member
MYeager said:
I know that folks may have an issue with this, but I have to ask, Polygon reports on video games, Halo 4 is one of the larger releases this year, is a deal between Pizza Hut and MS for a Halo giveaway not information that they would be expected to report on?
Click to expand...


What exactly are they "reporting" on?
 
E

Empty

Member
Talon said:
This is all I'll say regarding rewritten press releases (I worked for a business magazine for a year, reporting to the EIC).

There are only a few ways you can rewrite a press release and, frankly, if it's really minor ass news - you're told not to spend much time on it other than changing some verbiage.
Click to expand...

this is why gamasutra has a section dedicted to vanilla press releases

http://gamasutra.com/pressreleases/

might as well just chuck them out there in a transparent way instead of blurring the lines between marketing and reporting such that you're literally repeating the exact words microsoft wants people to in the same format that you use for your real first person reporting.
 
R

RedNumberFive

Banned
bigdaddygamebot said:
Kotaku's original response was from Totilo and couldn't have been more dismissive and patronizing.

I suppose there's not much bandwidth left after a super-compelling "Who Has The Best Titz in Videeo Gamez?" article.
Click to expand...

No argument there. I was just explaining that Jeff's response boiled down to:

"Yeah, we participate in all this gross stuff, but we don't like it, so you should trust us."

That statement does not entitle them to a "get out jail free card" in this matter.
 
F

Flavius

Member
EternalGamer said:
I don't think it is at all idealistic to expect that people who work in gaming media not take money from game companies and then outright dismiss any criticism of relationships between PR and games media as "popycock."
Click to expand...

My issue is that I think it's a bit naive to think that all relationships would be the same and that a person who is obviously quite 'tight' with PR and publishers would say anything else. What did anyone really expect her to say?
 
G

Gomu Gomu

Member
RedNumberFive said:
Kotaku had a pretty similar response and was chewed out for about 10 pages, but GAF puts Giant Bomb on a pedestal. You can't accept free gifts, trips, and perks and then claim - "It doesn't effect us, trust me." They need to be held to the same level of scrutiny as we're laying down on every other site mentioned here.
Click to expand...
Kotaku's response was not the same. It was dismissive.
But after a while, Totillo actually came around in realizing the importance of this story, and told us that he is working on an article for it. Now there might be people who didn't read his latest posts, and still refer to the dismissive Kotaku.
 
J

JABEE

Member
megalowho said:
Wow, they totally are. That's pretty fucking egregious.
Click to expand...

They weren't even obscene comments. Someone go over there and extoll the virtues of Pizza Hut and Halo in the comment section. Talk about how eating Pizza Hut's Stuffed Crust Pizza helps you become the best gamer you can be.
 
M

MYeager

Member
Empty said:
much of the polygon mantra is that games are about more than just the games themselves. that's why they have a god-awful self-aggrandizing documentary and talk up their features the exploring people behind the games. given that a piece about games journalism is absolutely within their purview.
Click to expand...

Sounds like an Editorial section should've been a part of their launch. I haven't seen their documentary, so that might be part of my confusion.
 
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