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Jose Otero is leaving IGN and starting a job at Nintendo

J

jacobeid

Banned
jholmes said:
This is certainly the conflict and honestly it's not the best look for IGN at this point. Either they've made a habit of hiring people who would rather work in games than in journalism or people who work there get put off the industry altogether.

Not a specific comment on Jose Otero, honestly I always found him very critical of Nintendo but even-handed. IGN has had a few other people who were fawning in praise until the objects of their adorations hired them and that doesn't serve the readership.
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As others have mentioned, working in the gaming industry means that you are surrounded by other people in the gaming industry. It makes a lot of sense why people at IGN would be good fits for positions at companies that make games too. I don't think it's a conflict but rather a natural progression of networking and an industry where people tend to switch jobs frequently.

It would be worse if we had former devs coming to IGN to work as journalists.
 
D

Deleted member 17706

Unconfirmed Member
Yonafunu said:
Damn, why does Nintendo keep stealing these guys away?
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Because they are talented people that demonstrate a passion for Nintendo? Amazing brand ambassadors with good personalities that can also write well. It's a winning combination.

A career in games journalism isn't exactly the most stable or well paying of jobs, either, so I imagine most people who haven't really carved out their own niche are always looking for an out.
 
E

Ecliptor

Member
Good for him. As many have said, the current trio got me back into NVC after years. It won't be the same without him but I'm sure it will still be good.
 
J

jholmes

Member
jacobeid said:
As others have mentioned, working in the gaming industry means that you are surrounded by other people in the gaming industry. It makes a lot of sense why people at IGN would be good fits for positions at companies that make games too. I don't think it's a conflict but rather a natural progression of networking and an industry where people tend to switch jobs frequently.

It would be worse if we had former devs coming to IGN to work as journalists.
Click to expand...

The problem is if your reporters are spending more time networking than reporting, the publication will suffer for it. More to the point, if your reporters are treating every interview as a job interview, they're not likely to ask questions that will make them unpopular, nor are they likely to write much that can be construed as criticism.

People leave journalism for other fields related to their expertise and that's fine, but undeniably there's a pattern at IGN and it doesn't benefit IGN or its readers.
 
P

Peltz

Member
jholmes said:
The problem is if your reporters are spending more time networking than reporting, the publication will suffer for it. More to the point, if your reporters are treating every interview as a job interview, they're not likely to ask questions that will make them unpopular, nor are they likely to write much that can be construed as criticism.

People leave journalism for other fields related to their expertise and that's fine, but undeniably there's a pattern at IGN and it doesn't benefit IGN or its readers.
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There's nothing to suggest any of this is an issue.
 
Fatmanp

Fatmanp

Member
I have just started listening to NVC and I think he is fantastic so it is a shame he is leaving but good for him. You cannot turn that offer down.
 
X

xmajinjoshx

Member
Jose is going to be missed on NVC, but I seriously wish him the best with his new career at Nintendo. I can't even imagine how exciting that must be.
 
F

family_guy

Member
jacobeid said:
As others have mentioned, working in the gaming industry means that you are surrounded by other people in the gaming industry. It makes a lot of sense why people at IGN would be good fits for positions at companies that make games too. I don't think it's a conflict but rather a natural progression of networking and an industry where people tend to switch jobs frequently.

It would be worse if we had former devs coming to IGN to work as journalists.
Click to expand...

The conflict could be, "Maybe I'll throw softball questions or will avoid vocal negativity because I want to work for these guys someday. In fact, this job is just a stop gap to getting me there." It can be hard to prove though and the smart ones wouldn't make it seem so obvious.
 
W

Weebos

Banned
Nice, congrats to Jose.

I'm curious what will happen to NVC, I hope they shake it up a bit. I used to listen a lot, but it felt like the hosts didn't play enough of the Nintendo catalog that I enjoy.
 
T

TheNormalMan

Member
Huge loss to the IGN community, but I'm super happy for him. Honestly, I recently wondered if he'd eventually work for Nintendo. He's a super pro, well spoken and passionate. Thank you for everything!

Congrats, Jose! Looking forward to your future contributions from Nintendo!
 
A

Apathy

Member
Deku89 said:
Nintendo keeps on stealing those IGN employees. I guess the best way to get a job at Nintendo is to work at IGN first.

Congrats to Jose, I enjoyed NVC. Wonder who is going to replace him.
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Best way to get hired by any of the big three is work as a games journalist.
 
T

Terrell

Member
Kinda curious what they have him up to at Nintendo. I've felt for some years now that Nintendo could benefit from a community manager or something, someone who officially represents them in terms of fan communications. Maybe he'll be doing that.
 
Portugeezer

Portugeezer

Member
He was the weakest as far as criticism of Nintendo went, always an appologist.

I guess what I mean is that this is the job for him.
 
S

sfried

Member
So Jose Otero now works for Nintendo, and Shane Bettenhausen works for Sony. That means former 1UP crew are now rivals!

What's next? Jeremy Parish working for Microsoft?
 
H

Hydrus

Member
Good for him! I remember when he first came to IGN. I stopped reading ign a long time ago, but it seems like all the talent has left. BTW anybody still remember Psycho PS3 Truth? That dude was a riot! "In society".
 
Jinfash

Jinfash

needs 2 extra inches
People have mentioned several IGN staffers left IGN for Nintendo. Can anyone fill me in on what they ended up doing at Nintendo? Is it PR?
 
M

metsallica

Member
Jinfash said:
People have mentioned several IGN staffers left IGN for Nintendo. Can anyone fill me in on what they ended up doing at Nintendo? Is it PR?
Click to expand...
Rich George works (worked?) for Golin-Harris, Nintendo's PR firm.
Audrey Drake works in the Treehouse (localization, among many other things); you may have seen on on recent E3 streams.

The GOAT Matt Casasassassamamasina heads up gaming for the Apple App Store along with his man-servant BOZON. I think "Cranky" Craig Harris is over there now too.

The rest were ground into a paste to sustain Peer.
 
E

esmith08734

Member
EuropeOG said:
He was the weakest as far as criticism of Nintendo went, always an appologist.

I guess what I mean is that this is the job for him.
Click to expand...

Really? I feel like he was, objectively, the fairest. He praised things that deserved to be praised (BoTW) and threw considerable shade on questionable practices by Nintendo (discontinuing NES Classic). I think he was great.
 
T

TheJoRu

Member
EuropeOG said:
He was the weakest as far as criticism of Nintendo went, always an appologist.

I guess what I mean is that this is the job for him.
Click to expand...

Nonsense. Jose has always appeared fair in his views on things; no, you don't see him screaming at the top of his lungs whenever Nintendo does something stupid, but at the same time you can tell when he genuinely disapproves of something. I mean, just take the most recent NVC he hosted. Would an apologist say stuff like this about the Switch voice chat solution and Nintendo products in general?
 
A

Angel Whispers

Member
So, are IGN looking to recruit a replacement, and if so, where does one apply? If not, will their roster be pale as fuck from now on? **Takes Pitcher; Sips Cocktail...**
 
B

bigmac996

Member
Didn't listen to a whole lot of his podcast, but over the years it's been clear he's a good dude, good at what he does and a hardcore Nintendo fan. Congrats to him, this seems like a perfect fit.
 
O

Oblivion

Fetishing muscular manly men in skintight hosery
metsallica said:
Rich George works (worked?) for Golin-Harris, Nintendo's PR firm.
Audrey Drake works in the Treehouse (localization, among many other things); you may have seen on on recent E3 streams.

The GOAT Matt Casasassassamamasina heads up gaming for the Apple App Store along with his man-servant BOZON. I think "Cranky" Craig Harris is over there now too.

The rest were ground into a paste to sustain Peer.
Click to expand...

Wait, Bozon's working with Matt? I thought he was at Wayforward designing games?
 
M

malfcn

Member
How many IGN employees have gone onto Nintendo? And for that matter, how many hobbyist /journalist made the move into their dream job?
 
S

Scrawnton

Member
Deadpool_X said:
Damn...he's the 3rd IGN Nintendo person to do this in a row...

Explains why we saw no content from him over E3. I kept wondering where he was and why he wasn't on ANY e3 stuff, especially with such a huge showing.

This sucks for NVC and IGN fans, but I'm happy for Jose. Dude is awesome and now working for the company he loves.
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I believe some of his tweets mentioned he was real sick during E3.
 
T

thoolihan

Neo Member
Congrats to him, that's quite a name to have on the resume.

I'm curious to see where NVC goes, but not worried. Prior hosts left that I thought weren't replaceable and the show chugged along fine.

I won't miss him filtering the NVC mail bag. Several times I'd write questions for discussion that stated my opinion but left it open to disagree while discussing (hence: good topics). He'd write back and say basically "not going to discuss, I disagree". I appreciate him writing back, and it's fine to disagree. But why kill a topic just because you don't agree? I feel like in that respect Peer is much more objective at sharing his opinion, but acknowledging that there are differing valid perspectives. A recent example of this was about the effect of no trophy system on 3rd party sales on Nintendo platforms. The answer was basically, I don't buy that way, so I don't think others do.

Anyway, not trying to hate on the guy. He had a rounded gaming background and ran a good podcast. I think he would bring some good structure to the treehouse type stuff if they let him.
 
Rodolfo Brito

Rodolfo Brito

Member
Jose is awesome and will be as missed as Rich and Audrey.

The bad part is that we will need to swollow Sam Claiborn as the NVC host, wich I think is something bad, tbh.

I hope they finally make Brian Altano the host. Sorry Sam. :/
 
TAS

TAS

Member
Welp..NVC won't be the same. But I'm happy for him--seems like a good and genuine person. Congrats Jose.
 
I

Imbarkus

As Sartre noted in his contemplation on Hell in No Exit, the true horror is other members.
Good for Jose, he really made NVC for me.
 
ZAMtendo

ZAMtendo

Obliterating everything that's not your friend
Congrats Jose and good luck at Nintendo. What's weird is I was thinking this would happen only a few days ago... #destiny
 
X

XandBosch

Member
Definitely very happy for Jose, what a dream, but definitely very sad as a weekly NVC listener. Jose was everything great about a podcast host. He let it be funny and goofy when it was the right time, but kept it informative and interesting throughout, and never let the shows run too long with bloating. I most certainly can't say the same for some of the other IGN shows that I used to listen to and no longer do, and I hope they can maintain the structure and finesse that Jose setup. With him, Brian and Peer, it quickly became my favourite (and what I would consider to be the best) video game podcast out there.

IGN just seems to be losing their best people over the past few years.
 
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