Penny Arcade 11/30/2007 Jeff Gerstmann fired from Gamespot, allegedly for K&L review

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radioheadrule83

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#101
Jul 15, 2004
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#101
Is it me or did pilonv and Spirit of Jazz wade on in and imagine the thread rather than reading it?..

No one is happy about this. Who could possibly be happy about this? Most people seem concerned if anything

(that's not a cue to prove them right)
 
G

Gowans

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#102
Sep 28, 2006
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#102
mosaic said:
Fact: Jeff Gerstmann was let go yesterday. Now, whether the Kane & Lynch thing was the sole reason, that I don't have all the facts on. And I doubt Josh Larson or anyone in power at CNet would ever admit to it anyway.
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Wow, well good luck for whatever Jeff does next, hope he has some nice leave pay to blow and sure he'll have no problem with offers as he is a big name as a game critic (also the face of Gamespot for many).
 
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MrDaravon

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#103
Mar 24, 2005
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Wow. If this is true, Gamespot has pretty much permanently lost any credibility. I mean, I disagreed with a lot of his reviews, but NO ONE should lose their job for giving what they feel to be an honest review.

typhonsentra said:
Why is this the first we're hearing of this?
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Maybe because it just happened yesterday?

mosaic said:
Fact: Jeff Gerstmann was let go yesterday. Now, whether the Kane & Lynch thing was the sole reason, that I don't have all the facts on. And I doubt Josh Larson or anyone in power at CNet would ever admit to it anyway.
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Even if there were other reasons as well, I don't see any way that they'll ever really be able to get away from this.
 
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methane47

Member
#104
Nov 3, 2006
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#104
cjelly said:
Jesus, man. That is pathetic. Someone just lost their job and all you can think about is that he rated your favourite games lower than you expected.
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You're right ... someone did just lose their job... and that always sucks... I hope he was atleast prepared for it.. and I hope that he can bounce back..

But even so.. i can't help but comment on the mystery surrounding him leaving...
 
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tanod

when is my burrito
#106
Dec 15, 2006
11,704
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#106
mosaic said:
Fact: Jeff Gerstmann was let go yesterday. Now, whether the Kane & Lynch thing was the sole reason, that I don't have all the facts on. And I doubt Josh Larson or anyone in power at CNet would ever admit to it anyway.
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Holy fucking shit! Immediately removing Gamespot from my tabbed gaming site bookmarks and taking HotSpot off RSS.

This is a fucking crock!
 
W

White Man

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#107
Jun 9, 2004
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#107
So, uh, if the events of this comic are true, can we count on getting confirmation, whether from the press peeps posting here, or from IGN, 1up, or Gamestop? I mean, that accusation is a big fucking deal, and if it's true, people shouldn't be giving money to Eidos.
 
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Ripenen

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#109
Aug 21, 2007
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#109
minus_273 said:
I beleive he has been at gamespot since the beginning.. ziff days and beyond. Is this fucking true?

If the OP is joking mods need to do something...
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Unfortunately this isn't a joke, and yeah Jeff was with GameSpot for 11 years. You can probably expect to see some sort of "official" word of it on the usual blogs and news outlets soon.
 
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mosaic

go eat paint
#111
Jun 11, 2004
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#111
minus_273 said:
If the OP is joking mods need to do something...
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I only joke about sodomy. Jeff helped me get my start in this industry. And I've been on GAF since the Toole days, so I'm not pulling some junior crap.

And, FYI, this is the first y'all are hearing of this because nobody at GameSpot is going to risk their skin and the other sites that knew didn't want to post until they had more facts. My peeps tell me the P-A guys made a bunch of calls yesterday and today. When they posted the comic, I figured may as well post the link: cat outta the bag and all.
 
C

calder

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#115
Jun 9, 2004
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#115
Y2Kev said:
Then this is abominable if he was fired for what it looks like he was fired for.
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I just can't believe any company, no matter how stupid and misguided, would fire a reviewer/editor for just that. Or even for mostly that. It's just so dumb and obviously self-damaging (and impossible to keep quiet if true) that no one would really do it. Right? Of course, I've been a wee bit overly optimistic about the logic and/or ethical sturdiness of companies before...
 
K

Kittonwy

Banned
#119
Feb 21, 2006
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Tortondo, Canada
#119
mosaic said:
Fact: Jeff Gerstmann was let go yesterday. Now, whether the Kane & Lynch thing was the sole reason, that I don't have all the facts on. And I doubt Josh Larson or anyone in power at CNet would ever admit to it anyway.
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How can Gerstmann be "let go" from gamespot? Gerstmann IS fucking gamespot ever since they separated from ziff, folks like Joe Fielder can leave, Kasavin can leave but fucking GERSTMANN? That's pretty fucking crazy, they might as well close the site up now, because it's OVER for them. Gerstmann might be a fucking cheat that one time I played him at Yahoo! Snooker years ago, but he am god damn fucking gamespot total, unbelievable.
 
D

DeathbyVolcano

Banned
#120
Oct 16, 2005
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#120
mosaic said:
I only joke about sodomy. Jeff helped me get my start in this industry. And I've been on GAF since the Toole days, so I'm not pulling some junior crap.

And, FYI, this is the first y'all are hearing of this because nobody at GameSpot is going to risk their skin and the other sites that knew didn't want to post until they had more facts. My peeps tell me the P-A guys made a bunch of calls yesterday and today. When they posted the comic, I figured may as well post the link: cat outta the bag and all.
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You think Tycho is gonna have an awesome post about it tomorrow?
 
E

EMBee99

all that he wants is another baby
#124
Oct 9, 2006
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Chicago, IL
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#124
mosaic said:
I only joke about sodomy. Jeff helped me get my start in this industry. And I've been on GAF since the Toole days, so I'm not pulling some junior crap.

And, FYI, this is the first y'all are hearing of this because nobody at GameSpot is going to risk their skin and the other sites that knew didn't want to post until they had more facts. My peeps tell me the P-A guys made a bunch of calls yesterday and today. When they posted the comic, I figured may as well post the link: cat outta the bag and all.
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Only sodomy? Really? I'm sure there's other funny business you'd use as humor fodder....:D

And this is horrible. This doesn't only affect Gamespot but gaming journalism as a whole. Every action, every bad/good review is going to be second guessed by this stupid move. Thank you, Eidos and Gamespot. You've made my buying and media decisions very easy now.
 
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Troidal

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#131
Jun 7, 2004
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#131
And there goes the old Gamespot, pretty much most of the editorial guys back from 10 years ago are now all gone (except for those who are still in the video team) :-(

Gamespot hasn't been the same anymore but wow, it's becoming more and more like that.
 
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EMBee99

all that he wants is another baby
#134
Oct 9, 2006
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#134
GenericPseudonym said:
Apparently you think nobody can be fired, especially when they catch so much dislike from the community. I wouldn't keep Gerstmann he's a liability.
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Why, because apparently he doesn't heed to corporate pressure when it comes to reviewing games at the expense of his livelihood?

You corporate scumbag. Someone needs to pull a High Fidelity on your ass.
 
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RyuHayate

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#137
Nov 25, 2005
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#137
GenericPseudonym said:
Apparently you think nobody can be fired, especially when they catch so much dislike from the community. I wouldn't keep Gerstmann he's a liability.
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Are you kidding me, dude?

This comic pretty much explains what actually happened. He wasn't let go because people like you don't care for the guy.

But still, this is just gross.
 
D

disappeared

Banned
#138
Sep 14, 2006
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#138
mosaic said:
And, FYI, this is the first y'all are hearing of this because nobody at GameSpot is going to risk their skin and the other sites that knew didn't want to post until they had more facts. My peeps tell me the P-A guys made a bunch of calls yesterday and today. When they posted the comic, I figured may as well post the link: cat outta the bag and all.
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So then it was indeed related to the Kane and Lynch score?
 
E

etiolate

Banned
#140
Jun 8, 2004
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#140
If this is true, it is a raw deal Jeff got. I won't miss his reviews though and I am not shocked it happened at Gamespot. Look, his eye catching reviews were meant to be eye catching. The ethical integrity of Gamespot has long been gone. If a site is okay with continually lowballing big games for attention while throwing out perfects for a tired series like Tony Hawk, then I don't throw this out of the realm of possibility. It just seemed Jeff didn't want to do this particular deal.
 
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GenericPseudonym

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#141
May 5, 2007
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#141
EMBee99 said:
Why, because apparently he doesn't heed to corporate pressure when it comes to reviewing games at the expense of his livelihood?

You corporate scumbag. Someone needs to pull a High Fidelity on your ass.
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If he wants CNET's cheque, he writes CNET's review. If he wants to be his own reviewer then freelance for god's sake.
 
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TDG

Banned
#143
Feb 12, 2007
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#143
If ture, which it seems it is, that's really awful. Gamespot loses some serious credibility.

I hope we see Gerstmann writing somewhere else soon. I enjoy his writing, and 8.8 was spot on.
 
W

WrikaWrek

Banned
#146
Oct 31, 2007
14,221
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#146
The video review was just him trashing the game (The game sucks anyway, it's the truth).

then the video review got pulled (Right there a sign of what was going on). Can't believe he got fired over it.

The game is a piece of shit.
 
K

Kittonwy

Banned
#148
Feb 21, 2006
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Tortondo, Canada
#148
Dante said:
After this and the supposed 9-bargo with AC, There's gotta be some shady stuff going on as of late.
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There's seriously something up with that. I'm not sure when you have game publishers putting game ads on a site that reviews these very same games, there isn't some sort of conflict of interest going on, or at least the appearance of a conflict of interest.
 
C

Crusade

Member
#150
Nov 14, 2007
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#150
BRING BACK GREG K!

The quality of Gamespot's reviews, and consistency has fallen sooo much in the past year. I remember under Greg's reign, they would discuss the review and decide on the most appropriate review score. The old automated review system would keep scores in check too, so even if it was disagreeable - it'd never be all that far from what it may have deserved (Zelda TP for instance). The increment system is terrible. And reviews are poor now, just see R&C Future. How did that end up 15% away from it's meta-average?

I don't think Jeff should be fired, but I don't think he belongs as editor-in-chief either
 
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