I know journalists want this. And I know a certain segment of gamers want this. But I'm not sure why developers would want this, if the end result is that their failures or rough periods or career slumps become SEO-supported accepted truths, rising to the top of their individual Google results for the rest of time.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/211139/Irrational_Games_journalism_and_airing_dirty_laundry.php
Ah, no, I'm not talking about office politics. What I'm saying is that some developers are all for breaking PR cycles and eliminating this gross corporate culture of silence that surrounds what they're working on. I'm talking about the products. Plenty of people who work in the video game industry would be thrilled if they could talk more openly about what they've done, what they're doing, and what their work is like. They're just stifled by corporations and NDAs, which is why sometimes they leak things to "insiders" or websites like Kotaku, which in my biased opinion is the best way to go, because we have both a wide network of sources that we can use to corroborate information and our own legal team. (Imagine if Sony's lawyers threatened a GAF insider to give up his/her sources. What would happen?)
As for more gossipy stories, Leigh raises some interesting questions in that piece, and there are no easy answers. I believe that it's important for reporters to dig up the stories that answer big, pressing questions in the world of gaming - like "why did LucasArts fall apart?" or "how did Aliens: Colonial Marines turn out so horrible?" - but when a story just comes down to office politics and creative people butting heads, things can get rather messy, and there are legitimate questions about whether some office drama really needs to be made public.
What's the difference between a "trained" and "untrained" insider, exactly?
People who have no experience or education in journalism vs. people who do? I don't know that there's such thing as a "trained insider." I like that there are people here who leak information (though it often seems like the insiders here enjoy pretending they know more than they actually do) because I'm all for uncovering secrets and making the video game industry more open, no matter who's doing it. But there's a lot of misinformation, too. Usually that's not a big deal. Sometimes, as in this case, it is.
When someone has cachet and a wide audience - whether that's a GAF insider being parroted here and on gaming sites like DualShockers, or a moderator on the front page of Reddit, or a writer for the New York Times - they also have a certain level of responsibility. If they don't understand that, or if they abuse their power, the results can be pretty scary.