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[Lexx]

Heh, indeed. If he wouldn't have added the "more than one town"-thing, it might be believable. But with this... no way.

[Tale]

I don't know if you guys are following it, but there's a minor brouhaha going around concerning games journalism.

Robert Florence, a writer for Eurogamer, wrote an article questioning journalistic practices, centrally concerning the GMAs. You can find that article here.

In the process, he name dropped a couple of people as examples. That was yesterday. Today, Eurogamer edited the article to remove the specific mentions of names, that's the version you see up in the link. And Robert Florence left Eurogamer as well. Though he has shown no ill-will towards Eurogamer. His twitter account.

 

John Walker, a writer for Rock, Paper, Shotgun, wrote what I thought was a very good piece on his blog that echoed some of the concerns of the Eurogamer piece. You can find that on his personal blog here. This was also yesterday. Today, he's also reacting to the editing of the article by Eurogamer. Here.

 

The PA Report is chiming in.

[Malcador]

Been following that, pretty amusing drama - I especially love Cook's acting all wounded over this. Heh, game 'journalism'.

[Inyourprime]

Yeah, I read that article before it was edited. This fiasco amuses me greatly;

 

1) A publication questions what you wrote on twitter,

 

2) You get jelly and threaten legal action.

 

3) A massive backlash ensues and you close your twitter account to the public as a result.

 

*sigh* Our game journalists. All this is a shame though -- I don't know who this Robert fellow is but he wrote a great piece. Another one shared his opinion on this today: John Walker.

[HoonDing]

I don't know if you guys are following it, but there's a minor brouhaha going around concerning games journalism.

Robert Florence, a writer for Eurogamer, wrote an article questioning journalistic practices, centrally concerning the GMAs. You can find that article here.

In the process, he name dropped a couple of people as examples. That was yesterday. Today, Eurogamer edited the article to remove the specific mentions of names, that's the version you see up in the link. And Robert Florence left Eurogamer as well. Though he has shown no ill-will towards Eurogamer. His twitter account.

 

John Walker, a writer for Rock, Paper, Shotgun, wrote what I thought was a very good piece on his blog that echoed some of the concerns of the Eurogamer piece. You can find that on his personal blog here. This was also yesterday. Today, he's also reacting to the editing of the article by Eurogamer. Here.

 

The PA Report is chiming in.

[alanschu]

Wow. Thanks for sharing that Tale!

[Zoraptor]

Ironic really, since RPS's ads are all (well, for the moment at least, can't imagine anyone there would be at all happy at them shafting one of their contributors) served via Eurogamer. I presume that is why they are using their personal blogs for it rather than RPS itself.

[alanschu]

In one of RPS' articles (this) he does mention that RPS shares advertising with Eurogamer.

 

He actually comes clean about a lof of the perk type things he has had done by PR folk, and thinks that if anyone wishes to call him out on it he thinks that that is entirely fair. Though he also states that he feels the idea of game scores being outright purchased is overstated, and feels that woefully inaccurate review scores are more an issue with reviewer incompetence rather than widespread corruption.

 

I find it interesting because in Sid Meier's 2010 GDC keynote he talks about how (within Civ) gamers tend to be paranoid. In that, even if there's a fair and random chance of something happening, if bad things happen "randomly" it's often inferred as the game being out to get them. (I actually found it a pretty interesting talk as he covers gamers not being rational in their expectations, in that despite logically understanding the odds, they still feel the game is being unfair in many cases. You can watch it

). I can see where he's going in games and I wonder if it permeates outside of gaming too. Edited October 25, 2012 by alanschu

[Tale]

I find it interesting because in Sid Meier's 2010 GDC keynote he talks about how (within Civ) gamers tend to be paranoid. In that, even if there's a fair and random chance of something happening, if bad things happen "randomly" it's often inferred as the game being out to get them. (I actually found it a pretty interesting talk as he covers gamers not being rational in their expectations, in that despite logically understanding the odds, they still feel the game is being unfair in many cases. You can watch it

). I can see where he's going in games and I wonder if it permeates outside of gaming too.

Simple negativity bias. And as people take more note of unfavorable outcomes, the mind tends to assume a pattern. The human mind developed to be pattern seeking, but it takes a lot of shortcuts to get there.

 

It's fairly pervasive. It could be a contributing factor to many overblown phenomena.

 

Edit: Moving sentences causes pronouns to get funky.

[Zoraptor]

In one of RPS' articles (this) he does mention that RPS shares advertising with Eurogamer.

Yeah, they've mentioned it multiple times including when they inked the deal, that's how I knew about it in the first place.

 

I don't really have a problem with it either since they were upfront about it. If there isn't something on RPS in the next few days it would probably mean they've got a do not criticise clause in the adserver contract, but so far as I am aware that's standard practice even for something like Google Ads.

[Joukehainen]

Really shocked by the UK libel laws and honestly tired of companies behaving like this was still the pre-digital era and you could shut down a story before it got to print.

 

We have a little something called the internet. It doesn't take a week for papers to put some scoop out. What did MCV expect? Just as John Walker wrote,

 

“What will happen now is all manner of places will host the original version of the article, it will be far more widely circulated and discussed, and the reputations of those who have tried to silence criticism could be far more damaged than if they had just ignored it, let alone acknowledged they could do better.”

 

Which is exactly what is happening. Reacting this way, removing evidence and distancing themselves means they KNOW they're doing something very wrong.

 

"Even though Wainwright publicly lists Square Enix, publishers of Tomb Raider (screencap for when that inevitably gets edited out), as one of her current employers. However, don’t point out that possible confusion."

 

and that's exactly what happened, too. Square Enix did go in and remove that mention. Honestly, most companies today have no idea how to handle PR in a digital age. Instead of opening up discussion they try the old turtling tactic from the stone age. When will they realize that DOESN'T WORK nowadays?

[Nonek]

I'm surprised anybody pays any attention to "professional" reviews anymore, i'd rather formulate an opinion through let's plays, demo's if available and personal recommendations, mainly because my tastes and specifications differ hugely from reviewers. The few reviews I have seen for the latest "best game ever" also seem to be strangely uninformed, to the point where i'm beginning to suspect that they've not even played the game. Some things that are omitted you simply cannot miss, that's when I begin to suspect they've been unduly influenced by publisher pressure or are far too close to the developer, to the point where they're looking at them as possible employers who they don't wish to alienate rather than producers to be criticised.

 

Still it's a cheap medium of entertainment at the end of the day, and I more than get my moneys worth.

[Joukehainen]

Yup indeed, Nonek, I stopped reading game journalism long ago, with few exceptions - such as Erik Kain.

 

Almost all game mags/ review sites are just boosterism for game producers, that much is obvious.

 

But I am still baffled by the inability of companies to adapt to the information age.

Edited October 26, 2012 by Joukehainen

[Gorth]

Simple negativity bias. And as people take more note of unfavorable outcomes, the mind tends to assume a pattern. The human mind developed to be pattern seeking, but it takes a lot of shortcuts to get there.

 

Nonsense. Anyone who has played a game of Warhammer knows that there is a God of Dice. And he *hates* me

 

Edit: As for the Eurogamer story. Not sure it says anything everybody didn't already know/suspect? Interesting reading none the less.

[melkathi]

 

Nonsense. Anyone who has played a game of Warhammer knows that there is a God of Dice. And he *hates* me

 

 

Agreed.

My elite chaos marine strike team misses on every shot. The Ork Waaaagh! bearing down upon me hits with every single shot, one-shotting my Great Unclean One with a lascannon to add insult to injury...

[Gorth]

Nonsense. Anyone who has played a game of Warhammer knows that there is a God of Dice. And he *hates* me

 

 

Agreed.

My elite chaos marine strike team misses on every shot. The Ork Waaaagh! bearing down upon me hits with every single shot, one-shotting my Great Unclean One with a lascannon to add insult to injury...

My worst single handful of dice roll was with my Epic Ork army, firing a Pulsa Rokkit battery. Five 1's and a 2. Landed smack in the middle of my own deployment zone in the first turn

 

Edit to add for the uninitiated: You decide on the number of dice you want to roll for the rocket salvos flight distance.

[melkathi]

But with Orks at least that's part of the fun. They were meant to be a gamble. Did you ever get to read 40k 1st ed rules for Orks? There were two books, Freebooterz and ... can't remember the name right now. You would actually roll dice for every mob to see whether they'd show up or if they were too drunk on fungus beer from the night before

[Gorth]

But with Orks at least that's part of the fun. They were meant to be a gamble. Did you ever get to read 40k 1st ed rules for Orks? There were two books, Freebooterz and ... can't remember the name right now. You would actually roll dice for every mob to see whether they'd show up or if they were too drunk on fungus beer from the night before

I'll have to check my collection old publications. I have the original Rogue Trader (where you also rolled for what units could get and what equipment your randomly generated units got). I bought some second hand rule books later, which were anthologies (or whatever that word is in English) of White Dwarf articles. Never got around to read them and don't remember if it was Eldar or Orks (me always having played Imperial Guard in 40k)

 

Yeah, in Epic 40K, I can sing loud and bawdy songs about things blowing up in my face. Mad Boyz levelling entire suburbs with the ground, Weirdboyz blowing kiloton sized craters in my army... good times

[melkathi]

I miss that... when the games were about ridiculous fun and not about balanced armies.

[Morgoth]

Divinity: Original Sin interview

[Jaesun]

There is a VERY good wrap up and summary of this Gaming Journalism drama, and a very well done explanation of how this current business is utterly flawed broken and cannot ever be fixed here:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=S2keHyS_Ooo

 

via TotalBiscut. I have a new-found complete respect for this man.

Edited October 26, 2012 by Jaesun

[pmp10]

There is a VERY good wrap up and summary of this Gaming Journalism drama, and a very well done explanation of how this current business is utterly flawed broken and cannot ever be fixed here:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=S2keHyS_Ooo

 

via TotalBiscut. I have a new-found complete respect for this man.

Thats nice and all but how is the future of youtube commentators any better?

TB has a fan-base that he needs to please and therefore just like any gaming journalist he is financially answerable for his opinions.

I'm sure he remembers what reception his Portal 2 video had and how much that cost him.

[Oner]

I'm sure he remembers what reception his Portal 2 video had and how much that cost him.

Oh? What happened?

[Jaesun]

Thats nice and all but how is the future of youtube commentators any better?

 

Did.... you actually watch the video?? He goes into that quite explicitly.

[pmp10]

I'm sure he remembers what reception his Portal 2 video had and how much that cost him.

Oh? What happened?

I think you can still find it on his channel.

He wasn't having much fun with it and got bombarded on twitter (and I imagine lost viewers) as a result.

Turns out people on the internet were expected to be validated in their opinion that it's a fun game.

Thats nice and all but how is the future of youtube commentators any better?

 

Did.... you actually watch the video?? He goes into that quite explicitly.

Yes and he failed to tackle the most obvious problem - he's effectively being payed by self-selecting fan-base.

I fail to see much difference in sacrificing your integrity for the sake of the fanboys rather than that of the publishers.