I think that link might be too long and is screwing up the front page. I'm not sure. Use this one instead:
http://kotaku.com/a-price-of-games-journalism-1743526293
Meh. I'd care if it there was more to the blog. As is, all I need is people to click the link.
I guess I didn't comment on the article itself. I don't know, I read Kotaku, but Gawker pisses me off sometimes too. I do think the incestuous relationship game publishers and the press have is pretty fucked up, and I'm disappointed Gamer Gate wasn't about that.
Unfortunately, they are niche publications writing about a niche market, and that dictates some incestuous relationships. Everybody knows everybody else, and there's nothing GamerGate or anyone else will ever do to change that. Part of the problem is that the revenue they need to survive comes from the industry they write about. They're never going to attract ad money outside of the industry.
yeah I know, and the thing about Gamergate that is so naive is they don't realize this is NOT new -- the non-gaming media does the same thing, and has for nearly a century!
I think what Kotaku is experiencing must be common practice with every other type of product and their press. Developers (just like politicians) want to manipulate and control the press for their own ends. I'd like to hear the other side of this complaint - what devs think of Kotaku. Do they view them as malicious?
I'm sure they do. However true, bad press is the enemy of any PR or marketing dept.
I'm actually surprised that a gaming site that big was blacklisted. Bethesda games seem to have a large fan base that seem resistant to bad reviews anyway, so why would they be afraid of a Kotaku review?
I'm not surprised at all. The cynic in me says Bethesda games have that large fan base partly because of the media's hype and inflated review scores. And the media hype is due to such strong arm tactics by the publishers. Yes, I believe there are a lot of people who don't think for themselves but follow consensus or "authority". Call me elitist or arrogant, but that's how I see it based on certain evidence and patterns I've seen arise time and time again. Just go to any comments section of a review site and see how many people base their final decision on what that one review at that one site said, even if they've been anticipating the game all year. People follow a stranger's words more than their own gut or experience.
So yeah, today Bethesda games are practically critic proof, but that's because (maybe) the groundwork for that was laid early on, through actions like the Kotaku article describes.
I think it's part their strong arming, but I don't think their fans would be as rabid if not for the product. I honestly doubt most of my coworkers who play Fallout pay attention to news the way we on this site do, but they love 4 cause it's been a great experience for them. I don't think their eyes would light up talking about it if that was all that hype and smoke.
Having said that, I'm on Kotaku's side. Journalists, no matter what they're covering, should report the truth however ugly. I'd go so far as to say limiting review copies to only guaranteed yes men is consumer fraud (from an ethical standpoint, not pretending to know legally).
Yes. There is a part in the article where Kotaku freelancers were given review codes, but because they also wrote for New York Times. So publisher is allowing publicity for an through an outlet that isn't focused on gamers.
Maybe that's a good strategy. Get blacklisted? Plant some freelancers at other companies.
Late to the party....
While it's popular to hate on Kotaku these days, they do have a point. Publishers do have a history of getting in a snit, taking their ball, and going home whenever anyone criticizes them, no matter how legitimate the criticism is.
Ubisoft (a mediocre publisher/developer if there ever was one) is particularly thin-skinned. Dan "Shoe" Hsu was unkind to the first AssCreed game (which had a pretty poor Metacritic score, and Ubisoft blacklisted 1UP/EGM. So they have a long history of this sort of thing. I am enjoying Fallout 4, but if Bethesda did something wrong they deserve to be pilloried for it. We have the industry we do now, with DRM, microtransactions, and pay-to-win, because nobody holds the publishers' feet to the fire.
But at the end of the day, this is a niche industry, and any publications related to it are dependent upon the goodwill of the content providers. They aren't going to attract broad advertising dollars from megacorps like Procter and Gamble, most of their ad money comes from the industry they write about.
Comments