Games "Journalism" and the Sordid World of Games PR

[Crazed Rabbit]

An important article about a series of incidents that shows the unethical relationship between many in the gaming press and video game PR people.

Briefly;

• Journalists are encouraged to tweet and hashtag some game for a chance to win a PS3.
• This is called into question by many, Robert Florence mentioned Lauren Wainwright, 'journalist' who saw no problem with journalists shilling for the companies they are supposed to be covering critically.
• Lauren Wainwright, who lives in the UK, threatens a libel lawsuit (UK Libel laws give immense power to anyone accusing someone else of libel)
• Florence's article was then edited at Eurogamer.

The edited article about a games journalist sitting next to a giant ad and table covered with products:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...ble-of-doritos
Removed portion:

One games journalist, Lauren Wainwright, tweeted: ‘Urm… Trion were giving away PS3s to journalists at the GMAs. Not sure why that’s a bad thing?’

Now, a few tweets earlier, she also tweeted this: ‘Lara header, two TR pix in the gallery and a very subtle TR background. #obsessed @tombraider pic.twitter.com/VOWDSavZ’

And instantly I am suspicious. I am suspicious of this journalist’s apparent love for Tomb Raider. I am asking myself whether she’s in the pocket of the Tomb Raider PR team. I’m sure she isn’t, but the doubt is there. After all, she sees nothing wrong with journalists promoting a game to win a PS3, right?

Another journalist, one of the winners of the PS3 competition, tweeted this at disgusted RPS writer John Walker: ‘It was a hashtag, not an advert. Get off the pedestal.’ Now, this was Dave Cook, a guy I’ve met before. A good guy, as far as I could tell. But I don’t believe for one second that Dave doesn’t understand that in this time of social media madness a hashtag is just as powerful as an advert. Either he’s on the defensive or he doesn’t get what being a journalist is actually about.

Penny Arcade Report recap, including the censored bit:
http://penny-arcade.com/report/edito...sted-story-of-
A more indepth look from PA Report:
http://penny-arcade.com/report/edito...-why-this-stor
An opinion piece by John Walker:
http://botherer.org/2012/10/25/an-utter-disgrace/
Rob Florence's article on the whole thing:
http://botherer.org/2012/10/26/guest...last-few-days/

...
Because here’s the thing. This story – my column, Lauren’s reaction, Eurogamer’s edit, my stepping down, the whole aftermath – is not about writers. It’s about PR. It’s about these marketing people who have a stranglehold over most of the industry, and control the narrative of the whole scene. They’ve even controlled the narrative of this disaster.
Do you think Lauren acted entirely alone in pressuring Eurogamer to change my piece? Do you think she has that power? I don’t. Who do you think MIGHT have that power?
Today, I saw another games writer (a former PR) brutally attacking me for not stepping in to do something to stop what was happening to Lauren. How could I step in and do anything? I’m not even comfortable writing this, in case I get someone I respect into trouble. The threat of legal action, even a carefully worded threat, makes you second guess everything you write. That’s the power of the thing. What I want to ask is this – why were other parties involved in this mess happy for Lauren to take all the heat? Why were her friends happy to let her take the heat? Is it the job of the guy who just had to quit his job and has been threatened with legal action to work out how to stop all that from happening?
I am furious. I am furious because yesterday the games PR and marketing men flung a few people under a bus, and today they’re probably sipping drinks at the Golden Joystick awards. I am furious that some people think we should all just “move on” from this, allowing the PR people to get back to their narrative. I am furious that some are saying that it’s “just games”. It’s not games. It’s writing. And writing matters. Writing always matters.
But I am also heartened by the response of many people out there. I’ve had messages of support from the writers I respect, and from many fellow gamers. I want to thank everybody for their kindness, because it has been a pretty awful week. Awful, partly, because I’ve discovered that the games press is controlled by PR to a greater extent than I had ever dreamed – and I’m a pessimist.
Those who have been angry about all this – don’t investigate the people, investigate the system. Please write about games. Don’t go to any parties. Don’t go on the trips. Don’t care about exclusives. Just write passionately about games. You can contribute hugely to the scene without ever once speaking to a PR person. Cut them out of the equation.
...

I encourage you to read the articles linked, it's eye opening.

CR

[Voigtkampf]

Old news, mate, just re-hashed with new actors. Will be forgotten by tomorrow. And repeated a day later.

Buying "journalists" with PS3 consoles is peanuts. You buy entire reviewing sites with advertising contracts. Dig there, that's where the real is.

[Monk]

Old news, mate, just re-hashed with new actors. Will be forgotten by tomorrow. And repeated a day later

Perhaps. Though it's been some time since the appalling state of gaming media has been so thoroughly, I hate to use the term but I can't think of a better one, exposed.

If you would reach back all the way to the early 2000s i'm sure you'd find people ranting and railing about <insert media outlet> and claiming they are unfairly biased, or outright bought for whatever game review they happened to be doing. I think it's something every gamer has to ask themselves as they read reviews for games that got high praise when their own opinion differed so highly: Is it just a difference of opinion, or was I deliberately mislead? Until very recently it was very easy to dismiss the idea of the latter as just being the paranoid outliers of the market, after all of this, I don't think the idea that corruption is everywhere in the reviewing industry is an idea so easily dismissed.

Will the spectacle be repeated by the day after tomorrow as it were? Likely. Until a true change that affects the relationship between publisher and reviewer occurs this kind of thing won't stop happening. Will it be forgotten tomorrow? Unlikely, at least in the minds of people who pay attention to this sort of thing. Poor Geoff Keighley did not create the pithos, but he has certainly opened it with that picture.

For now, you are best served by doing what has been the unspoken rule of reviews since their beginning. Find a guy (or lady) whose work you enjoy and trust. There's a few 'honest' journalists out there in the industry, find them and stick with them.

[Papewaio]

I thought pieces had to be easily identified as news, journalist, editorial or opinion pieces.

Any conflict of interest needs to be listed ie a travel article will often at the bottom list that the travel was paid for by xyz company.

I can fully understand games journals getting an early release of a game for free so they can test it out.

However as seen with a lot of fashion bloggers it has gone from their opinion to paid product placement without clearly stating the differences. Trust erodes because readers later put two and two together and then assume the worst. They assume the worst because the journo or blogger did not satisfactorily state their relationship with the items manufacturer under discussion.

To most causal observers there is a huge difference between being an objective judge and a paid spin master. When people flip between the two it becomes difficult to figure out the truth of any statement.

A journo who cannot argue their way out of a wet paper bag and instead resorts to threats of libel. Well they have done more damage to their own reputation then anyone else could. The public has an expectation that our journos are erudite fencing masters of wit who could easily defend themselves to any slight imagined or real. Those who can't appear to be in the wrong profession.

[Voigtkampf]

Where did this horrid prejudice arose from that journalists are a group of people with morals, knowledge, abilities and integrity? Kudos to the few honorable exceptions, against all statistical probabilities.

[Xiahou]

Honestly, isn't this the case for all journalism? Many fall into the trap of getting too close to what they're supposed to be covering objectively...

[TinCow]

For now, you are best served by doing what has been the unspoken rule of reviews since their beginning. Find a guy (or lady) whose work you enjoy and trust. There's a few 'honest' journalists out there in the industry, find them and stick with them.

This.

For the record, here are my go-to people. Best podcast I've ever listened to. Bought several games based on their comments.

[Vladimir]

This.

For the record, here are my go-to people. Best podcast I've ever listened to. Bought several games based on their comments.

Now this is pretty funny: http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/113474

[TinCow]

Now this is pretty funny: http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/113474

Yep, that's an example of exactly why I love the place. I don't sit in a cubicle farm, but the basics of it are very much applicable to my life.

[Voigtkampf]

Now this is pretty funny: http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/113474

Actually, that was the exact article I read when I looked up the link.

Funny, in my experience, the things were very much different, so I never talk about games with anyone anymore (that I work with in any form and fashion). Always simply get weird looks when mention that in slightest way. Don't know where all those gamers are, but they are sure as hell not working with me.