Now Who's Being Naive, Kay? Or, Reflections on the Fundamental Contempt In Which the Enthusiast Press Is Held By Publishers--And Its Own Employers

re: Now Who's Being Naive, Kay? Or, Reflections on the Fundamental Contempt In Which the Enthusiast Press Is Held By Publishers--And Its Own Employers

cookiecups — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 07:06:02 GMT

Thank you so much for saying all of this, N'gai.

re: Now Who's Being Naive, Kay? Or, Reflections on the Fundamental Contempt In Which the Enthusiast Press Is Held By Publishers--And Its Own Employers

Astromantic — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 07:29:24 GMT

Very well said. What's disturbing about this incident is that even if we never find out the details, it's quite plausible for the worst case scenario (the compromise of editorial integrity) to be true. That said, I'd hoped already that the major gaming sites would look at alternate methods of revenue, perhaps diversifying advertising, to move away from this co-dependent relationship. Calling out these practices on the spot, like you said, would probably be a much more effective tactic, and one that I hadn't really considered before, but seems obvious now that everything is out in the open.

re: Now Who's Being Naive, Kay? Or, Reflections on the Fundamental Contempt In Which the Enthusiast Press Is Held By Publishers--And Its Own Employers

Morberis — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 08:45:05 GMT

I love what you say, I can't help it.

Everything you're saying is the truth, which is why I've unfortunately moved moved away from game reviewing sites for my gaming news to sites like this and Kotaku.

Despite the fact that this is with Newsweek your honesty and articles have won me over to regularly following your blog, something many gaming sites have failed to do.

re: Now Who's Being Naive, Kay? Or, Reflections on the Fundamental Contempt In Which the Enthusiast Press Is Held By Publishers--And Its Own Employers

alttf_jeff — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 09:52:19 GMT

I've been wondering when you were going to comment on the scandal... but I guess you're excused since this is one of the best write-ups I've seen about this so far. =)

My question is, can Gamespot recover from this, particularly if, as rumored, they see a mass exodus of editors? It'd be somewhat difficult for them to actually post timely and relevant stories if most of their editorial staff walks out the door, and I can't imagine there are a lot of people lining up to replace them either given the current (alleged) environment.

-Jeff

http://alinktothefuture.com

re: Now Who's Being Naive, Kay? Or, Reflections on the Fundamental Contempt In Which the Enthusiast Press Is Held By Publishers--And Its Own Employers

zenbot — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 10:22:54 GMT

Thanks for writing this article, N'Gai.

re: Now Who's Being Naive, Kay? Or, Reflections on the Fundamental Contempt In Which the Enthusiast Press Is Held By Publishers--And Its Own Employers

conman — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 11:16:00 GMT

Thanks, N'Gai.

I fear I share in your cynicism. It may be that this marks a turning point in where and how gaming journalism continues from here. The "enthusiast press," as you call it, may now be relegated to the pulpy mass it originally came from. In retrospect, I now feel foolish for having seen the enthusiast press as promising something more.

I can easily imagine that from here on out, the differences between gaming correspondents in the mainstream media and reviewers in the enthusiast press will only become more and more pronounced. Even if CNet and Eidos eventually come to reasonable terms with their employees, the gaming media, and their customers, the role and influence of advertising dollars in the review-heavy outlets will still continue to grow.

No pressure, but we serious gamers are counting on folks like you, N'Gai, to carry the torch. Keep up the good work.

re: Now Who's Being Naive, Kay? Or, Reflections on the Fundamental Contempt In Which the Enthusiast Press Is Held By Publishers--And Its Own Employers

SpaceShot — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 14:18:28 GMT

N'Gai is clearly a journalist who writes professionally, investigates, and corroborates stories. The gaming blogs are the worst place to get gaming news because they've shown a lack of respect for journalism. They merely incite in order to draw page views and ad money, and played a role in the mass disrespect of a major game producer for no reason other than to get page views. Gaming blogs are flithier than dedicated gaming press (N'Gai calls them the enthusiast press).

re: Now Who's Being Naive, Kay? Or, Reflections on the Fundamental Contempt In Which the Enthusiast Press Is Held By Publishers--And Its Own Employers

Zukalous — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 14:33:58 GMT

N'Gai,

You draw the parallel that publishers can essentially punch the face and smash the tape recorder of enthusiast sites such as gamespot where as they wouldn't dare do the same for mainstream publications like Newsweek. But, is there a converse? Do publishers treat enthusiast sites better (such as key interviews and exclusives) while writers for the untouchable mainstream press are left out?

re: Now Who's Being Naive, Kay? Or, Reflections on the Fundamental Contempt In Which the Enthusiast Press Is Held By Publishers--And Its Own Employers

nightowl — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 14:45:02 GMT

Thank you so much for your work N'Gai, this was amazing. (I hope that just because it's content is what it is that a similar contempt doesn't keep it from being recognized among your peers in the 'Big Boy' press).

As has been said the best solution sounds like it would be for any gaming site that wants to be indepdent and respected to forgoe any advertisements that could have the potential for conflict of interest. However with access to content being one of the main tools the publishers can use to strong arm, can they compete?

Let's hope the story ends differently this time and Michael realizes the error of his ways before the third movie. :)

re: Now Who's Being Naive, Kay? Or, Reflections on the Fundamental Contempt In Which the Enthusiast Press Is Held By Publishers--And Its Own Employers

xrayzwei — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 14:49:21 GMT

Here, here. Another fine example of why Level Up *is* gaming news. Now we must forever ask ourselves "is the review, not the cake, a lie?"

re: Now Who's Being Naive, Kay? Or, Reflections on the Fundamental Contempt In Which the Enthusiast Press Is Held By Publishers--And Its Own Employers

SuperEffective — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 15:21:12 GMT

Call it a hunch, but these marketing folks -- they did not grow up in the internet era. It's not their first language and suddenly they find themselves working for an industry that makes more money than Hollywood but whose fortunes partly depend on what 3lit3Sniper420 has to say on a message board. And word of mouth means *so* much more for a game than it does for films or books.

It must be infuriating.

But there's an upside: we've just seen the limits of advertising pressure. Just like 'Swiftboat', 'Kane and Lynch' is now synonymous with 'propaganda', and the long term damage these terms do to their brands is obviously never worth the short term gain. Hopefully that's a lesson learned. Gerstman got fired, but he comes off like a hero. CNet and Eidos come off like big companies that despise you.

I've got a whole speech saved up about the culture of advertising people, how it grew out of 1-way media in the 1960s, and how they still secretly believe that people are fundamentally dumb. But suffice it to say: the enthusiast press can coexist peacefully with hardware and software developers so long as you put a leash on marketing.

re: Now Who's Being Naive, Kay? Or, Reflections on the Fundamental Contempt In Which the Enthusiast Press Is Held By Publishers--And Its Own Employers

finalhour — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 15:23:16 GMT

Great job with the photos and quotes. I started reading the Almost Famous lines in your rss feed and before I knew it I was looking up 'Faustian' in the dictionary.

re: Now Who's Being Naive, Kay? Or, Reflections on the Fundamental Contempt In Which the Enthusiast Press Is Held By Publishers--And Its Own Employers

theBishop — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 15:50:25 GMT

Brilliant piece. I find it somewhat ironic that the largest, corporate "mainstream" publications are actually more free to speak the truth than intermediate organizations like Gamespot.

So really, the sources not tainted by the practices you've outlined are the mainstream and the bottom-rung fansites. Unfortunately, the fansites tend to be alarmist and biased while the mainstream sites have a reputation for being out of touch.

Also interesting is that C-Net owns Gamerankings, and ultimately decides what review scores are included in the average. So we have a scenario where the publishers/developers are wringing their hands over a percentage determined by a company they've browbeaten. How long before so-and-so at HonestGamers or WorthPlaying finds his site is no longer Bold-status at Gamerankings at the behest of an angry publisher?

re: Now Who's Being Naive, Kay? Or, Reflections on the Fundamental Contempt In Which the Enthusiast Press Is Held By Publishers--And Its Own Employers

nen10dough — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 15:58:02 GMT

Brilliant post. Just brilliant.

re: Now Who's Being Naive, Kay? Or, Reflections on the Fundamental Contempt In Which the Enthusiast Press Is Held By Publishers--And Its Own Employers

poppabk — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 16:14:23 GMT

I just wish this piece could be written a few weeks from now when more of the details are available. I am a regular on the Gamespot forums and the rapidity with which rumors and random blog posts have been accepted as fact has been amazing and worrying. It is obvious that most people were already aware that there was obvious conflicts of interest in the enthusiast press, as they assumed the rumors were true without any facts and even acted on them by canceling subscriptions.

The power of the enthusiast press lies in its community, as was alluded to in this article. That the community can be destroyed so easily by some conjecture, an anonymous blog post and some "inside" information, is not a good thing to see.

I am not trying to defend Gamespot, if the rumors are true then they deserve everything they get, but I would like to see the facts win out.

re: Now Who's Being Naive, Kay? Or, Reflections on the Fundamental Contempt In Which the Enthusiast Press Is Held By Publishers--And Its Own Employers

joeboy101 — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 17:57:17 GMT

Fantastic post, easily one of your best N'Gai. And what makes this situation so frustrating is that there is no clear answer. Most enthusiast press cannot stand on their own feet without being fed large two page ads and previews from publishers, but in the end, that is what is required. Mainstream press, for all its faults, is independent of what they report on and that is critical. Because it enables them to be safely critical. To look in depth at a subject and not fear for their jobs.

But with game reviews and such, the dread 7-10 scale looms large and people are terrified to give bad reviews to big games. The enthusiast press was driven by ad revenue in the past, but in the modern Internet age, it seems like the new enthusiast press needs to be audience driven through the internet. Publicly supported with any ad revenue being given clearly statting it does not effect review scores.

re: Now Who's Being Naive, Kay? Or, Reflections on the Fundamental Contempt In Which the Enthusiast Press Is Held By Publishers--And Its Own Employers

VicViper — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 17:57:39 GMT

Thank you N'Gai.

I've been saying something similar for a while and no one seems to want to listen, but maybe they'll listen to you.

What scares me the most about all of this, is that it's only now with the firing of Gertsmann, that people are even beginning to question the integrity of gaming related publication and websites. And of that mainly Gamespot. All should be suspect. Maybe now, people will start demanding better, but I'm not holding my breath.

P.S.: N'Gai, I really think there's a story behind the near universal bed-wetting over Bioshock, when the game (outside of presentation) itself was nothing special. Maybe start with the Take 2/ 2K Games/ Rockstar/ GTA IV angle? That is, Take 2 makes it known, "If you don't love this game, you don't get GTA IV access." The game rags/websites respond with near hysterical praise. Either that, or we need a new standard of reviewers...

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re: Now Who's Being Naive, Kay? Or, Reflections on the Fundamental Contempt In Which the Enthusiast Press Is Held By Publishers--And Its Own Employers

HeartbreakRidge — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 18:03:40 GMT

You've written an appropriate, carefully phrased and detailed warning to all parties concerned, N'Gai, but I think I share your view that we're just arguing over the speed and direction of the car wreck already in progress.

I'm amazed that this comes to light over a game that from all that I have seen and read is indeed mediocre at best, with some interesting potential and some crushing flaws. I have a lot more sympathy for the company you mention early on that seemed to be getting unfairly dinged at every conceivable opportunity, right or wrong be damned.

I think the whole preview system makes things even worse, because as you point out, when was the last time you saw a preview that hammered a game? Sometimes I wonder whether the preview writer is softballing the preview to avoid getting blacklisted by the publisher, or whether the preview is softballed because at that stage of development distinguishing between a good game that has not been polished and a game that won't be good no matter what they do is impossible. The publisher knows a lot more about the answer to that question, but they're not exactly going to admit that they are going to shovel it out the door halfbaked, now are they?

So, we have a preview system where the result cannot be trusted, and the party who is in the best position to know how the game is going to end up has an incentive not to say. It's worse than if they just shipped out a halfbaked game without falsely raising people's hopes for a good game with a relentlessly upbeat preview. Not every game is going to be an award winning profit cow, but building unwarranted buzz that vanishes in a flash when the steaming pile is released builds more distrust of the publisher's next game than simply putting out a less than stellar game without the "games". Once burned, twice shy, and the more games publishers play with previews and reviews, the more cautious I'm going to be about my purchasing decisions.

With untrustworthy previews and (for the reasons you point out) reviews, it's no wonder that these days I give a *LOT* more credence to the opinions of my community friends on an adult gaming site I frequent.

re: Now Who's Being Naive, Kay? Or, Reflections on the Fundamental Contempt In Which the Enthusiast Press Is Held By Publishers--And Its Own Employers

Ravidrath — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 18:44:43 GMT

I posted this on GAF, but I felt it warranted posting here, too.

N'Gai's close, but he's not quite there.

I think he needs to go one layer deeper - the contempt for games themselves.

As a developer, I think publishers actually have contempt for the actual product they sell. They fundamentally don't know what makes games good and show no willingness to listen to the opinions of developers (despite paying them for their game-making expertise), often saying they're too close to the project. This is why they're so reliant on marketing and reviews to sell the games, consistently ship them before they're ready, etc. Developers often mock the glowing impressions in previews for the things they gloss over, don't notice or mistakenly assume, while for many at the publisher this is the first concrete detail they've ever read on their product. This sounds extreme, but it really is the case.

This whole mess would go away if they released better games. But to release better games, you have to be able to perceive the quality of a game in the first place. For many publishers, the extent of their knowledge of how good a game is whatever their kid tells them after playing a beta for a few hours. For others, it's comparing the superficial qualities of the game to other products that have sold well - fundamentally, they're unable to separate quality and sales potential. It's this lack of knowledge that lets them blithely release games that could've been good with a few more months of work into the marketplace to die - without the ability to perceive quality, they can't translate the lack of quality into sales modifiers. It's, like, say if the executives at Proctor and Gamble had no sense of smell, and released an otherwise functional detergent that left your clothes smelling like fresh durian.

And, hey, we have people from these simple product manufacturers moving into the games sector now. Do you really think the head of Proctor and Gamble knows anything about games, or has any appreciation for them beyond their ability to generate his paycheck? He didn't go work for EA because he knows they have make good games, he goes to work for them because 1) He's heard of EA 2) Some industry rag told him games were hot now, and that EA's stock was going up 3) They can pay him a lot of money and give him options of said stock.

Why are bad reviews so galling to them? Because it's the proverbial egg on their face, the proof that they don't understand their product. They paid good money for the marketing data that told them the games would sell well, and that means they're good... right?

A lot of this likely has to do with the generational and cultural gap between gamers and non-gamers, which should (hopefully) diminish as gamers infiltrate the upper echelons of the industry. However, unfortunately, to some extent their contempt for the reviewers is justified, in the sense that games that get bad reviews often sell well. This is just an extension of their contempt for the product, or at least the product's consumer - they'll buy anything, so why make it good? Consumer education has a long way to come when it comes to games - not just how to buy the right product for your kid, but how to buy good products for your kids. If gamers like ourselves weren't so elitist, by and large, our word of mouth could have a major impact in addressing this. That, or the problem with the industry is the world's parents' contempt for their children... but that's another post.

ANYWAY, I'm not advocating endless development cycles to perfect games - this is a business, after all. But just the ability to have a real, two-sided conversation with a publisher about the quality of the game and ways to tackle the project's issues would be a huge, huge step forward and ultimately eliminate the need for a lot of the back door payola that we see in today's enthusiast gaming media.

re: Now Who's Being Naive, Kay? Or, Reflections on the Fundamental Contempt In Which the Enthusiast Press Is Held By Publishers--And Its Own Employers

ferricide — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 19:10:25 GMT

ngai --

thank you for writing this piece. this is something that has been troubling me since 2004 and something i knew was bubbling under the surface of this gamespot piece, but i didn't have the hard data to back it up.

i saw the antecedents of gerstmanngate in gamespy around the time of its merger with IGN; when the merger was happening, i had GamerMetrics explained to me and immediately saw its effect on editorial: the new management immediately killed off all of our special features, which were not game-specific and thus did not contribute to the GM bottom line, in place of the preview-review grindcycle.

what does this illustrate to me? even when it doesn't have an untoward effect on coverage from an ethics standpoint, it still serves to limit the options of editorial teams from a creative standpoint, and that's screwed up.

another problem is that it is increasingly difficult for sites that are not IGN (gamespy, team xbox, etc) or gamespot to compete because they don't offer the full package to publishers. PR offers exclusives to gamespot because prominent coverage on gamespot will boost a game's trax ranking; the trax ranking boost will make the publicist look effective to his/her management. quality of coverage is secondary in many cases in the eyes of publicists.

that said, it's not completely dire. editorial teams do have integrity, still. i am not saying every team or every member of each team has that integrity, but i think it's still pretty pervasive, particularly at certain publications.

moreover, the thing that is always discounted in these discussions, is that while plenty of people in the enthusiast press do not have compelling voices, many do, and that is what they can offer. i don't see how you can replace reading some of the best reviewers out there with blogs. it's not the same as switching from colgate to crest. but, unfortunately, the enthusiast press is also overrun with gamers with no insight who can't write and who are managed by people who have not clue what goes into compelling editorial because it is not demanded of them.

so i begin to wonder if, this incident or not, its days are numbered. but i have been wondering that for a long time.

re: Now Who's Being Naive, Kay? Or, Reflections on the Fundamental Contempt In Which the Enthusiast Press Is Held By Publishers--And Its Own Employers

kevinor — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 22:23:49 GMT

N'gai, great post.

I was thinking about the differences between the "Enthusiast Press" and regular press when video games are concerned. I was somewhat aware of the difficult position that the gamespots, 1ups, igns et al. are in concerning advertising dollars and honest reviews. On a sidenote, the video game industry is far from the only business that has this style of relationship with many websites.

As I read your article, I felt that you were indirectly and perhaps unintentionally singing the virtues of the professional press (I realize you're not against the enthusiast press). There are certainly advantages, no doubt about that. However, to my knowledge, there isn't a mainstream press outlet that reviews video games consistently. There's no Roger Ebert of video games really.

re: Now Who's Being Naive, Kay? Or, Reflections on the Fundamental Contempt In Which the Enthusiast Press Is Held By Publishers--And Its Own Employers

Kurse — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 23:45:10 GMT

As always, nice piece. It is not the right moment to look at the flip side but let me start that off anyway. The plight of the Gerstmanns of the world has not been helped by the flood of punks who claim to be fans of the industry but are really just empty, souless malcontents who are tearing down the industry because products don't meet their unrealistic expectations.

Videogames are not a substitute for a girlfriend or wife, they don't give you real super-powers. When excellent games like Uncharted & Ratchet come out that are the product of 1,000s of man hours and are arguably the pinnacle of the developers craft I feel it is offensive when people comment on them in a manner that is completely indifferent to the fact that developers have families too.

It displays a lack of class and maturity that costs the industry dearly in terms of expanding and appealing to more "real people". I have followed Jeff for many years and enjoyed watching his success, but no-one can deny that in looking at some of his recent work what hits you is that "This is not a happy person" and that shouldn't be the case....

re: Now Who's Being Naive, Kay? Or, Reflections on the Fundamental Contempt In Which the Enthusiast Press Is Held By Publishers--And Its Own Employers

polyh3dron — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 03:18:03 GMT

If I had to play Kane & Lynch all the way through, I wouldn't be a happy person either.

re: Now Who's Being Naive, Kay? Or, Reflections on the Fundamental Contempt In Which the Enthusiast Press Is Held By Publishers--And Its Own Employers

ykstewart — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 09:39:11 GMT

Excellent post N'Gai. Also, great comments from the community. There is a lot of information to sort through. All good stuff though. Seems that the "payola" system that is working behind the scenes in Hollywood and in the music business has bum-rushed the gaming industry. For now, people may turn to user generated reviews but it seems that even these reviews can be heavily influenced by the publisher. Who knows who is who behind these screen names. Who know what corporations may have a vested interest in the companies that publish video games. I feel that this subject could get real ugly if you follow the money far enough.

re: Now Who's Being Naive, Kay? Or, Reflections on the Fundamental Contempt In Which the Enthusiast Press Is Held By Publishers--And Its Own Employers

Pherdnut — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 12:37:44 GMT

Real subtle Kurse. I'm sure you've never worked for Eidos.

As a former associate editor for Game Informer I can tell you that nothing gets a legitimate game reviewer's blood boiling faster than the mere suggestion that editorial be adjusted to please a publisher or an ad sales rep. If Gerstmann was running a little hot in the end, that would have a lot to do with it.

I don't believe it's impossible for gaming publications to keep the lines between their editorial and advertising sales rock solid but in order to do so they have to have people in charge that are smart enough to realize that this is the only reasonable thing to do from a business perspective and an editorial staff that's ready to ring the klaxons the second it happens. It's the quality of your content that draws eyes to your ad real estate and you can only compromise your integrity once, if at all before readers start to take notice.

That said, there is definitely a contempt on contempt relationship here. Getting paid to play video games and write about them might sound like a bag of perpetual orgasms but keep in mind that the job is to play ALL games and write about them. By that, I mean the good games AND the other 99% which is crap that tries to emulate successful games by finding the formula and ignoring everything that actually made the formula work which is where developing games successfully gets tricky for people who don't necessarily enjoy playing them.

To people like Kurse, who are quick to suggest game reviewers are people with no lives whose only moments of glory are tearing down the art of more socially adequate developer/publishing types, I'd like to point out how hopelessly unimaginative and derivative the industry has become.

For instance, how many freaking WWII shooters did there really need to be? I mean, really. We have at our fingertips the capacity to create worlds and the best half you guys can do is reiterate the running around and shooting each other experience over and over again. When a game like Giants comes around, where the heck is its advertising budget? Why is Civilization the only turn-based strategy game still developed when every sequel sells by the crapton?

And how many brilliant ideas a year get passed up by unimaginative people who neither play nor develop video games but are somehow in a position to make the call because they were an intern in the right place in the right department of a megapublisher shortly before it gobbled up 18 independent developers for the licenses and spat the rest out?

So yes, when a legit reviewer is trying to think of a new way to write the same old tired story for the umpteen millionth time he gets a lot more PO'd than a developer who gets paid a whole lot more to just connect and update the same set of dots for the latest resolution. I would ask yourself who loves the industry more?

re: Now Who's Being Naive, Kay? Or, Reflections on the Fundamental Contempt In Which the Enthusiast Press Is Held By Publishers--And Its Own Employers

kbart10384 — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 17:06:54 GMT

A brilliant piece, and one that needed to be said. The uber-enthusiatic previews of what turn out to be some of the worst games of the year has metastasized from a small irritant at sites like Gamespot to a cancer.

The other side of this which I'd love to see someone address is how some games who don't spend the money in ads on sites like Gamespot (the Witcher, anyone?) are somehow mysteriously omitted from "Most Anticipated Games of 2007" or other such lists.

re: Now Who's Being Naive, Kay? Or, Reflections on the Fundamental Contempt In Which the Enthusiast Press Is Held By Publishers--And Its Own Employers

sam20080000 — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 05:52:05 GMT

Geometrically, to find the reflection of a point one drops a perpendicular from the point onto the line (plane) used for reflection, and continues the same distance on the other side.

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Sam