Conflict of interest in game journalism.

[PrincessFrosty]

This seems to be blowing up right now, there's some question about the integrity of games journalism surrounding special favours for female developers, a good run down is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5-51PfwI3M

Original video that was incorrectly DMCA'd to cover up the news has been re-uploaded here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Equc1QnQ9rw

There seems to be a lot of journalistic damage control going on at the moment so I thought I'd help bring this to light.





I think this thread has run its course now. Essentially just reposting of the same stuff over an over with little commentary. If you feel it should be re-opened, then create a Moderator Discussions thread to make your case.

Anandtech Administrator
KeithTalent

 

[sandorski]

meh

 

[waggy]

rolf. she sounds like a wise and beautiful woman. oh wait she is. she cheated on her boyfriend with 5 guys.

other then that i don't give a fuck. anyone that goes bases how good or bad a game is off a paid site review is a idiot. they can't be trusted and haven't been for the last 20ish years

 

[Maximilian]

tl;dr version:

^--She is a game developer, cheated on her b/f with a bunch of guys, some of which were game reviewers on kotaku, she got better scores because she was boning them. Plus what waggy said about paid review sites... yeah! User reviews (in general) are 100x more useful IMO.

Also I found her nudes.

Also I wish I hadent :\

 

[norseamd]

Thankyou for spreading the word about this problem.

The world is ever in need of more transparency.

 

[MeldarthX]

Princess this crap has been going on for so long.......I mean look at what happened with ME3 and HTL movement which I was apart of.

Look at all the pefect 10s it got......nothing on just how piss poor *mods would have to do major censoring if I actually put what I really thought of the ending* How much money is spent on integrity on gaming journalism........

There is very very little left......I'd say none in the major websites......

 

[Moe Zart]

there's some question about the integrity of games journalism

 

[mmntech]

tl;dr version:

^--She is a game developer, cheated on her b/f with a bunch of guys, some of which were game reviewers on kotaku, she got better scores because she was boning them. Plus what waggy said about paid review sites... yeah! User reviews (in general) are 100x more useful IMO.

Also I found her nudes.

Also I wish I hadent :\

Lol. How about just saying "no" next time.

Also, how about reporting the incidents to Gawker management. They seem quick enough to jump down other people's throats for far milder shenanigans. Gawker is a despicable, hypocritical, whore of a company, so it's not exactly shocking that this went down at Kotaku.

Or, she could have thrown it over to the massive gaming community and let them have at it.

She's a whore. She sold herself out to get good reviews for her game. That sets a very poor example for struggling female developers. She's certainly not some kind of martyr for the cause.

 

[smackababy]

Princess this crap has been going on for so long.......I mean look at what happened with ME3 and HTL movement which I was apart of.

Look at all the pefect 10s it got......nothing on just how piss poor *mods would have to do major censoring if I actually put what I really thought of the ending* How much money is spent on integrity on gaming journalism........

There is very very little left......I'd say none in the major websites......

The problem is you're conflating 'didn't like' with 'bad'. You didn't like the ending of ME3? Holy crap! The rest of the game is obviously bad then! The gameplay, after enjoying it for hours, must have reverted to 'actually didn't enjoy it' because you didn't like where the story went.


Reviews are pretty meaningless in general. That goes beyond gaming, and pretty much for everything. When you get free products to test, your results are suspect as far as I am concerned. How many of those products would you be getting if you came out and said "well, that sucked!"? I am going to wager, your partnership with that company dries up quick. AT is pretty good (even posting *gasp* negative views on things), but very few other places do anymore.

 

[norseamd]

Gawker is a despicable, hypocritical, whore of a company, so it's not exactly shocking that this went down at Kotaku.

+1

Did not take me long after I first started reading Gawker and the other sites until I realized that Gawker destroys brain cells or whatever you have left.

 

[shortylickens]

I remember when it came out that Gamespot was selling good scores. Never trusted them after that.

 

[Markbnj]

Well, on the one hand you're compromising your journalistic ethics, while on the other you're getting laid. These were game reviewers, so getting laid is probably no small thing for them. She ain't no looker... but game reviewers. And it's a game. Ok, tough one.

 

[MeldarthX]

The problem is you're conflating 'didn't like' with 'bad'. You didn't like the ending of ME3? Holy crap! The rest of the game is obviously bad then! The gameplay, after enjoying it for hours, must have reverted to 'actually didn't enjoy it' because you didn't like where the story went.


Reviews are pretty meaningless in general. That goes beyond gaming, and pretty much for everything. When you get free products to test, your results are suspect as far as I am concerned. How many of those products would you be getting if you came out and said "well, that sucked!"? I am going to wager, your partnership with that company dries up quick. AT is pretty good (even posting *gasp* negative views on things), but very few other places do anymore.

Hold on; you literally jumped to a conclusion there......where did I say the rest of the game was bad; 90% of the game was excellent; was there other issues? with the game over all it was excellent game; but it was that last 10%; that was such a wtf did I just watch. 16 endings my ass. There was 3; and no it wasn't just my opinion on the ending but at least a few hundred thousand others....large enough to spawn a few movements to try and save the game; no the series because we enjoyed and loved it that much.

None of the reviews that gave it 10 out of 1o mention anything about the ending at all. That is what I was talking about. Reviews aren't meaningless; they will give you a general feel for a game; if its broken; if the game is good but you'll need to watch out for a couple things etc.

ME3 was a major highlight showing were the critics were full of shit; while the rest of the people who actually game went; no, we're not taking this anymore. It changed the landscape - it started to open gamers to go; you know I don't need to put up with lies; the bs.

Indie scene is starting to see they can't pull the same bs. People are a lot more informed these days

 

[CakeMonster]

So... the first game developer (to my knowledge) to be publicly shamed for being unfaithful just happens to be a woman? Despite the dismal proportion of women in that field?

I'm starting to think the problem here is not really a worry about the state of gaming journalism but rather someone's expectations of one particular gender.

 

[BrightCandle]

There is this moment at the end of the first video where he is mentioning mainstream media news and how its not trustworthy and we should be trying to ensure the internet doesn't go the same way where I am thinking "urmmmm I trust internet reviews even less than I trust fox news". Its not like the internet has brought us amazing quality of news over the years, its been diabolical.

I haven't trusted game review sites in a very long time, I suspect what I really want is a games review site that does two things. It tells me when a game is released and a 1 paragraph reason for why to play (genre etc) with the best video of gameplay and then I should just get headers saying "hype for game XXX". That would be an awesome game review site.

 

[smackababy]

Hold on; you literally jumped to a conclusion there......where did I say the rest of the game was bad; 90% of the game was excellent; was there other issues? with the game over all it was excellent game; but it was that last 10%; that was such a wtf did I just watch. 16 endings my ass. There was 3; and no it wasn't just my opinion on the ending but at least a few hundred thousand others....large enough to spawn a few movements to try and save the game; no the series because we enjoyed and loved it that much.

None of the reviews that gave it 10 out of 1o mention anything about the ending at all. That is what I was talking about. Reviews aren't meaningless; they will give you a general feel for a game; if its broken; if the game is good but you'll need to watch out for a couple things etc.

ME3 was a major highlight showing were the critics were full of shit; while the rest of the people who actually game went; no, we're not taking this anymore. It changed the landscape - it started to open gamers to go; you know I don't need to put up with lies; the bs.

Indie scene is starting to see they can't pull the same bs. People are a lot more informed these days

Except, the only problem with ME3 was that it didn't stroke your ego. You didn't save everyone, nor could you. You couldn't be the ultimate hero and died in 3 of the 4 outcomes. It was just a blow to gamer's fragile "I'm the best ever!" egos and people didn't like it. The ending was fine. Critics liked the ending, enough so they gave the game a high score. You are still suffering from "I didn't like it; therefore nobody should either!". Guess what? I don't like Pepsi, but that doesn't mean people who rate it above Coke are stupid or wrong(well, it does, but that is because Dr. Pepper is clearly superior).

The only thing ME3 did was prove that you can force developers to change their artistic integrity by whining. Had I been behind ME3, I'd have released a statement that the people whining are morons. Stfu, nobody cares you didn't like the ending.

 

[BSim500]

Except, the only problem with ME3 was that it didn't stroke your ego. You didn't save everyone, nor could you. You couldn't be the ultimate hero and died in 3 of the 4 outcomes.

I thought the problem with ME3 wasn't the choice of story ending but rather for single-players all endings failed due to the way "Effective Military Strength" (single-player Total Military Strength x % Readiness Rating, which could only be increased above default 50% by multi-player grinding) was essentially nerfed for single-players, ie, if your TMS was 4000, unless you "grind" multi-player (purely for the sake of it), your default 50% RR nerfed it down to 2,000 which was below the point threshold of any "success" ending, and you end up with the same Blue, Green or Red color filtered failed endings?
http://uk.ign.com/wikis/mass-effect-3/Endings

In any case, nothing surprises me about modern game "journalism" (if you can call it that). "Here, have a free tablet. Oh and please review our game without "misconstruing" the nature of our 'gift'...":sneaky:

 

[PricklyPete]

tl;dr version:

^--She is a game developer, cheated on her b/f with a bunch of guys, some of which were game reviewers on kotaku, she got better scores because she was boning them. Plus what waggy said about paid review sites... yeah! User reviews (in general) are 100x more useful IMO.



Also I found her nudes.



Also I wish I hadent :\

That's a man baby!

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

That's a man baby!

You know non-perfect 10 women do exist in the real world right? They're not all men in disguise.

 

[smackababy]

I thought the problem with ME3 wasn't the choice of story ending but rather for single-players all endings failed due to the way "Effective Military Strength" (single-player Total Military Strength x % Readiness Rating, which could only be increased above default 50% by multi-player grinding) was essentially nerfed for single-players, ie, if your TMS was 4000, unless you "grind" multi-player (purely for the sake of it), your default 50% RR nerfed it down to 2,000 which was below the point threshold of any "success" ending, and you end up with the same Blue, Green or Red color filtered failed endings?
http://uk.ign.com/wikis/mass-effect-3/Endings

In any case, nothing surprises me about modern game "journalism" (if you can call it that). "Here, have a free tablet. Oh and please review our game without "misconstruing" the nature of our 'gift'...":sneaky:

That is a valid complaint, but it isn't so much about the ending, but the mechanics of it.


Everyone knows publishers (and developers, apparently) give free stuff (and nookie, apparently) to reviewers in return for favorable reviews. It happens in pretty much all other stuff as well. PC hardware? Yeah... search how many sites have been exposed for getting free hardware.

 

[Topweasel]

So... the first game developer (to my knowledge) to be publicly shamed for being unfaithful just happens to be a woman? Despite the dismal proportion of women in that field?

I'm starting to think the problem here is not really a worry about the state of gaming journalism but rather someone's expectations of one particular gender.

Well kind of but kind of not. Some one male or female that screws around solely to get something (move up in a company, get goods, given better reviews) are going to be frowned apon.

The problem is you have a Female developer doing something male Developers can't do. Sorry but it's nearly impossible for several reasons for a Developer to sell their body for reviews. Something frowned upon. Heck even though everyone knows they are paid for good reviews, when it's proven there is a rage breakout. Add onto it that she is one of the relatively few developers. It should be seen as a huge black eye for "women gaming". It helps solidify feelings that women can't actually hang with men in gaming at any level and that they are either A.) Using their femininity in the culture to raise their "value" or B.) Using their Feminity to lack of ability.

Not saying its true. Just saying that it's the last thing they needed.

 

[thedosbox]

So... the first game developer (to my knowledge) to be publicly shamed for being unfaithful just happens to be a woman? Despite the dismal proportion of women in that field?

I'm starting to think the problem here is not really a worry about the state of gaming journalism but rather someone's expectations of one particular gender.

Indeed, because no man has ever cheated on their partners. This smells like a bunch of virgins jealous that someone else is getting laid, in an industry they have wet dreams about working in. All orchestrated by an ex who couldn't handle being dumped.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Indeed, because no man has ever cheated on their partners. This smells like a bunch of virgins jealous that someone else is getting laid, in an industry they have wet dreams about working in. All orchestrated by an ex who couldn't handle being dumped.

This. I'm so sure she was so personally worried about the reviews for the games that she sold her body for good reviews when AAA games have been getting automatic 9+ reviews for almost a decade and a half anyway. Rather than the much more reasonable explanation that she cheated with people she probably crossed paths with while traveling for industry business (which makes it very easy to do).

Why does she get all the blame in this and not the reviewers conspiring to get inside information like the dirty whores they are? Oh, then it wouldn't paint a woman in a bad light.

 

[SMOGZINN]

Why does she get all the blame in this and not the reviewers conspiring to get inside information like the dirty whores they are? Oh, then it wouldn't paint a woman in a bad light.

This I completely agree with. It is the journalists job to remain unbiased, not the developers. I don't think her sex life is really an issue, but the journalists willingness to abandon objectivity in their work is. That is what we should be talking about.

 

[SharpHawk]

This I completely agree with. It is the journalists job to remain unbiased, not the developers. I don't think her sex life is really an issue, but the journalists willingness to abandon objectivity in their work is. That is what we should be talking about.

No, I'm pretty sure if EA started sending reviewers hookers people would get pissed. Let's not pretend what the developer did is even remotely ok.

EDIT: and before you say "but developers give reviewers gifts/etc. all the time" yeah, and that's the reason game "critics" can't be taken seriously. Well one of the reasons, anyway.