Conflict of interest in game journalism.

[BrightCandle]

My evidence that most game reviewers are somewhat corrupt is more about bugs and problems. It's extremely rare they report the issues they must have run into with a game, and yet everyone that buys it spots them very quickly. They either didn't play the game or they chose not to write about it. Watchdogs, simcity,bf4 and probably twenty more reviews have almost always been reviewed highly positively despite glaring issues and unplayability.

I don't see how over the last year, reading the reviews and then playing those games, can leave anyone but with the impression that game reviewers are on the take. They seem to be an extension of the publishers marketing. Its not one or two exceptions, its the majority of reviews.

 

[MeldarthX]

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.

Again; jumping to conclusions without knowing anything Smack.

How about; being straight lied about our choices made mattering for the ending? How about being lied to in how many endings there were? I didn't care if my character died in the end; as long as the damn ending actually made sense. How about throwing in a character in the last 5 minutes with no background; no nothing to create a dues machina ending. How about not trivializing the Reapers to the with the starbrat; and reconning a massive amount from the first and second game.

Wait you got done saying critics don't matter; then try and use them they to prove your point? If you go back; none of the original reviews of ME3 said anything about the ending unless you go with some reviewers like Angry Joe which completely tore it apart and rightly so, along with a lot of other reviewers that were not on the major review sites. How about metacritic completely tearing ME3's ending apart; it wasn't just me that didn't like the ending the majority of the gamers that played it didn't like it.

It also came out in that time just how EA bought reviews for ME3 - through ad revenue; it does corrolate with this story.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I liked ME3 despite what people say about the ending. I liked the idea of the reapers being there because races throughout the ages rely on technology and that technology ultimately destroys them. You can either destroy it all and send everyone back to the dark ages or agree with them that technology is destroying our galaxy and we need a fresh start.

I don't care about the rest.

 

[Sonikku]

Every time I see game journalism I get the urge to eat doritos and drink mountain dew.

 

[norseamd]

You know some of you are claiming that this issue is not what many are proclaiming it to be but I do not know how you can claim ignorance of the validity of this problem.

 

[blake0812]

You know some of you are claiming that this issue is not what many are proclaiming it to be but I do not know how you can claim ignorance of the validity of this problem.

It's being censored on the Chan, too. Any discussion on the vidya board is being deleted without an explanation.

 

[smackababy]

Clearly, the Illuminati is at work!

 

[SharpHawk]

Oh man now Zoe's cult are going after TotalBiscuit for making a completely innocuous statement ha ha ha. This is gold!

 

[Topweasel]

So I finally broke down and listened to the audio of the guy analyzing the BF's post.

I was thinking that while it shouldn't matter, it would be a hit to at to at least the image of Women in gaming perceptions and certainly to women in game development perceptions.

After listening to the audio. I find that not to be the case. People can try to over analyze it and use this to solidify stereotypes. But really she is a shitty person, nothing more, nothing less. She was identified by the BF to have had sex with a total of one Journalist, the other 4 was a married boss, a coworker, and two unknowns. The one Journalist did write an article about her game, but it wasn't even a review.

This was just a case of crappy person, sleeping around, and being a compulsive liar. That's it.

 

[smackababy]

So I finally broke down and listened to the audio of the guy analyzing the BF's post.

I was thinking that while it shouldn't matter, it would be a hit to at to at least the image of Women in gaming perceptions and certainly to women in game development perceptions.

After listening to the audio. I find that not to be the case. People can try to over analyze it and use this to solidify stereotypes. But really she is a shitty person, nothing more, nothing less. She was identified by the BF to have had sex with a total of one Journalist, the other 4 was a married boss, a coworker, and two unknowns. The one Journalist did write an article about her game, but it wasn't even a review.

This was just a case of crappy person, sleeping around, and being a compulsive liar. That's it.

The problem is, that even if she didn't sleep with the "journalist" to get a better review, it is still extremely inappropriate and a conflict of interest regardless of her relationship status. She is a bad person for cheating, yes; the journalist is a bad person for sleeping with someone whom he has a direct business relationship with. The problem lies in that whether she actually had the intent to get a better review by using her body or not doesn't matter. She just reinforced the implication that women can use sex as a means to get what they want and discredited women who haven't done that because she simply is a women. Men, for the most part, can't use their bodies as a commodity because of the current climate of the software development industry. It is male dominated. A women engaging in a sexual relationship with someone who receiving gifts would be a conflict of interest is going to be viewed as bad. There is a reason companies have a policy against dating your superiors.

 

[cmdrdredd]

The problem is, that even if she didn't sleep with the "journalist" to get a better review, it is still extremely inappropriate and a conflict of interest regardless of her relationship status. She is a bad person for cheating, yes; the journalist is a bad person for sleeping with someone whom he has a direct business relationship with. The problem lies in that whether she actually had the intent to get a better review by using her body or not doesn't matter. She just reinforced the implication that women can use sex as a means to get what they want and discredited women who haven't done that because she simply is a women. Men, for the most part, can't use their bodies as a commodity because of the current climate of the software development industry. It is male dominated. A women engaging in a sexual relationship with someone who receiving gifts would be a conflict of interest is going to be viewed as bad. There is a reason companies have a policy against dating your superiors.

Spot on.

It's unfortunate that women who may be up and coming developers may be treated differently because of this situation. That shouldn't be the case. I don't care if a monkey from the Bronx Zoo wrote and directed a game, if the game is good I will play it. Unfortunately the situation going forward will tend to be a little unfavorable toward woman who are relative unknowns. Some people will remember this particular incident and be quick to judge how someone else got into the position they did. It's just bad all around. How many people do you think will say "well, now that this happened how do we know that person X didn't do something similar?"

The other side is that people already didn't trust gaming journalists very much. Now it will be even harder to trust them.

 

[SLU Aequitas]

The problem is, that even if she didn't sleep with the "journalist" to get a better review, it is still extremely inappropriate and a conflict of interest regardless of her relationship status. She is a bad person for cheating, yes; the journalist is a bad person for sleeping with someone whom he has a direct business relationship with. The problem lies in that whether she actually had the intent to get a better review by using her body or not doesn't matter. She just reinforced the implication that women can use sex as a means to get what they want and discredited women who haven't done that because she simply is a women. Men, for the most part, can't use their bodies as a commodity because of the current climate of the software development industry. It is male dominated. A women engaging in a sexual relationship with someone who receiving gifts would be a conflict of interest is going to be viewed as bad. There is a reason companies have a policy against dating your superiors.

I really think that the anger should be focused more on these "journalists" (Kotaku...lafff) and how they broke their journalistic integrity. These guys weren't forced to have sex with "her", and absolutely should be held accountable. While completely inappropriate, developers do NOT have an expectation of being impartial; or in other words, we really should expect developers/publishers to do everything they can to get a leg up...a helping hand...I'll stop now, but the point is this Righteous Rage needs to be pointed where it belongs: with the journalists.

NOTE: I'm not saying she's innocent, or doesn't deserve blame. She's a filthy, cheating, horrible excuse for a human being, however this is PC Gaming, and the bigger issue is with gaming "journalists" accepting bribes in all forms.

 

[Topweasel]

The problem is, that even if she didn't sleep with the "journalist" to get a better review, it is still extremely inappropriate and a conflict of interest regardless of her relationship status. She is a bad person for cheating, yes; the journalist is a bad person for sleeping with someone whom he has a direct business relationship with. The problem lies in that whether she actually had the intent to get a better review by using her body or not doesn't matter. She just reinforced the implication that women can use sex as a means to get what they want and discredited women who haven't done that because she simply is a women. Men, for the most part, can't use their bodies as a commodity because of the current climate of the software development industry. It is male dominated. A women engaging in a sexual relationship with someone who receiving gifts would be a conflict of interest is going to be viewed as bad. There is a reason companies have a policy against dating your superiors.

Eh. If there was any more demonstration of that maybe. But I wouldn't find it as an inappropriate relationship if lets say she was single, met him during an interview about the game, and they started dating after it. It would be an issue for me if she just cheated once and only slept with the person once and it was a game journalist. Or if she slept around and had one night flings with several other journalists. She didn't do either of those, she had long term trysts with several men that happened to include a journalist.

If someone finds someone they actually want to screw I am not going to be judgmental because it could be considered conflict of interest. To much judging for the sake of judging goes around today. Did she or did she not screw a journalist for favorable treatment. Doesn't look like it and if she did then she must of sucked because almost nothing back for it. She is just guilty of being a crappy girlfriend and a crappy person all around.

 

[SharpHawk]

She's a game developer that has a product up on Steam. Her involvement in this is absolutely relevant to PC Gaming.

I do agree that the bigger issue is videogame "journalism" in general, but Zoe's actions should not be regarded as off-topic.

 

[smackababy]

Eh. If there was any more demonstration of that maybe. But I wouldn't find it as an inappropriate relationship if lets say she was single, met him during an interview about the game, and they started dating after it. It would be an issue for me if she just cheated once and only slept with the person once and it was a game journalist. Or if she slept around and had one night flings with several other journalists. She didn't do either of those, she had long term trysts with several men that happened to include a journalist.

If someone finds someone they actually want to screw I am not going to be judgmental because it could be considered conflict of interest. To much judging for the sake of judging goes around today. Did she or did she not screw a journalist for favorable treatment. Doesn't look like it and if she did then she must of sucked because almost nothing back for it. She is just guilty of being a crappy girlfriend and a crappy person all around.

And I hope you are never in charge of a large department, because that company is getting sued. You cannot allow conflicts of interest to exist, because they conflict with the interest of what you're trying to do! A journalist sleeping with a developer should not be writing reviews about a product that developer has produced. I don't care they are sleeping together, but there has to be a clear distinction where professionalism is the most important.

We only know she is guilty of being a crappy girlfriend and person. We also know she is guilty of getting into a situation where a conflict of interest exists. The only people who know if her sleeping with the reviewer had any effect are her and the reviewer.

Even if the only thing her sleeping with the reviewer accomplished was putting his company's (the site he writes for) integrity into further question, he deserves to be fired.

And, unfortunately, this is going to set back female developers. Sleeping with someone to get ahead isn't something men can generally do. Females, especially in software development, can do that with ease. A "high" profile case like this only fuels idiots to continue to overlook contributions women can or would make; and that is a bad thing. They aren't all stupid whores that sleep their way to the top; the majority of them are just as competent as most other males in the industry* and some are far more competent.

*meaning not very much. Working with a lot of different people, my faith in competency of my fellow developers is very low.

 

[SharpHawk]

I don't think he ever actually reviewed the game himself. He did single it and two other games out (thrice them out?) from a list of 50 greenlit games:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/01/08/admission-quest-valve-greenlights-50-more-games/

But yeah, conflict of interest and all that.

 

[Topweasel]

And I hope you are never in charge of a large department, because that company is getting sued. You cannot allow conflicts of interest to exist, because they conflict with the interest of what you're trying to do! A journalist sleeping with a developer should not be writing reviews about a product that developer has produced. I don't care they are sleeping together, but there has to be a clear distinction where professionalism is the most important.

We only know she is guilty of being a crappy girlfriend and person. We also know she is guilty of getting into a situation where a conflict of interest exists. The only people who know if her sleeping with the reviewer had any effect are her and the reviewer.

Even if the only thing her sleeping with the reviewer accomplished was putting his company's (the site he writes for) integrity into further question, he deserves to be fired.

And, unfortunately, this is going to set back female developers. Sleeping with someone to get ahead isn't something men can generally do. Females, especially in software development, can do that with ease. A "high" profile case like this only fuels idiots to continue to overlook contributions women can or would make; and that is a bad thing. They aren't all stupid whores that sleep their way to the top; the majority of them are just as competent as most other males in the industry* and some are far more competent.

*meaning not very much. Working with a lot of different people, my faith in competency of my fellow developers is very low.

Ok, so show me the review given by someone that she slept with. I would agree that there is a conflict of interest there. But other than that I don't see an issue. Not every relationship should be avoided just because some people might whisper behind their backs. Not saying this is one worth sticking up for.

 

[cmdrdredd]

*meaning not very much. Working with a lot of different people, my faith in competency of my fellow developers is very low.

Heh I guess that is probably true. I suspect that you'd find it no different at anywhere but the most closely knit dev teams.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

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

Yeah but this one is a 1.

 

[Maximilian]

It's being censored on the Chan, too. Any discussion on the vidya board is being deleted without an explanation.

Streisand effect... 4chan of all places should realize that crap wont work.

 

[smackababy]

Ok, so show me the review given by someone that she slept with. I would agree that there is a conflict of interest there. But other than that I don't see an issue. Not every relationship should be avoided just because some people might whisper behind their backs. Not saying this is one worth sticking up for.

Except, people whispering behind the back is bad for productivity. Given the illusion that a promotion, special assignment, preferential treatment was anything but merit based erodes the integrity of the manager and harms the team. Not to mention, opens them up for lawsuits.

And even more so than the supervisor / subordinate role, the role of producer / reviewer is something that must remain separated. How many other reviews written by the guy have been inflated because of some kind of treatment by the developer or publisher? How many reviews on the website he works for? They obviously allow this to happen. Their entire company's integrity has been tarnished for something that is so easily avoidable. Pass the review on to another reviewer or bang a different girl...

 

[werepossum]

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

Can't be. She obviously lacks the required warmth and depth.

 

[Topweasel]

Except, people whispering behind the back is bad for productivity. Given the illusion that a promotion, special assignment, preferential treatment was anything but merit based erodes the integrity of the manager and harms the team. Not to mention, opens them up for lawsuits.

And even more so than the supervisor / subordinate role, the role of producer / reviewer is something that must remain separated. How many other reviews written by the guy have been inflated because of some kind of treatment by the developer or publisher? How many reviews on the website he works for? They obviously allow this to happen. Their entire company's integrity has been tarnished for something that is so easily avoidable. Pass the review on to another reviewer or bang a different girl...

I probably should have listed off a couple relationships that I don't think should be tolerated. One of those Direct Superior. Some of the others is doctor, lawyer, and teacher. But people can whisper behind backs for just about anything. He's not right for her, she's not right for him, he's black, she's asian, and so on. People cluck non-stop, getting into everyone's business for no real reason. But for example if lets say some manager in one department started dating a peon in another then there isn't really an issue. You will still have people talking, but there isn't this "conflict".

Same thing here, there isn't even a review. Just some skanky chick, doing a web Journalist, without getting a review out of him, and without any more information likely doing the deed after his one article on the subject. Because in all likelihood that's when they met. People including yourself are just looking for a reason to get offended. I mean seriously are you trying to say that if someone met the love of their life through an interview, that one of the two would have to quit their jobs right then because "conflict of interest"?

I am not saying don't tar and feather the chick. She deserves it. Just saying that this outrage and mass hysteria that is trying to be established in this thread seems really miss placed. "Online Scummy Journalism strikes again" why because some skuzzy female dev strings along several guys while in a relationship one of them happens to be a journalist? It seems baseless if nothing actually came from said "conflict of interest".

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Game journalism never has had integrity but, I guess the preorder crowd has to have someone to blame other than their own selves.

 

[thedosbox]

I see the virgins are still having trouble getting laid. Here's a suggestion if you think site X is corrupt:

1. Read a lot of reviews for games you like. Doesn't matter whether the site is big or small.
2. For those reviews you agree with, take note of who the writer is.
3. Read that writers reviews from now on - remembering that many writers freelance for multiple sites.
4. Calm the fuck down.

Addendum:
1. Ignore any review that concludes with a score. This is metacritic/fanboy bait.
2. Stop pre-ordering shit, as that is a big driver for sites to publish early reviews.