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Gamespot Editor Fired for Writing an Honest Review

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mouser:
And here's the money quote that explains why there was so much pressure put on the website to kill their negative review:

Eidos paid a substantial amount of money to have its ads point to the GameSpot review of Kane & Lynch. The Kane & Lynch review wasn't very favorable. Eidos freaked. GameSpot caved.
--- End quote ---

tamasd:
It's not what bothers me that someone fired someone over an honest review or article.

What bothers me is that for every writer who writes a honest review, there are many others who write whatever is supposed of them (from those who pay them).

Starting with political commentaries on leading newspapers, ending with game review sites.

So it's not that bad that they fired that one guy, it's bad that all the others who are "compliant" still write for them.

Deozaan:
DonationCoder.com is teh greatest site on the intarwebs!  :Thmbsup:

Now where's my  :two: ?

Deozaan:
So it's not that bad that they fired that one guy, it's bad that all the others who are "compliant" still write for them.
-tamasd (January 22, 2008, 09:39 AM)
--- End quote ---

I'm not sure. I find it harsh to judge the other writers who are still employed by GameSpot. Sometimes it's easier to do things that are "morally gray" when you need a paycheck to feed your family and pay your bills.

I know you were talking about more than just GameSpot, but even still, sometimes people do things they don't want to so that they can do things they need to.

CWuestefeld:
The lynchpin of this latest article is this
with no real transparency into the Gerstmann firing we still don't really know what happened last November
--- End quote ---

Everyone is assuming that GameSpot's refusal to release specific information about Gerstmann's employment there and the terms of his leaving is because GameSpot has something to hide. I can virtually guarantee that this is not the case. It's almost certainly because labor laws prevent them from revealing any personal information.

It is entirely possible (although we have no reason to believe so) that Gerstmann was caught misappropriating company funds or something like that. We have no reason to believe that Gerstmann's not hiding something unless he publicly authorizes GameSpot to release all information related to his employment history. These laws are designed to protect the employee's privacy, but the sword cuts both ways. In this case they allow lingering doubt about Gerstmann.

At the end of the day, the real reasons that a review site publishes what it does aren't important. The only thing that matters is how well those reviews work to direct us to try things that we end up liking. If they steer you toward stuff that you enjoy, and don't let you miss much that you would have, then heed their reviews. If they point you to garbage while missing the gems, then remove them from your bookmarks.

Why do you care if the reviews are underwritten by advertisers at one end of the spectrum, or divinely inspired at the other? As long as they work, that's what counts. If they don't work, ignore the site and let it die.

Why do we fault businesses for working for money, but shrug it off when individual people do it? We criticize WalMart, but we don't give a second thought to the consumers who stopped going to Ike Godsey's General Store (http://www.the-waltons.com/ikesty.html), killing his friendly personal business just so that they could save a few cents.

Added later: Part of this controversy may be an assumption that there actually is and objectively correct review. That is certainly not correct; each of us has different preferences that make it so that a review that accurately recommends a product for some people will aggravate someone else. For example, there's a major gaming genre of First Person Shooters, and some reviewers lean heavily on this genre. The thing is, I can't play these games. They give me motion sickness. So any review that lauds an FPS I ignore, and any site that emphasizes the genre, I avoid. You, on the other hand, may love these games. If so, more power to you. Go ahead and read those sites. There's room enough in this world for all of it.

Judging by the popularity of Cheez Whiz, Britney Spears and the ilk, there are plenty of people in this world who are perfectly happy with artificial, processed products. If that's what they want, why not let them have it?

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