Email: Exchange between game journalists

I’ve got permission from Jack to post this. So here it is:

A little off the record fun with games journalists from yesterday….

So Joystiq and basically every other “journalist” covering gaming today got either free airfare, hotel rooms and access to Modern Warfare 2 on IW’s dime to review the game. This was, allegedly, the “only way” IW would allow the game to be reviewed. Yes, I just said “allow.” And, coincidentally, the Joystiq editor said Activision would only “allow” his publication to review MW2 in this way as well.

So, naturally, I got in a fight with him after he picked up on my “tweet” that said I was dropping the Joystiq RSS feed because their MW2 review was bought and paid for by IW.

You can get the gist of the back and forth here, starting at about 3 or so EST yesterday.

http://twitter.com/jackloftus

http://twitter.com/BigBossBgilbert

I would say it was a hilarious day if only I didn’t feel so rotten at the end of it. Seriously, these guys had so many excuses for their actions. This was done in the reader’s bets interest was carted out a lot. Which is BS. It was done for page views and the site’s best interest and for the industry.

Millions of readers flock to these sites for info. If but one–just one!–of them took a stand and bought the game at retail, and refused the trip, it would have had an impact on IW’s bottom line, and you can be damn sure they wouldn’t have tried this in the future. And yet, this argument was completely lost on these selfish dolts. May this “mainstream media” die alongside the industry it covers.

 

I believe the reason why people do not respect journalists and openly mock them (this includes all journalists, not just the game journalists) is how willing and eager they are to be manipulated for perks and privileges. If they took a stand and would be more unwilling to be so easily manipulated, they would gain more respect.

I’ve found that people will still respect you even if they disagree with you. But if you become a pushover in life, in anything from your boss to your girlfriend to your regular people, you lose respect.

I’m still waiting for all these stories about Activision screwing over gamers, especially PC gamers. There is definitely a story there. I hear thousands of gamers crying out for a voice to back them up or to represent them, and all they get in return is the sound of silence.