106: Selling Your Soul for Page Views

[Ryan Shwayder]

Selling Your Soul for Page Views

"People want their opinions regurgitated back to them, which means a lot of sites focus on saying what's popular rather than what's true. If the website isn't on the bandwagon, they're closing the door on the larger potential readership.

"And so, people cater to the herd. You don't want to piss players off when you know, in general, how to avoid pissing the majority off, do you? It's something just about everyone who has ever worked on a game site has had to deal with. Say what the people want to hear, and they will love you for it. Say what the people don't want to hear, and they'll do worse than hate you, they'll stop reading."

Ryan Shwayder looks at whose integrity is for sale, and why they're selling it.


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[wcoffey [deprecated]]

i also prefer the "say it like it is" method of communication. yes, it gets you in trouble some times but if you don't lie no one catch you in one. if people don't want to hear the truth they shouldn't ask me the question and they are free to stop listening at any time.
a prime example of selling your words happens over Norton/Symantec products all of the time. web-sites always give it a high score but when you go to the open forums, on that same site, "real users" rip it a new one and discuss grocery lists of bugs. it can't be both ways! it's either God's gift to security software or it's a buggy mess that users hate. ah yes, selling out to keep the advertising dollars flowing!

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

On the other hand, Disney...

 

[Rheinmetall]

In other words, trust none.
I started to enjoy more gaming since the day I stopped reading reviews. I don't dismiss game journalism, but all this flood of information and opinions about a game, it kills half of the enjoyment for me.