Twitty Twitty Ten Dollar

[The Wooster]

Twitty Twitty Ten Dollar

This Message is Brought to You by Mountain Dew and a Shocking Lack of Journalistic Standards

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[Fappy]

I find it kind of sad that this comic is the only commentary on the situation I've seen from the site so far. It's an important discussion to have, and I think the site is missing a good opportunity.

In any case, good strip :3

 

[Evil Smurf]

I've been payed to say this was the best strip so far

 

[Zhukov]

It occurs to me that the people who started letting the lawyers off the leash over this incident probably did themselves more harm than good. It just called attention to the whole thing.

 

[Something Amyss]

I find it kind of sad that this comic is the only commentary on the situation I've seen from the site so far.

The rest were all paid not to. >.>

 

[Starke]

I find it kind of sad that this comic is the only commentary on the situation I've seen from the site so far. It's an important discussion to have, and I think the site is missing a good opportunity.

In any case, good strip :3

To be fair, a lot of gaming "journalism" sites have been trying to ignore the whole thing as much as possible (and yes, in this case, the industry has earned those quotes around journalism.) Kotaku decided to completely ignore it, and when they were called out over that they said "it wasn't important enough" and instead posted an unboxing of Halo 4.

And, the entire "let's be quiet, and hope this shit goes away" element has made me really cynical of all the positive reviews that went up for Halo 4 on Wednesday night, Escapist included.

Now, as a reviewer you can say you're not being bought off. But you're reviewing content that was provided to you gratis at least an entire week before official release. If you weren't a member of the "gaming media" your 360 would have been bricked if you did that.

And none of this addresses the fact that publishers are quite willing to actually blacklist anyone that annoys them. Jim Sterling's been fairly open about his blacklisting by Konami, and I don't think anyone's going to forget the Kane and Lynch Gamestop shitstorm.

It saddens me that The Escapist wants to let this one slip by without editorial commenting on it, it really does.

 

[Zombie_Moogle]

I find it kind of sad that this comic is the only commentary on the situation I've seen from the site so far. It's an important discussion to have, and I think the site is missing a good opportunity.

In any case, good strip :3

To be fair, a lot of gaming "journalism" sites have been trying to ignore the whole thing as much as possible (and yes, in this case, the industry has earned those quotes around journalism.) Kotaku decided to completely ignore it, and when they were called out over that they said "it wasn't important enough" and instead posted an unboxing of Halo 4.

And, the entire "let's be quiet, and hope this shit goes away" element has made me really cynical of all the positive reviews that went up for Halo 4 on Wednesday night, Escapist included.

Now, as a reviewer you can say you're not being bought off. But you're reviewing content that was provided to you gratis at least an entire week before official release. If you weren't a member of the "gaming media" your 360 would have been bricked if you did that.

And none of this addresses the fact that publishers are quite willing to actually blacklist anyone that annoys them. Jim Sterling's been fairly open about his blacklisting by Konami, and I don't think anyone's going to forget the Kane and Lynch Gamestop shitstorm.

It saddens me that The Escapist wants to let this one slip by without editorial commenting on it, it really does.

In all fairness, the first guy that tried was threatened with a serious lawsuit (serious in the country it would have taken place in, anyway)

It's truly sad when we're not even pretending to be impartial anymore. Blacklisting is shady & wrong, yes, but at least it's relatively covert. Now we're publicly threatening/suing anyone that publishes negative press, especially if it's true. Gotta love the game journo biz

 

[Starke]

In all fairness, the first guy that tried was threatened with a serious lawsuit (serious in the country it would have taken place in, anyway)

Yeah, defamation suits in the UK are absolutely horrifying, and it was extremely unlikely she would have actually won it, but a victory basically would have killed the publication, so they buckled under.

It's truly sad when we're not even pretending to be impartial anymore.

Sins of omission and all that.

 

[Mr.Mattress]

"You Will Do As Soon as this check cashes in"?

Not to be a grammer Nazi, but that really hurts my brain. You might wanna fix that or something?

Otherwise, good strip.

 

[Susan Arendt]

I find it kind of sad that this comic is the only commentary on the situation I've seen from the site so far. It's an important discussion to have, and I think the site is missing a good opportunity.

In any case, good strip :3

To be fair, a lot of gaming "journalism" sites have been trying to ignore the whole thing as much as possible (and yes, in this case, the industry has earned those quotes around journalism.) Kotaku decided to completely ignore it, and when they were called out over that they said "it wasn't important enough" and instead posted an unboxing of Halo 4.

And, the entire "let's be quiet, and hope this shit goes away" element has made me really cynical of all the positive reviews that went up for Halo 4 on Wednesday night, Escapist included.

Now, as a reviewer you can say you're not being bought off. But you're reviewing content that was provided to you gratis at least an entire week before official release. If you weren't a member of the "gaming media" your 360 would have been bricked if you did that.

And none of this addresses the fact that publishers are quite willing to actually blacklist anyone that annoys them. Jim Sterling's been fairly open about his blacklisting by Konami, and I don't think anyone's going to forget the Kane and Lynch Gamestop shitstorm.

It saddens me that The Escapist wants to let this one slip by without editorial commenting on it, it really does.

The fact that you assume the lack of comment is in the hopes of things going away renders any discussion pointless. I don't feel obligated to offer an opinion simply to "prove" my innocence. You look at the tools I need to do my job as a bribe - why should I bother saying anything at all? You've clearly already made your decision, and I can't prove a negative.

Either someone looks at the body of my work and believes I am who I say I am, or they don't. And very little I say about "Doritogate" will change that.

Here's a perfect example - our high praise of Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 3 "proved" that we'd been bought by EA. Our low score for Medal of Honor, then, should surely "prove" that to be untrue, right? Oh, no. It's just that EA doesn't care enough about that game to pay us off. It's not one of their "big" titles.

These are actual comments that come from these very forums.

So you perhaps see why I don't jump into the fray to get into a fight that isn't mine to begin with. Do I think a game journalist should be tweeting about a certain game in order to win a PS3? Of course not, that's clearly unprofessional - as was calling out that journalist by name in an article that wasn't about her, per se, but rather about the blurring line between PR and reporting. And until the audience starts from a default of giving us the benefit of the doubt, nothing anyone says about it matters. We are assumed to be liars, cheats, and thieves, no matter what we've done or said.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Selling out has never been so... um... I can't even think of a good word for it. Well it's reached a all new low anyway.

Edit: On a somewhat related note, I'm loving these advertisement captchas.
"Describe this brand using any number of words."
Ok.
"shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit"
Edit2: And it works too.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

If anything, I think this makes the first strip more accurate -- it said her opinions were handed to her in envelopes, not money. It talked about intimidation over ad revenue (which is a real thing) and it showed her being ecstatic to find donuts. Bets on those donuts being provided by a publisher?

 

[Zburator]

"You Will Do As Soon as this check cashes in"?

Not to be a grammer Nazi, but that really hurts my brain. You might wanna fix that or something?

Otherwise, good strip.

It's fictional in-character dialogue, so such petty grammar issues don't apply. >_>

Yes, you do see a lot of twitterers (or whatever the hell you call them) selling out to cheap marketing schemes, but fortunately for me, I follow so few journalists that I have not actually seen it among the ones I care about.

In response to the above post, it is a small irony, that one cannot give a good, honest review to such a high-profile game without having accusations of sell-out thrown at them from left, right and center anymore (especially if people in the PRESS are given content ahead of release).

Guess it all comes down to whether we trust the journalists we follow.

EDIT: Oh yeah, on topic. Funny comic, as usual. Although I feel like the face of "Blonde girl I forgot the name of", seems a bit off in the last panel, compared to her previous depictions. Might just be me.

 

[The Wooster]

I find it kind of sad that this comic is the only commentary on the situation I've seen from the site so far. It's an important discussion to have, and I think the site is missing a good opportunity.

In any case, good strip :3

I'm sure you'll see more editorials on the subject once our guys actually have something to add. A lot of the editorials that are cropping up thus far aren't really adding anything to the discussion; they're largely just diatribes from journalists looking to prove they're not like Wainwright or her ilk.

We had a pretty long talk about this in the Escapist staff room, and Susan made a rather good point; Telling people we're not corrupt is a waste of time, proving that we're not corrupt with our conduct isn't. Basically, we should lead by example.

I'm not entirely sure I agree - mainly because I like playing the part of the defender of industry standards, and I adore making people, especially other journalists, miserable, but it's a valid point nonetheless.

 

[Starke]

The fact that you assume the lack of comment is in the hopes of things going away renders any discussion pointless. I don't feel obligated to offer an opinion simply to "prove" my innocence. You look at the tools I need to do my job as a bribe - why should I bother saying anything at all? You've clearly already made your decision, and I can't prove a negative.

Either someone looks at the body of my work and believes I am who I say I am, or they don't. And very little I say about "Doritogate" will change that.

No, no, there's always the possibility of surprising someone, just like there's always the possibility of disappointing.

And believe it or not, I wasn't asking for your opinion. If you want to voice that, it's fine by me, and I'd be happy to hear whatever you think on the subject, whether I agree with it or not. Let me state that again: I'd be happy for any discussion on the subject, even if it's just reporting the basic facts, that this happened. The issue is, as Jim Sterling put it, the "uncoverage".

EDIT: I'm going to say something else, Susan, I know we've gotten off on a bad foot before. But, if you'd said what Grey just attributed to you, the leading by example bit, and had said, "hey, we're still working on it, this isn't easy," (which, so far as it goes is basically what RPS has said on the subject so far), then it would have seemed a lot less standoffish.

For the record, I really do not think you're on the take. I do think the gaming media, as a whole, is in a very awkward and vulnerable state, and that the publishers are entirely willing to leverage that against you (that's the industry as a whole, not you personally.) And unfortunately, that dynamic is at the core of the current mess.

 

[Fappy]

I find it kind of sad that this comic is the only commentary on the situation I've seen from the site so far. It's an important discussion to have, and I think the site is missing a good opportunity.

In any case, good strip :3

To be fair, a lot of gaming "journalism" sites have been trying to ignore the whole thing as much as possible (and yes, in this case, the industry has earned those quotes around journalism.) Kotaku decided to completely ignore it, and when they were called out over that they said "it wasn't important enough" and instead posted an unboxing of Halo 4.

And, the entire "let's be quiet, and hope this shit goes away" element has made me really cynical of all the positive reviews that went up for Halo 4 on Wednesday night, Escapist included.

Now, as a reviewer you can say you're not being bought off. But you're reviewing content that was provided to you gratis at least an entire week before official release. If you weren't a member of the "gaming media" your 360 would have been bricked if you did that.

And none of this addresses the fact that publishers are quite willing to actually blacklist anyone that annoys them. Jim Sterling's been fairly open about his blacklisting by Konami, and I don't think anyone's going to forget the Kane and Lynch Gamestop shitstorm.

It saddens me that The Escapist wants to let this one slip by without editorial commenting on it, it really does.

The fact that you assume the lack of comment is in the hopes of things going away renders any discussion pointless. I don't feel obligated to offer an opinion simply to "prove" my innocence. You look at the tools I need to do my job as a bribe - why should I bother saying anything at all? You've clearly already made your decision, and I can't prove a negative.

Either someone looks at the body of my work and believes I am who I say I am, or they don't. And very little I say about "Doritogate" will change that.

Here's a perfect example - our high praise of Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 3 "proved" that we'd been bought by EA. Our low score for Medal of Honor, then, should surely "prove" that to be untrue, right? Oh, no. It's just that EA doesn't care enough about that game to pay us off. It's not one of their "big" titles.

These are actual comments that come from these very forums.

So you perhaps see why I don't jump into the fray to get into a fight that isn't mine to begin with. Do I think a game journalist should be tweeting about a certain game in order to win a PS3? Of course not, that's clearly unprofessional - as was calling out that journalist by name in an article that wasn't about her, per se, but rather about the blurring line between PR and reporting. And until the audience starts from a default of giving us the benefit of the doubt, nothing anyone says about it matters. We are assumed to be liars, cheats, and thieves, no matter what we've done or said.

I figured that was the reason for the silence on the matter. I can't imagine it's a comfortable situation to be in, but from what I can tell this issue is pretty important for this community in particular (from comments I have read) and I think you guys are doing yourselves a disservice by staying silent. Yeah, you might rustle a few jimmies, but being seasoned professionals we as a community would be hard-pressed not to value your insight. I respect you're right to distance yourself from the situation, but if you have strong opinions on the matter (which I am sure many game journalists do) I'd say voice them!

This site is the mouthpiece of the gaming generation, isn't it?

If it helps I could send you a picture of an adorable animal for every piece of hate mail you get regarding this issue

 

[Zburator]

If it helps I could send you a picture of an adorable animal for every piece of hate mail you get regarding this issue

I suppose the only thing that rivals the amount of hate on the internet, is the ocean of cat pics; so that's a fair counter-balance.

 

[Fappy]

I'm not entirely sure I agree - mainly because I like playing the part of the defender of industry standards, and I adore making people, especially other journalists, miserable, but it's a valid point nonetheless.

You definitely are one of the more hard-hitting game journalists out there. That is in no way a bad quality from where I stand. When people get too comfortable with the news is usually when you know there's a problem.

 

[Tallim]

It's a taint that seeps in everywhere unfortunately. Personally I don't use the Escapist for reviews, not because I do not trust them but because I've never read/seen more than a couple that are on the same wavelength as me. But also I inherently distrust any site that has adverts for whatever they are reviewing. It's a conflict of interests.

It only takes a couple of these sorts of incidents to really undermine any benefit of the doubt people might reserve for such things. Everyone has their price.