Open Letter to Duke Nukem PR

[Russ Pitts]

Open Letter to Duke Nukem PR

Trust is important. That's why threatening game reviewers is a dangerous game.

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[Fasckira]

Im reminded of that scene from Robin Hood: Men in Tights when the sherrif slaps Robin in the face with a leather glove and challenges him to a duel, only for Robin to reply by slapping him in the face with a metal gauntlet and saying, "I accept".

Nice work Russ, be interesting to see if he responds though I think the sensible thing for him would be to read it, absorb it and then carry on. If he tries to respond he could end up digging a hole.

 

[TheOneandOnly]

The solution, of course, is to not make terrible games in the first place.

 

[Fappy]

The irony is that we both (Journalists and PR people) take many of the same courses to obtain our respective degrees. We are breed to do battle with one another. Journalists are some of the only professionals trained to make will saves against PR jibber-jabber and PR experts learn exactly how to give journalists exactly what they don't want out of a story.

 

[SoopaSte123]

After a long time of not having any opinion of you, Russ, I can now say with confidence that I love you. Your letter is simply beautiful hahaha

 

[instantbenz]

I've started a slow clap. This is a justifiably snarky retort ... I love it.

Mess with the bull and all the jazz yeah?

 

[nexekho]

If they begin denying reviewers copies because they don't think you'll give them a favourable review, maybe you should band together with other reviewers and blacklist THEM.

 

[Drunkbot]

A completely justified response. Publishers cannot expect the review process to strictly function as additional advertising. If there are that many awful reviews, perhaps something is amiss.

 

[koroem]

I'm starting to like this Russ Pitts fellow....

BTW Epic avatar as well. Kane ftw!

 

[Jared]

I love how this reply is ripe in sarcasm, and dripping in a totally, well needed, retort.

It lets me know, no matter what, the escapist has solid journalistic integrity

 

[Withard]

Remember. Some forum goers have said that Russ doesn't know how to review games.


Then again these same people enjoy picking up unflushed logs.

 

[drakythe]

Buwahahaha... Your avatar somehow has me reading this in a nefarious, over the top, bad guy monolog-ing voice. Excellent.

 

[yayforgiveaway]

Wow acting like a snob to show that the other guy is a complete dick. How mature. Well I hope I don't get banned. We all should have right to our opinions without fear of some higher power cutting us off if it thinks otherwise, right Russ?

 

[ScoopMeister]

This is such a wonderfully patronising letter that I can't help but smile as I read it. Epic!

 

[GotMurf]

Wow acting like a snob to show that the other guy is a complete dick. How mature. Well I hope I don't get banned. We all should have right to our opinions without fear of some higher power cutting us off if it thinks otherwise, right Russ?

To be honest... I agree with this guy.
This response wasn't really needed. It just seemed petty. You could have kept your journalistic integrity without getting into a pissing contest of snark.
Just sayin'.

 

[NickCaligo42]

The solution, of course, is to not make terrible games in the first place.

Easier said than done. There are a million ways to screw up a digital game. A strong production pipeline that can produce to passable standards of quality and consistency is extremely difficult to establish. Being able to see the forest for the trees and understand how all the pieces come together to make a game is infinitely harder when you're distracted by those technical issues.

Much of game design seems to be taken for granted now adays; "design by checklist," I call it. You take it for granted that if you include every feature from every other game of Genre X that's out there that it'll be good, so instead of writing rules methodically and thoughtfully you just go down that checklist. Of course it takes immense time and effort to implement; no less than if you actually thought out the rules of your game or responded to alpha testing and added or dropped features based on feedback. So, at the end of the day, developers pat themselves on the back anyhow. They worked hard and shed sweat, blood, and tears over their product.

That doesn't change that it's an amateurish way of working that's doomed to abject failure.

 

[Withard]

Wow acting like a snob to show that the other guy is a complete dick. How mature. Well I hope I don't get banned. We all should have right to our opinions without fear of some higher power cutting us off if it thinks otherwise, right Russ?

To be honest... I agree with this guy.
This response wasn't really needed. It just seemed petty. You could have kept your journalistic integrity without getting into a pissing contest of snark.
Just sayin'.

Negative.

Russ simply in an amusing way highlighted the problems with games reviewing.

Or maybe you don't believe this is a problem we have?



....jus sayin

 

[MirrorForTheSun]

I think it's cute when you guys talk about honesty and trust in reviews, but give Dragon Age II a perfect score.

I'm not saying Duke Nukem's good, I'm saying it's not like the "honest opinion" of this site means a whole lot anyway.

 

[gCrusher]

Remember. Some forum goers have said that Russ doesn't know how to review games.


Then again these same people enjoy picking up unflushed logs.

What does wood have to do with flus--oh, OHHHH. No, don't pick that up!

 

[Withard]

I think its also worth seeing this before anyone here has a solid on for attacking Russ

This was followed by even more crap which has since been removed...but the power of the internet refuses to let things quietly disappear into the night



"It's one thing to not like a game, it's an entirely different thing to rate it a 2 & b completely mean spirited."

"It's cool to not like something...no need to be mean about it. But, it shows u...it's easier to b funny when being mean."

"Fair is great. Even if the score is poor, as long as the review is fair...I've got zero complaints."

"Bad scores are fine. Venom filled reviews...that's completely different. "



People like this should NOT dictate how things are reviewed. and this quote echoes the feel "It's somewhat of a big deal because media outlets that don't get copies on time obviously struggle to remain competitive as most other major outlets are able to publish reviews on launch day due to having access to titles prior to release."