Jimquisition: Shadiness of Mordor
- Thread starter Jimothy Sterling
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Wow - hey, thanks for this, Jim. (to you, god, whomever deserves credit) I can't say I'm incensed or even particularly surprised but it was a great reminder of what's going on behind the scenes of the videos I potentially use to choose games.
Not to be weird, but how then did you get to make this video? Is there a difference between how you put this together and what TB did? (apologies for not researching this more myself, don't have the option right now) Were there restrictions specifically for Let's Play videos?
Anyway, thanks again.
Not to be weird, but how then did you get to make this video? Is there a difference between how you put this together and what TB did? (apologies for not researching this more myself, don't have the option right now) Were there restrictions specifically for Let's Play videos?
Anyway, thanks again.
They've been really pushing that actually:hermes200 said:
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/heres-why-shadow-of-mordor-doesnt-use-lord-of-the-/1100-6422710/
I'm still not sure why. I have a creeping suspicion the reason is monetary, that they'd be forced to pay more in licensing if they called it Lord of the Rings.
I disagree, it can be very helpful to have reviews published before release date, so long as publishers don't get to mandate where reviews are focused. Giving out pre-release copies well before the release date can give critics time to play any given game thoroughly, and thus write about either the positives or negatives thereof without rushing themselves. I like to think that something like Destiny wouldn't have sold nearly as well if it were stripped of its hype before release.Aardvaarkman said:
Additionally, you're asking people who normally aren't paid very well to buy their own copies of what may be a large amount of games per month, where writing a review freelance will often only return 3 or 4 times the cost of the game.
Simply providing copies to press pre-release isn't inherently corrupting. In fact, it can be good for the industry (if not the publishers) as a whole, provided publishers don't implement measures like the ones detailed in Jim's episode to control the content of reviews.
This is unrelated, but I hate the commonality of the word "reviewer" regarding games, especially after last year's incidents with Grand Theft Auto V and The Last of Us, where a less than perfect score would be met with harassment. To me, it too heavily connotes confirming what an audience already believes, and not giving an honest critique of a game.
This really pisses me off. The more I'm learning about this game, the less I want it, and that's really sad considering how hype I've been. This is the kind of sleazy, underhanded bullshit gamers are sick of in the industry. Stop screwing with our hobby. I don't care about your bottom line. Let me decide whether I want to play it as a consumer, and the bottom line will take care of itself if it's good enough.
Add this to the fact that the Sauron fight has been locked behind the season pass and I'm simply fed up with this game. WB needs to get out of games publishing because they clearly don't care.
Add this to the fact that the Sauron fight has been locked behind the season pass and I'm simply fed up with this game. WB needs to get out of games publishing because they clearly don't care.
After all the Gamersgate stuff that happened isn't this just vindicating all of those people who were up in arms. Isn't this just another stark example of how utterly corrupt the gaming press is. YouTubers ARE the gaming press, like it or not they are now the leaders in the gaming press, dethroning print media. And while print sites scramble to stay alive, no one seems to be pitch forking the far more corrupt YouTubers. The print media are just as bad probably because these kinds of PR deals are not exclusive to YouTubers but the YouTubers have no quelms flaunting their journalistic corruption.
Some of those Golden Skulltulas will have to wait. "Finish the first mission and get 1,200 KOs without taking more than 4 hearts of damage" on Zant's Rank 3 weapon mission? HAHAHAHHAHAhahha...haha...T^TGuffe said:
I swear the only way to do that is either grind him to extremely high level or use the spinning-katamari Zant glitch.
Ehh... no. They are not.Rabidkitten said:
Youtubers are normal people that suddenly found a big soapbox to speak from. For as informal and unorganized "gaming press" as a term is, your statement is like saying Youtubers that have channels about history are the new generation of History professors.
Careful mentioning that topic. Anytime it's been seen outside the megathread it usually turns into a flamewar that derails a thread very quickly.Rabidkitten said:
Have gotten Hyrule Warriors, but my brothers and sisters kinda hijacked the game from me. Looking forward to it though; last I heard from them they unlocked Midna. Anything majorly different from the main Dynasty Warriors series?Fappy said:
On Topic:
Guess this is another tragic example of an older company trying to comprehend how to properly utilize new media. Here's to hoping for a statement from them, quite possible apologizing. Don't think that we should blame the devs, just the management and the PR.
WB as a publisher is becoming notorious for two things:
1) Really good games (Arkham series, Mortal Kombat, Injustice, Condemned, Shadow of Mordor, etc.)
2) Really bad business decisions that bring you down.
I love their games in SPITE of pre-order DLC missions and characters, terrible PR, and other questionable blunders.
If they would just clean up their act, and let their games just BE GAMES, pure and unsoiled by their tainted marketing, the world would be a much better place, and I'd feel happy to support them, rather than doing so with begrudging hesitation because I KNOW Mortal Kombat X is going to be good, even with pre-order Goro DLC...
1) Really good games (Arkham series, Mortal Kombat, Injustice, Condemned, Shadow of Mordor, etc.)
2) Really bad business decisions that bring you down.
I love their games in SPITE of pre-order DLC missions and characters, terrible PR, and other questionable blunders.
If they would just clean up their act, and let their games just BE GAMES, pure and unsoiled by their tainted marketing, the world would be a much better place, and I'd feel happy to support them, rather than doing so with begrudging hesitation because I KNOW Mortal Kombat X is going to be good, even with pre-order Goro DLC...
Here's my main issue with GamerGate in general (because of course it has to come up somewhere in a thread about industry bullshit): they target the wrong people. There is corruption within the industry, but it's not at all driven by the sinister, self-promoting intent they assume of people in gaming journalism. It's as a direct result of publishers manipulating gaming media as a marketing department, something a good amount of journalists seem to buy into simply because they're excited about what they do, they like the opportunity to have the industry cater to them and give them special access to things they personally enjoy. They like their hobby, and they like talking about it. That makes some people complicit in this system, but they're not responsible for it. It's the industry's largest publishers that GamerGate should be worried about, not Indiecade or Zoe Quinn or Gamasutra.Rabidkitten said:
Nothing too groundbreaking, just a few cool twists on the traditional DW formula. The biggest gameplay difference is probably the weakness system that enemy officers and big bosses use. Maybe it's because I'm also a Zelda fan, but I am spending way more time on this game than I generally do on other Koei titles. It's fun as fuck!AlouetteSK said:
That is really weird. For a good game to do this shows a completely out of touch PR company.
This may be considered coercion or extortion of some kind if you play loose with the definition of "force". I'm trying to think of the term for withholding something hostage that an individual is already entitled in order to obtain undeserved additional benefits from the individual. It's a term I've heard most frequently used when a spouse withholds marital benefits until the other spouse gives in to their demands.
Not blackmail. Blackmail is specifically obtaining benefits from an individual under the guise that if they give said benefit you won't reveal something that they did wrong.Sanunes said:
This may be considered coercion or extortion of some kind if you play loose with the definition of "force". I'm trying to think of the term for withholding something hostage that an individual is already entitled in order to obtain undeserved additional benefits from the individual. It's a term I've heard most frequently used when a spouse withholds marital benefits until the other spouse gives in to their demands.
Considering that would mean even less time to get meaningful reviews out the door, that's a principle that seems doomed to impracticability.Aardvaarkman said:
The review copy system is abusable in general, sure, but this is several levels beyond the rat race for views of your review. This is a company literally trying to squeeze out anything truly critical of their game. That's a much larger issue. The review copy is just the vehicle.
They've had a long time and seemingly a million incidents to get their shit in order, and they haven't yet so don't hold your breath...aegix drakan said:
Rather than self doubt I'd guess some exec decided he liked this PR firms results and handed the reigns over to them. This is the sort of work PR firms do after all. Note that 'PR', or Public Relations, is literally a friendlier marketing term for propaganda.Darkos Anomaly said:
You can tell by the wording that these people live in a different world than the rest of us.
Disclosure: Never played a Legend of Zelda game before. Fringe knowledge comes from friends and Smash. I'm probably going to get flayed alive for the previous sentences.Fappy said:
Well, as long as I get to play a knife spammer like Wang Yuanji, I'm fine. Glass cannon build ftw. The difficulty settings are probably the same, i.e. harder == more life/defence/ability to ignore your defence and melt you instead of A.I. improvements.
Is GG actually responding to this in any way? I would think a PR firm using tactics like this would be a good example of something they would want to boycott or write to WB to try and get them to stop using this particular PR company to advertise their games in the future. Something like this would be a ripe target for both chastising reviewers that take that loaded deal, and trying to punish an ethically questionable PR firm for its actions.Rabidkitten said:
If they can spend time writing constant letters trying to get reviewer websites to lose their advertisers, I don't think it would be that difficult to add the WB to their list asking them not to use these PR guys in the future.