Jimquisition: Shadiness of Mordor

[Lightknight]

See *this* is the sort of thing the Gamergate people should be focusing on, not the sex lives of indie developers. This is legitimate corruption.

Do you know of any actual journalism sites that abided by their terms?

Gamergate isn't generally talking about one-off bloggers or youtubers but rather the general official journalism groups. Agencies that promote themselves as legitimate reporters.

FYI, I have shown numerous quotes of gamergaters in the Escapist, day 1-3 trying to distance the conversation from the sex lives talk to the actual components of corruption. That people on the outside is still focusing on that and claiming that that's the core of the argument and situation is ridiculous. Likely the same corrupt journalists that we're trying to combat.

 

[WarpZone]

Shadiness of Mordor

The Eye of Sauron is watching, forever watching, and he wants to make sure your YouTube videos are "on message."

Watch Video

Oh, great. Thanks for saying it was good, Jim. Now we can't even trust your opinion anymore.

After all, you just gave a thumbs-up to a game that was so desperate to deceive everybody into thinking it was good that its deceptive marketing practices are a bigger story than the actual game's release.

When I'm thanking god for you, am I allowed to make mention of a book written in 1937, or are you a wholly-owned subsidiary of Plaid Social now?

 

[Lord_Gremlin]

One wonders... Why? Shadow of Mordor is amazing (I already have all trophies in PS4 copy). It really is. As Jim mentions, it wasn't needed to begin with. All it really did is damaged game's reputation a bit.
Essentially those PR companies are useless parasites, and WB feeds them. Good job...

 

[Lugardo Sandoval]

Thanks for standing up for whats right. I hope this doesn't cause you too much trouble.

 

[Lugardo Sandoval]

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.

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.

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.

GG is about journalistic integrity, not company heavy-handedness. I'm sure they could add it to their list of grievances, but they were more focused on sleazy journalism, not sleazy corporate bullshit.

It's pretty much both though, and it would be largely useless to focus on journalistic integrity if you don't at least attempt to address where part of the money and influence is coming from. Otherwise you end up just attacking symptoms instead of causes, and one of the major causes of unethical journalist actions seems to stem from things like this.

I said this in another post and I'll say it again,

"When you put a price tag on integrity, ethics, and honesty, expect someone to come banging at your door to either buy it from you or force it out of your hands."

#Gamergate should have been a big awakening to people. Anyone that's willing to get in bed(Meant literally and metaphorically) with someone to give them a good review is no longer fit to be giving trusted reviews, let alone be called a journalist and any company that get behind this behavior should be boycotted.

 

[Lugardo Sandoval]

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.

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.

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.

GG is about journalistic integrity, not company heavy-handedness. I'm sure they could add it to their list of grievances, but they were more focused on sleazy journalism, not sleazy corporate bullshit.

It's pretty much both though, and it would be largely useless to focus on journalistic integrity if you don't at least attempt to address where part of the money and influence is coming from. Otherwise you end up just attacking symptoms instead of causes, and one of the major causes of unethical journalist actions seems to stem from things like this.

I said this in another post and I'll say it again,

"When you put a price tag on integrity, ethics, and honesty, expect someone to come banging at your door to either buy it from you or force it out of your hands."

#Gamergate should have been a big awakening to people. Anyone that's willing to get in bed(Meant literally and metaphorically) with someone to give them a good review is no longer fit to be giving trusted reviews, let alone be called a journalist and any company that get behind this behavior should be boycotted.

 

[mmiki]

Here's the thing: They wouldn't have contracts if they just played games like all the other consumers do; on the day of release.

If you need to play a game for 20 hours to get enough of an understanding to write a good review, and then lets say another 12 hours to write and re-write an article, choose screenshots, get ok from the editor and publish it[*], by the time review is out it doesn't really matter anymore, because no consumer is going to wait for you to write a review in this age of instant information. Late reviews give even more power to the hype machine and less power to consumers.

This would also make the quality of the reviews significantly worse, because there would be a rush to produce the quickest review rather than the best one. That's why stuff like review embargo exists in the first place, which is something Jim has talked about before.

And if you're expecting consumers to change their purchasing habits and start buying games a week after release, then you're trying to build people to fit the system rather than the other way around.

I heard this complaint so many times, and there is often some kind of implication that playing games early is some kind of privilege. For people who do reviews for a living, it's like paperwork. It's what they need to do their job.

[*] Note: I don't know how long it takes to write an average article. Feel free to correct me.

 

[Kohen Keesing]

Shadiness of Mordor

The Eye of Sauron is watching, forever watching, and he wants to make sure your YouTube videos are "on message."

Watch Video

Oh, great. Thanks for saying it was good, Jim. Now we can't even trust your opinion anymore.

After all, you just gave a thumbs-up to a game that was so desperate to deceive everybody into thinking it was good that its deceptive marketing practices are a bigger story than the actual game's release.

When I'm thanking god for you, am I allowed to make mention of a book written in 1937, or are you a wholly-owned subsidiary of Plaid Social now?

(If the above quote was meant to be sarcasm, disregard this entire post, I guess)

So a game whose publisher did a shady thing is therefore completely and utterly incapable of being a good game? Just because Activision have had dodgy practices, the original Modern Warfare game and the old Tony Hawk's games are not good? That post-nuclear blast scene was not a disquieting and effective piece of reality? And just because a game wants to deceive people into thinking it's better than actually IS, automatically means that it is a festering piece of shite, and is devoid of any elements whatsoever that could contribute to it being enjoyed?

Get off your seemingly anti-Plaid Social high horse, dude. Seriously. I didn't even know of the company's existence until this video, and I have not and continue not to have watched any reviews of SoM itself. In fact, I tend to stay away from any reviews (bar Yahtzee on Zero Punc., because those reviews are incredibly twisted and hilarious) so the fact I thought ME:SoM was a good game have absolutely been unaffected by the PR company's underhanded tactics. Pull your head out of your ass.

 

[Johnson McGee]

The bit about them wanting the varied nature of the orcs highlighted just made me think of the TBFP video where they ran into the same guy three or four times.

 

[mmiki]

#Gamergate should have been a big awakening to people. Anyone that's willing to get in bed with someone to give them a good review is no longer fit to be giving trusted reviews, let alone be called a journalist and any company that get behind this behavior should be boycotted.

There is a difference between a review and a piece of sponsored content. There is nothing wrong with sponsored content as long as it is fully disclosed (which is not just a good idea, btw, it is the law). This heavy-handed contract stuff would be ok (if a bit disgusting) if the strategy didn't involve trying to stifle the process of legitimate review.

WB is probably going to get away easy. In part because the game seems to be good, and in part because the most outspoken parts of gaming journalists and gamers are in a middle of a culture war and there's no one to man the Wall.

Thank God for Jim, eh?

 

[G00N3R7883]

Hmm. Shadow of Mordor wasn't on my wishlist for a long time simply because I tend to assume licenced games will be crap until proven otherwise. I watched TotalBuscuit's video which looked good and I do trust TB, so I thought "yeah, this might be worth playing".

But much of this contract does make me feel uneasy. I haven't read about any major bugs, and pretty much all I've heard about the game mechanics is "nemesis is great". Is it legit, or is it controlled by the publisher?

Oh well. I guess I'll wait for a 75% off sale to be safe. I've got about 10 other games on my 2014 wishlist anyway.

 

[Atmos Duality]

I normally look for unilateral praise and false enthusiasm already, as well as any overemphasis on marketed features (those given at time of announcement or in any prior official demonstration; marketers LOVE features) just as part of my regular bullshit detection methods.

But it's nice to see the specifics laid bare; makes it easier for less experienced to spot fakers.

 

[Punkster]

You know, almost everybody was banging on about DESTINY, while I sat quietly saying nothing, for I was looking forward to this game, Shadow of Mordor more than anything else this year, but now I cannot be bothered with it, simply because I am so sick of the never-ending corporate interference when it comes to gaming.

These ar$e-hats are destroying what was once good about gaming.

Gaming has gotten to big for it's own good, now it is just like everything else... Full of corruption and shady business practices. No room for smaller creative companies... Nope just pack out the same sh!te year after year.

No wonder the big names in gaming are packing their bags, heading off and starting again with a newly created company to develop Indie games. This is not what they (developers) need to make good games.

When GTA V broke all records last year, it seemed as if that was a good thing, it finally showed the naysayers that gaming was good and here to stay but once I began to process that info with more thought, I soon realised that it was not a good thing, because now companies that had no interest in making games will be wanting a piece of the pie for themselves too.

Yes gaming has been getting bigger every year for over a decade but where has all the decent developers gone? Either swallowed up by bigger, greedier businesses or bought, broken up and sold for scraps. Which leaves us with a huge gaping void that too few companies can fill with new original ideas.

Then those young 'uns grow up and they will think nothing of buying a new NFL game every year or maybe even 6 months by that time, because that is what they have grown up with.

The Gaming industry isn't just heading for a huge crash, like so many have said... It has already begun, it's just that nobody wants to admit it.

 

[Pedro The Hutt]

Weird that they specified not wanting references to the movies or the books... Its from the same WB, after all.

They probably don't want some Tolkien fanatic make a video with every point in the story contradicting the books or something.

The sad thing is that such a video could probably take over half an hour, I've only watched about two hours of the game across a handful of videos and livestreams and found plenty of material that contradicted the lore almost every step of the way. It's not so much a Middle-earth game as a generic fantasy game that uses the map of Middle-earth and some characters from that setting, and a few of those are even acting out of character.

So yeah, if you're a Tolkien purist this is probably a game to avoid. But at least it's still a better Assassin's Creed than Assassin's Creed has been in years.

 

[mmiki]

I normally look for unilateral praise and false enthusiasm already, as well as any overemphasis on marketed features (those given at time of announcement or in any prior official demonstration; marketers LOVE features) just as part of my regular bullshit detection methods.

The game is so good that it would have gotten praised anyway, and the Nemesis system is genuinely interesting and well-done and worth talking about. Which makes all the heavy-handed tactics completely unnecessary and extremely worrying, because we might not be so lucky next time.

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

Your ending was what I was thinking the whole video. Shadow of Mordor is really good so I don't know why WB felt the need to censor PC coverage in this way. Because you're right, all that does is make what should be simply a celebration of a good game into something more shady and controversial.

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

But much of this contract does make me feel uneasy. I haven't read about any major bugs, and pretty much all I've heard about the game mechanics is "nemesis is great". Is it legit, or is it controlled by the publisher?

Oh well. I guess I'll wait for a 75% off sale to be safe. I've got about 10 other games on my 2014 wishlist anyway.

If you want to wait for a sale you've every right to do so. But I've put quite a bit of time in with the game over the past few days on PC and it's great. Runs beautifully and not a single bug so far. Even the steep system requirements, which might scare some people away aren't really accurate. I've got the game on high and I could throw on some ultra options if I wanted and I'm running a gtx 770 2gb.

 

[Kohen Keesing]

Hmm. Shadow of Mordor wasn't on my wishlist for a long time simply because I tend to assume licenced games will be crap until proven otherwise. I watched TotalBuscuit's video which looked good and I do trust TB, so I thought "yeah, this might be worth playing".

But much of this contract does make me feel uneasy. I haven't read about any major bugs, and pretty much all I've heard about the game mechanics is "nemesis is great". Is it legit, or is it controlled by the publisher?

Oh well. I guess I'll wait for a 75% off sale to be safe. I've got about 10 other games on my 2014 wishlist anyway.

The thing about Nemesis is that from a tech standpoint it's a very powerful engine. It essentially tracks every Uruk in a given map, factoring even the lowest plebs into the whole thing, allowing Uruk Captains and Warchiefs to have dynamic links with every other orc in terms of having feuds, recruiting bodyguards, and controlling whole platoons of Uruk, even. The huge draw on resources of the system is kind of a showoff of x64 architecture, so dorks get very excited about it.

In juxtaposition to all that, there's the actual combat and gameplay is also complex: the tutorial is over in five minutes while teaching you everything you need to immediately bugger off into the moderate sized freeroam maps and do whatever you like. They seamlessly blend it with story cinematics which as I said are brief, but also encourage those looking for the story to do missions rather than roam.

The fact that Nemesis does what it does, and how it does it, combined with the quick-paced flowing gameplay that still manages to have freeroam freedom is mostly why people like the game.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I cannot fathom what goes the heads of corporate nutjobs and game publishers. A lot of the shit they do these days doesn't even make sense from a money making business perspective as I understand it.

 

[WarpZone]

You know, almost everybody was banging on about DESTINY, while I sat quietly saying nothing, for I was looking forward to this game, Shadow of Mordor more than anything else this year, but now I cannot be bothered with it, simply because I am so sick of the never-ending corporate interference when it comes to gaming.

These ar$e-hats are destroying what was once good about gaming.

Gaming has gotten to big for it's own good, now it is just like everything else... Full of corruption and shady business practices. No room for smaller creative companies... Nope just pack out the same sh!te year after year.

No wonder the big names in gaming are packing their bags, heading off and starting again with a newly created company to develop Indie games. This is not what they (developers) need to make good games.

When GTA V broke all records last year, it seemed as if that was a good thing, it finally showed the naysayers that gaming was good and here to stay but once I began to process that info with more thought, I soon realised that it was not a good thing, because now companies that had no interest in making games will be wanting a piece of the pie for themselves too.

Yes gaming has been getting bigger every year for over a decade but where has all the decent developers gone? Either swallowed up by bigger, greedier businesses or bought, broken up and sold for scraps. Which leaves us with a huge gaping void that too few companies can fill with new original ideas.

Then those young 'uns grow up and they will think nothing of buying a new NFL game every year or maybe even 6 months by that time, because that is what they have grown up with.

The Gaming industry isn't just heading for a huge crash, like so many have said... It has already begun, it's just that nobody wants to admit it.

That's the problem, actually. There will not be another crash because the shady marketing tricks *are successful.* The ar dollar sign hats are not only destroying gaming, but youtube, and by extension, the very concept of word-of-mouth. They've *made* their pre-order sales, the only sales anyone cares about or even bothers to measure, so the inevitable backlash means nothing to them. That's even if people were saying that the game was shit. Which, apparently, they're not. Apparently they're saying the game is good. Which sends the message to the publisher: "YES, KEEP USING THE SHADY MARKETING PRACTICES! IT WORKS AND IT WILL ALWAYS WORK. IF YOU MAKE A SHIT GAME AND MARKET IT THIS WAY, IT WILL MAKE MONEY, AND IF YOU MAKE A GOOD GAME AND MARKET IT THIS WAY, IT WILL ALSO MAKE MONEY."

Before this little experiment, there was at least the chance, the slim possibility, IN THEORY, that the backlash against scummy marketing could be SO great that it would oughtweigh the preorder bump by damaging the long tails. Instead, people like Jim are praising the game, which means it will continue to profit long after the preorders. This means there is NO downside, literally none, to pissing off everyone on the internet. You can piss off TotalBiscuit, you can piss off Jim Sterling with your shady media practices, and you'll still come out of it smelling like a rose. A publisher has nothing to lose by behaving like a sociopath.

And this comes right after Bungie released a bad game that everyone agreed was a bad game, sold a bazillion copies anyway, nerfed the loot system, and are continuing to make money off of it hand over fist.

At this rate, the only difference between the games industry right now and the games industry before the crash of the 80s is that when games went to shit in the 80s the big corporations actually lost money in the equation. Apparently that's not going to happen, this time around. The people with taste don't have enough money to affect the outcome. And the bad guys are just plain too big to fail.

Captcha: "what should we call me." They won't call me anything, Captcha. They don't need to do a thing about me. Because in their eyes, I don't exist. The people reading this don't exist. Regular people don't exist. Honest reviewers don't exist. Sincerity doesn't exist. All human beings are sheep and cattle, except for the few that are lucky enough to be born "whales," and they're just going to keep putting out shitty game after shitty game forever. They're going to keep pumping money into lie campaigns of disinformation. Forever. Even when the game in question is actually a good game.

This is the future of human communication. We don't matter. Real talk doesn't matter. Cancer patients swearing about the appalling lack of menu options in a PC port don't matter. The only thing that matters is the shills.