Gaming writers - Are they unethical?

[phelan74]

http://www.gamearena.com.au/news/read.php/4099652

New blog posting from one suggests that he has been coerced and offered certain things, including sex, to ensure a game has a good review.

Anybody got any thoughts on this?
When I was a games writer in the UK I can honestly say that the PR people were more than happy to offer junkets, free drinks and a lot of other things in return for a good review. Only a handful of PR people I might add.

Was never offered sex though. Shame, cause one of the girls was really hot.

Now that I do PR, not for a games company, I cannot imagine ever offering a bribe to anyone for a favourable review of anything. It's unethical and not right.

[James]

My thoughts echo this;

"What a steaming pile of sensationalist, sanctimonious horseshit.

I've been a games journalist for about 17 years. I launched PC PowerPlay and Atomic, I was the deputy editor on Hyper 15 years ago, I have either personally written hundreds of games reviews, or been overseeing editor of them.

And like Jason, have never once been offered sex or money to influence a score. What an insanely ridiculous assertion.

Nor have I once had any form of conversation prior to a reviews publication with the games developer, distributor, PR agency, anyone at all where an attempt has been made to influence the score via any means, including but not limited to advertising, travel, dinner, sex or money.

Richie's most ludicrous assertion is that "2)Fact: be careful when you read an "exclusive" review. You probably already know this, but they are much-more-often-than-not tied to agreements about coverage or minimum scores.

What's "much-more-often-that-not" mean? Say, that 75% of the time there's a pre-publishing agreement for coverage or scores according to Richie? I can tell you that it's 0%, actually. Or at least in my experience.

Yes, we are sometimes asked if we'll run a certain game on the magazine's cover, of course a PR or marketing person is going to raise that possibility with us, however we do not make a commitment to do so and it's never attached as a condition to "exclusive" access.

I can also tell you that Richie's assertion that "travel and dinner" is used to win favour with journalists (and yes, Richie, we are journalists) absolutely does happen, but that happens in every single industry, as Richie well knows, and is most certainly not in any way a form of corruption.

You want to develop a good relationship with someone you work with? You buy them a beer. But in no way has this ever affected scores. It just makes for a better personal relationship with the PR and distributor people we journos deal with every day.

And I can tell you that in comparison with every other form of journalism I've been involved in gaming has the fewest the cheapest and the rarest of these 'junkets'. Richie should well and personally know, for example, just how rewarding it can be to be a sporting journalist.

Of course, in all this I speak only from personal experience, the 17 years I've had at four separate publishing companies, thousands of conversations with hundreds of games industry people, working alongside dozens of my colleges, and under the direction of professionally and ethically run magazine and online publishers.

If Richie wanted to make a splash as figurehead of the new Games Arena site, he could have instead chosen to provide some of the decent "journalism" he feels is so lacking. Instead he chose to position himself on some righteous high horse where he alone is honest and professional.

Richie, you've unfairly cast a shadow over the games industry, its PR and marketing tactics. You've unfairly tried to blacken the reputation of your colleges, you've accused publishing houses of being without ethics or morals.

And all to devalue the worth of games journalism to the Australian public, to whom, presumably, you are now its only reliable and honest source of journalism.

For shame."

Posted by Ben Mansill here; http://blogs.theage.com.au/screenplay/archives//005683.html

[Crestfallen]

Some reviewers are biased because they like another game better than the one they're reviewing.

But anyway I've offered Luke sex plenty of times. No big deal there.


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[ittekimasu]

and here i thought this would be a good job to get sex >.> damn had to ruin it for me
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[Jeremy]

[ObsoletE]

i wouldn't think they were any less ethical than any profession, there are bad apples in every industry, and unfortunately they taint the picture for the people not in the industry.

just make sure you keep the bias out of the reviews.
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My Play-Asia Affiliate Link.

[TheAnswer]

haha offered sex for good reviews? what a load of bs

"the sex was lowsy, so as a result the game got a bad review"
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RIP Buddha 19/10/1952 - 03/01/2004


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