PR And The Game Media: How PR Shapes What You Think About Games

[KingGorilla]

Shawn Elliott[Games for Windows (http://gfw.1up.com/)] and Robert Ashley[Intrepid Freelancer] have written an article on Gamasutra (http://www.gamasutra.com/) about PR. There is no question that this is in the wake of Jeff Gerstmann's termination from Gamespot[Or not], but I think that many of you guys should read it to better educate yourselves on reality.

“If you disagree with me, you do so at your own peril,” wrote Trip Hawkins, president of the now defunct game publisher 3DO, in an irate e-mail to the editors of GamePro magazine in 2001. “....And do not patronize me by telling me the reader is the customer—your real customer is the one that pays you your revenue. And it is game industry advertisers.”

Full Article Here (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/1542/pr_and_the_game_media_how_pr_.php)

EDIT: Robert Ashley wrote the article, Shawn Elliott was an assistant with research and interviews.

[EyesNoMore]

Is no one gonna comment on this? I really appreciate articles like this, and I hope we will see more of them show up on the main page.

[Deepsleeper]

Reading this basically reaffirmed my respect for Kotaku and made me want to punch Trip Hawkins. That's about eight or nine times I've wanted to punch him in the last year, so that's a step up from his usual track record.

[Grey]

Great article (as almost every article on gamasutra) - realy a good little view into this whole mess. The rockstar thing is slightly shocking. This whole story is overall not so new (f.e. the Kotaku thing), but they went way to far if its true whats said in the gamasutra article.

Personaly I am realy glad, that my editor in chief keeps such PR approaches away from me an just let me do my work.

[LongStepMantis]

Unless you live under a large rock, the way this business is handled, even in our beloved games industry, is normal. Which I don't like, but doesn't make it any less true.

Nowadays, I ignore hype. If you tell me your game is the best thing in the fucking world in tv spots, ads in magazines, billboards, etc...I will ignore them. Shit, i can't even remember the last time i read a game review from any major publication/site. they aren't getting me to buy some piece of shit game just by telling me to. Try again.

I stick to word of mouth from my friends, other gamers, and reviews by regular gamers who play it, not someone getting paid to do it. To each their own.

I did get a little tired of everyone they quoted in the article had the attitude of "you should be grateful we give you anything." No, you should be grateful that their are still morons out there who buy into your bullshit. Then again, i guess that's PR for ya.

[ElPresidente]

A great article that should make the conspiracy theorists rethink their allegations into something a little more realistic.

[Rasgueado]

The only thing truly scary is how many people *don't* know this stuff already.

[Fonz]

This is common knowledge, the sad part is the internet thinks they are smarter than PR/Marketers out there. The matter of fact is what you eat, what you wear, and the games you play are directly affected by this, for example rock band commercials will definitely change the way people look at gaming, so do the 360 commercials that "bring people together". It's blatant advertising push that people seem to concive as a way of life where internet joe gamer thinks "Im a gamer and I am smarter than this but I will still buy it".

This is no different from when a PR rep tells an editor hey everyone else is giving this game a 7.0, why arent you, maybe you're the one who's wrong. Anyways its all perception, even the digg community is a biproduct of this regardless if they think otherwise, considering Microsoft is the main advertiser for that site.

[Chainblast]

Eh, gimme a demo and I'll decide whether investigating the full game is worth my time and/or money. If a game has a lot of hype I'll rent it first if I can. But I stopped reading reviews from publications a long time ago.

[KingGorilla]

Eh, gimme a demo and I'll decide whether investigating the full game is worth my time and/or money. If a game has a lot of hype I'll rent it first if I can. But I stopped reading reviews from publications a long time ago.

The article actually addresses the cutting out of the middle men in there. I encourage you to read it.

[karak]

Ok read. Some interesting points.

[Nazriel]

Ah, I remember reading this a few months ago.

If you look at the upper left of the page, just left of the title, you will see:

By Robert Ashley and Shawn Elliott Gamasutra
August 9 2007


This was not written in response to the Gamespot debacle; but it certainly was brought up and linked to because of it.

Glad to see more people being exposed to it.

[Guttersnipe]

Shawn Elliott[Games for Windows (http://gfw.1up.com/)] and Robert Ashley[Intrepid Freelancer] have written an article on Gamasutra (http://www.gamasutra.com/) about PR. There is no question that this is in the wake of Jeff Gerstmann's termination from Gamespot, but I think that many of you guys should read it to better educate yourselves on reality.



Oh.. but there is.

By Robert Ashley and Shawn Elliott Gamasutra
August 9 2007


This is a non-news item.


Edit: Damn, Beaten

[Telefrog]

I knew I read this a while ago.

[Xerxes]

You know I remember that. I wish Trip said that shit now.

[Royal Fool]

Great article, I didn't know Rockstar' was so tough on getting scores. The article doesn't say when Mr. Zuniga worked as PR for them, but Mobygames tells me (http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,200655/) that he's credited for 4 Rockstar titles.

[ECM]

Nice to hear that we weren't the only ones 3DO attempted to strong arm lo those many years ago...

(and they certainly weren't alone)

[Varsity]

I think this was originally published in the Escapist, if that saves anyone some reading.

[drakkarim]

i would have thought this was common knowledge, just like EA is teh bad. maybe (and that's a big maybe) if you're still in middle school, you might not know the reality, but otherwise, old news.

[Roc Ingersol]

The core failing of the game press is that all they really do offer is exclusive pap and preview advertorials. They don't have to live off access, but that's what they built their sites on and they've refused to branch out. They choose to compete on timeliness rather than quality, honesty or integrity -- really, they chose that dependency.

And here's the kicker: people who read Gamespot don't care. Note the absolutely lack of any measurable change in Gamespot traffic during the Gerstmann-thing. Anyone who reads gamespot is going to know what happened. And still - they don't care. They just want to see that 'exclusive' new trailer for GameX.

/sigh

[Pluvious]

I will continue to use MY judgement when it comes to what games I like or dislike thank you. I stopped reading 'reviews'/'previews' a long, long time ago. This article helps those who haven't quite realized how much spin is put into everything.

[ECM]

They don't have to live off access, but that's what they built their sites on and they've refused to branch out.

OK, I'll bite: what could they branch out into if, say, they told all their industry contacts to eat it, we don't need you to provide us any early builds, etc., without taking massive, company-ending, hits to their bottomlines?

This isn't to say I'm defending GameSpot and there are ways to make this system work in your favor since, regardless of what a lot of you think, most of these sites/mags don't bend over for game companies on a regular basis (I know of events during my time in the trenches and they were relatively few and far between except for a. the official mags--big shock--and b. two repeat offenders that flushed their credibility down the toilet for ad revenue but the latter should have been painfully clear to anyone reading those mags/sites.)

[EternalGamer]

The most telling part of the article is the last: when people value exclusive information over substantial commentary, everyone loses. Unfortunately, the draw of the "new" is so strong in this industry that making people shift their focus would prove incredibly difficult.

This is not really a problem particular to gaming news, though. It's the same reason why more people watch fluff like CNN over listening to NPR. They want the live "minute by minute" nothing rather than the retrospective.

[Sinistar]

The sad thing is that your favorite game site (and mine) - EvilAvatar - is not beyond the influence of such PR mongers. There are many members on this site who are paid to help direct public opinion with the comments and news postings. That's why it's always best to form your own opinion about a game, console, or a company.

Now, move along sheep ;)

baaaaaaaa

[drakkarim]

The sad thing is that your favorite game site (and mine) - EvilAvatar - is not beyond the influence of such PR mongers. There are many members on this site who are paid to help direct public opinion with the comments and news postings. That's why it's always best to form your own opinion about a game, console, or a company.

Now, move along sheep ;)

baaaaaaaa

so where do i sign up to get paid for shitting on all games equally?