Have you ever been offered money under the table to write a favorable review?Over the last number of days there's been quite a bit of arm-flapping and finger-pointing in regard to "games journalism" and alleged collusion between those in the gaming press and people in the marketing and PR departments of game publishers.
No. Never. Thank god. But if someone ever did, not only would I chew them out big time, but I’d probably write about it in the magazine. Or threaten to at least.
There have been broad-brush generalizations, accusations of elaborate Mafioso alliances that would have made Mario Puzo's brain melt (never mind my own), and just about everything between those two points. The thread on NeoGAF batting this around appears to have "leveled off" slightly with repeated calls for the big sites like IGN, Kotaku, GameSpot, etc. to come out swinging and make some kind of hard-hitting, kick-to-the-balls ethics statement about the relationship between the gaming press and PR/Marketing departments of game publishers, and that a lack of response indicates the enthusiast press' tacit approval and wagon circling for the press/publisher relationship as it stands.
That last part does bad things to my brain.
Isn't that like the cops arresting someone for a crime because that person hasn't made a statement to say they had nothing to do with the crime? Guilty unless proven innocent?
"I didn't see you murder that guy and there's no evidence that you did but you're suspiciously quiet about owning up to NOT stabbing that guy through the neck!"That part doesn't make a lick of sense to me.
But there are some points brought up on social media sites and video game forums that I thought deserved some attention and a response lest my silence indicate involvement with the Five Families.
Money for a Positive Review:
More than 12 years of running The Armchair Empire has netted me zero offers of
payment for a positive review score. So, I can sit on my moral high horse and
shout, "I'm a paragon of reviewing awesomeness!" I didn't even get a chance to send back the Dante's Inferno cheque. At least, that would have been a test. Would I stay on the horse? The answer's always easier when you're not put to the test. (P.S. The answer would be, "No.")Swag for a Positive Review:
It isn't a secret that games for the enthusiast press are often accompanied by swag of some sort. Candy, a t-shirt, cigarette lighter, strategy guide, Xbox 360 faceplate, key chain or some other "branded" tchotchke are often stuffed into whatever box or envelope arrives at my door.
I'm a filter for this stuff. Over the last 12 years I don't think any of the writers have seen a free t-shirt for the simple reason that it costs a lot of money to send anything slightly bulky or heavier than a single game. A lighter from LA Noire sits on my desk at work. It's a replica of the same lighter used a murder weapon in the game. Would I spend money to send such a bulky item to one of our writers? Nope.
Does accepting tchotchkes compromise my ability to write a review with a high level of objectivity? I like to think it doesn't but I can't fool myself into completely believing that. It probably has as much influence on my opinion as how much sleep I've been getting, how things are going at work, a toothache, the fact I just heard the dog throw up and I know who has to clean it up. Fortunately, the rest of the writing team doesn't ever get the chance to have an opinion influenced by swag. I do secretly like getting the game and nothing else. (Even better if it just comes in a paper sleeve.) It provides a modicum of insulation against the "money hat" accusation for those games at least.
Trips / Meals in Exchange for Coverage:
Okay, this has happened. I've been to San Francisco a couple of times on someone else's dime -- fed, watered, put up at a nice hotel -- for game events. I've been to Montreal under the same circumstances. A few of the other writers at AE have gone on similar game-related junkets to Los Angeles, Seattle and Las Vegas. The most recent was to Leipzig. Over the last dozen years, the number of trips paid for by a game publisher can be counted on two hands.
While there's never been anything agreed to in writing, there's an understanding that we'll write something, anything about the event and the game(s) on display, hopefully in a hands-on capacity.
For a site like this one, going on trips like these is a big deal because there's no other way we'd be able to get hands-on play time and developer interviews.
We really are enthusiasts here. We all have full-time jobs far and away from video games, a few of us have kids, mortgages, and other trappings of adulthood. We like writing about video games; we like playing video games. We just do it in the off-hours. For me, that more often than not means the hours between 10:00pm and 3:00am because that's where I can fit it into my schedule.
So, if a rep from Big Publisher calls and says, "Hey, we'll fly you out to Spain for a few days to try X," we jump at the chance. A couple of days away from cold Reality to gab, game, and eat grub and guzzle booze I don't have to pay for? Then write about it afterwards? (Being very sure to state right off the top of the feature/preview that "It sure is tough travelling to an exotic locale to play a game. Man alive! They only had three kinds of gravy for the DIY Poutine station!") Yes, given the opportunity, we'll take the utter disconnection from reality for a day or two especially in light of the fact We don't have extra money to put toward food and lodging halfway around the globe. We don't have a high horse in this case. Unlike big sites we can't tout the line, "We pay our own way to game events!" (This rings a little hollow though when one realizes they were still invited to the event in the first place -- they don't get to crash events they weren't invited to!)
If the exchange is a bit of game coverage, we'll take it especially because I like the benefit that it provides us: hands-on play time with a game that we would otherwise have no way of getting a look at for a preview.
Placating Advertisers:
I wish I had this problem! To placate an advertiser means we actually have an advertiser. The last time we had any specific ad buy was back just before GTA: Vice City launched. We actually got money for sticking the ads everywhere. Right now all our advertising is handled by... not us. It's non-endemic advertising for sure and I only have the vaguest sense of how they're served up.
I'd like to say this site is rolling in money, but it's not. There's enough to pay the server bill, cover mailing and administrative fees (like a phone), and sometimes puts beer on the table.
Influenced to Be Nice:
I'm Canadian, Capricorn, and a middle child. I was born to be nice. If there's peace to be had, some way to not rock the boat, I'll probably go that route. Having people upset -- upset about anything -- is actually upsetting to me on some level. Do I need people to love me? No, but I don't want them hating me.
I know these things about myself so when it comes to nailing a review down, I often catch myself blunting criticism to sound less harsh. Or rewording something to be ambiguous And putting a score on something? A resoundingly awesome game I have no trouble with but a middling game? That's harder for me to deal with.
If there was one thing I wish we had money for, it's a full time editor. Someone to jump on me when my Cana-Capri peacemaker tendencies roil to the surface.
"Hit that game again! Harder! Use the bat with the nails in it not the one wrapped in pillows! Split infinitive here - fix it. Kill, kill, KILL!"But it's just me. I have to try to keep myself honest. That can be extremely difficult sometimes. I have to battle what's going on in my head and heart. That's not always easy. And that free poster I got with the game? It doesn't compare to the influence and bias that comes from within.
Though there are few people that might argue the point, I'm not dumb enough to think that the enthusiast press is somehow a model of Journalistic Integrity. I do think it's better than a lot of people are painting it. It certainly isn't without it's faults. Like anything, there's room for growth, for improvement, new ways of doing things. That's a good thing. Something that isn't growing and changing is probably dead.
Nor do I think the general gaming public is gullible and whacked-out enough to swallow anything and everything from a single source of information. Days of yore when a single magazine could be an "opinion maker" are long gone. There are literally hundreds of sources of information available, which is to say nothing of forums! Anyone with blinders on consulting a single source of information for news, features, and other articles of note are doing themselves a disservice.
As we move forward in this post something world, I hope we're all just a little wiser, more honest and open, and leave some open ground for respectable debate and discussion rather than slam down a wall between gamers and members of the enthusiast press.
I'll admit, that's a flowery way of saying, "Can't we all just get along?" but Compromise is my birthright.
- Aaron Simmer
