No one takes gaming journalism seriously anyway.

No, not even rockpapershotgun or gamasutra.

I am sure you heard about the Eurogamer scandal thing. We might even have a thread on it, but I couldn't find one. Go here if uninformed.

Anyway... when there is a "scandal," I laugh, because no one gives a shit but a small number of people and even they have to try really hard to present it that way. "Words matter" the man at the focus of this scandal says. Not really... there are millions of words on this forum and few of them matter. No one takes gaming journalism any more seriously than a decent forum post.

If you wan to be a real journalist go write about important shit and do actual journalism. Gaming journalism is regurgitating press releases or writing opinion pieces without any more authority than me.

There is a reason bluesnews and giantbomb are my gaming sites of choice. Bluesnews regurgitates the press releases I wan to read without pretending to be much else and giantbomb shows off games with people enthusiastic about them like myself commenting. That's all it ever is and ever could be.

Thanks.

I get all my gaming news from this forum.

And from whenever I browse the latest releases on Steam or GamersGate or whatever.

And you miss nothing of importance.

I think the scandal is in the abuse of anyone who points out the crooked nature of of the industry or dares to be honest for a few, brief moments. I don't think anyone is shocked by the shills, they're shocked by the abuse of those who say anything about the shills.

This, and the fact that the community here knows more about games, and is more polite and decent than place like eurogamer.

If GOG had it's own general gaming news spin off site, i think they'd be able to pull it off. Just look at the GOG weekly. It reminds me of gamespots on the spot programme.

Sure, but he also should not have name-dropped so crassly. I know that is not a popular opinion in gaming circles right now but there it is. And I say it as someone who thinks that girl is a total hack who should not be getting paid one cent for what she does.

In the end we know gaming journalism is glorified PR. Everyone but the guy who went apeshit to point it out knew it, apparently.

Why really bother with these things? :)

Check Steam, GamersGate, GOG, and similar places once a week, and you'll see the latest news. Each service basically has some form of community (forums, boards, whatever), so you'll pretty much have all the info you need before deciding whether to buy something or not.

Most devs have their own communities (Blizzard with Battle.net, Bethesda with their forums...), so if you need anything game-specific, you could ask there too.

Rock Paper Shotgun and Gamasutra are probably the closest thing to actual journalism out there among game reporters (and neither one is perfect). I think they should change their names to something less juvenile, as I think it holds them back from being taken seriously as legit journos. Just my two cents.

That is so much like collusion I see happening with businesses nowadays. Businesses in competition with one another meet to set a price that rips off consumers and should any company that is a part of it break ranks or try and speak out, the others mercilessly crush them.
I can't believe such a mob mentality (If that isn't correct use, please let me know) exists in business, even games journalism nowadays.

To test this theory, I started reading the articles you linked. About 1/2 way through I got bored with it and stopped reading.

Yep. You are absolutely right.

I agree with entirety of both the content and standpoint you took in your post. +1 for you

They're definitely the closest but still far from real journalism IMO. Gamasutra, when it comes down to it, is still 99% press releases and opinion. RPS is still 90% opinion with some brushes with research and investigation on rare occasions, and mostly by one guy (John Walker).

Patrick Klepeck has done a few journalistic-type-things but 98% of his time is still spent sharing his opinion and commenting on games with that opinion.

I mean ever commentator stumbles on investigation from time to time. I don't think that makes them journalists.

I gave up on gaming "journalism" many years ago. Once I started reading various gaming forums, I started getting most of my news and game recommendations from there. Later on when youtube became popular, I started following some reviewers on there that had similar interests to mine for gaming news.

Regarding the scandal itself, I wasn't shocked at all that people attempt to hide being on company payrolls to shill for games. What did get me is that apparently people can throw threat of a lawsuit over an article pointing out a connection, and that alone is credible enough for the article publisher to back down. Is UK law towards journalism really that easy to use to shut people up?

Gamasutra, yes. RPS, I heavily disagree. :)

It's called a "pool" in US parlance and was actually part of what Teddy Roosevelt set out to stop as part of his "trust busting". Most people remember the monopoly part, but not the pool part, both can be equally destructive and unfair.

Fair point. I guess in the face of this scandal presented, I would say that when I read either of those sites, I feel that I am reading someone's true opinion rather than a purchased one. Given the field of gaming sites currently, I consider that high praise. Baby steps, if you're an optimist.