butmac:

If a video game website delays publishing a negative or average review of a big budget game until a few days to even a week after the games release, because the game just so happens to sponsor said website at the time…does that violate any ethical codes to you?

I was talking about this with a…

I think the big issue here is that these videogame “journalists” aren’t at all what the word implies. You have the major sites that only care about making profit. Then there are the sites started by the fans that don’t know any better.

In the case of the greedy, of course they aren’t going to divulge how much money EA payed them for a given ad campaign, that isn’t good business. I don’t know that any publisher goes out and blatantly says “we will pay you $20k for a 10/10 review” BUT when a publisher takes out major ad space on a website or magazine, the guys with the money know that they need to be kind and keep the company on their good side. That might mean boosting the review score or delaying the review.

With the “little guy”, a lot of these sites are just excited to get a review copy to begin with. I don’t think these guy are getting payed off. But, I think it is safe to say that at least some of them are influenced by the fact that they might like a developer or are excited that they got a game for free so they might review a game a bit less harshly without realizing it. This isn’t everybody, but is definitely true for some “journalists”.

You also have to consider that there are people in the industry that just don’t know what the fuck they are talking about. You get these sites that post 20-40 times a day, maybe 5 of which are even worth posting. These people give terrible games like Deadly Premonition a perfect score for reasons that I still can’t wrap my head around.

The industry will be locked in this cycle until one of the bigger publications decides to grow up and advertise with companies outside the game industry. Game companies advertise everywhere outside of game websites. If a publication could get an ad campaign with company that is outside the game industry, then there would be less pressure to give a game a higher review score. Budweiser wouldn’t give a fuck if Assassin’s Creed gets a 90, it cares if people buy beer.

In the end, a major publication has the ability to do whatever they want. If they have actual integrity they will publish the review that they see fit. They should feel the responsibility to let their readers know if a game is good or not, or what to look forward to.

Maybe it isn’t even integrity, though that is part of it. People need some fucking BALLS.