Whiskey Media bottle breaks

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
You've gotta be fucking joking... Gamespot?!?! The entire reason Giant Bomb was created was to NOT be like Gamespot. Almost every member of the GB crew (Jeff, Ryan, Brad, Vinny) were former Gamespot employees fed up with the way they operated, so they struck out with their own site. Built it up, only to have Whiskey be bought out? Ugh, this is sickening.

Be sure to check back at 4PM PDT, when we'll be addressing my termination. Finally! The story can be told!
Well that will be exciting, at least. Though I think everyone knows what happened with that by now.
 
For those of you who don't know:

Jeff Gerstmann worked as a reviewer for gamespot.com. Shortly after he gave a scathing review of Kane & Lynch, Gamespot fired him. At the time, Gamespot had Kane & Lynch advertised all over their site and even let users cut their own trailers. An anonymous insider reported that Gamespot fired Gerstmann because of pressure from Kane & Lynch's publishing company. Gamespot came out a few days later and reported that Jeff Gerstmann's firing had nothing to do with advertiser pressure and that the Kane & Lynch review was taken down due to audio problems (*cough, bullshit, *cough). Gerstmann, himself didn't comment.

The story began a dialogue on the gaming press's overall relationship with the publication industry.

Jeff Gerstmann later went on to establish a new gaming site GiantBomb.com along with other former reviewers from Gamespot.

That's why this story is so sad. :judo:
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
The significance of Giant Bomb, and Whiskey Media sites in general, has been their independence from the major media corporations that every other major site is entrenched in. It allowed them to do crazy shit like drink on live podcasts, generally have a more adult atmosphere for the site and the personalities, and hundreds of other small nuances that made the site special. Moreover, it was just a fun site. They were always doing something crazy, throwing up a live feed to give Brad a birthday cake, or to point out that they've been using paper towels as toilet paper because they were too lazy to get actual TP, play SNES games for 8 hours straight. And on, and on...

Now they're being set up to just be another video game site.
 
Jeff Gerstmann finally speaks out after so many years and confirms that Gamespot was being a corporate shill:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/116360-Jeff-Gerstmann-Explains-His-Departure-From-Gamespot

Gerstmann goes on to say that Gamespot has a new management team and that GiantBomb will maintain its integrity.

And with that, a dark chapter in the history of games journalism draws to a close. A setting sun gives way to an even brighter tomorrow, or something. Now who's up for tacos?

I disagree. Gamespot wasn't and isn't the only place doing it. Reviews are still top heavy, there are still exclusive review deals, and publishers can still threaten to close their doors to critics they don't like. Why is the publishing industry's relationship with video games so different from its relationship to films?
 

Aazealh

Administrator
Staff member
Groovy Metal Fist said:
Why is the publishing industry's relationship with video games so different from its relationship to films?

It's not all that different. But among other things, people depend on game reviews A LOT to decide whether to buy a title or not. So that becomes a very important factor. Hence developers in certain companies getting a bonus if their game achieves a certain Metacritic score.
 
Aazealh said:
people depend on game reviews A LOT to decide whether to buy a title or not. So that becomes a very important factor. Hence developers in certain companies getting a bonus if their game achieves a certain Metacritic score.

I heard about the Obsidian developers not getting their bonus because they didn't reach an 85 metascore for Fallout: New Vegas. I don't see why they couldn't base the bonuses on the sales themselves.
 

Walter

Administrator
Staff member
Groovy Metal Fist said:
Why is the publishing industry's relationship with video games so different from its relationship to films?
The answer is extremely complex. But basically, the two industries are quite different, even though in some aspects they're similar. As Aaz said, reviews are very important given that the ticket price for games is $60 and movies is $15. More weight is placed on them. Beyond that, the video game industry is a smaller, closer-knit community. It doesn't have superstars that can carry a title in the same way that Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Steven Spielberg (okay, back when he was good), can carry their movies. A bad video game review can be a very powerful thing, affecting its perception to the general public, whereas a bad movie review from even a respected critic might not make much of a dent in the overall perception of the product.
 

Griffith

With the streak of a tear, Like morning dew
I also think the relative adolescence of the medium is a factor. Unlike film, which is long established in our culture, there's still debate as to the legitimate merit of the video game medium beyond a diversion; something film lovers and critics don't have to worry much about. So, rather than there being a longstanding tradition of "objective" game reviews in newspapers, the game review has grown up almost exclusively in special interest magazines. By that nature video game reviews are inherently a form of advocacy for the medium itself.
 
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