PR And The Game Media, The Rockstar Way

simoniker writes "Discussing PR and the media, former Rockstar Games PR rep Todd Zuniga discusses how the company tried to manipulate the game press as part of an in-depth article on how the two forces interact: "In part, it's a numbers game... Otherwise, it's history. Who wrote negatively about the games, and who hasn't? We never worked with [gaming website] GameSpot while I was there because 'they just didn't get it.'... Hilariously, we even had a list of journalist preferences: 'Likes cake, married, went to school at Indiana U'.""

Comments

The trick

[Pojut]

I know most of the major gaming website/magazines out there are payed in some way or another from publishers/developers/whoever, but I have found that using gamerankings.com usually helps bring things truth to light...besides, I enjoy reading reviews that are polar opposites of each other...it's similar to getting your news from different biases (left/right/whatever)...kinda helps paint you a full picture...between all the extra crap and spin thrown around from each news source, you are usually able to come up with some bit of middle ground that gives you an idea on what really happend (although that is becoming increasingly difficult)

Naturally, the best review is a play-through yourself, but that's not always viable (or wanted.) A very good way to get unbiased reviews is to look up personal opinions on various websites such as Amazon, Rottentomatoes, etc...

Re:The trick

[AKAImBatman]

I have found that using gamerankings.com usually helps bring things truth to light

It's funny, because I've had the exact opposite impression of most ranking systems employed today. Everyone tends to either give the game a perfect 10/10, a 1/10 because it's not their cup of tea, or an average score like 8/10. After it's all tallied, it just becomes so much statistical noise.

Ever wonder why the "top" games on any site are always the newest? This is often done to compensate for their ranking system which places nearly everything within the same range. About the only games that break out from the fold are the really terrible games or the truly great games. (Both of which you've probably found out from other means than looking at the ranking.)

The best method I've found for working within the system is to hear as many different reviews as possible, get a feel for whether it has the type of content that interests you, then decide to take a chance on it or not. From that perspective sites like GameRankings and Amazon can be useful. But their ratings data doesn't mean all that much.

Speaking from a theoretical perspective, I'd appreciate it if more sites did a bit of research into voting methodology. I know that the "stars" or "out of ten" systems are very popular, but such scores can be computed from something more useful like approval voting. With approval voting, games that are actually good would float to the top as more and more players say they liked the game. Meanwhile, bad games would stay near the bottom. The number of votes could be normalized against the largest number of votes cast, or a "negative" vote could be introduced to provide a total number of voters in the context of the individual game. (percentage = Math.floor(positive/(positive+negative)*100))

Reviews

[king-manic]

I might be some strange freak but I never read reviews on games or movies before I play or buy them. Why? because they are often laced with mild spoilers and tainted you by setting up or bringing down your expectations. They point out "flaws" you may not have cared about or noticed until they did this or they might be useless fluff. Similiarly I avoid trailers. I do read them after I have played them. But more often to see how others felt about what I liked/disliked. If I went to see Borne ultamatium I want to see reviews afterwards to see if others had the same impression i did. Sort of a anonymous one sided water cooler conversation. If I hated it I'd like to see others savage the movies/game. If I loved it I want to see what others liked or disliked about it.

I find I'm occsionally disappointed by spending when I shouldn't have (child of mana) but on the flip side I get gems that fit my gaming needs I might have otherised passed up due to low review scores (Izuna).

Re:payed -- paid

[Pojut]

you're right, it's been roughly 9 hours...see, that's the problem with your wife screwing you before you goto work...it's all you can think about until you get home.