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...

Nothing to worry about

[HumanSockPuppet]

I've worked for two well-known gaming journalism groups, and I can tell you that game developers don't have quite as much control over the content of feature articles as this article might have you suspect.

The principled difference between an advertisement and a feature story is that a company has control over the content of the ad, and that the advertisements are usually handled by the entity producing the game, not the developers.

Developers may control the spigot of game-related information, but they don't control the spigot attached to the gaming press' fingers and mouths. Editor impressions, exclusive previews, and game reviews are all written by the editors of the press outlets, and we get paid by our company, not by the software developers, to write these things. We really do want to help you save money by pointing out which games are worth your time and money.

All of these are elements are effective at providing a check against any potentially slanted information that a company may try to use to artificially spike its product's popularity, and believe me - they get called on this very quickly when it inevitably fails.