Slashdot Mirror
Game Reviewers Face Odd Bribery From Publishers
eldavojohn writes "You might be used to the idea that game reviewers receive games free and ahead of time, but Ars opens up a darker side to the mystery box. Like a $200 check from Dante's Inferno, reading, 'by cashing this check you succumb to avarice by hoarding filthy lucre, but by not cashing it, you waste it, and thereby surrender to prodigality.' Or how about a huge-ass sword from Darksiders. Or brass knuckles (illegal in some states) from the makers of Mafia II. Or rancid, rotting meat mixed with spent shell casings, teeth, broken glasses and dog tags from Bulletstorm. NCSoft gave out flight suits and trips to weightlessness. Nintendo apparently likes to send all manner of food, including elaborate cakes shaped as their consoles and games. Squeeballs sent a crate of stuffed animals. iPods from Activision and Zunes from Microsoft seem to be pretty tame bait for reviewers ... but there's one reason why this continues to happen: more news-starved review sites and blogs report on the extras and the publisher's game gets spread around just a wee bit more. Even if it is as freakish as bracelets from an insane asylum spattered with blood." I think we must be doing it wrong around here... we usually can't even get games before the release date, much less get free rotting meat.
I love Ben Kuchera as a writer, and this was a really cool article...but considering it's pretty much just a "greatest hits" kind of thing, does it really belong on Slashdot?
Video games, Ars, etc...I know, I know, it is News for Nerds. Still, this seems like a story slot that could have been better served covering something else...
Living With a Nerd
"One of the founders fought to defend their review against a publisher and editor who wanted them to give it a more glowing review"
LOL!
You're a fucking idiot. That fat fuck got his ass fired for being an obnoxious and incompetent waste of space.
And now the loser runs a shit site no one gives a crap about. He should go back to jerking off over Halo games in his mom's basement. No one gives a fuck what the retard has to say about games.
That was a fucking hilarious submission. What a fucking idiotic fanboy you are.
Sony and Isomniac invented Skill Points all the way back in the 1990s - long before Microsoft even started to think about dumping a bunch of expensive desktop PC parts in a big ugly box and try to pass it off as a console.
http://www.spyrohints.com/spyro3/secrets.html
"You've earned a Skill Point!"
"You've unlocked an Achievement"
What is hilarious about Microsoft's ripoff of Sony's Skill Points is they didn't even understand what they were ripping off. Skill Points rewarded the player for earning and completing them.
Microsoft stole the concept and used it for the braindead and absolutely worthless 'gamerscore' that means absolutely nothing other than how many games you have bought.
At least Microsoft is now scrambling to come out with a copy of Sony's Trophies to fix their shoddy copy of the older Sony Skill Point system.
Clicks on the foaming at the mouth fanboy submission. Laughs...
You're an embarrassment to real gamers.
LOL! Who didn't see that coming!
Pathetic fanboy writes diatribe about 'teh fanboys'. Never seen that before! You're a fucking joke. A sad and pathetic joke.
Aww, the dumb liddle fanboy is trying to be clever. No wonder your posts are nothing but braindead fanboyism. You really are just a stupid fuck.