I write for a mainstream, general circulation newspaper with a daily circulation of about 300,000 readers. The influences of freebies are mitigated by my newspaper's policy, as well as our shear size.
In essence, the paper's policy says that if you review the game, you can keep it. We handle reviews of music CDs the same way. If you don't review the game, it goes in a charity auction that is held four times a year.
I have never felt the need to give a game a better review than it deserved just because I knew I was going to be able to keep it. In fact, I've told PR flacks over the phone dozens of times that I thought their games were of poor quality, when that was in fact the case.
In my situation, games from the industry have never stopped arriving, and if they did, I'd simply call and say I was interested in reviewing a specific title. I actually prefer that way to the flood of unsolicitated titles, which are inevitably followed up by an annoying phone call sniffing for coverage. I'd rather just review what I think my readers will be interested in, and leave the rest for what I call the "enthusiast" media.
As a professional journalist, I am of the opinion that junkets where members of the "press" are invited to participate in spectacles such as a paintball outing are simply unprofessional. While having face time with game industry execs and developers is extremely valuable (that is what I use e3 for) I would never participate in anything that was clearly tied to covering the news, and I would suspect any journalist with any training in ethics would agree with me.
Now that being said, there are gray areas. Sony, Microsoft and other big game publishers will be having receptions at e3 this year with free food and drinks. Will I attend these? Absolutely. Why? Because it gives me access to players in the industry I would otherwise not have. Will I drink a bottle of water while attending these receptions? Sure. Why? Because I will likely be thirsty.
It's not just about avoiding impropriety -- it's about avoiding the appearance of impropriety, too.
This thread hits close to home for me because I work in the newsroom of a major metropolitan newspaper, and a good friend of mine is in Kuwait right now on assignment.
After reading many of the comments in this thread, it's clear there is a lot of skepticism and mistrust toward how the US media will cover the war with Iraq, and I would heartily encourage this.
The biggest reason to take everything you hear with a grain of salt is because of how the US media is approaching this conflict. Essentially, the US press is beholden to the military in every way, shape and form in trying to cover this war.
Most of the information you will read in the newspaper or see on TV is from "imbedded journalists," who are reporters who have been officially credentialed and assigned to particular US military groups around Iraq. As you might expect, they have no freedom or initiative to actually go out and obtain first-hand observations. They are spoon fed information from official government press conferences. Although one argument to justify this situation could be is that it's to protect the journalists, in reality it's one big spin-control session.
It's hard to fault the journalists parroting our government's propaganda right now. They are strongly influenced by their environment and the pressure to produce some sort of story, whether or not it is fair, accurate and responsible. Personally, I doubt we will vitness any true "front-line" journalism for quite a while, but I know there are reporters wandering in the war zone who will publish pieces free of the yoke of our government's influence. These stories (and photos) will appear in newspapers -- not on TV where there pressure for "up to the minute" news is too great. Just be patient.
If the government started funding the development of video games, you'd soon have every interest group you can imagine trying to influence the content.
If you think there are too many efforts to control content in games now, just wait until our ultra-conservative elements hear that tax dollars would be going to help fund violent first-person shooters or Grand Theft Auto-type games. Granted, it seems the publishers of those types of games might not need any government welfare, but do we want game developers to be put in a position where they risk losing the funding (possibly keeping them afloat) if they don't make content compromises?
Government-funded newspapers and TV stations in foreign countries is a possible parallel. If editors and producers don't parrot what the government says, the funding stops (or the offenders get fired). Either way, it's a quagmire I'd rather avoid.
Here's an indication I need my morning coffee. I am reading all of your posts with Moo this and Moo that, and I think to myself, aren't they supposed to be talking about..
Master
Of
Orion
Then it dawned upon me what was going on. At first I was thinking cows...perhaps it's because I live in the dairy state
More than 1 million people have signed up for our "do-not-call" list, which went into effect Jan. 1. Residents are already noticing a difference. Interestingly enough, MCI is suspected of violating the rules and calling people anyway, according to our state officials. The AG's office is investigating, but for these lists to truly be effective, someone is going to have to make an example out of a few companies trying to slip through.
You couldn't be more correct. The music industry and it's partners consistently disseminate its news releases with prepackaged quotes, phone numbers of "friendly" experts and hand-selected excerpts from related technical and legal documents to make writing these types of stories "easier" for the press.
It saves the writers time from having to do indepth interviews and actually reading up on what they are writing about. My news writing professor is spinning in his grave.
There is more to gaming value than just money.
I love playing the console systems, but the one thing the games lack is the ability to mod and expand like computer games, which I personally think makes the PC gaming experience superior. Intead of waiting years for a sequel to a console game, developers can crank out an expansion pack in months.
My addiction to Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind immediately comes to mind. There is a PC version and an Xbox version, and by most accounts the PC game is better because it is less buggy (thanks to patches) and an expansion pack was released.
I know what you are thinking: "The Xbox has a hard drive, so why not include the PC enhancements."
Well, the console market doesn't support expansions. There are also technical reasons. Even though the Xbox has a hard drive, it's not like a PC. You don't install things like you do on a personal computer.
I was amazed at how often the writers used monkeys, apes, etc. in the Simpsons, whether it was showing Homer's ape-like leanings, to MoJo, Homer's helper monkey. Some of the best feature Mr. Teeny, Krusty's cigarette-smoking pet.
Mr. Teeny did a strip tease in "Day of the Jackanapes" (Krusty says, "Our Chimpendale's dancer's gonna give you the full monkey!") that was hilarious.
I find it disturbing I can still remember that. Perhaps it was the lime-green speedos Mr. Teeny was wearing.
For a list of Simpsons Simian references, check out: http://www.snpp.com/guides/simian.refs.html
I find this news unfortunate. Comdex and the Consumer Eletronics Show are my two really big opportunities to get out of my small city, meet with companies face to face, and poke and prod technology that I don't have a chance to work with because I am too low on the press lists to get loaner units. Watching Comdex shrivel and die in Chicago was sad enough -- the technology press really needs these shows...
Slashdot Mirror
I write for a mainstream, general circulation newspaper with a daily circulation of about 300,000 readers. The influences of freebies are mitigated by my newspaper's policy, as well as our shear size.
In essence, the paper's policy says that if you review the game, you can keep it. We handle reviews of music CDs the same way. If you don't review the game, it goes in a charity auction that is held four times a year.
I have never felt the need to give a game a better review than it deserved just because I knew I was going to be able to keep it. In fact, I've told PR flacks over the phone dozens of times that I thought their games were of poor quality, when that was in fact the case.
In my situation, games from the industry have never stopped arriving, and if they did, I'd simply call and say I was interested in reviewing a specific title. I actually prefer that way to the flood of unsolicitated titles, which are inevitably followed up by an annoying phone call sniffing for coverage. I'd rather just review what I think my readers will be interested in, and leave the rest for what I call the "enthusiast" media.
As a professional journalist, I am of the opinion that junkets where members of the "press" are invited to participate in spectacles such as a paintball outing are simply unprofessional. While having face time with game industry execs and developers is extremely valuable (that is what I use e3 for) I would never participate in anything that was clearly tied to covering the news, and I would suspect any journalist with any training in ethics would agree with me.
Now that being said, there are gray areas. Sony, Microsoft and other big game publishers will be having receptions at e3 this year with free food and drinks. Will I attend these? Absolutely. Why? Because it gives me access to players in the industry I would otherwise not have. Will I drink a bottle of water while attending these receptions? Sure. Why? Because I will likely be thirsty.
It's not just about avoiding impropriety -- it's about avoiding the appearance of impropriety, too.
This thread hits close to home for me because I work in the newsroom of a major metropolitan newspaper, and a good friend of mine is in Kuwait right now on assignment.
After reading many of the comments in this thread, it's clear there is a lot of skepticism and mistrust toward how the US media will cover the war with Iraq, and I would heartily encourage this.
The biggest reason to take everything you hear with a grain of salt is because of how the US media is approaching this conflict. Essentially, the US press is beholden to the military in every way, shape and form in trying to cover this war.
Most of the information you will read in the newspaper or see on TV is from "imbedded journalists," who are reporters who have been officially credentialed and assigned to particular US military groups around Iraq. As you might expect, they have no freedom or initiative to actually go out and obtain first-hand observations. They are spoon fed information from official government press conferences. Although one argument to justify this situation could be is that it's to protect the journalists, in reality it's one big spin-control session.
It's hard to fault the journalists parroting our government's propaganda right now. They are strongly influenced by their environment and the pressure to produce some sort of story, whether or not it is fair, accurate and responsible. Personally, I doubt we will vitness any true "front-line" journalism for quite a while, but I know there are reporters wandering in the war zone who will publish pieces free of the yoke of our government's influence. These stories (and photos) will appear in newspapers -- not on TV where there pressure for "up to the minute" news is too great. Just be patient.
If the government started funding the development of video games, you'd soon have every interest group you can imagine trying to influence the content.
If you think there are too many efforts to control content in games now, just wait until our ultra-conservative elements hear that tax dollars would be going to help fund violent first-person shooters or Grand Theft Auto-type games. Granted, it seems the publishers of those types of games might not need any government welfare, but do we want game developers to be put in a position where they risk losing the funding (possibly keeping them afloat) if they don't make content compromises?
Government-funded newspapers and TV stations in foreign countries is a possible parallel. If editors and producers don't parrot what the government says, the funding stops (or the offenders get fired). Either way, it's a quagmire I'd rather avoid.
Here's an indication I need my morning coffee. I am reading all of your posts with Moo this and Moo that, and I think to myself, aren't they supposed to be talking about ..
Master
Of
Orion
Then it dawned upon me what was going on. At first I was thinking cows...perhaps it's because I live in the dairy state
More than 1 million people have signed up for our "do-not-call" list, which went into effect Jan. 1. Residents are already noticing a difference. Interestingly enough, MCI is suspected of violating the rules and calling people anyway, according to our state officials. The AG's office is investigating, but for these lists to truly be effective, someone is going to have to make an example out of a few companies trying to slip through.
You couldn't be more correct. The music industry and it's partners consistently disseminate its news releases with prepackaged quotes, phone numbers of "friendly" experts and hand-selected excerpts from related technical and legal documents to make writing these types of stories "easier" for the press. It saves the writers time from having to do indepth interviews and actually reading up on what they are writing about. My news writing professor is spinning in his grave.
There is more to gaming value than just money. I love playing the console systems, but the one thing the games lack is the ability to mod and expand like computer games, which I personally think makes the PC gaming experience superior. Intead of waiting years for a sequel to a console game, developers can crank out an expansion pack in months. My addiction to Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind immediately comes to mind. There is a PC version and an Xbox version, and by most accounts the PC game is better because it is less buggy (thanks to patches) and an expansion pack was released. I know what you are thinking: "The Xbox has a hard drive, so why not include the PC enhancements." Well, the console market doesn't support expansions. There are also technical reasons. Even though the Xbox has a hard drive, it's not like a PC. You don't install things like you do on a personal computer.
I was amazed at how often the writers used monkeys, apes, etc. in the Simpsons, whether it was showing Homer's ape-like leanings, to MoJo, Homer's helper monkey. Some of the best feature Mr. Teeny, Krusty's cigarette-smoking pet. Mr. Teeny did a strip tease in "Day of the Jackanapes" (Krusty says, "Our Chimpendale's dancer's gonna give you the full monkey!") that was hilarious. I find it disturbing I can still remember that. Perhaps it was the lime-green speedos Mr. Teeny was wearing. For a list of Simpsons Simian references, check out: http://www.snpp.com/guides/simian.refs.html
I find this news unfortunate. Comdex and the Consumer Eletronics Show are my two really big opportunities to get out of my small city, meet with companies face to face, and poke and prod technology that I don't have a chance to work with because I am too low on the press lists to get loaner units. Watching Comdex shrivel and die in Chicago was sad enough -- the technology press really needs these shows...