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Should game journalists be subjected to law and game companies anti-bribary??
Baalzharon
Member RarePosts: 514
In any other business, if a company bribed people to give great reviews to their product or they'd refuse their services (free games and hardware in this case), that would mean people are being bribed to get free products for false reviews. Which in the US is illegal.
yet somehow game journalists keep getting free games, free hardware, free consoles for their promise of giving great feedback. So many game journalists give glowing reviews on obvious shady products. They rarely speak of the bad, or downplay the bad to a high degree and focus mostly if not all the positives.
How can this be legal? And since it actually isn't as bribary (in the US) is illegal, how are they getting away with it? That isn't speaking outside the US of course, where laws are different.
yet somehow game journalists keep getting free games, free hardware, free consoles for their promise of giving great feedback. So many game journalists give glowing reviews on obvious shady products. They rarely speak of the bad, or downplay the bad to a high degree and focus mostly if not all the positives.
How can this be legal? And since it actually isn't as bribary (in the US) is illegal, how are they getting away with it? That isn't speaking outside the US of course, where laws are different.
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
So regardless, it is hard to control
I make purchasing decisions based on reading up about games from a lot of sources and on raw gameplay without hype music or commentary.
If the "bribe" is paid not to me personally but to the group that I'm acting on behalf of, and I think that this makes it on net the best deal, that's not bribery. That's negotiations or securing a better deal or something like that. Because I'm acting in the best interests of the group that I represent, there's no crime of bribery involved.
If a company bribes a reviewer to give a favorable review, then if someone is wronged, it is the media group that the reviewer wrote the review on behalf of. If the media company owners (which in the case of a small web site, could be the person who wrote the review) approve of the deal, then that's not a crime. Some web sites (or newspapers or television shows, etc.) may disapprove of such a deal as they want a reputation for giving fair reviews that are useful to their readers.
But readers of the review can't make a criminal case on the basis of bribery. In the United States at least, for the media to give a favorable review on whatever basis they please is constitutionally protected freedom of the press. Indeed, advertisements (or sponsored articles or whatever) consist of the advertiser explicitly paying the web site to post content favorable to the game being advertised. Potential readers are free to ignore a site that consists of nothing more than paid advertisements, but it's not a crime for such sites to exist.
Want to know what else is illegal in the U.S.? False accusations based on defamation of character.
If you want a new idea, go read an old book.
In order to be insulted, I must first value your opinion.
No journalist is allowed to accept money or stuff unrelated to the product in exchange for a review. It's not bribery, but it's false advertising.
Those who make products are not allowed to give them out on the condition of getting good review score, but they have freedom to decide whom they give free samples to review.
The rules are not ideal, but they're same for game journalists as they are for all other journalists.
I have seen it more than once here people accusing staff writers of unethical behavior without a shred of evidence. At some point I am hoping the writers get sick of it and make a point.
If you want a new idea, go read an old book.
In order to be insulted, I must first value your opinion.
Because they arent journalists. Because those arent reviews. Because they are fooling/using silly kids. Because they DONT CARE, just want MONEY. But if you say that to those silly kids, they tell YOU to shut up.
How can this be legal?
Um, because they said it is? So...who is gonna prove that they are wrong? Kids? LOLZ
Theyve been telling silly fairy tales about piracy and kids belive, while its simply excuse for they monopoly.
Console exclusives are scam (and now it no longer works, they made up new thing- PC store exclusives YAY!), sellign DIGITAL COPIES for INSANE prices, steam EA, increasing prises years after release...isnt it scam too? Putting all kinds of viruses in games (some even after release). Theyve been doing it for YEARS. And now they just simply dont even bother to hide it.
Month, just MONTH later they sell it 50% off. This alone just SCREAMS about monopoly, not protection from mythical pirates. JUST one month later you can buy 2 copies for that price.
FINAL FANTASY X/X-2 HD Remaster cannot be played offline now. Single player game! 3 years after release!
Ps. BTW Theres event in TESO. Bethesda gives FREE indrik mount to everyone. Even if you just started playing the game.
Just like old f2p mmo event :P
Also theres new super cool MMORPG! (on steam) Shot Online. Its awesome. :P
So going digital should have in theory improved the landscape in terms of coexistence and dependence between the magazines of old and game companies. However, it seems that things have gone the opposite way, with the online magazines becoming low quality outrage click-bait traps. In a sense, we've witnessed the transition from the subscriber model into the FTP model of the gaming reporting side of things. Growing pains perhaps, but the quality certainly suffered greatly.
Then we are having the other problem that the magazines of old did not face. We are having people who hate the hobby and hate their audience write for it, but took the job due to the mainstream coverage and the inability to get a job in a position they are really interested in. We certainly moved from the point where magazines had dedicated reviewers depending on what they personally liked to play, to people that genuinely admit that they hate what they review and they'd rather it was a movie or an auto pilot or they even watched a twitch stream and wrote a review.
This is the reason streamers and youtubers are more relevant than game journalists, these people are good at what they do, care about the games they play and you can get an informed opinion out of them. The people that cover game journalism in most mainstream media sites don't cover any of the above bases. And by the same principle that clueless people about cars can't pass for car experts, the clueless people about games can't pass for gamers.
Okay then
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
Situation: I have MMO "Humiliate all Lithuanians". I come to Website A, give 500$ for positive review. Website A accepts. Review - "Game of the year coming to stores: our first impressions of such good game". Website A gives 10/10. I come to Website B, give some 250$ for positive review. Again, accepted, everyone knows about great game with very interesting story line etc. Finally, I go to Website C to give a scandalous review, pay 500$ for it. Website C agrees: "Look at this mmo, it delivers such great scandal nobody has ever seen! Explicit scenes! Is it legal at all?".
Result: people trust this is great game with great story while there is no story, graphic is almost prehistoric, content - highly offensive to Lithuanians.
[Websites D-Z reject my offer].
Is this bad? I guess - yes.
Can you regulate it? hardly. Imagine someone sue Wbesite A and they have to prove I bribed them. Good luck, you'll need it. And what if Website A has account somewhere in Kaimans? Accepts Bitcoin?
Could this be changed? Yes, surely, by clearly marking paid content and journalists refusing anything in exchange of favourable review.
Example: Website A answers: ok, but these would be ads, where do u want them to be placed?
Website B: good, this article would be clearly marked as content, paid by developers.
Website C: sorry, we are not mocking games for money, bye-bye.
http://www.mmoblogg.wordpress.com
No matter how many positive reviews, every game has counter reviews slagging on it as well.
It is up to the consumer to do proper research, very easy in this modern age and not turn a blind eye when there are clear warning signs.
FO76 is a great example, there were tons of bad reviews in the month before launch, so many I considered cancelling my pre-order.
I let it ride and have enjoyed playing the game, but it would be disingenuous for me to turn around and point fingers at this site's mostly positive review as a factor for any disatisfaction I might have.
Bottom line, no regulation required, even if it were possible to enforce somehow.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
A bit of cynicism would serve much better, don't you think, instead of the usual "I'm on the HYPE TRAAAAAAIN!!!!11!"
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
Hardware may be a different story, especially since it has a lot to do with how it interfaces with the present hardware set up. The latest graphic cards alone cost as much as a middling laptop
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests