LMAO at how this guy gets blown off in Next Gen magazine

[Gameguy]

You're asking for them to be politicians. One of the biggest complaints about politicians is that they don't call people on their shit and give droning PR responses.




Don't use that argument because it's a catch 22. It's a letter to the editor column. They're supposed to print letters, good and bad. If they don't print letters that reflect an accurate cross section of the readership (in this case the Comic Book Guy caricature) then the entire section is worthless. You keep acting like this was an isolated incident. I'm telling you the sentiment was common. In order to publicly dismiss the sentiment they have to print a letter reflecting it.



You and I have different ideas of what constitutes "dismissal" because that statement of yours says nothing of the sort. What it says is "You might be right but we also might be. Your opinion is equally valid, though." What the response is meant to convey is "your opinion is stupid because you haven't rationally thought it through." How do you respectfully tell somebody they're irrational and not worth listening to?

And don't say "they shouldn't have printed the letter then if they wanted to say that" because that goes back to the catch 22. Then they get slammed for only printing letters that are praiseworthy.

In case you can't tell, I really don't like PR nonsense. Say what you mean and mean what you say. If somebody is being irrational, call them irrational. Don't tell them "we respect your opinion" when you really don't. That's deceptive and disingenuous.

Yeah, whatever.

[rbudrick]

Reminds me of (I think) Donn Nauert's review of an NES game where his entire review was "Just another karate game."

Thanks, dude. Professional.

Goes to show the early writers were not, umm, writers by trade.

It did crack me up back in the day, though,

Strangely, I remember the game being pretty good, whatever it was...can't remember the name.

-Rob

[TonyTheTiger]

what the writer says isn't really off-base though....doesn't sound too irrational to me.

and, case in point, euhhh, 2D fighters still trump 3D fighters... soooooooo.


oh well, i would have been alot friendlier even if the guy was being a pole smoker.

If it were a random letter complaining about a particular review then I'd probably agree with you. But it came off as the typical whiny rant against 3D that I rolled my eyes at back in the 90s. Suffice to say that after reading the letter, even before reading the response, an eyeroll came to mind. So seeing "yeah, whatever" pretty much conformed to my impression. Call me biased because I probably am. It's not like I'd approve of that kind of response to every critical letter sent in but to that kind of letter I tend to feel the same way.

Yeah, whatever.

Reminds me of (I think) Donn Nauert's review of an NES game where his entire review was "Just another karate game."

Thanks, dude. Professional.

Goes to show the early writers were not, umm, writers by trade.

They still aren't. I'll be the first one to criticize Gamespot and IGN for having virtually no real journalism training or writing proficiency. Pick a random review and you'll find spelling/diction/grammatical errors, bad composition, and just generally unprofessional work. Kotaku can get away with it because it's just a glorified blog. I just didn't find the response to this letter in particular so offensive. But I'll be the first to say that gaming journalism tends to be anything but.

[Arkhan]

the letter isnt that whiney.

I mean there were and still are people that think 3D is instantly > 2D, and review things in the wrong light altogether.

[TonyTheTiger]

There are. And I'd think to them as well.

[Rob2600]

Reminds me of (I think) Donn Nauert's review of an NES game where his entire review was "Just another karate game."

Thanks, dude. Professional.

Goes to show the early writers were not, umm, writers by trade.

From what I've read during the last 15 years, most of them still aren't.

[BetaWolf47]

Depends which reviewers you're talking about. I've had a reviewer change my entire perception of a certain current-gen system because of how subjective, well-written, and non-whiny it is, in addition to the strong support given to the argument.

[TonyTheTiger]

I wonder what percentage of game journalists have actual journalism training. I never get the impression that these guys actually come out with journalism degrees and then become editors of game magazines or have experience at CNN/Reuters/NYT/etc. and then move on to IGN. Maybe I'm off base but I always got the impression that most gaming journalists sort of fell into the job.

[Arkhan]

most of them probably did.

The magazine was probably looking for arrogant pole smokers that have no problem writing nonsense as long as they get paid.

[Berserker]

The response didn't bother me, but I have an extremely low opinion of professional game writing (calling it "gaming journalism" is an insult to journalism). The standards are low to the point of basically not existing, and the field itself (at the mainstream, professional level) is compromised to the point where it's now basically just an arm of the advertising industry.

So yeah, it's hard to be insulted when you're not expecting anything. Personally, I put an order of magnitude more stock into what most people in here have to say over Gamespot or IGN. Apparently there have been a few studies indicating that others feel similarly, which is probably why companies (like Sony) are starting to shift part of their advertising budget from magazines to outright astroturfing.

[Aussie2B]

Regardless of how rational or irrational the letter may have been, Next Gen literally had no other option in how they could respond to such a letter. If they were polite and said that they respectfully disagreed, that would give the impression that such thoughts about the magazine are just as valid as positive thoughts. Even though, yes, everyone is technically entitled to their opinions no matter what, the magazine is still a business. It's their job to present themselves as if their work is objectively of high quality. Telling this guy that he's entitled to his opinion would do nothing but a disservice to Next Gen.

As for game journalism vs. traditional journalism, degrees in journalism can just as likely crank out reviewers just as bad at writing about games as those that love games but can't write worth a damn. I hate to see either scenario. It takes BOTH passion for games and passion for improving as a writer, one or the other doesn't cut it. If somebody wanted to become a game journalist these days, I wouldn't recommend a degree in journalism. They'd be better off fostering their love of writing and games on sites like Honestgamers and then do what they can to get their foot through the door somewhere someday. Not that it's that wise to get into game journalism these days in the first place, what with magazines dying left and right and gaming websites that care about breaking news more than an artful, witty, well-researched piece that takes considerable time and effort.

[ryborg]

If somebody wanted to become a game journalist these days, I wouldn't recommend a degree in journalism.

As an owner of a four-year degree in journalism, I wouldn't recommend it to *anyone* today.

[tom]

I bet all these so-called celebrity people/ cook book/ celebrity Big Brother book *writers* rubbish don't have that. And they're best-sellers, that's all what counts nowadays

[Arkhan]

man I thought that said cock book and I was like "what the hell is tom reading"

[BetaWolf47]

Regardless of how rational or irrational the letter may have been, Next Gen literally had no other option in how they could respond to such a letter. If they were polite and said that they respectfully disagreed, that would give the impression that such thoughts about the magazine are just as valid as positive thoughts. Even though, yes, everyone is technically entitled to their opinions no matter what, the magazine is still a business. It's their job to present themselves as if their work is objectively of high quality. Telling this guy that he's entitled to his opinion would do nothing but a disservice to Next Gen.

I agree with this, but I have yet to see any reason for them to have published that letter. Tossing it out the window would've been a much better choice, because it'd basically be saying, "Your letter isn't good enough to appear in our magazine. Send us something other than baseless trolling and maybe we'll talk." For all we know, B. Allen might have just been trolling, just so he could get his name in a nationally distributed magazine.

[TonyTheTiger]

Maybe this wasn't the case 15 years ago but today I'm starting to think that trolling has become a "valid" form of protest/criticism. I put valid in quotes because while it's clearly not respected it is pervasive, particularly in this hobby. When something is that commonplace it's kind of hard to ignore. Trolling, while generally less clever, has evolved into a form of satire or parody, however annoying.

[Arkhan]

trolling is a moronic route that people with no real point resort to in order to look jawesome on the internets.


As far as this shit goes, yknow, if they didnt publish letter, noone would know about it, and then their street cred goes unaffected, either way.

[TonyTheTiger]

Pretending something doesn't exist is rarely the best way to deal with it.

[Arkhan]

I don't know about that.

Yeah sometimes that works, like you can't pretend muggers and rapists don't exist....



but, you can pretend mongoloids on the internets/magazine letter writers don't exist.


It's not like addressing them like a tool destroys them and removes them. lol

[ConsoleAddict]

A lot of these snooty individuals who write for gaming magazines and websites hail from the Bay Area a.k.a. San Francisco. I don't know what's in the water that makes the people who live there think their superior and better than everybody else. Only a few magazines and websites originated outside of the Bay Area. PC Gamer was based in North Carolina and EGM was based in Chicago. Just about every major magazine and website related to gaming, including PC Gamer, has their headquarters in San Francisco.

For a city that claims to have friendly people a lot of the locals I've talked to come off as rude, cold and condescending. That's the experiences I've had.

That's my take on the way they dismiss opinions from others in that fashion.