Gerstmann-gate: Tuesday update

That picture only shows half the tags. Other funny tags include:
entonces el caballo beber
fother mucker
high school dropouts
ricardo torres
roflberry pwncakes
stephen colvin
were-all-leaving

Christ I'm tired of all this Gerstmann bullshit. Is someone getting fired (alleged controversially) that big a fucking deal? I've never believed GM to be much of a writer or a critic, and have usually steered the other direction his scores dictate. It's a shame people don't get this worked up over stuff that really matters in the real world.

This really isn't about Fat Douchey Reviewer, or K&L or even gamestop for me.

I never go to gamestop.

I had no idea who this guy was before last week

I had no intention of buying K&L, because frankly, it looked like a lame peice of shit.

What this is about for me is seeing a trend where a review site is BLATANTLY allowing advertiser dollars to poison reviews.

I don't subscribe to game informer anymore. Does anyone else see the irony of paying for the opinion of people whose magazine is owned by a company that sells the products they are reviewing? It's like Ford owning Motortrend and then buying your car based on teh Motortrend awards.

As far as I know previously, GI was the only source of game information that was this transparent about it. Go on and compare their reviews to other pubs, the only things that get truly horrid ratings are things like mary kate and ashley games that they know the reviews aren't going to affect the sales of.

This can not be allowed to continue. We as gamers are a pretty easy bunch to appease (judging by the # of tony hawk, tomb raider, mario, ratchet, jak, halo, etc sequels that continue to make money.) Just don't treat us like idiots and abuse our respect.

I have no issue buying a game advertised on Penny Arcade, sometimes I pick up one I would not normally buy on their recommendation, because I know they absolutely DO NOT take ads for product they don't think is worth buying. Granted, some of their preferences (eye of judgement for example) don't mesh with mine, but at least I know they honestly like it, and are not being paid to tell me how great it is.

Sorry for the long rant, but this "let's defend GS's decision" BS has to stop.

Eh, it's a shameless plug, but we talked to Major Nelson last night on Evil Avatar Radio and got his thoughts on the issue.

http://www.evilavatarradio.com/audio/EAR.Episode85a.mp3

Game over GameSpot.

I went to KeepGirthmanFired expecting the funny.

Instead I got some crying Zelda fan.

I want the funny. :(

I hated gamespot before it was cool.

Not too surprised by Hillary Goldstein's comment. That guy is anyway one of the worst reviewer around.

Spooks,

Yes, there is circumstantial evidence that if viewed in a certain way can hint at the rumor but to be honest this is pretty weak circumstantial evidence. The incident may be related but again, it cant be proven; and as you said there may be something he actually did, although related to the review, that was in fact warranting of a dismissal, (e.g. he reviewed the game without fully completing it.)

"at this point, it will be impossible to change peoples' opinions."

Yes, you are probably unfortunately correct. People will make their unproven assumptions and than boycott them. It's unfortunate that other hard working people at Gamespot, CNET etc, who have nothing to do with this will have their reviews and editorials ignored because of something that no one can prove to be true.

This Hilary person...isn't she the same chick who gave Myst III: Exile on consoles an extremely low review because she did not like the genre?

Yeah, that's what I thought.

The thing is - there is enough to going on to at least assume without being a jackass that the firing was related to the review, including but not limited to, the removal of the video review. If the review had zero impact on his firing, why would the review have been pulled?

Jeff was terrible at reviews, good riddance and find some different work.

Man, I'm listening to On The Spot right now, and they are ripping CNET right now and the suits. This is fucking awesome.