"I'd be one of the first people to set my hair on fire and run out the front door ... if that was the case," says executive producer Ryan MacDonald. "If that was the case that it was just that one game, and one company calling and some kind of advertorial pressure." MacDonald goes on to admit that he took down Gerstmann's video review of Kane and Lynch, not because of pressure from advertisers but because "the quality was not what [they] do."
Even as they defended they company, the hosts made it clear that they didn't approve of the events surrounding the firing. "Everybody recognizes that this was handled insanely poorly. Nobody in this company feel like this went down the right way," says host Vincent Caravella.
At the end of the half-hour or so devoted to the issue, we are (unsurprisingly) left without a clear answer as to why Gerstmann was let go. And Caravella makes it clear that we likely shouldn't expect one. "We're not staying quiet because we have to, mostly. We're staying quiet to show this company the respect it deserves. There's legal stuff, but it's more than that."
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I'll keep telling myself "it'll be GOTY'08(the must have game to buy with the console)when released" in the meantime.
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I'm unsubscribing to the HotSpot as of today. I had faith that the regulars on the show would cut the bullshit and tell it to me straight, but when it comes down to it all the "coincidences" add up to editorial censorship. I just lost a lot of respect for those guys.
I disagree with you... Actually, they did say a few things and the things they didn't say are very telling. They didn't say that the K&L review had nothing to do with Gerstmann being fired. What they say is that he wasn't fired because of Eidos pressure, which I believe: I don't think Eidos demanded that Gerstmann to be fired.
Of course, they are GS employees and need to be careful with what they say.
But they didn't deny anything of what was said by Gamespot insiders to 1up which boils down to:
Gerstmann was fired by Colvin and Larson (new upper management at CNET responsible for GS) because they wanted to replace him by a yes man that would give a 8.5+ to Ratchet and Clank and a 7.5+ to K&L in order to maintain good relationship with the advertisers.
Colvin coming from Maxim/Stuff/Blender didn't realize that the separation between editorial and sales was critical to the credibility of GS (since it wasn't so for Maxim which of course doesn't have any credibility and don't want/need any).
My feeling (or my hope) is that CNET is going to react and that their internal investigation is going to lead to the dismissal of Colvin and/or Larson.
This is the only explanation that make sense to me for now. I might be completely off of course.
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But what if it were two, three, or more, then it's ok? My Lawyer/PR speak detectors are going nuts.
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http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/levelup/archive/2007/12/05/reflections-on-videogame-publisher-and-employer-contempt-towards-the-enthusiast-press.aspx
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Does anyone remember when Johnny Carson had people on the Tonight Show just because he LIKED them? Not because they were there to shill a movie, a book or a project of some kind? When people used products in movies and TV because it was organic and made sense, not because it was a marketing arrangement?
And while we're on the topic, I'm getting REALLY TIRED of Lester Bangs being held up as the sole pinnacle of journalism. I mean, don't get me wrong...he was good. So were a LOT of journalists. He was as famous for being outrageous as anything else, though, and was made more famous by dying relatively young and leaving a good looking corpse.
Games journalism is NOT the same as reviewing music. Music is simply not interactive in the same way. If I say "Brian Eno moved me!", that is a far different issue than "I had problems playing Bioshock at 720p on my plasma TV." The music is the music, but the fundamental experience of a game can be radically different. And frankly, I don't want ruminations on the meta-message of Halo 3....I want to know if it's a good game. Your interpretation of the strange love relationship of the Master Chief and Cortana and what is says about Love and Mankind and Greater Truth? Save that for another article, bunky.
Translation: "We're terrified of being fired if we cross our masters because we have no marketable job skills to make a living with if we lose this gig. All praise to C|Net! Hoo-raw!!!"
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1) They were right to fire him.
2) It was handled poorly, as has been said.
3) The reason they aren't talking directly about it is because they don't want to talk badly about Jeff, which says a lot about the character of the people still working there.
4) I'm behind Gamespot 100%.
Rock on Gamespot.
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I've been listening to the podcast. Very interesting to hear how everything blew up. Sounds to me like it was all just a big mistake... except for the editing of his article. I haven't finished the podcast yet; Perhaps they talk about that later on.
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Anyone else hear that, or was that just my audio?
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If so, then the sound is probably because the site HAS flushed its credibility.
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Anyways, yeah I've cooled down a bit after this whole crap happened and I think it is entirely possible (in fact this is probably what happened) that Eidos had absolutely nothing with Gerstmann's termination and that gamespot made the decision to fire him themselves because his review was too "harsh", which I still don't understand because I've seen the video twice and it wasn't really that bad. I mean I've seen worse in a professional movie review. Those critics will trash stuff they don't like.
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Huh? That's a very stupid thing to say. Ryan MacDonald obviously knows what's going on, yet continues to withhold the truth. With that in mind, he can make as many retarded and pointless comments as he wants.
"I'd be the first person to murder my wife and run out the front door... if that was the case."
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1)They didn't address why the text review was edited.
2)They deliberately said that Jeff wasn't fired *solely* for the K&L review. That still leaves it wide open for K&L to have been one reason for his firing, and in my opinion if an overly-negative review had ANYTHING to do with the firing then we still have a scandal. Reviewers need to be free to call games Ugly, Lazy, and anything else that fits.
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http://valleywag.com/tech/jeff-gerstmann/gamespot-editor--on-fired-reviewer-328775.php
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I would guess that 90% of you all work for douchebags who do stupid stuff, but nobody wants to be punished for what their higher-ups have done. This podcast was refreshingly honest and open.
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