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Gamespot, advertising-supported media, and the rage of the internet

In case you haven’t heard, the word on the street is that Jeff Gerstmann, long time reviewer and current editorial director for Gamespot, has been fired for giving Kane and Lynch a mediocre, though very negatively worded, score. According to the rumor mill, Eidos got pissed and threatened to withdraw the huge amount of advertising they were doing with Gamespot.

According to a statement from CNET, the only official statement I’ve been able to find, “GameSpot takes its editorial integrity extremely seriously. For over a decade, Gamespot and the many members of its editorial team have produced thousands of unbiased reviews that have been a valuable resource for the gaming community. At CNET Networks, we stand behind the editorial content that our teams produce on a daily basis.”

“It is CNET Networks’ policy not to comment on the status of its employees, current of former,” the statement said.

I can’t bring myself to really believe Gamespot would do something this stupid until it has been confirmed by someone, but if it’s true, this makes me at once very angry, very sad and very afraid. Very afraid for my future in business, very sad that it’s still the bottom line that media companies care about and very angry at what would be an unjust firing.

Gerstmann certainly would not be the first journalist fired for not appeasing the advertisers, and he definitely won’t be the last. This past May, Harry McCracken, editor in chief of PC World, quit for a few days over the chief executive’s refusal to publish an article, “10 Things We Hate About Apple.” McCracken didn’t come back until the article was posted on the magazine’s website. Pulitzer Prize winning automotive writer for the Los Angeles Times Dan Neil provoked the ire of GM, who removed their advertising from the newspaper. At a smaller publication this could have gotten Neil fired.

This kind of back and forth between an outlet’s integrity and keeping advertisers has been a part of the journalistic world since the very first advertisement in media. The scariest part is the subtle effect this could have if it’s true. While the temporary outrage (and you can be sure, the anger will fade) will make journalists even more independent-minded, the long term effect could be a reluctance on the part of journalists to put the truth out there, whether because they fear for their jobs if the advertisers threaten to pull their ads or not getting published because the editors don’t want to risk it. The fall out of this firing could be chilling, if the rumors are true.

Of course, whether it’s true or not doesn’t matter on the internet. What matters is the perception of the internet at large, and their perception is clearly that this firing was in response to the Kane and Lynch review. The most noticeable effect of this rage is the Kane and Lynch user reviews at Gamespot, which has become about 70 percent 1-out-of-10s. The reviews no longer argue the merits of the game but declare Gamespot is no longer credible.

“Hell hath no fury like gamers scorned,” said one user.

“Down with CNET,” another user, who signed his review with Anonymous, said (I’ll spare you the all caps). “The game that ruined Gamespot.”

It’s ironic, but the person who will benefit most from this is Gerstmann. With one review he has become a hero of the internet, and the positive PR any website or magazine that snaps him up gets will be huge, not to mention his quality as a long-time video game journalist. On the internet, positive feelings tend to not be as strong as rage on the internet, but I have no doubt the effects will be well worth it.

The ultimate loser here is going to be Gamespot. Regardless of whether they actually fired him for the review or not, the damage to their reputation has been done, and every review on the site must now come into question. A huge site like Gamespot can take the hit to their userbase, but if they don’t act soon to mitigate the damage, either by taking Gerstmann back (if he will go at all), refusing to take advertising from Eidos or, with Gerstmann’s consent, saying exactly why he was fired, it may indeed be the game that ruined Gamespot.

UPDATE: Saw this over on Valleywag via Kotaku:

When companies make games as downright contemptible as Kane and Lynch, they deserve to be called on it. I guess you’ll have to go to Onion or a smaller site for objective reviews now, because everyone at GS now thinks that if they give a low score to a high-profile game, they’ll be shitcanned. Everyone’s fucking scared and we’re all hoping to get Josh Larson removed from his position because no one trusts him anymore.

Still anonymous source, but still…

Games + Adware = Don’t Buy It or Give Me A Discount

Do you read the license agreements when you install software, or do you just keep hitting next? Well if you downloaded the newly released Hellgate: London demo you should have, since you get the extra bonus of adware included. (Advertising-supported software)

Here’s the pertinent section of the license you have to agree to once Hellgate is installed onto your system:

The Software incorporates technology of Massive Incorporated (”Massive”) that enables in-game advertising, and the display of other similar in-game objects, which are uploaded temporarily to your personal computer or game console and replaced during online game play. As part of this process, Massive may collect your Internet protocol address and other basic anonymous information, and will use this information for the general purposes of transmitting and measuring in-game advertising. Massive does not store or use any of this information for the purpose of discovering your personal identity. For additional details regarding Massive’s in-game advertising practices, and to understand your options with respect to in-game advertising and data collection, please see Massive’s privacy policy. The trademarks and copyrighted material contained in all in-game advertising are the property of the respective owners. Portions of this product are © 2007 Massive Incorporated. All rights reserved.

Consent to Use of Data. You agree that EA, its affiliates, and each Related Party may collect, use, store and transmit technical and related information that identifies your computer, including without limitation your Internet Protocol address, operating system, application software and peripheral hardware, that may be gathered periodically to facilitate the provision of software updates, dynamically served content, product support and other services to you, including online play. EA and/or the Related Parties may also use this information in the aggregate and, in a form which does not personally identify you, to improve our products and services and we may share that aggregate data with our third party service providers.

Here is one better example for you As reported on CNN.com about splinter cell and other titles serving in-game ads for the UK Xbox 360 users.

Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) is taking a new approach to attracting new recruits. ‘The monthlong ad campaign, which starts at the end of October, is being run by GCHQ, the recruitment firm TMP Worldwide and Microsoft-owned in-game ad agency Massive Inc. Ads headed ‘Careers in British Intelligence’ will appear as billboards in scenes in Splinter Cell and other games including Need for Speed Carbon and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars when they are played on computers and Microsoft Xbox consoles in Britain.

You might be saying well the ads are only posters on walls in certain areas, but with the adware fully incorporated into the game they don’t have to stop at just posters on walls. You could find yourself kicking the crap out of some Zombie flesh by chucking some Windows ME CDs at it, since Massive is owned by The Borg errr Microsoft.

I am ok with including this crap err technology with a free demo but to be included in a game you’re paying full price or paying a monthly fee for … NEVER! I have refused to buy a game at full price that has in game ads in it. I feel the same way about in game ads as I did when I found out Blizzard and World of Warcraft had been stealing my bandwidth to substitute for having game patch servers by using a bittorrent system. This would have been ok if they would have had an option to turn it off or receive the download some other way, or *Gasp* discounted my bill for supplying them with bandwidth.

Us as a consumers have allowed this to continue and dare I say it, even grow. More greedy game studios are looking at this as a great option to pad the bank account even more than the already high prices they charge for games.

If you don’t like it, do something about it like write emails, don’t by the game or setup a petition. But for your sake do something or all the games you play will be just like watching TV with commercials popping up at every loading screen / save point.

What do you think take the poll on your right or leave us a comment about your thoughts.

Double Fusion Breaks Ground With New In-Game Ad Software

In-game advertising specialist Double Fusion has released a new technology which separates in-game advertising from the development process, enabling advertisers to implement new ads in already completed games and back catalog titles.

The technology makes ad placements possible where previously they could not be feasibly implemented, including in back catalog titles and titles late in the development process. Fusion.runtime also represents a compelling advertising solution for the casual games industry, where the large volume of titles launched each year requires an easy-to-implement solution to reach the market’s full potential.

Fusion.runtime also allows publishers and developers to incorporate new ad placements into their titles, whether first-run or back catalog, after the release of the game, creating additional revenue potential through the development of specialized programs, a capability Double Fusion refers to as “just-in-time advertising.” For example, if an advertiser wanted to put a branded 3D blimp in the sky across multiple titles for a Fourth of July promotion, and there were no pre-existing blimp placements, publishers using the fusion.runtime technology that wanted access to those advertising revenues would be able to easily place the blimps in their games, and have them disappear after the ad campaign was completed. With code-based solutions, the ad placements are locked once the game has shipped; fusion.runtime opens the door to a much broader, real-time development of custom, dynamically-served game advertising programs.

The technology, which is already being utilized by Ubisoft, NCsoft and casual game publisher Oberon Media, will be demoed by San Francisco-based Double Fusion at the Austin Game Developers Conference beginning Wednesday.

Consumer and technology research firm Parks Associates has forecast that the advent of dynamic advertising technologies such as fusion.runtime will help the US in-game advertising market swell from $514 million to $675 million by 2012.