Professionalism: Does GON have it?

[exe3]

To be honest, I was a little bemused as to why Bennett was posting over there in the first place... nobody had said anything about Internode prior to his post. Since when do GON admins of this site make critical posts on other gaming networks' forums, officially or otherwise?

Besides, I'm sure I've seen the GamePlanet kids at more than one PR sponsored drinkathon/event, or am I mistaken? If that's true, then this entire piece is just a tad hypocritical.

It just seems to be asking for a flame war.

To be honest, I was a little bemused as to why Bennett was posting over there in the first place.

I definately think Bennet misjudged his first post. His choice of words weren't great and he definately shouldn't have posted a link back to here. That just screams 'attention ****' and 'advertisment spam' regardless of what the posts actual content was.

those were the first things I was thinking, he shouldn't have posted imo

the bribe vs hotel argument is flawed, what about the businesses that give large cash 'donations' to political parties? it's the same thing

[Bek]

Disagree - the topic was about what he does!

I'm willing to be he didn't mean for the link back here to be anything more than a reference to what he does and why his opinion should matter.

[Mythor]

I'm willing to be he didn't mean for the link back here to be anything more than a reference to what he does and why his opinion should matter.

He'd already referenced what he does in the first paragraph. The (broken) link is trying to draw people into clicking it, else why make it a link?

[Bek]

Hm, true. I wouldn't have expected them to get all pissy about it though, it's not like he spraypainted it on the gravestone of their favourite sheep or something. Jokes aside, I don't see why that take it so seriously, sure there should be rivalry between competing sites, but not unjustified hate.

[Lurk]

That thread on GP is epic.

[skitzor]

Nice...
You see GON getting bashed so you go to defend it and act like a child in the process...

i am a bit of a child.

thing is, you are more of a child.

Until GON members stepped in there wasn't really much of note being said about GON. Most of it was directed at Bennett.
Once GON members stepped in things went further downhill and GON started getting a bit of stick.

i entered because of these.

Hahaha go away internoob. Internode has been gaming's cesspool in Australia for a long time

games.on.net the new name for intern00b?
In that case f@#k off.

the GON bashing started before me, or kebab posted. i find it funny they are trying to claim i am attempting to start a forum/flame war when they threw the first "punch". they started it. i don't give a **** how childish that statement seems, it's correct.

To be honest, I was a little bemused as to why Bennett was posting over there in the first place... nobody had said anything about Internode prior to his post. Since when do GON admins of this site make critical posts on other gaming networks' forums, officially or otherwise?

i saw it more as adding a perspective the article (and most of the users) didn't consider; or in fact couldn't, seeing as he actually did the things they were talking about. the construction of the post is another matter.

[Nekosan]

I definately think Bennet misjudged his first post. His choice of words weren't great and he definately shouldn't have posted a link back to here. That just screams 'attention ****' and 'advertisment spam' regardless of what the posts actual content was.

I think perhaps writing an editorial on the question of ethics in game journalism for our front page might have been a better idea but i don't think i can really blame him for a knee-jerk reaction when someone questions his journalistic integrity like that.

You can't really take the posts over there to heart because the fact of the matter is that there's always a few VERY vocal people on any forum who dictate (or try to) the direction any debate goes in and forum members tend to be swayed by the well knowns (that's the problem with post counts and non-anonymous posting).

BTW guys, those of you who went over there and got all aggressive are a bunch of **** idiots, if you had argued without the blatant aggressive bias then perhaps jumping in wouldn't have been the worst but in posting how you did you've made us all look like a bunch of shitbags and i'm rather sure bennett won't have appreciated people from over here dragging his integrity down even more in that market by acting like 12 year olds who just discovered the internet. He was handling him self quite fine without bs input and it's probably derailed that thread even more into a flamewar.

[FooIsm]

Hm, true. I wouldn't have expected them to get all pissy about it though, it's not like he spraypainted it on the gravestone of their favourite sheep or something. Jokes aside, I don't see why that take it so seriously, sure there should be rivalry between competing sites, but not unjustified hate.

bhaha, had to happen eventually.

[Lance P King]

That just screams 'attention ****' and 'advertisment spam' regardless of what the posts actual content was.

It seems like a way to help people contextualize his perspective to me, just because marketing potential exists within every human gesture, doesn't necessarily make it a motive for contribution.

[Cloudywolf]

I feel that things started going bad when people started taking things personally. When you come from the outside you might not take things the right way. Like when I was saying don't be children and don't start a flame war, I was referring to both GP members and GON members.

But what do I know, people might just be trolls trying to start a fights.

On topic: What Activision did was well over above and beyond what they needed to do to receive an unbiased review. Spending tens of thousands of dollars on reviewers with the excuse "but we just don't want our game leaked". I mean I can't blame the reviewers, they're just enjoying the perks of their job. Activision on the other hand, they're just doing what ever it takes to get a good review even if it's bribing the reviewers.

And worst of all when someone points out it seems fishy they start to get overly defensive and cancel interviews. There's just no need for that, that's what a child would do like: "I won't talk to Molly because she told James that I had a lazy eye". That just shouldn't happen especially from such a big company like Activision.

PS. That thread was NOT taking a go at GON, it was directed at Activision.

[Nekosan]

On topic: What Activision did was well over above and beyond what they needed to do to receive an unbiased review. Spending tens of thousands of dollars on reviewers with the excuse "but we just don't want our game leaked". I mean I can't blame the reviewers, they're just enjoying the perks of their job. Activision on the other hand, they're just doing what ever it takes to get a good review even if it's bribing the reviewers.

At the same time i think people need to understand that things like this are a rather large part of doing business anywhere in the world, i think bennett actually had a point with the part about the hotel rooms.

If i was invited overseas for a game premiere/preview at a BIG company and i got there and was put in a 3 star hotel i'd probably say "are you **** serious?", sure the helicopter bit was probably over the top but when it's a big company you have to ask yourself "why not?"... people make it sound like they expect journos to fly over there on fedex plane and hitchhike to the studio before being told to go outside to eat their self provided packet of cheetos for lunch. Multi-billion dollar companies throw expensive and fancy advertising functions... boo freaking hoo.

I find it funny that people will rag on this so hard because of the company but i've never seen an angry article about EB vendors shows and things like that, it's also rather hilarious that this whole matter will only get the game MORE press.

[skitzor]

BTW guys, those of you who went over there and got all aggressive are a bunch of **** idiots, if you had argued without the blatant aggressive bias then perhaps jumping in wouldn't have been the worst but in posting how you did you've made us all look like a bunch of shitbags and i'm rather sure bennett won't have appreciated people from over here dragging his integrity down even more in that market by acting like 12 year olds who just discovered the internet. He was handling him self quite fine without bs input and it's probably derailed that thread even more into a flamewar.

thanks bro. feels good.

if you think they believe all of GON is a bunch of **** bags because of 2 posters, feel free to go on there and apologise for all of us.

I feel that things started going bad when people started taking things personally. When you come from the outside you might not take things the right way. Like when I was saying don't be children and don't start a flame war, I was referring to both GP members and GON members.

PS. That thread was NOT taking a go at GON, it was directed at Activision.

fair enough.

also, it may have been directed at Activision to start with, but it quickly turned to GON when bennett posted.
let me quote the things again.

Hahaha go away internoob. Internode has been gaming's cesspool in Australia for a long time

games.on.net the new name for intern00b?
In that case f@#k off.

to be fair, i did say a few nasty things at the start of this thread, but it was more aimed at the particular users posting the stupid comments (in my opinion), rather than the whole forum.

[Wraithlord]

On topic: What Activision did was well over above and beyond what they needed to do to receive an unbiased review. Spending tens of thousands of dollars on reviewers with the excuse "but we just don't want our game leaked". I mean I can't blame the reviewers, they're just enjoying the perks of their job. Activision on the other hand, they're just doing what ever it takes to get a good review even if it's bribing the reviewers.

To be honest, I try to have as little as possible to do with Activision.

I don't like their business methods, I don't like their public figures, I don't like how they treat the gaming community, and I don't like what they've done to the gaming industry.

However I know nothing about how a big business is run, and I can't do anything to change how things are. So I simply avoid Activision and their games.

[Nekosan]

You'll note that when journos were flown over to play Metro 2033 in a soviet era bunker it was "omg cool" rather than "omg bias".

[Shinanigans]

If GON posted a similar article and someone from GamePlanet came here and posted what was posted there (let alone the advertisement!) i can just imagine the oucome...

That being said, the article posted on GP was a massive sook ams hero. Not only was the article needlessly questioning the legitimacy and professionalism of ALL news site journalists who attended the PR event but it also shat on Activision too... and for what? To stand up like a hero and yell out that you won't be 'bought'?

Quite obviously the GP journalists don't trust in themselves enough to be able to write a review [which is, above all else, what they're there for] without being influenced by treatment. That's how it's done and if they can't handle being treated above and beyond in the face of a review then they should probably consider a new career. Just don't **** on everyone else in the process.