Corruption, consumer hate and bad journalism in games journalism

#Gamergate has been a long time coming. The video game journalism business has been a corrupt, inaccurate mess for quite some time

Trip Hawkins threatens GamePro over Portal Runner Review Trip Hawkins threatened to pull advertising from GamePro after Portal Runner received an unfavorable review

EDGE Magazine declares that the age of the hardcore gamer is ending EDGE warns that the days of the hardcore gamer are over.

Driv3r is given blatantly high scores by Futures Publishing Threads discussing it on the GamesRadar Forum are eventually deleted, though too late to hide the news that staffers gave 9/10 reviews to an unfinished game.

NCSoft promotes Tabula Rasa with Zero-G ride for journalists Per person each ride was worth at least $5000

Jeff Gerstmann fired over Kane and Lynch Score Jeff Gerstmann was fired from Gamespot for giving a less than glowing review for Kane and Lynch: Dead Men after publisher Eidos threatened to pull advertising from the site

IGN Reviewer Gives Football Manager a 2/10 because he thought it was FIFA No really. This really happened.

Eurogamer gives Darkfall a 2/10, barely plays game Eurogamer's journalists don't even play meaningful time on a game before reviewing

EA stages a fake Dante's Inferno protest Fake christian nutsos hired for a marketing stunt.

EA sends out $200 checks to promote Dante's Inferno to journalists EA sent $200 checks to journalists to promote Dante's Inferno

Activision sends out Ipods with World At War: Zombies For a $10 game.

Famitsu gives MGS: Peace Walker 10/10, is advertised in game Not only did Famitsu get promoted in-game, an executive starred in advertising for it

Joystiq editor Justin McElroy literally runs an "I ragequit" review Instead of actually reviewing the game (Nier) and writing about it, he drops a few short paragraphs about how it was hazardous to his sanity.

Robert Florence threatened with libel suit after pointing out conflict of interest in PS3 Giveaway for journalists Robert Florence raised questions in a Eurogamer article about a conflict of interest at a PS3 giveaway to journalists. Eurogamer was threatened with a libel suit and he left.

Bioware employee attempts to sneak in perfect metacritic user score A bioware employee tried to sneak a perfect Metacritic user score onto the Dragon Age 2 page. Didn't go over so well.

Duke Nukem's PR threatens sites over scores The Redner Group states on twitter that sites that give low reviews will not receive review copies of future games

EA tries to manipulate Battlefield 3 scores EA sent out surveys to outlets asking about the reviewers before providing a copy of the game.

IGN rushes through a game on low difficulty, lies about it IGN burns through PixelJunk Sidescroller on the lowest difficulty, says they did it on a higher difficuly, and complains about lack of content.

Dennis Scimeca of JoystiqDivision blames gamers for the downfall of games journalism Because We're the ones making them run clickbait stupidity.

Kotaku attacks criticism of COD MW2, has massive MW2 banner ads in background Like nobody would notice?

Famitsu revealed to have contract for ratings with Square Enix Former games writer Hasan Ali Almaci reveals just how corrupted the games reviewing industry got. Among the tidbits is a not that Famitsu is contractually obligated to give Square Enix games 7 or higher.

IGN runs endless articles on ME3 for nearly 2 months; IGN employee featured in said game The same ME3 that was widely derided by actual gamers.

CEO of Larian Studios describes how broken gaming journalism is Among other things, he describes an example where a PR agent manages to bump a C-type game to a B-type game (79 to 81)

Mass Effect fans are whiny dorks for wanting a better ending Really not much else to say.

EA tries to frame Mass Effect 3 hate as homophobia, spams a petition with bots After the backlash against ME3 EA spammed an anti-homphobia petition with bots.

Kotaku defends Diablo 3's always-online, Diablo 3 ads all over page Says it makes it "a better game"

Numerous gaming news sites run with a photoshopped image A single photoshopped image causes Eurogamer, IGN, Gamespot and others to declare that upcoming titles for the PS Vita had been linked

Ben Kuchera runs rape allegations (later proven baseless) against Max Temkin on Penny Arcade Not only was the suit dismissed with prejudice but the accuser later wrote a public letter of apology

DoritoGate. Geoff Keighly of G4 and Kotaku fame talks about Halo 4 and shills his brains out in front of Doritos, Mountain Dew and a bigass Halo 4 poster

Freelance Writer Rich Stanton details journalism corruption Stanton details more corruption examples in the industry, including GTA4 review tinkering.

New Statesman: If you love games, you shouldn't call yourself a gamer Simon Parkin, a former writer for EDGE, writes that "the idea of the gaming community needs to die"

Devil May Cry fans slandered Displeasure among DMC fans at DMC4 is spun as entitlement by gaming media during February of 2013. The following article is just one of several.

Microsoft creative director Adam Orth: "Deal with always-online" Gamers need to get with the times and accept ridiculous DRM methods. So spake Adam Orth.

EA claims always-online necessary for SiimCity Even though that is patently false considering journalists had pre-launch access.

Sebastian Moss of Playstation Lifestyle talks about rampant backlinking in games journalism Talks about how sites like TechRadar collude to inflate their google search ranking

Destructoid writer suspended for outing fradulent fundraising Allistair Pinsof outs a trans woman who claimed to be fundraising for a life-saving operation but was actually using it for a sex reassignment operation. He is suspended.

Polygon doesn't read it's own source, claims XB1 supports used games. In the mad rush to be first to report, Polygon is massively factually incorrect. Their excuse? It was "A developing story"

Connections get Gone Home a 10/10 on Polygon Polygon's reviewer is old buddies with the game's creator and gets invited on their podcast one week before the review

LazyGamer Writer Gavin Mannion talks about corruption in games journalism He details numerous occurrences during the 2013 year of games studios attempting to influence his writing

EA tries to pay youtubers under the table to promote content EA attempts to pay youtubers for promotion of their content, which is all well and good, except for the express non-disclosure part.

Ubisoft gives out free Nexus tablets to journalists to promote Watch Dogs Tablets were given at an event in Paris

Polygon complains that Tropico 5 "makes you feel like a bully" The premise of Tropico is that you are a dictator. Kind of the point.

40000 forum accounts hacked, unreported because nobody wants to anger EA Publisher of Firemonkeys supressed the release of the informtion for fear of angering EA.

Plaid Social demands positive reviews for early shadow of Mordor Content Early Shadow of Mordor content releases to journalists had strings attached; namely, only positive reviews allowed.

Polygon/Kotaku/Verge attack Shadow of Mordor as being "morally repulsive" Because you kill orcs in it. And kiss your wife. Lord, the horror.