Is the "Gamespot boycott" working?

No

1 of 3

by Calren Crenlon

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Gamers, as well as other other members of the on-line community, tend to forget that the Internet acts as a soapbox and megaphone set. It is true that when Jeff Gerstmann was fired that he had just given Kane & Lynch: Dead Men a fair but heavily critiqued review just as the game was being massively advertised on Gamespot, however there are always at least three sides to every story.

Flying the flag of Devil's Advocacy one could claim that Gerstmann brought his untimely departure upon himself; perhaps he had various issues with management, maybe his idea of causal wear involved excessive nudity, or even one too many review copies of Random Spots Game Oh Whatever had pushed him to the point where puppies looked like hackey sacks. The cold reality of the topic at hand is that even if either of those three situations were real, it would matter as much to the blogosphere as the bloggers matter to the corporate bottom line of the C|Net and its umpteen billion subsidiaries.

Adverti sing is the bread and butter of C|Net's earnings, of this no one can really argue with. Game companies want customers to know when a game is coming out and they want them pumped up into a state of zealotry. Information such as how many times was an ad shown, how percent of the time was it clicked, if the person who clicked the ad later pre-ordered, purchased, or otherwise found out where they could obtain the game is matched against actual sales and through a combination of analyzing the data and a bit of mathematical voodoo, companies decide where they will spend their advertising budget in the future. With businesses sighted in almost exclusively on short-term gain, one can start to see why they would quell those speaking negative of an advertiser's product, even if that person is reviewing the product faithfully and as they actually feel about it. Honesty and integrity are but a few causalities once money and politics become involved.

However it should be noted that those key aspects of a website, and journalism as a whole, are what most businesses and individuals claim to hold dear. The issue is that both honesty and integrity are at a disadvantage to glossed over reviews and hype. As an example, let's assume that someone at the time of the review read it, agreed based on trusting Gerstmann for his previous reviews, and didn't click on the ads, or purchase the game. Even if the user looked at more of his reviews, saw something they did like, clapped their hands together proclaiming it was the game for them and clicked the Best Buy button, there is no way to sugar coat that fact to Eidos. Should C|Net have stuck behind Gerstmann if pressured by Eidos? The simple answer from the reader's point of view is yes. In that situation they would have had a moment of trust and loyalty from their readers, perhaps blogs singing their praises, and so on.

But what about Eidos? Sure, it falls on them for pushing a sub-par project out the door, and the level of ill-will would be about the same in the "ideal" situation as it is now, but the sad truth of the industry and business as a whole is a scapegoat is seen as a nearly effective while far less expensive solution to most problems. The review would be pointed to as the sole cause of poor sales, low employee morale, and the end of civilization as humans know it. While that level of melodrama would be self contained for a short period, what would they do? Would they pull their advertising on Gamespot? Possibly if they left themselves an out in the contract. The real concern of C|Net, I believe, is that Eidos would refuse to advertise future games on their sites. One title that comes to mind is Age of Conan, which they will be co-publishing with Funcom. Since the hype level for Age of Conan at the time of this example is roughly 1.21 John Lennons, the picture starts to become more clear.

Sadly, GameSpot chose the simple, and more often traveled path. Those of us that get our information from blogs and webcomics that have a larger following than some religions, while being vocal and quick to react, tend to lack conviction. We're also not the entire gaming population, as studies have shown that new gamers of all walks of life are joining the ranks daily. GameSpot is still the 800-pound gorilla, it will take a lot more to bring them down. Time itself as well as new ideas are most likely more effective than posts and MySpace comments.

In the end more people such as Frank Provo, Alex Navarro, and now Ryan Davis will likely flee the undead war engine of flesh and souls that Gamespot has become. Perhaps the four of them will start a new project set on lofty ideals such as truth in reviews, quality content, and site design that isn't bogged down with so much advertising that navigation requires a skill check. Or maybe they'll all just buy horses and ride around in circles outside their old job.

Learn more about this author, Calren Crenlon.
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