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Yvl
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 Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2007 9:23 pm Post subject: |
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Anyway, there've been updates.
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Speaking with a Gamespot employee yesterday who asked not to be named for this story, we've learned that, despite the neutral nature of the Gamespot news item on the matter, the editorial staff is said to be "devastated, gutted and demoralized" over the removal of former editorial director Jeff Gerstmann. While the termination of Gerstmann, a respected fixture at Gamespot, was pitched to his remaining colleagues by management as a "mutual decision", it was anything but, we're told.
The confusion over the reasons for Gerstmann's termination, compounded with a lack of transparency from management has created a feeling of "irreconcilable despair" that may eventually lead to an exodus of Gamespot editorial staffers. "Our credibility," said the source, "is in ruins." Over the course of the previous days, a "large number of Gamespot editors" have expressed their intentions to leave. Tales of emotionally deflated peers, with no will to remain at the site, were numerous.
Unless cooler heads prevail or concerns are addressed, Gamespot could see "mass resignations", our source revealed.
Rank and file employees of the Gamespot organization are unaware of the real reasons behind Gerstmann's termination. Our source admitted that Eidos was less than pleased with the review scores for Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, but the team has "dealt with plenty of unhappy publishers before." Our contact stressed that "Money has never played a role in reviews before" and that "[Gamespot] has never altered a score." No pressure from management or sales has been exercised to remove or alter content, the source reiterated.
However, the source did speculate that disagreements between Gertsmann and VP of games Josh Larson may have been the root cause of the former being terminated. Larson, successor to former editor in chief Greg Kasavin, was described as out of touch with the employees who report to him. The VP is the one allegedly responsible for telling Gamespot editorial staff that it was Gerstmann's "tone" that was at the heart of his dismissal.
"People used to think of Larson as a sort of non-intrusive cousin of Bill Lumberg from Office Space—an empty suit who was more of an annoyance than a liability," our source told us. "Now, people are referring to him as the moron lieutenant from Aliens who sits around stunned, doing nothing as everyone drops dead around him."
The source also indicated that Larson's paraphrased assertion that "AAA titles deserve more attention" was not necessarily a hint that Gamespot's reviewers be more lenient to those titles. Instead, in light of some rather controversial review scores—for example, the 7.5 for Insomniac Games' Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction—the editorial team needed to be more conscious of accuracy and impact of its scores.
As for the now-pulled video of review, it appears the reasons for it's removal are less nefarious than assumed. "Jeff showed up late. It was thrown together quickly, the sound sucked, there was only footage from the first level of the game—it was a mess," our source said. We were told that the redacting of the clip was based on a producer's decision and not a demand from upper management.
However, rumored perception from management that Gerstmann's work had become sloppier, more flippant and smacked of a celebrity attitude may have only been solidified by the questionable quality of the review.
And the removal of the Kane & Lynch site ads, following initial reports? A reflexive action taken by the sales team, a move that may have been executed too late.
What was accurate, according to the Gamespot staffer, was the account of user "gamespot" at sister site Valleywag. The anonymous blow-by-blow "could have been written by a stenographer", indicating that it perfectly captured the sequence of events and emotional landscape at the company—one of confusion, fear and anger.
The overflowing emotions, combined with a lack of transparency from CNet and Gamespot management has lead the full-time editorial staff to near mutiny. Some feel the site's brand has been irrevocably tarnished, that the controversy is "a cataclysmic event in Gamespot history."
At this point, editors at Gamespot seem most frustrated that CNet management isn't listening to their concerns. Poor decision making has been and continues to be a sore spot, with a CNet internal investigation into Gamespot's review practices and code of ethics—one handled by outsider Jai Singh, editor in chief at News.com—adding to that frustration.
Our Gamespot source pointed out that during the course of the week, we may see a more human, more revealing version of the story, as editorial staff will address the situation in podcasts and videos. If parent company CNet will respond to editorial requests for greater transparency of the situation, a move that may help repair the mental health of staffers and the bruised credibility of Gamespot itself, remains to be seen.
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Basically they may be seeing mass resignitions over this. The staff is pretty pissed.
I wont kill you with quotes so...
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6183666.html
http://www.joystiq.com/2007/12/05/comparison-shows-significant-edits-to -gerstmanns-kane-and-lynch-r/
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Timbo
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| Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2007 11:24 pm Post subject: |
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Reading the original review posted and the new one, I think the new one sounds much more professional. The first one's language sounds way too juvenile and the new ones sounds much more objective. Jeff had a history of doing that, so I could see him being talked to about it, but I don't know if it calls for firing him for it.
I'd like to see evidence that the Kane and Lynch advertisements were set up for a predetermined amount of time. If their time frame did happen to end at the same time by coincidence, it adds some credibility to Gamespot's stance.
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Leb
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| Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 12:54 am Post subject: |
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| Since his entire job revolves around him writing professional articles, I can see his constant immaturity being grounds enough for termination. |
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Oppenheimer
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| Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 12:59 am Post subject: |
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Exactly what I think. I think he just got sloppy and they let him go for that. The review for Kain and Lynch wasn't well done, it has nothing to do with it being negative or not. It was just not negative in a professional way. I doubt it has anything to do with the advertising at all.
If you listen to the pod cast the other members hint that they don't want to say anything more about Jeff because they don't want to tarnish his good name. In other words the company did have good reason for getting rid of him (ie. he was slacking off) it's just that they didn't do it in a very PC way. They just canned him without notice. Which really is what happens in the real world (it happened to me last month), it's just that it's not something you can do when he's a "celebrity".
Oh and "autoerotic asphyxiation"? how is that a tag? . . .
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Yvl
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| Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 1:40 am Post subject: |
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Really it all is just too suspicious. I for one don't believe Cnet at all. The public has concluded that Cnet was taking bribes, and now it's up to them to prove otherwise, which just isnt happening.
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Leb
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| Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 2:15 am Post subject: |
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What are they going to do, disclose their personal records?
It's become all too obvious that the gaming community has taken this story and run with it. Always the corporation, never the little guy. |
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Luceit
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| Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 4:46 am Post subject: |
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I'll have to agree with Leb's observation based on how gamers at Kotaku reacted. Despite the initial assertion that the article itself was based on a rumor, many people were ready to believe that Gerstmann was fired solely because Gamespot didn't want to anger Eidos. I'd say that they were the same people who also think of Gerstmann as a reviewer who loves his job and is not afraid to speak his opinion. The main issue of contention in the discussion involved Jeff's 8.8 score for Twilight Princess and whether he was biased in his reviews.
Obviously, he would have gotten fired if he was constantly unprofessional. I'd say that Gamespot's mistake was to have fired him under such a situation.
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| Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 5:02 am Post subject: |
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You know I loved Twilight Princess but that's a fair number, I wouldn't expect it to get a 10 from any reviewer unless they were Nintendo junkies (Like myself).
It was the same type of game I played before and only made the smallest improvements. The saving grace was the great story and supporting cast which for once I cared about. It was all a great experience tied by a similar system which made it an above average game which I think an 8.8 sums up nicely.
/rant
And it's obvious that their final motivation for firing him was the reviews tone, but in all honesty he said the game had good ideas but didn't make the grade in key areas which is acceptable and I think he should be allowed to vent his anger over what he simply thought was a rent title only because of glaring errors he found with the title. Many reviews I've read have received the same treatment.
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Luceit
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| Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 5:29 am Post subject: |
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Tek, I would have said the same thing about Twilight Princess, seeing that even some Nintendo fanboys conceded that it was like Ocarina of Time version 2.0. Besides that, 8.8 is already a very good score and it is simply stupid for any series to be given a 10/10 just because it has that brand name.
From what I gather, people are divided on the quality of his Kane and Lynch review. Although almost everyone agreed that the game was simply horrible, opinions of his review ranged from being very helpful to being simply immature even if he got the point across. Some people also mentioned his 10 score for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater.
In any case, some people did say he came off as being biased, which wouldn't be good for a reviewer.
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Timbo
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| Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2007 11:30 am Post subject: |
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| Yvl wrote: |
| Really it all is just too suspicious. I for one don't believe Cnet at all. The public has concluded that Cnet was taking bribes, and now it's up to them to prove otherwise, which just isnt happening. |
Most logical discourse and legal system would say that the public needs proof that it's a lie. Making baseless accusations doesn't mean that the accused needs to prove anything, it's more that the accuser needs to prove the accusation. I mean, if I said "Vextor is actually a monster who is trying to manipulate us all into eating children" and then said it's his responsibility to prove he's not a monster trying to manipulate us to eat children, I'd be crazy. It's the same line of logic here. The accusers need proof of foul play. There's lots of circumstantial evidence, but nothing exact. I don't think Gamespot has to prove anything, but I think for the sake of company, they should for PR purposes.
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| Since his entire job revolves around him writing professional articles, I can see his constant immaturity being grounds enough for termination. |
I think this should be true, but I don't know if it certainly the case with gamespot. Since gamespot works off of advertisements, for the sake of the company it could be more important to simply get people to come to the site than to have objectve interviews. If a reviewer gives really popular reviews that aren't so objective, but gets people in, it's bad for journalism but good for business. He could have been kept for celebrity status over being an objective reviewer.
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