Meet James Burt, the 24-year-old Australian man who recently settled a court case with Nintendo in the amount of $1.5 million for uploading a copy of New Super Mario Bros. Wii to the internet, according to a recent press release from Nintendo.
Now meet Stuart Campbell, a man who did a better job reporting the incident on his blog than a majority of the journalistic publications out there, even though he too fell short of the mark.
According to various publications – both gaming specific and general hard-news oriented – Burt was “fined” more than a million dollars for a single act of piracy and even convicted of piracy on criminal charges. So what does blogger Campbell have to say about all this?
“The figure has supposedly been arrived at by calculating that the perpetrator’s uploading of the game cost Nintendo 30,000 lost sales, presumably at a cost of AU$50 each. (NSMBW’s sales, incidentally, were 10.5m copies worldwide in its first two months, with over 200,00 of those in Australia – a record for the territory.) It’s being widely implied – or even stated outright – that this is a court judgement. But guess what? As usual, it’s a load of bullshit.” [Link in original].
One of our writers posted a critique of the latest wildly-popular BioWare RPG, Mass Effect 2, on our sister site, InfoAddict, and it’s seriously stirred up the emotions of quite a few fanboys so we thought we’d reprint it here for you to enjoy (or hate) too. (If you’d like to read some of the encouraging comments and fiery criticisms left on the original post, you can find it here.)
With an average score of 96 on Metacritic, one would be justified in believing Mass Effect 2 has little room for improvement. An overwhelming majority of so-called game critics have weighed-in, predictably showering Bioware’s latest RPG with roses and garlands.
Bioware is one of a select number of game companies that receives a +3 modifier in review scores. So take an average game that would normally receive a 7, add Bioware’s name to the box, and oila! Instant 10. While this may be great for Bioware’s bottom-line, it’s actually a grave disservice to the company and gamers, not to mention a glowing example of everything that is wrong in game journalism; criticism specifically.
Having played and finished Mass Effect 2, I can safely say, without reservation or hesitation, that Bioware’s latest RPG is a complete mess, from top-to-bottom and not a product worthy of Bioware’s heritage.
Uncharted 2 is enjoying stellar reviews, riding high with a 96 average on Metacritic and standing tall as the critical darling of 2009. In fact, the lowest score a critic could muster was an impressive 9, meaning Uncharted 2 must be damn-near perfect in every way. Unfortunately, my experience with Uncharted 2, which I played to completion, was not that of a 9-10 rated game. Quite the contrary.
Before I launch an attack on Uncharted 2, allow me to proclaim some praise where it is due.
Lush, Detailed Graphics
Uncharted 2 is one of the most beautiful-looking games you’ve ever seen. The attention to detail, set design, and tons of little touches all conspire to push the PS3 to its maximum capability. The artists and level designers truly delivered something fantastic.
Great Voice-Acting
99% of videogames have horrendous voice-acting by 5th-rate talent that would be better served by abandoning the acting and relying solely on subtitles. Not so with Uncharted 2. Here the acting is solid and lines are delivered with something akin to emotion, which is nice to hear.
That’s pretty much it for my positives. Now on with the show.
Great Graphics Do Not Make a Great Game read more…
The Federal Trade Commission has voted 4-0 that bloggers must now disclose any payments or freebies they receive in exchange for reviewing a product. Fines for failing to disclose this information are currently set at $11,000 per offense. As someone who has written thousands of game reviews, features, interviews and previews for a wide-variety of offline and online media (using several different pen names, so you might as well stop searching), I welcome this ruling with open arms.
The state of videogame journalism has never been as low as it is right now. Countless bloggers are on the take, eager to take those freebie trips to one event after another, put up in nice hotels with comped dinners, supplied with endless swag and secret advertising deals in exchange for a positive spin on a new product. When radio was a dominant force, this kind of activity was called Payola and it happens to be illegal. For far too long, the videogame industry has been getting away with murder in how it behaves with magazines and websites.
If I were to ever divulge the offers made to me over my 20 years in the industry, your hair would turn white. Much to my credit, I never buckled and kept my integrity intact, though the same can’t be said for the vast majority of sites out there who are actively involved in incestuous relationships with the very companies they are expected to be critical of. Perhaps I’ll write a book about my experiences some day, when I have plenty of money to fend off the inevitable lawsuits.
Gamasutra publisher Simon Carless shared on his blog today that Edge Games CEO Tim Langdell allegedly issued legal threats and contacted Carless’s superiors and legal department over an article Carless originally posted on Gamasutra on May 28.
The article, which takes an investigative look into the recent removal of Mobigames’ iPhone title “Edge” as well as Langdell’s alleged litigation history regarding legal use of the term “Edge,” suggests that a Wikipedia page dedicated to Langdell may have been authored by Langdell’s wife, Cheri Langdell. Langdell’s Wikipedia page has been flagged for deletion and has a disclaimer at the top stating, “A major contributor to this article appears to have a conflict of interest with its subject.”
Carless states in a blog entry that after posting the original article on May 28, he then contacted Langdell for a comment and/or rebuttal. During this admission he also made it known that Langdell subsequently made several statements which Carless “construed to be of a legally threatening nature.”
For E3 this year you might have noticed that we realized we wouldn’t be able to compete with the big boys for coverage. There are just too many of them and it’s too tightly orchestrated to expect to get much that is of unique interest to our readers. But that doesn’t mean that we weren’t there and paying close attention to more than just the lights and sounds, and booth babes of E3. In fact, we were able to find one small story of note that might have slipped by some of the other sites that gives an interesting insight into the industry itself.
It’s seen here in this easy to miss poster at the top of the escalators leading to the entrance of the show:
It’s meant to be a humorous advertisement from a firm called Hammersuit and it reads, “Mr. Destructoid wants your business, but is too busy blogging spending cheese to take your call. That’s where we come in.” Last year Hammersuit annouonced that they had “partnered up with” Destructoid, one of our favorite editorial sites, in a press release they sent out. Here is an excerpt from it…
PARAMUS, NEW JERSEY – April 7, 2008 – Hammersuit, LLC, a consulting and business development company in the video games industry today announced the launch of an extensive partnership with popular gaming websites Destructoid, GoNintendo, Gamersyde and Modojo. Hammersuit will provide all four sites with advertising sales, consulting, sponsorship opportunities and other business development services. The partnership gives the independent websites the opportunity to focus on their acclaimed editorial content, while gaining access to Hammersuit’s vast business development network and games industry experience.
“Hammersuit has played a vital role in Destructoid’s growth,” said Yanier Gonzalez, founder of Destructoid and vice president of ModernMethod, its parent company. “From day one, we’ve had access to better sponsors and solid consulting advice – because they’ve been there and done that. I would recommend Hammersuit to anyone trying to carve out a name in the gaming space.”
“We’re welcoming Destructoid, GoNintendo, Gamersyde, and Modojo to the Hammersuit network because they are admired, dynamic web destinations for gamers,” says Jill Keil, CEO of Hammersuit. “They provide high-quality coverage of the gaming industry and have built vibrant, thriving communities in a way few other sites have been able to accomplish.”
Founded in 2003, Hammersuit consults with companies in the video game industry to provide them with editorial planningand production, web production, and business services. In addition, Hammersuit’s partner network includes some of the most creative video game coverage on the web, including Destructoid.com, GoNintendo.com, GamerSyde.com, and Modojo.com. Hammersuit is located at www.hammersuit.com.
What’s interesting here is not that they are providing Destructoid with business consulting and advice, or even ad sales. For some of the more cynical among us, it may not even be that they are providing them with “sponsorship opportunities”, ad sales, and editorial planning – a situation many would say directly conflicts with journalistic objectivity. However, it is the first time we’ve seen a big poster at the entrance of the industry’s biggest press event bragging about such an arrangement.
We think it’s a miss-step by Hammersuit and don’t really fault Destructiod. Admittedly, business is tuff right now. A number of sites have gone under recently and we just suffered a dramatic downsizing ourselves, so we appreciate a company’s need to look beyond its own doors to stay afloat. However, readers should never forget that sites are companies and so editorial objectivity will always come down to your trust in the personal integrity of the editors you read. Most of us think things like the recent upsets with the staff at Gamespot are a good thing for the industry and highlight the commitment we have to our readers, but they also show that the biggest lessons to be learned are for advertising and their power to taint the relationship the writers have with their audience.
For Destructoid’s sake, we think Hammersuit should have thought a little harder before implying that they’re the ones to go to get the attention of their writers.
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