Comments on: Embargoes: the enthusiast press is not special

By: Darius Kazemi

Darius Kazemi — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 11:25:28 +0000

While I generally agree with you, in this case it was a calculated rhetorical move meant to remind people that Activision is a publicly traded company. It is meant to alienate the reader and make them feel like no, they really aren’t the audience of these corporate machinations — the stock brokers are. (If you look at the rest of my blog, you’ll see that I never use stock abbreviations.)

By: Jeff

Jeff — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 10:26:30 +0000

Can you please stop the obnoxious practice of referring to companies by their stock ticker symbol? Honestly, what is the point? Who actually prefers this? The name of the company is Activision, not ATVI. You can put the ticker symbol in parentheses once, but any more than that is completely unnecessary and it makes the article less readable.

By: Dhin

Dhin — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 08:58:39 +0000

As long as you realise MVC isn’t part of the enthusiast press this article is pretty decent, nice going.

But I must point out that MVC is aimed at the trade and they aren’t too interested in critiques. What they really want to know is where the advertising money has been spent so they’ll know which titles to push to the front. So MVC is pretty much the only magazine with a decent excuse to print marketing fodder to their readers.

By: wolfkin

wolfkin — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 04:56:16 +0000

Perhaps there is only so far an outlet can go before it reaches of point of having high credibility, but little substantive, breaking news. Is such an outlet still competitive?

There’s an argument to be made that it’s a fast competition to the bottom. Just because sites are getting every story doesn’t mean they should be posting EVERY story. That’s how we get articles about stuff like “Maybe this is what the CoD menu look like” or “This is our review of this 80 hour game that we’ve had for 3 days” or even more fun the “This is an article on brain chemistry but the author has the same name as Mario so we’ll post it”. There’s a lot of room for the gaming press to slow the snot down. A lot of articles don’t need to be posted. Press releases can be summarized and/or linked rather than regurgitated.

Maybe outlets would be MORE competitive if I didn’t have to wade thru “look at my gaming tattoo” or “check out my wedding mario cake galleries” to get to actual news.

By: Ken Lowery

Ken Lowery — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 20:45:24 +0000

Any publication that will run the quoted segment is not worthy of the name “publication,” let alone “journalism.” That is advertising that you are shills, bought and paid for, and that being shills is one of your primary virtues. I cannot imagine press in any other medium acting this way, and certainly not acting this way and being taken seriously.

By: The Sunday Papers | Rock, Paper, Shotgun

The Sunday Papers | Rock, Paper, Shotgun — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 10:57:54 +0000

[...] and its attending press outlets. Firstly this over on MCV, which has drawn responses such as this one, and then there’s this from Kotaku. Hmm.Bits ‘n’ Bytes remembers Evil Genius, and [...]

By: Roundup of Unusual Size: A movie tie-in ARG that helps science, and a few belabored Biblical metaphors : Nightmare Mode

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 06:06:22 +0000

[...] And Darius Kazemi (who has one of my favorite names for a games blogger) at Tip of the Sphere weighs in on the current Kotaku-Warner Bros embargo kerfuffle with “the enthusiast press is not special.” [...]

By: Strangeblades

Strangeblades — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 23:14:27 +0000

Ach. Edit! Where’s my copy editor?!

By: Strangeblades

Strangeblades — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 23:13:14 +0000

To expand on this: Instead of talking to fans talk to competitive players – the ones who work hard not only to be better players but to foster communities around their chosen games. Get their take on what’s new with their favourite title. For example changes in Starcraft 2? Go to talk to Team Liquid.

And throw in comments from other press. Often on international news coverage a newspaper reporter, who is on the ground as it were, will be the anchor for a television network. At least until they get their own TV people on the scene. Has this been done? Podcasters do this all the time where someone from Site A will be a guest on Site B’s podcast.

By: Keith Andrew

Keith Andrew — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 20:56:16 +0000

In relation to Darius’ original post, I (largely) agree with him – it’s just a fact that, while publishers need press, there are so many press outlets out there that, when you’re Activision, you can afford to pick and choose – especially when the franchise is huge.

However, I do sympathise with MCV’s view. I think there is a difference between picking and choosing which press outlets to go with, and actively being arrogant about it. Whether Activision has crossed this line, I don’t know.

The difference with the mobile biz is, so crowded is the market, that the press arguably has more power. Developers, publishers and PR contacts clamber to make friends, gain coverage – even the big ones. That may change in the future, but we haven’t got to the stage where publishers dictate to the press just yet.