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Man this lady, I'm kinda glad she blocked me. Whew.
"Alternate content", man I wish I could ask for free games for "alternate content".-
@gameragodzilla "Alternate content" just like "alternate facts"
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@maiyannah Hey, I write tweets on the internet. That's alternate content regarding a game. Can I have a review code? kthxbye
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@gameragodzilla Honestly I have no problems with it being for something other than a review as long as the developer knows that this is the case, but as the developers themselves said about the review in question, they gave REVIEW code for the purposes of REVIEW. And they did make a "review". Just nothing you'd actually call one.
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@maiyannah What exactly is the "alternate content" they talk about anyways? Sounds to me like it's nothing but fluff that tells me as a reader absolutely grape all.
And really, if I want that fluff, Youtube is far better. -
@gameragodzilla If you go to a dev and say "hey I'd like to make a lets play series for your game can I have a code" and they say "yeah mang here's one" that's FINE. It happens ALL THE TIME. but in that case the purpose of the code is made entirely clear with the developer and it's all above board.
Taking a code provided for review and using it for something other than review is to me basically the violation of an implicit, if not explicit, contract. And it makes it harder for smaller outlets (hi) to be trusted with review code when people violate that compact. Every time someone gets burned, the whole industry gets more wary. -
@gameragodzilla News and walkthroughs mostly, but they mostly lift the walkthroughs from GameFAQs anyways I think.
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@maiyannah Yeah. Really the bullgrape surrounding review codes is why I'm starting to get burned out on the entire idea and want to just wait until way after launch when people I trust actually get a hold of the game.
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@maiyannah Why would I go to IGN to read a walkthrough when I've got 1000 different let's plays?
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@gameragodzilla I've kind of gone off asking for them myself, it's so hard these days because of _exactly these kinds of shenanigans_ for a small outlet like myself. Unless it's a publisher I have an existing relationship with (FHI for instance) or a PR company I keep in contact with (like Evolve PR) its got like a 1% chance of me getting a code given how small HLA is.
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@maiyannah Yeah. But hey, I'm willing to wait because I trust you over any other big site anyways.
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@gameragodzilla Every new game for them is basically a rush to be among the first to report on them so they get the most adrev, but they're vultures circling over an increasingly gaunt and unsubstantial corpse.
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@maiyannah Yeah. That's also why there's a rise in clickbait and political nonsense. Thing is people don't read IGN or Polygon or Kotaku or Gamespot for the site itself, they read them just because they're the first ones out with a game they're interested in.
That's why I created a separate account to follow all the publishers and developers directly, so I can get news from them directly. Straight from the horse's mouth, never have to click on a traditional game site again (not that I ever do so without adblock).
And now you also know why I deal with Tweetdeck's grapety UI. XD -
@gameragodzilla The "legitimate" part of her argument that wasn't her just attacking my experience and saying I don't know what I'm talking about was her saying that they basically *had* to have all the fluff pieces because it's "what people want" - by which she means that's what gets maximal ad revenue. That's not entirely wrong - it IS what gets maximal ad revenue - but she completely dismissed any other business model as legitimate or workable. Which is provably false. I mean you know my opinion of Jim Sterling, but the papayaer makes ten grand a MONTH on this stuff through Patreon last I checked. You can't tell me that isn't enough for SEVERAL people to live off of.
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@gameragodzilla No doubt why they're struggling for relevance and ad revenue, honestly.
What keeps them alive is the inertia of a fan base that doesn't want to move on from a site that seems well past its prime. -
@maiyannah Thing with Jim though is that Jim, as much as I think he's a complete jackass, is someone who people will listen to him talk about a game for him, so they'll wait until he covers a game. Same thing with a lot of people who build up a brand around themselves or their own particular site rather than a traditional enthusiast press where the games themselves are at the complete forefront and the sites themselves are otherwise interchangable.
But that's why I think these sites will eventually die. Traffic is already falling because people at this point start realizing they care more about what the people they trust think rather than who's first, and can often follow a company directly for info like myself. -
@maiyannah Yeah but it'll eventually die. Gametrailers was a site I use to browse regularly and it died. I think it's back in some form now but it's a shadow of its former self.
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@gameragodzilla Youtube is basically filling the niche that those sites once filled, for news and other fluff pieces. It's why I stopped really chasing news unless Trever has something for tabletop gaming, which is a WOEFULLY underserved demographic.
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@gameragodzilla Yeah but also notice how long it died. Like I said, the inertia of people that don't want to move on is why it takes so long. But I'd agree it's inevitable. It just isn't going to happen tomorrow unless they pull a Gawker.
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@maiyannah Pretty much. Hell I don't even need the sites themselves anymore, I just subscribe to their channels directly and follow their accounts on Twitter and I get all the news I really need. For walkthroughs, video content is always better than plain text, and for reviews of the game's quality, I'll wait for you or some other small timers I trust to check it out
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@maiyannah True but it is still a shadow of its former self. Enough to survive but not enough to be relevant. Or retain its former creators
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@gameragodzilla Probably not making anyone but the corporate owner any money, either. A lot of those sites pay their editors nothing. Which is why you get quality editors running polls about which word about a sexual characteristic is more "gross" like we're in middle school.
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@gameragodzilla IGN is probably an exception to that but most of these "new media" sites make a fraction of what newspaper writers make even today.
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@gameragodzilla There's something to be said for GOOD text walkthroughs like images such as Something Awful used to do, hell thats actually where Yahtzee got his start when it comes to games writing you know, but you don't get that kind of quality in written walkthroughs anymore and its much EASIER to make a video one since even if you can't organize thoughts for a papaya the video's still in front of you.
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@maiyannah IGN is only this due to how much money they retained from their glory days.
Ah well, if there's one good thing that came out of GG for me it's that I was kinda forced into developing alternative methods of getting gaming news and reviews and I found a pretty good system. Look at news directly, wait for reviewers I trust, talk to my friends and click on as little traditional game sites as possible, and if done so, always with adblock -
@gameragodzilla Yeah. I just avoid them altogether because I dont want them to skew my view as a reviewer honestly, but thats not a concern for the average person.
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@maiyannah Yeah. In fact, I often don't even listen to the video, I just open it, watch it for a bit until I get to the part I'm having issues, then do that. Much harder to do with text walkthroughs where I have to know which text correlates with which section
I do kinda miss the days of good strategy guides though, where the game creators themselves often wrote how to beat a game. Got pictures, text, and stat breakdowns of everything. Actually first had my exposure to Doom 3 through the strategy guide, hence why I noticed it off a shelf in China. Probably was a pirated copy but it ignited quite a love for that game lol -
@gameragodzilla Back in those days the game creators worked pretty closely with the people writing the guides too. In the Doom 2 strategy guide I have there's even an interview with Romero and Carmack.
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@gameragodzilla Nowadays its pretty regular for even the "good" walkthrough sources to have stuff with pretty obvious mistakes.
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@maiyannah I admit that doing so is still buying into hype culture in a lot of ways, considering all I get from official sources would be marketing material, but hey, it at least gives me stuff to look forward to
And then I just wait for the game to actually come out so I don't get Bioshock Infinite'ed (luckily my best friend took that bullet for me lol) -
@gameragodzilla Being honest with yourself about how your exposure allows the media to manipulate you is step one in properly resisting/dealing with it honestly. A lot of people just sit thinking "well I know better I don't fall for that stuff" and get consumed in the hype vortex every time.
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@maiyannah I know, which I guess is tied with the decline of print media as the internet grew, so quality suffered.
And we're seeing the process repeat here as quality suffers from traditional game sites as alternative media grows -
@maiyannah Yeah. Helps that there aren't that many games I get autistic about these days. It's really only id titles, which well, as dangerously as I'm riding that train, they haven't burned me yet. lol
Otherwise, I tend to try and wait for friends or obtain cheaper copies (usually both) so I don't drop $60 on a turd.
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