Behind the Scenes: Gaming Journalism (Part 5)
By Shoe
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
(Note: Crispin and I have discussed this, and I decided to leave specific names out of this post. Why? Cause I have no desire to wreck anyone’s careers, and this is not some media watchdog site like, say, Video Game Media Watch. I don’t have any responsibilities to the industry or to any readers here. I’m just, ya know…blogging…about some behind-the-scenes stuff.)
Last time, I raised a bunch of questions on whether some of these extravagant game-company-sponsored events are justifiable or not. A live UFC fight? Arguably yes, because, hey…did the videogame capture the feel of the sport? Did it get the nuances and ambiance right for the hardcore fans and consumers who do attend these events? Did it mo-cap that ring girl’s ass just right? But also arguably no, because a reviewer who’s not familiar with the sport can do his research via Spike TV and pay-per-view, right? (Don’t worry, would-be UFC reviewers…the ring girls strut their stuff aplenty on your home picture boxes.)
OK, then…how about the World Series? Or the Super Bowl? I’ve been offered free tickets to both from game companies that are either just being friendly and buttering me up (Microsoft = World Series) or that have games in that respective sport (Sega = Super Bowl). At that point, it’s hard for me to tell my readers that, yes, I needed to attend those because it would make me a better editor (especially when I don’t review sports games), so I had to pass. Also helping me with my decision: my former employer’s policy on not accepting gifts, and yes…those are certainly gifts. Pricey ones at that.
But Sony has invited the press out to a non-playoffs SF Giants game before, and I have accepted that invitation. How come? I felt some of my own pressure to attend because I wanted to maintain good relations with Sony, and I knew a lot of my competitors would be there. And selfishly, yeah, I knew I’d have a good time, cause the Sony reps are nice folks and it would be a nice evening out at the ballpark.
Since this was a regular-season ticket we’re talking about here (my company’s corporate editorial policy allowed me to take stuff up to $50 in value) and not some multi-hundred-dollar dealie (like a World Series or Superbowl ticket), I thought it’d be OK for me to attend.
On the ride there, however, I did observe something that bugs me to this day. All of us guests were in a van on the way to the game, and one out-of-state editor yelled out to the Sony PR guy up front, “Hey, when are you going to come out to ___________ and take us out to a ___________ game?” (I had to leave out the city and name of the baseball team out because then you’d know exactly who’s in this story.)
Here was this editor who just outright asked Sony to treat them to a baseball game…in front of a bunch of his peers, no less. Was this just accepted behavior in my industry? But then again, who am I to judge? I did accept an invitation to a free baseball game myself.
Journalists probably overstep their bounds all the time. A PR person once told me about this well-established freelancer who was a pain in the ass to deal with because he would do things like demand a rebooking of a flight that was already paid for and made for him…simply because he needed to get his miles on another airline (how dare they not know his airline of preference??). Funnier yet, he once asked a game company to FedEx his underwear to him, because he left them behind during a business trip.
What came first? The game companies obliging because the journalists feel entitled? Or the journalists feeling entitled because they’ve been spoiled by the game companies? I’m not sure, but this next story certainly supports the latter.
Editors fly to Japan fairly regularly to visit Japanese game studios. And those studios and their respective publishers will usually entertain these editors — dinner, drinks…the usual. But I guess flying into strange, alien lands deserves high-end hospitality, so Tecmo in the past has treated their American journalist guests to evenings out at Japanese hostess bars, watering holes where women are paid to keep customers company (not necessarily in a “me so horny!” way…it’s more of a “let me keep filling your drinks and you are so funny and handsome and wonderful and let me hang on to your every word!” male-insecurities-nuking thing). Maybe that in itself is nothing shocking, but this part might be: Tecmo has literally spent thousands of dollars giving a very small handful of American editors some lady companionship for one night. Thousands. That’s some pricey conversating.
I get a lot of emails from up-and-coming journalists who want to break into the field, asking how to handle these situations, especially when they’re not part of a big company like Ziff Davis. The stuff I wrote about above? They aren’t going away…probably ever. But a few very simple guidelines can help:
1. Pay your own way. I understand that’s tough to do for some smaller outfits with budgets that are only as big as last week’s allowance, but hey, this is the single best policy to adopt. It keeps game companies from making you feel indebted, and it gives readers peace of mind.
2. Disclose everything. Did company ABC send you to the Bahamas to review game XYZ? Tell the readers about it. They might not like the trip, but at least they’ll appreciate your honesty.
3. Don’t abuse it. Come on…don’t ask the game company to treat you to something. Screenshots? An early copy of the game to review? Sure…but maybe skip singing, “Take me out to the ballgame….”
P.S. Regarding games journalism…. We have the press’ perspective here on Sore Thumbs Blog (that’s me and Crispin). And we published that anonymous letter from a game publisher. Would any of you readers who would be interested in writing a blog post for us from your perspective…the reader/consumer/audience dude? Let us know in the comments, and then we’ll figure out a way to get a good article out of one of yas….