In Response to Colin Moriarty's IGN Video About Mass Effect, a Discussion of the Videogame Medium

[bullet_sandw1ch]

Any journalism outfit that takes bribes looses all credibility and is not a valid source on anything. Opinions are a different story, but even then why would you want to listen to someone who's sacrificed their journalistic integrity for money?

Does it really matter why they lost their journalistic integrity? I can just as easily ask you why you read any of the articles on the escapst? Its like like the guys here have any more integrity then IGN, the only difference is why they dont have any. Well except for Yahtzee anyways that guy still has journalistic integrity of a sorts.

as much as i love his videos, yahtzee is nothing if not a professional troll. if a game has any good features, they are buried by problems that only he sees. the video game journalist community is somewhat corrupt, but the average consensus goes against what he often says.

for example:
in the gears of war 3 review, yahtzee did not mention a single redeeming feature in what was essentially the xbox 360's killer app. im not defending musclenecks of walls 3, but it was an impressive game gameplay and graphics wise.

 

[anthony87]

Ah, yes, "Colin Moriarty". The IGN journalist alleging that a change to the end of Mass Effect 3 would set a dangerous precedent. We have dismissed his claims. [http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/03/22/is-bioware-setting-a-dangerous-precedent-by-considering-alternative-endings/]

Huh....I made the exact same point to someone in another thread not five minutes ago. Trippy. Of course said person was one of those "Artistic licence, Artistic integrity, art ART ART ARTARTART!!!!" people that piss me off so much when it comes to games so I doubt he'd take the point into consideration.

 

[SoranMBane]

I haven't seen compelling proof that the Escapist is guilty of taking bribes. If there was I wouldn't consider them a valid source either. Integrity is everything. If they've lost it their not worth my time as anything they say could be influenced by a 3rd party.

Oh no im pretty dam sure nobody on the escapist takes bribes or anything. Its just that none of the "journalists" know what the word biased means. Taking bribes isnt the only way to lose your integrity.

My exact problem with the "news articles" on this site. The Escapist isn't so much a news site as it is a personal blog with multiple authors. Almost every news article I've seen here either has a sensationalist headline or is chock-full of biased language and personal opinions. Hell, even having personal pronouns like "I" and "we" outside of quotes is supposed to be a big no-no in real journalism. The only time this kind of thing is acceptable is in reviews and editorials, which is the only thing I come to this site for. I wouldn't trust the reporting here as far as I could throw the reporters.

 

[CleverCover]

Sniiiiip

Holy shit. Sense, I has discovered someone with it.

This is exactly why everyone screaming about "artistic integrity" make no sense whatsoever. I know they need a reason for the flawed argument, but it makes no sense at all.

And, yay! 1000 posts.

 

[The Pinray]

Isn't Colin Moriarty that innkeeper from Fallout 3..?

Holy shit, I always thought his name (The IGN Editor) was familiar! Now I know why!

On Topic:Is there a point? This thread is officially derailed. Sorry, OP. Well written letter, though.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

You're taking IGN way to serious. Everyone knows they take more bribes than anyone else for their reviews.

You're aware of course, that this website gave Dragon Age 2 a perfect score.

You do know that means nothing. I would have given DA2 a perfect score if in the last quarter of the game I hadn't been told that there were repeat areas. I had been having so much fun with the game I hadn't noticed.

Thinking on it professionally, I would give the game a 9.5 out of 10, on a personal level it gets a 10 out of 10.

It being the only real problem with the game, and such a minimal one, it is easy to see somebody giving the game a perfect score.

On a professional level, I would give Mass Effect 3 a 10 out of 10. Considering that the ending being bad or not is based only in opinion, so it can't effect my judgement on the game. Even if it was part of my judgement, it was such an insignificant part for me, even if I found it bad(which I don't) it wouldn't be enough to take points off from the game.

 

[Devin Simpson]

I think you are horribly wrong. They wrote the game and wrapped it up the way they i.e. THE WRITERS wanted to and to say that just because you disagreed with what they did with THEIR intellectual property and because of that it should be changed is a completely assinine ideal.

 

[Thoric485]

Looking at how BioWare cut up their games for DLC, insert hamfisted cameos and desperately try to fit RPG development into a 2-year cycle, i don't think they have the right to hide behind artistic integrity.

Their recent games are akin to conveyor belt products, with every corner cut to maximize profit. As such they have to meet certain massively-appealing standards, one of which was a happy ending - they did not deliver. They deserve every bit of what they're getting.

 

[DeadYorick]

Isn't Colin Moriarty that innkeeper from Fallout 3..?

Thats what I thought when I read this topic thread

On topic the guy's a dick who is trying to stem the amount of fanboy rage inorder to later make reviews of the DLC so they can continue accepting bribes from EA.

You're taking IGN way to serious. Everyone knows they take more bribes than anyone else for their reviews.

Just because they take a lot of bribes does not mean that they cant be right some times though, kind of like in this situation.

Either your brainwashed or trolling. I'm banking on the latter since I don't believe a person could literally say something so stupid. I don't even think the people who bribe journalists believe that.

 

[RaikuFA]

You're taking IGN way to serious. Everyone knows they take more bribes than anyone else for their reviews.

It's probably a tie between them and Gamespot.

Game Informer probably makes it a three way of bribes.

God do all 3 suck.

 

[carpathic]

Any journalism outfit that takes bribes looses all credibility and is not a valid source on anything. Opinions are a different story, but even then why would you want to listen to someone who's sacrificed their journalistic integrity for money?

Does it really matter why they lost their journalistic integrity? I can just as easily ask you why you read any of the articles on the escapst? Its like like the guys here have any more integrity then IGN, the only difference is why they dont have any. Well except for Yahtzee anyways that guy still has journalistic integrity of a sorts.

I haven't seen compelling proof that the Escapist is guilty of taking bribes. If there was I wouldn't consider them a valid source either. Integrity is everything. If they've lost it their not worth my time as anything they say could be influenced by a 3rd party.

I don't think the staff here are taking bribes, I think their attitudes toward the opinions expressed by many of their readers are more tied into an "us (computer game industry) vs. them (consumers)" ideology. They are just stuck in the paradigm, plus to acknowledge the criticisms, in their minds, would undermine their own review. Which didn't exactly go out of its way to mention the much-despised ending.

Truly, artists make terrible critics, they can humanize and empathize with their subjects too closely. I suspect that is what has happened here. Most of the people who work for the escapist probably have friends that work for game companies (where else would they get their scoops?). It is a small step then, for their friends to see criticism of their product as personal criticism. No one wants that, so the Escapist, IGN etc, just back up their friends; then they call the rest of us who might be unhappy "crybabies" or "entitled".

 

[Fappy]

Any journalism outfit that takes bribes looses all credibility and is not a valid source on anything. Opinions are a different story, but even then why would you want to listen to someone who's sacrificed their journalistic integrity for money?

Does it really matter why they lost their journalistic integrity? I can just as easily ask you why you read any of the articles on the escapst? Its like like the guys here have any more integrity then IGN, the only difference is why they dont have any. Well except for Yahtzee anyways that guy still has journalistic integrity of a sorts.

I haven't seen compelling proof that the Escapist is guilty of taking bribes. If there was I wouldn't consider them a valid source either. Integrity is everything. If they've lost it their not worth my time as anything they say could be influenced by a 3rd party.

I don't think the staff here are taking bribes, I think their attitudes toward the opinions expressed by many of their readers are more tied into an "us (computer game industry) vs. them (consumers)" ideology. They are just stuck in the paradigm, plus to acknowledge the criticisms, in their minds, would undermine their own review. Which didn't exactly go out of its way to mention the much-despised ending.

Truly, artists make terrible critics, they can humanize and empathize with their subjects too closely. I suspect that is what has happened here. Most of the people who work for the escapist probably have friends that work for game companies (where else would they get their scoops?). It is a small step then, for their friends to see criticism of their product as personal criticism. No one wants that, so the Escapist, IGN etc, just back up their friends; then they call the rest of us who might be unhappy "crybabies" or "entitled".

I agree. That's a pretty likely scenario for many of these cases.

 

[Rawne1980]

I haven't seen compelling proof that the Escapist is guilty of taking bribes.

Maybe not bribes but after the DA2 review by Tito i'm guessing they do drink a lot.

No Tito, you are never living it down.

On Topic.

I stopped reading his comments when he started insulting fans of the game in defence of the innocent princess that is BioWare. Because we all know developers are not big enough to take criticism by themselves.

 

[Thoric485]

Marvel at the utter hypocrisy. [http://m.ign.com/articles/1114043]

Obviously, the fact that Cole has been reverted back to his old self (somewhat) is great news. After all, Greg and I did our fair share of whining on Podcast Beyond after the new Cole was first shown on the cover of Game Informer some months back. Of course, I'd love for Sucker Punch to bring back Cole's old voice, too, but hey ? beggars can't be choosers.

But beyond (BEYOND! [http://m.ign.com/podcasts/1112074]) the excitement I feel to have old Cole back in Infamous 2, I think the sudden change in character model says a lot more. Indeed, it says a great deal about Sucker Punch itself. This is a studio that listens to its fans, cares what they want, and attempts to cater to as many of them as possible. There's no doubt that fans of a franchise can't be trusted with every little thing (after all, look at how many people were completely and utterly wrong when they predicted Wind Waker would suck based solely on its graphics ? I still laugh at those people today), but it still delivers a rather important point.

But with the new Cole design, Sucker Punch heard loud and clear what fans of Infamous wanted, and they delivered. Infinite amounts of kudos to them for doing right by their community. Fans of Infamous won't soon forget it. Sucker Punch is one of Sony's most valuable developers. They are tuned-in with the PS3 faithful, and it's things like this that prove it.

You can apply his entire argument about entitlement from that video, word by word, to his own complaints about Cole's redesign 2 years ago.

It's fucking hilarious.