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Ubisoft gave journalists a free Nexus 7 at a Watchdogs Preview event.
- Thread starter Hanmik
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shysaursoft
Member
Should operate, I agree.
No it isn't. Scientific studies have been done to measure how much professionals are influenced by gifts etc. This happens even to doctors with years and years of education who can be swayed by pretty women and free cans of soda pop. To think that free items, trips, and expensive tablets have no impact on your coverage is conveniently naive. The reason these investments are made is that they work.
They make you feel like you can take these things and everything is above board. Ubisoft's mistake was going a little too far and making people feel weird about it. Back to the lab to formulate a way to get impressions without making it feel sleazy.
This is what they're doing. These are the practices that you are complicit in when you take these gifts or bribes lightly. It's not even just about getting a good score for a bad game. It's also about getting an average score for a dreadful game or a good score to an average game, or a great score to just a good game. It may not even be about a score. Maybe your positive preview will be read by other journalists/gamers and that will influence the future review process.
Anytime! Keep on fighting the good fight.
Id feel insulted at getting a nexus 7. At least try a little harder to buy my opinion
Their goal isnt to buy opinions, their goal is to get them to think favorably about Ubisoft in gerneral, so when they are more positive to ubisoft, the journalists think it is completely their opinion, devoid of external influence.
It's way more than Ubi has any business doing really. They've already paid out tons of cash to fly people out to an event. What was the purpose of the Nexus 7 exactly, as its part of an "asset kit"? Is it used in some way in conjunction with the game like with some sort of dual-screen play?
Glass Shark
Banned
[citation needed]
Not trying to be snarky, I genuinely want to see these studies if they exist.
You can point out problems with an industry without thinking it is a fight most worthy of a cause... Pointing out BS, even if inconsequential "in the grand scheme of things" is a good thing. The old "there are people starving in africa" line of thinking is just a waste of thought.
It is a major reason. Look at what determines bonuses. Metacritic scores. Who controls the scoring from an outlet? Who are they buttering up? Think about these things.
GuitarAtomik
Member
Fair enough. I just can't imagine it would ever push the needle in any significant amount for me. I can only speak for myself though.
jim-jam bongs
Member
Rumour has it they showed the journalists iPads first, then handed out Nexus 7s.
No we don't. Kotaku does not accept press junkets or travel from anyone that we cover. If you're going to make these kind of sweeping declarative statements, at least know what you're talking about.
SolidsnackooFoxhound
Banned
Yes, it is. Not dual screen play though. This is the point some people are missing.
I posted 3 studies that showed how refs are influenced, and they are not even being given gifts(supposedly anywho). They have even more incentive to stay above reproach then a game reviewer and they are shown to have bias.
Lalalandia
Member
Public sector rules are far less indulgent of the 'But I won't be effected' delusion because years of scandals and hard numbers prove that personal honesty is not enough to protect you from being influenced by gifts and services. It's a hard truth for folks to accept so they had to codify it into rules that mean I play by them or I sell nothing at all to public sector bodies.
Are we not dangerously close to a false equivalency here though, "Scenario A is nowhere near as corrupting as Scenario B er go we shouldn't care about either"? The Nexus stands out as most folks are simply unaware of the effect of 'non-material' gifts instead believing "I'd like this game just as much if I hadn't flown for free and wasn't staying in a nice 4 star hotel". A desirable $200 electronic device being given away for free is an immediately obvious attempt to influence in the way that press events are not.
shysaursoft
Member
The irony is, an enthusiast press doesn't *need* swag or wine and dine to give an overblown score to a game. After all, we're talking about gamers here. "Oscar-winning dialogue" for GTAIV didn't require a free tablet, fans-who-are-paid-to-write-about-games will say that stuff all by themselves just 10 minutes after playing.
Fair point. I'd imagine that, given enough time, "gaming press", even enthusiast media, will start having to abide by this kind of legislation. We're still in the salad days of gaming journalism, so PR is going to try and milk it for all it's worth before the hammer comes down.
You're right. I didn't mean to say Scenario A is okay because B is so much worse. Both are equally bad in terms of the moral and ethical implications of what's going on here. The Nexus thing just strikes me as funny because, of all things, it had to be something like this that gets the public's attention. But if this is the thing that gets more inquiry done into the matter, then I'm all for it regardless.
Fair point. I'd imagine that, given enough time, "gaming press", even enthusiast media, will start having to abide by this kind of legislation. We're still in the salad days of gaming journalism, so PR is going to try and milk it for all it's worth before the hammer comes down.
You're right. I didn't mean to say Scenario A is okay because B is so much worse. Both are equally bad in terms of the moral and ethical implications of what's going on here. The Nexus thing just strikes me as funny because, of all things, it had to be something like this that gets the public's attention. But if this is the thing that gets more inquiry done into the matter, then I'm all for it regardless.
I'm thinking a lot of those that think this are young adults or teens that don't understand how all of this or life in general really works.
My company buys leads from sites where people are interested in what we offer. You should see the kinds of gifts these companies try and throw at us. You know what would happen if I took one? Instant fired.
jim-jam bongs
Member
The irony is, an enthusiast press doesn't *need* swag or wine and dine to give an overblown score to a game. After all, we're talking about gamers here. "Oscar-winning dialogue" for GTAIV didn't require a free tablet, fans-who-are-paid-to-write-about-games will say that stuff all by themselves just 10 minutes after playing.
GTAIV was shady for different reasons though, it was the first time I recall hearing of reviewers being sequestered in a hotel all weekend with PR breathing down their necks while playing the game.
RedNumberFive
Banned
Yup. I'd be fired if I accepted so much as a pen.
I don't have it here, but I remember reading about it in the last thread.
This is an article, I found just taking a look at Google. I know one of the effects is just from keeping the drug in the doctors mind, but they also talk about wining and dining doctors. It's also about getting your foot in the door.
https://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/submitted/morreim/prescribing.html
Both examples are ethically questionable.
The irony is, an enthusiast press doesn't *need* swag or wine and dine to give an overblown score to a game. After all, we're talking about gamers here. "Oscar-winning dialogue" for GTAIV didn't require a free tablet, fans-who-are-paid-to-write-about-games will say that stuff all by themselves just 10 minutes after playing.
Well it probably has as much to do with getting journalists to go days defending SimCity, and if you think it could be played offline, you literally don't know what you are talking about. The game industry has a lot of advocates in the gaming press, just look at how defended the Xbox DRM was defended by so many in the industry. I would imagine that is the thing they want the most.
shysaursoft
Member
Konami did the same thing for Metal Gear Solid IV. European press was flown to Paris, put in a nice hotel they couldn't leave for the whole weekend, and basically were given the game to play all weekend and fed three meals a day to make sure they didn't die. PR and even Kojima himself were constantly shoulder-surfing each person playing, taking notes of who got where, and how good/bad they were at the game. Pretty crazy.
TotalBiscuit is now "gaming press" too? They grow up so fast.
(Though I doubt TB was wined and dined by MS. Or was he? I have no way of knowing.)I'm a qualified lawyer in the UK (specialising in employment law), and it is arguable that this sort of practice is a breach of the law on bribery (which in the UK is the Bribery Act 2010 - I can't comment on the law in other jurisdictions). It's not clear cut, but it is definitely arguable.
panda-zebra
Member
oh you, tee hee
Steverulez
Member
Seems like a waste of money and bad press for Ubisoft
Lalalandia
Member
Thank you! My google-fu must be particularly weak today, I couldn't find this one earlier.
Dictator93
Member
If you are arguing that the accepting of this OK, or that the practiice should be universal, then I can only say that I probably have a disconnect with your ethics system and worldview.
Konami did the same thing for Metal Gear Solid IV. European press was flown to Paris, put in a nice hotel they couldn't leave for the whole weekend, and basically were given the game to play all weekend and fed three meals a day to make sure they didn't die. PR and even Kojima himself were constantly shoulder-surfing each person playing, taking notes of who got where, and how good/bad they were at the game. Pretty crazy.
TotalBiscuit is now "gaming press" too? They grow up so fast.
Well, he wasnt who I was thinking of, but ya, I would consider him gaming press, he may be on youtube, but he is a big part of his network company he works under. That said he isnt near as objective with that, he hates gamestop and the like and also has a PC perspective on it. Beyond that though TB at least has a reputation of being pro consumer, before industry, so he has more history to stand on, very few in the game press have that. Also his focus was on used game sales, that is about it.
The only thing that I would be unethical is the reviewer giving false praise b/c they got a free phone.If you think game reviewers getting to keep the phones they demoed the game on is as significant as the topics you listed above , then fine but I don't. I am not dismissing all whistle blowers. There is a reason why this story would never hit main stream media. Who is getting hurt.We are talking about opinions here not facts. If a gamer doesn't know that these reviews are not facts then I don't feel bad for them. I would be more concerned with reviewers giving bad scores b/c they did not get special treatment, being that it could mean peoples jobs.
I only ask game makers to make good games and to not penny pinch . The only thing that I would be unethical is the reviewer giving false praise b/c they got a free phone.
BlastProcessing
Member
That's cool. I'm curious, when you get a over-the-top press kit in the mail, what do you do with it?
D
Deleted member 13876
Unconfirmed Member
Robert Cialdini is probably the most regarded figure who's done studies about this. He identifies six pillars of persuasion: Reciprocation, Social Proof, Commitment and Consistency, Liking and Scarcity.
Here's a quick intro to these concepts (non-academic article):
http://www.influenceatwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/E_Brand_principles.pdf
As for specific experiments looking at gifts and professionals. I'm sure they're out there, I think I've heard people reference some but can't think of any examples I can currently link. If someone knows some specific ones I would like to see them as well.
Our office has a big swag table. It all goes there, to be claimed by other people or thrown out. Most of it is garbage. In an ideal world publishers would just send us copies of their games, as early as possible - no more. We seem to get a lot less of all the other nonsense in recent months/years, thankfully.
Messofanego
Banned
Damn, music industry is fucked. That's where "payola" started. Didn't realise Billboard counted Youtube pre-roll ads as sales, those things are so annoying and now that I know watching one completely without skipping is what counts as a sale, I'm skipping them altogether. At least now they're not counted as sales. Awfully mediocre folk bands like American Authors peddled in my face. There is a Tovi Lo unskippable 20 sec advert on videos now, too. It's sad that music writers are afraid of speaking out because of relying on label relationships. It's sad that Lady Gaga, Mariah Carey, Beyonce and presuming others perform in such practices.
Games industry is still not as uniformly as bad as that. NPD is not that scummy.
That 30 Seconds To Mars documentary "Artifact" showed how record labels hold artists as slaves, where they don't get as much percentage of the money from sales and are stuck in contracts for many albums.
block tower
Member
And i found the image:
ryan mccaffrey makes me nauseous. ign are the biggest bunch of console fanboys i've ever seen. the staff worship anything yoshida or spencer say.
Glass Shark
Banned
Thanks for the link!
The problem is, games journalism is full of people who would like to use it as an entrance into the games industry.
This isn't as much the case with their music, film and book counterparts. We don't have that many people who go into games journalism for the sole reason of journalism. Even "I like games. I like to write." isn't great when you compare them to prominent film and music critics.
lucius
Member
When everyone got free Slims at the Kinect event it seemed to work, but since they were called out on that it doesn't work so much anymore in terms of just giving something a free pass. They are too worried now about looking like shills. It does kind of make sense for promotion of this game since use of phone is part of the game. I just hope the game turns out good it seemed like a good concept.
shysaursoft
Member
It's a bit of a Chicken / Egg scenario though. Can't have prominent game journalists without having just, game journalists first, good and bad. Many of the prominent film critics of today started as little 'out of five stars' newspaper blurbs that didn't mean anything, and then built up a reputation over the course of 20 or 30 years. Videogame writers are still "new" in the grand scheme of things, and due to the sheer technological and generational seachange that's happened in just a few short decades (Atari 2600 to Xbox One), it's left a lot of the writers of 'yesteryear' either out in the cold or they left the industry entirely due to market shifts.
I think we will get the same kind of lauded videogame critics and writers as movies and music have, eventually, if not already if you know where to look and are open to the possibility. But comparing an industry that's over 100 years old (film) to one that's only really becoming established now, and *still* has cultural issues, is a bit premature. Look at how many people still admit that they won't "play games in public or tell their co-workers they play games", whereas if you don't watch movies now, you'd be seen as weird.
I think a lot of the 'game journalist goes game developer or related work' is more due to there not being much lateral movement in this specific industry. I mean, if you've been a game writer for 10 years, what else can you do? Either go work as copywriter at a PR agency, or try to get into a game dev since you have quite a lot of 'consulting' knowledge.
Movie critics also often became movie production consultants, so it's not that weird. But when you only focus on the ones that *stayed* critics and built a name for themselves, that kind of ignores all those who didn't.
This.
block tower
Member
very true, there is definitely a good turnover rate from game "journalist" to game developer/publisher employee.
http://kotaku.com/5416788/reviewing-a-game-on-their-terms-the-increasingly-prominent-review-event
http://kotaku.com/5939030/this-is-the-300-chess-street-fighter-chess-set-capcom-sent-me-today
Have you changed your policies lately?
Maybe you have and that's why Kotaku now mostly reposts unsourced material from GAF and other blogs with loud, unskippable video ads on each pageload.
