GameSpot “Blackout Monday” December 3, 2007
As many of you know because of our coverage, the gaming community is joining together to boycott GameSpot.com. Around the world people are trying to stay away from GameSpot today. I would like to ask you to do the same, the choice however is yours. I will not post news , videos etc that comes from Gamespot.
I have decided that it is best way for me to help, but for our readers. I will not say how long this will last, nor can I say what GameSpot and companies involved could do to make me change my decision (an apology would help?).
~Sincerely Max
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We don’t KNOW what actualy happened, but if Gamespot IS innocent, then they should at least explain what happened.
They should and if they see that people aren’t coming to there site they just might be more entitled to do so.
If they don’t want to clear things up, IF they’re innocent then that makes them even more guilty.
I agree FlamingSquirrel we should at least let gamespot have their say before
making up our minds on this issue and take any action.
I believe the phrase is innocent till proven guilty.
yeah, but they haven’t said ANYTHING. They could at least say “The reviews had nothing to do with his firing” or something, but they haven’t said a thing.
If they were innocent, that is all they would have to say.
But if it’s true, saying that it isn’t would make everything much worse.
When things like this happen, most companies just buckle down and hope to ride out the storm, which it seems is exactly what they are trying to do.
innocent until proven guilty, yes, but what do you do when they don’t even claim to be innocent?
silence can be more telling than any words ever could.
i am sooooo lost. what’s going on?
scullum -
http://wiinintendo.net/2007/12/01/gamespot-editor-fired-over-a-review-score/#comments
I can’t believe Gamespot is still popular when IGN.com does a much better job…
I stopped going to Gamespot around 2 years ago cause I was tired of their biased reviews. I found IGN.com and have never looked back. Much better reviews and website ;-}
@ xero (and everyone else) — that’s what this is all about? are you serious? while i don’t think it was good that it happened, i seriously think not going to a website for one day is really going to matter. seriously!
I totally messed up in that last message. what i meant to say was this:
I seriously don’t think this “not going to a website for one day” is going to do anything!
It cant hurt.
wait… does that include gamefaqs? i like gamefaqs, but i don’t like gamespot… but they are owned by the same people
true. it couldn’t hurt, but i hope no one gets their hopes up because the chances of this helping is probably slim to none.
I don’t know say they get about 500,000 hits a day. Then today they get 250,000 that’s something that won’t go unnoticed.
As for me I won’t go back until something is sent out to clarify things.
Meh, boycotting a website is not a concept similar to boycotting a store. Publicity and annoucements of boycott only push people to visit the said site and inform themself more.
I ain’t boycotting a website for something that happens everyday in every job domain because I ain’t happy with why it happens. The website has been ressourceful for me so far, and I don’t see how a reviewer getting the boot is gonna change that fact.
In theory you can actualy kill off game spot or any other online company that relies on advertising to stay afloat, if the add clicks become to low then the companies behind them will pull their backing and game spot could find itself in a very difficult position.
Only problem with that is that it would take possible a 75% reduction in traffic and for a prolonged time, 2 - 4 weeks.
Is it worth the effort? possibly not and who is not to say other reviewing sites dont do the same?
i dont really look at it so much as the fact that there will be less traffic on the site, I take it as they now know that if they do something we, the viewers, disagree with, we will do SOMETHING.
If someone goes to a website, or a store, or a provider of some sort of service, they expect a certain something. It depends on what sort of thing they provide, but its the same thing.
If a supermarket promises fresh fruit then the managers instruct the employees to make sure all the bruises and imperfections are facing away from the shopper because the fruit is a little old, that’s not in line with what the store promotes. That’s wrong.
If you hire a cleaning service to clean your house and when they leave you find that the didnt dust the ceiling fan or the top of the refrigerator and didnt vacuum under the rugs, thats wrong.
Likewise, if a book, movie, or gaming website promises honest reviews from people who know books, movies, or video games, but then the company that owns the site puts pressure on the reviewers to rank a certain thing a certain way or punishes them for not catering to the books/movies/games advertised on the website itself, THAT IS WRONG.
Game reviews are not all that are offered on Gamespot, they have good gaming news (though sometimes a little slow), good information on different games, and Gamefaqs is one of the best sources on the net for help (I don’t know where it falls in the Gamespot zone)
But if management is attempting to influence the reviews, what next?
will they have less content about certain games and more about others?
If Activision decides to pull all ads from Gamespot, will GS no longer provide news about them or poorly review their games?
Its wrong.
lmao, as im typing theres an add for the offending game on this page, with ratings from magazines such as Nuts, Loaded, T3, Maxim and Front, as you can see, all of these magazines are well known for their game reviews. NOT!
Spyker took the words out of my mouth: Screw Gamespot. For years they’ve been giving us dodgy reviews based on the level of blood in their games. I never use their reviews, and I discourage others to do the same.
IN RESPONSE TO PAST POSTS, ETC.:
I just think doing it one day is not going to do much. Now if the entire gaming community decided to “boycott” a website for a longer period of time…like, say, a week or even a month…then they might get the picture. The overall point, though, is that we are eventually going to go back and use their site again. For a boycott to actually work, then that site should not be used UNTIL they do something to change the reason we are boycotting them. Does that make sense? Essentially, if they know we are only not visiting their site for one day, that will not prove anything. If we say we’re not going to their site until they change their ways, that just might prove something! Those are my thoughts, at least…
scullum2001 I agree and as for me and I hope others will wait until things change.
ok
They might as well rename their site to XBox360Spot.com. I haven’t gone for a long time after seeing that almost every ad was for an XBox or an XBox 360 game, and reviews for those consoles were much higher than reviews on other consoles. I’m not a big fan of payola.