Reports began stomping through the gaming news circuits yesterday that Gamespot editorial director, Jeff Gertsmann, had been fired. The host of the site's weekly live program "On the Spot" had allegedly been fired by CNet (Gamespot's parent company) after issuing a poor review of one of the games being heavily advertised on the site, Eidos' Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. There is currently no proof that this is the case.
Source: Destructoid [ more info ]

I'm not one for rumor mongering. But, the timing of the review and the subsequent firing, is suspect. And since this isn't the first time we've heard this story, I figured I might used the item to discuss an issue I have with a large portion of the current crop of "game journalists". That is to say there are several sites I will not source because they have a certain history of giving better than expected reviews to games being advertised on their site. In some cases poor reviews have been stripped from said sites and a revised, more favorable, review has been posted in its place. Should this particular story prove to be true, I'll be adding Gamespot to my no-source list. Where I do not see this as Gamespot's fault, CNet would be responsible for Gerstmann's firing, it does seem to demonstrate that advertisers can influence reviews of their games by throwing bribes advertising dollars around.

I would like to think that I am above this kind of influence. I've always been candid with my impressions of the games I'm playing. But, I've never been offered the kind of revenue these guys get offered on a regular basis. Who's to say that I wouldn't be influenced, unintentionally or otherwise? I know it's not exactly the same, but there are ads currently running on my site, that I would never have accepted before because I need the cash to cover my butt because some previous advertisers haven't paid me yet.

On a loosely associated note... the guys at Penny Arcade beat me to the punch on this situation. Bastards. I jotted down the idea before I knew they were doing a comic about it. But they already had artwork posted before I sat down to draw. So, I'm fairly certain they had some insider info on this one.

In closing, I wish Jeff all the best. I might not have agreed with all of his reviews. But, I appreciate conviction. I just hope that conviction did cost the guy his job because his employers are greedy asshats.

(Note: the 6.0 on Jeff's shirt is the score he gave Kane & Lynch in his written review.)

UPDATE:
CNet/Gamespot has responded: http://www.gamespot.com/news/6183603.html
(My full response will be added to the thread shortly.)

Over the last few years I have become very disappointed with the state of reviews, be it for books, movies or video games. I find most of them are way off target, which probably is because of who I am and what I enjoy when it comes to my entertainment. So I’ve decided to make my own opinion by going out there and getting some demos for video games and just reading the synopsis of books and movies at the store itself, maybe the trailer (though those can be deceiving).

It seems as though most review sites out there are biased, and in most case I can’t seem to let myself trust these reviewers. I’ve been taking everything I read in reviews with a healthy grain of salt.



Love the comic Woody.

I too basically do not believe the reviews anymore... Try to beta test when possible to see if the game is for me, or word of mouth from friends and guildees.

Nice Comic btw

I trust word of mouth a lot more than reviews or advertisement of games; I used to love conversations with the managers of game shops, back when I knew a few that actually knew about games. Even though I don't read reviews much unless I've heard of a game but I know nothing about it, I do like one thing about Gamespot's review format and that's the summary tags they give right at the start of the review, "the good" and "the bad".

I don't like the idea that advertisers have so much control over their review scores, but I think that's been the case for a long time. I remember similar things happening back when most game reviews were in print.

Eeven though i didnt agree with some of his reviews i think this is seriously unfair. He is one of the reviewers i actually trusted since he didnt seem afraid to give a game a bad score or on slightly lower than everyone else (Twilight Princess fiasco). Ive always thought gamespot were a little biased when it came to the big games and this pretty much confirms it. Think ill go cancel my sub now
Oh and good comic

Doesn't this seem funny though? I mean just days after the $hit storm about the IGN guy being pissed off at Penny Arcade and Gabe with the then following ranting and raving of PA fans about how poor IGN reviews are?? Is it karma or just weird timing? It was IGN though, not Gamespot. Personally, I have found Gamespot reviews more credible until now...

I like the comic even if the story behind it is poopy.

I however stopped reading most gamming mag, and mostly try to playtest a game before buying it. (my wife has to buy the last game I started testing just to get me to go home lol)

This did make me wonder if you got paid every time you use a shirt from threadless.com or is you just liked the shirts (or a combination of both)

I myself, am at a loss of where to go for gaming reviews.

Mostly I find I listen to word of mouth and there aren't any sites I go to for review (suggestions welcome).

The thing I seem to weigh the most on gaming review sites are the user comments--particularly if they are lower than the review score.

Thats a silly thing to do, i never even look at the reviews on that site, I judge based off the user score, that for that game now is 3.9.

Seems the reviewer was actually quite kind.

This story will seriously damage my, until now, lofty opinion of Gamespot. I have found their reviews, on the whole, to be very in line with my personal beliefs. While I can't say I will never use their site again (I have to agree with Woody here that the fault doesn't lie primarily with Gamespot) I will have to treat it along the same lines as Nintendo Power, Playstation Magazine, or OXM. As an aspiring writer myself, it hurts that profit>truth to those I would have gladly work for for free.