Hey, uh, has this ever happened? (McElroy: GAF has actively tried to fool the press)

I miss game journalism in the 90s when it was just about the facts but with a slight tinge of excitement and the opinions for the most part were kept to the opinion section (and they weren't as dumb as they are now). The newer crop of writers are horrible and are a poor representation of gamers IGN and G4 are too corporate and trying to hard create a faux hipster nerd image of gamers.

I mean IGN had an article called "what games to play on 4/20" and for there SSX review the pic they used as the banner image for the review was a photoshop. Extremely unprofessional and IGN and G4 are really just the tip of the iceberg. That video of Justin dancing with a copy of Skyrim is embarrassing and cringe worthy. Dude needs to grow up and get a life.
 
Hero_of_the_Day said:
Yeah, Klepek is great. I was worried about this 10 year old looking fifth member joining the band, but he has been an awesome addition to GB, for sure.
Click to expand...

I disagree with GB a lot when it comes to Japanese games, but that's not a knock against them at all. I've really come to dig them a lot over the past year.
 
PepsimanVsJoe said:
Hey it's the Nier dude again.

Figures that Justin would continue to embarrass himself.
Click to expand...

That's not even his latest thing.

Before he left Joystiq, he wrote a news story a man hunting down a kid that badmouthed him on XBox Live and breaking the kid's limbs, spending about 300 words of the back half of the article venerating the attacker.

He insisted it was a joke but would not accept criticism that it was a joke in extremely bad taste. He kept insisting that no-fun gamers were just out to get him.
 
Anticitizen One said:
I miss game journalism in the 90s when it was just about the facts but with a slight tinge of excitement and the opinions for the most part were kept to the opinion section (and they weren't as dumb as they are now). The newer crop of writers are horrible and are a poor representation of gamers IGN and G4 are too corporate and trying to hard create a faux hipster nerd image of gamers.

I mean IGN had an article called "what games to play on 4/20" and for there SSX review the pic they used as the banner image for the review was a photoshop. Extremely unprofessional and IGN and G4 are really just the tip of the iceberg. That video of Justin dancing with a copy of Skyrim is embarrassing and cringe worthy. Dude needs to grow up and get a life.
Click to expand...

I miss Sushi-X.
 
Jake Tower said:
ibjCt0zMPRkG6K.gif
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This took way too long to show up.
 
is McElroy the guy from the E3 bomb casts that sounds like if Robin Williams and Luke Smith had a baby?



Anticitizen One said:
I miss game journalism in the 90s when it was just about the facts but with a slight tinge of excitement and the opinions for the most part were kept to the opinion section (and they weren't as dumb as they are now). The newer crop of writers are horrible and are a poor representation of gamers IGN and G4 are too corporate and trying to hard create a faux hipster nerd image of gamers.
Click to expand...

You must not have read Gamefan.
 
Anticitizen One said:
I miss game journalism in the 90s when it was just about the facts but with a slight tinge of excitement and the opinions for the most part were kept to the opinion section (and they weren't as dumb as they are now). The newer crop of writers are horrible and are a poor representation of gamers IGN and G4 are too corporate and trying to hard create a faux hipster nerd image of gamers.

I mean IGN had an article called "what games to play on 4/20" and for there SSX review the pic they used as the banner image for the review was a photoshop. Extremely unprofessional and IGN and G4 are really just the tip of the iceberg. That video of Justin dancing with a copy of Skyrim is embarrassing and cringe worthy. Dude needs to grow up and get a life.
Click to expand...

I realize that I'm being repetitive, but I hope that people here aren't condemning all of "games journalism" in the same way that some journalists condemn "GAF" like it's singular thing. It's important to acknowledge the handful of outlets that actually do put in work; the "lol games journalism" mentality is likely discouraging to smaller outlets trying to do something better than IGN while struggling to gain even a third as much traffic.

Edit: But yeah, McElroy has consistently come across as terrible to me in these sorts of exchanges.
 
Anticitizen One said:
I miss game journalism in the 90s when it was just about the facts but with a slight tinge of excitement and the opinions for the most part were kept to the opinion section (and they weren't as dumb as they are now). The newer crop of writers are horrible and are a poor representation of gamers IGN and G4 are too corporate and trying to hard create a faux hipster nerd image of gamers.

I mean IGN had an article called "what games to play on 4/20" and for there SSX review the pic they used as the banner image for the review was a photoshop. Extremely unprofessional and IGN and G4 are really just the tip of the iceberg. That video of Justin dancing with a copy of Skyrim is embarrassing and cringe worthy. Dude needs to grow up and get a life.
Click to expand...

Gotta agree with that G4 point you made. I tuned in for their Top 100 Video Games show and it was just complete garbage. Their other shows just feel like they give attention to those huge games like CoD. I think game journalism should be digging more into some behind the scenes stuff, sorta like Mama Robotnik's threads on those Metroid tidbits. There are a few articles from journalists I do enjoy, but mostly from a few years back. Overall that representation of the hipster gamer just needs to go :/
 
I guess what I think is weirdest is that he mentions GAF tricking the press as if that would somehow reflect poorly on GAF, rather than whatever outlet picked it up.
 
ShockingAlberto said:
That's not even his latest thing.

Before he left Joystiq, he wrote a news story a man hunting down a kid that badmouthed him on XBox Live and breaking the kid's limbs, spending about 300 words of the back half of the article venerating the attacker.

He insisted it was a joke but would not accept criticism that it was a joke in extremely bad taste. He kept insisting that no-fun gamers were just out to get him.
Click to expand...

Ah I remember that story, didn't know it was McElroy though.

Sounds like a winner.
 
ShockingAlberto said:
That's not even his latest thing.

Before he left Joystiq, he wrote a news story a man hunting down a kid that badmouthed him on XBox Live and breaking the kid's limbs, spending about 300 words of the back half of the article venerating the attacker.

He insisted it was a joke but would not accept criticism that it was a joke in extremely bad taste. He kept insisting that no-fun gamers were just out to get him.
Click to expand...


Holy shit, that was him too!? This and the Nier incident, impressive.
 
ShockingAlberto said:
That's not even his latest thing.

Before he left Joystiq, he wrote a news story a man hunting down a kid that badmouthed him on XBox Live and breaking the kid's limbs, spending about 300 words of the back half of the article venerating the attacker.

He insisted it was a joke but would not accept criticism that it was a joke in extremely bad taste. He kept insisting that no-fun gamers were just out to get him.
Click to expand...

Wait WHAT? You got a link to this? That's outrageous!
 
ShockingAlberto said:
That's not even his latest thing.

Before he left Joystiq, he wrote a news story a man hunting down a kid that badmouthed him on XBox Live and breaking the kid's limbs, spending about 300 words of the back half of the article venerating the attacker.

He insisted it was a joke but would not accept criticism that it was a joke in extremely bad taste. He kept insisting that no-fun gamers were just out to get him.
Click to expand...

I remember this, link?
 
WickedLaharl said:
maybe if gaf bans the site he works for again he'll come back begging for forgiveness. lol
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Oh so that's how the site got unbanned. lolol

From that thread:
justinmcelroy said:
I mean, just today a GAF user was trying to pull a hoax on ours and other sites by creating a fake ad. We didn't fall for it, but we're also not going to lash out and ban ever linking to GAF ever again. We don't want to crucify the whole enterprise because of what one user has done.
Click to expand...
hahaha
 
Funny thing is, if game journalists vetted their information like they USED to do back in the day (sort of like real journalists!), they'd never get caught by fake GAF things - which have generally been put out there to show just how much modern game journalism doesn't feature the vetting of information!

If you posted news about MGS Triology, it's because you didn't do your job, not because "GAF is unreliable".
 
Valnen said:
You're joking, right?

Neogaf is pretty crappy if you want news as soon as it comes out. This place is a discussion forum not a news site.
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I'm pretty sure they mean that Gaf is proving to be quite apt at pointing out so called professionals lack of professionalism and seemingly rampant hypocrisy.
 
SLEEPS7ALK3R said:
If this man a member of the gaming press then it's no wonder why the videogame bizz is so stigmatized.
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Explain?

This is video games we're talking about. We don't need soulless robots working in the gaming press on the same level as the "real press". It should be informal.
 
Valnen said:
Explain?

This is video games we're talking about. We don't need soulless robots working in the gaming press on the same level as the "real press". It should be informal.
Click to expand...

No it shouldn't have to be informal. The fact you just dismiss your supposed hobby with "it's just video games" shows how little you really care about it. We should be demanding a lot more professionalism from them in all areas instead of allowing them to act like extensions of game company's PR machines.
 
Nirolak said:
Basically Justin's new site (Polygon/Vox Games) posted the 56 page "Microsoft" document, Patrick questioned the logic of doing this, and Justin complained at Patrick saying that journalists should stick together and not question each other because GAF does that enough already.
Click to expand...
I don't know how much this changes things since I'm still a little confused, but isn't that big Microsoft document story posted on The Verge? It's there on Polygon's front page, but it links to a report on the base Verge site by somebody not from Polygon.

(again, I don't know if this has already been covered, Twitter conversations confuse me)

Unless they're all just considered part of the same site. I don't know, I haven't really checked out Polygon before.
 
Dragonzord said:
Having the writers and producers of a game to interview is not the same as fanboying over a game. It is to the benefit of your listeners as well as yourself.
Click to expand...

I'm not talking about those. I'm talking about when they've sat around saying, "HOLY SHIT THIS GAME COMES OUT NEXT WEEK I'M SO EXCITED!" I listened to the entire archive of the Bombcast earlier this year. You wanna go back and listen to how much they were geeking out about certain games like GTAIV and Modern Warfare 2 the week before release? Or you wanna look at the opposite end of the spectrum, where they've basically ignored certain big releases because they weren't hyped for them? See Kid Icarus Uprising for a good recent example.

If Jeff Gerstmann had made the exact same video, people would've just said, "Oh that wacky Jeff! I am also excited for Skyrim!"

But since it's some guy who's less popular than Giant Bomb and happens to be an even bigger douchebag than Jeff, it's suddenly, "OH MY GOD HE'S CLEARLY BIASED, THIS DESTROYS HIS CREDIBILITY AS A VIDEO GAME JOURNALIST!"


People like Giant Bomb because they're human and honest about the things they like and don't like. This guy tried to be human and honest about his excitement for a certain game, and it's used as ammo against him. Fucking hypocritical if you ask me.

I mean he sounds like a douchebag, so by all means, go ahead and rip him a new one. Just don't be a hypocrite about it.
 
Nirolak said:
So, I looked, and here's what the chain shows:

Patrick Klepek ‏@patrickklepek

Has ANYONE that's posted this ridiculous Xbox 720 "leak" done any reporting to verify its authenticity?

--

Justin McElroy ‏@JustinMcElroy

@patrickklepek doesn't GAF throw enough baseless suspicion onto the press without actual members of the press piling it on?

---

Basically Justin's new site (Polygon/Vox Games) posted the 56 page "Microsoft" document, Patrick questioned the logic of doing this, and Justin complained at Patrick saying that journalists should stick together and not question each other because GAF does that enough already.
Click to expand...

The fuck? GAF isn't their fact checker. Are we like the Jon Stewart to their Fox News?

tumblr_lk6vauSAms1qcgfwl.gif
 
Holy Wars said:
People in "getting offended by an obvious joke" shocker.

Dude seems like an idiot, but not for that post.
Click to expand...

Being an obvious joke does not preclude it from being bad taste.

If a loved one died, and I were to talk about how good they were in the sack after death, it would be obvious it was a joke.
 
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