Geoff Keighley will be responding to Doritosgate

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Zissou

Member
I understand that he wants to respond because he feels his 'reputation' has been tarnished, but I can't imagine he can salvage it regardless of what he says.
 

goldenpp72

Member
It's funny that the content being interrupted by an invasive set of ads is fine, but having some product next to the dude talking is crossing the line. Marketing is there to help sell products, inform consumers, and in turn pay for content that otherwise would not exist. It can cross a line, but unless it's invading high art or causing opinions to be fucked over (halo 4 getting 10s because this video is sponsored by MS), it's fine.

Doritosgate was funny, but I didn't know people were actually truly offended.
 

2San

Member
So what's he responding to exactly? The man doesn't write reviews so how is his "journalistic integrity" in question? The other reviewers from that other thread can fuck off though.
 

smr00

Banned
It's funny that the content being interrupted by an invasive set of ads is fine, but having some product next to the dude talking is crossing the line. Marketing is there to help sell products, inform consumers, and in turn pay for content that otherwise would not exist. It can cross a line, but unless it's invading high art or causing opinions to be fucked over (halo 4 getting 10s because this video is sponsored by MS), it's fine.

Doritosgate was funny, but I didn't know people were actually truly offended.
But are people offended? I have yet to meet anyone who is legitimately offended by it. I know a bunch of people who troll around and act like they are but at the end of the day it's just for the luls.
 

SeanR1221

Member
It's funny that the content being interrupted by an invasive set of ads is fine, but having some product next to the dude talking is crossing the line. Marketing is there to help sell products, inform consumers, and in turn pay for content that otherwise would not exist. It can cross a line, but unless it's invading high art or causing opinions to be fucked over (halo 4 getting 10s because this video is sponsored by MS), it's fine.

Doritosgate was funny, but I didn't know people were actually truly offended.

Pretty much. People act like Master Chief chowed down on Dorittos during the campaign or something.
 
I'd agree that one is worse than the other. The silent advertising where logos are put on every athlete in the sport, where entire cultures of people are convinced to spend $300 on shoes, where young kids are -- literally -- beaten to death for a pair of shoes that have Michael Jordan's image on them...

oh, come on. I don't know what you're upset about. He was only beaten unconscious! And they took his phone and pants too, so they didn't just want the Jordan's. The world is doing peachy.
 
I read about it, just not in detail. And yes just like many things on the internet, things tend to get overblown to the max.

Sorry, I couldn't resist:

11846_doritos-and-pepsi-max.gif
 

Jack_AG

Banned
He shouldn't. Gamers are stupid for thinking there is anything unethical or wrong about advertising, or that it compromises anyone's integrity.
Advertising doesn't compromise integrity, no. Money does. Money is motive with a universal adapter on it.

I recall an advertiser threaten to pull money from website X if they didn't fire their "journalist" for not giving a glowing review of their game... and it happened. Website X buckled a d fired the journo.

Games journalism is totally legit bro! Really!
 

Ketch

Member
I hope he just comes out and talks about how F'ing delicious Doritos and Mt.Dew are, because we all KNOW they are delicious.
 

MYeager

Member
Can anyone summarize what the hell DoritoGate is?

People make a big deal out of a still picture of Geoff doing a Halo reveal while surrounded by Mountain Dew and Doritos. Guy writes article making a bigger deal out of it, while pointing out specific writers and how they might be perceived based on contest entered or past employment history as biased towards a company. Chick mentioned freaked out, threatened legal action, guy who wrote the article left job over editing, bullshit ensued. NeoGAF discussed implications on honesty within 'video game journalism'. Few weeks later went back to arguing review scores. The Aristocrats.
 

Persona86

Banned
People make a big deal out of a still picture of Geoff doing a Halo reveal while surrounded by Mountain Dew and Doritos. Guy writes article making a bigger deal out of it, while pointing out specific writers and how they might be perceived based on contest entered or past employment history as biased towards a company. Chick mentioned freaked out, threatened legal action, guy who wrote the article left job over editing, bullshit ensued. NeoGAF discussed implications on honesty within 'video game journalism'. Few weeks later went back to arguing review scores. The Aristocrats.

Yet people are suggesting that this is not overblown haha.
 

Mlatador

Banned
What makes this any different? A food/drinks company paid for product placement in his video game show. Seems like standard advertising. Not seeing how it's any worse than this:

x-factor-pepsi-drinks.jpg




Wasn't aware there was a video, I'll have to watch that later. I'm just going off the picture posted here which was pretty harmless IMO.

Samuel L. Jackson is really everywhere...
 

Oersted

Member
People make a big deal out of a still picture of Geoff doing a Halo reveal while surrounded by Mountain Dew and Doritos. Guy writes article making a bigger deal out of it, while pointing out specific writers and how they might be perceived based on contest entered or past employment history as biased towards a company. Chick mentioned freaked out, threatened legal action, guy who wrote the article left job over editing, bullshit ensued. NeoGAF discussed implications on honesty within 'video game journalism'. Few weeks later went back to arguing review scores. The Aristocrats.

Watch the interview. It wasn´t just pathetic sponsoring. Geoff Keighley did an ad, while acting like he is still in his game journo job.
 

nonnocere

Member
Can somebody explain the whole situation to me?

Keighley was sitting in front of some Doritos and Mountain Dew doing a promo.

In a completely separate incident, a journalist called out some other folks by name and was forced to step down/quit or their site was going to be sued.
 
Keighley was sitting in front of some Doritos and Mountain Dew doing a promo.

In a completely separate incident, a journalist called out some other folks by name and was forced to step down/quit or their site was going to be sued.
Nope, he stepped down because they modified his original article. Different.
 

Oersted

Member
Keighley was sitting in front of some Doritos and Mountain Dew doing a promo.

In a completely separate incident, a journalist called out some other folks by name and was forced to step down/quit or their site was going to be sued.

It wasn´t seperated, the Keighley incident was the start for him.
 

iyox

Member
People make a big deal out of a still picture of Geoff doing a Halo reveal while surrounded by Mountain Dew and Doritos. Guy writes article making a bigger deal out of it, while pointing out specific writers and how they might be perceived based on contest entered or past employment history as biased towards a company. Chick mentioned freaked out, threatened legal action, guy who wrote the article left job over editing, bullshit ensued. NeoGAF discussed implications on honesty within 'video game journalism'. Few weeks later went back to arguing review scores. The Aristocrats.


He isn't just surrounded by the product he goes on to mention the various products being released, e.g.: "the release of citrus cherry gamefuel". It was a paid advertisement under the guise of journalistic integrity. He even mentions that the promotions and partnerships, from Doritos and Mountain Dew, are great for gaming. I am not bothered by it, but he certainly doesn't help his credibility with the stunt.
 
I read about it, just not in detail. And yes just like many things on the internet, things tend to get overblown to the max.

only a mountain dew shill would use a phrase like "to the max"
and the witch hunt is on!

i dont think people really reacted to the keighley part of doritosgate, other than to make funny shops and joke about it. the more substantive stuff started with wainwright, and, as far as gaf is concerned, continued when a bunch of game journalists posted in the megathread about their own personal views on the matter and how their sites dealt with the issue. geoff has sorta been a symbol because of the picture and its hilarious shop potential, but the people engaging in serious discussion in the thread (full disclosure, since that is important now: its one of my favorite threads since i have been on gaf) realize he was more of a bystander than anything, and since he is more of a presenter than a journalist somewhat irrelevant. he does call himself a journalist, which is problematic for everything i just said, but i wouldnt be surprised to see that change soon.
 
Can somebody explain the whole situation to me?

Recap from shagg_187
I'll do a short recap:
-Keighley surrounded by doritos followed by gaming bloggers retweeting a hashtag for advertising to win a PS3 makes Florence of Eurogamer curious.
-Florence writes an article saying how things are shady and some sound like straight up PR e.g. Wainright orgasms for everything Squenix.
-MVC/Wainwright send libel threats to Eurogamer, at which the article was edited to remove mentioning of Wainright.
-Wainwright responds in twitter "Apology accepted" and something in the vain of applying her law classes to use.
-Florence either steps down or is forced to resign to avoid any libel threat.
-Both sides deny any threat or are not talking about it directly, but twitter posts hint that such threat existed. Florence is not confirming or denying whether he was fired or he stepped down.
-GAF and 4chan combine forces to see this "standalone complex issue" alongside digital protest from Penny Arcade and more, showing what happened.
-Wainwright's profile shows she is a freelancer for Square Enix. She admitted it and denied doing any reviews for Square Enix or shilling (she is wrong. She reviewed Deus Ex, Tomb Raider and did countless previews).
-All this fiasco is too much for her and she privatize her twitter account. Next thing you know, she starts deleting tweets, videos and articles, and edits her profile to remove any mention of Square Enix freelancing.
-People find some comments of her thanking someone called Korina that used to work at Ubisoft.
-Korina Abbot used to work at Ubisoft and is currently the marketing executive at...Square-Enix.
-David Jaffe offers Keighley Mountain Dew.
-Gaming journalism.

GillianSeed brought it over. people still trying to down play it.
 

Persona86

Banned
i dont think people really reacted to the keighley part of doritosgate, other than to make funny shops and joke about it. the more substantive stuff started with wainwright, and, as far as gaf is concerned, continued when a bunch of game journalists posted in the megathread about their own personal views on the matter and how their sites dealt with the issue. geoff has sorta been a symbol because of the picture and its hilarious shop potential, but the people engaging in serious discussion in the thread (full disclosure, since that is important now: its one of my favorite threads since i have been on gaf) realize he was more of a bystander than anything, and since he is more of a presenter than a journalist somewhat irrelevant. he does call himself a journalist, which is problematic for everything i just said, but i wouldnt be surprised to see that change soon.
~
One thing's for sure, he probably won't be able to enjoy a Dorito ever again! :(
 
I'm glad he's going to respond, Geoff is someone I think who is credible, and that "Doritogate" thing is probably something out of his hands... Glad he'll comment though.
 

TheContact

Member
People make a big deal out of a still picture of Geoff doing a Halo reveal while surrounded by Mountain Dew and Doritos. Guy writes article making a bigger deal out of it, while pointing out specific writers and how they might be perceived based on contest entered or past employment history as biased towards a company. Chick mentioned freaked out, threatened legal action, guy who wrote the article left job over editing, bullshit ensued. NeoGAF discussed implications on honesty within 'video game journalism'. Few weeks later went back to arguing review scores. The Aristocrats.


I, for one, learned from this which sites to trust and which to avoid.
 

nonnocere

Member
I'm glad he's going to respond, Geoff is someone I think who is credible, and that "Doritogate" thing is probably something out of his hands... Glad he'll comment though.

That's kind of where I'm at. I hope he frames a rational response. Though perhaps he may give himself enough rope with which to be hung, as well.
 
Okay, they edited his article and forced him to step down or allow them to be sued due to libel?
No, he stepped down because they edited it, mvc didn't threaten legal action, lauren wrainwright did, so they butchered the article and in turn rab left the place (really, who wants to write for someone who will chicken out at the first sight of threats?!).

And people, doritosgate is not about Geoff. Is about PR people permeating the industry, case in point wrainwright/square, and the grip corporations hold over the gaming enthusiast outlets.

But keep sipping on that dew.
 
I understand that he wants to respond because he feels his 'reputation' has been tarnished, but I can't imagine he can salvage it regardless of what he says.

Well, GAF never forgets. But does anyone outside of Gaf even care? I can't imagine the people watching something like the VGA or Michael Pachter Attack being particularly offended by any of this.
 

Nert

Member
There is a pretty thorough recap post with links in the game journalism/doritos thread that should catch anyone up to speed if they haven't followed this. To everyone saying "I haven't really paid attention to this all that much but I don't see what the big deal is lol," if you're not trolling, please keep in mind that the original picture was simply a catalyst for a much larger discussion.
 

nonnocere

Member
No, he stepped down because they edited it, mvc didn't threaten legal action, lauren wrainwright did, so they butchered the article and in turn rab left the place (really, who wants to write for someone who will chicken out at the first sight of threats?!).

And people, doritosgate is not about Geoff. Is about PR people permeating the industry, case in point wrainwright/square, and the grip corporations hold over the gaming enthusiasts outlets.

Okay, your first point is true and I was roughly summarizing, though we don't know the whole story, apparently.

Doritosgate is about Geoff AND Wainwright. There are a lot of shades of grey in this whole arena.

It is just that as a form of entertainment and criticism that videogame journalism is a very young field, so the rules are being written as we go along. It is both an interesting and a great time to start framing the discussion for decades to come.
 

Czigga

Member
That's kind of where I'm at. I hope he frames a rational response. Though perhaps he may give himself enough rope with which to be hung, as well.

lol his actions are rational. if Doritos offers you money to put them in your video, it's irrational not to do it. there may be something I'm missing, but to me it seems like this furor would be much better used on a different subject.
 

NZNova

Member
Seems an odd choice for him to start talking about it after Lauren Wainwright did such a good job of diving in front of him and taking the bullet.
 
A bunch of kids on the internet were shocked to discover that the people who talk about video games for a living are not subject to the same journalistic standards as people covering actual news.
Maybe they can stop calling themselves journalists? 'Jingoists' is my preferred nomenclature.
 
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