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While the issue itself, paying for good reviews is worrying, anyone who buys a game (or anything) based on a Zoo review deserves to get shit on a stick. Maybe now he'll be able to get a job at a real magazine. Lesson is, don't trust reviews in porn / soft-porn magazines. | |
Is it just me, or does that not sound like a forced positive review request? With the information given, I really don't have much sympathy for the guy. | |
CORRUPTION IN GAMING! That's a first ! | |
Umm... | |
While this isn't the first time that such claims have been made, I do have to concur with Baby Tea that the e-mail he came up with is less "Give us a good review!" and more "We worked our socks off for this, don't give us a 5-word review". | |
I find that I actually believe the people who fired him that it wasn't 100% to do with the the e-mail. Besides, your private facebook account is not exactly the most mature place to do any whistle-blowing from. However, I think the Rockstar e-mail was inappropriate and I hope there are more honest journalists out there who will resist caving to pressure from studios. I imagine it must be intense, given that these studios are shelling out a shit-ton nowadays for every game. Offering games with deficiencies up to the wolves is like asking for your stock to drop. Who can afford to buy a poorly reviewed game lately? | |
Gotta love the joys of dismissals with catches. It's likely we will never know exactly what happened here...buy, if they did try to force a possirive review that speaks for how scared they are it won't succeed. And GotY status? Who they trying to fool, talk about rose glasses. It looks good, but not 'that' good! | |
Agreed. I mean he wouldnt mail write whatever you want, hes gonna ask for preferential treatment. Its hardly a threat either, in fact it sounds kinda needy. :D | |
I would have said the same but they make it clear that they want him to make their game sound good. If they just wanted him to know it was a big deal they would have said so, but they mentioned that it was getting nominations and was a "huge achievement". | |
If its that good of a game to be on track for a game of the year award then why worry what some magazine is gonna say. Who knows maybe he had a beef with Rockstar in general and they figured he might try to give them a bad review to get even. | |
I wouldn't be surprised if there's a very, very large number of "encouraging" emails from games developers and publishers we never see. It's a sad fact of game industry. Games reviewers are under the control of developers rather than the other way around like the vast majority of movie reviewers. | |
That, coupled with the fact that the email wasn't regarding a review, just suggests to me that they want the preview article to mention the fact it's getting GOTY nods. | |
Right. Nope, I'm not convinced it was a 'make sure you give it a good review' email. | |
I find it funny if they think of GotY so early in the year. | |
Well, R* certainly couldn't send a more explicit email, that would've definitely led to backlash. Frankly, I think the memo they did send reeked of desperation when you consider how tactful they need to be. Between this, the delay, and the R* employee backlash, this game is starting to look like it's going to be a big mess. I'm sure it's not unusual for any reviewed media to have various kickbacks sent out for favoritism. It's all marketing hen it comes down to it. Even the Better Business Bureau allows subscribing businesses more control over their results than non-subscribers and that's supposed to be the organization that protects us from practices like that. | |
And also in a way that's balanced. And immersive. And cinematic. But in seriousness... both sides' acts are "remarkable". Rockstar could certainly be a bit more modest, but the guy in question is certainly not a goodie-two-shoes either. I think we should just blame both sides and move on ;-) | |
It's not just you, I agree that it doesn't sound like a forced positive review. Given the context of the magazine he used to write reviews for, it sounds more like Rockstar are saying: "Make sure he knows this game has had a lot of hard work put into it and is already being recognised in the industry, and for God's sake don't complain about a lack of tits, bikinis, fast cars and lads stuff in our long awaited Cowboy Western sequel". Really, when that magazine describes the gameplay in their preview as
is it any wonder why Rockstar would want to make sure that the reviewer treats the game a little bit more professionally when it comes to the actual review, despite it being a "western (yawn)" game? | |
Its Kane & Lynch all over again... I dont even want Red Dead, looks like GTA 4; just meh | |
The e-mail, if it's legit, is questionable. I hardly doubt that the people reading a tit magazine are part of Rockstar's core demographic. Also, any game reviewer (wether working for a tit magazine or not) knows Rockstar's name and fame, which is usually enough for a big review. So this does stink of 'GIVE US GOOD RATINGZ PLZ' to my nostrils. | |
Four words come to mind; head in the sand | |
i think this thread needs an editor looking at the typo in the title... | |
It is things like that that mean Print media for game journalism isn't dying... it's already dead. I don't buy print mags and to be frank I won't miss them. Online mags do the job much better. | |
Lol Zoo. EDIT: To elaborate, Zoo is a lads mag. Its a few steps away from being soft-core porn, and nobody reads it for the articles. | |
It's not impossible that Rockstar put a little pressure on the magazine, but I don't know. Still looking forward to the game, though. | |
I rather get a fair review of my game than a forced "good" review. | |
is anyone really excited about this game? I thought the first one was mediocre and have no real intentions of even playing this latest one. I wish we could get the whole e-mail though. I have no doubt game companies do push for positive reviews because almost every review of a big budget game gets a favourable review, even if they suck. | |
I'm gonna call BS on this one. Why would Rockstar pressure a crappy little magazine like Zoo to give it a good score? Sounds to me like they just wanted a good review, that is to say a decent length, well thought out review instead of "Hurr hurr there are no boobs but it has guns!" which is what I'd expect from Zoo. I have a more plausible theory. Journalist gets sacked for x reason and uses Rockstar's letter out of context to drum up sympathy. | |
Personally, I think he is currently trying to play the innocent whistle-blower angle on the internet. It's easy to convince people that the big bad company was stomping down on the little journalist, especially when all the evidence that could show the opposite is stuck behind NDAs. I'm with Rockstar on this one, as I can't see them deciding that Zoo Magazine is the one they need to bribe for a good review. Their review credibility with me is about on par with that of the average Tabloid paper, and I doubt their core demographic are reading them for the reviews. | |
I don't really understand how the editor can get all morally-high-groundish since Zoo is the flat out worst magazine in Australia, i wouldn't read that fucking crappy dog-shit magazine if my life depended on it. | |
I didn't realise that there was text in the magazine, i thought it was just pictures of fake tits from cover to cover :P Which makes this story all the more hilarious. | |
Agreed. If they think it's such a huge achievement then they really shouldn't need to pressure reviewers into giving good reviews. There wasn't that much pressure here, but it was definitely a reminder. Nonetheless, I am very much looking forward to this game. | |
I doubt that email is telling him to give it a good review, just a "don't look at the front cover and say what you think based on that" request. | |
I don't think we are getting the whole story here. I'm sure more crap is going on behind closed doors. | |
Its ok people, this is a Zoo employee, he's not a real journalist!. Seriously go read articles in Zoo magazine, they are bulletpoints with a huge pictures of tits and cars. | |
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Magazine Editor Claims Rockstar Got Him Fired
A deputy editor at an Australian magazine claims he was fired after he blew the whistle on pressure from Rockstar to write a positive review for the upcoming Red Dead Redemption.
Toby McCasker was a deputy editor at Australian magazine Zoo Weekly and apparently handling its review of the upcoming Red Dead Redemption when he posted part of an email sent to the mag, allegedly from Rockstar, on Facebook. "This is the biggest game we've done since GTA IV, and is already receiving Game of the Year 2010 nominations from specialists all around the world," the email said. "Can you please ensure Toby's article reflects this - he needs to respect the huge achievement he's writing about here."
Shortly thereafter, McCasker was fired, because, he claimed, he refused to play along with Rockstar's demands. "I did not sign up to become a journalist to write advertorials masquerading as editorial," he told News.com.au. "This 'cash for comment' culture that is fast becoming the status quo within print media bothers me a lot."
The email he posted has since been removed and Rockstar seems to be positioning itself somewhere between ignorance and denial that it did anything wrong in the first place. "We are not clear on what the story is here," the company said. "We always try to present our games in the most compelling way to media and fans alike and of course we, like every other video game publisher in Australia or anywhere else for that matter, want to have our games seen in a positive light."
As for the magazine's itself, Zoo editor Paul Merrill dropped a line to Kotaku denying that Rockstar has ever pushed for preferential treatment and he had a few harsh words for McCasker as well. "I would like to make it clear that at no time has Rockstar EVER sought a preferential review in return for advertising. In fact no games company has ever suggested this. And Zoo would never give a positive review to a game we didn't rate in return for ad dollars," Merrill said.
"Toby McCasker was sacked for a number of reasons, one of which was his decision to post a private email on his Facebook page," he continued. "This email was not referring to a game review. He should not be considered a credible source of information on this matter."
This wouldn't be the first time a game publisher pushed the press for positive coverage of a new game, nor the first time an editor found himself looking for a new job for refusing to go along with it. On the other hand, posting a private, business-related email on Facebook, regardless of the content, isn't exactly a smart career move; furthermore, according to the report, "McCasker had earlier received two official warnings about his behaviour." It sounds like it may be awhile before this one gets straightened out.
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