Editor Fired For Blowing The Whistle on Rockstar?

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I’m not sure what to think of this story. It looks like an entertainment editor for some girly magazine was fired for leaking internal documents on his Facebook page. The problem is that the editor in question claims that he was fired after being pressured by Rockstar for a good review of its upcoming game Red Dead Redemption.

"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," it read. "Can you please ensure Toby's article reflects this — he needs to respect the huge achievement he's writing about here."
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This really wouldn't surprise me in the least. It's pretty obvious that there's some cash changing hands when you get a couple of rave reviews for a title and the rest mediocre, or worse.
 
I don't have an opinion on the article but that picture of Former Zoo deputy entertainment editor Toby McCasker makes me want to sock him in the face. I'd have fired him just for looking like a total dumbass.
 
I like this thread because theres no jump to the ocp in between. That said, seems like this writer got the axe in a high moral, bad for career judgment call.
 
That note likely came from whoever Rockstar hired to do PR. I've heard a lot of stories of PR people pulling stunts like that and even going so far as to threaten reviewers. On the other hand, posting something like that to the public is grounds for termination in probably every single company on the planet. Its not something you just go off and share with everyone without first getting permission from your boss and their bosses. Combine that with the fact that the article states the writer has had two prior warnings for his behavior this is a non-issue. The ex-writer is likely pissed off and looking for his 15 minutes of fame. I see this as entirely a non-issue being blown out of proportion by some jack ass and the media.
 
petertew said:
I don't have an opinion on the article but that picture of Former Zoo deputy entertainment editor Toby McCasker makes me want to sock him in the face. I'd have fired him just for looking like a total dumbass.
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I agree with this.
 
Derangel said:
That note likely came from whoever Rockstar hired to do PR. I've heard a lot of stories of PR people pulling stunts like that and even going so far as to threaten reviewers. On the other hand, posting something like that to the public is grounds for termination in probably every single company on the planet. Its not something you just go off and share with everyone without first getting permission from your boss and their bosses. Combine that with the fact that the article states the writer has had two prior warnings for his behavior this is a non-issue. The ex-writer is likely pissed off and looking for his 15 minutes of fame. I see this as entirely a non-issue being blown out of proportion by some jack ass and the media.
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I agree no matter where you work you kind of have to do what your boss ask you to do weather you like it or not. And in a down economy you should do your best to keep your job...they are hard to come by. Hopefully he learns something from this. He looks like a jackass in the pic anyways.
 
I think we need to go back to that word of mouth gaming phase. Don't let the reviewers tell you about it... If it's good then pass the word. There comes a point when all this mass marketing has to stop and they use that money to develop a good game.
 
BravO))) said:
I think we need to go back to that word of mouth gaming phase. Don't let the reviewers tell you about it... If it's good then pass the word. There comes a point when all this mass marketing has to stop and they use that money to develop a good game.
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The industry is too big for that man. People demanding bigger, better looking games, this is what we get. Just developing a AAA-level game costs well over 10 million dollars and that isn't counting the PR. Word of mouth simply isn't enough to recover costs.
 
http://www.news.com.au/technology/l...e-on-video-games/story-e6frfro0-1225850507467
I don't know if they just picked a bad photo of the guy but he looks like he just shot up or snorted a line of heroin. I think it is natrual for everyone to jump to the side of this jornalist, however, I don't see anything suggesting that there was an exchange of money. Yeh Rockstar is going to ask for a favorable review. You honestly think they are gonna say, "hey give this to someone who is going to rape the shit out of it."

I'm not saying, that paying for favorable reviews dosn't happen, and it may have even happened in this case. But I am always suspicious, I have worked with plenty of drama queens that would post such things just to get attention.
 
File said:
in a high moral, bad for career judgment call.
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Have not read the article, just wanted to comment on this in reference to GENERAL LIFE.

We need more people to stand up for the right thing and just not submit because they are afraid for their personal or professional well being. Maybe if more people were doing the right thing, the "wrong things" wouldn't be the norm all the time!
 
This is SO not an attempt to do what the guy says. I used to work for a print publication that did game reviews and we had a very church and state between our editorial and our sales. the ad sales guys in house were always the ones trying to get us to write favorably because it was potentially more money in their own pocket. Never once was it an actual game company.

But back to the email, this is really just an attempt, and rightly so, of a content developer to put his own product in context. It doesn't say 'we're pulling our ads if this review doesn't say the following', its not even veiled. This is 'hey, our shit is really getting well reviewed, don't you think everyone should know?'

my 2 cents.
 
Man this economy is tough. I just can't take getting paid to write meaningless reviews about COMPUTER GAMES. Facebook post. Burn baby burn! Fired?! omgwtfbbq! Mug shot.
 
McG2k1 said:
But back to the email, this is really just an attempt, and rightly so, of a content developer to put his own product in context. It doesn't say 'we're pulling our ads if this review doesn't say the following', its not even veiled. This is 'hey, our shit is really getting well reviewed, don't you think everyone should know?'
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To me, if nothing else the email is just arrogant and potentially insulting to the reviewer. Telling them to "respect the huge achievements" of some game that has not even been released is pushing it, regardless of these alleged "2010 GOTY nominations", which in themselves are retarded being that, again, the game IS NOT EVEN OUT YET.

I really didn't see it as being, like you put it, "don't you think everyone should know?" as much as, "hey, our game is awesome, and you'd better say awesome things about it," which is exactly the issue being brought up by all this.
 
McG2k1 said:
This is SO not an attempt to do what the guy says. I used to work for a print publication that did game reviews and we had a very church and state between our editorial and our sales. the ad sales guys in house were always the ones trying to get us to write favorably because it was potentially more money in their own pocket. Never once was it an actual game company.
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I dunno, isn't most game company advertising purchased pre-release? (I'm reminded of those two-page gatefold ads for Daikatana) What does it matter what editorial says if sales has already been paid? If the game fails critically the authoring company isn't going to buy more ads for it; but they'll certainly start pimping the next one.
 
Isn't getting GOTY something meaningless like "Truck of the Year". I mean, there are only 5 major full size pickup truck mfgs (Dodge,GM,Ford,Toyota,Nissan), and being picked #1 for a year...woopdi doo.
With games, only about ~4 MAJOR games comes out in a year, the rest are FUD.
 
BravO))) said:
I think we need to go back to that word of mouth gaming phase. Don't let the reviewers tell you about it... If it's good then pass the word. There comes a point when all this mass marketing has to stop and they use that money to develop a good game.
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I have some Commander Keen floppies for you and your friends! Shareware unite!
 
Ok, I think we need to pay close attention here. "Can you please ensure Toby's article reflects this" This doesn't sound like something sent to Toby the reviewer, it sounds like it was sent to his boss, and Toby managed to get ahold of it. (porbably forwarded with a terse note from his boss)

Later, the Zoo editor Paul Merrill said "I've never known any game maker to ask for a positive review" Bullshit, there it is the email proving it, it's a blatant lie. Bullshit they don't ask for positive reviews. Of course Toby had official warnings, sounds like he has ethics. That shit's not tolerated.

Be very cautious about big game reviews, especially if the editor's score is signifigantly higher than user scores.
 
That Toby guy looks like someone I fired years ago. The bastard had been trying to blackmail several people in the office so he could keep a job where he did nothing.

I don't think Zoo would be worth paying money to for a favorable review on a game, so I kind of doubt any money was involved. My friend's mother is a editor for local paper and she used to get movie promo packets that used to have letters that said much of what was in that email and they would send all sort of cool toys as well. It never seemed to affect her opinion or what she said about a movie and I would imagine for good game journalists it is much the same.
 
Meh, Rockstar hasn't made a decent game since vice city. I could see them doing this, they did it with GTA 4 (why my 13 year old thinks this POS is the "GREATEST GAME EVAR still boggles me)

GTA 4 was shit, bully was shit, its all shit, same rehashed stuff since GTA 3
 
Derangel said:
That note likely came from whoever Rockstar hired to do PR. I've heard a lot of stories of PR people pulling stunts like that and even going so far as to threaten reviewers. On the other hand, posting something like that to the public is grounds for termination in probably every single company on the planet. Its not something you just go off and share with everyone without first getting permission from your boss and their bosses. Combine that with the fact that the article states the writer has had two prior warnings for his behavior this is a non-issue. The ex-writer is likely pissed off and looking for his 15 minutes of fame. I see this as entirely a non-issue being blown out of proportion by some jack ass and the media.
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soulpunisher said:
I agree no matter where you work you kind of have to do what your boss ask you to do weather you like it or not. And in a down economy you should do your best to keep your job...they are hard to come by. Hopefully he learns something from this. He looks like a jackass in the pic anyways.
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Uh no. Toby had the right idea, but he approached it the wrong way. Kissing your boss's ass regardless of ethics and economic situation is not the way to do it. Posting company documents on a public site is also not the right way to do it.

He had leverage and he should have approached his boss and tell him that it isn't the right thing to do, and if his boss won't give in, then he is to go to his boss's boss.

Going straight to public was a stupid stunt.
 
In my above post, I meant to disagree with soulpunisher's reply to Derangel. I agreed with Derangel.
 
bh192012 said:
Ok, I think we need to pay close attention here. "Can you please ensure Toby's article reflects this" This doesn't sound like something sent to Toby the reviewer, it sounds like it was sent to his boss, and Toby managed to get ahold of it. (porbably forwarded with a terse note from his boss)

Later, the Zoo editor Paul Merrill said "I've never known any game maker to ask for a positive review" Bullshit, there it is the email proving it, it's a blatant lie. Bullshit they don't ask for positive reviews. Of course Toby had official warnings, sounds like he has ethics. That shit's not tolerated.

Be very cautious about big game reviews, especially if the editor's score is signifigantly higher than user scores.
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No, it sounds like he is a dumbass looking for his 15 minutes of fame. Do game companies ask for positive reviews a lot? Yes and no. PR firms do, but they're hired to try and butter up the press they're also hired to build up hype for a game. Emails from PR saying "hey, we believe such and such person at your company isn't giving our game a fair review" happen all the time, even if it is a shitty game getting the type of score it deserves. There are well known cases of companies black listing publications due to what they view as unfair coverage. It doesn't happen all the time and I've never gotten the impression that these people walk on egg shells in their reviews. Hell I've listened to podcasts were reviewers completely rag on a game for nearly half an hour.

Are there case were shit does happen? Of course, you'd have to be an idiot to say otherwise. However, its just as idiotic to claim it always happens. As for comparing critic to user reviews. Sure, that works as long as you're not just looking at the base score. Most games are, quite frankly, not worth paying attention to as they don't know jack shit about how to write an informative review.
 
reviews are bought and sold everyday no matter what publication or what is being reviewed... anyone with common sense knows this... for someone to be fired over it? nothing new...

the interesting part is this kind of behavior is considered grounds for loosing a job in this day and age... first amendment? welcome to the 21st century!
 
Below Ambient said:
reviews are bought and sold everyday no matter what publication or what is being reviewed... anyone with common sense knows this... for someone to be fired over it? nothing new...

the interesting part is this kind of behavior is considered grounds for loosing a job in this day and age... first amendment? welcome to the 21st century!
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First Amendment does not apply to private property :rolleyes:
 
Below Ambient said:
reviews are bought and sold everyday no matter what publication or what is being reviewed... anyone with common sense knows this... for someone to be fired over it? nothing new...

the interesting part is this kind of behavior is considered grounds for loosing a job in this day and age... first amendment? welcome to the 21st century!
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Care to provide proof? You sound so sure of yourself that you must have first hand knowledge and proof to back it up. And no only providing the firing of Jeff Gertsman won't help your case.
 
Anyone seen the metacritic score for MW2, it's 86/100, the user score is 3.4/10 lol It's sad but most game reviews are nothing but advertisements. On top of that today I was just telling someone that most magazine articles in general are nothing but large advertisements. Basically people are subscribing to an advertising service and PR propaganda.
 
niconx said:
Anyone seen the metacritic score for MW2, it's 86/100, the user score is 3.4/10 lol It's sad but most game reviews are nothing but advertisements. On top of that today I was just telling someone that most magazine articles in general are nothing but large advertisements. Basically people are subscribing to an advertising service and PR propaganda.
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Yay for only looking at the score and not the content. I'm willing to bet that most of the low scores are by people who never touched the game and are acting like children and rating it low based only on what IW and Activision did to the PC version. Which means most of the ratings are complete trash and go to further prove the point I made already in this topic.
 
Derangel said:
No, it sounds like he is a dumbass looking for his 15 minutes of fame. Do game companies ask for positive reviews a lot? Yes and no. PR firms do, but they're hired to try and butter up the press they're also hired to build up hype for a game. Emails from PR saying "hey, we believe such and such person at your company isn't giving our game a fair review" happen all the time, even if it is a shitty game getting the type of score it deserves. There are well known cases of companies black listing publications due to what they view as unfair coverage. It doesn't happen all the time and I've never gotten the impression that these people walk on egg shells in their reviews. Hell I've listened to podcasts were reviewers completely rag on a game for nearly half an hour.

Are there case were shit does happen? Of course, you'd have to be an idiot to say otherwise. However, its just as idiotic to claim it always happens. As for comparing critic to user reviews. Sure, that works as long as you're not just looking at the base score. Most games are, quite frankly, not worth paying attention to as they don't know jack shit about how to write an informative review.
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The main point I'm making, is this wasn't an email to the reviewer, it was to someone higher up and it obviously wasn't deleted or ignored.
 
Derangel said:
Yay for only looking at the score and not the content. I'm willing to bet that most of the low scores are by people who never touched the game and are acting like children and rating it low based only on what IW and Activision did to the PC version. Which means most of the ratings are complete trash and go to further prove the point I made already in this topic.
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LOL, looks like you don't understand the purpose of a review. People rating a game poorly because it sucks and they don't like it? Outrageous.
 
MavericK96 said:
To me, if nothing else the email is just arrogant and potentially insulting to the reviewer. Telling them to "respect the huge achievements" of some game that has not even been released is pushing it, regardless of these alleged "2010 GOTY nominations", which in themselves are retarded being that, again, the game IS NOT EVEN OUT YET.

I really didn't see it as being, like you put it, "don't you think everyone should know?" as much as, "hey, our game is awesome, and you'd better say awesome things about it," which is exactly the issue being brought up by all this.
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And I agree with McG and disagree with you. All I see in that quote is asking for consideration of the work that went into the game. Nothing in there, literally or via connotation, says "you better give us a good review". It's not even close. I'm actually shocked that this editor took issue with it. Must be a slow news day - or gaming journalists are obsessed with "investigating" every little thing.
 
JCDenton said:
LOL, looks like you don't understand the purpose of a review. People rating a game poorly because it sucks and they don't like it? Outrageous.
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Looks like you need to learn how to read. If you don't play a game you have no right reviewing it. Period.
 
radioactivez0r said:
And I agree with McG and disagree with you. All I see in that quote is asking for consideration of the work that went into the game. Nothing in there, literally or via connotation, says "you better give us a good review". It's not even close. I'm actually shocked that this editor took issue with it. Must be a slow news day - or gaming journalists are obsessed with "investigating" every little thing.
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Okay, but still, how do you not see that as arrogant? Don't most developers realistically try to put hard work and all of their effort into their products?

It's like they're saying they deserve special consideration because they worked hard on the game, or because it's so super awesome. So does everyone else, you're not special.
 
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