OP
OP
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After the whole THQN fuckup, I can safely say most of the gaming press is spineless.
- Thread starter GhostTrick
- Start date
What it likely points to more than anything is a lack of governance in decision making at THQ Nordic, and a lack of common sense in the aftermath. IF the AMA decision was made by a few select people or even one person, that person should be facing consequences now. I haven't followed this closely to be honest, I've just read summaries and, have there been consequences at all yet?
And you're right OP, in any other industry this is horrifically bad press and unending bad press until someone takes responsibility for it and makes appropriate amends
And you're right OP, in any other industry this is horrifically bad press and unending bad press until someone takes responsibility for it and makes appropriate amends
So the whole premise of your thread is based on what if's... I think most outlets have in some shape or form been very vocal against THQN.
What's the point of having a discussion if you're just going to be angry and emotional without reading what other people are trying to say? :(
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It's not a what if. I haven't heard of any publication saying "We stop covering them until action is taken". While your argument is based on the fact that the reason their games haven't been covered for now is that... well, there was nothing to cover.
But I'm reading ! :o
Hence why I'm asking what's Skydance Animation production. You're asking me should they stop covering them without telling me who are they. But yeah, after proper research, I think so, the press should stop covering them.
I don't check a ton of gaming sites but i feel like I heard the THQ thing be brought up a number of times the last week. They did their job of reporting the news and they will likely report further if more comes to light. Sites will have their own internal politics on whether or not to continue coverage or advertising with the company but it's up to the reader/viewer/listener to come to their own opinion on the ordeal. Your asking these site to create internet mobs which is not their job and a toxic practice.
I mentioned it specifically in my previous post, haha! Right after Polanski. I specifically mentioned it because it's an example of a current problem in the entertainment space outside of gaming, for a direct comparison. Lots of problematic things around us!
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No, I'm asking them to not give promotion to a publisher who thought promoting their games on a website hosting child pornography was something good to do and decided to do nothing afterward.
Can you please point to those outlets please? I haven't seen any of them do such thing.
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Welp, shit, my bad ><
It is a problem outside of gaming, on the other hand well.. we also see how outside of gaming that kind of stuff became big. It's not to say press coverage outside of gaming for that kind of issue is perfect. It's not. But it actually feels like a lot of publications are actually trying to push things while in the gaming industry well... it tends to remains soft.
I didn't even knew that 8chan existed before this, and i would probably still don't know about it if some press coverage hadn't been made.
So it would probably have been better to not have a coverage at all on the matter.
So it would probably have been better to not have a coverage at all on the matter.
polygon, IGN, Eurogamer, PC gamer, kotaku....they all talked about it and said it was very bad thing for THQN to do
I just got caught up on the super helpful summary in this thread
https://www.resetera.com/threads/th...read-threadmarks.102061/page-67#post-18334080
The lack of accountability is even more baffling when you see there are clearly identifiable employees behind it. What the hell were they thinking?
https://www.resetera.com/threads/th...read-threadmarks.102061/page-67#post-18334080
The lack of accountability is even more baffling when you see there are clearly identifiable employees behind it. What the hell were they thinking?
So if there is nothing to cover how much of a threat is it actually to come out and say you won't cover games from them. The press have been very vocal against THQ. Their stance have been clearly against THQ. Coming out and saying that they won't cover, something that isn't there right now, is a nothing threat and hollow.
I get that it's the in thing to do to shit on the gaming media, but unlike most of "real hardcore gamers" on YouTube the press have actually been vocal against THQ. Now if you see a site covering a thqN gmbh game in the future you can go find your pitchfork.
That's a pretty disingenuous claim. This stuff happened less than a week ago. Tell me, what games has THQN released since then?
Don't think so narrowly. Think in the long run.
The real problem is not enough are doing it and the more vocal public ain't listening. Some like Imran keeps an eye on it as well as gameindustry.biz, bombcast talks about it too, but not enough have the incentive for EVERYONE to keep on covering it on a regular basis if it bears no fruit.
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It's called pressuring until actions are taken.
How's their stance clear ? Did they state that they're going to keep coverage or not ?
See podge reply. And we covered it on our latest podcast. And giant bomb covered it on both beast and bombast
But if we look at how things that blow up become big, it's often not because the press kept covering it. It's because people cared about the coverage and pushed for it to matter by more people coming forward and making a big deal about it.
#MeToo was not a big deal because the press made it a big deal. It was a big deal because a segment of society said enough was enough and made it matter. The press then continued covering it as it blew up, helping highlight how the issue was expanding. There's an example of this happening in gaming too - look at Riot Games. That was a pretty big deal that blew up. There was press coverage and also increasingly more people coming out and talking about it from inside the company. Activision Blizzard's recent redundancies? Same thing.
So why isn't this THQ Nordic thing blowing up right now? Probably because the people who work at or under THQ Nordic mostly don't feel it's big enough of a deal to take a stand and speak against it, and since it doesn't affect their own jobs or any specific victims anyone can put a name or face to, it's hard for them to care personally. The gaming audience also mostly doesn't care, but that's nothing new. Hard to care about moral issues when you just wanna play some shootbangs. So it's kinda unfair to pin it entirely on the press. They did do their jobs. There's always room for improvement but maybe we should take a look around ourselves and see the sort of company we keep in gaming communities, before assuming that the press has some magical power to make people care about stuff they don't care about.
I didn't either but I have learnt from reading all this thq stuff that they have an attachment to pedo content and naughty dog games.
Been a big week for pedophiles with this and their youtube rings coming to light.
But what happens if THQN before their next game comes out releases a full apology, fires the people who fucked up and announces plans to completely change their PR strategy?
Do you want the media to then take back the initial stance?
Any site declaring now they aren't going to cover THQN games is just a nothing statement
This is a really great point. As much as I have anger over the whole thing, I can't really sit down and write out a piece that puts that anger in a way that will articulate that out to people and say why this is a truly horrible thing and not something that people should shrug their shoulders at or let them sweep it under the rug.
One way I think you could get people to care would be to show just how truly awful the 8chan site really is, show people what THQ had done by associating with them and with greater emphasis put on the CP part. There was an article on the Guardian I think about how all this CP porn gets distributed on the dark web and why people who consume this stuff are just as complicit in the abuse that goes on even if they never touch or harm a child themselves.
I would go so far as to say THQ themselves have become complicit in the ongoing abuse that those kind of sites operate in now by signal boosting them for over an entire fucking day in their twitter page.
How is that a pressure when they dont have anything they currently want us to cover??? Its a nothing threat.
My apologies then. It just seem like it went all quiet since the incident happened. The only place I noticed that has kept it alive has been ERA.
While your intentions are good this is a rather complicated stick to beat the gaming press with (who get a lot of unwarrented abuse). A lot of websites went in hard on THQ after this.
The articles I saw all were at pains to explain how this almost certainly wasn't a honest mistake and laid out good evidence to explain this. That is good journalism. Not just reporting but doing the extra work to close down half arsed apologists who will no doubt turn up in the comments.
You can ask for blanket no coverage but THQ Nordic owns a lot of studios, a few of them came out in the wake of this (or were approached by press) to express their disgust. A lot of those people aren't in anyway involved in this. It could easily be possible for this to spin out of control and innocent devs be targeted by the angry gaming mob. It has plenty of precedent.
Also coverage of games is not inherently positive. Just because a site is covering a game does not mean they are getting free advertisement for it. The recent Darksiders got a very lukewarm reception. Apparently it still sold well but no way the review coverage helped in that.
The articles I saw all were at pains to explain how this almost certainly wasn't a honest mistake and laid out good evidence to explain this. That is good journalism. Not just reporting but doing the extra work to close down half arsed apologists who will no doubt turn up in the comments.
You can ask for blanket no coverage but THQ Nordic owns a lot of studios, a few of them came out in the wake of this (or were approached by press) to express their disgust. A lot of those people aren't in anyway involved in this. It could easily be possible for this to spin out of control and innocent devs be targeted by the angry gaming mob. It has plenty of precedent.
Also coverage of games is not inherently positive. Just because a site is covering a game does not mean they are getting free advertisement for it. The recent Darksiders got a very lukewarm reception. Apparently it still sold well but no way the review coverage helped in that.
It's because you can't make much talk if THQ doesn't respond to anything. Unless you go for a direct call to action for business partners to demand details and actions, there's not much you can report on.
it has gone relatively quiet yeah because there's not much else to cover. THQ N are keeping quiet.
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Well, I naively thought that it was the role of the gaming press to be a link between the customers and the publishers. But it seems to be unfortunately one sided. From the top to the bottom.
Yes. Because that means it worked.
Because they'll have something to cover during the year ?
They don't have anything to cover between when it happened and today, which is barely a week. On a year basis though ? Trust me, it's more that a threat, it has actual consequences. I doubt THQ Nordic would keep their stance if, say IGN, Edge, Gameinformer, Kotaku and Eurogamer stopped covering and talking about them.
Except it doesnt because it doesnt impact THQN at all because they wouldnt have released anything to be boycotted???
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It sucks for the devs yes, but it also sucks for the victims of child abuse. Then again and as I said, not everyone is to put into that bag, but for the most part, it's been going pretty softly.
Well, if they fired the people responsible of this mess and apologized, yes, it would be. Since it means they would've taken actions after that. It does impact THQN since it means the threat made them take actions.
It would really depend on what happens THQN decide to talk. One ignored thing is that their current silence is costing them money. I'm sure they had things planned that they've pulled because they are in hiding. How long can they keep not talking when it's costing them? At some point they'll have to come out in public again and we'll see how the media reacts when they're finally in a position to get some answers from them. I don't think they'll be able to hide much longer
No it'd be a coincidence unless they specifically called it out for that especially if they did it before any of the games they're publishing get released and wouldnt have had press coverage anyways.
I could tweet at THQN today and demand an apology. If they subsequently come out and apologise it doesn't mean i was the reason for it.
What stuff tho? their next game isn't out till april and even then it's a remake that already got released on Xbox One and PS4 like 3 years ago
I dunno, I think it's perfectly reasonable to draw the line at companies essentially endorsing child abuse.
Or get in good with the companies they cover so they can work for them in the future. How many have gone on to become community managers and such? I'm sure it's not that many, but when it happens, it stands out to me.
Seems like the majority of people in the gaming press just wanted to make a living. They practice journalism-lite in a generally low stakes industry. They're not not inclined or equipped to deal with the likes of GamerGate and the normalization of bigotry that's linked to the worldwide uptick in fascism. That's not what they signed up for as game journalists.
Maybe it's time to look to real journalists to take the industry and gaming culture to task.
Maybe it's time to look to real journalists to take the industry and gaming culture to task.
weird because the gaming sites that i inhabit took the whole thqn thing pretty seriously. tbh this just reads as an opportunity to pivot to "fuck the press" which hmmm seems a bit "ethics in games journalism"-ish.........
just saying.
just saying.
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Go on, say it. But you better be fuckin solid here if you're going to throw that kind of accusations.
What a stupid topic. The press is here to report on news. I saw a ton of reports on this, and a bunch of them called THQ out. There are more than a few opinion pieces too (which are not the responsibility of the press, remember). Trying to wring out more than an apology from a large company is pointless. What are you waiting for them to do? Drag the guy responsible out into the street and shoot him? When is your thirst filled here, OP?
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I'm just saying that it's hypocrite to call out on a company to then promote it. Because as of right now, the gaming press is being a way to promote stuff. We're talking about important matters here. It's not even about gaming, it's about promoting or not a company that decided doing an AMA on a site hosting child pornography. If they can take a stand to promote games, yes I believe they should also do the opposite.
oh im quite clear on what im saying. i saw multiple outlets cover thqn and listened to them talk about it in podcasts too. what im seeing now is people pivoting to bashing the press because they think it wasnt covered enough and think that proves collusion or lack of care by the press. i think that this is not unsimilar to gg tactics, when really what it's about is holding it as a cudgel with which to bash someone over the head with who they perceive to not be good enough.
Because the gamer population has a higher than normal proportion of dick-nuggets in it and they don't want to lose money.
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So, you're accusing me to be a gamergater then ?
Because I'm quite clear myself here. I never said this wasn't covered. I said it wasn't covered enough. It sounds pretty big. And yet it doesn't get the coverage nor the answer it should get from the major publications. Yes, there are a few outlets or writers that actually did their job (which I highlighted). Now if you're accusing me of something, make it clear and loud. But as I said, you better have something fucking solid here.
except none of them have promoted THQN since?
all the major game sites covered it. and covered it well enough to convey what happened and that THQN's response was bull
Do you want them just to rehash the same article over and over again??
If THQN aren't commenting then there is nothing new to report.
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And as I said already: THQN didn't send any new PR or media about any of their upcoming game.
Naive, the coverage on killers can wildly vary depending on their nationality.
Congratulations, I don't think anyone could possible come up with a more annoying or obtuse take than this. I think we can pretty much wrap things up.
nope. im not saying your a gater. just that this post is example of using a shitty thing publishers did to pivot to bashing the gaming press, which is something that i've seen a dozen times by groups including gaters. it's tiresome.