Honesty. Integrity. The ability and value of accurate, fair, and balanced reporting on the stories that shape our world to those who read or listen to those stories. This is the essence of journalism. The connection of trust that reporters and writers have with their viewers and readers is paramount in the profession. The apex, the top essence, the utmost requirement, the peak importance among other peak importances of that sacred trust is the integrity that the journalist has when reporting or writing about news stories, sporting events, or even tragedies and hostage situations. The integrity of a journalist means that the he or she will report the story with no bias. The journalist will cover elections without any sign of party siding, which means he or she will not show any sign of joy or disappointment while announcing the results of an election. The journalist will never take payment from an oil company that is abusing the environment if said journalist reports only on the good in which said oil company does. The journalist understands the essence of the sacred trust between the news company, whether it be a newspaper or a news channel, and the viewer, who pays for the newspaper subscription and the news channel. It is a trust that is sacred as the trust between spouses in a marriage. It is NEVER to be violated.
Sadly, journalistic integrity is hard to come by. They will only report on good things a company does because they are paid by said company or only report on the negative things a company does because they pay their rivals. A conservative newspaper, magazine, or news channel will cover scandals affecting liberals more than covering scandals on conservatives. Vice-versa applies to liberal journalistic outlets. The lack of journalistic integrity has detrimental consequences not only to the news organizations, but to those who trust said outlets. The viewers, listeners, and readers trust journalists like they trust a home security system with their possessions, their homes, their families, and their lives. Readers, listeners, and viewers depend on the news. They do not know what is exactly happening in Iraq. They do not know what is exactly happening with global warming. They do not know what is exactly going on with the economy. This is why we all depend on journalists to give us the news. The lack of integrity in a journalist is a violation of that sacred trust within the viewer.
One last stallion of integrity in journalism is the video game journalist and, more specifically, the video game reviewer. The video game reviewer is like a movie critic. They play the games and give a score based on many aspects of the game, which includes graphics, control, design, story, and audio. The game reviewer has a tall responsibility. They are responsible with honest and accurate critiques of the games so that no one wastes money on a video game with horrible gameplay or that no one misses out on a blockbuster that is game of the year noteworthy because a reviewer falsely claimed the overall gameplay was terrible. That is the paramount task game reviewers undertake. A vast number of gamers, including myself, consult game review scores in a purchase of a game. They claim that review scores are a chief factor in a purchasing decision. Game journalists understand this. They are gamers too. They, just like you and I, cringe at the thought of wasting money on a video game with graphics that give players eye strain. They lament the thought of spending fifty dollars of hard earned money on a game with controls that are more sluggish than FEMA was when Hurricane Katrina hit the gulf coast. They especially wince at the idea of spending money on a game that is plagued with glitches that make the game unplayable.
The video game companies see things a different way.
Sadly and unfortunately, the integrity of game reviewers are now under attack. Not from the head of game magazines, game websites, or game channels, but from the developers and publishers of the games. I am not talking about all game companies. Just those who can not accept criticism, low scores, and the fact that the game is just not any good or any fun to play. This started last fall with the now-overhyped Playstation 3 dragon flight game "Lair". When the game received scores that ranged from mediocre to terrible, developer Factor 5 and publisher Sony sent a guide on how to review the game to nearly every outlet, whether it be magazine, website, or channel. Factor 5 and Sony were bashed for this childish act. The fact that they would stoop to such a low level is ridiculous and is the trigger, a cause, of public relations hell. The lengths of what a game company will do to game reviewers who truthfully give bad scores to games came to a head last month when long time Gamespot reviewer Jeff Gerstmann, the reviewer who gave "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time" a perfect 10, which is the first and only game to get such a paramount honor from the website, was terminated when he gave the game "Kane & Lynch" a mediocre score. The publishers Eidos interactive, who had adverts for the game on Gamespot, threatened to pull their ads if Jeff was not terminated. This triggered a massive and vast anger from the entire gaming community, whether they be journalists or players. Many Gamespot readers gave abysmal reader reviews for the game as a protest against Gerstmann's termination. Those were quickly tarnished as well as Gerstmann's review. Many Gamespot subscribers ceased their subscriptions and even their staffers started to depart.
The game companies are in no position to bully game reviewers. They do not have the right nor the privilege to force a reviewers termination because of their honesty. This is the equivalent of a petulant little brat who does not take no for an answer. This is the equivalent of a child losing in a game and demanding a two out of three or a three out of five. This is the equivalent of one who responds to criticism in an inappropriate fashion. If game companies want good reviews or some of the hard-earned money of those who shell out the fifty dollars for such games, then they perhaps need to take a long look in the mirror and come to a realization. A realization in which a game company needs to accept the fact that in order to get great reviews and millions of copies of a game sold, they need to develop and tune the game to meet such lofty goals. The game companies are not to force game reviewers to sacrifice their integrity, the integrity that is essential for the trust between the reviewer and the reader. The reviewer should never have to lose his or her job because he or she was being honest, fair, and balanced. That is what Eidos did. Instead of taking criticism as a learning experience, they instead decided to go after Jeff, costing him his job in the process and giving Gamespot, CNet, and Eidos a publicity nightmare so treacherous, the publicists of Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, and Brittany Spears would be unenviable of such a task. Even the PR department of Take-Two Interactive would not undergo such a hellish...well...hell. Jeff Gerstmann is an unfortunate victim of a company's ego vastly over-inflated and pride more foolish than that of our president.
To the game reviewers: stay strong and never budge. Your integrity is paramount in our trust we put in you. Your fairness and honesty is the peak difference in buying a game that is one of the greatest ever or a game that is one of the worst ever. Also to the CEOs of the gaming outlets: never give in to the demands of a game company. They are not to tell you how to run the magazine, website, or network. You run the ship, they do not. What the game companies do to your employees is nothing short of wrongful termination, which results in lawsuits. You can not fire journalists for being honest, fair, accurate, and balanced. That is what you hire your employees for. You do not fire your employees for doing their jobs. You do not fire them for what they do. They play a game thoroughly and give an honest critique of the game. The importance of integrity is something that can never...NEVER...be stressed enough. If you give in to the demands from a game company that is too egotistical to accept the fact that their game is bad, you will go through what Gamespot has to go through. The protests, the PR hell, the sudden departures of fellow co-workers who feel that if they do not lie and say a game is good when in fact it is a complete 180 from good, and paramount of all the loss of readers and viewers that are vital to your company as much as gasoline is vital to an automobile, as vital as oxygen and a heartbeat is to a human being. Do not do what Gamestop and CNet did to your employees.
The journalism profession has a sacred trust between the reporter and the listener, reader, or viewer. The utmost factor in that trust is integrity. The sacred trust is NEVER to be violated in any way imaginable. The game companies extorting good game reviews, holding reviewers hostage with their jobs for high scores and have no qualms for their termination, is nothing short of a dispicalbe and selfish act.
Good night and good luck.
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