Of Rumor Mills, Console Wars and the Blame Game

People love to gossip. No one’s above this. This is why rags like the National Inquirer flourish. This is why gossip magazines like OK, In Touch and Star are some of the best selling publications on newsstands.

Gamers are no different. We love our little tidbits of unsubstantiated, unconfirmed, unreliable datum that we can post on internet forums with the impish preamble of “Did you hear? I read somewhere that….” The factoid could have no merit. It could originate from, at best, dubious sources. But in the shady world of rumor mongering, things like fact-checking isn’t as important as the drama born of a well-timed rumor.

[Dante112]

"Unfortunately, several gaming blogs chose to pass along the quote sans the context. Without naming names, some sites even drew direct relationships between the networking issues that spawned Jason’s complaint and the security threats of the PS3 jailbreak drama. What followed were forum threads bloated with Activision hate, threats against hackers and reports of rampant hacking in PS3 games. As with anything on the internet, I believe it safe to say that most of this was over-exaggeration and even outright lie. Then again, much of it could have been venting from players frustrated by the problems in the PS3 version of Black Ops, a fire further fueled by the specter of unconfirmed hacking. As we’d all expect, a good chunk of the noise came from anti-Sony fanboys taking advantage of the bad news.  Amidst the sword rattling, some of the rants could have been genuine. Whatever the case, it was dramatic. Never mind that is was false.So who’s to blame for the start and perpetuation of the rumor?"

Hmm...good point.

[Urahara]

Who cares, where's the news?

[leftybrown]

I'm trying to decide if you are being sarcastic in the spirit of the piece or that you're a complete tool and didn't read that this is an opinion piece.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

Nice article...I have to admit this is one of the issues that is becoming a larger issue for the gaming industry. As smaller gaming sites continue to grow and garner more of the gaming community ear the need for journalistic integrity also grows.

Its situations like this that are probably behind the changes for E3 this year. Now they are requiring a min. of 8,000 unique visitors per month on gaming sites for them to qualify for E3 credentials. I dont know that I agree with that level of qualification but then again...it will definitely weed out a lot of smaller sites so hopefully the coverage from mainstream sites will be better.

[leftybrown]

Well on that point I also think that enthusiast blogs have been chiefly behind selling or copying E3 badges also puts sites like mine under more scrutiny. (Which we've never done, but those bad eggs have stunk up the joint for everyone)

[OC_MurphysLaw]

@Leftybrown, I didn't realize there was an issue with "selling and copying" of badges..but then again I just don't travel in those kinds of circles. I went to E3 last year as part of the The Gamesmen site and we definitely were legit in our coverage and access. While I am still affiliated with them, I am now also part of a larger community site G4TE.com and host their podcast and while we are bigger now...we still wont hit that kind of threshold of 8,000 uniques.

Enthusiast blogs are not a problem as long as they are run with a sense of morality...but as you stated a few bad eggs stinks it up for all.