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From: JAB <noway@nochance.com>
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Subject: Re: 1st HL2 game memories from 2004...
Date: Sat, 23 Nov 2024 11:42:07 +0000
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On 22/11/2024 21:34, Zaghadka wrote:
> When Jeff Gerstmann was fired, some 3 years later*, for failing to give a
> good review to a corporate partnership game, my opinion was sealed.
> 
> https://bit.ly/4fWpZmn
> 
> (The bookmark link on Wikipedia had problems with pasting. So bit.ly)
> 
> I thank Dan Adams for giving me the heads up.

I'm pretty sure it does happen so to me the question is how prevalent it 
is and how explicit. So two examples from UK newspapers. Sources at The 
Times (Murdoch owned) have said although they wouldn't be told directly 
which stories where acceptable there was an understanding of no making 
the owner look bad. The court case involving another Murdoch title, The 
News of The World, was conspicuous underplayed in The Times even though 
it was headline news.

The Daily Mail is quite different in that there the editorial staff are 
told what they should be running with to create the whole narrative of 
baton down the hatches as society is collapsing so the only solution is 
to give more money to rich people.

I assume that this type of 'direction' also happens in games magazines 
and has only got worse since the balance between money from actual sales 
and the adverts in 'magazines' has shifted almost completely to the 
latter. It's one of the reasons I rely more and more on Steam reviews 
and not a professional review pointing out how mundane the game is, all 
the bugs, technical issues etc. but still giving it 8.5/10.