Jeff Gerstmann fired over review...
 

F*cking SAD! That's all I can say about the Gamespot higher-ups at this moment. Way to completely ruin all the credibility Gamespot had as one of the best places for game related content.

Destructoid
Kotaku

Even PA has already put up their comic about it...
http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2007/20071129.jpg

You know, I don't care whether you love or hate Jeff, the guy has been around for 10 years. He's reviewed almost every huge game to be released in that time span, and along with the likes of Greg Kasavin and Ryan MacDonald, made Gamespot the juggernaut it is today, and also one of the funnest and most reliable gaming sites on the internet. This is completely and utterly despicable. I feel sick.

So, this is actually real? I saw the comic but I thought it was a joke.

I don't like particularly like Gerstmann, but to fire him for doing his job is nothing short of retarded. What the f*ck, Gamespot.

Yes, it's 100% confirmed at this point. There's pretty much calamity over in the Gamespot community. Some old editors have started some trouble, including one starting up a campaign to get as many people as possible to cancel their GS paid accounts. They're already nearing $4,000 worth of cancelled subscriptions.

On top of all this, apparently Tim Tracy, who was a main man behind almost every single Gamespot Live feature, has quit because of this.

Damn. That's f*cked up.

Fsck Gamespot. I'm not going there anymore.

Personally, when playing Kane and Lynch with a friend, the game's controls are rather terrible I feel, just doesn't work at all I feel, didn't really enjoy playing it, it wasn't that bad and sure I only played for like an hour or two, but still, Jeff Gerstmann is the man, I loved his humour and his need to get as many live achievements as he could. Good man, this blows, like Peanut said, Kasavin was the king as well, two great editors gone down the tube.

I've never been Jeff Gerstmann's biggest fan, but this is just downright crooked. Gamespot looses all respect from me both as a journalist and a reader if this is legit. This is a writer and reader's worst nightmare--to know that an editor gets the guillotine if their reviews and opinions don't fall in line with the ideals of the sponsors, especially when you're in a position of power such as Gamespot. This completely blows Gamespot's credibility straight to hell if its true. How can a reader expect their content to be objective and honest if they fire editors who don't kiss the collective asses of the sponsor of the week?

This is just more evidence that in the minds of publishers, game journalism is nothing but an extension of their PR firms. Problem is, behavior such as Gamespot's essentially makes us even more so their volunteer lackeys. If someone won't cave, publishers will just take their exclusive content to someone who will.

Credibility is hard earned, and easily lost. I hope this scandal gets a lot of attention from the core gamer-base, because the site deserves to burn. Seriously, you hear about this kind of stuff going on time and time again, but it never turns out to be real. This is big, and ugly.

Yeah, this is nuts. I saw this earlier, and actually saw that video 2 weeks ago. Its down now, but on the tube of you.

I wonder how big this whole repercussion circus will go.

First I didn't believe that he got fired because of the review but then I noticed that Gamespot took down his video review for the game. Yeah.

As most of us I never really liked Gerstmann but this is pathetic. F*ck Gamespot.

Gamespot's been my site for alla this stuff since high school, so I'm obviously a bit confused about where to go from here. What they did is sort of unforgivable for a journalistic institution of any sort, but at the same time it's gonna be difficult for me to just up and start using something else that I'm unfamiliar with.

Geez. What really gets me upset is that Eidos actually 'took issue' with the review. If they couldn't take a bad review, then they shouldn't have made a bad game. They were acting like immature jerks, and whats worse is that Gamespot actually gave into them. Total bullsh*t, says I.

Eidos took issue with it because their ads were plastered all over the website.

That still doesn't change the fact that they took the wrong course of action.

Same here. I was reading Gamespot back when it was Videogames.com, when Jeff and Ryan would make videos about which controller flew the furtherest. I don't know if I can just not visit Gamespot over this. I mean, over the past year and half 1up has made gigantic strides with their podcasts and interesting features, but their reviews and previews still pale in comparison, and come off as almost amateurish at times. I don't really know what to do, because IGN isn't, and never was, an option.

That makes little difference. They had Hour of Victory ads all over their site, even had developers visiting On The Spot to show it off, and it was nailed to the wall with an even worse score, yet they didn't get into a fit about it. If you make a sh*t game, expect to pay the consequences.

I don't agree with it, I'm just clearing up why they had a problem with it.

Destructoid f*cking rules!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...estructoid.jpg

:lol:

Thanks for posting that little bit. I needed the laugh.

Banner of the year. Easy win.

Apparently the 1up guys are protesting against this.

I wouldn't call it protesting, but showing their support for Jeff, which just shows yet again how f*cking solid all the Ziff guys are. 1up, Gamevideos, EGM & GFW. I will eat something not fit for consumption if Jeff doesn't end up over on 1up. It really is their chance to elevate themselves to new levels.

Anyways, I don't know how many people here actually watch/listen to the various Gamespot productions, but did anyone happen to see Tournament TV last night? The look on Kevin Van Ord's face almost killed me. That guy is usually just so full of smiles, but he looked like he was miserable. And the continued blog entries from (current and former) Gamespot employees are really telling about how everyone feels about this.

Brian Ekberg even made a blog post saying pretty much that he wanted to leave.

I just talked with a friend of mine about this, a friend who is a diehard Zelda fanboy apparently. He says Gerstmann deserves it for giving Twilight Princess a 8.8.

Well your friend is a worthless sh*t bag, to be perfectly honest.

Yeah. Just so we're clear, he's no longer a friend. Because I had the galls to agree with Gerstmann on TP. :roll:

Then he's pretty damn pathetic.

Yeah, he was. I forgot why I was friends with him to begin with, but that's enough of that.

I'm also a 'diehard' Zelda fan, and I fully agree with Gerstmann's 8.8. The guy seems like an honest reviewer.

I, being the only person on this board who really appreciated Twilight Princess for everything it was, was kinda upset at the 8.8, simply because those two missing points would have given it Editor's Choice status. People have said Gamespot intentionally reviews things lower than other sites just to give themselves attention and that's always how the TP review sorta struck me. But then again I actually loved the game.

8.8 was generous.

First of all, the score was an 8.9.

Second of all, your friend does realize that's out of 10 right?

I like how the reports on him getting canned talk about how the reason he was given was because of his "tone." So why wasn't his "tone" a problem for his past gazillion reviews? Hmmmm...hmmm...hmmm... :-?

The Wii version which was reviewed first got an 8.8.

If he'da given the GC version a 9.0, that'd be different from my perspective. One of the versions deserved at least a nine.

Again, he was being a jerk and he is no longer my friend. Plus, The Wii version was given an 8.8

Still, it's not a bad score out of 10, so I don't really understand why he was so pissed off.

No. It didn't.

Edit: The script kiddies have been set loose. GameFAQs, which was bought by CNet something like two years ago, was the first victim.

http://i16.tinypic.com/6okcpp3.jpg

ROFL!

Edit: Edios forums get hosed. ROFL again!

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/a...olgamefaqs.jpg

Oops! My mistake then. Thanks for the correction.

Still, like you said I feel 8.8 is a good score.
I think so many people are jaded to this whole "Games must have a 9.0+ score to be considered any good," and that's just whack.


::Looks through the Eidos Messageboard pic::
Hmm... "Very good vagina of cousin?" I can only imagine...

That's true. Gamespot's review format is/was the standard others should try to emulate.

What people don't seem to realize is that there's a whole set of other numbers below an 8, and the last time I checked, anything between a 6 and a 7 could be considered average, with anything above that considered good to excellent. I mean, a person has to be a complete and utter ASS to complain about the difference between an 8.8-8.9 and a 9. Seriously.

Aside from all that, meaningless scores aren't what this is about. At all. So if anyone else is going to bring up that worthless bullsh*t, just get the f*ck out.

What has the the TP review got to do with anything? For the record, it was one of Gerstmann's best reviews, end of story.

You're the one gettin' all bothered over it, cheif. We can talk about whatever we want here, you're not the only one.

The point is, the Zelda review is completely irrelevant for this topic.

I dunno if I'd agree with that entirely. It was a review by Gerstmann, after all. I'm done with it, either way.