It's not the banner ads that bug me. It's when they started reporting ads as news. This is not OK. If you want to make money thats fine, but don't try to play it off like it's content.
Giant Bomb would never write an article about an ad. Oh, wait.
So i guess GB will be selling out this year or next when they are putting up ads? DAMN PEOPLE! damn them for wanting to put food on the table for their family and a roof over their heads! they shouldn't be allowed to earn money! with this analogy you sold out the second you started a job and started paying taxes. YOU SELL OUTS.
Don't worry. Us paid members won't see any ads, right? Right?!
When you go to that website, A GIANT AD HOVERS OVER THE TOP HEADLINE! Kotaku sold out a long time ago
Yeah that really annoys me. I know there was talk about ads on GB, and the thought of ADS that are relevant, which i wouldnt mind to be honest, but the Kotaku thing is just to much.
It's not the banner ads that bug me. It's when they started reporting ads as news. This is not OK. If you want to make money thats fine, but don't try to play it off like it's content.
Giant Bomb would never write an article about an ad. Oh, wait.
Umm, what?
Que?
I think the point is reduced by the actual original content in the GB thing.
Much like IGN/1UP top ten lists, I get tired of Japanese kink articles.
Then Gamesradar would drive you to suicide.
That's funny. I've not been to Gamesradar in a long time either (though your comment made me go look). Honestly, between Giant Bomb and Twitter updates I don't really feel the need to check other sites.
Yeah, I kinda gave up on Gamesradar once it dawned on me just how many lists they were putting out. Also, one of the writers also posted a piece on Michael Patcher I found childish that he claimed I misunderstood and I said screw it for good. But yeah, I'm with you. Due to Giant Bomb, I don't visit many other gaming sites. Personally, there just isn't really any need to do so. I'll still check out Destructoid and Joystiq a few times a week though if I'm bored.
Yeah, I hit Joystiq and GameInformer up when I'm real bored. I'll occasionally check out Destructoid, but rarely. Every time a read a Jim Sterling article I want to rage out on my keyboard.
So i guess GB will be selling out this year or next when they are putting up ads? DAMN PEOPLE! damn them for wanting to put food on the table for their family and a roof over their heads! they shouldn't be allowed to earn money! with this analogy you sold out the second you started a job and started paying taxes. YOU SELL OUTS.
Don't worry. Us paid members won't see any ads, right? Right?!
You know i actually kind of want us to get ads just to see how people react, my bet is atleast 50% will go batshit and the outcome would be hilarious, personally i could care less if they give me ads while im paying, i have been a supporter since arrowpointingdown and will be until either i die or this dies and moves on to be something else.
It's not the banner ads that bug me. It's when they started reporting ads as news. This is not OK. If you want to make money thats fine, but don't try to play it off like it's content.
Giant Bomb would never write an article about an ad. Oh, wait.
Umm, what?
Que?
I think the point is reduced by the actual original content in the GB thing.
The original content is basically "Hey I took a tiny piece of this trailer and repeated it a bunch of times to make a new video". And then that video that consists of 100% advertising footage is embedded below. That's all there is.
Kotaku sucks and not because of the ads, because of they do.. the quality of their writing is poor to say the least.
Media has always survive on advertising money, nothing wrong about it.. it is a fine balance they need to keep in order to survive, maintain credibility and also get revenues.
@Mcfart: chill out Cartman, are you like a 15 year old hillbilly? hate to say it but it is the kind of response comment you expect for such demographic.
So i guess GB will be selling out this year or next when they are putting up ads? DAMN PEOPLE! damn them for wanting to put food on the table for their family and a roof over their heads! they shouldn't be allowed to earn money! with this analogy you sold out the second you started a job and started paying taxes. YOU SELL OUTS.
Don't worry. Us paid members won't see any ads, right? Right?!
You know i actually kind of want us to get ads just to see how people react, my bet is atleast 50% will go batshit and the outcome would be hilarious, personally i could care less if they give me ads while im paying, i have been a supporter since arrowpointingdown and will be until either i die or this dies and moves on to be something else.
The really enjoy the fact that I don't have to see any ads on GB.com. I see so much of that shit on other sites, that GB is a breath of fresh ad-free air. I won't stop supporting the site, but part of the reason I paid was to help keep it ad-free.
It's not the banner ads that bug me. It's when they started reporting ads as news. This is not OK. If you want to make money thats fine, but don't try to play it off like it's content.
WTF is this? It's just a video with a couple of sentences below it. This isn't a news article.
So i guess GB will be selling out this year or next when they are putting up ads? DAMN PEOPLE! damn them for wanting to put food on the table for their family and a roof over their heads! they shouldn't be allowed to earn money! with this analogy you sold out the second you started a job and started paying taxes. YOU SELL OUTS.
Don't worry. Us paid members won't see any ads, right? Right?!
You know i actually kind of want us to get ads just to see how people react, my bet is atleast 50% will go batshit and the outcome would be hilarious, personally i could care less if they give me ads while im paying, i have been a supporter since arrowpointingdown and will be until either i die or this dies and moves on to be something else.
The really enjoy the fact that I don't have to see any ads on GB.com. I see so much of that shit on other sites, that GB is a breath of fresh ad-free air. I won't stop supporting the site, but part of the reason I paid was to help keep it ad-free.
im 99.99% sure paid (atleast gold) wont see ads, but either way it doesnt bother me (in terms of site ads)
Now video ads on the other hand can be annoying, the 1+ minute ads you have to sit through to watch a 2-3 minute video.. that is bullshit.
Ehh. Maybe. I do really HATE HATE HATE that ad that covers the half of the first article, but I'm a fan of Totilo and his work. I'm not going to completely disown the site because of it.
When I used to read Kotaku, there was too much crap in the blog, mostly things that I didn't care about. I stopped reading after the redesign, because that was the final straw.
I haven't been to Kotaku in a long time. It's constant updating was great when I had a job with internet and there was a lot of downtime.
A couple of people have mentioned Gamesradar. I used to frequent the crap out of that site! I still like their writing, but the ads can be annoying. Anyway, I still listen to their podcast even if they do have a tendency to use the same sound effects every week.
I never really have cared for Kotaku. I read many different sites since I use Reader on my iPhone but never have tried out Kotaku. I hear too many bad things about the site anyway.
It means they're trying to make a profit. There's nothing wrong with ads. But you said 'every other article is an ad'. What does that mean? Does that mean every other article has an ad within the body of the article or that the content of the article is an ad? A lot of video game news is ad-related as it focuses on showing new games that are coming out in one way or another. They are essentially ads. Every preview is an ad. Every interview is an ad. That's how these sites have always worked. It's up to us as the readers to ascertain the relevant information from these 'ads' that is important to us personally.
I haven't been to Kotaku in a long time. It's constant updating was great when I had a job with internet and there was a lot of downtime. A couple of people have mentioned Gamesradar. I used to frequent the crap out of that site! I still like their writing, but the ads can be annoying. Anyway, I still listen to their podcast even if they do have a tendency to use the same sound effects every week.
The mainstays are often the best ones.
Edit: I'm referring to the effects. Actually, the story Brett told about LA Noire yesterday, where he drove over a cliff on top of an unsuspecting pedestrian, that shit had me laughing so hard I couldn't open my eyes for like a minute straight.
Also, Kotaku sucks balls and caters too much to weeaboos. That's my piece.
I haven't been to Kotaku in a long time. It's constant updating was great when I had a job with internet and there was a lot of downtime. A couple of people have mentioned Gamesradar. I used to frequent the crap out of that site! I still like their writing, but the ads can be annoying. Anyway, I still listen to their podcast even if they do have a tendency to use the same sound effects every week.
The mainstays are often the best ones. Edit: I'm referring to the effects. Actually, the story Brett told about LA Noire yesterday, where he drove over a cliff on top of an unsuspecting pedestrian, that shit had me laughing so hard I couldn't open my eyes for like a minute straight. Also, Kotaku sucks balls and caters too much to weeaboos. That's my piece.
Yeah, their stories are usually great. I do like a lot of the reoccurring ones such as the count down, Wikiparez, and Bret-Bot.
@JasonR86: I get it. I'm rarely expecting journalism when it comes to video games. Regardless, If you're saying that content and ads are essentially the same thing, I'm going to have to strongly disagree. This is a commercial. We go to these websites/blogs because they're supposed to sift through the crap for us. I see ads for video games all of the time. Some of them are good; most of them are not. Unless you have something interesting to say about them (this article does not), please don't report commercials as news.
The need for constant updates often forces websites to prioritize quantity over quality. This is not the way it should be. Thank you Giant Bomb for not falling into this trap.
Everyone has to sell out to some degree, otherwise they'd make no money. No money = no web site.
Whether or not they have ads isn't really qualitative- it's whether or not they give good content. In that case they don't seem to be as good at they used to be anymore either but sometimes that's subjective as there's not really that much news to break for video games on a daily basis.
If they are sneaking in ads as content or being paid for articles then ya, that would be plain bad. Making money in and of itself isn't a bad thing, though- it's when you sell out to the extent you no longer do what the users or fans came to you for in the first place and have gone off the rails to make said money. If your making money for what you do, that's generally cool, if your making money by forcing non sense on those who trusted you for entertainment or news- that's generally not cool.
While the quality of Kotaku has gone down in my opinion, "selling out" is not a term I'd use to describe them. Just sayin'. Making money doesn't make things bad.
I didn't mean to imply video game journalists aren't practicing journalism best practices. When I say a preview or interviews are ads I say this because they are designed by the game's publishers to create awareness about the product in question. Journalists and publishers/developers have a symbiotic relationship. With previews and interviews a website can create content and get new viewers whereas a publisher/developer can raise awareness of their product with the website's audience. It is a relationship that works wonders for both parties. I see no problem with these stories and do not consider them 'ads' per se. But, in the strictest sense that is exactly what they are. In the strictest sense a positive review is an ad. This all depends on how one defines an 'ad'. In terms of a website, I define an ad as an article (reviews for example) where the language used, the content, and everything else is clearly written with a PR mindset. By this I mean an article that is all about bettering an audience's response to a product but ignore the betterment of the website.
With all that in mind, that video that you posted is not an ad in my opinion. It is a video that is meant to get the audience to laugh. It is just a goofy video that is meant to be fun to watch. It was meant to be a nice diversion. It provides the website with content they feel their audience would enjoy. The betterment for Sony is relatively slight besides the fact that they get to show the Kotaku audience that they can be fun and funny (though that video isn't the best way of doing that but that is another issue altogether). I don't see anything in that article that is any more of an 'ad' then the trailers that are posted on video game websites daily (including Giantbomb).
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