Marcus Beer Calls Out Kotaku

Marcus Beer of Annoyed Gamer that is. Now I haven't watched any of these AnnoyedGamer videos up on gametrailers because of the title alone. Real tired of cynical, angry gamers preaching about games and how they should be. I actually haven't watched any of the stuff on gametrailers ever since Marcus Beer left Invisible Walls to be PR guy at Ignition and happened to namedropped Giant Bomb. And well, here I am. I still visit GT for their video reviews and today I noticed on the front page it advertised another Annoyed Gamer. Was ready to dismiss it until I noticed that it said "Controversey = Clicks" and the title of the episode was "Fishing for Outrage." I immediately thought of Kotaku, but I couldn't believe he would call out Kotaku because everyone in the games "journalism" industry is in bed with eachother and are too scared to call eachother out by name. But not only did he call out Kotaku, but he called out editors by name like Jason Schrier and Patricia Hernandez.

Also gotta respect Marcus for admitting that he "jumped on the bandwagon" with the God Of War Ascension "bros before hoes" controversy. He could have easily just been another stubborn angry preacher, but this one episode made me want to watch more of his stuff because it shows that he's able to reflect on his own stuff and admit his own failings (I have no stance on the GoW:A trophy issue, so maybe some people will see it as backpedaling more than an admission of fault).

He doesn't make too many compelling points, but more or less just reiterates what most people, or at least me, already think about Kotaku. I am more just surprised at this public calling out that you don't see too much among games media. You'll see it on twitter rarely, but not too often on a more exposed platform like this. I can only hope that we get more of this so that we can hold up games coverage media to more scrutiny and to a higher standard. I am very curious to see what Kotaku's reaction is if they choose to react.

Here's a link to the episode in question. You'll have to skip 6 minutes in if you want to get straight to the segment where he calls out Kotaku.

Jason Schrier used to be such a good writer. I don't know what his writing is like since he started working at Kotaku, but his attitude towards the industry and journalism seems to have changed significantly if his twitter account is anything to go by. I personally haven't clicked a link to Kotaku (or any gawker site) for probably close to 3 years. Guess what? I'm not missing anything.

Well he's not exactly wrong about that site.

I thought he was okay too, but I lost respect for him long before the Dragon's Crown controversy. After I saw him team up with Ben Kuchera to go after that Forbes editor on twitter saying how he should be fired or some shit, I thought, "yeah fuck this guy."

I only know him from the few episodes of Invisible Walls I've listened to, but I always liked the cut of his jib. Usually seems pretty on the money to me. It would be nice if the press / industry was less of a disgusting circle-jerk.

Those two editors in particular are the reason why I'm looking for a substitute for Kotaku for video game news.

I feel like I'm really lucky that my younger self never got into Kotaku. He raises some really good points and this just makes my decision to stay away from that site all the sweeter.

Kotaku(and the whole Gawker network for that matter) is the bottom of the barrel of video game journalism. One day you'll see some article about Dragon's Crown being "too sexist" the next day you'll see 'Top 10 sexiest video game babes' or ' Vaas is a hunk'. Hypocrisy and double standards everywhere. They only do it to stir up shit and get clicks. Even Reddit has banned their links from being posted.

Polygon is a good alternative. At least they deliver actual news and not "The Tumblr Variety Hour" only planted there for revenue.

I've never taken Kotaku all that serious, but I'll always appreciate them as a sports gamer because Owen Good's by far the best guy covering sports games at the moment. Even the guys at OperationSports, a site totally dedicated to ball and car games, can't compete. Also, they easily post more content in a given weekday than anyone else, so it's more interesting to scroll down their newsfeed than it is at most other sites. I don't read much of it but I do get made of aware of way more things thanks to Kotaku than most other sites.

That said, I couldn't care much less for all the cosplay and cat gif coverage.

Oh I never knew he apologized for the Bro before hoes stuff. That is something Sesseler never did. And I totally respect that.

As for Kotaku. Yeah they are awful but not only Schreier. The worst offender at the moment is Patrica Hernandez. Damn she has written some really terrible stuff in the last times. So yeah more probs to Marcus.

I don't mean to rouse any flames, but this article at N4G is also written very well, and has a response from Totilo:

http://n4g.com/user/blogpost/dedicatedtogamers/521785

Kotaku is National Enquirer of gaming and has always been. This ain't exactly news.

"Calling them out" is just being aware of what they deliberately try to do.

Polygon has their fair share of news articles about things that aren't news. I almost feel like their news departments brings down that entire organization. If they were just features and reviews it would be a better place. Unfortunately, the news section likely banks the other sections just by sheer volume of content (and therefore, clicks).

I don't pay enough attention to Kotaku to know or care if they're called out. I have heard of them being referred to as the Fox News of video game websites before and if that's true Fuck'em.

It doesn't help that some of Polygon's staff are former Kotaku writers, including the original Kotaku Editor-in-Chief Brian Crecente.

I do some writing for a game news/reviews site myself, and just earlier this week, it was made official policy to not use Kotaku specifically as a source for stories. Nothing good ever comes of it.

Marcus is a fucking moron. He's all gimmick and it's blatant as hell. He knows he's a troll. Also please get a more original name then "Annoyed Gamer". He is the ultimate keyboard warrior, the way he talks shit constantly.

FINALLY someone takes Kotaku down a peg.

Kotaku is garbage.

Atually I share most of his opinions so yeah I think he is a gamer^^

Videogames!

I guess it's kind of hard to blame either of them for whoring for clicks with trolling and obvious baiting in their content. I mean, people respond to the controversy so at least some of it is our fault.

That God of War trophy was the most over blown overreaction ive seen to something in a long while.

Yeah, like I said, he's just reiterating what most people already think about Kotaku. But it's just nice to have sombody in the same business take them to task rather than some random guy on the internet who wrote a blog post about Kotaku like below. Hell I'd like to see everyone in the games media fight it out rather than nodding in agreement in unison cause they're scared they might look sexist, racist, or any other kind of ist.

It's a great post, but I feel like Totilo didn't really address the issue and kind of dodged the questions. He doesn't respond seriously and has no interest in doing so because it's just a user blog. Perhaps by being called out by someone who is an industry professional he'll be forced to take the argument more seriously and look at the evidence presented to him.

Videogames!!

The way headlines work on Kotaku

• Does "X" game portray women in a bad light?
• Look at this awesome statue of this busty anime girl!
• All the hot cosplay from PAX!
• Several women's stories about not fitting in in the games industry.
• These character designs must have been done by a 14 yr old boy

Kotaku. Fighting the good fight against sexism except when that cosplay article gets them clicks.

What frightens me is when people I actually respect read Kotaku and use it as a touchstone of games journalism, it's almost synonymous with it like Kleenex meaning tissues.

Kotatsu.

But how will we ever know about that cake shaped like Chun-Li's thighs?

isn't that a small japanese bird?

No, it's a Japanese table with a heating unit.

this is a Kotatsu

Gintama taught me everything about Kotatsu's and that you should always turn them off when going out.

Also, loltaku.

The joke:

Missed the joke:

@darji: @hailinel:

good stuff.

I think of IGN before I think Kotaku for "controversy=clicks."

Kotaku as I see it (ie infrequently), whenever it's not just posting "news" is usually just posting vapid bullshit.

I also don't think that anyone with their content going up on Game fucking trailers has so much as a small pile of shit to stand on, but that's just me.

@minipato: I have against better judgement watched a few of those Annoyed Gamer videos and you are right in thinking that there is nothing of worth to see there. He basically reiterates things everyone has said before except he is British and very snarky so somehow this means his voice should somehow stand above others. As evidenced by his own admission to jumping on that stupid trophy "controversy" he's not above preaching about inane topics without adding anything interesting to the conversation.

GameTrailers is actually beefing pretty hard with Kotaku it seems since Pachter called out kotaku in his show as well earlier this week.

Damn, you've got a point there.

Hawktaku?

Isn't gawker just cracked, except for stupid people?

Cracked is a humor website. Sure, they can be informative, but they're in the business of writing jokes. They're not journalists and don't pretend to be.

Gawker Media is more like the Evil Whiskey Media, with sites dedicated to a variety of topics. They report news (or at least what they purport to be news), publish reviews and columns and so on that, while may be written in an entertaining fashion, are not specifically meant to be jokes. They just come off as jokes because almost everyone at Gawker is terrible at their jobs.

He doesn't make too many compelling points, but more or less just reiterates what most people, or at least me, already think about Kotaku.

Yeah, that's a pretty good summary. As @humanity said, he tends to just reiterate common gamer forum opinions with a british accent. And some people like it because they already agree. It really isn't worth anyone's time.

And GameTrailers isn't exactly original in this regardless of your perception of how buddy buddy the game sites are.

Gawker media is garbage, all of there outlets are garbage. The fact Kotaku is as big as it is, is the only really shameful thing here.

A welsh accent. Not even a nice one, a rural one. Sounds like a Merthyr boy.

Pachter also shat on Kotaku this week, if subtly, compared to Beer's savage beatdown.

The console wars have ended. The games journalism war has only just begun.

There was a hilarious price on Gawker recently about a Canadian MP who smoked crack on camera, and in the post the writer openly admitted to leaking the story he told his source he would keep confidential...

Gawker and the linked blogs Gizmodo and Kotaku have been trash for a long time, with Gizmodo banned from Apple press conferences (and I think CES?) as just other examples of there hiring polices for 'journalists'. Any idiot with an agenda and a passion for being angry at something (for no obvious reason) can get a job working there.

And when the graduate from Kotaku they can be a different kind of special at Polygon.

Anyways, here's a far more interesting thread on GAF that actually has Totilo and Schrier defending themselves, although rather vaguely and without addressing any of the legitimate criticisms lobbied against them.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=559308

While we don't have GAF's influence, I pride myself on making this thread first!

Pretty amazing thread and yeah Totilo calls out some users as offering better arguments and counter points to other users (he replies too) and then ignores those posters posts or chooses to pick out on small point.

Who?

He has one of them there europeen accents.

(though, yeah, more welsh. Though, that's beside the point. ha)

Gizmodo was banned from Apple events due to their highly publicized leaking of the iPhone 4, not because of some kind of commentary on their quality of staff. And they are certainly not banned from CES. The only beef is from Apple toward Gizmodo due to them not taking down coverage Apple didn't want them to post.