How can people enjoy reading that website? Every post is dripping with so much irony and sarcasm that it's pretty much soaking wet. And sticky.
Their whole vibe seems to be the antithesis to Giant Bomb's laid back-ness. It's just the fact that everything they write is so forced and ugh. Well, good for you if you enjoy it but it's part of the reason why "gaming media" people are still asking "why doesn't anyone take us seriously?"
Is it part of their company policy that they have to be so effin' sarcastic ALL THE TIME? You'd think so!
Hey but what do I know, I'm just a reader.
Duder, I can't stand reading kotaku posts
This is an issue that most games press and Publishers bring up all the time. Blog sites like Kotaku forgo quality with timeliness. Compare Joystiq and Kotaku to sites like Gamespot, 1up, IGN and G4, they'd rather have 20 posts a day that only 1/4th of them contain more than two paragraphs of original content instead of only 8 that have more thought put into them (though these days not much original content is actually being produced on most those sites, right GB Crew?).
Also, not saying I hate any one of them, I just notice these things since I pretty much have them all opened in different tabs when I open my browser.
I do think Kotaku can use a better editing department. Take Tim Rogers' blog entries for example - the man writes 10,000 word novela that have some really good points but no one on the Kotaku staff bothers to edit the fluff out of it. Creative freedom is one thing but posting such a huge wall of text creates an unnecessary barrier to entry.
Kotaku is a necessary evil. I don't like the site or the quality of it's content but I respect the fact there has to be some sort of site out there that loves to speculate over every minor internet rumour and blow it up into a four paragraph story in order to get traffic.
There really isn't any excuse for allowing content on your homepage that has spelling and grammar mistakes in not only the title of the article but the body of it as well to be left there for hours and in some cases days without being corrected. At that point any professional integrity you expect people to respect you for is blown completely out of the window.
And worse is to begin the practice of deleting the posts of and banning those who comment and point out the mistakes.
Excluding Stephen Totilo, they're all pretentious ass-holes. For all of my latest vide-game related news needs, I use Joystiq.
Well Kotaku seem to break most news stories first, so I just subscribe to their RSS feed. That way, I don't have to go on the site unless the story deems it necessary.
" @Killjoi said:No, I was comparing GB's news articles and reviews to Kotaku's. I find GB much funnier, whether it is written text or the bombcast." @josty81: I think Kotaku has a decent sense of humor but their writers just aren't as witty as the GB staff. Infact, I don't think there is anyone in game journalism that can match Jeff and Co's constantly funny take on the most mundane news items, while giving you the relevant information at the same time. "Are you comparing the writing of Kotaku to the podcasting of Giant Bomb? That might be a false assumption, but the two mediums are fundamentally different in a few ways. It's easier to yell into a microphone and be funny than it is to write something that's just as funny read. "
The most recent episode of Bonus Round has McWhertor and Garnett Lee on the panel. And judging by the way they interact with eachother, they aren't the best of friends. It's pretty funny if you're into watching people you don't like hold contempt for eachother.
Now I'm no fan of Lee either, but I have more respect for him than McWhertor.
I don't read Kotaku and, I have never visited the site. I prefer Giantbomb and Joystiq for my game news.
Well, Kotaku really is the only gaming news blog out there. I'm sorry, I would read Joystiq if they weren't constantly a day or two late on posting news. By that point, it's not even news. I subscribe to both blogs, but I use Kotaku overwhelmingly. Joystiq tends to post small stories once in a while that don't get picked up everywhere else. But you read Kotaku for the news and the detail; no point worrying about anything else, in my opinion.
Every hour or so I'll check Destructoid, Kotaku and Giant Bomb for my news. Dtoid and Kotaku for up to date news, and Giant Bomb for my Reviews and the Bombcast and other such things, I never look at anything the other two sites talk about with reviews and such. I trust Jeff and co for their opinions.
I pretty much go everywhere and I find kotakus colors a little too 360, like their saying it without saying. also a picture with one sentence under it, come on! I do like the fact that I can go there multiple times a day and there are always new things to read. I'm enjoying Giantbomb the most though, Go GiantBomb! I used to love 1up but then my company blocked the site, also that was before I spent hours each day reading gaming news.
" How can people enjoy reading that website? Every post is dripping with so much irony and sarcasm that it's pretty much soaking wet. And sticky. Their whole vibe seems to be the antithesis to Giant Bomb's laid back-ness. It's just the fact that everything they write is so forced and ugh. Well, good for you if you enjoy it but it's part of the reason why "gaming media" people are still asking "why doesn't anyone take us seriously?" Is it part of their company policy that they have to be so effin' sarcastic ALL THE TIME? You'd think so! Hey but what do I know, I'm just a reader. "They tend to end most posts with a joke of some kind, some corny, others not so much. But aside from that, I have trouble picking out exactly what you're talking about. I get the feeling people are excusing Giantbomb's form of sarcasm as being more genuine because you know the four editors here a lot better. But the writing on both sites "work" more or less the same for me.
I go to the site everyday. It's very ugly but it's the easiest way to find news without having to sift through a lot of garbage.
" Can you post some examples? I'm assuming you're talking about the actual articles. "Read roughly 99% of the articles posted by Luke Plunkett, for starters. The man is an asinine excuse of a journalist (I'm sorry, "blogger") because he frequently laces his text with sarcasm and snide subjectivity, and frequently words his posts in ways that can only be described as flame-baiting so he can get those ever-so-precious clicks.
Only thing I don't like about Kotaku is the blatant PS3-angled stories that come out of Ashcraft. Some recent examples:
Bayonetta Getting Update to Reduce Load Times
Capcom & Microsoft's Impending AnnouncementThe update will be available starting January 28.
While the Xbox 360 version of Bayonetta received better reviews, the PS3 version outsold the Xbox 360 version in Japan.
This sort of veiled reporting of the facts that's saturated in biased commentary just diminishes my (and others', as I've learned) respect for the site. I'm all for hearing the facts on these stories, but after a while, you just can't help but notice the slanting of stories like this. Without fail, he reserves those little one-liners just to remind everyone of spurious ideas that simply are of no concern to anyone. If he were doing an objective report, why didn't he (in the case of Bayonetta) report on the sales of Bayonetta outside of Japan? You may think these are just selected bits; go read all of his posts that are even remotely related to an Xbox 360 game. I have several others in mind that I can cite if anyone's curious or remains unconvinced.This could be an entirely new title ("premiere" carries that connotation, or it could be Capcom announcing that Dark Void is coming to the Xbox 360 in Japan. There isn't much to go on with this images, but it does not mention the word "exclusive". Even if it did state "exclusive", these days third party exclusives go multi-platform eventually and usually with more content.
Stephen Totilo, Brian Crecente, Owen Good, and Mike Fahey are all enjoyable enough to follow, though. Totilo is honestly one of the better game journalists out there--he's insightful, fair, and just avoids that sort of judgmentalism that's present on any number of other sites (and even their own; see above).
" @EpicSteve said:" Can you post some examples? I'm assuming you're talking about the actual articles. "Read roughly 99% of the articles posted by Luke Plunkett, for starters. The man is an asinine excuse of a journalist (I'm sorry, "blogger") because he frequently laces his text with sarcasm and snide subjectivity, and frequently words his posts in ways that can only be described as flame-baiting so he can get those ever-so-precious clicks. "
I've seen some of this. I guess there's a fine line between writing fun articles and writing satire. I don't think they're purposly baiting, but having good fun. But unlike a lot of people, I don't get offended easily by this behavior.
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