" 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. "
This. It's equally is true for the Register and any other blog oriented information sites. The Blog is quite possibly one of the worst things that happened to journalism because its very nature drains almost all the professional standing which defines true reporting; facts aren't checked, sources aren't qualified and grammar, spelling and basic sentence structure all fall by the wayside in the rush to put up some new tabloid piece which will incite angry responses and bring traffic.
I frequent both sites. But I visit different gaming sites for different reasons:
I go to Kotaku for NEWS and only for NEWS, not for reviews or for trailers or anything else just to be aware of happenings. I visit Game Trailers to check out the freshest vids, trailers etc. I visit Giant Bomb for Quicklooks and reviews and because i like the community.
Each site has things it is better at (imo) and thats what I love about the internets. Don't really get why you dislike irony and sarcasm so much, GB has plenty too :)
" I have never visted the site so I couldn't comment on it specifically. The only info I get from there is when someone posts a thread about something they read there on another sites forums. "
This thread may have died awhile ago but I found it by searching for "Owen Good is a bad writer" on Google. Although I visit Kotaku for headlines and quick news tidbits, I can't but help get perturbed whenever I see Owen Good post. I've been banned on 3 different account because I have made constructive criticism of his articles. For example with this weekend: Instead of actually writing articles, Owen Good just posted a crap ton of really dumb youtube videos as "news". Sure, they can post whatever they want, but these videos were really dumb and it felt like I was reading a blog of 13 year old guy who just came into video games. In the comments section, I merely said " I guess the weekend means that all we get is dumb youtube videos for articles" and was banned by none other than Owen Good.....again.
I've heard from numerous people that he just bans people and comments he doesn't like because they criticize his "work". When he does decide to write an article, it is filled with mindless commentary that has little to no relevance to the subject matter at hand. I hate that guy and I just had to get it out.
Kotaku is my secondary gaming site(Giant Bomb being my primary), I don't go there for their writing style, I go there for news, although I have no problems at all wit their writing style.
Just don't read it if you don't like it, Kotaku also pull a lot of news from message boards like neogaf and what not, there are cases where they don't even keep track of their own news so they post years old news they've already posted. They posted about people leaving naughtydog and sony when it's years old news, meaning they often just wants to sensationalize a lot of stuff and troll all the fanboys, doesn't bother me but if it does for you, may as well just not visit it so you don't give them page hits.
I love Kotaku, but I hate the posts about cosplay or weird Japanese stuff that has very little to do with actual games. Luckily they put up a LOT of posts so you can skip what doesn't peak your interest. Overall it seems that Crecente, Totilo, Fahey, and Good provide consistently excellent opinion and news posts, and the others do so as well but I feel like those four really do some great stuff. But I'm a fan of sarcasm.
" This thread may have died awhile ago but I found it by searching for "Owen Good is a bad writer" on Google. Although I visit Kotaku for headlines and quick news tidbits, I can't but help get perturbed whenever I see Owen Good post. I've been banned on 3 different account because I have made constructive criticism of his articles. For example with this weekend: Instead of actually writing articles, Owen Good just posted a crap ton of really dumb youtube videos as "news". Sure, they can post whatever they want, but these videos were really dumb and it felt like I was reading a blog of 13 year old guy who just came into video games. In the comments section, I merely said " I guess the weekend means that all we get is dumb youtube videos for articles" and was banned by none other than Owen Good.....again.
I've heard from numerous people that he just bans people and comments he doesn't like because they criticize his "work". When he does decide to write an article, it is filled with mindless commentary that has little to no relevance to the subject matter at hand. I hate that guy and I just had to get it out.
Cheers. "
Actually, that happened to me not too long ago. Owen banned my account after I criticized his writing in an article. He responded by disemvoweling the post, banned my account, and then posted a long-winded excuse that was really nothing more than an attempt to paint his lack of professionalism in a good light.
Not that I'm broken up about it at all. I had been posting such critical comments, most all of them constructive, on various articles over the past year and fully expected to be banned after each one because of the staff's hair trigger toward banning users critical of their writing. The site has its uses, I'll admit, but it's a blog run by a bunch of overgrown children that want to be taken seriously while simultaneously maintaining the idea that they aren't journalists.
@Hailinel: Interesting. I am trying to remember the excuse that was given to me as well. I can totally understand banning people who flame or just make dumb comments towards a writer of an article, but when you say something that may either enlighten the writer or help make note of a situation, you certainly should not be banned.
@Hailinel:@attilathejund: Just become famous, and then diss Owen Good publicly. I imagine he would make a post just to defend himself and lash back. Sweet, sweet revenge.
That's really unfortunate to hear, because I like Kotaku in terms of the fact that it's a fair information source, certainly better than VG24/7 or Joystiq. They get stuff wrong sometimes (fact-wise, I mean), but usually they're good about things. But I've increasingly heard of their strict commentary policing. It's sad, because it reflects badly on the site. And I only really visit for Crecente and Totilo. All the other writers are pretty useless. I'm sorry Luke Plunkett, but I really don't care about Australian video game ratings. There was a point in time where they were having a post about it every day. Kotaku has its own special Australian site. There was just no need for such coverage.
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?"
*reads*
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*reads again*
....Wait. Are you seriously proposing GIANTBOMB as a positive example for the positivizing of videogames as a medium?
All I know about that site is that it's constantly being quoted by other news sites. I tried going their a few times but the site design turned me off of it immediately and I didn't dare try to decipher it.
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