So there has been a lot of discussion all over the internet lately concerning relationships between developers and games journalists. I'd like to please avoid discussion of the situation surrounding Ms. Quinn or anyone else who may or may not have been involved in anything regarding that. But this has me thinking more broadly about the developer/journalist relationship.
What I'd like to ask the GB community is how you perceive the relationships between the people that cover games and those that make them. This I think is a very important topic especially for Giantbomb users when you think back to the circumstances of how this site was initially created. Having someone with Jeff's commitment to journalistic integrity is one of the main reasons I joined this site so many years ago.
So my question to fellow GB'ers is what level of involvement/relationship between developers and journalists is acceptable for you? Should journalists maintain totally separate lives from those that create games? Some of the bombcast episodes (e3 in particular) have developers on in a much more relaxed setting and it can seem very personal, does this seem like an acceptable level of interaction for you? Are personal friendships ok as long as the journalist doesn't cover their specific games? GB has shied away from reviewing games that have any input from Greg Kasavin, a former gamespot employee and friend of the GB crew. Do you feel that this is a necessary step by them to avoid bias, or are they being overly careful? Should these relationships always be disclosed?
What do you think??
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