Why the hell do I go to Kotaku?

It's a question I've been struggling with recently, but perhaps some back story in is in order?

Over the past month or so, I've been mostly reviewing my Internet-viewing habits. Internet shows I watch, forums I frequent, and even websites I visit have fallen under the dutiful eye of scrutiny. The more I've thought about what I do online, the more I've realized that about eighty percent of the sites I visit, the shows I watch, and the people I interact with are just pointless.

However, this particular post is about Special K. Kotaku. The Gamer's Guide. You know the place that has more typos than an ESL classroom's first lesson?

Or how about the one place where a creepy gaijin gets paid to write about schoolgirls in their underwear?

Yeah, you get the point.

Kotaku used to be a good website, I thought. Whenever I had found myself taking inventory of my news sources, I found myself putting Kotaku almost always to the top of the "keep" list. I'm not sure why, now that I think about it. It could have been the staff, although I don't like any of the writers. Or perhaps it had to do with the quality journalism, although most of Kotaku's posts seem to be two lines of text followed by a republished article, and a misleading headline or two.

Really, looking back, I have absolutely no idea why I've been going to Kotaku all this time.

I don't think it's for the community, though. The people over there, I've found, are not only rude and obnoxious, but they also slavingly pander to the staff of Kotaku as if the "journalists" were gods perched atop Olympus itself. The community at Kotaku also tend to treat comments as their own personal sounding board to bitch about anything. Just today there was a short post about Machinarium being on sale for $5.00. What's the first user comment?

Why of course, it's decrying people who pirate media as soulless, unfeeling monsters.

What bugs me about this is not that it is two-faced and hypocritical, but that the balls on the users of Kotaku are so big that they threaten to crush what little integrity the site has left. Seriously, whoever put it in the minds of the Kotaku faithful that piracy was anywhere near the same level as murder, rape, or even theft needs to have the concept of piracy explained to them. 

Of course, try arguing that with the Kotakuites and see how far it gets you.

Honestly, I think I'm done with that place. Giant Bomb's community may act like a bunch of "cool story bro" dicks sometimes, but the truth is that I'd take the fun and loose atmosphere of this site over that pseudo-intellectual wankfest that masturbates to pictures of Crecente's hair while discussing how intelligent they are.

So I guess, uh, long live the Bomb.    

all of the gawker media sites aren't very good IMO except for lifehacker.

you need to get out more.

We should launch a cyber attack on Kotaku and let the internet know the power and holiness that Giantbomb is.

I go to joystiq and kotaku for gaming news - could careless about community or typos/bad writing.  Just want to know whats going on.   
 
I come to giantbomb for the awesome articles, videos, community. 
 
btw - your right about the piracy thing - anytime its brought up people just like to say how much they dont pirate and anyone who does should feel terrible about themselves and die in a fire.  It's quite amusing actually.  Most media sites egg this type of behavior on by saying the same thing about piracy though. 

" you need to get out more. "

" We should launch a cyber attack on Kotaku and let the internet know the power and holiness that Giantbomb is. "

" @Meteora said:

" We should launch a cyber attack on Kotaku and let the internet know the power and holiness that Giantbomb is. "

And get the remaining Kotaku community to join this community? Bye bye Giantbomb, it was a good run. "

I don't know I like going there once in awhile I scan the headlines quickly and once in awhile read some of the more intresting ones. Most of time I see a news story there and then come to giantbomb to see if they offered a take on the same subject.

" I go to Kotaku for gaming news - could careless about community or typos/bad writing.  Just want to know whats going on.

This annoying jackass explains why I hate Kotaku and other snarky journalist websites. 
 
  

" I go to joystiq and kotaku for gaming news - could careless about community or typos/bad writing.  Just want to know whats going on.    I come to giantbomb for the awesome articles, videos, community.  btw - your right about the piracy thing - anytime its brought up people just like to say how much they dont pirate and anyone who does should feel terrible about themselves and die in a fire.  It's quite amusing actually.  Most media sites egg this type of behavior on by saying the same thing about piracy though.  "

I recently stopped going there only because of the sensationalist headlines and the fact that you have to click through to view anything. As for the editorial quality, what can you expect from a site that posts 20+ articles a day? Joystiq isn't much better in that department, but it has at least 50% less weeaboos and most of the comments are the most inane things I have ever seen committed to the internet, if that's your thing.

"The people over there, I've found, are not only rude and obnoxious, but they also slavingly pander to the staff of Kotaku as if the "journalists" were gods perched atop Olympus itself."

" @KingWilly said:

"The people over there, I've found, are not only rude and obnoxious, but they also slavingly pander to the staff of Kotaku as if the "journalists" were gods perched atop Olympus itself."

Ironically I find this to be much more prevalent here. "

All I got from Kotaku is crap web design.

" @ZeForgotten said:

" @Meteora said:

" We should launch a cyber attack on Kotaku and let the internet know the power and holiness that Giantbomb is. "

And get the remaining Kotaku community to join this community? Bye bye Giantbomb, it was a good run. "

No, we'll just burn the place down with its community.  "

" @KingWilly said:

"The people over there, I've found, are not only rude and obnoxious, but they also slavingly pander to the staff of Kotaku as if the "journalists" were gods perched atop Olympus itself."

Ironically I find this to be much more prevalent here. "

" @Meteora said:

" @ZeForgotten said:

" @Meteora said:

" We should launch a cyber attack on Kotaku and let the internet know the power and holiness that Giantbomb is. "

And get the remaining Kotaku community to join this community? Bye bye Giantbomb, it was a good run. "

No, we'll just burn the place down with its community.  "

No survivors. "

I think that the problem isn't so much with the staff of kotaku but with Gawker in general. Gawker seems to favor the sensationalist bullshit and getting clicks. Look at the crap that Giz does all the time. Kotaku is just a casualty of that shift id the way gawker handles itself.

destructoid is a little better imo

Communities suck everywhere, particularly with anything to do with the internet and/or gaming. I blame the societal focus on Self Esteem, but that might just be because I watched that episode of Penn and Teller tonight. 
 
Anyway, coming here to tell us that people are rude on a gaming forum/comments is kinda like going to a jewish website and saying "Dudes, nazi's totally suck". Most of the people here on Giant Bomb are veterans to this type of thing. We know, and for now that's why Giant Bomb is pretty cool. I feel like we're a seniors club full of retired people. The bullshit is kept to a pretty good minimum.

I have no idea what people see in Kotaku. Most of their "news stories" is made up, self-indulgent crap, their community is worse than even 1up.com's and there are some genuine creeps on their staff, like that Brian Ashcraft guy. 
 
I guess being an old man, I am particular about which gaming sites I visit and the likes of Kotaku and Destructoid are ones I avoid.

" All I got from Kotaku is crap web design. "

" @empfeix said:

" I go to Kotaku for gaming news - could careless about community or typos/bad writing.  Just want to know whats going on.

This. "

Its because they've been sold out to the media. Especially Disney. 
That's why they covered over non-game shit like the Prince of Persia movie or Marvel comics (aka Disney Comics). 
 
Most of the stuff is just plain dumb, but you gotta admit that sometimes they have some good info. 
 
@Synthballs:  
For sure. Sometimes I'm surprised by the wet dreams that some of the GB users have over "the crew".

It's weird this topic came up since I just deleted Kotaku off my feed reader after 3+ years of following the site. I still think Crecente is a pretty good editor though. 

I visit very few game sites. Used to be gamespot and ve3d all the time, but as I have grown older it is mostly GiantBomb and Gamasutra. Also the NeoGaf forums and other blogs really provide more than I ever need these days. I don't need a daily site like Kotaku, I think the only positive is how Kotaku conducts its reviews.

Oh and this:

@Metal_Gear_Sunny said:

"All I got from Kotaku is crap web design. "

" you need to get out more. "

" This explains why I hate Kotaku and other snarky journalist websites.
 
Also, responce poster here (quoting is fucking up for some reason) Tommy Tallarico isn't a jackass, so fuck you.
 
  

"

I was going to Cool Story Bro you then, but decided against it. I myself only use Kotaku when someone else links me a story there. But I get most of my news from here and the Escapist.

" @EliasT: ohhh i'm so scared. "

Kotaku is pretty garbage.
 
The reason I love Giantbomb is because there's a sense that the guys (Vinny, Jeff, Ryan, Brad etc.) are putting stuff out for the community. And they have fun doing it! Watching the endurance run, quick looks, mail bag videos, i love mondays, the bombcast, all make it feel like I'm sitting there right beside them watching/listening to it all go down.

" @nk19 said:

" @EliasT: ohhh i'm so scared. "

Shut up bitch~ Abraham Lincoln "

" @EliasT said:

" @nk19 said:

" @EliasT: ohhh i'm so scared. "

Shut up bitch~ Abraham Lincoln "

yawn "

" @Linkin10362 said:

" @empfeix said:

" I go to Kotaku for gaming news - could careless about community or typos/bad writing.  Just want to know whats going on.

This. "

This. "

I've only visited Kotaku twice in my life and i want to keep it that way.

" @JJOR64 said:

" @Linkin10362 said:

" @empfeix said:

" I go to Kotaku for gaming news - could careless about community or typos/bad writing.  Just want to know whats going on.

This. "

This. "

That's like saying you go to Hooters for the food - considering how many non-gaming stories Kotaku posts on a regular basis. 
 
Kinda off-topic, but has anyone seen the Kotaku parody site at Something  Awful? I found it pretty amusing. Gameblogguu! "

I only go to Kotaku cause they are really up to date with the news.  For community Giantbomb is much much better

I go to Kotaku to read Stephen Totillo.  The things that really bug me are the misleading headlines and Ashcraft and his inordinate amount of T & A link bait.

It bothers me whenever I see articles on their on crap loosely and not even related to games. They are the gaming guide, not shit I feel like posting.

Reading this makes me think of just going back to Destructoid, but they show lees news articles per page than Kotaku, and I need to have prety much all the news from that day on one page. I might check out Joystick, for my news needs, because Giant Bomb isn't the best for news.