Interesting post by David Jaffe about lying to gaming journalists

http://criminalcrackdown.blogspot.com/2011/12/liar-liar-pants-on-fire.html

Jaffe was commenting on Platinum lying about their involvement in Metal Gear Rising's development to a well known gaming journalist. His basic position seems to be that he's comfortable with lying to journalists when it doesn't hurt their customers and serves the point of entertainment (which I'm inferring to mean that preserving the surprise aspect of reveals increases hype and excitement for titles):

I think I've been pretty open over the years when game journalists ask me all kinds of things and so I think most folks know that I'm a pretty honest individual. But if I can make our customers happier and more excited by lying to a reporter and thus revealing a title at the right time, then that's what I'll do.

And if I can lie to a journalist in order to protect information that will hurt my team if I reveal it, I'll do that in a heartbeat as well.

The only lie I would never tell is one that would hurt the customer (i.e. 'yes, we are shipping with 30 vehicles in the new Twisted Metal' when in fact, I know we will only ship with 17; or releasing screenshots that are CLEARY not representative of anything even close to the game we're shipping or videos that clearly are not representative of the game or the game experience we are shipping). To me, those are lies that HURT the customer and hopefully - if we do engage in that brand of dishonesty- the reporters and- more importantly- our customers-will lose faith in us quickly.

It's an interesting point IMO and if you read down to his point about magicians lying to their audiences in regards to their tricks it made me think about my normal stance of believing that honest is the best policy and if you don't want to say 'yes' then you should instead offer 'no comment' as a response. Jaffe argues that saying 'no comment' or the equivalent doesn't always work because in this day and age stating 'no comment' has come to mean 'well the answer is yes but I can't say yes to you because that would put me in a bad spot'. I can't really argue against Jaffe about that one.

At the same time I know this would be incredibly infuriating if I was a games journalist. You put in hours tracking down stories your readership is interested in and you could get side-lined or turned in the wrong direction by a non-PR source (i.e. a developer) and miss out on a story not because you weren't smart or didn't do your homework but were flat out lied to by someone. I'm sure there's also the potential for bad feelings when journalists and developers know each other personally and are somewhat friends although I'd also say as journalists I'd think there's a certain amount of professional distance that needs to be maintained so that feelings don't interfere too severely with work. The ideal of journalism (or really any field) never quite matches up with the reality I suppose.

I guess as far as my personal feelings are concerned while I still have a debate in my head about the propriety of people lying about what projects they're working on and how to go about it I do firmly believe in Jaffe's statement that developers should never lie to their customers about the game experience they are shipping.

I have to say I'd love hear Jaffe come and talk about this subject on a Bombcast sometime or at least have it discussed by the guys. Whether you agree or disagree with him on a particular subject he's always an interesting person to listen to and his previous appearances on Bombcasts were certainly entertaining.

I do highly suggest reading his entire post and not just the excerpt I picked out.

Because lying never got anyone in trouble.

I agree with him, journalists are extremely annoying when you're the one being pressed for details. It's better to tell them a lie to get them away from a subject you can't speak about.

@Subjugation said:

Because lying never got anyone in trouble.

Violating an NDA can get you in trouble. I imagine that everyone at Platinum was told to not say anything about their involvement in MGR publicly under any circumstances until their official reveal.

well magicians don't lie to the audiences they use the brains weaknesses to their advantage.Plus you do expect a sudden change when a magician do their illusions.

@Hailinel said:

@Subjugation said:

Because lying never got anyone in trouble.

Violating an NDA can get you in trouble. I imagine that everyone at Platinum was told to not say anything about their involvement in MGR publicly under any circumstances until their official reveal.

I figured it`s because they didn`t want the dirty shame of everyone knowing what a steaming pile of shit it is.

Fuckin` brand rapists is what they are.

I am 100% ok with developers lying to journalists. When you're in a business that's as reveal-oriented as the game industry, proper control over the flow of information can make or break a release. It's the developer's job to do everything they can to ensure their product's success and a journalist's job to suss out the truth.

@KingWilly said:

Fuckin` brand rapists is what they are.

Platinum wouldn't even be touching the game if Kojima Productions didn't approve of it.

@Hailinel said:

@Subjugation said:

Because lying never got anyone in trouble.

Violating an NDA can get you in trouble. I imagine that everyone at Platinum was told to not say anything about their involvement in MGR publicly under any circumstances until their official reveal.

There are very specific circumstances where dancing your way around the truth may be necessary, but lying as a concept has the proven potential to end very, very badly. The concern is setting the precedent for lying and knowing where and when to draw the line. I feel like a better way to handle things is the use of "creative redirection", something I made liberal use of in my teenage years. Is it lying? No. It's a different kind of deception.

I don't have a problem with it being used to preserve a secret such as in the NDA situation, but it just makes you wonder where else it's being used.

@Hailinel said:

@KingWilly said:

Fuckin` brand rapists is what they are.

Platinum wouldn't even be touching the game if Kojima Productions didn't approve of it.

I know, I know. Platinum are kind of like howler monkeys you keep caged up for their own good. KojiPro decided to let them out, and the result is feces and urine wiped all over the Metal Gear franchise.

I know they did it to themselves, but I`m still pissed about it.

@Subjugation said:

@Hailinel said:

@Subjugation said:

Because lying never got anyone in trouble.

Violating an NDA can get you in trouble. I imagine that everyone at Platinum was told to not say anything about their involvement in MGR publicly under any circumstances until their official reveal.

There are very specific circumstances where dancing your way around the truth may be necessary, but lying as a concept has the proven potential to end very, very badly. The concern is setting the precedent for lying and knowing where and when to draw the line. I feel like a better way to handle things is the use of "creative redirection", something I made liberal use of in my teenage years. Is it lying? No. It's a different kind of deception.

I don't have a problem with it being used to preserve a secret such as in the NDA situation, but it just makes you wonder where else it's being used.

Dancing around the truth with a "No comment" might as well mean "Of course I am, you idiot!" these days.

@Hailinel: I never said to use the "no comment" line. That's way too predictable and so easy to read into. Creative redirection, man. It's not a lie but it isn't the truth they are searching for. You just have to hope they are satisfied with it.

Another reason why I love Jaffe, and dislike people like Peter Molyneux.

@Subjugation said:

@Hailinel: I never said to use the "no comment" line. That's way too predictable and so easy to read into. Creative redirection, man. It's not a lie but it isn't the truth they are searching for. You just have to hope they are satisfied with it.

"Creative redirection" is still lying.

@biospank said:

well magicians don't lie to the audiences they use the brains weaknesses to their advantage.Plus you do expect a sudden change when a magician do their illusions.

"Now I'm going to saw this woman in half"

Pretty sure that was a lie.

Why would you not want people to know that someone is making a product that you will be buying in a year. I don't get the whole lying about if a game is being made.

@Subjugation said:

Because lying never got anyone in trouble.

Not if you're good at it.

@Hailinel: So how do you think it should be handled? Not this specific case, but the idea as a whole.

@craigbo180: Haha. Unfortunately the odds are against you in maintaining lies the longer and more complicated it gets. A man can dream though.

@Maluvin said:

I have to say I'd love hear Jaffe come and talk about this subject on a Bombcast sometime or at least have it discussed by the guys. Whether you agree or disagree with him on a particular subject he's always an interesting person to listen to and his previous appearances on Bombcasts were certainly entertaining.

What's the point of Jaffe ever going on a Bombcast when you've highlighted in your OP that Jaffe thinks it's ok to lie to journalists when it's convenient? Since journalism is how I get most of my news, now I'm completely disinterested in anything he has to say.

Why wouldn't they lie? Most journalists are out there to make a story anyway, they don't care about the truth. So why should you give it to them?

"At the same time I know this would be incredibly infuriating if I was a games journalist. You put in hours tracking down stories..."
 
Hahahahahahaha, good one.

A journalists' reputation lives or dies on their sources so if that source is deliberately filling them with bullshit then that can have more severe implications. The audience of the gaming press is notoriously unforgiving when it comes to misinformation. Even when cold hard facts are presented, there are plenty willing to cast doubts on the reporter's credibility/integrity/sexual preference/mother. I see nothing wrong with 'no comment'. I've seen plenty of rumours responded to with 'we don't comment on rumours' that have, in fact, turned out to be complete nonsense. No matter what developers say, gamers will speculate.

Sometimes a little white lie is better than the truth.

I understand Jaffe's premise, but IDK. I guess there is tension between devs..some of them, and video game journalists, some of them. I was going to make a remark that Jeff must have ppl. who don't like him, but it occurs to me that that would probably be more on the review side, and not the disclosure of something the dev didn't want to publicly announce. I have seen them at this site not willing to discuss something before a date. I respect that. The problem probably would be not of trusting the journalist in front of you if things are understood, but the guy telling his significant other or a good friend, and it gets away there. Also I would think a Dev who is known to mislead and play games with journalists might be putting a big fair game target on his back.

Never not lie.

@Buzzkill said:

@Maluvin said:

I have to say I'd love hear Jaffe come and talk about this subject on a Bombcast sometime or at least have it discussed by the guys. Whether you agree or disagree with him on a particular subject he's always an interesting person to listen to and his previous appearances on Bombcasts were certainly entertaining.

What's the point of Jaffe ever going on a Bombcast when you've highlighted in your OP that Jaffe thinks it's ok to lie to journalists when it's convenient? Since journalism is how I get most of my news, now I'm completely disinterested in anything he has to say.

Well the point would be to have Jaffe debate and discuss the issue with the crew because while Jaffe has pretty strong opinions about things he's willing to go in depth to them and since he and the Giant Bomb guys already know each other I think it could be a lively or interesting discussion. Even if Jaffe doesn't ultimately change his mind I think we'd benefit by having something both entertaining and interesting to listen to.

There's also a difference about lying about a particular story and having a discussion about the practice as a whole. Given that Patrick has recently posted some articles related to professional ethics and bad practices like the whole Metal Gear 5 rumor fiasco I'd be really curious to hear some of his thoughts on the subject.

@Jimbo said:

"At the same time I know this would be incredibly infuriating if I was a games journalist. You put in hours tracking down stories..." Hahahahahahaha, good one.

Touche.

I guess I would have been more accurate if I'd said "Ideally you should be putting in hours tracking down stories."

One of my dreams is to become semi-famous so that I can lie to journalists.