This Blog Goes to 11

Those that know me well know that I am kind of a video game junkie. Video games have been my biggest addiction all my life. It started with the Atari 2600 that my brother and I had when we were little, along with that handheld Mattel football game that was just a bunch of LED dashes on a tiny screen, and continues to this day with my PS3, PSP, and Wii. In between I've owned most of the major gaming consoles, although, interestingly enough, I never had a Nintendo console until my brother got me a Gamecube for Christmas one year. I was more of a Sega/Sony guy. I even had a Commodore 64 that I used just to play games (and I even knew Basic language), which was really the precursor to the 8-bit era of gaming that the classic Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) ushered in.

Suffice it to say that I like video games. And it's always fun when I meet others who enjoy them as much as me. I actually share an office with one (Brad), and another works right down the hall (Stubbs). Brad and I have had many conversations about games and systems and the like, but I honestly didn't know that Stubbs was another one of us (although he did mention Guitar Hero to me a few times - but that's a game that casual gamers love to play as well) until just yesterday when he came to our office after overhearing us talk about a new game called Assassin's Creed. I won't go into details about that particular game mainly because I am thinking about making some of my blog posts be game reviews, but that conversation sparked a great idea.

As we talked about games, I mentioned that there is actually a PS2 in the 202K conference room (we got it last year for Brian Smith's Innovators Speakers presentation) and that I had brought in some games and controllers for it a while ago. Also, since I had just gotten a Wii, I wouldn't be using my Gamecube anymore so I could bring that in as well. Stubbs then offered up his old Xbox to the mix. We realized we had the makings of a cool gaming parlor.

But as we continued to talk, the conversation shifted from the actual games themselves to the technologies and features that the gaming systems are employing. Brad talked about the cool things he can do with his Nintendo DS, and I was talking about how I can use the remote play feature on my PSP to view media I have saved on my PS3 hard drive anywhere I can access the internet. And as I was saying that I could bring it in and show them how it works, it occurred to us that there may be more staff than just us who would like to talk about and see stuff like this (and play games over lunch).

So we started kicking around the idea of having gaming brown bags. Basically these would be lunches in the conference room where we play games, but also discuss what we think is cool about gaming, what's hot now, what's on the horizon, etc. If it's not your turn at the game, you can eat your lunch, participate in the discussion, or root for one of the people actually playing. I know several of us in the office have PSPs, and we could connect them to not only play games but to share media (videos, pictures, music, etc.). Brad talked about showing some of the lesser known but more innovative games for the DS. And I told them about Jason Johnson showing me an NES emulator that he has on his iPod Touch that I think others would like to see. There's really tons of things to talk about.

I think we could do these once or twice a week, and I don't think we need to have an agenda. Just show up if you want to play or talk about gaming. If these turn out to be popular, I'd like to see us extending invitations to faculty and students to join us. We can use the Educational Gaming Community site as our platform for announcing dates of the brown bags as well as a way to continue any discussions that are started, or even start conversations on the community site that can be continued in person at the lunches. Brett has asked me to look at ways to promote the community site, and I think this might be a unique and fun way to do it.

We're looking to have the first brown bag after the Thanksgiving break. Again, no agenda. Just come and have fun, eat lunch, and talk about gaming. We'll also make a list of what games we have. Anyone is welcome to bring games to share as well. I'll post a date and time for the first brown bag on the TLT staff site when we have it set.

There's been a bit of controversy in the video game community the last week and a half that centers around the firing of Jeff Gerstmann, Editorial Director and 10 year veteran of the gaming site GameSpot.com. GameSpot provides news, reviews, previews, and downloads of electronic gaming across all platforms - computer-based, handhelds, home console systems, etc. Users can also write their own reviews of games, create blogs, and participate on the site's forums.

In addition to providing news, images, and videos of their games in development, video game publishers also spend large sums of money to advertise on GameSpot based on the high amount of traffic the site generates. And if there is one place on the entire site that is visited without fail, it is the GameSpot game reviews. So what happens when a company who has just spent thousands of dollars advertising their new game on a gaming site has that same site give the game a bad review? That's exactly what Jeff Gerstmann found out.

The game in question is called "Kane and Lynch: Dead Men." The player takes the role of Kane, "a death row inmate on his way to criminal execution, apparently convicted of being a very savage criminal as part of a notorious gang called The7." At the beginning of the game, the other members of The7, including Lynch, bust you out of jail and thus starts your ultra-violent exploits in this blood-soaked, action packed, "crime-themed shooter."

Now before I go any further, something that you must understand is that amidst all of the development interviews, storyline details, and reports on early builds of games, sites like GameSpot pretty much become hype machines for said games. Early reports on games in development do mention possible issues that a game might have, be it spotty control or iffy graphics or a bad camera system, but, for the most part, these early reports always seem to feature phrases like "we're excited by what we see" and "we can't wait to get another crack at this game." So, obviously, game publishers are going to want to advertise their new games on sites that are generating a lot of positive buzz about them. But after those ad spaces are paid for come the reviews. And that's when reality may set in. That's when the user may find out that the game he or she was looking forward to and had set aside money to buy may not really be worth spending that money on after all. And that's when the game publishers who shelled out the dough advertising their game may see a bad review that will equate to game sales not being as high as they were hoping for and get upset.

Gerstmann gave "Kane and Lynch" a 6.0 out of a possible 10. This equates to a designated game status of "Fair." Any game that is reviewed with a score of 8.0 (maybe even 7.5) or above is considered a quality game worthy of the gamers' hard earned money. But a 6.0? That's a rental at best. For those who would like to read Gerstmann's review, here you go.

"Kane and Lynch" was released on November 13, 2007. Gerstmann's review of the game was posted on GameSpot's site at some point between then and November 28. I'm not sure of the exact date his review went online. On November 29, numerous gaming sources began reporting that Gerstmann had been fired from GameSpot allegedly over his negative review of "Kane and Lynch." Now it's important to mention that Gerstmann had been at Gamespot for nearly 11 years, and had reviewed games during his entire tenure there. I think it's safe to say that he had given poor reviews to games before, so what happened here? Why was he fired?

The sources said that Eidos Interactive, the publisher of "Kane and Lynch," saw the low score and threatened to pull all of their advertising from the site. At the time that the review for the game was posted, the entire GameSpot site was filled with "Kane and Lynch" backgrounds and multiple banner ads. GameSpot has completely denied these claims, and has issued their own account of Gerstmann's dismissal in what has become known as "Gerstmann Gate." I won't detail GameSpot's response, but here it is for anyone who is interested.

Now I don't know if Gerstmann was fired for giving a game a bad review or not, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was true. Eidos publishes many games, and if they really did threaten to pull their advertising, it would mean thousands and thousands of dollars of lost revenue to GameSpot. Regardless of the reason for Gerstmann's firing, the whole episode has put the legitimacy of sites like Gamespot in question. The tactic of game publishers throwing money at the outlets who review their products to influence a positive review isn't a new concept. But the firing of Jeff Gerstmann might just be one of the highest profiled examples of such a thing actually happening.