#NerdsUnite: Confessions of a videogame journalist
<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy John. We started talking on the twitter not too long ago, and then he reached out and asked if he could write for us regarding his journey through the nerdy realm. I was all DUDDEEE!! That's so raaaddd!! And now, here we are. Like right now, in real time, this is happening. Pretty cool huh? HIT IT JOHN!!! </editorsnote>
#TalkNerdyToMeLover's John Sollitto
The gaming industry is having an interesting bout of horrible security. Have you noticed that? “BREAKING NEWS! New trailer leaked of this game!” “SCREENSHOTS LEAKED OF THIS GAME!” “INFORMATION LEAKED ABOUT THAT GAME!”
Whoever is in charge of marketing and PR for all of these companies is either a genius at causing buzz, or quite possibly the worst secret keeper ever. It’s guys like these that get Lily and James Potter killed. DAMN. I just made a HARRY POTTER DEATH JOKE. I’m on a roll right now, I swear. There are like ten of you reading this right now that are so pissed off at me. I don’t even care, that joke was awesome.
Anyway, if you’ve been paying attention to the gaming world you’ll see any number of leaks or breaches of information or hacked games going on the market. It’s like people can’t wait anymore for information to come to them in a timely manner. Has it really come to this? Can we no longer just let the company tell us, when they’re ready, what they’ll be releasing?
Honestly, patience has either totally disappeared or the companies themselves are “leaking” it all just to make it sound controversial. Sooner or later it’s going to get all Boy Who Cried Wolf up in here and we’re just going to stop caring about whether or not the information is leaked and what the information is. Wouldn’t that be something? I mean, we all remember the Assassin’s Creed 3 images leaking close to the release of the Game Informer issue ALL ABOUT THE SAME GAME, right? Coincidence, or just clever wordplay? (Assassin's Creed image goes here somewhere)
Did you hear about those guys who freaking hijacked a truck full of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 games? I kid you not, that happened. In France, yeah, France. People stopped a truck and stole 6,000 copies of the game. They stole approximately $551,000 worth of games. THEY USED TEAR GAS! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?!
Do you need to cut out the middle-man that badly that you can’t just pre-order a copy of the game to ensure that you get one, wait till the day it is released, sleep in, then walk to your games store and get the game? No? WHAT THE HELL?!
What about those people hacking Capcom games to play the unreleased characters of Street Fighter X Tekken? You can’t shell out five or ten bucks for some DLC? Honestly, if you’re that invested in a game that you want the DLC, have the courtesy to buy it.
These are games people, not drugs, not weapons, not freaking money, they’re games. They bring enjoyment to your life and to others. The industry is suffering enough with people getting laid-off left and right, don’t screw the companies like that.
As for gaming sites and other journalists, don’t say things are leaked unless they actually are. If so, prove it by naming a source or saying that there was an anonymous source. Can’t do that? Oh, is your definition of leaked getting it in the press packet? Well then I do not think that word means what you think it means.
There’s too much leaking and hacking going around that it is becoming both unbelievable and just unconscionable. Let’s just all realize that if we want something we have to wait for it, and sensationalizing information, true leak or not, doesn’t really get the buzz that it once did. Can we all agree on that? Thanks.
#nerdsunite
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