| Jdevil3 said: I've noticed that news articles that can spark fights between people on the internet usually get more replies than "normal" news articles. Also, changing words from a quotation or taking things out of context to make it seem as if someone said something negative about a company/developer/game/etc seems to make the news article get more hits and more responses/comments. I guess it helps the sites get more hits, garner more attention and have more activity... it also may help them get new users. |
As I was writing that, and after I finished, it did occur to me that websites make money off of traffic getting attention, being relevant and so on. And it is akin to what trolls do. It is being an attention hound, eager to get people to read and respond, and the more you can aggitate people to go and get excited about this or that, and repost it, the more your site gets traffic. So, it is like the videogame news business makes its money by hiring people who troll, or know how trolls think. I believe this would be the death of real journalism and insightful commentary. One can be controversial in their opinions, but it seems like feeding controversy is what seems to get circled about. So here's the formula:
* Find popular game or genre with competing titles.
* Post something to drive people to get upset and post all over about it.
* Follow the flaming and report it.
* Use this to drive people to your site.
While I would say that videogames tend to be more fanboy focused, I would say I have seen even professional sports writers during a slow news week end up creating at least 5 news items between several papers based on false rumors and refuting them, which is like the above. On the political front, you get huge partisan spin, where everything that comes up gets spun one way or the other, and made out to be news, and the partisans (political fanboys) get all over it and post any little bit on this forum and that. One could say religion is similar, but it doesn't seem to generate enough news often enough to keep the spin cycle going.
