A number of prominent videogame media outlets — specifically GamePro, G4TV and VGChartz — have gotten themselves in hot water after they were caught “gaming” Reddit with puppet accounts and the hired hands of power users. An Internet sleuth exposed the shenanigans yesterday, forcing those outlets in question to come clean and admit their fault. Apologies have been issued, though the sincerity may be dubious and the gesture has not been enough to stem the tide of outrage and abuse that often follows charges of “NEFARIOUS CORRUPTION” in our videogame “JOURNALISM.”
GamePro, G4TV and VGChartz have been attacked pretty vehemently by Reddit users and the usual cavalcade of “Rawr Videogame Journalists” pundits, yet I cannot see what they did that wasso wrong. As much as people may like to dream otherwise, the likes of Reddit, N4G and Digg are little more than marketing tools in the eyes of many people. Despite what you may say of the community (usually made up of people fighting with other all day), the very way these websites work create an entity begging to be gamed. G4TV admitted it had employed a “Power User” to promote content on news aggregates and gain significant traction, and while it looks sleazy, the very fact that power users even exist is evidence that these sites are not a level playing field where everything has an equal chance and the cream can rise to the top. I don’t fault people using tricks and scams to get ahead in a system that welcomes and rewards the use of tricks and scams.
Now, I’m not saying that what these sites did was right, exactly. Content-spamming Reddit with twenty user accounts is most certainly naughty behavior. It might not be right, but it’s not exactly wrong, either. No great moral trespass was committed. A broken system was used to the advantage of a number of sites. Big deal. It doesn’t affect my view of the outlets’ content, or the moral fiber of the writers who work for these sites (in the interests of disclosure, I’ve freelanced for GamePro, and I also happen to think the people who work there are stand-up guys).
Gamers seem obsessed with finding controversy and corruption within the gaming press, but if low-hanging fruit like this qualifies, then I’d suggest gamers maybe raise their expectations a little. After all, Reddit’s deluding itself if it believes these three sites are the only ones bending the rules — or even the worst examples.
In short, I think there’s only one thing these guys did wrong — they didn’t write an editorial disagreeing with the Reddit collective. That usually gets you right on the frontpage, and you don’t even have to make a single account.
http://www.gamefront.com/some-game-sites-gamed-reddit-and-nothing-of-value-was-lost/
The article is longer I just pulled a couple paragraphs so you could get his opinion.
