GameSpot's Gerstmann Fired Due to Negative Review

I agree he worded it wrong. I can see Eidos not only freaking out about the review but they must have hit the roof with that comment. With all that pressure on them and the money they spent. Even if they understood he didn't mean steal the game he's outright telling people don't buy for sure.

Gerstmann may not have any recourse for wrongfull termination if a) gamespot is an "at will" Employer based in California b) they offered him a a fat severance c) they are paying him till the end of his contract or bought it out d) he openly advocates piracy.

I don't think the company can say anything until their lawyers straighten this all out.

IMO, there's no way he has any grounds at all for wrongful termination. Even if we give him the biggest benefit of the doubt and assume he took some kind of moral stand by resisting pressure to lie about the game, it still doesn't matter.

If GameSpot were a newspaper and Gerstmann were a reporter, then I would see it differently. But they're not, and he's not. GameSpot is a company walking a fine line. It seems to be a service provider for game buyers, but its biggest source of income is game makers.

Despite how it seems, Gerstmann was paid to represent GameSpot. He was a marketing communications guy more than anything else. That means he can be fired for not having enough talent, and it makes considerations like whether or not he was being honest, or whether or not he was right, moot.

That's not to say he wasn't morally right by being honest. I just don't think he'll be able to sue over being fired.

Don't buy at full price does not mean pirate it at all. Games generally fall in price after a month or two.

This statement "If you have an opportunity to see it without paying full price take a look at it, but its probably not worth purchasing." isn't that confusing and does not advocate piracy. Key words here: full price. If someone told me to not pay full price for a game then I would assume (like I did here) that they meant to wait off on buying the thing until the price drops.

If for a second I thought this guy really meant to pirate this game, I would be one of the first ones to join you and say this guy got what he deserved. But to me this wasn't the case, like I said before I didn't even think that he was telling people to pirate it until Lucky Day said something and even then you really have to read between the lines to come to that conclusion.

Why is this surprising? This is how the 'free' press operates in general - opinions and stories paid for by corporate power.

No, we're the FREE press, none of us gets paid, so we can write what we want, without fear or favour!!

Originally Posted by Squeek
IMO, there's no way he has any grounds at all for wrongful termination. Even if we give him the biggest benefit of the doubt and assume he took some kind of moral stand by resisting pressure to lie about the game, it still doesn't matter.

If GameSpot were a newspaper and Gerstmann were a reporter, then I would see it differently. But they're not, and he's not. GameSpot is a company walking a fine line. It seems to be a service provider for game buyers, but its biggest source of income is game makers.

And what use will the site be to game makers if gamers distrust everything the site puts out? This sort of publicity is a far cry from what the type of site you describe must want, and to me it's going to backfire in their face. They've pretty much come out and said that the advertisers write the reviews, so forget about any kind of realistic information on the game. I see it as extremely short-sighted backlash from some offended management type because his tin god pronouncements were violated, not as a savvy marketing ploy.

Despite how it seems, Gerstmann was paid to represent GameSpot. He was a marketing communications guy more than anything else. That means he can be fired for not having enough talent, and it makes considerations like whether or not he was being honest, or whether or not he was right, moot.

If not having enough talent is grounds to be fired, there'd be a lot of people out of work.

I also don't see how Gerstman has forfeited his right to journalistic freedom of speech by doing reviews for a game site instead of a magazine or newspaper, or how he was a 'marketing communications guy', when he was in a separate department, had the title of editor and wrote reviews for a living for ten years, either. But I could be wrong--it's all hearsay to me.

Anyway, Squeek--we'll agree to disagree on the details. My concern is just that I like to be able to believe the things I read. I think that's a responsibility that media has, and the idea that reviewers should be looking over their shoulders all the time, wondering if they'll be fired if they dare hint that game xyz reeks to the heavens because then the publisher might lose money on a crappy product just rubs me the wrong way. Honestly, I'm old enough not to be surprised when I read about corruption and pay-offs, but I guess I'll never be old enough not to be surprised when people defend it.

This story reminded me of something but I couldn't quite figure it out until magerette's post. Gerstmann wasn't a loyal Bushie or more to the point he wasn't a loyal Lynchie

Originally Posted by magerette
I also don't see how Gerstman has forfeited his right to journalistic freedom of speech by doing reviews for a game site instead of a magazine or newspaper, or how he was a 'marketing communications guy', when he was in a separate department, had the title of editor and wrote reviews for a living for ten years, either.

I'm not questioning anyone's rights. I'm balking at GameSpot as media and, therefore, at what Gerstmann was doing there as journalism. It seems like GameSpot sees it that way too. Otherwise they wouldn't be pressuring the people who write their reviews.

Originally Posted by skavenhorde
If someone told me to not pay full price for a game then I would assume (like I did here) that they meant to wait off on buying the thing until the price drops.

Or to rent a copy in the case of the console versions.

Originally Posted by xSamhainx

This really is a category 5 nerdstorm tho, of the likes Ive never seeen.

:lol What a great phrase

Gamespot Responds

Look at the rabid comments below. Pretty hilarious actually, how damn serious theyre taking it all. Just yesterday prolly half these mooks were leetspeek trolls with no loyalties to anyone or anything, now suddenly theyre all the epitomes of righteous indignation, burning for truth and justice.


User "FatalRGR" sounds the clarion call, beckoning his brothers to join his war on the evil empire:

CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTIONS. BRING THIS GREEDY EMPIRE DOWN. CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTIONS. DON'T LET THEM CENSOR YOU. CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTIONS.

COPY AND PASTE THIS IN YOUR COMMENT AND SHOW THEM WHO THEY ARE DEALING WITH!

While "Lingxor" has more of a brooding, reserved tone, you can feel his disgusted anger simmering, percolating in his breast, spat out in his simple declaration:

lies

Some such as "paabss" are so utterly enraged, they can barely compose a sentence, their fingers just pounding out stream of consciousness thoughts conveying their disdain:

This is shame for AMERICA!!! CNET, gamespot eidos will payback!!!!

some of the more educated truth warriors such as Professor "JangoWuzHere" chime in with their viewpoints regarding the possible legal ramifications of this dire situation:

"gamespot might close down due to the fact of ooo idk doing somthing toataally against the law now i forgot what it was called but gs is on the verge of a melt down"

Looks to me like a bunch of rebels without a cause just found one.

I liked this one:

donvarriel quote from sarcasticgamer : "Gamers from around the world stormed the offices of Cnet’s Gamespot today, setting fires and destroying everything in sight. The small contigent of police on hand to maintain order were simply overrun by the sheer number of angry nerds.

“At first it was like one guy with a sign,” said Gerald Fulton, one of the officers dispatched to try and defuse the situation. “But within an hour there were thousands of them. They were chanting Gerstmann, Gerstmann, Gerstmann. Then in an instant, they began to stampede.”

Within minutes, smoke began to rise from the Gamespot offices, and the sound of breaking glass filled the streets. Looters were seen leaving the scene with hundreds of copies of Kane & Lynch: Dead Men.

“We would have tried to stop them, but it’s not like they were taking anything valuable,” said Fulton. “We were most concerned about the fire spreading from the Gamespot offices to the adjacent landfill. There are rare birds that inhabit that area, and it would have been a real shame if any of their habitat were to be damaged.”

Riot squads armed with pepper spray and battons eventually subdued the protestors, making dozens of arrests. Several gamers were injured by the fire, although most injuries seemed to take on a peculiar pattern.

“Numerous individuals suffered hernias and back injuries as they were attempting to loot an area called the Review Vault,” said Fulton. “But when they tried to carry out all of that cash at once, they really strained themselves. The weird part was that the Gamespot staff that were in the offices at the time of the incident remained at their desks, and continued working, as if nothing were happening.”

Firefighters managed to contain the blaze, and within a few hours, Gamespot had set up a temporary headquarters in the restroom of a local pub.

When reached for comment, Gamespot’s CNET PR representative, Dottie Dumas, would only reiterate the company’s corporate policy.

“CNET does not discuss the total destruction of our entire website with the press.”

That was great. Thanks, Corwin. A protester who's funny and has an imagination. Who would of guessed that was possible

Just read about the incident.. bummer. I hope it does have repercussions beyond a couple days of minor protesting, especially for the bad guys. We all knew the industry was corrupt, it's just that now they are like, making a statement saying "Yes, we really are as bad as you think we are. And we don't care, because there's nothing you (can) do about it."

There was a comment quite a ways down that pointed out that this largely empty rebuttal might have been more effective had it been published last week. I think that Gamespot missed their chance to slow the poopstorm before it really picked up steam.

Originally Posted by Lucky Day
Forgive me if this has been mentioned before in all those shiny words but I caught something at the end of his video review:

This sounds like he is actually endorsing pirating the game. After all this negative his tone of voice changes to something that could be interpreted as coy here. If he said take a look at the demo or a friends copy that would be different but I can't see another way to see something legally without actually buying it (yeah sure, maybe you play this game at gamestop, walmart or best buy on demonstration when every other thing said is the F word.)

There are other ways than pirating to "see a game". I.E renting it, checking out friends copy, etc. Especially in consoles people often suggest not to buy it but rent it first to see whether its worth its value.

Originally Posted by magerette
Our last executive editor, Greg Kasavin, left to go to EA, and he was replaced by a suit, Josh Larson, who had no editorial experience and was only involved on the business side of things.

Over the last year there has been an increasing amount of pressure to allow the advertising teams to have more of a say in the editorial process; we've started having to give our sales team heads-ups when a game is getting a low score, for instance, so that they can let the advertisers know that before a review goes up. Other publishers have started giving us notes involving when our reviews can go up; if a game's getting a 9 or above, it can go up early; if not, it'll have to wait until after the game is on the shelves.

He also implied that "AAA" titles deserved more attention when they were being reviewed, which sounded to all of us that he was implying that they should get higher scores, especially since those titles are usually more highly advertised on our site.

and with Jeff's firing I think it's clear that the management now has no interest at all in integrity and are instead looking for an editorial team that will be nicer to the advertisors.

I guess you'll have to go to Onion or a smaller site for objective reviews now, because everyone at GS now thinks that if they give a low score to a high-profile game, they'll be shitcanned. Everyone's fucking scared and we're all hoping to get Josh Larson removed from his position because no one trusts him anymore. If that doesn't happen then look for every game to be Game of the Year material at GameSpot.

Sounds like this new suit is a class AAA Max Profit. He couldnt care less for games or reviews even. Money is everything and he is trying to min/max it like som do for their character in mmorpgs.

This entire debate is about perception, IMO. Folks disagree about whether or not GameSpot can be trusted – or should be trusted – to objectively review games. It certainly presents the appearance of being objective.

But like certain programs on TV that are really infomercials, and certain articles in newspapers and magazines are really ads, GameSpot’s outward communications are designed to give that appearance – not by accident, either. IMO, that’s a little too deceiving.

Like advertisers here in the US, GameSpot should be required by law to make a disclaimer, on its Web site and in its reviews, warning consumers that its opinions aren’t necessarily objective.

Originally Posted by Squeek
Like advertisers here in the US, GameSpot should be required by law to make a disclaimer, on its Web site and in its reviews, warning consumers that its opinions aren’t necessarily objective.

That would be more than required considering som people pay money to read their reviews. If they stop producing reviews and instead replace them with advertisements then it should be clearly noted. Its a scam othervice.

GS Personalities like Alex Navarro etc weigh in on podcast