Internet “journalism” is a dirty business. I think everyone should be aware of this fact, but it seems few are. The business model isn’t built to support well thought out commentary or unbiased coverage of news. At the end of the day, the people counting the money only care about traffic. In turn, every website’s primary goal is to make you load up the page. They don’t care if the content is good, and in many cases, bad content works even better.
Think back to a little bit ago when a certain website posted an article on how a nerdy Magic the Gathering champion duped some poor girl into going on a date with him. Wait, no… that’s wrong. She was just upset that a guy who said he had some nerdy hobbies actually turned out to be a nerd and wrote a grossly inappropriate article about. The internet was outraged and then the same site, just a staff member from another country, went on to post an editorial saying how terrible the article was. I’m sure the traffic for the two controversial pieces paid a bill or two. I mean, how could it not? They were seriously playing both sides of the issue. And the more people talked about it, the more people searched out the original story.
The same with the recent Mass Effect kerfuffle. IGN posts a video with some asshole saying how entitled the fans are and how they should just shut up and take it. The fans get upset, share the link, and then IGN gets paid. Forbes has a writer that condemns IGN and other writers like them, notices the giant influx of Mass Effect fans visiting the site and soon most of Forbes’ video game coverage becomes about Mass Effect and has a pro-fan slant. Who can blame these people though? It is a sure fire way to make money.
So all that is to say, don’t buy into the narrative that’s currently being woven for PAX East. Right now the “journalist” are trying to sensationalize some non-events in order to generate traffic. First being Keith Apicary.
