I can totally empathise with their position. It's very unfair that games writers have a really shit reputation. And the backlash the receive is always disproportionate, with people jumping to personal insults rather than genuine criticism.

But because of that, if you have a public Twitter account, you need to be very careful of what you say, because as has been shown, it doesn't take much for someone to draw the conclusion (correct or not) that you're on the take.

Rab Florence is a god.

Jolly Boy John is FOR REAL!!!

You could argue that the more someone is paid the comfier and more dependent they get and therefore less likely to deviate from any company line or resist Ad department pressure for fear of being turfed out.

The MPs is a good example, they all earn well above national average and some are millionaires, yet they still weasled a few quid out of every opportunity.

I see people bending rules to survive at every pay grade, hello MPs and bankers. So whilst I see your point perfectly as well, I just don't see how changing what they're paid would help matters significantly. Not that it would ever happen anyway, I just wholly reject the "poor journos have to take a bit on the sly just to survive" angle.

Mod74 wrote:

You could argue that the more someone is paid the comfier and more dependent they get and therefore less likely to deviate from any company line or resist Ad department pressure for fear of being turfed out.

This is absolute horse shit. 

You think the people getting paid a good amount of money are lucky, lazy fucks who just sung to the company hymn sheet and started getting paid six figures?

@adored

This is just plain incorrect and I'd like to find out the basis for 'mods argument and where (in real life) his opinion comes from.

You could argue that the more someone is paid the comfier and more dependent they get and therefore less likely to deviate from any company line or resist Ad department pressure for fear of being turfed out.

adored wrote:

I'm sure if he wants to elaborate he will. Just because in your opinion it is incorrect doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

I'm confused. At what point have I said that ubermod is unable to make an argument?

My issue is that his argument contains no argument and is instead a blanket statement with nothing to back it up.

Must have been your opening "horseshit" gambit that confused me. Oh well.

Mod74 wrote:

I'm confused as to why Google doesn't think salary is a motivator in changing or not changing jobs. I thought he worked in recruitment.

I've made no secret of my job, 'mod.

In fact, it would take you all of two seconds to find me on the multitude of different professional networks available on the internet.

Regardless, for brevity's sake, I'm a solutions consultant at a software company. I work with recruitment and staffing companies, but I'm not employed by one. 

Hopefully we've cleared that up and we can move on?

I simply said that you could argue the more someone gets paid the less inclined they are to rock the boat and jeopardise that position. Especially in one as seemingly competitive as being a game journalist paid to fly round the world getting early access to the latest and greatest videogames whilst thousands if not millions of people hanging on your words.

I confused your earlier point. I assumed you were talking about anyone who earned good money because I honestly couldn't fathom why you'd assume anyone who wrote about videogames earned anything close to a decent salary. 

Regardless, I apologise for my rash words. I'd incorrectly assumed you were tarnishing the same brush for all industries.

The fact is you're not paid well in the videogame industry. If you have a permanent job then you're very lucky and you'll be milking it for everything it's worth. Because, as we've seen, those jobs are few and far between and last for a year or two at most. 

I agree with you actually. I'd say that those working in the industry, who earn very little money and are fearful of their jobs/perks/free games would follow company line before following their own opinion.

On the other hand, as we've seen, those at the other end of the scale, who are genuinely good at their jobs, command good fees and have a good reputation (Gerstmann, Lee, Smith, Gillen, Sessler, Rab, etc) have absolutely no problem transferring their skills into other, better paying positions in other companies/industries.

Yeah really wanted a bit more after that massive hike up the mountain and spending about 10 mins running away from a frost troll.

Well played gents.

You know I probably am. It's cool. Let's move on.

Fuck off Tempy you Tim Rogers looking cuntbag.

(buy Forza)

Need For Speed: Forza?

mistercrayon wrote:

Need for speed modern warfare?

FFS no one mention that to EA.