reddit's stories are created by its users

join the community, vote, and change the world.

更に知る ›

Kotaku Responds to the Conflict of Interest Claims Surrounding Patricia Hernandez による shy-g-uyにおいて Games

[–]jasonschreier 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Problem is that charity auctioning gaming swag gives the relevant games publicity, which is exactly what we don't want to do with this swag.

Kotaku Responds to the Conflict of Interest Claims Surrounding Patricia Hernandez による shy-g-uyにおいて Games

[–]jasonschreier -5 ポイント-4 ポイント  (0子コメント)

I'm not sure there will be a formal policy. I think it'll be a situational thing. I don't know, though. That's a question for Stephen.

Kotaku Responds to the Conflict of Interest Claims Surrounding Patricia Hernandez による shy-g-uyにおいて Games

[–]jasonschreier 8 ポイント9 ポイント  (0子コメント)

I don't think we have a specific policy about disclosing whether review copies were provided for any given review. I don't think that's particularly necessary. Almost all of our reviews are based early copies of games provided by publishers, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

We rarely go to review events, and when we absolutely must, we pay for ourselves (and usually talk about the event in the review IIRC). We don't take any free hotels, flights, or trips from publishers. We also don't take swag. Stuff sent to our office gets thrown in the trash or given away.

Kotaku Responds to the Conflict of Interest Claims Surrounding Patricia Hernandez による shy-g-uyにおいて Games

[–]jasonschreier -68 ポイント-67 ポイント  (0子コメント)

I imagine that this current controversy is triggered by A) a large number of people who are mad that women and minorites are making video games, B) a large number of people who hate Patricia/Kotaku and are looking for any possible way to bring us down, and C) a large number of people who actually believe that the relationship between game journalists and developers is too cozy, and see this as a genuine example of that problem.

The latter group deserves to be addressed, I think. Even if they are focusing on the trees and missing the forest.

Kotaku Responds to the Conflict of Interest Claims Surrounding Patricia Hernandez による shy-g-uyにおいて Games

[–]jasonschreier 5 ポイント6 ポイント  (0子コメント)

That's a great question. I don't go to a lot of corporate-sponsored parties, but it's certainly something always worth thinking about when we do.

I'm not sure that taking a beer at an EA party would amount to much -- and do you really think it'd be necessary to say "I took a beer at an EA party" every time I cover EA? -- but Kotaku has very strict policies about the more expensive stuff, like swag (we don't take it) and press junkets (we don't allow them).

Kotaku Responds to the Conflict of Interest Claims Surrounding Patricia Hernandez による shy-g-uyにおいて Games

[–]jasonschreier -6 ポイント-5 ポイント  (0子コメント)

I don't know what you're referring to. Links?

Kotaku Responds to the Conflict of Interest Claims Surrounding Patricia Hernandez による shy-g-uyにおいて Games

[–]jasonschreier -6 ポイント-5 ポイント  (0子コメント)

"Help keep us honest" is an idiom. I like to believe I'm a pretty honest person, but hey, even the best journalist screws up sometimes, and readers are there to call them out. That's a good thing.

Kotaku Responds to the Conflict of Interest Claims Surrounding Patricia Hernandez による shy-g-uyにおいて Games

[–]jasonschreier -29 ポイント-28 ポイント  (0子コメント)

I won't deny that game journalism has a lot of major issues surrounding this subject: journos and devs that are too close; publishers taking reporters on swanky trips; journos constantly taking jobs at development studios. But the way to work against that isn't to embrace it; it's to fight it.

I call myself a journalist because I do journalism. I break news, write investigative stories, and maintain very high standards for myself. I'm lucky to have learned from great editors like Stephen Totilo and Chris Kohler, and I believe that we've done and continue to do a whole lot of great work at Kotaku.

I could go on and on about this, but to keep this reply short: no.

Kotaku Responds to the Conflict of Interest Claims Surrounding Patricia Hernandez による shy-g-uyにおいて Games

[–]jasonschreier 10 ポイント11 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Man, the irony of you saying I'm lying while posting an image that's deliberately misleading in order to tell a lie is just too much.

On the left, Zoe says they first got close on a trip to Vegas. OK. But the images of the two of them hanging out on March 22 are not from Vegas, they are from GDC in San Francisco, as it says pretty much everywhere in that image. I'm not sure how the internet sleuths have missed this point. I believe their Vegas trip was in early April, after Nathan's article was published, as Stephen said on Kotaku last week.

Kotaku Responds to the Conflict of Interest Claims Surrounding Patricia Hernandez による shy-g-uyにおいて Games

[–]jasonschreier -11 ポイント-10 ポイント  (0子コメント)

That post makes logical leaps and is misleading in quite a few ways. Take this image, for example: http://i.imgur.com/I63abCw.jpg

On the left, Zoe says they first got close on a trip to Vegas. OK. But the images of the two of them hanging out on March 22 are not from Vegas, they are from GDC in San Francisco, as it says pretty much everywhere in that image. I'm not sure how the internet sleuths have missed this point. I believe their Vegas trip was in early April, after Nathan's article was published, as Stephen said on Kotaku last week.

Kotaku Responds to the Conflict of Interest Claims Surrounding Patricia Hernandez による shy-g-uyにおいて Games

[–]jasonschreier -11 ポイント-10 ポイント  (0子コメント)

You are right about everything here, and Stephen has said pretty much the same thing on Kotaku.

Kotaku Responds to the Conflict of Interest Claims Surrounding Patricia Hernandez による shy-g-uyにおいて Games

[–]jasonschreier -3 ポイント-2 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Did you misread? Stephen is saying that Patricia should have disclosed her conflicts of interest in all of those articles, and in future articles, that's what will happen.

Kotaku Responds to the Conflict of Interest Claims Surrounding Patricia Hernandez による shy-g-uyにおいて Games

[–]jasonschreier 10 ポイント11 ポイント  (0子コメント)

I am happy to answer questions and discuss Kotaku as a whole, our policies, my personal views on things, etc., but I do not feel comfortable going back and forth about your personal distaste for one of our writers. My advice would be that you voice your opinions to Stephen, either on Kotaku or by email. He's usually pretty responsive.

Kotaku Responds to the Conflict of Interest Claims Surrounding Patricia Hernandez による shy-g-uyにおいて Games

[–]jasonschreier -8 ポイント-7 ポイント  (0子コメント)

No, the grossness of your post has nothing to do with the subject matter. What's gross is that you think you, Internet Detective Extraordinaire, are perfectly justified in posting things like this:

The issue with the Grayson narrative put forth by Kotaku is the fact we're supposed to believe that he and Quinn were in a professional acquaintanceship (as Stephen stated); and only a week later in a romantic relationship.

For starters, have you ever had a romantic relationship? Those things can move quickly, believe it or not. And hey, guess what, either way, none of that is any of your fucking business, because no matter what sort of flimsy excuses you throw around about how you deserve to know about Nathan and Zoe's personal lives and Vegas trips because of Journalistic Ethics, there is zero evidence that Nathan was in a relationship with Zoe when he quoted her in an article, and even if he was, the conflict of interest would be rather minor, since the article is about something else entirely.

I'd hardly describe living in a game developers house and according to tweets made by @Daphaknee, being a paying tenant to said developer, can be easily brushed off as a close friendship. It may not be romantic, but it was not just a simple friendship.

Are you kidding me? What is it that you think landlords and tenants do? Is there some sort of universe I'm missing where landlords and tenants are all just constantly having sex parties? And no matter what sort of friendships or relationships they had, what makes you think it's any of your business? Like Stephen has pointed out, the relationship should have been disclosed in those articles, but beyond that, you don't get to decide what was or wasn't "just a simple friendship."

Try to remember that you are talking about human beings here, will you?

Kotaku Responds to the Conflict of Interest Claims Surrounding Patricia Hernandez による shy-g-uyにおいて Games

[–]jasonschreier -20 ポイント-19 ポイント  (0子コメント)

This is a gross post, and it comes off more as if you're interested in a witch hunt than actual ethical issues. I don't know if disclosure will be retroactively applied to all Kotaku articles. Ask Stephen.

Kotaku Responds to the Conflict of Interest Claims Surrounding Patricia Hernandez による shy-g-uyにおいて Games

[–]jasonschreier 9 ポイント10 ポイント  (0子コメント)

A few thoughts:

1) Over the past week or so, people have brought up some legitimate gripes, but often, they're so smothered in hatred, misogyny, bile, and harassment that it's hard to separate what's real and what isn't. I imagine that many people in the games press have ignored some of the legitimate complaints because they're so surrounded by bile. That's a shame, for many reasons.

2) As a reporter, I am interested in sorting out all of the facts about many of these things. That's why I've been in touch with the person behind The Fine Young Capitalists to hear his perspective on just what happened with them and Zoe Quinn. We spoke on the phone yesterday, and while I'm not sure I'll wind up publishing an article on Kotaku about what happened, I am interested in knowing the full story.

3) On the other hand, I don't think Zoe Quinn is a public figure in the games industry -- despite this recent controversy -- and I don't think every single one of her actions deserves scrutiny on a website like Kotaku. Her sex life certainly doesn't. I don't think her allegedly faking being doxxed or filing DMCA takedowns against videos is really a story that I think should be covered on Kotaku either, though I am of course always open to discussion with people who disagree.

Kotaku Responds to the Conflict of Interest Claims Surrounding Patricia Hernandez による shy-g-uyにおいて Games

[–]jasonschreier 25 ポイント26 ポイント  (0子コメント)

I don't work for Polygon and I'll refrain from commenting on Kuchera, but I'd be happy to give you my personal thoughts on the other two.

As Stephen has said on Kotaku, Nathan did not write about Zoe Quinn while the two were in a relationship, and therefore there were no conflicts of interest involved with any of his reporting. While one could certainly argue that no game journalist should have a romantic relationship between someone that they might cover, in the real world, that's rather difficult to avoid. Human beings are human beings, and sometimes these things will happen. So long as the reporter A) avoids covering that person whenever possible and B) is transparent about his/her relationship if he/she absolutely MUST cover that person, I don't think there's a problem.

Patricia, on the other hand, should have disclosed her close friendships while writing about those indie developers. I trust Patricia and know that there was no malicious intent there, nor did she write about those games in a disingenuous way. I believe that all of those articles were honest and genuine, as is everything Patricia writes.

That said, it was still an error, and no reporter should write about the work of someone they are close to without offering up proper disclosure. That's something Stephen has addressed in his statement on Kotaku and it's something we'll be scrutinizing and handling more carefully in the future.

Kotaku Responds to the Conflict of Interest Claims Surrounding Patricia Hernandez による shy-g-uyにおいて Games

[–]jasonschreier 4 ポイント5 ポイント  (0子コメント)

I recommend also reading Stephen's comments in this post.

This one, for example: http://kotaku.com/im-not-sure-which-sources-youre-looking-at-but-questio-1627098933

I'm not sure which sources you're looking at, but questions about Patricia's articles about Anna Anthropy's and Christine Love's games were part of what I was reacting to.

A couple of summers ago—for about two months—Patricia was housemates with the developer Anna Anthropy and a mutual friend. I've seen this wildly misrepresented as Patricia and Anna being in a long-term romantic relationship. Not at all. Following that, Patricia wrote a handful of mostly short posts about Anna's games—nothing that in retrospect strikes me as untoward given that I think Anna is a pretty interesting developer. I've written about her book, for example. Nevertheless, Patricia realizes now she should have mentioned that they had been housemates. She has also written about the games of one of her friends, Christine Love, a few times. She mentioned that they were friends in one of her pieces, didn't in two others. Again, Love's work is interesting and in my view well worth writing about. The lack of mention that they're friends was, in my view, an innocent oversight that's been corrected. Others may view it more negatively.

What's most important to me is how we proceed from this and any other sense that games reporters and indie devs are writing about each other without being clear enough about how they know each other. Many, many times the connections are probably harmless, but as many know, it's not impropriety that's solely a problem but even the appearance of it. If it's easy to say, hey, I'm friends with that person, then the reporter might as well do it, you know?

I've been spending time with every Kotaku writer over the last couple of days to talk through the kind of feedback we've getting, to self-scrutinize. When I said we've absorbed the feedback, I mean it. Everyone on the team has talked about this and wants to do what they can to be as clear as can be and maintain or earn the trust of their readers.

Kotaku Responds to the Conflict of Interest Claims Surrounding Patricia Hernandez による shy-g-uyにおいて Games

[–]jasonschreier 31 ポイント32 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Hi. I work for Kotaku and I totally agree with you. Tell us about conflicts of interest. Call us out if we don't properly disclose something. Help keep us honest. It's the only way we'll continue to get better, and you're right: our job is to serve readers, not the other way around.

Well, I guess I totally agree with you except for the "as much as they don't want to admit it" part.

Gaming journalists Patricia Hernandez of Kotaku and Ben Kuchera of Polygon have published articles in which they have a conflict of interest による F1renzeにおいて Games

[–]jasonschreier -1 ポイント0 ポイント  (0子コメント)

I believe our editor Stephen Totilo is planning on saying something, so I'll hold off on posting any of my personal opinions until he does that.

Gaming journalists Patricia Hernandez of Kotaku and Ben Kuchera of Polygon have published articles in which they have a conflict of interest による F1renzeにおいて Games

[–]jasonschreier -3 ポイント-2 ポイント  (0子コメント)

I know nothing about the user drama stuff. That's before my time.

But, no, we aren't driven solely by unique views. I won't deny that unique views are important to the company, but our priority is producing great stuff, whether that's articles about tweets (which, believe it or not, can be good!) or longform investigations and other forms of original writing and reporting.

I don't know who your friend is, but if they tell you that traffic is our priority over everything, they're wrong (and probably should have a long talk with Stephen).

Gaming journalists Patricia Hernandez of Kotaku and Ben Kuchera of Polygon have published articles in which they have a conflict of interest による F1renzeにおいて Games

[–]jasonschreier 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

Hi. I write for Kotaku. Your first comment has some truth, but this one does not. Especially this line: "Meanwhile, Denton's ad policies continue to become increasingly aggressive and have a large influence on what does and doesn't get published on Kotaku."

I think Nick Denton would rather burn his company to the ground than ever let advertisers dictate what's published on one of his sites.

What happens when trailers or images are leaked, and then immediately officially released? による NoonToker17において Games

[–]jasonschreier 1 ポイント2 ポイント  (0子コメント)

In this case, I believe the trailer was scheduled to be released today anyway, alongside a Game Informer cover reveal. It just happened to leak a few hours early.

But earlier this year, when we (Kotaku) broke news of AC Unity, Ubisoft wisely responded by putting together a CG trailer over the next couple of days, and officially announcing the game two days after we broke it, figuring they might as well get on top of the message.

Game reviewers should start their reviews with how many hours they played that game による hoseherdownにおいて Showerthoughts

[–]jasonschreier 0 ポイント1 ポイント  (0子コメント)

I write for Kotaku. We've been doing this for years!

Jason Schreier on Game Previews による AN4RCHIDにおいて Games

[–]jasonschreier 1 ポイント2 ポイント  (0子コメント)

The third one. "Interesting stories" does not mean "long-form feature journalism," though it certainly can. I think one of this week's most interesting stories was Summer Games Done Quick, and that's just an ongoing video stream.

It sucks that Russ lost his job, yeah. He curated some really great stories over the years. I won't pretend to know how Polygon's business model works, but I guess they concluded that running features 3x a week wasn't viable for them.

For what it's worth, despite the general skepticism, I think there are longform features that can resonate with a lot of people -- check out our Kotaku Longreads section to see how we've been approaching that, and where we've succeeded/failed. (Our traffic numbers are all public.)