Angry Robot

GameSpot's Downfall

Here’s a great followup to the Gerstmann affair, that supplies lots of salacious details while fitting the sad tale into a broader context. Two editorial staffers have quit since, for example. And an ad sales guy is in charge of editorial. Also, did you know that basically any element on GameSpot’s front page can be purchased by advertisers?

In my opinion, we should view the controversy from the larger perspective of journalism as a whole, and not treat games sites as some distinct, recent phenomenon with their own set of rules. If you learned that any story on the front page of the Globe and Mail could be purchased by an advertiser without clearly being marked as an ad, why would you read the Globe anymore?