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While I hardly think it's a "bribe" in the case of board games, I think it's a perfectly reasonable line in the sand to require people to disclose if they've re
by tombert 3y ago
While I hardly think it's a "bribe" in the case of board games, I think it's a perfectly reasonable line in the sand to require people to disclose if they've received any compensation for reviewing a product, even if that compensation is just getting a free copy of the game.
I mean, it seems a bit silly to focus on board games, since they're generally pretty cheap, but I've seen videos on YouTube where people review multi-thousand-dollar TVs or computers, and it's unclear if they purchased the item or the company sent it to them.
Even if it's subconscious, I think it might be hard to trash-talk an entity that just gifted you something that you could easily re-sell for several grand.
- Xeoncross 3y ago> might be hard to trash-talk an entity that just gifted you... ...several grand Yes, especially if you want companies to follow suit.
- tombert 3y agoYeah, exactly! If Sony gave a free review copy of their new TV, and I spend my entire review trash-talking it, then Samsung might say "oof, let's not give this guy any review copies". I think stuff like this is inevitable to some extent, humans gonna human, but I think that the viewers of the video have the right to know about these potential conflicts of interest.
- stOneskull 3y agodon't trash talk it. be honest. constructive criticism will be appreciated.
- izzydata 3y agoI think it is still basically a bribe. Like all video game journalists and influences they will receive early copies to make their content. Video game studios don't actually give them money, but early access is what allows these people to make money by having their videos up before the release of the game. If you don't say nice things about them then they stop doing this and your income is cut off. As far as I'm concerned these reviews are effectively worthless so I don't know how they stay in business.
- tombert 3y agoYeah I remember the Kane and Lynch Gamespot controversy back in 2007. There's always going to be conflicts of interest; people should at least be aware of them.
- autoexec 3y agoThis has also been a huge problem with hardware reviewers since very few people can afford to buy a new top of the line video card or laptop every week. If the reviewers want to keep getting free goodies to pull ad impressions they can't say anything too mean about the companies giving them free stuff.