Gamezelot is Born!

And so, Gamezelot is born!

After the Jeff Gerstmann firing fiasco coupled with a valid and thoughtfully composed review, written by me, being unduly removed by nameless Gamespot admins claiming issues without basis ( and without recourse or discussion with me), I am no longer participating in Gamespot. Since Gamespot's policy appears to allow only positive reviews of games on Gamespot while removing well composed opinions (with lower scores), this is a form of censorship and is considered media bias. This leads me to the question, "If they've done this to me, how many other people have they done this to?" The answer, in my mind, is probably more than you'd think.

CNET / Gamespot Censorship

Worse, this form of publishing censorship only serves to enhance game sales by attempting to slant opinions towards high profile big named games by leaving only those positive reviews that are 'deemed worthy'. So, nameless Gamespot admins proceed to remove all of the rest of the reviews based on invalid arguments and quoting site policy as the reason for removal. The removal process, then, leaves a message in your inbox with no way to appeal the removal (no reply is possible). As a result of this removal tactic, Gamespot does not actually allow reviewers of games to fully share their opinions and experiences of a game freely. Thus, Gamespot intentionally does not allow you, as a user, to freely review games with your opinion and unbiased rating.

Consider that CNET professes to allow unbiased and fair reporting and promote professional journalism practices; however, this censorship removal policy is an odd tactic for a CNET company. Clearly, Gamespot does not practice what CNET preaches. As a visitor to Gamespot, this issue should concern you greatly. When looking for honest user opinions and reviews, you are only getting those opinions that Gamespot has 'approved'. They then choose to exclude everything else by deletion. So, again, as a visitor, you're now missing information that was there and should have been here.

CNET / Gamespot advertiser reporting bias

Some CNET employees cling to the mantra that CNET has the right to remove anything they want per the terms and conditions. True, but when the opinions CNET removes are valid and thoughtful, the only thing CNET is doing is practicing media bias towards their advertisers. Sure, they can claim they are doing it for whatever purpose citing the terms and conditions. Sure, it is private property and there may not be free speech rules that apply. But, citing the terms and conditions as for the reason for removal does not change the fact that Gamespot clearly doesn't practice what CNET preaches. CNET, if you want people to believe your organization is credible and trustworthy source of information, then all of your sites need to practice what you preach in ALL places where users can express their opinions.

Gamezelot site is born

As a result of these issues, I will no longer participate in Gamespot's journalistically amateur and hypocritcally operated site. I have no trust in Gamespot for providing fair and unbiased reporting of games reviews or game opinions. You might want to consider this for yourself before you choose to use Gamespot for future buying decisions of games. Instead, Gamezelot will focus on providing high quality, but honest game reviews here. Because the Gamezelot does not accept game advertising, Gamezelot will not succumb to the types of media bias and advertising pressure that CNET and Gamespot alleges to not to engage in, but so clearly does.

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Brian W.

The Gamezelot