(IGN.com)

[Noyb]

Honestly I really don't understand all the hate for IGN. People act as if it is some discrete entity, when of course like every other site it is a collection of editors. Some are bad, some are ok, and some are good. Regardless of your opinion, I just don't get the point of shitting on them constantly, it doesn't further anything. Ignore them when they write things you don't like, hold them accountable when they make mistakes, and applaud them when they do go. Demonizing them as a whole though, doesn't get us anywhere.

A reminder that IGN still has this sexist garbage as their official corporate site. Not the work of one editor. Not the work of one blogger. Their official corporate site. Corporate culture, rotten to the core.

[Thyroid]

And with that, IGN has become a parody of my idea of a bad games website.

[Nappi]

BRO-VERLOAD. -corp.ign.com

[Orv]

I still need a shot of liquor every time I remember that is a thing that exists.

[Username]

Not the work of one editor. Not the work of one blogger.

Right, so pretty much I would have never come in contact with it unless I sought it out. In fact, the work of their editors and bloggers, the actual content that I consume and is relevant to me, has regular produced articles examining sexism and gay rights, among others. This doesn't excuse that, and I am very disappointed about it. I am glad though that that attitude does not seem to bleed into the work of the editors, which is fairly apparent.

[Orv]

One of the PS3 editors for IGN is a royal asshole, so there's that. But again, that's not really what this is here for.

[Badfinger]

Fallout 3 is Oblivion with guns.

Skyrim is Fallout 3 without guns.

Far Cry 3 is Skyrim with guns.

THE ELDER SCROLLS V IS FAR CRY 3 WITHOUT GUNS.

THE ELDER SCROLLS V: IGN REVELATIONS

Skyrim is Elder Scrolls V

v v

[Username]

Wasn't the "like skryim with guns" a Machinima quote?

[brkl]

It doesn't matter where it was from!

[I_smell]

Yeah, "Halo 4 is waving a dick in your face" was from Joystiq, and a lot of quotes in this thread are from Wired. We're barely even talking about IGN.

Apart from the times that it actually is IGN, like "Amy is like Ico plus zombies and it is brilliant."

A reminder that IGN still has this sexist garbage as their official corporate site. Not the work of one editor. Not the work of one blogger. Their official corporate site. Corporate culture, rotten to the core.

Marketing is all about rounding people up into demographics- I think you're jumping multiple guns to be so extremely offended here. I don't think it's disgusting oppressive segregation to say "Are you looking to advertise at 18-35 males? Then do it here in our men's magazine! Manly bro-fist time, that's the joke etc." That's just some marketing agent bein a goofball.

[Orv]

Marketing is all about rounding people up into demographics- I think you're jumping multiple guns to be so extremely offended here. I don't think it's disgusting oppressive segregation to say "Are you looking to advertise at 18-35 males? Then do it here in our men's magazine! Manly bro-fist time, that's the joke etc." That's just some marketing agent bein a goofball.

Yeah, no, I'm pretty sure their corporate page is deathly serious.

[Nachimir]

How about: Let's never, ever be content with this sort of bullshit existing?

I find it a little flimsy to say "Yeah well, it's just marketing". When marketing something, we all have choices. Whether it goes to the core of IGN or not, nothing exists in a vacuum, these things have cultural effects. The whole bro culture it's referencing and selling to is dumbly repulsive, and reinforced by everything engaging with it. Saying "It's just marketing" makes it about as okay as "If we didn't do it, someone else would" (Try replacing that with other things: "If we didn't do paid reviews, someone else would"; "If we didn't recycle press releases and marketing puff for our news items, someone else would").

Also, watch Kieron Gillen on the subject of marketing. Specific part paraphrased: "If you feel uncomfortable about doing marketing, then you haven't found the right way to promote your stuff". Writing bullshit off as "well that's just what marketing is" stocks your head with assumptions, in turn limiting you so much when it comes time to promote something you yourself have made.

[syntheticgerbil]

This has been spoken about before in some other thread years back but people can choose not to work somewhere. And where someone chooses to work does say something about their character (besides desperate for a job and need money).

So with that in mind, I think it's pretty safe to completely write off IGN.com as a whole, editors and writers included. First there's hardly any quality control on reviews or articles in terms of plausibility or being well written so the fact that I would even have to dig around to find something of worth is useless to me. Why should I find the time to search for the good in IGN, what the hell is the point of that?

People who do work at IGN are enabling the sexist, overblown, juvenile, and idiotic garbage that spews from their site. Companies have a culture and I would think any sensible games journalist with aspirations would probably not be wanting to land a job at IGN and instead be gunning for Gamasutra. And even on the next level, why would a sensible person want to work for an entity owned by Newscorp? That's just dirty.

[subbes]

I genuinely appreciate the way that threads that begin as exchanges of amusing things inevitably devolve into our overthinking a plate of beans.

[jeremywc]

"Beans are a magical fruit!" - IGN.com

[Twig]

This has been spoken about before in some other thread years back but people can choose not to work somewhere.

In the Video Games Enthusiast Press?

I mean, I guess they technically CAN choose that option, but that's already a hard enough business to get into without limiting your potential employers by avoiding arguably the biggest of them all.

[syntheticgerbil]

I don't remember, I think DanJW said it but I don't think it was in reference to IGN, but instead a sleazy game company.

Sometimes you have to forgo desparation for integrity either way. Or get that job at IGN as desperation, give it 3 months, then start looking. Finding a job is always hard in most industries, not just games, but it doesn't mean you necessarily have to compromise your values. When someone works for something like IGN or Kixeye, am I supposed to believe they have muted their values for the bro culture or do they truly believe in them? Would that individual want people to be guessing?

[TychoCelchuuu]

Someone got paid to write this:

"BioShock Infinite goes beyond our sky high expectations" - Destructoid

"On PC, Infinite becomes a portal into another world that speaks to the soul without even a whisper" - Destructoid

"It’s hard not to dip my feet into hyperbole when discussing BioShock’s impact. It changed the way I played games. Literally" - Destructoid

"If Irrational made the next Yakuza, I feel like us nerds would have the cheapest ticket to Japan ever sold" - Destructoid

"We've been living in the fake HD era. Columbia is something great. It's a place you can believe in" - Destructoid

"[bioShock Infinite is] a world so detailed that it makes one wonder what's the point of high defitinion if not all of our games feature a similar quality of original art assets as this one" - Destructoid

"Let's address the minor nagging issues I have with the game's combat. Here's the deal: It's too good" - Destructoid

"Even as the demo came to an end, I couldn't believe my eyes" - Destructoid

(and:

"On my first playthrough, I blasted through [bioshock] while listening to music on my iPod" - Destructoid

"The original BioShock was a rather slow-paced dungeon crawler with a few combat encounters that got a little hectic" - Destructoid

fuck you games journalism)

[Roswell47]

Jesus. There's nothing funny in that. It's just sad.

[Twig]

I don't remember, I think DanJW said it but I don't think it was in reference to IGN, but instead a sleazy game company.

Sometimes you have to forgo desparation for integrity either way. Or get that job at IGN as desperation, give it 3 months, then start looking. Finding a job is always hard in most industries, not just games, but it doesn't mean you necessarily have to compromise your values. When someone works for something like IGN or Kixeye, am I supposed to believe they have muted their values for the bro culture or do they truly believe in them? Would that individual want people to be guessing?

You don't always have a choice in where you work. I applied to a couple dozen places when I was looking for my first job and literally only two of them bit. Neither of those went anywhere. I was desperate enough at that point to work on crappy licensed games. I would've been happy with anything. Then some company I'd never heard of contacted me. Far from my first choice! Very far. Luckily, it ended up being a place I quite enjoy, but it's still not perfect.

Nobody gets their dream job on the first go, or even the second or third. Well... some people do, but we hate them.

I think it's absolutely ridiculous to hold an individual accountable for their employer's actions, unless they've proven to be of a similar mind.

[TychoCelchuuu]

There's a difference between saying "it's really hard to get a job, so I was ready to compromise and work on crappy licensed games!" and "it's really hard to get a job, so I was ready to work for a company that does immoral things!" The first is a matter of taste - you'd prefer not to work on crappy games. The second is a matter of morals - you don't want to work for a company doing something morally wrong.

[Twig]

There's no difference when the reason is "if I don't get a job, I will run entirely out of money within a month"...

You're also really overblowing the "immoral" thing. Jesus fucking christ.

[syntheticgerbil]

You don't always have a choice in where you work.

Not true at all, you are never forced to work places you don't want, this isn't that kind of country.

For instance, a lot of my friend from school went on to do 3D work for oil companies, including the evil Schlumberger (where that particular guy gets 80k a year for simple oil rig models). A lot of them take the jobs simply because in Houston there's almost no other 3D artist type work. That's fine and all, but I do think less of them for making that choice and even then for keeping the jobs multiples of years to be comfortable. If they were even looking or considering different jobs in different cities in the mean time to get out of that kind of thing, I would have respect for their choice as that's what I'd expect of people who need the money (myself included). Not one of these people even believe in big oil either.

I personally would work most of my past slightly above minimum wage jobs again than ever compromising my values than take a job like that. It might be in my career path but I'm not looking to seriously allow my creativity contribute to bad karma for the world. You don't have to have a dream job to get a job you at least somewhat believe in. I never said I expected anyone to have the best job ever right out of school.

I myself have applied at Zynga, even though I didn't really see an issue with Free to Play until the last six months or so, but after the whole slot machine big business thing they are scheming right now, I will never do it again.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Sorry to break the thread with a huge image, but this is where the whole thing started right?

[Twig]

Not true at all, you are never forced to work places you don't want, this isn't that kind of country.

Well, duh, you can always make the choice to just Not Work.

But that's the stupidest fucking choice of all.