• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Kotaku receives death threats for reporting No Man's Sky delay

V

Vena

Member
I... don't understand why you'd threaten a journalist over a report of a thing that they had no part in or had no control over at all. Its not like there was a smear campaign or anything, they were simply reporting on the inside information about a delay.
 
J

Jotaka

Member
Vena said:
I... don't understand why you'd threaten a journalist over a report of a thing that they had no part in or had no control over at all. Its not like there was a smear campaign or anything, they were simply reporting on the inside information about a delay.
Click to expand...

You are asking for a rational behaviour from a bunch of irrational people. Game fandom is scary shit.
 
N

NinjaCoachZ

Member
Vena said:
I... don't understand why you'd threaten a journalist over a report of a thing that they had no part in or had no control over at all. Its not like there was a smear campaign or anything, they were simply reporting on the inside information about a delay.
Click to expand...

Angry people on the internet really hate Kotaku and I'm still not entirely sure why. It's totally irrational and at times, almost conspiracy-esque. Glad Jason called these people out. That's something we need more of.
 
A

Aselith

Member
StaticJam said:
No matter how much thought I put into it, I for the life of me cannot figure out what would ever encourage you to make this post or draw this comparison.
Click to expand...

It's the last post about all the "shit and piss happening in Hollywood and affecting director's and their vision." I don't mean to say that the people of that group are like that guy, I'm just guessing that line is directed at the BvS backlash

Edit: I'm gonna edit that. It makes an unpleasant connotation that wasn't intended
 
AmuroChan

AmuroChan

Member
Saturday said:
I imagine he's not unfamiliar with shade being thrown at him whenever he does, well, anything due to his affiliation with Kotaku, but I imagine Schreier got real heated this time around. The redditor mentioned in the article not only tries to disprove Schreier- which honestly is just alright on it's own, 30 gamestops called notwithstanding- but he seems to attack Schreier's actual ability as a journalist. Two quotes from reddit-

Then Jason I recommend you provide more than just your single source from Gamestop with a vague image attached. In 2 hours, I provided a complete assessment of the situation which you could have done if you hadn't rushed to publish.
A more interesting breaking-news article would have included the fact that the process through which this information is leaking is entirely unprecedented on several levels. Chief among those is that GameStop doesn't operate in the manner you've described and don't instruct their stores to act in the manner your source explained. So you have 1 source in Gamestop. I have 30.

And without more than the image shown, I wouldn't credit the source in the slightest. I want a photo of the marketing book cover as well as the other information. I won't print it, but I want to see it.

The bottom line in this story is that the process by which the Kotaku "journalist" explains is simply not how GS handles situations like these. Unprecedented. Period. They have a standing policy which is to maintain the marketing materials and explain to customers that the game's release date has changed. If the game is canceled or the nature of an announcement warrants, the marketing material may be removed entirely.
Those are facts that can be verified with lines of questioning. So when I hear that there's an aberration in policy and operating procedures applying to an indie-game title that has, like Donald Trump, used hype to fuel its own marketing, I smell a rat.
Click to expand...


Jesus, man.
Click to expand...

And of course, after being called out for being wrong, this was his response.

vbyW25R.jpg
 
A

Aselith

Member
Ponn01 said:
I had no idea Gamestop was held in such high regards as a legitimate source of information.
Click to expand...

Retailers (and by retailers I mean higher level business folks) often get news of big shifts like this early due to needs of the business for shipping and marketing and stuff like that.
Plus, if you phone a lot of them...like 30 or something...you're bound to get a guy who knows what's up.
 
T

TemplaerDude

Member
Ponn01 said:
I had no idea Gamestop was held in such high regards as a legitimate source of information.
Click to expand...

As a retailer they would obviously be privy to information that we don't have access to.

It is their front line employees that are usually the vaults of misinformation.
 
B

BigDes

Member
MCN said:
Shit like this is why so many gaming websites are glorified PR shills. Any attempt at actual journalism and reporting is met with extreme vitriol from the people who should be benefitting from it.
Click to expand...
Yep. I almost guarantee are the same people who cry about ethics as well.
 
EviLore

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
Maladjusted video game fans who threaten to kill you over the internet are so polite when you meet them in real life.
 
S

SnakeEyes

Banned
EviLore said:
Maladjusted video game fans who threaten to kill you over the internet are so polite when you meet them in real life.
Click to expand...
Yeah, when they're caught and it seems that they could be held culpable for their threats by law enforcement...

Or a beatdown.
 
P

Ponn

Banned
Aselith said:
Retailers (and by retailers I mean higher level business folks) often get news of big shifts like this early due to needs of the business for shipping and marketing and stuff like that.
Plus, if you phone a lot of them...like 30 or something...you're bound to get a guy who knows what's up.
Click to expand...

TemplaerDude said:
As a retailer they would obviously be privy to information that we don't have access to.

It is their front line employees that are usually the vaults of misinformation.
Click to expand...

Sorry I mean the redditor calling around to 30 gamestops. I understand if you have a source inside Gamestop proper you might get info like that. Actual stores though is a crap shoot. We would get games in sometimes a week early, sometimes by UPS on release day and sometimes not at all on release day and we wouldn't know what was really up till I got word from my DM.
 
K

KnightimeX_Legacy

Banned
So when can we expect a 200 year $500,000 fine for said attempted Premeditated murder crime on this Death Threat ass hat?

Zero tolerance.
I would sue twitter for protecting this savage who is threatening lives.

It's not even directed towards me and I'm already riled up to go find that threatening fuck myself.

I'm not even batman.
 
M

MikeyB

Member
NinjaCoachZ said:
Angry people on the internet really hate Kotaku and I'm still not entirely sure why. It's totally irrational and at times, almost conspiracy-esque. Glad Jason called these people out. That's something we need more of.
Click to expand...

I'm not saying any of the following are justified, but here are the lines of reasoning I'm aware of:

1. They are part of the Gawker network and that network is scummy garbage media.

2. They sensationalize articles. This is one with which I sympathize. While it is entirely reasonable to report on rumours of a potential delay, it is one thing to say "Sources say game delayed until at least July or August. Sony and Hello Games have not responded to us." and end it with that and another to say "Sources say that game may be delayed. Are uncertain of date. A game delay like this is usual/unusual. Sony and Hello Games have not yet issued a new release date and have not yet commented.

3. They take a "progressive" stance on gaming. All that Dragon's Crown kerfuffle calling the designer juvenile and the art ugly.

But reporting on the delay is fine as is calling out people who overreact. But, how he called them out isn't going to exactly make it easier for those who are part of the NMS sub reddit to call those shitheels out on their own. He responded by painting the community with a broad brush, which seems quite unfair. Consider how a rational person responds to the news of the delay, "Oh, that sucks." They probably won't write a post, they probably won't be checking the subreddit often, but they are likely the silent majority (the screenshot of the down votes on that one dude seem to demonstrate that). Those who are upset will on the other hand post like crazy. And they did. But now the entire community gets painted with this broad brush of psycho fans. It has been set up as a Kotaku and rational people vs. those toxic NMS fans. You can see that view scattered throughout this thread. I don't think it is fair or helpful.

As part of my work, I review correspondence to heads of large organizations and they all get crazy mail. Like, I'm worried about how global warming could cause the ocean to rise and threaten the safety of an acid factory 100s and 100s of kilometres from the sea and ruin that park I walk my dog in... also, burn in hell. That doesn't mean that everybody who lives in that person's town or on their street or even who enjoy that park are crazy people.

At the end of the day, it boils down to a poorly communicated delay made borderline people do what they do and go overboard and make threats. Those overreacting need to be called out, and where they have broken laws, charges should be pressed. But, I've said it before and I'll say it again, there's no need to feel embarrassed or responsible for someone's outlandish behaviour simply because you have a shared interest.
 
L

LordofPwn

Member
MikeyB said:
I'm not saying any of the following are justified, but here are the lines of reasoning I'm aware of:

1. They are part of the Gawker network and that network is scummy garbage media.

2. They sensationalize articles. This is one with which I sympathize. While it is entirely reasonable to report on rumours of a potential delay, it is one thing to say "Sources say game delayed until at least July or August. Sony and Hello Games have not responded to us." and end it with that and another to say "Sources say that game may be delayed. Are uncertain of date. A game delay like this is usual/unusual. Sony and Hello Games have not yet issued a new release date and have not yet commented.

3. They take a "progressive" stance on gaming. All that Dragon's Crown kerfuffle calling the designer juvenile and the art ugly.

But reporting on the delay is fine as is calling out people who overreact. But, how he called them out isn't going to exactly make it easier for those who are part of the NMS sub reddit to call those shitheels out on their own. He responded by painting the community with a broad brush, which seems quite unfair. Consider how a rational person responds to the news of the delay, "Oh, that sucks." They probably won't write a post, they probably won't be checking the subreddit often, but they are likely the silent majority (the screenshot of the down votes on that one dude seem to demonstrate that). Those who are upset will on the other hand post like crazy. And they did. But now the entire community gets painted with this broad brush of psycho fans. It has been set up as a Kotaku and rational people vs. those toxic NMS fans. You can see that view scattered throughout this thread. I don't think it is fair or helpful.

As part of my work, I review correspondence to heads of large organizations and they all get crazy mail. Like, I'm worried about how global warming could cause the ocean to rise and threaten the safety of an acid factory 100s and 100s of kilometres from the sea and ruin that park I walk my dog in... also, burn in hell. That doesn't mean that everybody who lives in that person's town or on their street or even who enjoy that park are crazy people.

At the end of the day, it boils down to a poorly communicated delay made borderline people do what they do and go overboard and make threats. Those overreacting need to be called out, and where they have broken laws, charges should be pressed. But, I've said it before and I'll say it again, there's no need to feel embarrassed or responsible for someone's outlandish behaviour simply because you have a shared interest.
Click to expand...
On points 1 and 2.
1. I visit a lot of Gawker owned sites, Kotaku, Jalopnik, Deadspin, and Gizmodo. All of these sites have usually not garbage content and for the most part a pretty not garbage community, with some decently talented journalists. Gawker proper on the other hand is a different story...

2. I'd say Kotaku has one of the least sensational click-baity titles of anyone in the gaming press today. IGN just recently got blasted by a dev for a title of a recent interview. And let's be honest it's common practice for anything Internet based to try whatever to get revenue, the easiest way is to make an interesting or sensational title to get people to click on it. It works very well and as consumers of that media we haven't given them an indication that it's bad to have such tactics. Hell even some of the thread titles on here are shameful.
 
F

Fahzgoolin

Banned
The absurdity of basing a death threat on a game delay for some reason strikes me as extremely humorous.

People are freaking stupid and scary.
 
X

x24hrs2livex

Banned
I can't say I am surprised by this. After the beautiful and talented Camilla Luddington received death/rape threats over the ROTR announcement, I realized Twitter trolls will type anything for attention.
 
T

The Awesomest

Member
Vena said:
I... don't understand why you'd threaten a journalist over a report of a thing that they had no part in or had no control over at all. Its not like there was a smear campaign or anything, they were simply reporting on the inside information about a delay.
Click to expand...

From the Reddit thread posted, it sounds like they thought Schreier was posting misinformation to deliberately troll them. Unless there was some previous history there that I'm not aware of, I have no idea how they came to that conclusion.
 
D

dawid

Member
Ultima_5 said:
This industry is fucking Embarassing.

This game will probably be the next spore and be quickly forgotten and people are threatening death over it. Jesus Chris
Click to expand...

Yeah, it would be totally crazy and psycho behavior if it was news related to a game that some people make their living out of like CS:GO or League of Legends. But a random 10-hour title like this. It's rock-bottom scary.
 
RiccochetJ

RiccochetJ

Gold Member
Wonder how many of these people feel that their voice isn't being heard and then they resort to going so batshit insane with their posts that the person they're directing it to can't help but notice. They want the target to notice them as an individual.

NOTE: I am not in any way defending or condoning their actions. More that I'm seeing a trend and have a hypothesis.
 
N

Nanashrew

Banned
It's awful that it all had to come down to having to make an article just to get any attention for Twitter to actually ban the guy. But still, articles like these are still necessary because Twitter's incompetency about this needs more attention. I saw when Jason first brought it up over Twitter and immediately reported the guy threatening Jason. I imagine the guy was mass reported by many people after Jason showed it off too but the guy never got his account deleted until today

He should have banned immediately and swiftly.

vix said:
Twitter finally acts on this guys threats and suspends the account...

While this:

#IStandWithHateSpeech

Is trending on twitter at the moment.
Click to expand...

I was so furious when I saw that trending. Even had a rando come into my mentions over it. I want every single one of those accounts permanently deleted. None of them have a single brain cell in their head and need to be beaten over the head by a bunch of school books.
 
A

Atomski

Member
dark10x said:
Why this game, though? I don't understand. The fanbase seems beyond toxic.
Click to expand...
Sony console exclusives get a lot of hype.. and a lot of crazies.

I have been saying this for years but todays Sony fanboy is like Nintendo's in the late 90 but even more vocal and in bigger numbers.
 
C

Cartho

Member
Those pesky press sneak fucks at Kotaku getting our games delayed! *shakes fist*
/s

Seriously though, it's so sad to see people doing this kind of thing. Stupidly childish.
 
S

SolicitorPirate

Member
The Awesomest said:
From the Reddit thread posted, it sounds like they thought Schreier was posting misinformation to deliberately troll them. Unless there was some previous history there that I'm not aware of, I have no idea how they came to that conclusion.
Click to expand...

The internet gaming community seems to operate under a reverse Occam's Razor. When there are multiple viable explanations, assume the most asinine
 
C

Corpekata

Banned
The Awesomest said:
From the Reddit thread posted, it sounds like they thought Schreier was posting misinformation to deliberately troll them. Unless there was some previous history there that I'm not aware of, I have no idea how they came to that conclusion.
Click to expand...

For a lot of the intense fan types out there, anything they don't want to hear has to be motivated by some sort of evil ulterior motive.

You'll see it in the review threads and even some general news or opinion pieces here. Everything's motivated by clicks, or because they are INSERTPLATFORM-bots, or they enjoy gamer tears.
 
A

AppleSeason

Member
I don't even want to think how these guys would react if they were heroin addicts and their provider told them that their next dose would get delayed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Kotaku: GTA 6 Production Reportedly Falling Behind, Rockstar Urges Staff To Return To Office To Avoid Delay
2
79
7K
Little Chicken replied
Rumor: Switch 2 Reportedly Delayed to 2025
Rumor Hardware 6 7 8 9 10
480
33K
Robb replied
Lawyer involved with Pokémon, Halo series slams anti-woke gamers, says his job was to purge them
2 3
118
9K
Red Crayon Aristocrat replied
  • Locked
[Cringe] In a new all time low Alyssa Mercante from Kotaku DM'ed SmashJT's wife.
2 3 4
153
10K
EviLore replied
Report: Sexual Misconduct Investigation Conducted at EA, Suspects Named and What They Did Revealed
2
88
5K
FunkMiller replied
Top Bottom