Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Kotaku's Priorities

Recently, I've broken my own rule.  Which rule is that? The one about never, ever visiting the cesspool of "journalism" that is Kotaku.com.

You see, the reach of Kotaku is so far that their articles came to me by infecting Nintendo blogs, general comment sections and forums of other game sites.  So, when this story was brought to my attention I really couldn't believe what I was seeing.  Stephen Totilo works for Kotaku and has, over the years, been largely in charge of their Nintendo coverage.  So, making a 5-minute video about mocking a free peripheral may just be the byproduct of a thorough, thorough journalist leaving no stone unturned, right?

Wrong.

No, Totilo and Kotaku pick and choose when to dig deep in to important trolling subjects like the Kid Icarus stand and when to simply sit on their lazy duffs and ignore instances of quality on Nintendo platforms. These examples may be old (I've adhered to my aforementioned rule fairly well), but they still prove my point.

Kotaku never covered third party block-buster PS3-gone-Wii game Monster Hunter Tri.  Well, aside from this.  Kotaku never covered No More Heroes until it was ported to the PS3 ... in Japan.

Kotaku, and more specifically Stephen Totilo, stopped tracking monthly Wii gameplay numbers a mere three months after a third party title began to dominate the charts - which would of course shatter the Nintendo-haters' beloved notion that first party titles are the only reason to own a Nintendo platform.

No, Kotaku and Stephen Totilo ignore all that.  But they do make time for a second story making fun of that free stand.

I've given you several unwarranted hits today, Kotaku, but successfully avoided you for years.  Now, please, go out of business, ok?  ...Please?

4 comments:

Matt said...

They're a gaming tabloid, I think they do a great job. It's not their fault the internet misunderstands them and thinks they're real journalists...

Maxi said...

I can understand your frustration Sage. I generally tune out stuff that bugs me unless I really have to speak my mind on it.

Greg Meyer said...

They go with what gets the hits. I try to avoid that place as much as possible.

NinSage said...

Matt - I hear ya, but the reality presents 2 problems.

1. People DO treat them like real journalists. And if someone treats you like a doctor, but you're not a doctor, that's physically dangerous. If someone treats you like a journalist, and you're not, that's culturally/educationally dangerous.

2. Sites like Kotaku do consider themselves journalists... right up until the point where they are supposed to be held responsible for it. Then they throw their hands up and scream "BLOG! BLOG!!" haha