Kotaku article on life in Japan

[Shooto]

Flaming brought an interesting point.

I don`t know exactly how other Gawker media sites work but I know Kotaku "writers" get pay for piece click and traffic, so the most clicks you get, the more traffic the site generate= you get pay more.

So, sadly the easy way to do that is creating sensationalist pieces that bring curious to check the site and click the piece. We are all at fault here because we walked right into the trap.

Through the years, I have shielded myself for care about who is writing pieces and just instead focus in the actual info. I never really care about the Grossman and Garnett Lee of the world. To be honest, I was reading Gamespot for years but never noticed Grossman until the whole Kane & Lynch debate. When he left, I couldn`t care less because I didn`t know who he was.

Same goes with many other video game "celebrities" out there. I watched and listen to 1up podcast for years and I do the same with Co-Op but never really care about who was behind the show. I did only care about content and how they were talking about games, but never about the authors.

Now, whether is this is good or bad, that I don`t know. It`s just the way I see things related to video games. Now, with kotaku I read their breaking news and other weird news but never really care about Ashcraft or anybody else writing for that website. Now, having said that, I did notice they love to report some weird shit from Japan that sometimes reflect the community here in a negative matter. No surprises here since most of the target audience are people living outside Japan with taste for Japanese games and weird Japanese things.

That piece from Tim and then the whole Tattoo thing with Square Enix are not even related to video games but sadly, they are used to spin-off things they consider related to video games, therefore making Japan fanboys and haters alike debate about them.

Overall, the whole point is you don`t like Kotaku, don`t read it. There are tons of similar and better sources of games new out there to choose from. They do what they do because it brings money to their pockets, not because there is some secret Anti-Japan agenda. Are they ignorant? perhaps. Are they uninformed about Japan? more likely. Do they have us talking and debating like suckers about what they write? yes, all the time. Just look at this thread for fair examples.

[deviantstares]

I think the problem is they have a certain sphere of influence with no equal opposition.

The reason some of us bring articles such as this to light is to provide an opposing view so that individuals can be informed. I would like to think that people will stumble upon this site and see a counter argument (or in the case of many articles that come from that site a correction) to which both sides can be presented, and in most cases a more balanced/informed aspect.

that being said I do admit I have bias against kotaku for being retarded.

[Ycare]

Yup, Kotaku is basically a Trolling factory, the more flame war they get started, the happier they are.
It's the evil incarnate.

Me ? Biased ? Don't know what you're talking about.

[redhero]

make posting a kotaku link a card-able offence

[Ycare]

make posting a kotaku link a card-able offence

That's... actually, not a bad idea !

[Moxxie]

some points, I agree.

being a Filipino "haafu", I experience prejudice right from the start from some Japanese. They see me as a bastard son of some irresponsible Japanese dad. I just try to smile at them and be courteous with them. If they still don't like me, I just say "f#ck off" in a very polite and Japanese way.

I've met some really nice people too but I find that most of them lived overseas for some time, mostly in parts of Southeast Asia.

at least he has a very good job, the first three years of my life here was hell. Got a so so job right now, just enough to fuel my gaming needs haha. Life's been easier since I moved to Nagoya.

I say, Life's a grind. Shit is happening everywhere you go.

/hug


PS. Still munching on my popcorn! go guys go!

[Atalante]

The problem with Kotaku is that they do no research for the games they're supposidly "big fans" of. Ashcraft loves his crazy niche Japanese games, yet everytime he writes about them, they're guaranteed to have inaccuracies that give the impression that he doesn't really play the games at all. His coverage of shooting games is absolutely horrid. These guys know absolutely nothing about the real Japanese game scene.

I also have some personal beef with the guy, tho. He wrote an article about something that I was on a subtitling team for, full of the usual inaccurate crap. I mailed him and told him the problems with the article and that I would appreciate it if he ammended it. Soon as he found out that I was related to the project, he mailed me a bunch of interview questions. I said that I wasn't interested in answering them, but if he needs help with any facts then I would help him straighten them out. He never replied to it, and of course he never admitted his mistakes. Asshole, only interested in talking to someone if it'll bring hits to their precious site.

We released another projected that was related to the thing he was wrote about before, as soon as it was released I sent him an email more or less telling him that if he wants to write about it, he might as well get it right the first time and listed some important things. I wrote it in a really patrionizing way, so I wasn't surprised (or disappointed) when he didn't reply to me, nor write an article about it. Mission accomplished!

[petewhitley]

make posting a kotaku link a card-able offence

Best idea.

Didn't read the article. Won't. I refuse to contribute to their page views. Kotaku is literally the ONLY site on the internet I won't click. Brian Asscraft is 99% of the reason. The guy who apparently wrote the article is guilty by association. It's non-news by a no-longer-relevant site. Lock the thread, it's only contributing to their doucheness.