Yeah, I heard you, I heard you loud and clear. I’m sure gamers want to talk about the real issues, like games. Yet instead, I have to spend my time on this once more. Trust me, I really don’t want to answer to this, but seeing as how the first GG Media Watch drew some major ire, especially from what one particular website wanted to say about me and GG on their Warzone podcast.

Trust me, word gets around a LOT here in the gaming world, especially when you act like a gangster that doesn’t know two things about how to actually call anyone out on their crap. Especially when you are accused of doing things yourself that you are blaming everybody else for. Yes, I’m talking directly to you, Bitbag. This is going to be long and drawn out, like your podcast that had too many things for me to respond to briefly. Congratulations, though, Mr. Davis, you made me have to answer you instead of using my first DP Thought on GG to talk about something that mattered to everyone else in the industry. I get to waste my precious time on you..AGAIN!

In their so-called podcast (low-rated, I might add), they go on and on and on in the last, what, three/four minutes of a podcast, in which they could’ve swallowed their mics the way it sounded like their profanity-filled mouths were on them, about me and the new Game Gazette site (in which they couldn’t even tell the damn difference between dot-COM and dot-NET (and this Torrence Davis douche bag is in the internet business?)). He and his cronies over there failed to even get half of the information about our Kotaku article correct. WHO did they think I was talking about in that article, because that wasn’t the Kotaku guy who wrote the article. Brian Ashcraft was the author, so you have already failed there.

And let me remind you about exactly about what that article DID mention, since you seemed to leave that part out of a podcast which got sidetracked more times than I care to count, because you got THAT wrong, too. The story was on Microsoft wanting to get more third parties “involved” (which, now that I think about it, sounds even scarier than I originally thought, judging by what they really mean by getting them “involved”), and here’s the smug Brian Ashcraft, not even questioning WHAT the MS guy was discussing, as if he wanted for a MS monopoly on the business to happen, thereby diluting the quality of the games we play because of little to no competition. Go read it again and try to take those goggles off. You know, the ones that will tell you that any criticisms on Microsoft or on the 360 makes the person that criticized it a Sony fanboy? Oh, wait, I forgot, Nintendo isn’t even a video game company to you or the people like you that equate criticisms of that nature like that, even thought Nintendo is…kinda…the company that save the video game industry back in 1985 (thus, if it wasn’t for them, you wouldn’t have a goddamn JOB right now, as if what you do now is a “job”). Oh, wait, you can’t remember that far back, Mr. Davis. Hell, we can’t even count on you being able to read an article that is only as long as your average newspaper article. Why should we count on you to remember what Nintendo is, or who Mario is when you can’t even show some simple signs that you can even read anything that is actually meant to be read by those that passed the fifth grade.

Forgive me for intruding on you slamming my site for posting a blog about something which you knew was true, and you’re one of the main people behind the reason why such IS true. We all know Kotaku sucks ass. Hell, all you have to do is to see how they fell for a CAG contest with some fake news in it then blamed CAG for an error Kotaku did. And who was it that lunged that softball question at Microsoft during the Blogger Breakfast which you “went to”? Oh yeah: Mr. That 70’s Show (sorry, Brian Credente), the EIC of that damned site. However, to why it is true: You have, by this podcast, proven the reason why the media gives Microsoft a free pass…well, one of the reasons, at least. Fanboys seem to go into riot mode whenever they see their precious system ripped a new one. You see, Mr. Davis, this is what we’d like to call a receipt. That means that if the entire media wants to slam one system, then the other company must expect similar in return. Also, this wasn’t to praise the Playstation 3 (I currently do not like that Sony is just thinking this entire situation is just a non-issue. They must court them), but to show that there was so many faults in Microsoft’s console that Mr. Ashcraft could’ve talked about when meeting with the Japanese Microsoft crony, yet he refused to even address them, which has been the same with GameDaily, YOUR site, and a handful of other sites out there. If you are not 360 fanboys (and we know the lot of you are) then prove it. Call out Microsoft on the stuff they say and stop giving them free passes, which is pathetic because that is NOT what a REAL journalist does. Fortunately, you are not in the news media, or you would be that FOX News-type guy that would never question the President of why we got into this war in Iraq in the first damn place, and let’s not even GET into what the consequences of such irresponsible journalism would even be. A journalist is supposed to fact check everyone, not just those they want to, and I have yet to hear even one simple thing coming from you or that camp of yours to even tell me that you are unbiased. You call me a fanboy and a tool, yet you have proven time after time again that you are nothing more than a clown, and you would rather be loud than right.

Oh, and while we’re at it: Until you can actually show us what real journalism is, don’t you dare tell anyone else how they should exemplify “real journalism”. I’m supposed to be a spell-checker? Okay, I’ll admit, the last few stories I had posted had spell check jobs I’d rather forget about, but at least I admit my mistakes. Tell us about that Metal Gear Solid 4 to 360 rumor that you just pulled from Destructoid (since you also wanted to slam me for talking about that Finaland thing, let’s go there) and treated that as the holy grail. Tell us that anything Microsoft said at the Blogger Breakfast (especially about GTA4) was true, yet you never played hardball with them. Let’s talk about that PS3 Bioshock “rumor killer” you said you got in touch with some “peeps at 2K Games” just two days before the announcement of the port was officially made (and then you blamed the 2K guy for not giving it to you straight). Finally, where’s this confirmation about this rumor you gave us about Final Fantasy XIII going to be available to the 360 in Japan in some way? You certainly played a pathetic attempt at a CYA right there (”I get bullshit rumors like this all the time”. First true thing YOU’VE said!). At the very least when I reported on that Finaland story, I SHOWED MY source, and I said that it may not be true because there was no official confirmation, and I did have good reason to suspect that there was some possibility in the rumor given the sites track record. You, on the other hand? “Some peeps.” “A few people on the interwebs.” Well, you won’t hurt their cred when you don’t even list any names. You see, real journalism. Unless you can start providing stuff like that, shut your mouth about any of us showing journalism cred.

Speaking of which (and I know I’m getting long here, again. I hope you can follow since you and some of your guys seem to have a problem with reading too much), you talk about media relations (which, by the way, (1) I know my options, and (2) judging from how YOU have gave us BS rumors back and forth this year, we can safely say that you might not have much of relations yourself), and bring up Alexa, a site whose toolbar bogs the computer down with a
ton of spyware and whose system has been more unstable than your rumors. You want anyone to believe that any company is actually going to look at those stats and take them seriously when that site has been through THAT much controversy? Plus, about our site not being around long enough…uhh…DUH! I was not born yesterday, and I know some things to say concerning that aspect of things. I’m not about ready to expect this thing to grow overnight. We all know it takes time. You should know, since you’ve been around for so many years and have done SOOO many things during said years, apparently. Yet, with all these things your guys have told me you have done, where are those things now, eh? How successful were any of those things? Oh, and believe me, I’ll go and do our job in checking the media if need be, but only for the topic at hand. Porn videos on Kotaku’s site? If it has something to do with the topic that I’m going after, then fine. The LBP codes? Maybe, if it was only a scam. The Media Watch section is not necessarily for that, even though I think we can do that, too. But it’s for those articles that are biased without being straight to the people. Kotaku and Microsoft just happened to be in the sights at that point. Just because people bitch about a site constantly doesn’t make them immune to our firing squad.

By the way, don’t worry about me and any staff we get (I already have a few wanting to join). About your staff, however: Your CandidAnthony did that entire thing on the MAG survey, as if them asking about how much would you pay for such a service was something new that were never in those types of surveys before that one (and you even tried to give us those half-readable pictures of said survey to try to defend his trickery). We already know how you operate, and about whoever runs that Fanboysim in Journalism rag that is on your site: When have you ever said a damn thing about those that show pure 360 fanboyism? Oh, wait, I forgot: Doing so would need you to list yourselves. In fact, the only two bright spots on that site site wise are Drakul (who despite him blasting me for criticizing your site seems to have his head on straight every other time), and HipHopGamer.

In fact, HHG is the ONLY true saving grace of your site. He’s intelligent, smart, and knows what he’s talking about. He’s also probably the only person I’ve seen on that site that is not a total clown for the 360. However, something doesn’t seem right about all of this: How can he still stand the rest of you? You guys trash anyone that dares to say bad about your site, and yet, even on this podcast, he seemed to be non-existent when you guys got to try to make me famous. Something tells me that he didn’t want to be a part of that. If so, good for him, since all that talk about “drive-bys” on people’s bubbles on N4G because you didn’t like the opinions one person gives (as if that issue isn’t bad enough over there already) seemed to be schoolyard-ish to me. In fact, I’m not sure how he hasn’t left the site yet seeing how he’s the only real mature person that was on that podcast.

I especially question wisdom when talking about someone else that venomously defends your site that went on my Youtube videos, and I sure as hell hope he’s not a part of your site, and if he is and you continue to employ the disgusting excuse for a human being, then you really need to rethink why you’re in this business: A guy who uses the screen name of “thnxbye” (I think I’m spelling that name right). HERE’S a guy that would DESERVE one of your “initiations”, because on N4G, all he has had to say to me was “oh, were you that fat kid from Ohio that couldn’t finish a sentence” and “no one wants to hear your fat ass whine” or something like that. But you know, I get those all the time, and I can handle that, even though it gets old and even when his crap was posted on my videos. However, its when he responds to other people the way he did to this one guy on N4G (I forget the article and the person now, I really wish I saved that damn thing now. Okay, maybe I know a bit about how CandidAnthony felt about him wishing HE had took a snapshot of the MAG thing), which his response was a step by step guide on how the guy should commit suicide (which furthered his request for the guy TO do so). Now, like I said before, I’m REALLY hoping you do not have any ties to this guy, and I hope that you on your next show, at the very least, denounce crap like that. Most of what I would say in Media Watch is sarcastic and, among other things, is meant to get a few laughs out of people (we’re not trying to be boring, either). What this “thnxbye” is not funny in the slightest, and who knows who he would be telling it to, and what the guy who he’s saying it to has gone through in his or her life. If you don’t read anything else in this blog or never listen to any other word I say, listen to THIS part, because if you are not going to officially denounce this, then you might as well be condoning this. If someone sees his words and finds out that you haven’t condemned stuff like that, they might think that it’s what you want them to do, and they will go do similar things to others. Please, Mr. Davis, if nothing else, make sure people know that you’re not going to condone that talk. You told me that you are not the type of guy that would take cheap shots like that, so I know you know where the line is crossed.

Will I be tough on people, press or otherwise? Hell yes. One of the reasons I thought such sections were necessary is because I thought that we weren’t doing our jobs as journalists. We need to be the gamers’ checks and balances. I hold within me the passion of this industry. This hobby has been something I have cherished all my life, and I would never change it as my hobby for anything else. This is why when I see something like what has happened in the press happen, it hurts me on a personal level because I know we as gamers deserve better than this. All companies, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Square, Capcom, Namco, and everyone else involved, needs to be responsible, and if we’re not going to be the ones that push and pester companies to be honest and stick to thier word, then who will be? This is why the Media Watch section on my site exists and will continue to exist. Among the games, we should be able to tell others that do not force others to be honest, or to be one sided about who they “catch”, then we don’t do our jobs as gaming writers. Mr. Davis, I think you forgot to tell your listeners the most important thing of all: The lesson about all of this. Whether or not GG succeeds or not, whether or not I actually LEARN the English language when typing up these things, whether or not the gaming media finally gets it, it doesn’t matter! We hold a great deal of pride to what we do, what we play, and if one company is getting an unfair break and a free ride, regardless of who they may be, and whatever the risk and whatever the fallout of us being tough will be, we must be tough. Because the gamers deserve better than for us to just ignore it. This is a lesson that the Bigbag and Kotaku needs to learn.

So good night, and good luck.

UPDATE: By the way, Bitbag, I didn’t miss those words either Mr. Davis or Anthony dropped about WhatIfGaming, although I’m not certain about the words (there was some crosstalk going on when that was made, but it was clearly deogratory towards them). A few words on that: (1) WIG is a very good site, their people, site and members are smart, they are not in the least fanboys, and they “get it” about some of the media, so I wouldn’t sell those guys short if I were you, and (2) I HAVE contacted at least one of the editors of WhatIfGaming about what was said (the same thing I have said here: Although not certain, the effect of “just as ___________ as WhatIfGaming” with some chuckles at the end). I am sure they will say something about it, and I’m pretty sure this wasn’t the first time WIG was trashed by the Bitbag given this smug talk about them.