that right there is exactly what Jaffe was talking about on his blog. some schmo putting words in his mouth. If you watch the video he never says killzone 2 put a bad taste in his mouth (and in fact says it wasn't a "killzone issue"), only that he didn't like the way the host set that particular game up. He also was talking about online games as a whole, how they put too much control in the hands of the host of an online game. So don't put words in his mouth schmo!

At first I got into some games that where, like he said, not fun. But then I realized that all the info you need to decide whether to stay in the game or not is on the screen right before you get into the match.

So if anyone else is having that problem, just pay more attention. I wish they would put that info on the screen when your looking at all the games being played, but it is what it is for now.

Jaffe's blog is the one and only bookmarked blog I have.

I love Jaffe so hard.

Not sure about taking TOO much power away from the host, but for the most part I agree with everything that comes outa this fvcker's mouth.

it kinda has been a long time coming, you could see this downward spiral start to happen even in the printed gaming news prior to what's been happening on the internet, but it only seems so much worse now, because there are so many more sites, etc. While I don't necessarily agree with everything that comes out of Jaffe's mouth he does often iterate many things I have thought on myself, and I find it refreshing to hear coming from someone in his position.

...because I hate that things are headed in this direction. However, this problem with the media is not confined to gaming news. Here is what I think is happening.

Before the Internet, the organizations which had a broad reach to people were large conglomerates. Big news organizations like CNN, NBC NEWS, etc, etc... Sure, you had your fluff stuff like National Enquirer and The Sun, but these were known for being questionable. Also, you had your fashion magazines or paparazzi magazines, but nobody reads these for important news like where industries are headed or which country is being invaded... people just read these to be entertained and to learn new recipes or find out how to dress like their favorite Hollywood actor.

And then came the Internet. Suddenly, the livelihood of these large organizations was threatened. Any Joe Schmoe with a computer could suddenly have a distribution of millions of people, without having to seek out paying subscribers. At first, the media laughed this off. After all, what made THEM important was employing highly paid journalists with expensive degrees in journalism.

Nonetheless, the Internet proved one thing - you don't need to be a good journalist to gain subscribers to your free blog, you only need to be a good writer. You can disguise fiction as news. I'm not talking about good satire like The Onion. I'm talking about camouflaging your personal opinion as fact or as the opinion of the masses.

As this started happening, and viewership of traditional media continued to decline, the large conglomerates like CNN, NBC, etc decided to fight fire with fire. They started allowing some journalists write articles in this "blog" style. Suddenly the opinion of a "journalist blogger" became just as hard-hitting as the opinion of, say, a true analyst or scientist. Who cares what the author's name is, what their background is, whether or not they know what they're talking about... after all, they work for CNN... for NBC... they MUST be important, right?

This lead us to the downward spiral we are still riding down today. The true journalism of yesteryear is spiraling towards the anything goes blogging style meant to entertain before educating. It is designed not to give people facts so that they can form their own opinion... it is designed to give opinion, hoping people will either disagree or agree... but above all else, see ads.

The problem with this is that people who used to understand the media as being "fact" are suddenly believing and trusting the new media of "opinion". This is a very powerful machine, where media organizations are no longer arming people with information, but are brainwashing people with complete garbage. This, in turn, is turning media companies into TOOLS by which large corporations can sway people to their products... to their way of thinking... to secure the financial futures of their companies.

In fact, one of the most popular methods of advertising these days is Press Releases. Of course, with the fuzzy line between the press and the blogging community, press releases are losing their meaning. Now, a simple email to a random yet popular blogger will suffice.

At some point, this needs to stop. I'm all for a lot of people giving their opinions. After all, this is a free country... if you have something you want known, let it be known. However, as far as opinions are concerned, it shouldn't be about whoever has the most money gets their opinion heard most. Jerry Springer proved that by simply only showing a certain group of people you can make an entire nation appear to be inbred. Media is a very powerful weapon. If it should be wielded at all, it should be wielded by everyone equally, not just those who happen to own a large corporation or who happen to work for one.

Again, this isn't a problem of bloggers. It's a problem of blog posts looking like news articles. Blog sites looking like news sites. Labels like CNN and NBC appearing on blogs disguised as news sites. The level of trust is being shattered. You can never know how professional the journalism is anymore. There is now so much disinformation that you either decide to believe it all, or believe nothing. This has got to change.

He is right, the most recent example is probably the Mortal Kombat story where 99% of sites that reported on the matter FAILED TO MENTION the fact that the alternatives were restructuring along with throwing their own personal jabs at Midway in.

When I write I always use the very last paragraph to voice my opinions of the matter but I make it clear they are not apart of the story but my own views. Unfortunately not everyone does this.