21 Jun, 2011
Sometimes, there are things in our lives that we get so passionate about that we can find ourselves lashing out at the constant criticism for them. It was something I had to learn the first six months when I started writing for gaming blogs. I would slave over a review and put a lot of effort to craft my words, only to have some anonymous poster come along and tell me I should be raped and killed for slagging a game that they would like. I used to find myself getting into the heat of battle with a war of words in the comments, with the end result being me lowering myself to someone else’s level of play, and belittling the site where I was writing. It was a lose-lose situation.
I have learned to better myself over the years, and learn to take the heat and the barbs with a grain of salt. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, no matter how much it may offend me. All I have ever asked is to spare my siblings in the rage and you can rant to your heart’s content.
So why am I going into all of this? Well, I recently saw someone I consider a friend, get raked over the coals all because of one comment that was spoken in the heat of the moment, due to a lot of cruel and negative reaction to the early reviews for Duke Nukem Forever. Now, by no means is Duke Nukem Forever a good game. It suffers from a lot of problems, and my own review on another site lays it down as a 2 out of 5 game. While the review ended up with a poor score, the review was never crass or vulgar in anyway. Sure, I can lay down some spiteful words with the best, but I never take potshots. However, some reviews were a bit overboard in their mean-spirited debate of the game’s merits and the PR Company in charge of Duke Nukem Forever, lashed out on Twitter, and with that one post, killed them politically.
Now I have met the man in charge of PR at The Jim Redner Group several times in my writing career. He is a really great guy personally, and he has always been great about getting word out to all sites big and small about the games he has covered. He has helped me personally in getting review code, interviews and more for the games that he has worked on and I have always had the upmost respect for him. So I was taken aback slightly at his comment about looking at sites in the future for review code due to mean-spirited reviews. It was a poor choice of words, and he apologized profusely after the damage had been done. He was taken to task by both the Internet and by 2K Games for his choice of words, the latter ending his relationship with 2K Games.
Now I am not looking to apologize for Jim and his PR firm. He could have handled the situation better, but it comes back to that adage of being so wrapped up in his work of covering a title that the edgier reviews pushed a button, and he made the mistake that we all have made when we are too close to the item we are working on. It became personal.
I just wish that we were not so quick to pull the trigger on people when these things happen. Jim Redner contacted me via email, Facebook and on MSN Messenger and apologized through all modes of communication profusely for his statements. He made all of the writers aware that his words were his own, and he was not speaking for 2K Games in any way, but it ended up costing him a contract. I was not offended, as I have been there early in my career, and these things happen. We all make mistakes. I just wish that we could learn to forgive a bit when these things do happen. I wish that 2K Games would have reprimanded Jim, rather than picking up shop and leaving. Sure, my words here will not change the situation, but I really would hope that a business like 2K Games would understand that these things happen. Apologize and move on, and just tell Jim to not let it happen again. Maybe pull a game from his company but not the entire contract.
I do wish Jim Redner and his company the best and that they continue to provide great work in the gaming industry, and maybe in the future, he will think before acting, but as I have said several times before in this article, let’s cut him a little slack, as we have all been on that perch at some point in our careers.
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