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1. Gekidami
   Member

   http://www.vgsynergy.com/2011/04/30/why-is-the-whole-freaking-industry-against-sony/

   "Now onto one of my favorite websites: VG247. When Sony first released the information concerning the PSN breach, the website headline for the thread was good, it was then changed into something more eye-catching and attention grabbing, and when I checked it for the last time, the headline brought melo-drama to a whole new level, and then changed again to this more subtle and toned headline, giving a broader scope of what happened. However even before Sony’d released the information concerning the leak, respected editor and site owner Patrick Garratt ran a piece which basically stated Sony should have left the hackers alone because it’s a fight it could not win, and cast no blame on the hackers. Totally unbalanced. And its title? Hacked To Death: Sony Faces Crunch-Time Over PSN Failures."

   An interesting piece, the bits about journos using the PSN outage to just 'settle scores' with Sony sound especially true.

   Posted 2 years ago #

2. DrDamn
   Member

   I dunno it's a pretty huge deal and has made headlines on all the major news channels. I think the coverage here has been reasonable good bar one article. There have been notably contrary views expressed to give some balance too. The only mistake was running the 2.2m credit cards leak article, the source material for the piece was dubious and flawed, they shouldn't have touched it.

   Posted 2 years ago #

3. Patrick Garratt
   Key Master

   I'm not going to get involved in this, but I stand by everything we've published on the PSN issue. It's a highly emotive topic and I'm proud of our coverage. Whenever we're critical of anything we get a backlash, and I doubt we're going to be covering anything as "negative" as this for a long time. I'm not in any way surprised we have people being critical of the way we handled it, put it that way.

   Posted 2 years ago #

4. ItsFade
   Member

   I don't think websites felt the need to settle a score with Sony. More that everybody loves a good train wreck and this scandal was exactly that. Not to mention it brings tons and tons of hits which websites essentially needs to go around right? Just look at the amount of comments in the Playstation articles compared to other articles on VG247.

   Obviously people care about the case and it does affect a lot of people so why stop reporting on it? A lot of people are pissed off whether its that they can't go online or that their personal information has been compromised. I do agree that media takes advantage of this by an intensive coverage of the matter but its not like something like that is exactly new in journalism.

   Eventually it will die down and vanish like most other news. I do think its hilarious that fanboys are raging at videogame news outlets for reporting on it and acting more along the lines of "LEAVE SONY ALONE!1!! Y U NO SHOW EMPATHY!?". Especially when everybody else are reporting on it, I remember seeing a report on the Security breach while watching BBC a couple of days ago.

   I don't think that everybody has a grudge against Sony it more that its a relevant news story and has affected a lot of people world wide so naturally it will get reported on. It would be like getting mad at the news for reporting the news.

   Posted 2 years ago #

5. AHA-Lambda
   Member

   i thought it was handled quite well =/

   Posted 2 years ago #

6. Hunam
   Member

   To be honest, there seems to be this need for Journalism to be this dry, cold source. Maybe if Pat was writing about the wars and revolutions in the middle east I'd think he was a cunt for his editorial line, but Pat is writing news about entertainment in a hobby field. In that respect, Pat is as much as part of the entertainment as Sony are. He picked his side, he wrote his story and he delivered the content. VG247 is as a character in the punch and judy show that the gaming industry and gaming press are. Being critical of him trying to entertain or take a side is just silly, as silly as Ciffy B was to try and work the press and not get bit in the ass.

   Posted 2 years ago #

7. Gekidami
   Member

   @ FadeLive
   The IGN, Gamasutra, and that last EuroGamer quotes in that link definitely arent those sites just reporting news. With a piece like this:

   "It’s been years since I signed up for the service. Do I have a credit card on file with them? Which e-mail? No idea. I’ve repeatedly said that the PSN does not adequately respect its users: no background downloads for the system’s countless firmware updates (unless you pay!), no cross-game chat, a confusing and unwieldy user interface, a downloadable library that pales in comparison to Xbox Live’s. This is just par for the course."

   Its clearly one of the editors just getting the long built-up hate off his chest. He's using the PSN outage to settle a score, as have several other journos.

   As for everyone else, Games Thirst isnt saying the news shouldnt be reported, they're just pointing out that all the fuss the media has made to get hits is ridiculous. We've approached fear mongering on a Fox News level at some points.

   Posted 2 years ago #

8. BraveArse
   Member

   Just for the record, I own pretty much all the formats and genuinely have no problems with reasoned criticism of any of them. They all have their issues. But I did think this time, that a lot of the regular gaming sites performed poorly over this issue. Yes, there was a problem and it was a fairly big story.

   But the amount of rumour, hearsay and conjecture put forward as factual news, and referring it to as a disaster, ApocalyPSN, or most crassly, "Deepwater Horizon Moment" made me realise just how far the industry is from growing the fuck up right now.

   I also think it's a big mistake to assume that all criticism over this issue is fanboy criticism.

   Posted 2 years ago #

9. G1GAHURTZ
   Member

   Good job on the coverage, Pat.

   Don't worry about whinging fanboys, they need to take a chill pill.

   I saw you got named in the Guardian, too. Nice!

   Posted 2 years ago #

10. Patrick Garratt
    Key Master

    G1G - Did I? Blimey. Fame at last :)

    Posted 2 years ago #

11. frostquake
    Moderator

    @ Pat

    Enjoy your 15 minutes of "Fame Crucifixion", because there is a massive line behind you, waiting to kick your butt off that cross and get up there themselves!! ;)

    Posted 2 years ago #

12. G1GAHURTZ
    Member

    Yep!

    Actually, they've been referencing the site a lot over this story...

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/apr/25/hackers-playstation-network-offline?INTCMP=SRCH

    Posted 2 years ago #

13. freedoms_stain
    Moderator

    lol, better get onto The Guardian and tell em they spelled your name wrong Pat (twice) :p

    Posted 2 years ago #

14. Patrick Garratt
    Key Master

    That's awesome! Apart from the mispelling :(

    Posted 2 years ago #

15. Kabby
    Member

    I've enjoyed the coverage. VG247 has been the best place to keep up on the twists and turns in this story. Admittedly some of the pieces have been swayed by the authors views and intent. But you know what? That's fine by me. I'm a grown up and can discern the facts while still finding the articles entertaining.

    If I wanted news as bland as a korma I'd read the BBC News Tech section.

    Posted 2 years ago #

16. Dr.Ghettoblaster
    Member

    How else are you supposed to cover this circus?

    Posted 2 years ago #

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