Looking at Jeff Gerstmann being fired

With just about every game forum and other network connected system talking about Jeff Gerstmann’s firing from gamespot on Friday, you have to wonder what the final digest is going to be. Reading both sides of the story, he was both loved and loathed. The issues that surround the termination though relate to many businesses, and many people who fail to make the right friends, in the right place, at the right time.

It also points out the idea that no matter how golden, anyone at any time for any reason can be let go.

This should act as evidence that gaming journalism is in a sensitive state. The profession is growing as exponentially as the industry, but it seems that the growth comes mostly on the part of “professional” sites such as GameSpot, IGN, and 1UP, while hundreds of “community” sites bicker and battle over the scraps left behind. But when any publication gets to a certain size and generates a certain amount of money in advertising revenue, the question of journalistic integrity becomes an issue. And let me be the first to come out and say that what happened to Jeff Gerstmann happens all the time. Source: Gamer20.com

The controversy will not end any time soon because the meme’s of journalistic professionalism and the issues surrounding independent or dependent web and print sites that rely on people talking up stuff, so that they can continue to get sponsorships from the companies that make games or materials.

Earlier this year PC World faced the same kind of issues, when the Editor Harry McCraken was ousted, then re-instated when a boil over with the manager resulted in the firing of a person who was all about ethics, rather than all about money and circulation.

Gamespot might find itself in the similar situation where the manager has to go, because the writer is generally popular. There is a certain amount of “deer in the headlights” look to all this. The fall out could and probably has gutted the moral at Game Spot, meaning that there will be a longer line of exodus from the web site.

While this might be good for business, if Game Spot becomes known as a shill for the highest dollar, then they will loose stature, and eventually become another dead domain on the internet. The sad part is that Game Spot usually had a good reputation, and while this boils over, it will be interesting to see what the board of directors and senior management makes of all this and what changes they will insist on.