To all our readers,
After reading and watching about this recent lack of discretion in games journalism I feel compelled to adress you.
Here at Otaku Gamers Uk this blog was started and continues to be ran under a complete and absolute truth telling policy.
Every writer be it full time, part time, past, present or future is told that every review/otaku review/preview/feature or opinion has to be 100% legitimate true.
We won't and will not tolerate "pandering" or falsehoods for the sake of a little extra. Regardless of review code or not, the promise of extra traffic or something to further the website, we will not accept and continue to report the truth.
The best way to explain this is that someone raised a concern that a review didn't score as high and as such would lose us favor affecting reviews in the future. Our reply to that is simple, if you want a good review you produce a good game, simple as that.
Every review is given to the writer we feel can give you the best and honest write up you as readers deserve.
Any writer seen breaking this code will immediately be let go and publicly named and shamed. This is something we take very seriously.
Here at Otaku Gamers UK we tell it how it is, all the time.
Thank you for your time and constant support as we reach our first year reporting.
-Andi
No words like the true words. even if there biter sweet.
ReplyDeleteDamm thats screwed up, that someone tried to intimadate you guys or threaten you like that. Even better on your part for standing your ground.
ReplyDeleteYou'd be surprised what can go on behind the scenes with publishers/developers n the like if some of the stories that have been unleashed of late are true. Sure we dont have a 1million+ following as of yet, so some publishers etc can ignore us etc, but at the end of the day we do this because we like to - not because we get paid like most websites. All we get out of it is the occasional review code from Nisa, IF etc and that's how it'll stay for a while as we head towards the websites 1st year next month.
ReplyDeleteOh wow I didnt realize you guys were coming up on your first year aniversary, congrats. But yeah that does suck in general, hopefully you guys get more support down the road from other developers.
ReplyDeleteP.S. By the way what ever happened to that recomendation I posted in a previous Disqus comment about you guys considering reviewing 18+ games. Did the idea fall appart or nobody in your staff has any interest in it?
Stand your ground. You are in a industry (gaming) and even a sub-industry (JRPG) that is hugely based on reviews. JRPG is a section that is like a minefield. They always look beautiful, and have excellent trailers with beautiful characters.
ReplyDeleteA false review in the JRPG industry would be enough for me to go off of this website because of how obviously bad a JRPG can be.
That being said, so far I have been happy with this website and check it almost every day. From the couple of insider posts you have made I have to agree with your values also. Keep it going!
It's not just someone, its a couple of people. I'll give you that much.
ReplyDeleteI would be up for reviewing 18+ Visual Novels but that would need to discussed I believe as I don't think we have featured a 18+ game on here before.
ReplyDeleteI've reviewed My Girlfriend is the President before, which is a visual novel that has some 'eroge' elements, so its something that any member of staff could do as long as the review etc doesn't have any images that are too risqué
ReplyDeleteIn regards to that question all I can say on the matter is it's a someone who should of known better. As you know we don't want to cause any issues so i'm not going to go into details but this is someone who was very familiar with the site and how we run things and I cannot tell you how insulted I felt when approached on that matter.
ReplyDeleteSorry man we have just had so much going on lately bringing all the staff up to speed and influx of work to do. It seems that a few members wouldn't mind doing this so it's something we will look into implementing in the future.
ReplyDeleteIf you have any suggestions or requests of what you would like reviewed I can start the wheels for you
Agreed, as long as there is no imagery all your doing is providing an honest and proffesional review. I'll have to check out that review now that youve brought it up.
ReplyDeleteIf youd like one to start off you might want to consider Really Really (sequel to shuffle). Capsulecomputers gave it a 9/10 and nichegamer gave it a 10/10, so that one looks really promising. Also from what I understood its possible to play that game without playing Shuffle and still be enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteId say you might want to look into Mangagmer as they seem to be the up and coming Visual Novel localizer and digital distributor right now for all ages and adults only games. Especially after Otakon were they anouced the localization of four visual novels titles.
ReplyDeleteOut of curiosity are you guys going to cover the Zoe Quin story, it sounds very relevant with whats going on in the industry and this piece you guys wrote?
ReplyDeleteP.S. Id add the url's however I usually have bad experience with those on disqus. Just check out Reviewtechusa and Boogie2988 on youtube if you guys want the summarized version of the controversy.
We aren't covering as such but it's those events which spur is to release this article.
ReplyDeleteAs you know we don't name drop anyone be it in the wrong or not, it's just not the way for a site to conduct. Unfortunately we felt this could potentially effect people's outlook on us so I felt it important to remind people why we created the site in the first place