News
Company Blogs Eroding Gamer Trust
Cordova, TN; May 30, in the year of our Lord 2016--Family
Friendly Gaming, the industry leader in covering the family
friendly video games is addressing a disturbing trend within the
video game industry. A few companies have tried to move their
press relations over to their own company created blogs. Company
employees write about the games coming out. Press releases have
been replaced with the company employees giving the company
provided propaganda. What is wrong with this? What could
possible go wrong when control freaks are trying to sculpt the
message about their products? You mean besides the lack of trust
from families and gamers.
Sony is the first company I noticed doing this. They stopped
sending out press releases and tried to point all of the gaming
media to their blog. What is the difference between a press
release and a blog? The press release can be adjusted, modified,
and changed. A blog has to be copied and pasted as is. Sure we
can grab a quote here or there, and then write all about it
ourselves. How many gaming sites do that? Most are pretty lazy,
and just copy and paste. At Family Friendly Gaming we are
constantly editing press releases to make them family friendly
and safe for kids. Can’t change the words of a blog writer
though. Most of the company support blogs are too bad for Family
Friendly Gaming to publish.
I have noticed more and more gamers getting cynical and having
h8 on the propaganda from the companies. Why is that? The
products are not matching the hype. The company funded blogs are
giving gamers hype at record levels. The companies doing this
are shooting themselves in the foot. They are trying to control
the coverage of their products, and only allow positive stories
on their products. When the gamers get the games and play them –
well reality sinks in. When the hype is bought off gaming sites
giving the game a 100, and gamers giving it a score of 50;
something has to break. The trust of the gaming media sites is
what broke. Seeping through is the video game companies trying
to control the narrative about their games. They are losing
sales, and trust as well.
It is my personal hope and prayer that companies trying to
control the coverage of their games will go back to the
traditional press releases. They will be open, honest, and
transparent about the good and the bad in their games. It will
help them in the long run. Gamers respect honesty way more than
they respect illegitimate control freaks spreading lies and
calling it hype. The gaming media is there to funnel through the
information and weed out the hype. Companies that try to bypass
that safe guard are hurting themselves and the entire industry.
God bless,
Paul Bury
Family Friendly Gaming