I think I’ll share the editorial posted two days ago by the video gaming review giant IGN’s PS3 editor, Colin Moriarty, before I move on to the bulk of my piece…
Wow! Mighty interesting I’d say. In fact it’s interesting on so many levels…
First, to have someone who is purportedly the editor of the entire area of coverage of a particular platform take to the site with a diatribe against a large segment of people who actually provide him with something to cover; without the game buying public there are no video games and thus no need for video game news or reviews. I suppose in a world like that Mr. Moriarty would have to get a job that actually involved real work as opposed to one that, to a great extent, is just talking or writing about games. You know? A real job like the 95% or more of the people, who purchase Mass Effect 3, have to hold down in order to purchase games and the systems needed to play them on.
Yes, obviously we here at TGG write and talk about games (obviously of a different nature) but we also happen to have day jobs and are involved in this endeavor because of our love of the hobby. In fact, it’s because we have real jobs that allows us the privilege to operate this site.
To have someone who is an important lead editor for a website that I greatly respected – up unto this point obviously – release a video editorial that, in no uncertain terms, calls everyone who disagrees with his opinion an idiot is extremely insulting to the video gaming public. I’d expect that kind of nonsense from a forum, or message board, or a YouTube video but surely not from a website which claims to be tackling video games as journalism.
Second, I’m not overly fond how Moriarty injects the poor soul who took to YouTube to vent his frustration over Mass Effect 3 having some release day DLC available. Obviously, this inclusion is done to underlay the impression that unless you agree with Moriarty’s views you must be just like the overweight lispy guy ranting. Not only do I find including the clip extremely mean spirited but doesn’t advance Moriarty’s argument in the least. Honestly, it defeats the argument even more because, as we only see fifteen seconds of the lispy guy, we’re left with the editor ranting throughout the rest of the video. Moriarty makes himself look like a bigger idiot than he ever could of the lispy guy.
Third, Moriarty tells the viewer that going online and starting petitions or vocally dissenting on the outcome of Mass Effect 3 is going about things the wrong way is laughable. Truth be told, I have absolutely no investment in the Mass Effect story; I don’t care if the universe is destroyed, Shepard gets laid, gets killed, or ends up returning to the Planet of the Apes… I played the first game in the series and enjoyed it but didn’t come back for more because it just didn’t grab me enough. Which is simply my opinion and I know of a lot of people who really loved the first two games and were anxiously awaiting the conclusion to the series. Now everyone I know who has purchased ME3 and played it to completion is not just disappointed with the ending but downright disgusted with the outcome and feel not only cheated emotionally but monetarily as well.
Yet Moriarty’s option given for those people who aren’t happy is to simply not buy the game. Don’t take your grievances to the internet but simply don’t buy the game! That’s a pretty tough thing to do because the people who are upset have already bought the game. Doh! I think that’s how they came to the realization they didn’t like the end, bubba. Add to this the fact IGN encouraged people to purchase the game by calling it “amazing” and giving it a 9.5 overall score out of ten makes the “vote with your wallet” line of thinking nothing less than asinine! Not only asinine but pretty disingenuous if you ask me.
I especially dislike the tone of the video where the viewer is being told by all means they can disagree with the subject’s viewpoint as if he’s magnanimously allowing that. Please…
Lastly, Colin Moriarty states that when he “was a kid” games were a lot more expensive than they are now; that games are the cheapest they’ve even been as compared to 1995 as he displays. In inflationary dollars that is certainly more than likely the case. Yet he doesn’t factor in the economic times we live in. Right now more than 85% of Americans are spending over half of their take home pay on rent or mortgages. We’re not even including food, clothing, or utilities in that equation. As of this moment people are spending the largest percentage of the money in their pocket on rent and food than at any time in American history. Ever! This means a much larger portion of disposable income has to be spent in order to enjoy video games; a fact of which “old man” Moriarty doesn’t make mention. It’s no wonder video gamers are pissed they’ve spent $150-$200 dollars (or obviously less if they bought them used but they still paid something) playing through an adventure only to find everything they’ve invested their time, emotions, and money into is invalidated during the last 10-15 minutes of gameplay.
That okay with IGN’s PS3 editor though. He told you he didn’t like the end to Resistance 3 but you didn’t hear him crying about it. Then again I’m sure he didn’t pay $79.95 for a limited edition of it either. Actually, I’m sure he didn’t pay anything for the game as it was a complimentary review copy. I know this for a fact because, even though we tackle a completely different genre of gaming, that’s how we receive a great many of our review copies and we may get 1% of the traffic numbers IGN does. Oh, and he didn’t like the ending to Rosemary’s Baby either but I’ll take a stab he didn’t have to pay a hundred bucks to watch the film to its final credits either. I suppose I should point out to Colin that Rosemary’s Baby is actually a sly social commentary of the late 1960s filled with quite a bit of black humor. Maybe he’d like the ending a bit more if he understood that. I guess Moriarty was expecting It’s Alive instead…
Overall I’ve made my last visit to IGN. Regardless of the weak disclaimer at the beginning of the op-ed video stating it may or may not reflect the views of IGN the reality is that it does reflect their views. Does IGN take everyone as idiots? Colin Moriarty is the website’s PS3 editor and inclusion of his (although bleeped) profanity laced rant as one of their features tells me a lot more about what they consider critical journalism, and their opinions, than I ever needed to know. Not only is the video completely off the deep end as far as tone and mean spiritedness but it also displays a complete lack of respect for the site’s very own audience. I was a bit older than a kid in 1995, as are a great majority of the people who spend their hard earned money on video games, so I think I’m mature enough to have an appreciation of what sort of gaming coverage I’d like to be exposed to.
If IGN feels Colin Moriarty’s video is good gaming journalism then IGN no longer needs my traffic nor do their sponsors need my business…
I’ve been hoping for a while now for some actual game critics to show up, rather than these annoying, corrupt media sites like IGN and (especially) Gamespot.
Frankly, when someone makes his point as pretentiously as Colin does, I usually don’t even bother to take him or her seriously… look at him, flailing his arms around, having multiple backgrounds… You must know what you’re talking about, surely!
Thank you for this article. I hope that many people come to the same conclusion, regardless of what they feel about the ME3-ending.
for the record, I have actually seen some of the fat guy(calls himself fat freely) videos. He is actually fairly intelligent and well spoken and the lipsy geek voice is something he puts on for entertainment value in certain videos
this is his legit video and he made a “rage” video later, honestly quite disgusted the way IGN put a certain image out there when anyone who watched any of his videos could see it was otherwise
I feel like Moriarty (aptly named, no?) is no better than the trolls he claims to be against. I posted on one of IGNs new (balanced) Mass Effect 3 reviews that I thought he should have tried harder to know what he was talking about before he spoke. The evidence just keeps coming to light that he looked for mean spirited and inappropriate content to bring up, without really trying to understand his audience.
I wonder if the Gentleman in the video Moriarty decided to spoof has any legs to stand on to call him out personally to IGN. I believe that’s something I’d like to see. Is this YouTube Slander if it’s taken out of context?
The funniest thing about him including the “Poor Soul” Also know as Francis, who, in reality is actually just a fake persona… here is a video of the same guy talking about ME3 (but not playing the character of Francis) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dh6bHInW_c Notice the difference? Yep, Colin is a douche…
I don’t mind being disagreed with by Mr. Moriarty. Many people disagree with me on many things, and I try to be respectful of that. My mind is my mind, and their mind is their mind. Differences are bound to arise.
However, for a site that I am (or rather, was) a patron of to not only broadcast a position without fairly representing the other side but to do so in a derisive, insulting, and condescending manner was permanently offensive. I’ve never been treated so disrespectfully by an editorial journalist. That is the heavily biased stuff of shock-DJ’s like Rush Limbaugh, not a legitimate journalist, which it appears, IGN does not employ.
IGN is dead to me thanks to its sponsorship of this haughty man.
One thing you can add also, is that in his despicable video, Colin obviously hasn’t done ANY research, the retake ME3 movement, wasn’t just simply ‘asking to change the ending’. And also, very very important… :
Colin mentions Drew Karpyshyn, which I have A LOT of respect for, his writing and ideas are out of this world, his novels are amazing.. however… he DID NOT WORK ON MASS EFFECT 3! He left after ME2 !!!!
Just another proof that Colin Moriarty, is not a professional journalist, he’s a professional BULLSHITTER..
I think the word Xavier used – despicable – really does fit for the IGN video. I won’t go completely overboard in criticizing a fact or two being wrong because I’m certainly not perfect and have from time to time gotten the name of a game, designer, publisher, or so forth wrong on one of our podcast. Of course, it’s when I’m pulling something off the top of my head as an aside such as, “That reminds me of ABC, designed by DEF from XYZ,” as opposed to something that is actually the focus of our discussion.
One of my big problems with the video was the tone and all around nasty nature of Moriarty’s presentation and I think I covered that, to a good extent, in my op-ed. The other issue may not have been as black and white and it has more to do with what it means to be a reviewer.
I’ve been thinking about going into more depth about this in a separate article, but it’s important as a reviewer or critic to not drink your own Kool-Aide; at the end of the day it doesn’t matter if you’re the world record high scorer in Ms. Pac-Man, a ditch digger, or the PS3 editor at IGN: You’re still just a gamer.
I know a lot of people out there can write better articles, produce better audio shows, or design sharper websites than we even could – if they had the time and inclination. The fact people come to TGG and enjoy what we provide, respect our honest opinions, and (hopefully) have a chuckle listening to our podcasts is not only very gratifying but also rather stunning. We do our best to check out egos at the door because we know it’s the games that bring people to our site. We’ve been at this for a year and a half, and people know us infinitely more for our table top gaming coverage than anything else, so we understand the stars of the show are games – not the folks covering them.
Colin Moriarty oversteps his bounds in the IGN video by presenting himself not simply as an uber-gamer but as someone bigger than the hobby. He portrays an attitude that if you don’t agree with him, and his poorly formed argument, then you must be some sort of an idiot; maybe you aren’t even worthy of purchasing and owning games? Hmmm?
That sort of approach surely isn’t how any of us here feel critical journalism is to be tackled (not that we’re journalists by any stretch) and it even makes for poor editorializing. Then again we probably have a different mindset seeing we’re all in our forties and grew up in the “Me” decade (which actually included taking a good hard look in the mirror from time to time) as opposed to having an “I exist thus I must be great and always right!” way of looking at life as Colin and some others of his generation appear to have.
I got here by searching for “Colin Moriarty IGN”, wondring if he was still employed there. As long as he is I will not be using IGN any more, simple. Much like I will not be purchasing any EA game or Bioware (as long as EA owns them) unless it is a used version of the game.
Thank you, for your take on this, and your opinion, and thank you for TGG. I was unaware of this site until today and you and your site have a new member. Imagine…unbiased (paid) game reviews…
Thank you.
A full time dad, full time husband, employed, home owner.
Thank you very much for this. You put it succinctly and reflect what the gamers need from the reviewers.
I may be a little late to this argument, but it’s insulting to me that you would have the gall to say Colin Moriarty’s Mass Effect 3 video is bad journalism and proceed to write a very long editorial summing up just how much you dislike what Moriarty has to say. Not only that, you insult the company itself for going forward with an opinion piece.
Insinuating this article that does nothing but express your dissatisfaction with a fellow journalist could be considered “good journalism” is absurd. You not only disgrace your own website, but you make the entire video game industry look bad. People already scoff at the thought of adults writing articles about video games, and this piece just adds to their argument. Please stop this childish behavior or you will lose a reader.
I never claimed the Op-Ed was good journalism whatsoever. My opinion is the arguments made in the video hold no water and were presented in a mean spirited way. If you don’t appreciate our right to call things as we see them, don’t let the door hit you on the way off our site. There are plenty of websites that I’m sure will be worthy of your time. As if we’re going to change the way we approach things simply because one person threatens to no longer visit? I think that takes quite a bit of gall on your part…
Wouldn’t mister Moriarty be able to say the same thing to you? I mean you talk about mean spirited, wasn’t that a little mean spirited. Implying that one readers opinion doesn’t matter to the writers of the site, please, don’t write a long article then counter-act it with one comment. It’s not cool.
BEYOND!
Well Adam (not sure why you posted your name as Don…), no one paid anything to come and visit this site. On the other hand people purchased ME3 and most certainly had the right to gripe and complain if they were dissatisfied. I never said EA had to do anything about the issue as they have the right to stand behind the product they released.
As far as my comment in response to Mr. Chung, there was nothing mean spirited about it; simply stating a matter of fact as we have no interest in changing how we approach what we do based upon the comment of a single visitor. Especially a visitor who stumbles across our site, reads one out of over 2000 articles, and proceeds to get on a high horse to tell us how to go about our business or cover gaming. There are plenty of websites out there to cater to folks like that but we aren’t one of them.
Hi Jeff,
Thanks for your post. I’ll be visiting this site more often. You’re absolutely right about IGN. In particular I greatly respect the fact that you are real people with real jobs who volunteer to right great stuff about games, while many people at IGN (with the exception pretty much only of Peer Schneider who put the work in to found the business) do nothing at all. They sit around, hardly review games, participate in podcasts where they ramble, and then claim to be professional journalists and a proper profession which we should respect despite abusing people like mindless fanboys.
The biggest irony is that Colin himself is a massive conservative, the sort of Tea Partier who tells people “get real jobs” and then he doesn’t recognize how lucky he is to have this non-real job where he just talks about video games and then looks down on all the real people who do have real jobs.
I agree with Colin wholeheartedly. Who are we to tell the writers and creators of a game to change their vision? I’m not saying you don’t have to like the ending, but ,to go out of your way and harass the people that put together a game that you no doubt spent hours playing and enjoying all because you didn’t get the ending you dreamed of…pathetic. I myself didn’t mind the ending. It was nothing overly spectacular but it still made me happy. On another note, I have no problem with Day1 dlc. Sure I’d prefer not to have it exist but if I want the game I’ll get it, if not, then I’ll just ignore it. Mass Effect(as a full series) will still be regarded by me as one of the greatest and most ambitious games of this generation.