1/22/2008 - JFG Trailer

One of the biggest gaming news of last year was not really about a game at all. It was about the firing of one of the most prominent game reviewers in the industry, Gamespot's Jeff Gerstmann. Now you may say, "big deal... why would I care?" Well, rumor has it that he was fired because he gave a negative review of a game whose publisher sponsored Gamespot with advertisement, and that publisher threatened to pull advertising from the site because of the negative review.

Again you may ask, "what does it matter to me?" We rely so much now on game reviews before we buy our games. We want to know that if we spend our hard-earned money, that we will get a satisfying experience out of it. Before the internet and game magazines, we only had word of mouth. Unfortunately, if you were a risk-taker and bought games without a second opinion, you would frequently be disappointed. I certainly wish I had read an unbiased review of Ghostbusters for the NES before buying it.

And that's what makes this story so big... the firing of Gerstmann might influence other game reviewers to go easy on a game because their publisher is paying the bills of the gaming magazine/website. Reviews may no longer be unbiased and the whole game reporting industry would collapse. Now, there is no official word on why Gerstmann was fired, but the resignation of two other Gamespot reviewers would seem to validate the rumors. All the secrecy surrounding the circumstances of Gerstmann's firing led to many conspiracy theories, much like the assassination of JFK. And if a movie can be made about that event, a movie should be made about JFG: