Level Orange

Tech news site Ars Technica ran an article yesterday about GameCyte, a relative newcomer to the gaming blog arena, charging it with not disclosing enough about its behind-the-scenes connections to TriplePoint, a PR firm that represents various game publishers.

While accusations of conflict of interest and unethical behavior can quickly escalate to distrust and defection amongst readers, the catalyst of Ars Technica’s piece–a positive review of a game published by Telltale Games, one of TriplePoint’s former clients–seems fairly innocuous on the surface. It’s a fair, adequately-written review of a highly-anticipated game that makes no bones about what there is to like and not like about the game itself. However, according to Ars Technica, the crucial missing element is that there is no statement about the thrice-removed connection between GameCyte and Telltale Games. If it were simply a matter of stating up front that GameCyte is a part of Pantheon Labs and let’s say Pantheon Labs was actually owned  by Telltale Games, then that wouldn’t be unheard of, but that’s not the case at all.

Yet, Ars Technica has drawn a hard line and demanded that any and all relationships between Pantheon Labs and TriplePoint must be disclosed at all times, which, along with being impractical, is simply unnecessary for the most part. From what I’ve seen, people who operate in the gaming press and industry have most likely come into contact with each other at some point or another and so painstakingly detailing and listing every single connection of everyone involved–as Ars Technica seems to suggest–is a task bordering on the ridiculous, especially with a PR firm. Is it really that surprising that these people that work or worked at a PR firm actually know other people in the gaming industry? Shock! Awe!

I’ve learned that you can only go so far to earn peoples’ trust before you’ve overextended yourself and/or possibly compromised your ability to actually produce quality content. While I think laying low is a reasonable reaction, given the speed and unchecked nature that news spreads across the net these days, I’d much rather see a statement or commentary from GameCyte directly to clear the air.

Now, for the sake of full disclosure, other than knowing a cool cat that works there, I don’t have any other affiliation (financial or otherwise) with GameCyte or Pantheon Labs, nor TriplePoint, Telltale Games nor your mom.