Continuing the rampant speculation surrounding the Left 4 Dead 2 PC demo, Kotaku have posted an article suggesting that sound files entitled “zombiedog_attack” are linked to an unannounced zombie in the upcoming shooter.
Hilariously it turns out that the three sound files are just sound effects for the hunter from the original Left 4 Dead. The post was quickly updated once it was realised that this isn’t news, but then as I was writing this, the article has been pulled. Obviously there’s a lesson to be learned here: don’t use sound files found in a demo as a basis for rumours and don’t publish it onto a widely read Internet blog.
Also note the source of this ‘news’:
Steam user McEnvy emailed me.
I’ve used Steam, I might email the Washington Post and claim I know information regarding some historic government scandal, I could get my own secret pseudonym too!
A few weeks ago Wardrox posted an article which basically said that writing on blogs doesn’t make you a journalist. This I believe backs his point up, Kotaku is very good at publishing news and posts lots of articles per day, but that doesn’t mean it’s good source of journalism. While this is obviously a simple mistake from Kotaku, for me it clearly highlights the line between blogging and writing for the Guardian.
Whoops, eh Kotaku?
Update: This story just keeps getting better! P Marsh in the comments below points us to a post on Kotaku explaining yesterday’s hilarity. Apparently the decision was made to pull the post because “it didn’t in fact report any news or engage a useful debate to earn its traffic”. Imagine. Then the article goes on to mention a Gabe Newell Twitter account, which stated: ”oh why’d we have to include zombie dogs”, an obvious parody of the Kotaku post. Apparently it’s been uncovered that the Twitter account isn’t actually Gabe Newell who has said that he doesn’t use Twitter.
I think the fact they took it down shows they’re willing to admit a mistake. I know I’ve seen a number of non-stories from a wide range of blogs just be left up with a small update at the bottom basically saying “this is all false”
I am probably overgeneralizing here but as an outsider looking in, I wonder if much of the “failure” of investigative journalism in the video game world comes from the fact that so much of the investigative journalism in video games are on “hot” stories in which the need to research and and verify the facts are often overshadowed by the drive to get the story out before someone else does.
A recent bit of journalism that I really liked was a series of articles that Daniel Golden of the Wall Street Journal published throughout 2003 (and won the Pulitzer Prize for) in which he brought a different viewpoint into the affirmative action debate by exposing the various ways in which the rich and powerful can “buy” their way into the best schools. Surely there was plenty of time for Golden to formulate his thoughts and ideas and fact check them.
Likewise, the best example of video game journalism I can think of was that long piece by Geoff Keighley where he discussed the rise and fall of Trilobyte (makers of The 7th Guest), a story which certainly was not on a time crunch other than whatever deadline the editor had set, allowing Keighley to cover all the sides, check his facts, etc.
If you check Kotaku, there is a weird twist in this story. The false article actually brought about the confirmation that someone has been impersonating Gabe Newell from Valve.
http://kotaku.com/5394725/fake-gabe-newell—show-yourself
link or it didn’t happen.
This is why i tend to go to “The toid” for my news, they tend not to jump the gun. Also theyve got tits and jim which helps.