Let’s talk about some ethics in game’s journalism here, some real ethics in games journalism. One of the biggest problems we have in this industry is developers and publishers putting pressure on reviewers that didn’t like their games.
This has been the case with ImminentUprising, the developers of Slaughtering Grounds, and Jim Sterling. Sterling didn’t particularly like the game, and as a result he has been hounded by ImminentUprising for ages. His video review has been taken down multiple times, any mention of him has been taken down from the game’s Steam page, and they even posted a response video to his review attempting to make fun of him, which then resulted in a review of their review of his review, and soon this became a huge internet blowup.
The most recent move by this studio involves the creation of a Steam trading card called the Zombie troll. The card, which has a particularly unflattering zombie representation of Sterling is described as such.
“The Zombie Troll can lead large packs of internet trolls into a rampage.”
Ever since the feud has started, many of Sterling’s fans have found stolen art assets in the game, which has damaged its reputation far more than Sterling’s original review could have. In short, if the team had just left well enough alone, they probably wouldn’t have had as much of a problem. But no, they started a feud, and here’s a thing about starting a feud with an internet celebrity: the internet always wins.
If you want to learn more about this incredible saga of poor choices, check out this video by Jim himself.
Source: Destructoid