Seems perfectly justified to me!

I have to agree. It's a surprisingly well thought out and accurate argument.

Not sure the Kotaku argument is well thought out. It's like attacking People Magazine for publishing celebrity rumors. Also, I'm a little surprised someone in this industry would postulate such an argument... I think there's really no difference between criticizing a blog for inciting idiots or criticizing a game for inciting idiots. At what point do people make their own choices & at what point were some of the people with comment access on Kotaku already idiots? I don't think rumor reports & lazy research standards make the audience stupid -- it just attracts them.

I agree in a way it's like attacking People Magazine for publishing celebrity rumours, but the problem with that is that just because People Magazine exists to publish celebrity rumours doesn't mean that it's

a) Something it should do
b) Not shitty.

Just because you make something to intentionally interest the lowest common denominator doesn't mean you should get away with it. The gentleman's point is (as far as I can see it) that Kotaku want to claim that they're "real journalism" rather than a tabloid, when really they've been built from the ground up to be as tabloid as possible.

My (personal) point is even if they admitted to that it's still no excuse.

Well put Mathew... It may be that they try to straddle the real journalist & tabloid line & thus fail at the real journalist part. Maybe the easy fix for all of this is for them to not just embrace the tabloid aspect on their website tagline, but also in regards to what they tell the public. I just thought the overall tone of the article was more directed at the perceived stupidity of the readership & how that was the result of Kotaku. Whereas my opinion is they are attracting a lucrative demographic with what they're doing.

I enjoyed the "Top 5 Felonies" article. It made me crack up. It's funny! Because that stuff sells!

No doubt, Rockstar's on the forefront of exploiting all of our inner desires for deviancy. With their well-made suite of bad-guy simulators -- GTA, Bully, Manhunt, and the like.

Maybe it's time they start capitalizing on the world of game journalism more than they already do! A riot simulator, something like State of Emergency, but you're a Kotaku editor sitting at a computer typing up sensationalist articles to incite e-Riots! Your goal, of course, would be to make enough money from your blog entries to pay rent for your studio apartment by the 1st. As you get more hits you move up higher in the ranks, negotiating better ad impression rates, until you become a Scarface caliber baller (with a tiger in your backyard). Because that's every gamer's fantasy.

What would be interesting if someone took the energy that it takes to make a fun crime-simulator game and made something productive with it, like that malaria game in the first link. I keep seeing this humanitarian games and think its unfortunate that much of the message gets lost in the presentation.

Thanks for the links!