SE, don't invite that journalist to Fanfest... ever.

[Moogly]

http://archive.is/RTN8a
https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comme...le_journalism/

Litteraly making a fool of ffxiv fans, especially cosplayers, basically treating them as some kind of fetichists...
The most outrageous thing being that he's been interviewing some cosplayers only to later make fun of them in his clickbait article.

SE, you'll be better off not inviting that dude next time, and give his place to a true fan.

[CaptainLagbeard]

If they actually paid a games journalist to come, that's a pretty big mistake.

Mostly because of the general state of gaming journalism for the past few years...

They don't even like games, so Square is paying for someone to hate on them.


Edit: Reading parts of the article, it's clearly someone who doesn't really understand gamers, and has not played FF 14. They didn't even know who Haurchefant was.

So, it's just "I don't understand this game or community, and ERP bad."

[JohnSpawnVFX]

If they actually paid a games journalist to come, that's a pretty big mistake.

Mostly because of the general state of gaming journalism for the past few years...

They don't even like games, so Square is paying for someone to hate on them.

He disclaims at the end of the article that SE paid for the trip to the fanfest.

[xbahax92]

I think he just became 16, grew some hair and got permission to be at a fan festival for the first time.
I mean, it looks like he never knew about cosplayers, ERP'ing in MMO's, that people can get attached to cute little beings such as namazu. His eyes must have sparkled that day, what a cute kid.

Must have been a super sweet 16.

[Theodric]

It's an excellent example as to what modern journalism has become. Take a look at almost any major news site and I guarantee a good chunk of articles will be things that aren't actually important/genuine news or are designed to provoke outrage and division. The latter of which is exactly what the article linked in the OP accomplishes.

[Vexander]

Reading that article all I got from it was a Blizzard/Fallout Fan taking out their fury over the disaster that was Blizzcon 2018 or Fallout76 on the one gaming company that actually hasn't mistreated it's fanbase.

[Final-Fantasy]

Aside from having an an overwhelmingly alliterative name, the Final Fantasy Fourteen Fan Festival is equal parts adorable nerdery and fetishistic cat ears.

This isn't journalism!

[ExKage]

I wrote that reddit post and there's a few things people might have missed and I tried to avoid, but probably didn't, ripping every single paragraph.

In his pursuit of 'journalism' the man gets actual factual information incorrect. All of his 'research' is done by looking at Kotaku and other sites instead of actually engaging the game and its community. I don't quite disaparage Kotaku as much as others do, but their articles on housing (which the man fails to 'investigate' that the crisis did not even occur on Balmung, the problematic populated world server until months after they were implemented) or their articles on ERP which obviously influenced his question at the QnA.

Even past that he is unaware of the game and doesn't know a thing about it, its tone and language is implicit and barely thinly veiled in its condescension of those who were there from the cosplayers to even The Primals.

Even if Caldwell did not know what FFXIV was, what cosplay was (what kind of game journalist doesn't know of cosplay in the era of E3, PAX, and BlizzCon??), he could have written a much more neutral article. He could have asked -why- people liked Namazu even though some find them creepy or ugly. There were plenty of namazu plushes around and he could have even seen the 5 year video with tuhis in it. Even if he doesn't understand cosplay, he could have asked why people enjoyed it. How much work did it take them? How much did it cost? How'd they transport some of them? He called them 'foam peacocks' which doesn't exactly have a positive connotation. He could have just said, "These cosplayers put hundreds of work and hundreds of dollars into their hobbies. It shows! These pieces are amazing in craftsmanship. I'm not sure why they chose to do so but they obviously enjoyed it and the devs of Final Fantasy XIV encouraged them with the cosplay contest (prizes of which include etc)". He doesn't understand Haurchefant. Okay, so why not report, "I haven't played the game long and I was confused. I asked a nearby girl what this shrine was, explaining to her I didn't know anything about the game."

Not the least of which was his parting shot at The Primals concert where in he described it as something that "amounts to an expensive karaoke." He didn't need to state that in such a way. Something such as "Square Enix goes all out. Soken and the rest of the Primals have toured Japan successfully and from what I hear they've been ending this Fan Festival with a concert every time. The audience purchased 'glowsticks', reminiscent of any other concert, especially from the footage I've seen of other concerts in Japan.

With the backing of other RPS editors and supposedly getting $50k for the article, I don't think Square Enix should ever provide RPS or Caldwell with any type of press/media privileges ever again.

[jameseoakes]

He disclaims at the end of the article that SE paid for the trip to the fanfest.

what would possess SE to hire a guy this bad

[JaydeDancer]

Thank you for supplying a link to the original article and your response to it via reddit.

I read the article, along with the link to the article about ERP on Kotaku, and I have mixed feelings on it. There were some parts that started off being demeaning, but then were smoothed over, like this one, from the end:

"There is something surreal (and yet very Final Fantasy) about seeing the head of a studio performing what amounts to a very expensive session of karaoke. But the crowd loves it. They are one big holler, singing along, glowing batons swinging in unison to tunes they all know from repeated boss fights. The whole scenario would be cult-like, if it wasn’t so adorably geeky."

Yes, he could have painted a nicer picture of the fandom, but I think that this writer wasn't obligated to write a flattering article just because he was given a free trip to the festival and to vegas. However, that doesn't mean I think that his article is an accurate depiction of the fanbase. It isn't; by any means, and it's kind of frustrating to read.