Bloggers, as reported earlier, are specifically mentioned by the recommendation, which has obvious implications for the specialty press covering video games. "The post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service."

The pivot here is what constitutes an in-kind payment. Games do have a value, but is agreeing to review a game an endorsement, regardless of whether the review recommends it or not?

It's also important to note these new guidelines do not themselves have the force of law. They are:

"[...] administrative interpretations of the law intended to help advertisers comply with the Federal Trade Commission Act; they are not binding law themselves. In any law enforcement action challenging the allegedly deceptive use of testimonials or endorsements, the Commission would have the burden of proving that the challenged conduct violates the FTC Act."

So there are two layers here: One, that it's not even law and two, does it even apply to video game reviews? Either way, the singling out of a blogger's endorsement is significant.

FTC: Freebies Must Be Disclosed [Game Politics]

The commission, in the process of reexamining the disclosure rules for their truth-in-advertising guides, are now calling out bloggers as a potential issue. The commission says it is looking into the legitimacy of blogger opinion and whether access to review product influences their write-ups. They don't, however, seem to be concerned over similar practices in the print and mainstream media.

Instead of relying on specific rules, the FTC's guides use a set of examples to lay out issues that they have identified. In talking about the importance of disclosure of material connections between the endorser and the seller, the guide uses an example aimed directly at online video game journalism:

Example 7: A college student who has earned a reputation as a video game expert maintains a personal weblog or "blog" where he posts entries about his gaming experiences. Readers of his blog frequently seek his opinions about video game hardware and software. As it has done in the past, the manufacturer of a newly released video game system sends the student a free copy of the system and asks him to write about it on his blog. He tests the new gaming system and writes a favorable review. The readers of his blog are unlikely to expect that he has received the video game system free of charge in exchange for his review of the product, and given the value of the video game system, this fact would likely materially affect the credibility they attach to his endorsement. Accordingly, the blogger should clearly and conspicuously disclose that he received the gaming system free of charge.

While this example is talking about free consoles, what about free games or free movies or free books?

Most newspapers allow their critics to go to free screenings of movies so they can write a movie review. Most newspapers, in my experience, also allow critics to receive game code in one form or another and even retain loaner consoles so they can review games. Certainly every major gaming website, from GameSpot to IGN take free copies of games for review.

What's troubling about this FTC example isn't the expectation that the blogger should disclose that they received a free console, but that the rule seems to single out bloggers.

In seeking to delineate between a professional writer and a blogger, the FTC approaches a slippery slope that could very easily end with the government deciding who is and who isn't a journalist.

Equally troubling is the coverage of this issue by the New York Times, which seems to almost deliberately not get it. In a Sunday story entitled "When a Blogger Voices Approval, a Sponsor May Be Lurking", the New York Times reports on the issue making it clear that unlike journalists, some bloggers are for sale:

"But unlike postings in most journalism outlets or independent review sites, most companies can be assured that there will not be a negative review: if she does not like a product, she simply does not post anything about it."

I do like some of the ideas spelled out in the document, in particular the notion of advertising and marketing folks not being allowed to flood a message board with false praise for their product without identifying themselves. But who is going to differentiate between "most journalism outlets" and "independent review sites" and bloggers? And how will they do so?

When the government gets in the business of identifying journalists and setting up a separate set of rules for those that don't make the cut, it's more than a little troubling.

[Pic]

Over at Gamers With Jobs, Julian Murdoch looks at the craft of writing about games — and how being a gaming journalist has improved his relationship with games. While I've found writing about games has significantly cut into my time I can spend playing games — and there's a difference between playing for pleasure and playing for pay — I'll agree with many of Murdoch's thoughts in regards to going into situations with a new perspective, one that is frequently quite positive:

This self-conscious focus on both the game and the gamer is an unadulterated good. Playing games now brings a joy of personal intellectual exploration, in addition to the joys of escapism, mastery and conquest. There is no doubt in my mind that my enjoyment of BioShock was substantially magnified because I went into the game thinking, not just passively waiting to experience. How it was made? Who made it? Where the threads were that I could pull on, and discover how much fabric was really there?

Writing about games has taken me from the role of dreamer into the world of the lucid dreamer. Where once I woke from moments of seeming glory, grasping at the fading fragrance of what was right there just a moment ago, now I emerge from a game startled and awake, reaching for the pad of paper, struggling to synthesize the experience in a new form – a form hardened by an edge of language.

I have the problem that I find that intellectual, questioning part of me off — I approach all media with a certain critical eye, and it's hard to ever just sit and enjoy something just for what it is. Still, being able to approach games with a certain lucidity is a good thing, as are the overlaps between my 'academic' life and my 'gaming' life. My relationship with games has certainly changed since I started writing about them, but it's not always doom and gloom — making a living (or partial living) off of something doesn't have to kill the joy of it.

Pinning Butterflies [Gamers With Jobs via Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

Ah Peter Moore, how we've missed you. No one has really stepped into the "public face" void filled by Moore's sudden departure over at Microsoft, but fortunately, Moore himself is still going to be very much a public face in gaming.

Today the EA Sports president launched his very own blog over on EA Sports. Moore says he hopes to update it weekly with thoughts on sports, sports gaming and the gaming industry. He also told me in a recent interview that he might post some picture of fancy new digs (complete with sports bar I'm told) on the site down the line.

If his first blog post, which touches on everything from Facebreaker, the Super Bowl and why he thinks Larry Hryb is the Perez Hilton of video game blogging, is any indication, Inside the Game with Peter Moore is going to be a must read for sports gamers. Oh, and the best part? His posting name is EACrazyLegs. Wow! Turns out that EACrazyLegs is actually the community manager who posted Moore's first blog entry. His real forum name is... PeterMoore. Boo!

Inside the Game [EA Sports]

This Beside Games blog network is pretty interesting! (Well, more interesting if you understand who the people are and what they're saying.) It features well-known musicians, comedians and model-types blogging about what games they're playing. What a great idea for a site! For those who care, my secret crush Natsuki Kato has a blog, which I've bookmarked. She's playing through Seaman 2 and taking copious pictures of herself playing through Seaman 2. She hasn't updated in a while and really should, you know. That's what blogging is all about!

Ann Nanba's Blog [Beside Games]

They just announced that Gas Powered Games partnered up with them to make a brand new original RPG for the PC.

The game will be unveiled in a few weeks, says Sega of America president Simon Jeffrey.

Sega of America was number ten for market share last year, up from number 14 in 2005 and number 16 in 2004.

On to the announcements:

First up is Happy Tree Friends, a download only game for PC and XBLA. It's Itchy and Scratchy meets the Lemmings. Yes, it has that happy meets horror feel and look of the fantastic web animation.

They're showing a clip now. In it two bunnies are enjoying a meel when a commando bunny jumps in and starts killing them with straws and ketchup and mustard bottles. Classic. And lots of blood.

The next game they are announcing is Ghost Squad. Ghost Squad will be going exclusive to the Wii. Oh, and it will be playable here today.

The game appears to be a first person shooter with knives and gomes. Oh and it's going to use a light gun. HOLY SHIT a LIGHT GUN.

You can unlock 25 tactical weapons and it looks an awful lot like Time Crisis.

Next up is Universal War. It was already announced for the PC, today they're saying it's also coming to the Xbox 360.

The demo they are showing seems to be showing snippets of giant robots, helicopters and other vehicles attacking each other.

Ah, now to updates.

Talking Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games.Games. Besically, they just said they're really excited... aren't we all.

OK, talking Marvel, specifically Iron Man and Hulk. They're talking about the Iron Man movie right now... and they said the director is interested in working with Sega on the game.

Both games will be coming out next Spring.

OK, on to the hands on previews. See ya later. Check back for my impressions later on today.

Update - They just announced Condemned 2 Bloodshot for the 360 and PS3 - That is all.

In a four-hour special called "News War," FRONTLINE examines how news media today is changing. Interesting and fascinating — Worth a watch, if only to see a millisecond of Kotaku. Be sure to blink so you can miss it! Brian Ashcraft

It's In Part III, Chapter 19 [PBS, Thanks to all who sent this in!]

Are you looking to land a sweet job writing for a video game related website? Do you constantly send in unsolicited writing submissions to your favorite blogs that no one really has time to look through? Your time is now, my friend. The fine people over at FiringSquad have announced The FiringSquad Editors Challenge, a contest sponsored by Intel that lets you put your writing skills to the test against other hopefuls for the chance at contracts to write or produce multimedia for their website. It's an elimination tournament that pits your writing against another challenger in a multi-round elimination contest.

FiringSquad is a site that focuses on PC games and hardware, so you must be able to somehow write 20 bazillion pages on a video card that people will skip so they can read the last paragraph for a quick summary, yet still make it compelling in case someone is really bored at work and has nothing else to read.

Hit the jump for the full details on the challenge. Sounds like an excellent opportunity to break into the field of journalism while clearing out our inboxes for a couple of months. Good luck! Michael Fahey

FiringSquad and Intel Announce First Ever Editors Challenge

Sponsored by Intel, Contest offers $3,500 in prizes and a writing contract with FiringSquad valued at over $15,000.

Santa Monica, CA, February 4th 2007-Top gaming website FiringSquad.com announced today what the first ever writing contest for a technology or video game website. The FiringSquad Editors Challenge, sponsored by the Intel Core 2 Extreme processor, invites all aspiring video game and IT journalists the opportunity to show off their writing chops and win cash, prizes, and ultimately an opportunity to break into the field of journalism.

Starting on February 7th and ending April 30th, the FiringSquad Editors Challenge will pit competing writers against each other in a multi-round single elimination contest. Judging the contestants will be the job of the FiringSquad editorial staff and the millions of FiringSquad readers who will rate each article based on content and quality.

The grand finalist for the will take home valuable hardware including the Intel Core2 Duo Extreme Processor, $1,500 cash and a writing contract with FiringSquad worth at least $10,000.

The first runner up will receive valuable hardware including the Intel Core2 Duo Extreme Processor and $500 cash.

In addition to seeking the best talent as journalists, and to showcase the capabilities of the FiringSquad Multimedia Blogging system, prizes will be awarded for the best multimedia productions. First place will receive $1,000 cash, and second place will receive $500 cash.

Contest will test writing and video production skills

Using FiringSquads unique multimedia blogging system - mblog - contestants will prepare reviews

There will be two separate contests for written and video content, and contestants can write about any piece of hardware or game they feel like. Four Intel Core2 Extreme CPUs will be given away to the 4 semi finalists to test and review. The grand prize winner as chosen by FiringSquad editorial staff wins a $10,000 writing contract for FiringSquad, plus $1500 cash and an Intel Core 2 Extreme processor. The top video production will win $1000 and a $5000 video production contract, plus an Intel Core 2 Extreme processor. The runners up both receive $500 and an Intel Core 2 Extreme processor. "The FiringSquad Intel Editor's Challenge is an unbelievable opportunity for individuals to make a difference," said Dan Turner, President of FiringSquad. "We're asking PC gaming enthusiasts to tell the world what they think."

Contest to Showcase FiringSquad's new online Social Networking capabilities

At the heart of the contest are the new social networking features which enable users to create their own content and interact with other users: the FiringSquad Matrix. Users will post their articles and videos using the Media Blogging capabilities of the Matrix. Compared with other blogging services or social networking sites, the FiringSquad Matrix is the first social network for gaming and technology enthusiasts. It fully connects FiringSquad readers to each other through the editorial content of FiringSquad, as well as reader's own created and shared content.

The contest is open to any and all comers. The panel of judges are FiringSquad senior editors Alan Dang, Jakub Wojnarowicz, Brandon Bell and John Callahan. To enter, or for more information, go to www.firingsquad.com

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Found by Kotaku contributor Alice on her way back from the airport. Signs of the times, signs of the times, folks. All that's missing is a Viagra ad. Brian Ashcraft

Madden Tourney [Wonderland]

Wired's Game|Life is on the prowl, looking for an East Coast writer. The site's Chris Kohler blogs:

Let me put this delicately: we are looking for a writer who lives in the beautiful Eastern time zone who can write news stories in the morning while your site lead — that's me — is still asleep after a marathon Wii session.

Send three sample blog posts and an introductory paragraph to gamelifejobs@gmail.com. My advice: Look for non-Nintendo stuff. Kohler's got that soooo covered. Good luck! Brian Ashcraft

Write For Wired [Game|Life]

Normally we don't really post much about the inner workings of Kotaku, but I just wanted to point out a couple of things.

Last month, I wrote up a post about how to write for Kotaku.com, and not too subtle hint that I might, in-fact, be looking for new writers. And I was.

I plucked Flynn from the center of his gaming empire, but what I really want to point out here, is that two of the people I ended up hiring were in-fact regular, every day Kotaku readers.

While I appreciate the hard work that some of the very talented existing gaming writers do, I just love finding genuinely talented writers who make a living doing something other than writing and giving them a chance to change careers.

Luke was one of the hundreds of people who sent me an email shortly after I posted that HowTo and after reading his stuff on his personal blog, I jumped at the opportunity to get him working for us.

Mike Fahey, well I initially found Mike when he started posting stories on my personal site RedAssedBaboon.com. I really liked his writing style and just never had an opportunity to offer him a chance until recently.

So I really wasn't bullshitting when I said that the best way to get on job writing for Kotaku was to blog.

Merodeando, a spanish gaming site that sorta looks like it's a true blog, was recently uninvited to an Electronic Arts event because they bad-mouthed FIFA, which, I believe, everyone has bad-mouthed.

I've had my run-ins with Electronic Arts, believe me, lots of run ins, but they've always been very professional with me and with Kotaku as a whole despite our often taking them to task for their missteps. So I was surprised to hear they would be so overtly obnoxious about something like this. But the site actually posted the email and, unless it's a fake, it spells out the fact that they were uninvited to the Command and Conquer 3 event because of their coverage.

A poorly translated snippet:

as you will include/understand, you are many webs of game those that quereis to collaborate with us, and we must prioritize to whom, to ours modest to understand, they treat to us better

with articles of this type at the present time he is not plantable that we have
a collaboration flu da with you, is therefore cancelled
invitation to pasaros by our offices to see C&C3

if it seems to you, we let pass the time, and seeing a little like
the things evolve volvemso to raise material enviaros to us e
invitaros to this class of eventos...

Let's hope that someone gets fired over this because I would hope it has not become EA's policy to try and strong-arm websites into granting them positive coverage.

Besides, iIf EA were to blackball everyone who has ever disagreed with them they would have very empty press events. Brian Crecente

Electronic Arts: si me criticas no te ajunto [Merodeando]

That's right I'm sitting up here on a panel about blogging, and blogging it. It's an addiction, I can't stop.

We're talking about the different relationships bloggers and main stream media have with PR firms. Which is quite striking in my opinion.

Chris Grant over at Joystiq (He's sitting next to me) points out that bloggers tend to have more of an adversarial relationship with PR companies.

We're talking about how to generate revenue with blogs. It's not pretty, basically you need to get hired by a big blogging comany (like Kotaku or Joystiq) or depend on weak sauce Google Ads which doesn't pay me a damn penny on Red Assed Baboon.

Law and blogging: It should be a class. The problem with taking information down from a blog is that you could set a legal precedent of you take something down and down the line you might be legally forced to.

The great blogging revolution, its democratizing the Internet and reinvigorating all media. It also juices.

For the record, a journalism degree isn't a total waste of time, but it's best when temprered with a working knowledge of what you cover... like games.

And it's done... and no one stoned me to death. Wiiiiii!

The July Carnival of Gamers is at Ron Gilbert's place, and he's got a nice batch bubbling on the ol' fire. For those of you out of the rollercoaster's terrifying loop, here's Buttonmashing's explanation:

What is this Carnival of Gamers you speak of? The Carnival of Gamers is a bi-weekly monthly gathering of video game bloggers at a central location. The premise behind the Carnival of Gamers is similar to those of other "Blog Carnivals" — it is a showcase of blogs that are about video games. Some of the participating blogs are almost exclusively about video games while others deal with a wide range of topics, from music and movies to politics and punditry to video game design.

This month's carnival covers everything from the beautifully unsettling guilt inherent in Shadow of the Colossus, to the hilarity of Oblivion's M rating:

My character class, determined early in the game from my tendency to hide when bad guys show up and strike from behind, is an ASSASSIN. [...] To get enough materials together for constant alchemy practice, I take the 'scenic route' from place to place so I can take time to ... pick flowers.

Another of the assassin's key abilities is Acrobatics, which is increased over time by hitting the jump key. So long as endurance doesn't run out, I find myself hopping around as I go from place to place to increase that ability.

Which means that as the vile, evil, bloodthirsty assassin, I am spending MUCH of my time hopping and skipping through meadows picking flowers.

Links to these posts and more over at the Grumpy Gamer! Step right up! eliza Gauger

July Carnival of Gamers [Grumpy Gamer]

I don't know why Sony and Nintendo haven't gotten onboard the blogger express. Come on guys, you can spoon feed your own brand of tasty half-lies and boosterisms directly to gamers. Alllllll aboard. Brian Crecente

LetsKillDave

Blogger Joi Ito pens a piece on World of Warcraft addiction in this month's Wired. Old hat for some, but it's Joi Ito! And he used to hang with Timothy Leary, worked on the Dreamcast online and is related to Cornelius!! The piece does a fine job of laying of Ito's WoW addiction, but wraps up nicely with this last paragraph:

The quality and the popularity of World of Warcraft has propelled MMORPGs from a subculture into the mainstream; some call it the new golf. But it's more than that: World of Warcraft is millions of people with diverse backgrounds collaborating, socializing, and learning while having fun. What we're experiencing with this game is similar to the "adhocracy" of many successful open source software projects. It represents the future of real-time collaborative teams and leadership in an always-on, diversity-intensive, real-time environment. World of Warcraft is a glimpse into our future.

Say hello to the new stock response to those that don't "get" MMORPGs. Brian Ashcraft

Read It Here [Wired]