Interview Content thieves at Experience Gaming recycle Oblivion fan interview

[Spazmo]

Tags: Bethesda Softworks; Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Hey, anyone remember an <a href=http://www.rpgcodex.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=5917>interview</a> with Todd Howard that Bethesda fansite <a href=http://www.rpgplanet.com/morrowind>Morrowind Summit</a> got to do? It was a good laugh due to the depressingly stupid questions and even more depressing answers.
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Well, it seems the fine editors of that bastion of respectable internet journalism <a href=http://www.experiencegaming.com/>Experience Gaming</a> liked that interview so very much that they decided to <a href=http://www.experiencegaming.com/content.php?contentID=3150&pageNumber=1&gameID=5313>repost it verbatim</a> and pass it off as their own. Very nice work, Experience Gaming. Plagiarism is always good for getting some hits in. It's the exact same interview. The exact same questions and the exact same answers. Pure class.
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And as a hint for the next time you pull shit like this, Experience Gaming, <a href=http://www.experiencegaming.com/content.php?contentID=3150&pageNumber=4&gameID=4865>real interviews don't ask questions about puddles.</a>
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.bluesnews.com">Blue's News</A>

 

[EEVIAC]

So has anyone mailed Experience Gaming yet? Gamers Hell had an almost plausible excuse, I'd like to see how these guys try to explain themselves.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

It'd be fairly impossible to come up with an excuse. The questions and answers are verbatim of what was on Morrowind Summit. Morrowind Summit's interview was done in December 2004, so it's pretty unlikely there could be a snafu like what happened with Gamer's Hell.

Isn't Experience Gaming's URL logo dealie from the XBox site, too?

 

[Sol Invictus]

The Morrowind Summit interview was almost exclusively meant for Morrowind modders and not for 'general consumption', as it were. So the puddle question was a pretty valid one, at least in regards to global water height.

That said, what Experience Gaming did was downright pathetic. Has anyone contacted the administrators at Morrowind Summit to tell them about this?

 

[Seven]

Experience Gaming caught up with Todd Howard, Executive Producer of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion to find out more about the game.

I love this little bit. It denotes actual work, as opposed to lazy plagerism. Gotta love a thief who's willing to lie right off the bat.

 

[Sol Invictus]

How come the writer's name isn't even listed? It looks like the editor himself was behind this.

 

[PennyAnte]

I sent an e-mail. I'll let everyone know if there's a response.

 

[Jinxed]

I wouldn't be surprised if they were kiddies. Most of this kind of blatant shit happens in the FPS clan community, where the perpetrators are not over 13 years of age.

 

[Kamaz]

The Morrowind Summit interview was almost exclusively meant for Morrowind modders and not for 'general consumption', as it were. So the puddle question was a pretty valid one, at least in regards to global water height.

Yeah. Some other questions could have been called "silly" though.

 

[Digit]

Hahaha. Wow. That is amazingly low. This reminds me of another time where game journalism didn't exactly inspire. I read a review for Orb, a sort of Homeworldesque space RTS. Well the review gave it around a 60-70% mark and one of the criticisms was that the space ships simply disperse into a swarm of green energy squares when destroyed, instead of exploding.

Well, that would be fine and all, except that only happened in the tutorial which too place in a simulator...
So basically the moron that reviewed it, didn't even play past the tutorial! They changed the review a while later, but I never got a response to my email.

Digit

 

[Fez]

This is the kind of news posts I like to see. :D

Someone needs to give them a swift boot up the arse. I hope they at least get their comeuppance.

@Digit - that seems to be how more and more gaming journalism works.

 

[Mistress]

Dearie me that's lame.

 

[Ellester]

LOL! classic. I think they need to remove the word experience from their name. It implies that they are experienced journalists.

 

[Volourn]

"Someone needs to give them a swift boot up the arse."

That's right. When someone does soemthing wrong non violent; the only answer is to physically maul them. That's even more patehtic then they are. Scum they are; but you are worse. You are violent scum.

 

[Fez]

I've had no complaints yet from anyone I've killed, and that's plenty, so it must be cool. Some folk just need killing.

 

[Volourn]

"I've had no complaints yet from anyone I've killed, and that's plenty, so it must be cool"

LOL Let me rephrase then.

You are violently funny scum.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

LOL! classic. I think they need to remove the word experience from their name. It implies that they are experienced journalists.

Experience Other People's Content is the correct name.

 

[theGreenBunny]

I'll de-lurk to post about this as I personally know the Morrowind Summit admin guy (though I have nothing to do with the site myself). He told me he knew about this and one of the Bethesda guys has mailed Experience Gaming, so he expects it to be resolved soon.

On a sidenote, when I told him I read about this on here, he said he was mailed by someone from the codex but couldn't reply because their mailbox was full (heh).

 

[Spazmo]

Yeah, I mailed a guy from Morrowind Summit about it. The full mailbox is a surprise to me, though. I was wondering why I wasn't getting my daily spam.

 

[PennyAnte]

Below is the official response on the reposted interview, got it as a reply to my e-mail:
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I was made aware of a certain issue with the interview entitled “Todd, Howard, Executive Producer of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion” posted on the Experience Gaming website, on the date 2005-03-06 18:38:00. Apparently, from the various emails received by several personnel, it was unconvincingly similar to an official one conducted by several fan sites some while ago at http://www.rpgplanet.com/morrowind/obli ... erview.asp.

Upon further investigation and after an intimate interview with the reporter involved in submitting the interview, it came to my knowledge the interview was in fact taken from a fan site kit found on the official Oblivion website. Because the interview document in the fan site kit did not contain any official references to the nature and time of the interview, the reporter assumed the interview was free to be used by all fan site owners and he safely assumed, online publications, as well.

The publication takes pride in the various ways we ensure our content reflects the quality and earnest nature of our reporters. But the huge amount of content submitted by our reporters mean that errors and signs of plagiarism may happen. But that does not mean Experience Gaming is at no fault, in fact, we believe it is because the staff involved with the editing and approval process did not put in enough effort to verify the authenticity of this article, that such an incident could take place. It is no one’s fault except for the publication, which has failed in the trust of the community and its readership alike, to provide quality articles, clear of plagiarism, every time.

To the personnel concerned, including the staff from Bethesda Softworks and fans of the upcoming Oblivion game, I, on behalf of everyone at the publication, offer my apologies yet again. The article will be taken down immediately. Should you require further assistance, please email me at editor@experiencegaming.com

Editor,

Experience Gaming

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Okay. Let's just say it was a goof up. It's funny the editor goes on and on about reporters and quality content, then says they at least some of their content from fan site kits. How is that quality? It's EASY, sure. Anyone can do it. It's certainly not quality content to have something even some 12 year old kid with a learning disability can slap on to a geocities site.

And huge amount of content submissions means that plagiarism and errors can occur? Well, yeah, I guess they would have a huge amount of content submitted if they take fan site kits and post them as new content. After all, nearly every game has a fan site kit. That's not quality either.

However, it is nice to see that they admit responsibility for the thing. Can't really fault him for standing up and saying, "Whoops! We screwed the pooch there. Our bad."

 

[Fez]

They are liars and they got caught. They should just apologise and forget the attempt at spinning this to make themselves look like victims. I doubt that they'll change how they work now though, it'll just be a while until the next time they get caught stealing and pretending they do work.

 

[Jinxed]

The interview is there, that much is true, but copy pasting the thing while adding:

Experience Gaming caught up with Todd Howard, Executive Producer of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion to find out more about the game.

is just downright retarded. They are providing an experience alright, I'm not sure however if it's that kind of experience they aim to provide.

 

[Fez]

That's the point where they went out of their way to cover their theft with lies. What a cunt, he can stick his insincere apology up his ass.

 

[PennyAnte]

I thought this was kind of weird:

it was unconvincingly similar

Uncomfortably similar would have fit better. But at least they were square, overall, about what happened, with the world and themselves.

I actually wonder now if the Morrowind Summit could have gotten the interview from the fan kit, or if the Summit's interview went into the fan kit after it was posted. I'm assuming the latter.