Monday, December 13, 2010

Who is he and what is he to you?

There is an excellent interview on BitMOB about the HipHopGamer conducted by Dennis Scimeca. I have seen him in person at the PAX East Gamers Gone Wild party last year and wondered to myself who is this guy? I went to his website and learned a little and then saw an interview he did with financial analyst Michael Pacther over the summer for GameTrailers. You couldn't pick two more different people to put together for an interview, but it was interesting and fun. What they both have in common is a genuine passion for games.

What has me troubled are some of the comments that follow the BitMOB piece. I am not saying that people should universally have love for HipHopGamer and what he's trying to do. But the tone of some of the comments are disturbing. Just because he is passionate about gaming doesn't mean he is a paid shill. To the best of my knowledge, he has never lied to someone about a product. If people have a problem with deception in game scores, there are plenty of other targets these commenters can take aim at. In terms of being a distraction at industry events; I have never been to an E3 but I can safely assume that one man and his entourage can't be the biggest distractions at those events.

What also bothers me is the sense of elitism is the replies. Calling someone a blight or an ass-clown is strong stuff. You may not like how he networks with industry people, but that's between him and those people. You may not like his methods but he is as passionate as the next gamer. You may not think he is informing gamers, I disagree. He is informing gamers, just not gamers like you.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The guy tried to take credit for Kratos being in the latest Mortal Kombat. Do that and you'll get a mud slinging.

Anonymous said...

I lost respect for HHG at the Sony E3 Press conference. Throughout most of the presentation, we has yelling, and moaning so loud you couldn't hear the presenters.

When a few people asked him to quiet down (politely) he started cursing and tried to start a fight, causing some execs to leave the show.

If you want to be treated like a professional, you have to act like one.