Even after reading Kevin VanOrd's comments on Adam B's blog, I still don't know wether to trust the site to overcome these heavy blows that keep on coming. Beginning with the sudden firing off Jeff, blending in with Eidos and Kane & Lynch. Along with that, the outside publicity towarths GameSpot from other websites just went rotten.
Rich Gallup, Jeff Gerstmann, Greg Kasavin, Greg Mueller, Carrie Gouskos, Bob Colayco and now Alex Navarro. The Tracy's gone too. But honestly; I don't even know what he did at GameSpot other than being the coolest random guy ever.
I just remain to hope that the typical"inside job" thing that overshadowed the entire Jeff story soon enough doesn't kill GameSpot in the end. Cause that's what it remains to be; The Element of Suprise. We weren't prepared, we weren't able of taking constant blows of editor-after-editor leaving.
Sure, the quality of the reviews didn't suffer untill Jeff got fired. Then we all knew that Eidos tried to, or did affect the score with bribery. Jeff cracked down on Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. And less than a week later he was trown out. Then the Josh Larson rumour. A guy who commented on a website like he was inside GameSpot, and knew every damn thing that went on.
The remaining peopleof GameSpot did try to keep the flagpost above the water, and try to keep up the steady flow of reviews. Quality reviews. Kevin VanOrd for instance. He's gotten quite the number of bigtimers that he could review, normally a person like Jeff would do 'em.
It's clear as glass that the employees of GameSpot are busting their asses to remain high quality. Now the moral of this depressing story; Can they? Ryan MacDonald now does the live shows, covering up for Rich Gallup. Kevin VanOrd takes alot more reviews since Jeff's firing. Brian Ekberg still does his fair number of exclusive previews and reviews, along with Brad. The otherRyan, Ryan Davisis still all over the place, from reviews/previews to live shows, and the list goes on and on.
However, while they're working like hell - They're loosing men. If not; hope. They're going down faster than the site can recover. Mental pressure, work pressure... Hell, it can be anything. And I don't want to be biased, on the side or the other. I just would hate the fact that the website would sink down to IGN level.
Kevin mentioned that they're not pressured into giving a certain grade, nor has the "tone" changed... He didn't mention, wetherthe quality level would remain high. As in; They'd get overworked, and quality drops. New guys are hired, who can assure the "clas.sic st.yle of reviewing" would remain? That kind of stuff.
My faith in the employees wouldn't drop a single bit, my faith in the content over the following months on the other hand. Fifty-fifty. My faith in the current editors staying; You might aswell just pull a Vegas-sty.led betting-poule on who pulls out of the parking lot first and doesn't return...
"The good ol' days, right?"
No disrespect to those I could've forgotten, and this blog isn't a goodbye, or somesort of hateletter. Worries. That's all. Still, I want to wish Alex goodluck, whereever he's going. And the same for all the remaining employees.