Just to start, a message for Mr. Larson: I am the "casual" gamer you seem so desperate to appeal to.

I've been visiting gamespot faithfully for over a decade, mainly for their reviews, but also for previews, screenshots, videos etc. for games I am anticipating. I became initially attracted to gamespot for their honesty and integrity in reviewing; I wanted to know when a game was good and when it wasn't, and through the years I came to trust gamespot more than other websites in this regard.

In the past few years that trust has wavered a bit. More than once I've purchased a game and found it buggy or screwed up (recent Maddens, anyone?) despite a relatively high gamespot review. I was wondering whether the advertising was having an effect on these reviews.

Jeff Gerstmann's firing has removed any and all doubt that remained. It's a pity that this site has become subject to and consumed by advertiser's interests, since it was such a beacon for gamers before. What worth does a website have if everything it puts out there needs to be vetted by game companies? If that's what we wanted, we would just read press releases to decide whether to purchase a game. What made this website so valuable to me was the detail and honesty of the reviewers. If they said a game was good, I knew it was good. If they said it was bad, I knew it was bad. And I knew these things without shelling out my hard-earned money and wasting time playing the game myself.

Larson (and others), THIS is why this website has had such high traffic. If you remove THIS, the traffic will go down. And that traffic is what produces advertising interest in the first place, and what determines how much money you make on that advertising.

You may win the battle for control over the company's message, but in so doing you will kill it. Gamespot won't be worth anything by the time you are done running things. Enjoy putting that on your resume Larson. 2007-whenever: ran Gamespot into the ground.

I'll head elsewhere for my game information. Maybe wherever Gerstmann ends up, assuming he stays on the media side of things. Otherwise I'll have to do some digging, but rest assured that it won't be Gamespot any longer.

Just to start, a message for Mr. Larson: I am the "casual" gamer you seem so desperate to appeal to.

I've been visiting gamespot faithfully for over a decade, mainly for their reviews, but also for previews, screenshots, videos etc. for games I am anticipating. I became initially attracted to gamespot for their honesty and integrity in reviewing; I wanted to know when a game was good and when it wasn't, and through the years I came to trust gamespot more than other websites in this regard.

In the past few years that trust has wavered a bit. More than once I've purchased a game and found it buggy or screwed up (recent Maddens, anyone?) despite a relatively high gamespot review. I was wondering whether the advertising was having an effect on these reviews.

Jeff Gerstmann's firing has removed any and all doubt that remained. It's a pity that this site has become subject to and consumed by advertiser's interests, since it was such a beacon for gamers before. What worth does a website have if everything it puts out there needs to be vetted by game companies? If that's what we wanted, we would just read press releases to decide whether to purchase a game. What made this website so valuable to me was the detail and honesty of the reviewers. If they said a game was good, I knew it was good. If they said it was bad, I knew it was bad. And I knew these things without shelling out my hard-earned money and wasting time playing the game myself.

Larson (and others), THIS is why this website has had such high traffic. If you remove THIS, the traffic will go down. And that traffic is what produces advertising interest in the first place, and what determines how much money you make on that advertising.

You may win the battle for control over the company's message, but in so doing you will kill it. Gamespot won't be worth anything by the time you are done running things. Enjoy putting that on your resume Larson. 2007-whenever: ran Gamespot into the ground.

I'll head elsewhere for my game information. Maybe wherever Gerstmann ends up, assuming he stays on the media side of things. Otherwise I'll have to do some digging, but rest assured that it won't be Gamespot any longer.