Capcom
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Capcom is a well-known Japanese game developer and publisher, formerly known as Capsule Computing. They are responsible for such franchises as Mega Man, Resident Evil, Street Fighter, Devil May Cry, Monster Hunter and Onimusha.
The View From The 16th Floor
Last week, Capcom invited a pile of games press from around the world to Hawaii, where it held its annual Captivate event. Despite having a proper name, it's not that different from any other event designed to show off upcoming products. But that's sort of beside the point. The company showed off some newer versions of previously announced games and announced a couple of new products, as well.
The new products--Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Bionic Commando Rearmed 2--only appeared in trailer form, which, of course, you can view on the site. Dead Rising 2 also proved to be interesting, with a new closed-off demo showing a bit of story, as well as some interesting weapon combos. The DS was also represented with Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective and Okamiden.
I'll get into all of those games with separate articles for each. Most importantly, I just wanted to clearly state up front that, as always, the Giant Bomb travel policy is to accept travel and lodging from publishers for non-exclusive events. A few people like to make a lot of noise about event travel here and there. Actually, it only comes up when a publisher flies the press to someplace warm and slightly out of the way. For example, you probably won't hear anyone piping up about a trip to Nevada that a bunch of people (including our own Brad Shoemaker and Drew Scanlon) are going on later this week. That's because it still feels like everyone who writes about games is legally obligated (read: forced) to go to Vegas at least twice a year. Like any other city in the world, when you're going to Vegas for a publisher-run event, the city looks like a hotel room, a conference room full of game kiosks, and maybe a dinner event or two.
Actually, in Hawaii I set aside a bit of time to head down to the hotel lobby and buy a bottle of Pocari Sweat and a can of pizza-flavored Pringles. That is, as they say, how I roll.
For me, the travel aspect of this job has always been something of an annoyance, but it's part of the job. And, yes, it does present something of a moral dilemma. For us, the decision is usually pretty simple, because the choice is to either accept the travel and lodging or not go at all. Blowing our barely existent travel budget on overseas travel to see one company's lineup isn't really the best use of our resources. Since one of those choices deprives our audience of coverage, we accept the travel and move on with our lives, head held high.
To put it another way: does it make sense for us to suffer and miss out on potentially interesting coverage just because a publisher's event planning team wants to go somewhere with nice weather for a few days? I don't believe so. So that's why we do what do. I just felt that was worth explaining, since everyone tends to want to jump to the worst possible conclusion about things like this.
Last week, Capcom invited a pile of games press from around the world to Hawaii, where it held its annual Captivate event. Despite having a proper name, it's not that different from any other event designed to show off upcoming products. But that's sort of beside the point. The company showed off some newer versions of previously announced games and announced a couple of new products, as well.
The new products--Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Bionic Commando Rearmed 2--only appeared in trailer form, which, of course, you can view on the site. Dead Rising 2 also proved to be interesting, with a new closed-off demo showing a bit of story, as well as some interesting weapon combos. The DS was also represented with Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective and Okamiden.
I'll get into all of those games with separate articles for each. Most importantly, I just wanted to clearly state up front that, as always, the Giant Bomb travel policy is to accept travel and lodging from publishers for non-exclusive events. A few people like to make a lot of noise about event travel here and there. Actually, it only comes up when a publisher flies the press to someplace warm and slightly out of the way. For example, you probably won't hear anyone piping up about a trip to Nevada that a bunch of people (including our own Brad Shoemaker and Drew Scanlon) are going on later this week. That's because it still feels like everyone who writes about games is legally obligated (read: forced) to go to Vegas at least twice a year. Like any other city in the world, when you're going to Vegas for a publisher-run event, the city looks like a hotel room, a conference room full of game kiosks, and maybe a dinner event or two.
Actually, in Hawaii I set aside a bit of time to head down to the hotel lobby and buy a bottle of Pocari Sweat and a can of pizza-flavored Pringles. That is, as they say, how I roll.
For me, the travel aspect of this job has always been something of an annoyance, but it's part of the job. And, yes, it does present something of a moral dilemma. For us, the decision is usually pretty simple, because the choice is to either accept the travel and lodging or not go at all. Blowing our barely existent travel budget on overseas travel to see one company's lineup isn't really the best use of our resources. Since one of those choices deprives our audience of coverage, we accept the travel and move on with our lives, head held high.
To put it another way: does it make sense for us to suffer and miss out on potentially interesting coverage just because a publisher's event planning team wants to go somewhere with nice weather for a few days? I don't believe so. So that's why we do what do. I just felt that was worth explaining, since everyone tends to want to jump to the worst possible conclusion about things like this.
Yeah, yeah, going to nice places presents a moral dilemma about the way games are covered, blah blah blah. Now, tell us more about those PRINGLES.
Excellent article, I think these sorts of articles are often ignored by organisations in your profession but it is an important thing to note who paid for what. As long as the companies don't then expect high review scores / preview praise then there is no reason not to do this.
The fact that Jeff felt he needed to post this explanation is retarded. Look at the vids inside the GB offices, do they LOOK like they have a huge budget to spend on travel expenses?
And yes, pizza flavored Pringles ARE awesome.
" Get more merch for donations, your travel budget would increase :P "YES. I never got the chance to buy a smiling luchadeer shirt at the time and I want one so bad!
I guess the question should be asked: Do people really care for previews of games, especially if there´s a ton of coverage out there? Don´t get me wrong, it is important to cover those games before they come out, but something like Lost Planet 2 has a demo out, for god´s sake.
In my opinion there should be more big events like E3 scattered around the year (maybe publisher specific, but only if there´s enough to show). More small stuff could really wears the guys out, when they should be focused on covering games that are actually coming out.
This event might be a bit of a different thing, but I would much rather see Jeff reviewing more games than previewing Lost Planet 2 for the 10th time (I guess it´s gonna be like the demo??!)
If GB keeps publishing honest, in-depth coverage, I see no issue with how they get to this sort of event. It's a minor conflict of interests, but I wouldn't spend my own money to go to one of those either.
@Jeff: My question is this: will WB be flying you and/or Bradley out to Chicago anytime soon?
*krosses fingers*
Based on the comments here and my own, carefully crafted personal views on the matter: as long as you continue to endorse Pizza flavored Pringles, I don't think you can do any wrong.
Right, but very smart to put up a full-disclosure notice. If they give any of those games a good score, nobody will suspect it's because they got to chill in Hawaii. Of course, I have a feeling that people probably wouldn't think that about Jeff anyway." It's kind of a shame that Jeff thought he had to clarify his reasons for going to a press event. He must of really gotten a lot of crap from the community about it. "
" @Elazul said:Oh god, you had to bring that up didn't you? I guess it's good point, though. Jeff has proven to be a professional and scrupulous guy on more than one occasion and it makes no sense that he would go against all that just because he got to sit in a free hotel room for a couple of days.Right, but very smart to put up a full-disclosure notice. If they give any of those games a good score, nobody will suspect it's because they got to chill in Hawaii. Of course, I have a feeling that people probably wouldn't think that about Jeff anyway. "" It's kind of a shame that Jeff thought he had to clarify his reasons for going to a press event. He must of really gotten a lot of crap from the community about it. "
Yeah, I know. That's been brought up about 1,000 times too many on this site. But it applies.Oh god, you had to bring that up didn't you? I guess it's good point, though. Jeff has proven to be a professional and scrupulous guy on more than one occasion and it makes no sense that he would go against all that just because he got to sit in a free hotel room for a couple of days. "
Always assumed publishers paid for press to come out for their events while press paid their way to E3 and what have you. So long as everyone there doesn't compromise their normal routine in order to squeeze in some extra tourism time, I'm fine.
Edit: Shiiiiiit, this is Bombcast day. Not fine.
i didnt even know this was an issue until i saw Joystiq crying about not going to Captivate because it was against their principles or something... I always assumed game companies paid the expenses for the press to go see their games, especially if it was out of their way, since its basically free publicity when they report on what they saw... well, whatever, fuck the haters Jeff
I know games journalism isn't traditional "journalism" per se, and I think Jeff, you along with the rest of GB are very open in regards to your editorial policy. I'm a journalism major in college, and our sports writing teacher said the same thing about "freebies". We're told not to accept any gifts (food, clothing, etc) in class, but our teacher told us that's not how things work in the real world.
This seems like an extension of those things. It's not morally wrong; it's merely how the system works.
Yeah, I would bet no one would say anything if y'all got paid for trips to Cleveland or something. Also, I wonder if some of the complaints come from people that don't totally understand traveling for WORK. It's generally a complete pain in the ass, and might as well be in a conference center on the moon for all the city one gets to see.
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