In light of all of the recent malarky with Jeff Gerstmann and Gamespot, it'd be really easy to just make a disparaging comment about where certain parts of Eidos's anatomy are in relation to certain parts of Gamespot's management, and call it a day. However I like to think I'm classier than that, so instead I'll take a trip up the ranty high road.

For those who don't know, you can pick up the story here

I guess it was inevitable, capitalism being what it is. Advertisers want to protect their investment, and when their hands are so far in your pocket that you have to store your keys somewhere else, there's a certain amount of interest in protecting your own investment. Still, the idea that one can be fired for posting objective content on a site that's supposed to be about objective content is disturbing at the best, and outright infuriating at the worst.

Infuriating indeed. And the most infuriating part of it all is that opinions on the matter are mixed. What could potentially be the death knell of the credibility of online reviews is being obscurred by the cheers of overzealous fanboys. You see, Gerstmann is the one who gave an 8.8 to Twilight Princess. It's an injustice, they cry, he's had this coming for a long time.

Yeah, the injustice isn't that a reviewer was fired for a perfectly decent review on the account of money. It's that he wasn't fired earlier for a different review that they didn't like! And when did 8.8 become such a horrifyingly bad score, anyway? Last time I checked, that's still far above average.

But that's another rant for another time. Right now, it's all rumors, of course. Though it's been all but confirmed that Gerstmann has actually been fired, the reasoning is still 'in question'. But the timing is so suspect that it seems dense to not be skeptical.

And I'm nothing if not skeptical. Is that what the reviewing community has become?

Well, mayhaps not. One of the reasons I stick to this little corner of the net, aside from the fact that I actually like most of the community, is the fact that it seems more...well, honest. Borderline sap aside, I think that the kind of work seen here is what the internet needs at times like this.

Maybe I'm not so much distressed as I am resolved. If Gamespot can't do it right, then someone else has to. And before I turn into a coach giving the boys a halftime pep talk, I'll just say that honesty is important, and it's something we have.

It's something we should hang onto as well.

Note: Edited after cooldown time for general coherence.