Gamespot Complete: Complete = pay now or else.

[Changer13]

What the hell is up with gamespot charging for their "complete" service? I guess they decided to make more money off their website besides all of their stupid movies and stuff. Well I'm just wondering if anyone else has good sites to check out video game ratings? I usually went to gamespot but now I'm starting to read more of thegia and gamepro. Just want some suggestions now that I can afford the damn consoles.

One Angry Man

 

[datalink7]

Make more money? Actually they were probably losing money. Did you think the paid staff, the servers, and bandwidth came free? They have to cover their costs somehow.

The internet dream economy was a bubble that burst. Welcome to the real world.

 

[Nefrodite]

yup, reality blows. some sites like salon i'll gladly pay for. gamespot.. eh not so much.

 

[tops2]

totally sucks
i rarely visit the site anymore...

 

[dude]

Everyone is just so used to get something for free. That is what sucks. Now that you have to pay for it, everyone is bitchin and moaning.

Believe it people, nothing is free in this world.

 

[Karsten]

Well... yeap... so the market will take care of that one. I am a 30 something avid gamer, but do you think I will pay for Gamereviews? NOPE Now... if I won't pay having a love for games and a steady income, do you think a teen will trow money at this? I don't think so.
All they will acomplish is that their readership will dwindle even further and they will lose more money because they have less hits on their advertisment. Am I terrible sad that their business will go under.... no, not really. While it was neat to watch some Videos and stuff I found that they didn't work 50% of the time anyway (No I am not rant about the anoying fact that the comercial before the game fottage seemed to stream fine but the acctual game movie didn't).

Now... the one site that I really miss and in hindsight would have paid for to keep alive was the ALLGAMES Network. While they got goofy towards the end I loved most of their stuff. Rest in peace All Games!

 

[Angrymarshmello]

Originally posted by: Karsten
Well... yeap... so the market will take care of that one. I am a 30 something avid gamer, but do you think I will pay for Gamereviews? NOPE Now... if I won't pay having a love for games and a steady income, do you think a teen will trow money at this? I don't think so.
All they will acomplish is that their readership will dwindle even further and they will lose more money because they have less hits on their advertisment. Am I terrible sad that their business will go under.... no, not really. While it was neat to watch some Videos and stuff I found that they didn't work 50% of the time anyway (No I am not rant about the anoying fact that the comercial before the game fottage seemed to stream fine but the acctual game movie didn't).

Now... the one site that I really miss and in hindsight would have paid for to keep alive was the ALLGAMES Network. While they got goofy towards the end I loved most of their stuff. Rest in peace All Games!

Why do people b1tch about paying for reviews? It's like $19.99 a year - how much a video game magazine yearly subscription costs, except you're getting news as soon as it comes out and reviews as soon as they come out instead of waiting a month. Sure it used to be free but like stated above, bandwith, salaries, etc are not free - they have to find a way to cover their costs. Paying for this is no different than paying for a video game magazine at your local store.

 

[XZeroII]

I believe Gamespot is owned by ZDNet. Take that however you like...

 

[Karsten]

Why do people b1tch about paying for reviews?

Don't see where I was bitching. I just simply think that their busines model is not sound. I just simply don't see enough value to pay my money and I think I am not the only one that thinks so.
The better reviews on the site came from users that gave input... not the stock writen ones anyway. So try to imagine how many submissions they get now? I doubt very many anymore. Places like Firingsquad and gamers.com are still "free" so I will take my eyes there. Thats really my whole point. I really do not much care what happens to them. I just wanted to point out where their logic seems flawed from my perspective.

Since they seem to be a part of ZIFF DAVIS they can hold their breath much longer... so they might not die soon... but they will... eventually.

 

[LordJezo]

Screw it.

Just go to www.gamespot.co.uk or the austrailian one. Both are free.

 

[blurredvision]

Why do people b1tch about paying for reviews? It's like $19.99 a year - how much a video game magazine yearly subscription costs, except you're getting news as soon as it comes out and reviews as soon as they come out instead of waiting a month. Sure it used to be free but like stated above, bandwith, salaries, etc are not free - they have to find a way to cover their costs. Paying for this is no different than paying for a video game magazine at your local store.

Couldn't have said it better myself. In my opinion, Gamespot has always been and still is the best site for gaming on the net today. Their reviews are unbiased as they come as far I can see. The videos stream fine, and they have a LOT of bandwidth to go around. And for $20 a year, (going to $25 in August), you can't beat that. For a site that I have been going to for reviews since atleast 1998, I can afford $20 bucks to help keep them afloat. I DARE any of you to find better coverage of E3 out on the net.

 

[ThaGrandCow]

I miss IGN too.
That used to be one of my favorite websites out there. They always had the latest news first. Now they are subscriber based and I'm a poor broke college student

 

[N8Magic]

Gamecenter and Daily Radar were my two fav gaming sites. It was a sad couple of days when those two sites ceased operations.

As for alternatives, you could check out IGN.com(some stuff is free) or GameSpy.(free)

 

[Imdmn04]

Originally posted by: dude
Everyone is just so used to get something for free. That is what sucks. Now that you have to pay for it, everyone is bitchin and moaning.

<STRONG>Believe it people, nothing is free in this world.</STRONG>

Well, the advertisers pays them, and who pays the adverstisers? us consumers. So we are paying already. If they decides to charge extra, then we'll just goto another site. Welcome to the real world, a real competitive world. If you cant rake in enough cash from advertisement while other sites can, then tough. Consumers dont care if you cant make enough money to pay for yourself, they'll just move on to the next one for free.