A PewDiePie quote recently appeared on stands for Techland's new game, Dying Light. This was a little strange by itself, PewDiePie is a gamer but he's not exactly a journalist. New information has come to light that makes his endorsement even more troubling. Namely that Techland may have paid for it.
PewDiePie Appears In The Real World, Quote Used On Dying Light Display
The quote comes from one of Pewd's Let's Play videos where he demos the game. The problem is that the company may have paid to have him play the game as part of their advertisement campaign, reports Crave Online.
The fact that they paid for him to play the game isn't the issue. The fact that they used a quote from the paid advertisement (without at the very least mentioning that they PAID for it) is a problem. It's a pretty huge ethical issue.
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Companies pay for advertisement all the time, but you can't use the glowing endorsements that your purchased ads gave you as proof of your products viability. Your endorsements must be unbiased.
Even though PewDiePie is not a journalist, his YouTube channel and others like it are increasingly becoming the source for game reviews and recommendations for the public in the way traditional journalism has been in the past.
Where are those #Gamergate guys at? This is an ACTUAL ethics in gaming journalism issue. Seems like something they would want to be into. I'm just saying.
None of this is PewDiePie's fault. Even though he did produce the video as he may have been hired to do, he's not a gaming journalist. His views are always personal opinion however, given the changing state of how we are getting our game information, it might be time for PewDiePie (and the gaming side of YouTube as a whole) to rethink their business models. You can watch the video in question below.
