Current Events > Kotaku's Staff Expected to Write 50 Guides Per Week

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://aftermath.site/kotaku-eic-resigns-over-new-editorial-edict
https://www.thedailybeast.com/kotaku-editor-jen-glennon-quits-calls-go-media-ceo-jim-spanfeller-a-herb-on-her-way-out
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/kotaku-editor-in-chief-exits-due-to-parent-companys-new-guide-directive

I'm nobody's fool.

And then we get these quality guides like

"How to get Weapon X"
"Complete Quest A by NPC B in Location C".

We already have enough of these bot created google baits.

Just copy Fandom and generate content with AI

Wtf why guides. Do they think that's where the money is. Did they forget wikis youtube and even gamefaqs already exists

Axiom posted...

Wtf why guides. Do they think that's where the money is. Did they forget wikis youtube and even gamefaqs already exists

ad revenue for having entire pages (or even multiple) on how to do things like

Karovorak posted...

"How to get Weapon X"
"Complete Quest A by NPC B in Location C".

and yes pages like that do exist. dunno about kotaku, ive found random ones in google searches

The Escapist fucked around and found out. Maybe Kotaku is next.

The new owners killing kotaku sad really but game websites are eh

Axiom posted...

Wtf why guides. Do they think that's where the money is. Did they forget wikis youtube and even gamefaqs already exists

I think the goal is to churn them out fast so they can always be at the top of the searches.

It's a fool's errand. They're just going to overwork and alienate their employees while bringing down the quality of the site. And the AI generated garbage will still be faster, so all their chasing after revenue will generate less clicks. This may just kill off Kotaku.

Rika_Furude posted...

Just copy Fandom and generate content with AI

i mean most of them gonna quit and then thats probably what they will do

Rika_Furude posted...

ad revenue for having entire pages (or even multiple) on how to do things like

and yes pages like that do exist. dunno about kotaku, ive found random ones in google searches

Yeah, it's just to get these hits from google.

If someone has a generic question, most people still go to google first. Not Reddit, not Youtube, not GameFAQs. Google.

And whatever comes out on top there is able to get the click.

No matter how empty the guide, no matter how useless the content.

My favorite example was me trying to find out if there is also a rainbow color in Monster Hunter Rise. Ofc, I do a google search:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/a0ad44fc.jpg

The article starts with what Rainbow Color in Monster Hunter IS. This snipped baits you into believing that there is a guide behind, only to end with "sadly, it doesn't exist in Monster Hunter Rise so far."

They don't have to answer your question efficently, they have to make you click on them efficently, just from the few lines you see on google.

Probably Pocket Tactics shit

Just noting that they do have a guide writing staff, let's say around 25 people.

That's still two full guides a week. Every week.

For comparison, I'm on Week Eight of my Infinite Wealth guide, writing about four hours a day.

If my livelihood hinged on making two full guides a week, my writing quality would be the first thing to go, followed by my love of writing.

CyricZ posted...

Just noting that they do have a guide writing staff, let's say around 25 people.

That's still two full guides a week. Every week.

For comparison, I'm on Week Eight of my Infinite Wealth guide, writing about four hours a day.

If my livelihood hinged on making two full guides a week, my writing quality would be the first thing to go, followed by my love of writing.

I used to have a love of writing. Then I had one too many cases of staring at a blank page unable to start even the first word before I realized it wasnt for me and packed it in.

Theyre literally copying the Fextralife model

wow can't believe kotaku would stoop so low and have low quality content

Maybe they can now offer something of substance instead of bottom of the barrel clickbait "journalism".

AlephZero posted...

wow can't believe kotaku would stoop so low and have low quality content

Every major news site with a "guides" section is doing this. Kotaku is awful but they're not remotely alone.

Why do people even go to craptaku anymore? The only good journalist they had was Jason Schreier.

Apparently alot of the former Kotaku people created their own site https://aftermath.site/

That's 10 flippin' guides a day?

Either you are writing one paragraph explanations on how to do something simple or you will have to basically copy the guides somewhere else. Ridiculous.

I mean it's better than the clickbait crap kotaku normally shits out

This reads to me like the CEO is making up some arbitrary unrealistic rule to force everyone out so he can replace them with AI

The world needs GameFAQ's, now more than ever.

How long do you think it will take to go from "Kotaku workers expected to write 50 guides a week" to "Kotaku workers expected to fix/edit 50 AI generated guides a week"?

It's sort of feels like they've chosen a metric that basically requires a large language model to cut out most of the actual writing in order to hit.

I'm assuming 50 guides for the entite staff, right? If so, and you assume 10 to 25 staff members, that's a guide per day at most or two guides per week.

Seems like a not unreasonable output for a paycheck. People write a helluva lot more for assuredly less.

If the staff is smaller or 50 per employee though, that's ridiculous.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

Me everytime I gotta write a paper. I could never write a guide, let alone 2 full ones a week

K181 posted...

If so, and you assume 10 to 25 staff members

You would assume wrong. There are seven of them.

Right-wingers are pleased with this because it means Kotaku will be rid of the so-called woke writers and spiral into further irrelevance with gamers.

fandom in ruins

So they'll just go from writing hack garbage, to vapid slop?

IceCreamOnStero posted...

So they'll just go from writing hack garbage, to vapid slop?

Kotaku's news side of things was pretty legit. It, however, was apparently not making them enough money so they're moving them over to the garbo side of the equation.

ellis123 posted...

Kotaku's news side of things was pretty legit. It, however, was apparently not making them enough money so they're moving them over to the garbo side of the equation.

I would not describe it as "pretty legit".

IceCreamOnStero posted...

I would not describe it as "pretty legit".

I would call it mostly clickbait, well other than Jason Schreier and he left a while ago didnt he?

IceCreamOnStero posted...

I would not describe it as "pretty legit".

That is because you cannot discern between Kotaku News and Kotaku everything else.

Which is part of the reason Kotaku News stopped getting views, as you are not alone, leading to this current end result.

50 guides a week is absurd but you got to love The Domino effect

Karovorak posted...

And then we get these quality guides like

"How to get Weapon X"
"Complete Quest A by NPC B in Location C".

We already have enough of these bot created google baits.

Nah. Its worse, as the only way to meet that quota is to plagiarize guides like that that have already been written.

PraetorXyn posted...

Nah. Its worse, as the only way to meet that quota is to plagiarize guides like that that have already been written.

It's definitely going to negatively affect FAQs writers and wiki editors.

The saddest part of these one-page guides is that they often get abandoned. I find some with collectibles and they... just don't have all of them listed, and the guide is a year old.

If you're forced to constantly be making new pages, it's super easy to just let the old ones hang.

Modern game journalism. No money to be made by site regulars so they turn to content spam.

Wil Kotaku have a guide for Civ V with the Brave New World expansion pack?

Does this mean Kotaku writers will actually have to start, you know, playing games?

They are targeting GAMEFAQS

Kotaku has been a massive joke for a long time, now. I think the higher-ups have noticed that the viewership of the site has reduced significantly. Nobody really wants to read about most of the stuff they write about these days.

Lorenzo_2003 posted...

Does this mean Kotaku writers will actually have to start, you know, playing games?

No, they will play for 20 minutes in order to get enough content for their 50 guides

how to complete step 2 of the tutorial

where to find this chest 3 steps behind the exit of tutorial cave (with a paragraph on what a chest is and why youd want to open one)

etc

*Kotaku staff expected to use ChatGPT to regurgitate (aka plagiarize) GameFAQs guides

Good. Fuck 'em.
Lying, gaslighting "journalists" over there.

Searching up walkthroughs on the internet that honestly aren't by Gamefaqs feel like they were written by AI. They all start and end the same way.

Here's how you do this....
Thanks for reading I hope you learned how to do this.

While playing Unicorn overlord I ran into a guide in the Internet saying you could play as male or female Alain but that it wouldn't affect romance options.

Spoilers you cannot play as female Alain.