Xbox 360 Fanboy

To me it's news because now I know that the internet is no longer safe from spoilers, which will be popping up everywhere now

@UNSCleric, Really? You honestly believe there are people in the world with computers and game consoles and internet connections (the um, 3 things they'd need to know/care about this particular story) who don't also know that piracy exists? Under which rock do we find these folks, I'm curious to know what they look like...

Reporting a story like this doesn't raise the profile of the piracy scene any... p2p networks already blew it up to unwieldy proportions a few years ago. Also keep in mind a modchip is required, so even if someone tries to hop on that bandwagon by just downloading the game, they'll be sorely disappointed.

Or the 12 of them (atm) could have stole it as stock came in

spamming won't stop him from pirating it.

shit i didn't do that on purpose i did it this morning at school i had to use a proxy to get on this this site at school maybe that's why

It's called free speech, and it's a bitch. But you gotta love it.

That's like telling newspapers not to report successful bank robberies because other people might decide it's a good way to make money.

Are you going to try and debate every single person who disagrees with this news post being here?

UNSCleric: Obviously.

That is such a common misunderstanding of "free speach". By shouting "free speech" I must assume you are referring to 1st Amendment. The 1st only prevents the GOVERNMENT from interfering with your right to speek and be heard. No government force is involved.

I think people are suggesting responsible journalism. Yes, it is your right to post this. But that doesn't make it right. It is not NEWS that games get leaked. Most frequenters on this board, had then been polled, would have predicted that this game would be leaked. By reporting on it, you are givng free advertising to activity that is possibly criminal, certainly wrong witout providing valuable information to your readers. If there were valuable information then you could at least weight the value versus the "harm".

Just my thoughts.

LySop

You don't understand. You're arguing that reporting news should not be reported if it can potentially have some negative effect on one of the parties involved. In this case you are saying that news of a video game (GTA4) leak should not be reported because it may potentially have a negative effect on a company's (Take 2's) bottom line.

So, say Monsanto created a strain of corn that turned people into Zombies when eaten. Should the news not report on that because it would harm Monsanto? Or should they because it would help people? Or should they just because it's news?

Or say the people of the US were rising up and overthrowing our corporate masters. Should the news not report on that because it would alert the corporations? Or should they so that other people can join in the fight? Or should they just because it's news and they don't care what the effects are?

SugarDaddy: Reporting harmful news is ok if a.) it is newsworthy, and/or b.)the consumer benefits from the news.

A leaked game is not newsworthy. Everyone knows that these games get leaked. It always happens.

This isn't a zombie inducing virus that we need to protect ourselves from. In fact, there is nothing I/we can DO except go download the game. If we didn't know about it we couldn't download. The only action this story can cause is d/ling the game.

This is a classic case of worrying about being scooped and reporting before considering.

Matt

Wrong wrong wrong.

"Reporting harmful news is ok if a.) it is newsworthy, and/or b.)the consumer benefits from the news."

Oh, so who decides what is newsworthy? I think this story is certainly blogworthy, and so does X3F. I'm sure others do too.

"A leaked game is not newsworthy. Everyone knows that these games get leaked. It always happens."

Wrong. I would like to know that Take 2's efforts to prevent this game from leaking have failed. That kind of news is just as relevant as any other news on Joystiq or X3F.

"In fact, there is nothing I/we can DO except go download the game. [...] The only action this story can cause is d/ling the game."

Wrong. If you read through the comments, you would see people advocating AGAINST downloading it. So, there are 3 things you can do: 1. Download it (which may have happened regardless of the story anyway). 2. Advocate against downloading it. 3. Do nothing.

Oh, and I guess there's a 4th: Complain about a blog, blogging about the leak.