This might be why I’m not getting offers. They’ve seen what I write about games. Those bloggers’ll turn on ya.’

I totally understand Ethic’s stance on this, and agree. Although honestly, I’d probably be harder on a game that gave me a free subscription because I’d feel that I needed to give them the feedback. Although, what I would prefer to do is have an open line with a dev, such as with other such people, in the interest of making a game better. I was in such a “club” long long ago, along with a few other writers of popular blogs (although at this time, I wasn’t writing here), and we had tons of private conversations that really helped that game. What was funny, at least to me, is the fact that we could not talk about it, and one of them, a very prominent writer at the time, would frequently bash mercilessly the game she was helping to fix. When asked about it, she said that she had no problem wearing two hats – she loved the game, and the free subscription did not change that, and that was why she bashed the wrongs and then tried to fix them.

Fun dance if you can do it.

I mean, from “my” POV (the studio’s) it’s fifteen dollars. It’s not big enough to be a bribe. If you have ten readers, and half of them play my game for ONE month past the free trial, I have made 75 dollars for a profit of sixty bucks.

I appreciate your stance, and as a REPORTER I think you are entirely correct – even something small like a subscription will make a rant, however well deserved, feel awkward. But switching back to my studio hat, I’m gonna spend way more money on you if you ever come to one of my press events. If you have just two drinks at the hotel bar when I’m paying, you’ll have cost me more than a month’s sub.

Man, I could talk myself in circles like a terrier on meth.