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When Wolfshead commented on Tobold’s ego several days ago, we didn’t intend to comment on it. Not because Wolfshead isn’t dead-on, but because we had nothing further to add. In short, commentary on Tobold’s ego came up after Tobold announced that Mythic handed him a media subscription to Warhammer: Age of Reckoning (WAR). In other words, Tobold was given a free account, which some readers perceived as a conflict of interest, thinking that Tobold’s objectivity about the game would clearly come into play. We seized the opportunity to jest that we, too, would accept such an account to keep writing about WAR. We let the topic rest until today, after Tobold’s recent post, entitled “Hear me brag!” naturally reminded us of Wolfshead’s comments days earlier. Says Tobold:

Writing this blog is a considerable effort, which I sustained now for over 5 years and over 2,200 posts. I don’t do it out of financial considerations, which is why you don’t see any ads here. I do it because I want my voice to be heard, and because of the recognition blogging earns me. Official recognition, in the form of a press pass to a Blizzard convention, and a comped account for WAR is nice.

Well, we can’t say Tobold didn’t warn us that he was going to brag, what with all that back-patting. Fair enough, he’s a popular blogger, and he relishes the fandom. He should be proud of his blogging accomplishments, but let’s not ignore the fact that he quickly feigns being a victim when the slightest disagreement comes his way, and finds a clever way to fight back with his Toboldgate proclamations. Yes, word-play like that is likely tongue-in-cheek and we don’t fault him for it quite as much as Wolfshead appears to, but there’s something really annoying about someone who goes to unneeded lengths to point out how great they are, how they are above the corruption inherent in the industry (despite accepting benefits thereof), and constantly catering to whatever readership he can earn and maintain. Any blog devoted to a particular subjects, particularly one as volatile as the MMOG market, needs to be hard on a variety of topics, and if one is constantly playing the political game, their positions will ultimately be contested and accused of corruption. In short, a “suck it, I got a free subscription to WAR” would have been far more preferable to the attitude Tobold projected.

As for the very act of being offered a media subscription, we all know that they’re out there (well, we do now). How does one think most gaming reviews happen? There’s a reason blogs like Opposable Thumbs are able to write weekly features on WAR before the game’s release, and why they can review hardware that would otherwise be too expensive for the lone, homebrew blogger to afford. On the one hand, knowing about these free review subscriptions/copies may make a reader feel like the publication won’t be objective in the future (as has been the case with print-publications in the past, particularly when advertising comes into the mix), but on the other hand, we’d like to be able to make that decision ourselves with full disclosure from the publication/blog given ahead of time.

In other words, Tobold’s revelation of his free subscription isn’t the issue. How he mentioned it, and how he reacted to commentary afterwards, was. As for the companies offering these subscriptions/copies, they ought to make the publication mention it in any features/reviews, particularly when it comes to lone bloggers like Tobold, who most people don’t expect to be given a media subscription in the first place. Otherwise, the integrity of the lone blogger is put into question, which is bad enough considering that most lone bloggers aren’t worth following in the first place. What the blogosphere doesn’t need is industry souring the words of the few bloggers who do manage to stand out, despite their ego.

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