Update 3 of sorts to- It’s good to be independent. Seeing that Thrills beat me to it, I’ll add a few thoughts of mine to this in its own post. I wanted to write a novel, but I think I’ll keep it short and sweet.

As unconfirmed as this is and may stay for the foreseeable future, when it comes down to it Jeff Gerstmann is no longer employed by Gamespot. Not a big deal for most, but this writer has been a huge Jeff Gerstmann supporter since he began at Gamespot. He’s the entire reason I stayed a reader of Gamespot for the last nine years or so. In the short and long run of things, this calls into question everyone covering this medium, big or small(er), from the readers perspective no matter how much we claim to be impartial. Speaking for myself only, as I try to gain ever gaining relevance in this industry, how should any of us try to continue on with the knife blade of the very company’s products we cover shadowed in the background ready to stab us in the back for doing our job. Every industry works that way in some form or another, but that doesn’t mean it’s the way it ought to be.

News of this this past Friday morning hit me pretty hard. I didn’t want to carry on out of spite of this hence me deciding to take a break for a few days with no post what so ever. As I listened to the latest Gamespot: Presents the Hotspot on this past Wednesday, I continually asked myself where the heck was Jeff at? No one mentioned it the entire show, but now that we know what happen to him I can’t help but feel that this has tainted all of us in the worst way possible. Lots of other outlets like Destructoid has voiced there opinion loudly and I am glad to see that no one (mostly no one) is taking this lying down. Jeff Gerstmann is going to be Jeff Gerstmann no matter who employs him right? Boycotting Gamespot and Cnet is fine and all, but lets not forget that all of the other writers and producers who I had and still have respect for are still there. Having them take part of the brunt of this is kind of extreme.

The all out silence from both parties is a telling sign. In every other instance of confusion over something like this there would have been lots of people setting the record strait from many of the other parties adjacent to this if he wasn’t “fired”. Just a thought. What do I know. We’d all have to be some kind of wise cracking Jedi Yoda mutant to get the truth, now wouldn’t we.

Here are a few links to other things that should be read.

Gamepolitics

Joystiq

Valleywag

Gamestooge

Digg

-William “thewilleffect” Bell-