News
Embargo Dates are Dumb
Cordova, TN; October 25, in the year of our Lord 2021 -- Family Friendly Gaming, the industry leader in covering the family friendly video games is continuing to be the voice of diversity in the gaming media, and media at large. I had someone in PR and Marketing get me very grumpy recently. Eight hours before an embargo lifted they decided to change it and bump it out for an entire week. What does it matter if we publish a review on the original embargo date? Have they no respect for our time and money that they expect we will shift things around for them at the last minute? Why are embargo dates even there in the first place? They certainly do not help us at Family Friendly Gaming. In fact the only reason for an embargo date is to make it easier on the people and PR and Marketing. They get a bulk of reviews on a certain day and are not required to collect them over a period of time. Why do the people in PR and Marketing feel it is our responsibility to make their jobs easier?
In this instance where the person decided less than eight hours (our time, two hours their time) before the embargo date to lift we had a serious problem. The pages for the next day had already been built. The work had been done and we did not have the time or the financial resources to make a change of course. I told them too late. I also pointed them to our LEGAL page which denotes what he did was a violation of the policies we have as a company. I also pointed out that if he wanted already published pages to be changed there was a service fee for that work order request. Of course he did not want to pay, and wanted us to do all of this work for him for free. We published the review a few hours later as already planned. I have no clue if this person realized it or not because I do not plan on giving them the review link. Not until they pay the fines they incurred with their rude, hateful, and extremely unprofessional behaviour.
Ultimately embargo dates and especially times are dumb. They are meaningless. They require extra work and effort on our part. The embargo dates and times always come with a threat. If you do not do exactly as I say then we may not send you review codes ever again. That is the threat we get from PR and Marketing. These people are the ones who are supposed to sell us on publishing coverage of the products they are representing. They act more like task masters than someone trying to sell us on something. I did that Slave Labor video for a reason. The attitude and perspective of those in PR and Marketing needs a major re-alignment. I have written about this topic again and again from a plethora of different angles. Sadly too many in PR and Marketing do not seem to get it. They are getting worse and worse.
It was liberating to release the review when we planned on. It felt good to tell them: “no I am not jumping through your meaningless hoops.” This is the first time I have knowingly broken an embargo date. My justification is they changed the date at the last minute when it was too late for me to do anything about it. I do not give them the right to do that. I do not authorize them to treat me in that fashion. Just because it was an emergency for them does not mean it dictated how I behaved. If I do not get anymore crummy games from that company so be it. If they actually make a decent video game then I will look for a physical copy to purchase. It will most likely wind up on Xbox Game Pass if there are no physical copies. If I miss some game, oh well. I have a pile of interesting games to play that came in the physical copy format.
I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day.
God bless,
Paul Bury
Emperor
Family Friendly Gaming
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