It’s an onslaught. At this time of year game critics receive a hundred emails daily — at least.
Review me! Review me! is the cry.
I look at absolutely everything I receive, sometimes admiring the prose of a j-school grad now in the PR game, sometimes laughing at the balderdash that is spin.
Regarding the latter, yesterday I received an email touting the accomplishment, “Video Games Live Album Debuts at #8 on Billboard!”
As a guy who used to review music for Rolling Stone and the Village Voice, I thought, Wow! What an accomplishment. Let me check this out.
So I went to the Billboard Hot 200 CDs. It’s not at number 8 at all. Emimem’s Recovery is.
Maybe it’s on another Billboard chart. It probably is. But I couldn’t find it.
We all love Tommy Tallerico and his live show featuring the stirring music of videogames. He provides transmedia at its best for hungry gamers.
But sending around a press release that reads “The CD version of Video Games Live: Level 2, the latest release from the worldwide concert phenomenon known as Video Games Live, has debuted at #8 on the Billboard Charts” isn’t right.
In fact, it’s deceptive.
Just tell us the truth. We’ll appreciate Tommy’s heartfelt work and long-term accomplishments even more.
-Harold Goldberg