Game journalism is a tough job. You get paid to play video games and write about them. And then sometimes, a whole lot of controversy gets stirred up when a reviewer gives a middling review to a game that's advertised all over the site. Add that kind of pressure to input from readers and fans, and that lingering worry that if you pan a developer's efforts, they won't give you advance copies of newer games for review, and you have a very tense situation whenever you're about to put your thoughts in writing.
Parody filmmakers Mega64 get this, and have brought the game journalist's plight to the big screen--or, well, to your computer screen, at least. Brace yourself for... Modern Game Journalism: The Movie... The Trailer.
Pretty harrowing stuff there. I'm honestly wondering what would happen if a journalist did a review of a major title while readers were watching (for the record, we are not going to try this at the next con I attend). What do you think? Is modern game journalism at a point where we can't speak freely about what we like or dislike for fear of fan and sponsor backlash? Or is it all just blown out of proportion?