I'm A Blogger Jim, Not A Reporter

When I started The Nosy Gamer I thought I was just starting a nice little blog about MMORPGs.  I've had a long run so far and as usually happens things change.  I moved from EverQuest 2 to Eve Online and somehow I became interested in botting and the RMT trade in our video games.  Bloggers require information to work with and for some reason botting isn't really covered.  Or I should say, wasn't a couple of years ago when I first became interested in the subject.  I could probably start a new category of posts called "The Global War On Bots" or "The RMT Blues" with the news I'm finding, most recently concerning Guild Wars 2.

That lack of information meant I had to search out my own.  Yes, bloggers usually are not reporters and the vast majority have no training in the field.  The closest I can claim is my stint in the Army working in intelligence.  By the end of my military days I was not only working with raw intelligence but producing intelligence summaries.  So armed with that experience I went out and found information that interested me and wrote about it here.

Fast forward two years since a series of news articles on Eve News 24 hooked me on the subject.  Riverini and company published a new exposé about botting in TEST.  Given the subject and that the story was put together by the EN24 staff and not a syndicated blogger like myself I think anyone who regularly reads the blog expects me to comment on the situation.  I promise not to disappoint anyone.  But I do need a couple more days to research some things.

What do I need to research?  Here is where the blogger vs. reporter issue comes up.  A reporter, at least in the idealized American tradition, will go out, find out the facts and then write them up for an editor to review before publication.  As a blogger, I don't have an editor and on this subject I'm not known for my impartiality.  Fortunately as a blogger impartiality is optional.  But accuracy and getting the facts correct is important for a blogger's credibility so I try to do the best I can.

I also want to state that while the EN24 article concentrated on botting operations apparently approved, or at least tolerated, within the null sec alliances, I see a lot more stories hidden away just waiting for me to write.  A couple of stories may even contradict some of what is written in the exposé.  I've discussed the article with Riverini and I think he and I may have some different views on some of the specifics of the botting/RMT scene.  He has the contacts in null and my information is from different sources including analysis attempting to derive metrics on CCP Sreegs' efforts.

I think the Eve News 24 staff is on a roll and I can just sit back in an analyst role for a change.  Hopefully another news site will decide to join in the fun.  I'd really like to see a lot of facts floating around that I don't need to dig up.  I'm lazy that way.