Despite their valiant efforts to regain reader trust by appointing a new Editor in Chief, GameSpot just keeps losing out. Today it was revealed that (another) friend of Jeff Gerstmann, Ryan Davis, is leaving the site after 8 years of work. With lines on his blog like

I would not be in the video game business at all were it not for Jeff Gerstmann

...it's clear that the "Gerstmanngate" controversy directly influenced his leave, unlike former cases where it was mere speculation. Coming off of his role of associate editor and long time reviewer, Davis was confirmed by the new EIC to be joining his fellow, former Gamespot employees in the land of temporary joblessness.

But now, Jeff's gone, and I'm not afraid to say that it absolutely breaks my heart. I felt the departure of Rich Gallup from the site earlier this year in my bones, but this goes deeper. Jeff was a rare constant, and this marks the end of an era for both GameSpot and myself, a fact that doesn't seem to be getting any less upsetting for me. Still, one thing about a situation like this is that it encourages you to break out lots of trite sentiment and soft, obvious analogies--things that embarrassingly manage to resonate sincerely when one is in crisis--and there is one chestnut I've used on more than one occassion over the past 72 hours that I would like to share:

 

The ball is still in motion. This isn't the end for Jeff Gerstmann, this isn't the end for GameSpot, and this isn't the end for me.

 Well said. Best of luck to Davis in his future endeavours. 

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Dreski83 said:

Sad stuff, especially being a long time user of the GS site.

February 05, 2008