Top five tips we turned down this week
Every day, Joystiq receives innumerable tips from people eager to guide our way through the world of video game news and culture. Most of the time, everything goes swimmingly: an interesting link pops up, you let us know, and we write it up. Sometimes, it doesn't go so smoothly.
When we reject a tip, it may be because we've already reported on the story, or because the content of the tip isn't right for Joystiq. Other times, the rejected tip is dead wrong. Usually this is the fault of the source, not the tipster. Very often, rejected tips are also ones that, for whatever reason, make us laugh.
This post is dedicated to the tipsters behind the tips that we didn't use this week.
5. One tipster suggested that we take a look at something called bCompatible, but instead of telling us what the hell the site was about, he decided to lure us in with the promise of a "cool Mario wallpaper". You'll never be so let down in your entire life.
4. Another tipster sent us a tip to let us know that he snapped a picture of "a real life Raiden!", probably so that we could add it to our collection of game character look-alikes. Unfortunately, we can't prove whether he actually managed to snap a pic of the real life Raiden because the included link was just a picture of some kid next to a picture of Raiden. In other news, Chris Grant looks like Rayman. A naked, drunk, Rayman.
3. This is a slightly more serious tip rejection, but it highlights the effect that bad wording in a mainstream news article can have on our mailboxes. Just under a month ago, Yahoo News covered Nintendo's statement that the Wii won't be more than $250. The only problem being that Yahoo decided to say that the Wii was definitely going to be priced at $250. Cue dozens of Nintendo fans submitting multiple tips with words like "CONFIRMED" and "REVEALED" in the subject line. We're still getting tips to this article now, nearly a month on. Cheers Yahoo.
2. One guy found a link to a potato chip that looks vaguely like Pac-Man. C'mon kids, you know this one; what do you do when you find a novelty food item? List it on eBay!
And the award for the most awkward tip this week goes to... random PS3 fanboy #369! We'll let his brilliantly crafted prose lull you into a sweet, gentle migraine by posting the entirety of his "tip" below.
1. "You are wrong actually what you are doing is thinking that the 360 and Revolution will beat the PS3 and to beat it No its the other way round you have to realize that playstations are the best consoles to get you see with PCs and Xbox 360 they are not popular as playstation technology is and that is a fact think about it does 360 have enough games on the sale as the PS3 because Playstation came out before the original xbox did and they are much more easier to develop that 360s are so I don't think your 360 and Nintendo Consoles are going to save you from an unbeatable video game console the winner of the next gen war is the PS3"
A convincing argument, I'm sure you'll agree.
Seriously though, we value every single tip that we receive, simply because we know that the person behind it took a little time out of their busy day to help us out. To show that we care, we'll send an orange Joystiq t-shirt to a tipster that sends us a particularly good tip this week. That could be a developer with some top-secret screenshots, somebody with a really cool forum post (see: crazy Wii guy), or even a sneaky employee of a game retailer willing to share shots of an unreleased console, but it definitely won't be somebody selling a Pac-man potato chip.
A useful tip to tipsters: here's a link to the Joystiq tips form!
