"It gives us valuable one-on-one time with the media," said Marci Ditter, director of public relations and promotions for Midway, a game publisher based in Chicago. In July, Midway brought 25 journalists--paying the way for most of them--to Amberley Castle in West Sussex, England, to promote "Legion: The Legend of Excalibur," a game set for release this fall.
Midway and other companies insist they don't expect quid pro quo in terms of coverage. Most say they simply hope to establish good relations with the game journalists while giving them relevant information.
"Journalists aren't obligated to cover the games at all," Ditter said. "We see this as building brand awareness."
Ethicists disagree.
"It's clear that the idea behind any junket is to curry favor with the reviewer," said Woods of the Poynter Institute. "The more substantial the entertainment, the clearer the intent of the host."
Because of the potential conflict of interest, most game publications, including Computer Gaming World, PC Gamer and Official PlayStation Magazine and some online sites such as GameSpot and GameSpy have policies against taking free trips and accepting gifts worth more than $25 to $100. "We have to pick up the tab pretty much everywhere we go," said Amer Ajami, senior editor at GameSpot, a San Francisco-based online game news site owned by CNet Networks.
The policies, however, are unevenly enforced, according to several junket organizers. Often, the rules don't apply to freelancers, who work independently and sell their articles to a variety of publications.
But freelancer or not, no writer will admit to being swayed by the extravaganzas.
"You can wine and dine me all you want, but if your game [stinks], I have no qualms saying the game is awful," said Ham, who freelances for publications including the Washington Post, USA Today and GameSpy. In his review of "Time Crisis II," Ham wrote that the game's story line was "a bit thin." That was after he was brought to a Las Vegas target range for practice with an Uzi submachine gun.
Ham's editor at the Post, Rob Pegoraro, said the paper cannot dictate how its freelancers spend their time. But it does have a policy against free trips for both staff writers and freelancers working on behalf of the newspaper. Pegoraro said he was not aware of some of the junkets Ham attended and would have advised against them had he known.
"Tom's reviews can stand on their own," Pegoraro said. "On the other hand, he--like every writer, freelance or staff--needs to think about how his actions might look to his readers."
The Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, USA Today and Gannett News Service also have printed the work of freelancers who have accepted junkets. These publications, too, have policies that forbid all writers from accepting free trips and accommodations. When staff writers do attend, their employers pay the tab.
That still leaves a raft of writers from "fanzines" who may work without limits. And impressing them gets harder all the time.
"Game journalists are so jaded," said George Ngo, a former game writer who is now a public relations manager for Tecmo Ltd., a Japanese game publisher. "You really have to pull something out of a hat to make it memorable. So each year, it gets bigger, brighter, glitzier and louder."
