semprafi:

Kotaku: “Gamers Pepper Sprayed During Black Friday “Competitive Shopping”, November 25th, 2011

DToid: ‘Black Friday shoppers Pepper sprayed Walmart game section”, November 25th, 2011

VG247: “Gamer pepper-sprayed in Black Friday sale”, November 25th, 2011

Take the lucky coincidence that the person(s) involved in this incident play/are aware of/wanted to buy discounted videogame merchandise out of the equation, and would this be “news” worthy of covering on a gaming site?

The answer is, shockingly, no. Not at all. It’s not even really news whatsoever.

Would a few unruly mainstream shoppers at an isolated store who happen to be slobbering over the chance to pick up some overly promoted discounted Blu-rays or DVDs, and then getting into a minor shopping altercation in that medium’s accompanying section, be all over the web’s various film and TV/entertainment sites?

Probably not. It’s not a pressing matter of any widespread significance, even with the faux CONTROVERSY ZOMG HEADLINES! In fact, I’m quite surprised the L.A. Times made as big of a deal out this as they did. It’s not even under their Entertainment tab; it’s just ‘Local Breaking News’.

This kind of shit is not surprising in the slightest, and happens every year — and not exclusively pertaining to videogames. Retailers should honestly be ashamed of themselves for promoting, and by association, encouraging this ongoing clusterfuck of nonsense.

I long for the ending of the practice of sites — be they gaming or not — tripping over themselves on a slow day to pick out any pseudo-relevant bit of info, from an otherwise unrelated topic, to concoct an unneeded article.

Take the weekend off and eat your goddamn leftovers. Christ. Those ad clicks will be back on Monday.

Plunkett, Sterling and Cullen - the three most common offenders of “posting vaguely gaming-related not-news bullshit as if it were relevant gaming news”. Nicely done, boys.