@Modus_Operandi: Hah, beat me to it!

Sziphix

Damn you guys are just so damn lucky. :P

MrMister

@ThursdayNext: Avaricious? When someone offers you a free trip, they are taking the monetary burden off of you. So if you were avaricious, you would accept the free trip because it saves you money.

No, I think you were trying to say "I've always been vicious".

Krytha

@badasscat: Pathetic, but innocent. the story of my life. I mean...

ekkobi

@badasscat:
Well said. I agree 100%. Also, I just found out from a recent trip to Korea that if you want the "wink wink, nudge nudge" that Korea is not the place because you get a "shove shove, coerce coerce". My friend told me about businessmen going out and the boss buying the Korean rice liquor 'soju' and making a subordinate drink it off a hostess's breast.
Even going as far as buying a prostitute for a worker (even married) and that's the way things go. This is mostly 3rd hand knowledge, but I did notice a lot of girls outside of bars who REALLY wanted me to come in and have a drink.

Amerijapoxicano

There are escorts in America whose job is to sit and drink with you. It's a lesser level than what immediately springs to mind, but the term still technically fits. They are localize, non-sexual escorts.

I mean really they're paid to fuck with your mind.

Mike Fahey

this is just a regular Japanese business practice happens all the time.

TT

You guys are going to blow this way out of proportion. When I lived in Japan I had a guy who was missing both his front teeth invite me out to a hostess bar. So we left the snack bar and I was treated by the tooth-impaired man to an hour of (mostly Philippine) woman in sexy, skimpy outfits treating me like a king and pouring me mass quantities of beer.
The tooth-deprived man paid the $30 for my heavenly, albeit with strange company, hour. Why'd he do it? Because I was a foreigner in a tiny town in Japan who spoke Japanese. Now imagine it's a game studio picking up the tab. Throw in a few bottle of Chivas Regal and make it 3 hours and you've got over $200 on one guy.

Amerijapoxicano

@Parapraxis:

Because you will end up spending a LOT of money.

Parapraxis

"Escorts" is overdoing it a little.

Hostesses at hostess bars are paid to sit and talk to you. That's it. Seriously. This is not a "wink wink, nudge nudge" kind of situation where they say one thing but everybody knows what's really going on. No, these women really do just sit there and talk, and guys really do pay for it.

Oh sure, there are some who can be bought off after hours, basically on their own time. But it's not common, and I guarantee you none of these journalists is doing that. Tecmo would assuredly not be paying for that, not even under the table - it would be a major scandal if they did and anybody found out, both for the game industry and for the hostess bar industry.

btw, all of this is from first-hand (or at least second-hand) knowledge. I've been to hostess bars, I know girls who worked at hostess bars, and I know other people who were frequent visitors of hostess bars. It's all pretty innocent; actually kind of pathetic if you think about it. But innocent.

badasscat

Bristol. If you're Japanese, and you live in OC, you know what I'm talking about.

And if you don't, it's better you didn't.

Parapraxis

But it sounds like no happy ending.

Tull

Ha everybody has their price. Nobody is immune.

Pudgey

That's something I never knew, nor ever thought of.

Also, I've been playing Yakuza lately, so I can understand the thought of a hostess bar. 'Cept I hope you don't give the girls your cell phone numbers. That just gets a tad bit annoying.

Xeneizes

why not consider it "immersion into japanese culture and customs to better understand the game"?
Then everyon's a winrar.

Mr. Tambourine Man

@arstal: From what a (female) friend of mine who used to work in Japan has told me, they'd probably ask her to make some tea or hang up the coats or something.

phicaluk

I would like to sign up!

orionzdrm

Tecmo? Using alcohol and women to entertain journalists? How incredibly out of character!

Seriosuly though no wonder the company couldnt pay bonus'.

Modus_Operandi

@IronsUK:

*fap fap fap*

redneon

I have the sudden urge to become a video game journalist.

NaeemTHM

... and I've just made my next career choice.

thelastslice

I really doubt these journalists are at all influenced or distracted by these women. Despite their reputation most men can remain focused on a task despite.... uh... the uh... Hey guys, check out that chick in the bunny costume!

elementary

If some reviewers sell out with shwag, why say no to some hot japanese women?? They´re hot japanese women after all. Besides, i don´t understand what´s so shocking about women in Tecmo, i bet Itagaki used to have a lot of them for the "motion capture" of his games, which requires them to be naked 24/7...

Daisuash

@arstal: Use your imagination!

IronsUK

"Editor's note: It is against Kotaku's policy to accept free travel. We do disclose when we go to events paid for by publishers or developers."

Really? Kudos on putting integrity first. I'm impressed. Personally, I'd leave anyone offering me a free trip with a bloody stump on their shoulder in place of an arm, but I've always been avaricious.

ThursdayNext

Tecmo should totally make a GTA game.

NOW

Mr. Tambourine Man

What would they do if the mag brought over a female journalist?

arstal

Women being used to corrupt my game magazine's integrity?!

... that's when you know gaming has gone mainstream, amirite?

greyhoundbus

I have a new dream job.

Dread1021

i'm gonna photoshop a journalists ID and walk up to Tecmo HQ in Japan :)

F22

@Mike Fahey: The term may or may not technically fit, but come on. When you say "escort" in this country, everybody knows what you mean. Should Eliot Spitzer still have a job because he was simply being "escorted" by "escort" Ashley Dupre?

The word's got connotations. And using "escort" and "hostess" interchangeably in a post is the same kind of thing that got Americans thinking geishas were prostitutes for so long. Way to foster cultural misunderstandings there.

Anyway I'm not really sure the term "escort" *does* fit. These girls won't go anywhere with you. They work at the bar and pour your drinks and talk to you there. They don't escort you anywhere.

badasscat

Man, this doesn't sound bad at all. *note to self: become a gaming journalist.

y2julio

Go play Yakuza 2 (or 1?) for a cheaper simulation of the hosting/hostess world.

doobymoo

Dan Hsu at a Hostess Bar? I just threw up a little in my mouth

crazyscreenwriter

@Dread1021: Anyone who has a job where they are a "client," gets wooed. I've dropped $3500 on a dinner before, and I am small time in the client-vendor world. What's different is Dan Hsu -- and other game jounalists -- somehow this this all makes them special, or that other industries don't do the same thing. It's just another example of how self-centered, self-referential, and self-obsessed game journalists are. There are of course exceptions, which is why I am reading Kotaku and not EGM, but these game journaists need to get over themselves. Everyone else in the hostess bar is also being paid for by a vendor. No one goes to hostess bars by themselves. Get a grip.

omnibot2000XL

@TT: Doesn't make it not pathetic.

LennyShimizu

Actually, what I'm thinking is that I'm in the wrong line of work...

fdisk

@arstal:

There are male host clubs in Japan.

TrickyNishidake

@TT: That's the impression I got after reading this article and remembering the "Lip my stocking" scene from Lost in Translation.

josh924

Not really surprising at all, I mean they want to do whatever it takes to get good press or good reviews on games. Although I think this can and does discredit a lot of journalists opinions on products, etc when they can be bought out with expensive trips, poon, etc or forced into opinions via job threatening.

strix

I think articles on this site would get alot more traffic if they all had bunny girls at the top of them.
Just sayin...

benu302000

Already been said, but this is definitely nothing out of the ordinary. I was given similar treatment as a lowly designer by companies in I worked with in Roppongi, as well as merely being shown a good time with pals. It's not much different than being taken out for a drink. Probably would be considered rude had they NOT taken these guys out for a night on the town, especially considering their long travel.

@Amerijapoxicano Totally agree. I've always had this suspicion that many game journos fancy themselves celebrities.

Robotube

"not necessarily in a me so horney type of way" Key word being necessarily.

Mericana

Oddly enough I'd like nothing better than to be a games journalist, and I appreciate the route you guys are taken where integrity of the site never even crossed my mind. I'd like to think if the time ever comes I'll be the same.

TearsandScreams

@phicaluk: HA! I was actually thinking the same thing!

goddessakasha

@LennyShimizu: Pathetic? Hardly. Do not judge it just because it is different from what you are familiar.

Welcome to the Japanese business world. They just want you to feel comfortable.

Yuki

@TrickyNishidake:

See, this is another reason why I couldn't be in that type of situation. The female perv comes out. I'd probably be deported within 10 minutes. I blame those damned mangas, Kiyoharu, dude from Kamen Riders (two seasons ago, I think), and Kiyoharu, again.

Ouran High School Host Club and The Wallflower(Perfect Girl Evolution) are the main culprits, though. >_<

superfrogsavestokyo

@josh924: What an amazing scene that was.

PearceShea

@Krytha: I think that's what s/he meant. They would be so eager to take the offered tickets that they'd end up biting the person's entire arm off. Maybe?

quen

Wait a minute. I just zeroed in on the fact that Fahey's going to BlizzCon.

I think I hate you, Mikey.

Chilly Hollow

@Krytha: Oh, I thought he meant because he was shaking their hand so enthusiastically. Or perhaps he meant he left so quickly, he didn't bother to let go of their hand?

Either way, I don't want to shake hands with ThursdayNext.

nenet

Don't knock one of the finer aspects of Japanese culture.

In the US, journies get to fap over cheesy plastic toys, T-shirts, and catering. YAAAWWWNNNN!

In Japan, well, let's just say it's been happening for a long time, since the early days of EGM, and there is a hot spring sauna with a shitload of Semrad DNA to prove it.

nastygamer

@omnibot2000XL:

Well, I think you're taking the excerpt out of context, you should probably at least read Sore Thumbs before making such a comment.

TrickyNishidake

Yeah hostess are nothing major. On a job interview with one nameless developer the staff took me out. The higher ups had told them if I wanted some companionship to buy me some companionship. Since the higher ups had mentioned a figure I was joking and said "well how about 4 cheaper ones? itll cost the same".

mpikklz

Color me unsurprised...
Maybe I'm assuming too much, but isn't that just business?

fuchikoma

nice, japanese women are so good... and many of them very nice but if you want some really crazy women, then go to thailand, they will do many things for not a lot of money, some anyways, which is business for them.

shittorainbow

Square gives you Cloud costplayers instead.

Meeeh

Surely a few thousands isn't much in an advertising budget at Tecmo and I really don't see how that's any different from a metallic helmet in a goodie bag.

Fabrice

I thought that kinda of stuff are little more culturally acceptable in Japan... not that it's completely acceptable there... but little more than other parts of the world...

Why would they have brothel programs like subway rape fantasy and that infamous porn vending machines(banned)?

Pass on cheap hookers...

Just like Yakuza games, I want that premium gold Champagne! LOL.

neo177117

@Dread1021: Oh wow, a cute girl is PAID to laugh at your jokes and pour you more over-expensive saki.

At least with prostitution its just a physical thing, but with this pathetic pass time you're actually fooling yourself into believing that this woman WANTS to spend quality time with you and isn't just paid to do so.

It's pathetic on every level.

Spenze

@quen: People don't usually literally hand out free trips. I figured the journalists do more of the "signing of papers and getting on the planes" and less of the "arm wrestle for all expenses paid to TGS" sort of thing.

Krytha

@Zero_Beat: ...or some really good slash.

beeporama (brian.j.parker)

wooed or Woooooooooooooooooooo!? (classic RF)

Japan_Time

I don't understand how paying your way to a press event will preserve your integrity. If some company is going to offer you gifts, I don't see the problem in accepting them. Now, if they offered a gift with a string attached, that's crossing the line, and you should decline. Turning down Superbowl tickets in the name of journalistic integrity is pretty silly, if you ask me.

I agree with Dan's #2 solution; full disclosure. Blogs are the perfect medium to disclose marketing events/gifts -- the articles about Bourne Identity and Godfather events come to mind. Show us readers what lengths marketing folks will go to influence the press. The only way I could lose respect for this site is if it gives a glowing review/strong defense while everyone else says otherwise. That's the easy indicator of shenanigans.

Seriously, take the gifts. Tell these people that they're buying your attention, not your influence.

boopadoo

Mike Fahey finds Brian Ashcraft cute! Awkwardness ensues.

Zero_Beat

@redneon: lol

duckmouth

I think I need to start moonlighting.

Petezah

Kinda... kinda makes me wanna be a gaming journalist now.

Rika Aiuchi is SeXXXy

I need to become a proper journalist. Free trips to Japan were good enough, this just makes it the best job a man can have.

EdwinJ85

@TrickyNishidake:

Yeah, but mostly prostitutes and bubble girls go to those places.

BallPtPenTheif

I saved the bunny girl pic.

Does that make me a bad person?

SatansBestBuddy

The kind of people who want to be a gaming journalist just for this aspect are really not the kind of people we need in the industry.

3drage

@Dread1021: Nice...

So are you a girl then? I don't think the hostess bars will hire guys :P Hehe.. just kidding.

Yeah, I've heard of these things before, really weird. But hey, that's Japan and this is us. And even if we didn't need the paid pity, maybe we'd still have fun anyway? Kind of feels like a waste of time since someone paid the girl to talk to you though.

MetaKz

I want some Japanese honeyz. ;_;

CanaryWundaboy

@SatansBestBuddy: No. The truth is, the picture is a pretty nice picture. :)

Naia

@SatansBestBuddy: Nah don't worry about it, I just did too

Kounji

So these places are like Hooters but more expensive.

Ripner

Wait...Tecmo are the ones doing it? with that big, jubbily boobies in all their games? You couldn't make it up

excel_excel

@elementary:
It would be very distracting if Tecmo brought out Japanese women with eyes that big.

FireflyPunk

@SatansBestBuddy:

I also did it...

Meeeh

Shoe is surely burning bridges
with all his whistle blowing.

I really don't think it's going to change the business one iota. Besides, there's a lot of self-righteous
"I'm a real journalist" rhetoric going on, when did EGM become the role model for game journalism?

All it would take is someone to start writing about the bad behavior over in Lombard and OakBrook for the hypocrites and posers to be exposed.

nastygamer

Tecmo loves their American journalists!

Shhteve

So when all the critics were writing their reviews of Halo and such, were they getting favors at the same time? That Gizmodo in risky places pictures comes to mind.

kylo4

@Krytha:
Arm wrestle to TGS should totally be a blog post.

roflwaffles

@nastygamer: When EGM didn't (and probably never will) acknowledge the existence of other gaming magazines. Its kinda displayed on their cover.

Shykin

lol i went to one of those when i was stationed in japan back in '06... iwakuni... just follow the yellow brick road (no joke) after dark and a guy in a trench coat standing in front of a space heat will flag you over to him and invite you inside...

when someone told me about that before my transfer i thought he was joking, but as it turns out, he wasn't....
karaoke in that one too.

GrimCW

@Robotube: It WOULD be considered rude not do give some form of hospitality to a client-guest. This may not necessarily be a hostess club, but a night out drinking somewhere is standard.

Further, this isn't just for the client, but also for the company employees; they get a night out on the company tab, it's a sort of bonus for being in the right positions.

And is he seriously acting like a couple thousand dollars spent on night entertaining is something worth discussing? Expenses at that level are common to business entertaining world-wide, the only difference is in the local choice of venue.

The_Inquisitor

There is a BIG difference between what Kotaku describes above as "escorts" (being a common euphemism for "prostitute") and hostesses at a hostess bar. There's nothing particularly seedy about hostess bars anyway - the women are there to pour your drinks, keep the conversation flowing and listen to your bullshit and act like it is the best thing ever. It may seem silly, but it is harmless.

kiigan

@arstal: Sumo wrestler clubs obviously. The couches are much larger there anyway.

J0hnny-Kickass

Major scoop here guys. Next you'll be reporting about the guys from Microsoft who took some Japanese execs out to a MLB game, or guys from IBM using old English buildings to impress American and Japanese business visitors.

The only difference between these two examples and the one you're reporting is that if you had a group of solely American or English Businessmen going out for a drink, it wouldn't be in a stately home or at a baseball game. The Japanese guys would, however, be going out to hostess bars, with or without the foreign journalists. There's nothing seedy about it; it's just a cultural thing.

And by the way, until you get into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, it's not a serious hostess bar;)

Taince

she's hot.

auron-1

shes hot.

auron-1

This is normal. Thousands is not a lot of money to be spending on this type of entertainment.

You would think the executives would have better things to do. Right... righ... ok, maybe not.

Neer'mo

Really not a surprise to me since its Japan really almost sounds like Geisha. Geisha were mainly paid to entertain men with conversation, music etc it was not very common to actually have sex with them you had to be a pretty good customer for that and it was way expensive. At least that is how I understand it.

Konchu

Suddenly, I'm not so sad I'm dropping computers for journalism... even though this means I'm scrapping 10 years of my life. XD

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

It is very important to keep in mind that you ARE NOT ALLOWED to touch the hostesses. They can pat you on the shoulder or grab onto the sleeve of your shirt to get your attention, but if you lay one finger on them, you're out of there. Not that this has ever happened to me and I've never even seen it happen, but it's an unspoken rule that everyone understands. As for conversation, anything goes.

Jesse in Japan

God I hate hostess bars. Aside from the objectification thing, it's just such a rubbish idea.

If I spent the evening in a room with people who were pretending to think I was cool and funny and wonderful, but only because I was paying them, I think I would end up utterly miserable.

Niallo

@Jesse in Japan: That sounds so F'ing useless. No Touching you might as well talk to your friends (^_^)...if you have any.

lostinseganet

Do I have to go to Gaygamer for unbiased reviews now? =<

RaginFox

More information about the free baseball games please.

Forkball

@badasscat: Actually that HEAVILY depends on the hostess bar. There is quite a bunch of shady places around that are known for their side business (although that is officially illegal) similarly there are quite a few hostesses around that have a 'second job'....

This mostly holds for the ladies who are in Japan on an 'actress' visa (OK nowadays they probably have a 'spouse' Visa, but who has been in Japan for a while knows what I mean).

That said there are MUCH worse places than hostess bars (opai pub, soapland, ....) were the percentage of 'clean' entertainment to 'shady' side business swtiches more to the later. Sadly that seems to be the part of Japanese culture that foreigners are most immersed/interested in (then Anime, Manga, Ninjas and Samurai).

Knowledge is acquired by having VERY close relationship with somebody who was forced to work at a hostess bar for a few month to pay of a student loan, luckily at one of the reputable places (and before you ask, yeah I verified that).

develin

Goddamn it! Forgive the grammar mistakes above please.

Hey Kotaku, add some edit functions to the threads sometime soon, would ya, could ya, please?

nastygamer

Eh. I'm personally not the the type who goes to strip bars, drinking bars, or go clubbing. Just give me a fruit smoothie in a nice coffee shop and I'll be fine if you want to talk business (and I don't even drink coffee).

questworld

@Jesse in Japan:

You are either going to wrong clubs or spending
time with the wrong hostesses.

Oral "Communication" or "Handywork" is as common as a neck massage, and legal in my experience.

nastygamer

@Shykin:

EGM = shining example? integrity?

I guess you never saw the GAMEPROSUCKS anagram in the early 90's. And then the fake firing of staff members responsible to cover their asses.

OR

The fact that most of the Review Crew reviews after Jan 1994 were not written by the person they said they were.
Harris and Semrad never played nor wrote 'em, but readers hung on every word like it came from on high.

OR

Ask the associate editors how many times Harris and Semrad changed number scores and rewrote the 4-5 sentence review so as not to piss off advertisers.

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST...

Mr. Shoe, oh boy is there dirt on him. Has he grown up a bit? Sure, but he is no place to question anyone's ethics. Ask him how many times he practically doubled his salary in a given month by trading in the sealed comp games sent for him to review. He is downplaying his flaws and using this mudslinging to beings hits to his new site.

I liked SoreThumbs at first, but lately
it is sounding more like SoreLosers.

nastygamer

Yea, this happens in Japan, not only to game editors. I myself have also been to such an establishment. Funny "instruction" I got from the person inviting me ocncerning the girls:
- soft touch is ok!

Barts

@Krytha: @nenet: @quen: I meant I'd be so keen to grab the offer I'd accidentally take their arm off...lol

ThursdayNext

As an aspiring games journalist, this has only strengthened my resolve. I will make it there someday, damnit.

Ska-Chan

Tecmo eh? Why am I not surprised in the slightest?

Ghetto-Cornetto

@Ghetto-Cornetto: Ahaha, you're right, I didn't add 2 and 2 together! Itadaki, right?

Dude, I am following you from now on. That was spot on.

Barts

Getting paid to play games AND being wooed by Hot Japanese women? Where do I sign up?!

kerokun