The gaming beat might seem inconsequential when compared to something like politics or religion, but it still has its fair share of controversy surrounding it. There are, of course, the ever-present cries of "bias" and "fanboyism" from the forum "trolls," but sometimes this white noise rises into a controversy that makes larger ripples throughout the entire gaming world. Here are some of the biggest examples of game journalism that, for one reason or another, attracted the ire of parts of the gaming community.

#10 Dead or Alive 4 and the Plagiarism Strategy
The No. 1 requirement for any piece of journalism is that it be the original work of the author. But how do you define original work when it comes to sometimes self-evident game strategies? That was the issue at hand when a section of a 1UP strategy guide to Dead or Alive 4 was shown to be strikingly similar to a section of a guide from fan-site DOACentral. On the one hand, strategies are meant to be shared and it's hard to claim exclusive rights to a specific way of playing a game. On the other hand, the structural and grammatical similarities between the 1UP guide and the DOACentral guide probably weren't coincidences.

1UP took down the guide briefly "pending a formal review" of the plagiarism charges, then put it back up along with a note acknowledging the use of "certain posts on the DOA Central message board as reference." The lesson is clear for any writer – if you use information from another source, cite cite cite!

#9 The Short, Strange Life of GameLife
The success of the online video show GameLife is one of the most baffling things I've ever seen. For some reason, the show's combination of bad writing, awful editing and awkward presentation became a minor sensation in early 2006. The show got so big that the hosts attracted an invite to E3 and buyout rumors from big names like Ziff Davis and MTV.

Then things got weird. First there was a somewhat embarrassing interview with the GameLife guys on the 1UP Show. Then there was the appearance of co-host Melissa, an attractive brunette with a penchant for twisted art-school photography. The final bit of weirdness came when one of the hosts, Andrew Rosenblum, was arrested for making threats in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre. Now that the train wreck is over, the only question is what else to watch.

#8 1UP's pulled Neverwinter Nights 2 review
Usually when a review is published, it represents the publication's official, final opinion on that game. This was not the case for Matt Peckham's review of Neverwinter Nights 2 for 1UP. The five-out-of-ten review was quickly taken down after an outcry from the fan community, and the game was later re-reviewed by a different author.

Officially the review was retracted because "the text of the review did not live up to our editorial standards." That defense is definitely plausible – the bare bones review features a somewhat defensive, rambling style and phrases like "cruising for a bruising" sprinkled throughout. Then again, 1UP may have just pulled the review because readers just wouldn't accept such a low score for such an anticipated game (which, by the way, ended up with an 82% average on GameRankings). Who knows what would have happened if 1UP had stuck by its initial assessment.

#7 Anything by Tim Rogers
There's probably no game journalist out there more polarizing than Tim Rogers. Some love his rambling, experiential style, full of obscure references and personal reflection. Others, like the author of this Something Awful article, think he's the "worst gaming journalist of 2005 and, to my knowledge, of all time." Whatever you think, Rogers has become the symbol for a style of game journalism that you either love or you hate. More on that next week. For now, we move on to...

#6 Overediting to the Beat of a Different Drummer
Thanks to the editing process, there's often a pretty sizable difference between what a writer initially types in their word processor and what eventually ends up getting published. Usually any controversy over these editorial changes stays behind the scenes. That wasn't the case for Nich Maragos' GameSpy review of Donkey Konga 2. On his personal blog, Maragos publicly posted a rant (partially reposted here) about the heavy edits to his original review. As Maragos put it:

"It grew an extra star and a half (or another 30% on the gamerankings scale) from its submitted version, along with several laudatory phrases that I didn't write and certainly don't mean. I hated the game. It's not a 3/5."

The controversy was resolved when GameSpy pulled the edited review and put up a 3.5 star review from another reviewer. Keefer defended his editor and the role of editorial discretion in general, but admitted there could have been better communication between editor and author in this case. Let this be a warning to all editors – if you mess with our reviews without telling us, we can and will make people aware of it.

Coming next week : The top five controversial moments in game journalism.

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Media Coverage is an opinion column. The opinions expressed in this column are solely the opinions of the columnist and are not necessarily the opinions of GameDaily.com.