When a corporation that has reached a bureaucratic
critical mass so high that it forgets what function it is supposed to be fulfilling fires a respected and core employee, causing other employees in the company to quit in response. Occurs often in the video game industry, such as with the formation of Double Fine (run by former Lucas Arts employee Tim Schafer). The term comes from the firing of Jeff Gerstmann, a respected member of the
video game community, from Gamestop due to what many have inferred to be his negative review of Kane and Lynch, a game produced by a company that was paying Gamestop at the time for
advertisements.
Suit 1: Remember the
good old days, where we reviewed games and thought about
the gamers, and weren't just looking at the immediate bottom line?
Suit 2: Fuck that, this guy lost us money by giving the game made by our sponsors a bad review! Fire him!
Suit 3: But he's one of our best employees, won't that harm our credibility amongst videogamers and cause us to lose money in the longterm?
Suit 2: What's a videogame?
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Suit 2: Okay, so, I fired him. But now a lot of other dudes are leaving because they say we've completely lost touch with our readers and market.
Suit 3:
Fucking damnit, it's the Gerstmann effect.
