Why is vid game journalism so....

[sdrotar]

Re: Why is vid game journalism so....

I'm blushing, Mgo. Thanks.

The issue at hand is that, at this stage, game publishers and gaming writers work arm in arm - and have to - to stay alive.

If you want the "scoop", you're going to need to pay for it, whether it's IGN's exclusives or anything else. Believe me, companies like EA aren't going to just hand IGN the story - they're going to ensure that IGN covers it favorably before they give up the goods.

In the end, what we see from game sites is often merely an extension of the game publishers' marketing departments.

Quality writing doesn't drive hits on the web - being first with new information does. That's why blogs like Kotaku do so well. In the end, that's all that matters to the bottom line, so most game writers are more than happy to "sell out" - it means they get to keep their jobs.

It's not a great situation, but places like Penny-Arcade, and hopefully, my own site, 5WG, help drive media coverage in some small way, because I know we believe in what we're doing.

[mgoblue]

Re: Why is vid game journalism so....

I'm blushing, Mgo. Thanks.

The issue at hand is that, at this stage, game publishers and gaming writers work arm in arm - and have to - to stay alive.

If you want the "scoop", you're going to need to pay for it, whether it's IGN's exclusives or anything else. Believe me, companies like EA aren't going to just hand IGN the story - they're going to ensure that IGN covers it favorably before they give up the goods.

In the end, what we see from game sites is often merely an extension of the game publishers' marketing departments.

Quality writing doesn't drive hits on the web - being first with new information does. That's why blogs like Kotaku do so well. In the end, that's all that matters to the bottom line, so most game writers are more than happy to "sell out" - it means they get to keep their jobs.

It's not a great situation, but places like Penny-Arcade, and hopefully, my own site, 5WG, help drive media coverage in some small way, because I know we believe in what we're doing.

Great points...

In simple terms, if a movie reviewer for a newspaper trashes "Gigli", they're not going to be blacklisted from every review screening for that company's other movies.

If a gaming journalist completely guts a video game prior to release, they could just get cut off by that developer, thereby drying up a lot of their resources.

[sdrotar]

Re: Why is vid game journalism so....

Great points...

In simple terms, if a movie reviewer for a newspaper trashes "Gigli", they're not going to be blacklisted from every review screening for that company's other movies.

If a gaming journalist completely guts a video game prior to release, they could just get cut off by that developer, thereby drying up a lot of their resources.

Bingo.
The game's publishers control the message - at least, in the case of major releases. That one of the reason why exclusive licenses in sports games are so destructive - without any competition, discussion is muted, and improvements slow to a crawl.

[Village Idiot]

Re: Why is vid game journalism so....

Our collective impatience seems to feed this animal. If we weren't all so franticly hanging on every word that's written or said about games that are weeks, oftentimes months, sometimes over a year away, the industry might calm down a little bit across the board. Our demand (in the supply & demand sense of the term) for updates every hour is part of the problem.

NCAA and APF are the hotbed items, and both are still more than a month off. Yet we're here (myself included, of course) hoping for updates EVERY DAY. We're like a bunch of six-year-old kids at Christmastime. Maybe once we grow up, so will the rest of the industry.