61 Frames Per Second

Whose Side are You On?

Posted by Cole Stryker

Jon Rose over at Insomnia thinks that the gaming media, mainstream and otherwise, has squandered their responsibility to readers to provide investigative journalism.

The thing to remember here is that the people with any sort of position in the media are, or at least were, editors of review mags or long-time reviewers, and as such are nothing but glorified reviewers themselves even when they hold journalism degrees. This is a really convenient place for them to be, too, since when they do something that comes close to being valuable they get to suck up that prestige, but when they fall short of what they could be it's "Hey, man, I didn't claim to be anything more". This is why I'm sick of Dan Hsu in particular: I can't think of anyone who is a bigger exemplar of this. Steve Bauman always came close with his industry-apologist viewpoints, but in any case the majority of those in the media have somehow gotten a loftier reputation than they deserve. And they've gamed it for all it's worth.

Harsh words. And it's not just the big players, either:

This is where blogs come in, but they've also proven useless. They get all this lip service as making print and even online institutions obsolete, but all I've seen them do is all the media has ever done. Interviews that don't ask anything anyone actually wants an answer to, and editorials that can, at BEST, air what a lot of us have already been murmuring for years. This would seem to be the check to the above situation, but they don't bother to be more than what they are themselves. In fact, most of the writers for popular blogs, instead of trying to create something to actually replace the broken old media, are still freelancing in it.

I am sympathetic to Jon's complaints. It's possible to view the gaming press (and why don't we just lump most mainstream press into this as well) as an extension of the industry's PR arm. I've personally enjoyed the freewheeling aesthetic that our editors at 61FPS have cultivated. I spend a lot of my time here moaning about the State of Things (softball journalism, press releases disguised as reviews, etc.) which might not possible at other blogs. It ain't all bad. At least Insomnia is there to provide a platform for disgruntled true believers.

+ DIGG

+ DEL.ICIO.US

+ REDDIT

Posted Dec 11 2008, 02:00 PM

Filed under: cole stryker, journalism, insomnia, 61fps

Comments

Roto13 said:

I think it's hilarious to think there's a whole bunch of investigative journalism to be done. I can think of maybe one topic that needs to be covered more aggressively. Video games just aren't that big a deal.

December 11, 2008 2:16 PM

seriously what said:

"At least Insomnia is there to provide a platform for disgruntled true believers."

You mean "for snobbish man-children who sneer at anyone who doesn't share their hive mind opinion"...right?

December 11, 2008 2:52 PM

LBD "Nytetrayn" said:

Eh, there's only so much you can do in a business where the standard response to anything a company didn't say is "no comment."

For the most part, it's only in the worst-case situations (say, the recent Nintendo Animal Crossing naughty-word bit) that you can get them to say anything more.

It's really quite frustrating.

I raised a nice little bit of hell over Nintendo's VC/WiiWare gifting not working between the US and Canada, effectively making it useless to me, and the only answer I got was just something along the lines of "that's just how they made it."

I think the simple fact of the matter is, we need them more than they need us. One look at any poorly-rated game that's sold far more than it ever should have (I think that 50-cent game qualifies) more or less proves the point.

Much as I enjoy video game journalism, for what that entails, I'm not entirely confident that guys like Nintendo, EA, Microsoft, or Sony would be terribly phased if every video game website and major blog just vanished tomorrow. People would probably just turn their eyes to the official websites, which might offer up a little more content as a result, run the hype machine themselves, and converse about it on forums instead of in comments of news posts.

Regardless, the question for Mr. Rose is "What can we do about it?" We really don't have that much pull. We have no real leverage against a Nintendo or a Sony or a Microsoft of anyone but perhaps the smallest of publishers or developers... and odds are, there's not much to get out of them, either (though they can be more friendly and vocal, just to get the word out about their games through publicity they can't otherwise afford).

What can we do? If we try to turn the tables on NMS (Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony, if anyone was wondering. Anyone else big, too), then readers are probably just as or more likely to try to put us up on a cross for besmirching their favorite publisher. As if they don't already.

Anyway, I'm rambling. Long-story short: Nice sentiment. What can we do about it?

December 11, 2008 8:41 PM

Demaar said:

61FPS, Insomnia, Actionbutton.net and Eegra are my favourite game sites (not necessarily in that order). They're all non-conventional and totally awesome. I check out 1UP, Gamespite and some others now and then, too, but those four are my dailies.

December 13, 2008 2:17 PM

about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.