Spring Break
Down with sensational video game journalism
Fernando Dutra
Issue date: 3/17/09 Section: Focus
Though many gamers are eager to shove their way into the aggressive, competitive arena of online forums, many enterprising video game journalists have their reservations about becoming household names. There are clear obstacles involved with trying to achieve a widespread status in what is ultimately a widely-supported cult entertainment medium - media portrayal of the medium and recent legislation to tax violent video games doesn't make any argument for taking a step forward in how the public perceives gaming. It is still very much considered a child's toy, with adults interested in it being told to grow up.
Given these circumstances, what's a game journalist to do? When was the last time people heard about a Bob Woodward or Carl Bernstein equivalent in the video game industry? Press leaks and rumor mongering is the closest we have ever gotten to a deep throat and Gerstmann-Gate barely counts as a relative breakthrough - how much press did that receive outside of the gaming journalism media?
Video game journalists are resigned to the fact that they might never have the career opportunity afforded to former Newsweek columnist/blogger N'Gai Croal, who, with the backing and resources to focus on what he wanted to, was able to carve out a dedicated following and expose a niche experience to a more widespread audience - that audience being Newsweek. Video game journalists can take the slow and steady route to relevance and insight, but this depends on how the publication they write for is funded. Independent publishers, especially those online, are merely another voice in a throng.
Does this route seem realistic to many writers? No. The only possibility of a breakthrough comes through another method - one grittier and more controversial, though it is often successful in making the writer rise to become more widely discussed than their peers. This doesn't mean that they are well-respected either - one lesson to be learned, and probably a further application of how forum flame-wars develop and fester, is that the most divisive of commentaries elicits the most response. If going for intellectually-stimulating insights, features, and commentaries isn't working, sometimes even the best authors resort to anything that will get them to be talked about. This means producing a biased story that will split the readership in half. This applies to any contemporary medium, though. How many people choose to browse through the Sun and the Daily Mirror everyday rather than read the Washington Post or the New York Times? As other papers fight to compete with tabloids, journalism has become more sensational, and, given its vocal audience, video game journalism is no exception.
Given these circumstances, what's a game journalist to do? When was the last time people heard about a Bob Woodward or Carl Bernstein equivalent in the video game industry? Press leaks and rumor mongering is the closest we have ever gotten to a deep throat and Gerstmann-Gate barely counts as a relative breakthrough - how much press did that receive outside of the gaming journalism media?
Video game journalists are resigned to the fact that they might never have the career opportunity afforded to former Newsweek columnist/blogger N'Gai Croal, who, with the backing and resources to focus on what he wanted to, was able to carve out a dedicated following and expose a niche experience to a more widespread audience - that audience being Newsweek. Video game journalists can take the slow and steady route to relevance and insight, but this depends on how the publication they write for is funded. Independent publishers, especially those online, are merely another voice in a throng.
Does this route seem realistic to many writers? No. The only possibility of a breakthrough comes through another method - one grittier and more controversial, though it is often successful in making the writer rise to become more widely discussed than their peers. This doesn't mean that they are well-respected either - one lesson to be learned, and probably a further application of how forum flame-wars develop and fester, is that the most divisive of commentaries elicits the most response. If going for intellectually-stimulating insights, features, and commentaries isn't working, sometimes even the best authors resort to anything that will get them to be talked about. This means producing a biased story that will split the readership in half. This applies to any contemporary medium, though. How many people choose to browse through the Sun and the Daily Mirror everyday rather than read the Washington Post or the New York Times? As other papers fight to compete with tabloids, journalism has become more sensational, and, given its vocal audience, video game journalism is no exception.
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