Interesting article over at Gamasutra. It basically brings up a lot of points I have seen about game journalism; like how game writers don’t even pretend to be unbiased. (Unlike certain news networks, newspapers, and magazines. Pretending that is.)

The question is: Should they try to be unbiased? I never do. You can go through this site and see many of the articles I have written just brimming over with excitement. Some of the issues I have with many game sites is that they seem to cow tao to corporate sponsorships. Gerstmann-gate in 2007 proved that this does exist and it is something we need to nip in the butt. I also think that there is to much cynicism within the game journalist community; it is very easy to look down your nose at someone that enjoys something you consider inferior or doesn’t enjoy something you consider exemplary. As a writer myself, I think the whole industry needs to take a little bit of a chill pill and realize that people enjoy different things: Some will love Bioshock, some will hate it. Some will think Metal Gear Solid is the pinnacle of game design, while others will look at it with scorn and say it is little more than a slightly interactive movie. We all have different tastes: Game Journalists need to remember that and stop insulting the people that read your site/magazine/newsletter or whatever company for which you write.

Take me, for example: I love Role playing games. I don’t just love role playing games, i love old Japanese style RPGs as well as Westren style. I am enjoying Lost Odyssey and think it is one of the best RPG’s I’ve played in a long time…yet so many game sites have given the game less then stellar scores. That is one reason I don’t really want to implement a scoring system on this site; We will tell you what we like and dislike about a game and you can take it from there. Reviews are only opinions; doesn’t mean you will have the same.

We need to give up our pretensions and realize we are working in the entertainment industry: If the world ends, the game journalists will have to figure out how to do something really useful really fast or be fed to the oncoming zombie hordes. The Game Journalism profession, which I really like, is not a life changing profession in the long run.

And that is my 2 cents

- Warren

This entry was posted on Friday, August 8th, 2008 at 7:41 am and is filed under Console, Gaming, Sections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.