I know SomethingAwful's two articles on the worst video game journalism of 2005 have been around for a little while now, but they do make for good reading, especially for us journalists. Zack Parsons makes a good argument that we're largely pretentious, whiney fans rather than anything resembling journalists.
Parsons' most significant point is the desire of so many gaming journalists to become celebrities. So many of us want to be recognized and certified and legitimized that we try to create a clever, likable persona. The writers Parsons names (many of whom are pretty big within gaming circles) write long-winded, self-adoring reviews and previews of games that do little more than paint themselves as ironic and clever arbiters of culture.
Parsons makes an apt point during his criticism of Kieron Gillen's review of Darwinia:
"The irony of all of Kieron's post-genre stoner philosophy [in his Darwinia review] is that he's probably the same sort of dude who gets totally stoked for a game like Mario Fishing or Mario Hoppin' On Shit in 3D. That's because he's really intelligent and he loves things that totally explode genre barriers by including Mario."
We all want to prove to everyone why we love the games we love, so we dig out that dusty dictionary of literary criticism we used freshman year of college, and we write a review that's more about how brilliant we are than why we like the game. We create vocabulary to describe tropes in games without backing it up with enough evidence. We want to become cultural trailblazers so bad that we end up both turning off readers and sounding silly.
Or, worse, we try to be too ironic. To avoid sounding pretentious, we poke fun at ourselves in the middle of articles that really don't involve those aspects of our lives. We're all goofy, likable people, right? We use self-effacing as an excuse for our opinionated babble and lack of evidence. "I probably sound dumb, but..." becomes a clause in our writing to give us an out when we buckle under the weight of our arguments. An example comes from an older article written by Tim Rogers about Metal Gear Solid 2:
"As a fourteen-year-old with an IQ as high as my weight (I was a big kid), I found myself confused by the movie 'Patriot Games.'"
While the watching Patriot Games at 14 reference has some slight relevance to the article, the phrase "with an IQ as high as my weight (I was a big kid)" turns the article's focus solely onto himself. Do we need the weight reference? Not really - it doesn't do anything in the article besides painting an irreverent picture of the writer. Does the clever note that he was as smart as he was overweight change how one reads the article? Only in that we now know that Rogers is really, really, ridiculously smart. The opening of the article doesn't even describe the game - it's Rogers stating his past experience with an action movie staring Harrison Ford as proof he can intelligently overturn mainstream game criticism.
I'm not joining Parsons to pick on some random blogger - I got Rogers' Metal Gear article from the Guardian's list of ten "unmissable" examples of New Game Journalism. This is the stuff we're proudly presenting to the mainstream media to prove we're all grown up now and ready for our Pulitzers.
New Game Journalism, in its most popular form, is a misnomer. Let's try "New Game Reviews" and "New Game Editorials". Reviews aren't journalism; no matter how many big words and critical theory we toss into a review, they remain opinionated pieces solely using the writer's personal feelings as evidence. And editorials, which are articles such as this and Rogers' defense of Metal Gear Solid 2, only cover a larger range of material.
That's not to say New Game Journalism doesn't exist. I may not always agree with Brian Crecente's opinions on Kotaku but the man (coincidentally a career newspaper journalist) always buttresses his opinions with statistics and links to related stories. GamePolitics also does a great job of giving interesting views on game-related stories without painting a self-portrait in the opening paragraphs.
Am I guilty of the issues I describe above? Yes, I am. I've easily written my fair-share of masturbatory reviews and editorials. But this doesn't excuse me and this doesn't mean we can't as a group of writers learn from our mistakes. Every time we write an article, we should reread it and ask ourselves one very important question: "Am I writing about my experiences with game to draw attention to myself, or am I writing about the game to change the way others experience it?"
I was very interested to read those articles as well. I currently write for both Mobhunter and Caster's Realm, two Everquest websites. I focus primarily on news and editorials that either dissect some element of the game or just cover the news and what (in my opinion) it means.
Mobhunter has an open forum and I often got hit for my bias towards the game. Yes, I get to go out and meet the developers to chat about the game. Yes, they often pay my way. Do I write because of that? No. Do I temper my words because I know them? I hope not but its hard to tell.
I sat down and wrote a snotty Citizen-Kane-like Declaration of Principles with two rules:
1. Attempt to help players better enjoy Everquest.
2. Help SOE make Everquest a better game.
Cleary these goals aren't objective but I won't shy away from criticism as long as it has a larger goal.
However, I never really considered myself a Game Journalist. I'm a writer and I write about Everquest. I wrote about it before I went to Mobhunter and Caster's Realm. I consider myself more of a lucky fan who read Strunk and White and isn't afraid to dig past the typical MMO stereotypes and talk about some of the subjects. I do what I do because I love the game, I want people to enjoy it, and I want to see it get better.
One site that I think is clearly a great bit of Game Journalism is Terra Nova, an academic look at massive online gaming. I have found their editorials to be some of the best around:
http://terranova.blogs.com/
The original articles of this topic, however, did make me think and question my own motivations - as did this article. Do I inject myself too much in what I write? Do I try to be funny at my own expense? Maybe it's time I actually read about journalism instead of just about games. Maybe I can do a better service by just focusing on the topics and taking out my big head.
It's a very interesting topic.
Speaking of injecting ones self into a piece of game journalism, I couldn't help but remember this and laugh:
http://www.gamegirladvance.com/archives/2002/10/26/sex_in_games_rezvibrator.html
How's that for putting yourself into an article?
=)
Great article and great toopic,
Mike Shea
http://mikeshea.net/
http://mobhunter.com/
Posted by: Mike Shea | 01/02/2006 at 05:04 PM
I was very interested to read those articles as well. I currently write for both Mobhunter and Caster's Realm, two Everquest websites. I focus primarily on news and editorials that either dissect some element of the game or just cover the news and what (in my opinion) it means.
Mobhunter has an open forum and I often got hit for my bias towards the game. Yes, I get to go out and meet the developers to chat about the game. Yes, they often pay my way. Do I write because of that? No. Do I temper my words because I know them? I hope not but its hard to tell.
I sat down and wrote a snotty Citizen-Kane-like Declaration of Principles with two rules:
1. Attempt to help players better enjoy Everquest.
2. Help SOE make Everquest a better game.
Cleary these goals aren't objective but I won't shy away from criticism as long as it has a larger goal.
However, I never really considered myself a Game Journalist. I'm a writer and I write about Everquest. I wrote about it before I went to Mobhunter and Caster's Realm. I consider myself more of a lucky fan who read Strunk and White and isn't afraid to dig past the typical MMO stereotypes and talk about some of the subjects. I do what I do because I love the game, I want people to enjoy it, and I want to see it get better.
One site that I think is clearly a great bit of Game Journalism is Terra Nova, an academic look at massive online gaming. I have found their editorials to be some of the best around:
http://terranova.blogs.com/
The original articles of this topic, however, did make me think and question my own motivations - as did this article. Do I inject myself too much in what I write? Do I try to be funny at my own expense? Maybe it's time I actually read about journalism instead of just about games. Maybe I can do a better service by just focusing on the topics and taking out my big head.
It's a very interesting topic.
Speaking of injecting ones self into a piece of game journalism, I couldn't help but remember this and laugh:
http://www.gamegirladvance.com/archives/2002/10/26/sex_in_games_rezvibrator.html
How's that for putting yourself into an article?
=)
Great stuff, I thank you.
Mike Shea
http://mikeshea.net/
http://mobhunter.com/
Posted by: Mike Shea | 01/02/2006 at 05:05 PM
Gah, sorry for the double post =( Feel free to delete one (and this note) when you are able.
Posted by: Mike Shea | 01/02/2006 at 05:06 PM
Personally, I'm more into game entertainment than game learning (or journalism, I suppose), which affects how I view and shape the world. This holds true whether it comes to designing a game, or writing a feature about a game or gaming culture.
Is that bad? I don't feel bad about it.
In all the recent editorials/blogs on this topic - the tone, subject, target audience, and intended results of game writing are often being lumped into the same silo, which assumes all game writers (and their audiences) should prescribe to a particular way of life, really.
Huh?
What is the highest echelon of game writing?
Do I even want to be a part of that movement?
What's important in game writing isn't going to be the same for every writer, publication, or audience - nor should it be. The subject and tone are a direct reflection of who we are as human beings. So then it comes down to personal taste – or opinion.
While we can argue about what's good, bad, interesting, boring, or how "we" should approach game writing - in the end it doesn't matter. As writers, it's not our call – it's not for us to decide what's relevant, important, or enjoyable to people.
Anyway, when all is said and done - nature has a way of working itself out. In game writing, or game development for that matter. Ultimately, shit sinks. And if it floats, it won't float for long.
By the way, I'm not saying people shouldn't write certain things. In fact, I'm stating people SHOULD write what they want, and let nature write the checks.
In writing, art, business, music, or anything else - keep true to your vision.
Where am I going with this now? sorry for the ramble-rant. must.. sleep... now.
Posted by: mumra | 01/16/2006 at 02:32 AM
oh yeah, what's a masturbatory review or editorial?
there's only one I know of, and it was one of the coolest game features I've ever read.
Posted by: mumra | 01/16/2006 at 02:39 AM
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