Part Six of a multi-part series. Start from the beginning of the series , read Part 5 – A History of Corruption or visit the parts index
For games criticism to be useful, it must serve and inform the consumer about the products they are critiquing. Games writing is about advising the consumer. That is a central theme of this series and what I try to keep in mind when I make any kind of gaming content. Gamers want a certain level of analysis from games writing. Analysis should give insight into the game making process that many gamers find fascinating, give them the perspective of developers and insight into the world of game design so they can be better informed. Your opinion is only useful when it helps frame this, and to a lesser extent when readers simply find the writing itself engaging or entertaining. In recent years, some writers have attempted to cross over into being a “personality,” but if people find that persona obnoxious then you’re going to run out of readers and viewers extremely fast.
As a gaming site that offers previews, reviews or impressions, you are first and foremost set up to protect the consumer from bad purchases, predatory practices and help shape their understanding of the gaming landscape so they can find games they will enjoy. Games journalism is closely tied to consumer information and advocacy, probably even more so than forms of entertainment coverage. In a lesser sense they are about giving the ordinary gamer a window into the world of game development and furthering their understanding of what makes games tick and the people behind them. That is the crux of what most gamers use gaming websites for: the more casual reader is looking for “is this game any good” and the in-depth reader is hoping to absorb as much information about their favourite games and developers as possible. That’s why I found Gamasutra stating that it is an “industry site” when challenged about their sustained attacks on “gamers” so baffling. Sites like Kotaku, Polygon, RPS, etc. claim to want to engage us on a deeper level with games, but most gamers were already deeply immersed in the gaming landscape to an extent I don’t think most games journalists gave them credit for. I remember, in October 2014, Ars Technica Technology editor Peter Bright telling me “Gamers are not Gamasutra’s audience” and thinking “are you f’in kidding?” The gaming audience is more hungry for complex information and details about game design than ever. This statement also glosses over the fact that game developers are also gamers.
Games criticism can be anything, but not everything has an audience. So far, the worst excesses and indulgences of ego-stroking or navel-gazing have been propped up by ready-made platforms that inflate the sense of popularity that a subset of opinion has. They wouldn’t gain public attention without the support of sites that already pull a lot of traffic. Platforms like Polygon and Kotaku were built upon other kinds of coverage that was seen as useful or entertaining to readers. You can write all the speculative fiction you want on your own personal blog, but big advertisers aren’t going to shell out a single penny for you to spout your agenda if it does not hold the interest of the game-buying public. Being a magnet through sheer personal draw is possible but rare; most game writers are not a “name” and of those that are, some have found themselves infamous for the wrong reasons.
The job of the press, when covering games and developers, should be to connect the reader with great games with as little bullshit in the way as possible. When a studio or publisher is acting against the consumer, it is our job to try and warn that consumer. That’s when we should criticizing most and should be really taking the gloves off. It’s not the job of the gaming press to actively guide what content does and does not get made, especially when politics and agendas are involved. We cross the line from adviser to censor in those cases where we would attempt to impose our will on gamers or developers. Some outlets began to act like a petty child trying to take away toys you don’t like from the other, happier children when they were called out on this.
One shouldn’t see games journalism as a ticket into the “cool kids club” of development and PR. If you are just writing about games because you are a failed developer or you’re looking for any opportunity to suck up to industry people, then you are in the wrong job for the wrong reasons. You shouldn’t feel the need to constantly impress game developers and PR people, you shouldn’t try and exchange coverage for a foothold in that world. If you see games journalism as simply a stepping-stone to something else then you need to exit the marketplace so people with real passion can be given the chance to write. If you see no need for a degree of critical distance from your subjects then you need to think long and hard about how compromised you may be and how useful you still are to your readers.
There is only so long you can publish very niche and extreme opinions on large, mainstream platforms before it begins to shrink the audience down to reflect actual interest in those topics. Saying “the gaming public not liking my work is sexist” is just a cop-out to an economic reality: a Patreon circle-jerk of friends paying one another cannot make gamers like their anti-gamer rhetoric. We saw this with the recent “break” Ben Kuchera took from games writing — totally voluntary I’m sure. Whether he was pushed or he jumped out of the pool himself is irrelevant to the core underlying reason. Extreme dislike and even loud disdain from his supposed audience. Some speculate his bullying tactics towards a more senior EA employee may also have had an effect, but the fact remains, you can’t be odious and flagrantly anti-consumer and expect to find work writing about games. This is compounded by the fact that these outbursts are meant to dissuade people from pointing out improper relationships when you look at past experiences.
You can’t support a site on games journalists reading each other’s work alone. The editorials attacking the gamer and the gaming community have been about impressing a small group of people and stroking each other’s ego, it is becoming almost masturbatory. For some reason I’m always reminded of the disastrous 2008 Sarah Palin vice presidential run; people like Leigh Alexander and Jason Schrier are “energizing the base” when they play to the press crowd, while sneering at and mocking large sections of the community that don’t see eye to eye with them. It’s having the same disastrous results too: it’s turning mainstream gamers away from these sites and their work whilst their editors double-down hoping that their steadfast adherence to an ideology and narrative will save them. This self-destructive and elitist attitude leads to a situation like modern art criticism, naval-gazing with a disinterested and unengaged public, a small echo chamber telling itself how great it is. The yearning for gaming to “grow up” comes from a place of insecurity about the value of games as a medium. Gaming has always been “grown up” in my eyes and does not need a veneer of self-imposed seriousness to gain respect.
Games journalists and critics ironically don’t take criticism very well, they never seem to learn and grow from it. For a group of people bent on defending the right to criticize, they seem very upset when that critical lens is turned on them. Games journalists and editorial staff are insulating themselves in an environment of yes men and group-think, as seen in GameJournoPros and on social media. If you turn off comments, ignore all feedback, lock-down social media and only talk to a group of like-minded industry insiders then one ends up with a false sense of not only their own self-importance but the reception their work gets. I think in some ways, they know their work cannot stand up to critique or their egos are too fragile to take it. Whereas quiet embarrassment and sweeping under the rug was the norm in the past, the crossover into outright antagonism in the face of ethical and professionalism questions has caused the gaming audience to sit up and take notice of the mountains of bullshit piled around games journalism now.
Continued on Page 2
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