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[chespace]

Sometimes I wish gaming journalism could be more like real journalism, with undercover investigations, hardball interviews, and high-ranking officials leaking information.

It's not like that at all, though. What we do is more like Entertainment Weekly, which bothers me to no end, because I HATE entertainment "journalism". But I don't know if there's a way to bring gaming journalism closer to real journalism, because the news we cover is created by the actions of people in closed environments, and there are virtually no avenues for obtaining coverage of these games without going through the developer (or more realistically, the publisher).

i agree with your post for the most part, but i'll just point out that if you hate entertainment journalism, you should probably stop writing about...entertainment.

 

[StrikerObi]

Great read. It really points out a lot of problems we have with this industry. +1 to IGN's editorial content.

 

[element]

I remember when harry from AICN tried to get a similar type of 'undercover' site for games. it bombed. Game development industry is too small that no one wants to burn any type of bridges.

 

[Mr_Furious]

I find the article totally retarded. So your job trying to get "exclusives" can be hard. Boo-fuckin-hoo! You are supposed to be providing a service to your readers/subscribers yet when things don't go your way, you take it personal and rate the game lower in your review or refuse to cover another game that company's publishing (regarding some poster in this thread mentioning not covering Fable)? How is that fair to your paying readers again? Aren't there more pressing things to cover that are "wrong" with this industry than how MS is choosing to handle Halo2 and how some fansites may get and share leaked materials? It's the internet for christ's sake. It makes me fucking sick how people can complain about their job when it involves playing and writing about games all day long and getting free trips all around the world (for some) to cover various shows, companies, games, etc and how they get free swag and games continually. Press always has preferred treatment at most functions as well. From how I see it, you people have nothing to be bitching about. There are a lot more difficult jobs than yours or better yet, why don't you try flipping burgers to give you some perspective. It can be a LOT worse than your lack of Halo2 exclusive material. Bunch of pompous prima donnas.

 

[Keio]

i wouldn't go so far as to call it self-censorship. using halo 2 as an example... being not only the biggest and most important xbox game since the console's launch, but also one of the biggest and most far-reaching western games this generation, XBN would ideally like to give it some sort of coverage month after month. and we do. but how do we do that when bungie is -extremely- tight with assets?

Ok, I do admit that gaming is a different thing than movies (where Lord of the Rings had hundreds of spies surrounding movie sets & people working on the film would leak information etc.), but still I would also blame gaming media of a serious lack of imagination.

If Bungie can't provide information, why not work on a broader subject and touch Halo 2 with that - I think aspects of game creation (music, scifi set design etc.) could easily be used as ways to use Halo 2 hype to increase circulation, while also creating own, worthwhile journalism. Perhaps interview Halo fans, write interviews about the PEOPLE working on the game etc. Gaming journalism shouldn't be so stuck to covering just gaming, it does have all the other opportunities entertainment journalism has.

(but totally fucking off the mark about the free goodie bag)

I wish I was.

the other problem is, unlike traditional journalism, you can't just hit the road with a pen and notepad and "investigate" the story. all investigation here invitably leads to bungie employees or microsoft PR. i'll tell you right now, these kids can be a tight-lipped bunch when it comes to something as important as halo 2.

I don't doubt you for a second that journos can't get information that way from MS/Bungie. But I have been surprised many times in the past that reliable information or something equivalent has been leaked on the internet and it has been largely ignored and at least not EXPANDED upon by journos. Gaming journalism has a lot of potential for investigative work and interesting features, but for numerous reasons - such as those outlined in this thread - it has largely failed to reach that potential.

AND last but not least: I take great offence if some people would use the criticism of gaming journalism in this thread to try and falsely discredit the whole profession. While much can and will be done better while the industry matures, these discussions and the article by Hilary are good examples of people trying to suss out how to do their jobs better and provide a better, more realiable service for their readers.

 

[Jonnyboy117]

i agree with your post for the most part, but i'll just point out that if you hate entertainment journalism, you should probably stop writing about...entertainment.

Harold Bloom writes about entertainment, but he's not a practitioner of entertainment journalism. You know what I mean...Access Hollywood, Rolling Stone, anything on E! I want to find some way to pull gaming journalism away from those rags. Part of it involves treating games as more art than industry.

 

[chespace]

Harold Bloom writes about entertainment, but he's not a practitioner of entertainment journalism. You know what I mean...Access Hollywood, Rolling Stone, anything on E! I want to find some way to pull gaming journalism away from those rags. Part of it involves treating games as more art than industry.

sounds great, but treating games as art has some serious side-effects such as pretentious writing, boring, over-blown, glorified features that are basically just previews in disguise, and an inability to pull off any sort of coherent thesis. i look at the latest issue of Edge (with halo 2 on the cover) and i can give you specific examples.

the other problem is that an industry-insider magazines simply won't stay afloat in the U.S. like it or not, i would argue that most readers don't really give a damn about renderware, discreet, etc. they just want to know -- what cool games are coming out -- and should i buy it?

and like we've said before many times on GAF, the users here are certainly not the statistical mean.

 

[Justin Bailey]

I've said before many times on GAF, the users here are certainly not the statistical mean.

*sigh* I wish.

 

[WarPig]

I coulda wrote pretty much the same thing two years ago about Grand Theft Auto Vice City. It would have been even more entertaining, though -- Rockstar's nine times as aggravating as Microsoft.

Also woulda got me fired even faster.

The basic "problem," if it even is a problem -- anyone working at Bungie will tell you it's no problem at all, I'm sure -- is that the enthusiast press needs major games, but major games do not need the enthusiast press and never will. Before there was an enthusiast press anywhere near like it exists now, Super Mario Bros. still sold itself, ya know?

From an objective point of view, it's not good or bad, it's just a simple fact that things like Halo 2 and Grand Theft Auto will sell themselves without any aid from us.

DFS.

 

[rod furlong]

and like we've said before many times on GAF, the users here are certainly not the statistical mean.

frickin' Allah be praised.