Slashdot Mirror
The New Games Journalism
aanand writes "Superstar UK games journalist Kieron Gillen (his blog seems to be down at the time of writing) has written a fascinating editorial/essay on what he calls The New Games Journalism, in which he discusses the future of printed and electronic games writing, and offers some good insights into where the next generation of writers might be headed."
It's up now, oddly, which makes me look a bit stupid since he posted the essay there as well... at least there's a backup source for it now.
Bow, nigger. h
Some magazines will continue to exist for the few who somehow wish to have the few, magazine-exclusive new updates about games.
The rest of us have moved on though. With the amount of information you can have at your finger tips immediately with online sites, I have no reason to go back to print media. Call of Duty's 1.3 patch came out yesterday; personally, I'd rather know that yesterday (due to the net) rather than on a cd in a couple of weeks with a gaming mag subscription. World of Warcraft has interesting updates all of the time that I'd have to wait to read about too.
I'm not sure I buy this quality of writing argument though. Gamespot's writers (and the Gamespot Live folks) often make their stories/videos more entertaining than the main mags in circulation at the bookstores.
I'd be bold and say printed mags will disappear, but I know that's not true. Despite massive amounts of annoying ads (another thing I can avoid with an internet subscription), some people still like to have a physical copy. They will continue to support a market, although the market will dwindle some over time.
At EB Games they had/have some deal where when you become a 'member' you get GMR magazine for free. Well, sometimes if you are selling a lot of games back, you'll make more money by 'becoming a member' (giving $10 bucks- Homestarmy *2). And 'members' get a free magazine.
So- basically you get a subscription to GMR for free.
I think this is one of the best games magazines out there. There are TONS of funny little tidbits throughout the magazine, on the bottom of the page, at the end of the reviews, etc. that you need to go looking for- kind of like Mad magazine.
Even the stupid listing of their staff is usually pretty funny- and the 'letters from subscribers' section is one of the most entertaining reads I get all month. It is as if someone combed through Slashdot Games and found the best 10 posts and put some 'snappy answers to stupid questions' reply.
At first I thought I woulnd't like the magazine, because it is multi-platform. I really don't have any reason to read about a Gamecube exclusive- I don't have a GC. But I read every article in the magazine, because it is written in an entertaining way. And now I am much better informed about what is happening out there in the gaming world.
I also read the 'Official Xbox Magazine' - because it has demo disks each month. Unfortunately this magazine suffers from some serious fan-boyism- which is to be expected from the 'Official' magazine. So trusting the previews or reviews of games is difficult, because they buy/sell ALL of the hype.
If EB ever offers you some stupid membership, with a magazine- give it a shot. Because you gotta read something while sitting on the toilet.
No reason to lie.
THE NEW GAMES JOURNALISM
This may turn a little manifesto, but forgive me. It's a juvenile form, but such posturing can occasionally serve a purpose. And sometimes, as Kate Bush's Cloudbusting is currently informing me, just saying it could even make it happen.
I return from Delfter Krug and an evening with comrades. After the traditional lusting after barmaids and discussing the various challenges facing the geek nation, we turn to one of the conversations that I, as a devotee of the gaming press, prayed that was happening somewhere in the universe at any particularly moment.
It was, simply, Games Journalism: Where now?
The money men are worried - and have been worried forever - about the encroaching nature of the internet on mags. They've got a point. Games magazines are, primarily, buying guides, offering either information about forthcoming games or definitive reviews of said shiny consumer items. What to get excited about and what to put money down on, basically. Web coverage does both, and usually quicker.
Secondly, they operate as a shit filter. You buy a mag so you don't have to spend all your life doing the necessary research to find everything out youself: A digest of what's knowing in gaming. While keeping track of what's actually worthwhile with forthcoming stuff is a little trickier , sites like Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic handily gather every web review in existence together and average the score. Assuming equality of judgements - which is a big assumption, but outside of the current piece's mandate - this is perhaps the finest shit filter ever invented. Anything genuinely good will be picked up. Abstractly, anyway.
So why buy mags?
Mag's offline abilities and toilet-based browsability are one thing, clearly. The second traditional reason is that they're mostly - and there's exceptions, clearly - hugely better written. If you want a little entertainment with your information, mags are where to turn.
Ironically enough, you'd be hard pressed to find a money man who actually believes this point. While none have quite dared say it to my face yet, an increasing number are opining in smoky boardrooms that the quality of writers simply doesn't affect a games magazine sales so they might as well turn to recruiting armies of kids who don't know better straight from college, burning them out in a year, and then getting another set. There's been companies who have worked on this assumption ever since the dawn of videogame journalism, and it's an attitude that appears to be spreading.
The reason why the money-men's line has been gaining credence is that things are pretty tight in publishing. Sales of this generation of magazines have been nowhere near what they'd expecting. The biggest selling British games mag circa this period in the games console cycle was 450,000 or so. The current best-selling title has managed 200,000. This doesn't look good on spreadsheets, so they're tightening their belts and looking for places loose a few pounds. Creating a culture where Editorial is basically disposable is one, certainly.
However, it's in these periods of a magazine's industry's life that comes the chance for radical change. When things are bad, it's a war between money-men who want to keep profits by reducing costs and the editorial who want to keep profits by being *better*. The idea of "being better" is somewhat alien to the money-people, who've pretty much forgotten any idea of what creative impulses actually are - or, more relevantly, the ability to have faith in anyone else's.
So, to choose a parallel, at the turn of the millennium the money men came to prominence in the music mags, and pretty much destroyed them all. In a similar situation in the seventies, the music's press slump was reversed by discovering a new underground to write about and new writers to express their love of in increasingly imaginative ways. Ideally, since I selfishly enjoy writing about games while still wanting to be able to meet my gaze in the bathroom
I could be drunk and deluded. It's hardly unprecedented.
I think the general theory holds, even if it's just the net-writers who pick up and run with it though. And it's something people who think about games writing are increasingly voicing anyway - I'm hardly being original here, just trying to bring together a selection of thought and put it into a coherent rant.
Hopefully someone will be inspired to actually *try* it.
KG