Death to the Fanboy Press

Kotaku has yet more commentary on the gaming press, where Brian Crecente complains about the childish nature of gaming magazine coverage. This commentary is based on an IGDA commentary piece by Matthew Sakey about the sad state of adult-oriented gaming press. From the article: "What about the magazine did I like the least? Maybe it was the jet lag, but I answered truthfully: 'Sometimes I think your magazine acts too childish. I could do without the stuffed animals and Godzilla jokes and Nerf gun battle pictorials. I'd rather see more in-depth coverage of gaming trends and the ideas that games produce, and less obsession with technology. If we want games treated as a hobby that's as much for adults as children, then we should act more adult. Fun, but grown-up.' This answer pleased them not, and in retrospect it occurs to me that had I shown a bit more tact - for which I am admittedly not famous - I might have gotten the job."

Comments

Edge Magazine

[david.given]

Edge Magazine is a fun but serious gaming magazine for, like, actual adults. Reading it is a rather odd experience. It has articles that are interesting and which you find yourself thinking about.

It's a bit sad that this comes across as being unusual these days.

Bring Back Next Generation

[blueZhift]

I tend to agree that most of the game magazines are more interested in hype and cheat codes than in the inner working of the games business. Right now, I think EGM is the best in terms of writing and industry coverage, but I really miss Next Generation magazine which was the first games related magazine I ever read regularly. It was a high quality publication that told the inner story of the games industry in addition to coverage of the latest games and hardware. It felt like it was written by adults for adults. Does anyone know if the Japanese games magazines do any better? I think gaming is a bit more respected there as an activity that is okay for adults to engage in. I wonder if the magazines reflect this.

Games are games...

[tod_miller]

I am all for frontier like 9 page reviews for wetting your knickers but:

All the reviews of Half-Life 2 that I've read go on and on about the gravity gun, the cool physics, the amazing water effects produced by the Source engine, and how good the level design is. Scarcely a word is mentioned about the potency of the urban dystopia so elegantly realized with City-17; about the brooding, ubiquitous Overwatch and the paranoia it foments; about humanity's growing despondency in the face of the Combine's relentless oppression

Give my jokes about godzilla and nerf gun pictorials over this! :-)

No, I agree that some games you just wanna take to bed and read with you, like GTA:SA, I woudl like to read a lot about that game, the technology, from a developer point of view.

So I would read gamasutra. If I ama game head, which i am not, I would read the tripe magazines, like the one your were interviewed for.

I can't believe you lost the chance to work somewhere with nerf gun fights. Now google is your only chance (until the adsense fraud gets them all hungry again!! :-(

Re:Games are games...

[CoffeeJedi]

but there IS something to be said here, ok, it seems like you enjoy the technical aspects of gaming, and that's fine for you and alot of other people

but people like the author, and myself even, want to know about the story and characters of a game. Gaming has matured to the point where story matters over flashy graphics. Half life 2 created a very distinct mood and feel, the writers were trying to SAY something with that setting. Granted, they weren't saying anything that countless other dystopian authors already had, but the point is, if we mature gamers take more interest in intelligent themes, stories, and characters, maybe the writing and plot of games will get BETTER. I would like to finally play some 'mature' games, and i don't mean mature as in GTA, (digital blood and boobs are interesting to 14 year olds, but not me). Mature as in intelligent, intellectual story elements that you need half a brain to understand. Halo and Halo 2 have come close, packed in the explosions and weaponry and multiplayer carnage, there's actually some pretty compelling sci-fi concerning the nature of faith and religion.

If movie reviews were written like game reviews

[atomic noodle]

Imagine if movie reviews were written like the average game review...

Ninety percent of the review would be a discussion of the special effects and technical details, with ten percent left for things like plot and characterisation.

Perhaps when every game has photo-realistic graphics and perfect 3D sound then reviewers will finally have to start looking at the things that actually make the game fun...

He's got it

[Anonymous Coward]

This guy is right on. If you know where to look , there's plenty of trenchant, intelligent discussions of music and movies beyond the consumer reports that pass as reviews these days.

And it's not like there's a shortage of 'feature' gaming stories out there. I'd love to know what Bungie learned between incarnations of Bungie.net, for example, from the Myth days and what's been improved and why. Or more about the indie rock soundtrack to the upcoming Stubbs the Zombie. Are smaller bands now more likely to get on board with a game because it's harder to get signed to a major label? Because it's a good promotional tool? Economics or savvy?

I think the mags are just plain lazy.

Re:Immature magazines for immature adults.

[leland242]

Meh.

Male maturity can be measured in many different ways. Off color humor and/or fantasy thoughts about women is probably not the best place to start. All men make comments and all men fantasize. Period. Maturity (and this can be applied to most everything else) is the ability to differentiate between the fantastic and reality.

That said, I would agree that the guys who rushed out to buy "The Guy Game" or "Panty Raiders" are probably not the most mature guys in the world - but I bet there are a few gems in that rough.

I suscribe to PC Gamer. Each month I get a shiny new copy of thier fine publication, sit down in my living room, and read it. It's a nice alternative to the computer and I'm not confined to my desk.

The real bonus is that in about 2 years time the bindings will spell out P C G A M E R on a shelf in my basement. Now that's something an on-line review simply can't do.

A games journo speaks

[Anonymous Coward]

Hi everyone,

I hope you don't mind me posting anonymously but I'm sure you'll understand why. Working on a multi-format mag is an eye-opening experience. I too wanted to raise the tone of journalism but have faced an unexpected obstacle: the game publishers themselves.

Lots of publishers have told me how dissatisfied they are with the current state of game journalism. I've had senior PR people tell me they can usually influence journos if they need to. And I know other journos who have been offered inducements (read: cash) to give games good scores.

They like it this way. I've seen major publishers pull ads because we've written negative reviews of their games. They have control - as a number of people have said, magazine publishing is a business and when your publisher sees ads being pulled and phone calls not returned you can bet your bottom dollar that the panic button gets hit. The game publishers know this and use it to their advantage.

I absolutely agree that there are some terrible, juvenile mags out there. But let's not forget that at least some of these are perfectly targeted at a juvenile audience. It's much tougher to produce an adult mag that takes games seriously. The only two that do are Edge and gamesTM, both from the UK. And neither of them has ever sold many copies, which raises questions about the adult audience who are, I suspect, enjoying some of the excellent, no-holds-barred writing to be found on the web, where writers are not professionals and so aren't worried about ads being pulled or code withheld.

Any other journos out there want to comment?

Thanks for the sexism. Let's debunk that.

[cgenman]

For a counter perspective, check out 1UP's look at the issue.

Long story short, the lead designer for The Playboy Mansion and the lead product developer for Bloodrayne are female, and the lead designer for Beyond Good and Evil is male. Many of the people listed in the article cross the line between the traditionally expected viewpoints. Many female designers and artists are comfortable with a larger degree of sexuality in their characters, and many male designers take a more respectful "kid's gloves" approach to the issue. The designer most directly responsible for the look of Laura Croft left the company after the first game because they wanted to sex her up too much (Legend has it she is based upon his niece).

This is not as black-and-white an issue as "men are sex-starved, women are victims." Quite frankly I find that reductionism insulting. The majority of the male gaming population does not act like 13 year old boys. Have you been around 13 year old boys recently? If the current statistics are correct, the percentage of 6 - 17 year old boys playing videogames is holding at about 20%. Which means 1 in 5. Which means that the obnoxious kid that you bump into on the Halo 2 server is probably in reality an obnoxious kid. And if he understands that the behavior is unacceptable, he will change. But if you shrug and make gross generalizations based on sex, that makes it OK for him to continue and insults the rest of us unproductively.

And please lose the stereotype of the lifeless piply male gamer. It's been debunked. Multiple times. over and over again.

A radical suggestion

[SteeldrivingJon]

If people want a grownup gaming magazine, then perhaps a magazine is needed which is characterized by what has long been considered to identify a book as being "for grownups".

No pictures.

Then it'd have to survive on the quality of the writing, and the thoughts expressed. The lack of screenshots would encourage a focus on deeper issues than graphics of scary monsters and explosions.

The lack of pictures would let it function on a lower budget, removing the need to whore for the vendors and the kiddies looking for pictures of CGI chicks who make them feel kinda funny down there.

Start it out as a low-budget zine, and build credibility. If interest rises high enough, move to a more traditional printed journal format with higher production values. Maybe even allow line drawing diagrams, when necessary.

(Note: I am not a person who thinks a book with pictures is automatically a kids' book. Graphic Novel readers need not respond with examples of Maus or Persepolis, etc)