Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The Game Industry Is About The Games

Posted by Zonk on from the personality-clash dept.

Over at Gamespot Bob Colayco fires back at David Jaffe, who you may recall referred to game journalists as vultures, saying that Jaffe's ideas about what journalism should be are just as uninteresting as the most sycophantic game plug. From the article: "Am I the only one who picks up rags like Entertainment Weekly, skips the fluff in front, and goes straight to the reviews sections? Maybe that attitude is really dehumanizing. But I don't think it's any coincidence that other entertainment industries started going to crap when people started caring more about our manufactured pop stars and their gossip than they did about the product. This is why we have reality shows with the likes of Jessica Simpson."

4 of 22 comments (clear)

  1. Yeesh by Otter · · Score: 4, Interesting
    But I don't think it's any coincidence that other entertainment industries started going to crap when people started caring more about our manufactured pop stars and their gossip than they did about the product.

    As much as I always enjoy this sort of crotchety-old-man grumbling about how the world has completely gone to hell, and things aren't like back in the good old days of the 1980's -- "manufactured pop stars and their gossip" have been around for centuries. Does Bob Colayco think Hollywood was any different in the 60's, in the 40's, in the 20's?

    --
    What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
  2. He's not the only one that fired back ... by SuperRob · · Score: 3, Interesting

    And I actually got a response from Jaffe ...

    http://superrob.blogspot.com/2005/11/david-jaffes- plea-to-game-journalist.html

  3. Re:This Just In... by drspooky · · Score: 3, Insightful

    A single person can't make a movie either, and yet directors still pull in top dollar and a fair amount of fame and respect. The problem is that we are ingrained to the cog mentality and we refuse to take credit for our individual contributions. Good designers/developers/artists make good games.

    We allow ourselves to believe that anyone in our position will produce the same product when the exact opposite is true. Because game development is a creative effort, the individual contributions are unique to the person who creates them. If I were to leave my current project and another designer took my place, it would be a different game than the one that would be created with my input.

    We have no system of self-promotion in the game industry and until that changes, individual talent and individual contributions will continue to go unrecognized. However, this change must start in how we view ourselves. /rant.off

  4. That's not what I said... by davidjaffe · · Score: 5, Informative

    I NEVER said game journalists were vultures. That was Next-Gen.Biz....they were talking about my blog entry when they said that. I swear, I didn't expect people to be so upset because I was asking for something I wanted (meatier game writing). To those offended- and it seems there have been a good amount- sorry if there are some folks who don't agree with my request. I didn't know having an opinion or desire contray to your own was so offensive. David