Nothing is worse than a journalism outlet starts navel gazing, but recently there has been a spate of articles about the quality, content, and actions of video game journalism. Too much fanboyism, too many rumors, not real “journalists, amateur bloggers, industry shills. The list of quips, names and comments goes off into the sunset it is so long….nobody is innocent (Editor: Except us. Everyone here has a halo hanging over them.). Some of these names are deserving others are not. I want to pull a couple quotes to highlight various misconceptions.

“I’m also hoping this is a “wake-up” to sites trying to use this tactic, HHG was only the one that I noticed doing it a lot recently; there are plenty others.”

First, nearly every site, including the big ones, are getting in on the “gotcha” hook titles. Why? Because that is what readers click on.I’ve tried posting intelligent articles about game development being shipped off shore, why ibm is better to invest in than sony microsoft or nintendo, etc….all these articles got crap for hits. If I post an article titled “top 10 hottest game chicks” hits go through the roof. You serve up the articles & topics that people want to read. If people clicked on articles titled “The effect of killzone 2 on the current economic crisis” that is what bloggers/pocasters/vidcasters would write about. But gamers don’t click on those articles. They click on “Killzone 2 is a halo killer” So that is what gets written. Why would we waste our time writing about shit 99% of people don’t want to read. I blame that on the readers not the writers.

The whole purpose of submitting to N4G, Reddit, Digg, etc is to generate hits. You need hits to be taken seriously by the gaming industry. If you have no traffic, nobody wants to do interviews, nobody wants to answer questions, nobody wants to give you exclusive information, nobody wants to give you access to press assets, you don’t get invites to conventions or parties where those questions will likely be answered.

“I could easily spend the entirety of this post pointing out grammatical or spelling errors in the website’s editorial content but that would be too easy. “

This is simply quibbling over unimportant issues. Most people that dive into gaming journalism are new to it. They are not used to writing consistently and most likely journalism isn’t their first profession. As they gain experience their writing will hopefully improve. If not, who cares, they are writing about video games not quantum physics. Aslongasthiersentencesdon’tlooklikethisandcangetthepointacrosswhocares. As they rise in success they can hire on people more qualified for given tasks.

“I could also point to a countless number of examples which prove their console biased and blatant fanboyism,”

Many readers don’t/can’t understand that you can prefer one thing but still be objectionable when reporting on a similar product. Readers let their own favoritism cloud their judgment about a site. Lets take a quick look at something that most people have no favoritism about.

I’m a Nissan man. I own a RB25DET powered 1997 240sx. I think my car is the shit at the strip, in the canyons, and at the track. It is a 450hp monster. But that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate a turbo b18A powered 1989 Honda CRX. How can you fault a 1900lb car with 300hp that runs high 11s for about $7,000? Nor do I talk shit (in any seriousness) on 120hp AE86 Corolla. It is the most popular drifter out there. When you love something, like I love cars, you can learn to appreciate any aspect of all sides of the argument. This is the difference between someone who loves gaming and someone who love the console they own.

“Yet they have not played the game at all, other than the 10 minute demo (which I do admit is fantastic).”

Pure speculation. This writer doesn’t know if HHG was invited, which journalists often are, to play a build copy. This leads back to hits. The bigger the audience and the better the industry relationships the more access you have. It isn’t uncommon for journalists to play a game months before release.

“Everything does not need to be an argument, or a fanboy discussion; news should only be considered such if it has factual backing, not conjecture and guess-work.”

I keep having to repeat myself time and time again when I hear this argument. Reporting on gaming is like reporting on football. There isn’t enough news to feed a 24/7 news cycle so the rest of the time is filled up with commentary, predictions, and win-lose conversation. It is just as much for entertainment value as it is for facts and figures. Go to the big game sites like gamespot and watch their news articles. They struggle to put up one or two new articles a day. None of this takes into account dips in the news cycle, which late winter is one.

As for Hip Hop Gamer, I see a lot of haters. This guy blew up. In one year he goes from never being heard of, to the top 100,000 sites on the internet, and he did it with a camcorder, a black sheet, and a feed aggregator. That is quite an accomplishment that many bloggers/caster would love to have. And they hate on him for it. Is his show perfect? No, but it is entertaining. If you have been watching it from the beginning you will have noticed that his production values have been improving in most areas.

Most importantly, if you don’t like it. Don’t watch it.