Totally Not Corrupt Professional Objective Gaming Journalism DRAMA

[Tehdagah]

"Will Polygon still make incredible features? We absolutely will. What will change is the frequency."

Good.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

GamaSutra article about YouTube killing traditional journalism

One aspect that this article seems to completely ignore is when the Youtuber's review/stance/opinion is overall negative, regardless of whether it is because the Youtuber is shitting all over it or just pointing out the flaws.

Look at birgirpall's channel, for example - he's all about "breaking" games, showing us how badly coded they are and such. He's a bit like Doug the Eagle in video format. People are often laughing hysterically at his videos, but not because the game in question is hilariously funny - but because he exploits the flaws to bring us comedic moments. The only time I think this has worked in the game's favour is Goat Simulator - for obvious reasons.

Youtubers are merely evolution in motion - before radio there were newspapers, before video there was radio - and we all know that video killed the radio star. But both radio and newspapers are still around.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

http://www.polygon.com/forums/meta/2014/6/18/5821182/the-road-ahead

The road ahead
By Christopher Grant on Jun 18, 2014 at 12:57p @chrisgrant


This month, we lost some of our team. This includes Russ Pitts, one of the founding editors of the site, along with Tom Connors and Adam Barenblat, two of the most talented and hardest-working people we had. These decisions are never easy, and Russ, Tom and Adam are people I have considered, and will still consider, friends.

We never thought starting a video game outlet in 2012 (has it been that long already?) was going to be easy and we've learned a lot in the last two years. We learned that there's an incredible opportunity to tell in-depth stories about the people — both fans and creators — that make video games what they are. But we've also learned exactly how hard it is to do that with consistency and how much appetite there is for that kind of coverage.

We're very proud of the feature writing and video work we've done, but producing that content is expensive and requires that all (or at least nearly all) of those pieces are smash hits. When you're publishing two to three pieces like that a week, bringing in the audiences day in and day out is tougher than we'd imagined it would be way back in 2012. Lesson learned.

Will Polygon still make incredible features? We absolutely will. What will change is the frequency.

We need to find the right balance of interest and resource expenditure, so we can continue to produce the kind of longform work that you've come to know us by, while making sure that, when we do, you never want to miss it.

Polygon is growing. We beat our previous monthly high (November, fyi, thanks to the dual console launches) in March and again in May, and June is on track to be our best month ever. According to Comscore, Polygon is now the fourth largest gaming outlet, behind IGN, Gamespot and Kotaku. And we did it in less than two years. In order to keep growing, we need to think critically about our work and continue to challenge ourselves, even when it's hard.

Thanks to all of you, both caustic and kind, who've given us your feedback over these two years. We hope to keep learning from you, entertaining you and informing you for a long time to come.



-Chris Grant, editor-in-chief

Burn in flames of a horribly painful death.

 

[Kem0sabe]

IGN: WRITING IN GAMES: IT’S MUCH MORE THAN NARRATIVE

The Gears of War games, not always regarded as having ‘good writing’ (“Never thought it would end like this, huh Maria!?”) make an interesting example in my argument that the way we measure writing quality in games might center the discussion mostly on the overtly artistic or narrative kind.

Whether or not the story being told in the latest game - Judgment - was of a high quality in the traditional sense, the writing was exceptional. Take the declassified missions for example, which appeared in each chapter and offered an optional set of parameters to the player, increasing the challenge but also the reward.

Seems that its reached the point that Activision, publishers the money is actually sending them the topics they should write about.

 

[Infinitron]

(The Gears of War franchise is owned by Microsoft, not Activision)

 

[Kem0sabe]

(The Gears of War franchise is owned by Microsoft, not Activision)

My bad, never played the games myself, Gears of War just sounds like a very activisionsy title.

 

[Angthoron]

(The Gears of War franchise is owned by Microsoft, not Activision)

My bad, never played the games myself, Gears of War just sounds like a very activisionsy title.

They wish

 

[AN4RCHID]

Game journalism, kids: Not Even Once.

Spoiler

 

[Spectacle]

Game journalism, kids: Not Even Once.

Spoiler

Wow, what a stunning example of blaming everyone but yourself for your problems. That's a great attitude for starting to improve your life.
:patriot::kwafuckyeah::kwanzania:

 

[muds_animal_friend]

Game journalism, kids: Not Even Once.

Spoiler

So conservatives, l1berals, Silicon Valley startups, disrupters, politicians, and cis men are to blame for her lack of financial success? How could anyone hope to thrive with such a formidable and extensive cabal arrayed against them? She should consider emigrating to a less oppressive country. North Korea for example.

 

[AN4RCHID]

Man, this is golden. The SJW-gamejourno-complex has turned on itself.

 

[Tom Selleck]

Game journalism, kids: Not Even Once.

Spoiler

"Pronouns: any."

 

[Kem0sabe]

The fuck with these people sharing anything that comes to mind on twitter or facebook, is there no sense of privacy or propriety anymore?

 

[Infinitron]

Man, this is golden. The SJW-gamejourno-complex has turned on itself.

http://botherer.org/2014/06/25/you-probably-arent-owed-a-job-in-games-journalism/

You Probably Aren’t Reading The Original Post
by John Walker on Jun.25, 2014, under Rants

I’ve deleted this.

I stated at the top of the piece that it was a deliberately one-sided argument, a counter to an ongoing topic I’ve seen come up over the years, and made emphatically clear that things about it would be wrong. But this is not a possible way to go about things, it turns out. A large part of the reaction has been incredibly inappropriate, with people interpreting an argument that contained,

“And I am quite certain that some brilliant writers are not receiving the consideration they deserve because of their sex, sexual identity or nationality. There are boys’ clubs in this business, and this business is a massive majority of white men. Hello. The lack of diversity in the coverage is a significant problem, and is most clearly revealed in the tacit or overt tolerance for the worst tropes of the games themselves. It’s a mess.”

as one that was arguing that there were no such problems, or even that I was deliberately attempting to oppress people. That’s insane, and not something worth trying to deal with. I know it’s a lie, and the people close to and important to me know it’s a lie. But it remains a terrible lie.

It’s been pointed out to me that my article, on a different day, might have been received differently, but right now a few people are hurting too much for it to be a useful contribution. This may well be the case. I haven’t engaged with that side of things, presumably I don’t follow the relevant people on Twitter and missed it. I was capturing thoughts I’ve had for a long time, and wasn’t responding to any individual. But if it just caused more hurt, then it wasn’t useful either. I likely wandered into a discussion I don’t know about, and looked like I was directly attacking specific people. I wasn’t, and I apologise to anyone who was hurt by it.

I have worked so hard to fight for the rights of freelancers, both when I was one, and since I’ve been in a position to employ them. I vociferously campaign against companies that are exploiting freelancers by not paying them. I am proud of what I’ve done. Since what I wrote was either so faulty and poorly communicated, or so wilfully misinterpreted, to suggest the opposite, I can see no good in leaving it up. Thank you to everyone who understood what I was saying, and thank you to those who engaged with where the argument was wrong and provided excellent replies. The comments are still below.

Awww, man.

 

[Infinitron]

Ah, wait, Google's archive to the rescue:

You Probably Aren’t Owed A Job In Games Journalism
by John Walker on Jun.25, 2014, under Rants

This isn’t going to be very popular.

Right now there’s a bunch of discussion going on about the struggles of games journalist freelancers trying to make a living, and how people are variously having to turn to other jobs, or Patreon and other alternative sources of funding. And this is being used as a large stick with which to beat the industry.

I’m generally first in line to beat this industry with sticks. But in this case, I think the other side of the argument needs to be voiced, as harsh as it may sound. Please let it be clear that this is only that – the other side of the argument. It doesn’t mean the first side is invalid, or without merit. Thesis, meet antithesis. So I’ll start off with the statement that people will like the least:

The universe doesn’t owe you the job you want.

There are incredibly talented artists who will only ever paint pictures for their own walls. There are phenomenally good racing car drivers who will never compete on professional circuits. There are brilliant philosophers who will never get published or heard. And there are wonderful, inventive, smart and erudite writers who will never make a living from writing about videogames.

This isn’t automatically a sign of a fault within the industry.


The industry is, of course, riddled with faults. The industry is in fact a collection of faults loosely strung together with tenuously frayed string. And I am quite certain that some brilliant writers are not receiving the consideration they deserve because of their sex, sexual identity or nationality. There are boys’ clubs in this business, and this business is a massive majority of white men. Hello. The lack of diversity in the coverage is a significant problem, and is most clearly revealed in the tacit or overt tolerance for the worst tropes of the games themselves. It’s a mess.

Meanwhile, there are a limited number of spaces and there is a limited amount of money. RPS – for which I can only speak – has a strong desire to have variety in its voice. But at the same time, it’s a business that was started by four white straight men, so we started with quite a disadvantage in that regard. We still aren’t providing anything like the variety I would like to see, but we are making progress. And we are doing that with an extremely limited budget, because we’re a small business run without external investment. And we certainly cannot afford to employ or hire a fraction of a fraction of the number of people who want to write for us. Or even who we want to write for us.

Other sites are bigger, far bigger, and have far bigger budgets. But they too have limits, and in turn, fantastically more people wanting to write for them than can ever conceivably do so.

Imagine a game of musical chairs, but with thousands of people playing, and only a couple of seats. Every time the music stops, the fight to sit down is horrendous. An awful lot of people are left standing up. People who might be especially excellent at sitting.

So put out more chairs? Good plan – there are now more writers, a greater spread of voices, and much more potential for outlying voices to be heard. But do so, and now there’s less money to give each sitter. The greater your number of voices, the less money there is to give each of them. With a limited budget, and of course there’s a limited budget, you either give fewer people a decent living, or more people a poorer living. For the person on the outside, neither looks good. For the person on the inside, the solutions aren’t obvious.

I entirely agree that it hugely sucks that talented writers whose voices I love aren’t making enough money to keep going on freelance work alone. People like Jenn Frank and Cara Ellison (who have both been gracious and inventive in fighting to get their voices heard) are brilliant writers, and I love what they do. I’m also extremely aware of RPS’s freelance budget, which we always want to increase, and work our arses off to make more money to do so. I’m aware that the money isn’t there to see my favourite writers writing as much as I want to see.

I’m also aware that Future, one of the biggest players in the UK’s games coverage, is in desperate financial trouble, laying of staff in droves, and cutting freelance everywhere. And that many other big names are not making big profits. And that even successful companies like Gawker, owners of Kotaku, do not have infinite pockets to hand out money to every writer good enough to warrant it.

Some are arguing that good writers needing to turn to Patreon and the like to make money is a sign of the death of the industry, or at least the dearth of good opportunity. Honestly, I think this is complete rubbish. Fifteen years ago, before online work was ubiquitous, if you were a freelancer who couldn’t get enough work, you did it privately in your own bedroom and no one knew. You applied to every magazine, got nowhere, and as great as you were, you had to get another job. Now there are these wonderful opportunities for such people to find new ways to make money from their talent. In fact, there are orders of magnitude more freelance spaces and freelance writers now than there were a decade ago, and in turn multiple times more people trying to get those places. Over-demand has matched increased supply, but with brand new ways to succeed appearing all the time.

I was freelancing for Future for over a decade, with a prominent regular section in PC Gamer for ten years, along with regular reviews, previews and features for just that magazine. At the same time I was writing regularly or irregularly for PC Format, Edge, and Eurogamer, as well as contributing to a dozen or more others. And I was struggling. (Edit: within relative terms. I remained extremely fortunate and in the enormously privileged position of having parents who could bail me out.) I was looking for work, applying for staff writer positions, and making small amounts of money from being a youth worker. Shortly before RPS started, I had applied for a full time youth work position, despite being one of the better known voices in games journalism in the UK. It is not a well paid job. I wish it were, and RPS pays what I hope are some of the better rates in the industry. But freelance remains not a well paid job. And it remains a job that no one owes you.

I am concerned by some of the voices that I’m hearing lately. The belief that an individual’s failure to make enough money from writing freelance copy about videogames is a failing of the industry may contain some truth, but it also contains some arrogance. A fraction of good musicians get a recording contract. Barely any talented footballers get paid to play football. And in this particular job, there isn’t a giant golden egg waiting for those who do make it. And the more people who personally believe that the industry owes them a living, the less potential money there is available to each.

Freelance games journalism is a pretty shitty job. It’s poorly paid, extremely scarce, and the competition against you is utterly massive. But right now, if you burn with the need to have your voice heard, to have your words read, then there are more opportunities, more ways to go about it, than ever before. But, as much of a shame as it may be, you aren’t owed it simply because you’re good at it. There are a lot more people than there are seats, so not everyone is going to sit down.

 

[Zewp]

People really took offence to that? Which part of "we don't have the money to hire everyone we want to and that's not something we can do anything about" is so disagreeable?

I mean, fucking hell, I hate John Walker as much as the next person, but I don't see how anyone could take offence at that post.

 

[Tom Selleck]

Because the people who demand and believe they should and are entitled to write about games are entitled and terrible and literally have never struggled nor wanted for anything meaningful in any capacity for the entire duration of their unremarkable and putrid existences, and when they hear otherwise, surely it is some slight of privilege, or oppression or lack of consideration on the part of those people that are expected and demanded to bend over backwards and simply allow - at their own expense and time and effort - those who wish to do something, the time and ability and opportunity to do it.

The needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many, the few, the qualified and the deserving. Because they're told "they can do anything," and "anything you aspire to do, you can do it" and this means: I want to do X, so X is what I will do, regardless of my ability to do X, the viability of X or the opportunity cost of X.

Nobody sacrifices, nobody expels effort and nobody has any idea of their worthlessness.

 

[Tehdagah]

(...) The industry is, of course, riddled with faults. The industry is in fact a collection of faults loosely strung together with tenuously frayed string. And I am quite certain that some brilliant writers are not receiving the consideration they deserve because of their sex, sexual identity or nationality. There are boys’ clubs in this business, and this business is a massive majority of white men. Hello. The lack of diversity in the coverage is a significant problem, and is most clearly revealed in the tacit or overt tolerance for the worst tropes of the games themselves. It’s a mess. (...)

Just re-posting.

 

[Cadmus]

(...) The industry is, of course, riddled with faults. The industry is in fact a collection of faults loosely strung together with tenuously frayed string. And I am quite certain that some brilliant writers are not receiving the consideration they deserve because of their sex, sexual identity or nationality. There are boys’ clubs in this business, and this business is a massive majority of white men. Hello. The lack of diversity in the coverage is a significant problem, and is most clearly revealed in the tacit or overt tolerance for the worst tropes of the games themselves. It’s a mess. (...)

Just re-posting.

that fuckin cunt stealin a mans job, send the rape squad

 

[Tom Selleck]

Yo, son. Here's a 'poem' (?) about something games-related. I didn't read it all. (From: http://sufficientlyhuman.com/archives/323#more-323)

This is not Phil Fish giving the finger next to CliffyB;

This is not the tale of a man hunting the white whale.

This is not your Indie Success Story.




This is not a ballad for sad millionaires.

This is not a mint-fresh and groundbreaking revelation

That everything that Is is also an Industry.



This is not Notch or Ed or any kind of figurehead

That speaks for alienation and poverty.

This is not some meaningful symbolism for artistic despair.



This is not a case of bootstraps tied too tight,

Knotted and choking the blood out of a misunderstood heart.

This is not what it should take for you to listen



To people who never had

To people who never were

To people who’ve always been

And have always been telling you



This is an early review copy,

Unsure and unready and broken inside,

Like the crunch that breaks off pieces of its workers.



This is working till their bodies forget how to sleep

Just to be told that it wasn’t the right time

Or that they’re not right, and to just be patient until they might be.



This is seeing the dawn so many times it loses its magic.

This is busking till they feel like a cold-caller, reviled.

This is not what it should take for you to listen



To people who never had

To people who never were

To people who’ve always been

And have always been telling you



This is nearly losing a home (more than once).

This is digging their way out of a chasm of debt.

This is being ashamed to spend money on a new pair of shoes.



This is having to crowdfund to fly

To their own fucking talk

Just so they can complain about capitalism before a fountain of riches.



This is holding a dollar just above their nose

And then telling them they’re greedy when they grab for it

And scoffing at them because they’re crying in the bathroom again,



And then wondering why when they finally quit jumping

When you say how high.

This is not what it should take for you to listen



To people who never had

To people who never were

To people who’ve always been

And have always been telling you



This is being told they’re beneath payment,

But not above being pilfered, eaten and discarded

By people who suddenly have something to lose.



This is being given the vague sense

That their hook is wrong, style is wrong, identity is wrong.

This is being weighed on an unbalanced scale.



This is about who doesn’t get invited to fancy parties.

This is about lofty ideas that hit the ground running,

Like a small child lifting a huge rock and tumbling under it.



This is about the invisible mass that holds us all up

Against the gravity crushing it into the ground.

This is about who doesn’t have a Big Name Profile on Big Name Site.



This is not what it should take for you to listen



To people who never had

To people who never were

To people who’ve always been

And have always been telling you



That this is not Phil Fish.

Support her on Patreon! $415/article (does this count as one, did this earn her $415?) already does.

 

[AN4RCHID]

edit: that Phil Fish video really struck a nerve with the feminist game bloggers. Liz Ryerson wrote a very butthurt article trying to dismiss it. I guess they've been trying to write insightful take downs of white male dominated "gamer culture" for years, it must sting when a white guy comes along and nails it.

 

[AN4RCHID]

Didn't The BorderHouse die off because there wasn't a sustainable audience? It's like these people don't understand that a job is where you provide a service in exchange for money; you aren't owed money just for doing whatever you feel like. I'd guess that very few Polygon readers are interested in Mattie Brice or Lana Polanski's work. Ben Kuchera is a tool, but he writes the standard game journo stuff that people go to those sites to read. Mattie, Lana, Maddy Myers, Kris Ligman et al are extremely grating almost all the time, and more importantly they're only interested in writing ultra-personal articles about gender issues and not in anything like journalism. It's not hard to see why the mainstream game sites aren't giving them full-time jobs.

 

[Tom Selleck]

I read these game blogging journalismos because I want to read about the collapse of Silicon Knights. Or to see if the stealth in Splinter Cell: Blacklist approaches the gameplay in the first three games, not how hiding in the dark is an all-too-familiar reminder of the secret shame of hiding in the dark of their gender identity.

An interesting experiment would be to get rid of all names and see if content drives the games 'journalism' industry. How much does the ultra-personal crowd exist as a result of being on the outside looking in?

 

[DalekFlay]

John Walker reaping the bullshit he's sown with people who take offense to everything makes me the happiest person in the world right now.

 

[PocketMine]

When he's writing BS all he gets is praise. When he writes the truth all he gets is

Paradoxes of modern gaming journalism.