SubscribeSpotanime.com has gone through various incarnations over the past few years, but recently and most consistently as a critical soundboard against the current state of videogame journalism. I’ve been outspoken against the popular industry enthusiast blogs, such as 1UP, Kotaku and Joystiq for years, and any consistent reader of my blog (God bless you) would say that is an understatement.
I admit I was wrong when I started my crusade over three years ago. The popular and vocal media outlets thought videogame journalism was merely reviews and game criticism, and judging from the evolution of my posts on the subject, even I lost focus. “Should reviews have scores?” “Should reviews be based solely on technical merit?” Those were the arguments of the day, and every once and a while someone would ask the obvious question, “Should it be called journalism or criticism, or merely writing?”
The obvious answer, is all of the above.
Back in July 2006 I wrote a post entitled, “The Lester Bangs of Video Games is Under Our Noses,” in response to an article by Esquire’s Chuck Klosterman. Klosterman compared videogame criticism to film criticism, and theorized why there was no equal.
Video games provide an opportunity to write about the cultural consequence of free will, a concept that has as much to do with the audience as it does with the art form. However, I can’t see how such an evolution could happen, mostly because there’s no one to develop into these “potentiality critics.” Video-game criticism can’t evolve because video-game criticism can’t get started.
In my post, which was part of the Carnival of Gamers and spotlighted on Joystiq, I disputed criticism did in fact get started, but the media was just looking to the wrong critics.
The game industry is different in that it has an ever-expanding group of outspoken innovators and creators who not only critique the work of their peers, but also try to advance their craft by educating and stimulating the gaming populous with their blogs and journals about what it really means to make and play video games. They are one of them, very literally.
But again, the focus was criticism. And criticism was not to be the savior of videogames journalism.
Since that time, and really only until recently, games journalism has been treated like a business that begs to be covered with maturity and experience.
Ben Fritz did just this as former writer for Variety’s The Cut Scene blog, now entertainment business reporter for the Los Angeles Times. As his blog indicates he is indeed a fan of videogames, but instead of approaching his interest as an enthusiast, as was the trend at the time; he did it as a reporter, covering such stories as Midway’s meltdown in 2008. The IGNs and 1UPs of the world argued journalism didn’t translate to page views and subscriptions, but to his benefit Variety had no interest in becoming a blog read by teens.
At the same time, Stephen Totilo emerged as games reporter for MTV News, and started the MTV Multiplayer blog where he stayed before moving on as deputy managing editor at Kotaku in 2009. He wrote about how his Master’s in journalism helped his game writing: “That degree was by no means essential, but it helped. It helped me take reporting seriously.” More importantly, that same Master’s helped Kotaku transform itself from an news aggregate with a knack for potty editorials to a respectable industry blog with a team of seasoned writers and reporters.
In the past week, Totilo protege Patrick Klepek captured the Activision/Infinity Ward feud as an event worthy of a front page bombshell. Klepek, once caught in the sophomoric Animal House antics at 1UP, left for the nurturing confines of Totilo’s MTV Multiplayer blog and now covers videogames at G4 with the same propensity as his mentor.
In 2009, GamePro appointed former EGM editorial director John Davidson as executive vice president of content for its magazine and website. Always a proponent of quality content coupled with a sharp business sense, Davidson has attempted to successfully blend the two into the first few issues of the relaunched GamePro Magazine by tapping notable internet videogame journalists for editorials and handpicking content which clearly speaks to a more mature and sophisticated reader, and packaging those into a book that can be sold to the masses at the newsstand.
Four examples of writers, reporters and editors who have treated the videogame industry not like a childish diversion but rather the $20 billion business it has become.
The answer is there is room for writing, criticism and journalism in videogames media, but the media itself could not grow without true journalism. Sites like Giant Bomb and Joystiq can continue their brand of writing and podcasts as infotainment without the burden of trying to be journalism. Or needing to be journalism.
The emergence of true journalism in once-enthusiast blogs and mainstream outlets brings the possibility to millions of daily readers that the “Lester Bangs of Videogames” argument may now be a distant memory.
Vader himself? The duel at the end of Phantom Menace was one of the highlights across all six films, and represented the best Lucas could muster in the prequels. Maul kills Qui-Gon and sets off a course of events which lead to Hayden Christensen getting cast as the future Dark Lord, as well as making Lucas scramble for worthy opponents for the remaining two films. Dooku? Grievous? They paled in comparison to the vicious killer who was Maul. He should have survived as the Emperor’s main henchman throughout the prequels.
My how the videogame industry has changed. Ten years ago, Japanese developers were untouchable. Rock stars. Now they have become a mockery of themselves. A mess of poor decisions, stubbornness, ego, and creative sludge; exemplified to the Western world through the Internet’s omniscient existence.
