Game Journalism: A Table of Doritos

I read something about somebody writing a book about the history of Sega or something. My first thought was "Was Melf involved? If not they're gonna fuck this up."

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Originally Posted by GohanX

My first thought was "Was Melf involved? If not they're gonna fuck this up."

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QFT.

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Originally Posted by Fe 26

I'd rather read melf's stuff than the current alternative.

I don't even buy current magazines. but I buy a lot of magazines. I picked up a box of HAM radio magazines from 39 through 45. I got 30 or so old car service magazines and Electronics world magazines from that period too.

Magazines used to have a lot of 'meat' in them. Take gaming and computers for example. One of the first three personal computers was one that a magazine showed you how to build. Game magazines used to come with a sheet of code that you could type in and make your own games. They used to treat the consumer like he was very smart.

Now? They treat consumers like neanderthals.

This is part of the reason for "print is dead." Everyone treats the consumer like they are stupid. Which is easy to do. Because the writing is garbage and it takes no time or effort. Anyone can do that. The blogger, websites, random dudes on forums, etc.

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This.

I was actually talkign to Ammadeau briefly about this. (It was a tangent after publishing the Dead or Alive 5 review on PTB)

I honestly believe that his thoughts are: gamers are stupid, have short attention spans, so let's dumb down the writing. If that's what he thought, then I'd wholeheartedly disagree. There are still people out there who value comprehensive articles and thank goodness, because I would probably want to get up writing alotgether if society as a whole was solely filled with morons.

There are still intelligent writers out there. TNL delivered it. Gaming Age for a time did it. Shit, even the guys prior to TNL at PSi did it -- enthusiast sites that were backed by passionate people that refused to let themselves become beholden to all the nonsense going on in the industry had a good lock on things. I hope that trend can still continue, even if it does end up becoming a minority in the industry.

I'm glad to see you haven't changed much in the past 12 years.

Lol.

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Originally Posted by bahn

This.

I was actually talkign to Ammadeau briefly about this. (It was a tangent after publishing the Dead or Alive 5 review on PTB)

I honestly believe that his thoughts are: gamers are stupid, have short attention spans, so let's dumb down the writing. If that's what he thought, then I'd wholeheartedly disagree. There are still people out there who value comprehensive articles and thank goodness, because I would probably want to get up writing alotgether if society as a whole was solely filled with morons.

There are still intelligent writers out there. TNL delivered it. Gaming Age for a time did it. Shit, even the guys prior to TNL at PSi did it -- enthusiast sites that were backed by passionate people that refused to let themselves become beholden to all the nonsense going on in the industry had a good lock on things. I hope that trend can still continue, even if it does end up becoming a minority in the industry.

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Reminds me of something I heard in a webcomics podcast - you get the audience you deserve.

If you write thinking that the audience is full of morons or dudebros or whatever, don't be surprised that that becomes your audience. In the podcast, they equate how an all-ages webcomic WILL find older folks, parents, people not exactly big on nerd culture...just because the site doesn't assume a specific audience is tuning in. Contrast that to a place like Penny-Arcade, which is full of rape and dick jokes. Of course it culls some of the worst human beings as ardent fans! You reap what you sow.

So I figure it's not a matter of whether or not smart gamers exist. It's just so few writers/sites are willing to acknowledge their existence.

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Originally Posted by GohanX

I'm glad to see you haven't changed much in the past 12 years.

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LOL. As in, I still like fighting games?

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Originally Posted by bahn

This.

I was actually talkign to Ammadeau briefly about this. (It was a tangent after publishing the Dead or Alive 5 review on PTB)

I honestly believe that his thoughts are: gamers are stupid, have short attention spans, so let's dumb down the writing. If that's what he thought, then I'd wholeheartedly disagree. There are still people out there who value comprehensive articles and thank goodness, because I would probably want to get up writing alotgether if society as a whole was solely filled with morons.

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This attitude seems pretty common, but I really think it's the biggest mistake you can make as a writer or editor. You can't really write for an audience unless you like and respect them. The fact is, they do know the difference between good writing and condescending shit.

There's definitely an art form to writing for a mass audience, but it's not about dumbing it down, it's about avoiding esoteric references and jargon, which is really just good writing. It makes you better as a writer to learn to do that.

IGN's commentors are notoriously hasty and harsh, and most IGN writers hate them, but when I write something I know is good, the comments are always overwhelmingly positive, and if I get a thrashing, it's because I did something wrong. Yeah, sometimes you get a touchy moron who misread something or thinks ridiculous account of game history is right, but the audience as a whole has always responded to the articles I'm proudest of.

When I write a review I write for myself, what I'd want to know about the game. I could not care less if the audience is a bunch of drooling idiots. If they are reading my review they are gonna get learned.

You can't write totally for yourself either. A big part of writing is learning how to communicate to a large number of people and have them all understand you.