A Plea To Game Journalist[s]

[bahn]

Heh. I've never seen this before.

Who the hell is Heidi?

Heidi Kemps is a really old member of TNL (and a close friend of Ali) who has conducted extensive interviews with SEGA development members including Reiko Kodama, Yuji Naka and Toshiro Nagoshi. She's mostly freelancing now for 1up and Gamespy and I think she does a couple of foreign editorial gigs too.

[Master]

I do think, however, this guy is going a bit overboard. If I said, "Hey, I'm in the industry!" I don't mean the video game MAKING industry, obviously. Video games, period, is an industry, and that encompasses everybody from those who make the games, to those who promote them, to those who write about them.

Read past the first paragraph. He isn't saying it is a treefort that you aren't welcome in. He is saying you shouldn't WANT to be a part of the industry. You should want to be separate so that you can stay as unbiased as possible.

I think his point is that Game Reviews, Previews and coverage is press release after press release to keep the industry afloat and keep companies advertising. If videogames magazines all panned the wholly mediocre games, their advertising revenue would go through the floor when the sales went down. While this would eventually lead to innovation in the form of better games on the whole to keep the industry alive, it would hurt the magazines and websites so it isn't worth it to them.

Read it again. He is saying you shouldn't want to be associated with the industry in the way you are putting forth.

[Frogacuda]

Oh, bullcrap it is. Everyone likes to claim that, but it's so untrue it hurts. How many games in the past 5 years, gameplay elements aside, have really made you think or elicited emotion like a good movie or piece of music does?

Probably as many games as movies, honestly. Alot of movies are shallow distraction like games, but a good game gets you emotionally invested in what's going on maybe even more effectively. You care more about the character when you assume the role. So all things equal in terms of presentation and visual storytelling (Which they seldom are, but still) I dare say video games have the potential to be even more evocative. I know I haven't seen a movie that made me feel like I did when I beat Phantasy Star or Shenmue II.

[Master]

Here is a great site that fits into this whole conversation...

http://vgmwatch.com/