The Big News (TNL is black. And this time... it's personal)

[The_Meach]

Heh, my rants in this thread have turned somewhat ironic, because I'm usually very self-deprecating about how goofy my job is (competitive, but goofy), but Meach set off my pretentiousness alarm and I went on the attack.

Not trying to be a dick!

I'm just saying that videogame journalism seems like one step above blogging. It's 90% opinion (reviews) and not a whole lot else. Am I wrong? </serious business>

[Frogacuda]

I'm just saying that videogame journalism seems like one step above blogging. It's 90% opinion (reviews) and not a whole lot else. Am I wrong? </serious business>

Reviews are opinion, yeah, but so is being a "political analyst." If you're justifying either on raw opinion alone, you won't get anywhere, though. Ideally it's a qualified, informed, well-balanced opinion that is presented well. Which is why less than 1% of these opinions are deemed worthy of a pay check. There's more to game journalism than writing reviews, too. Most of what I do isn't opinion based.

Don't see what any of that has to do with it being a profession, though.

[The_Meach]

Well, when I think of a profession, I think of a job/vocation that has specific rules/regulations and/or a governing board or some sort of required education/training.

So, being a lawyer is clearly a profession. Must go to school for it, have to be board certified, if you fuck up you can be disbarred, etc.

Teaching, with all its rules/regs/certs is a profession as well.

I don't think getting paid is enough for a job to be considered a profession (GameStop clerk, anyone?).

What do you need to do to be considered a journalist? Write stuff? Be published? Anyone with a blog is "published" in the strictest sense of the term.

And in terms of whether tossing out opinions is enough for a job to be considered a profession, I don't think that's enough. In my opinion.

[Othello Harrington]

Meach wins

[Frogacuda]

Well, when I think of a profession, I think of a job/vocation that has specific rules/regulations and/or a governing board or some sort of required education/training.

Well when you write your dictionary, we can discuss this matter further.

Though for what it's worth "legit" journalism doesn't have rules and regs or a governing body, and it doesn't require a specific degree (journo, English, comms, and equivalent experience will all do). So you're not even meeting your own (wrong) definition.

What do you need to do to be considered a journalist? Write stuff? Be published? Anyone with a blog is "published" in the strictest sense of the term.

I'd say if you make your living by doing a particular job (especially if it's something many amateurs do for free), you can fairly call yourself a professional in that field. If you fake-wrestle people on TV for a living you're a professional wrestler. Don't make it something magical.

Now I DO understand the line you want to draw, but you're trying to express it by making up fake definitions for words. What I do would be what's called "soft" journalism. I understand that distinction between this and hard journalism is meaningful, but it isn't the line between professional and amateur and it isn't the line between journalist and non-journalist.


If this guy gets the word "professional" in his job description I don't see why I shouldn't.

[Revoltor]

If the new TNL is just going to focus on reviews, previews and rewritten press releases then you're setting yourselves up for failure again. At least you'll get some free games though.

[Frogacuda]

If the new TNL is just going to focus on reviews, previews and rewritten press releases then you're setting yourselves up for failure again.

Way ahead of you.

News is going to be highly opinion based, and hopefully humor-oriented (We've never regurgitated press released at GN, we go out of our way to hammer people who do that). We'll still have reviews and previews (with an emphasis on personal style), but we're also pushing features harder as well as a lot of multimedia content, regular video shows, podcasts, and lots of other stuff. We know what we're doing, don't worry.

[Cowutopia]

That's where all the extra content comes in.

TNL will need something like a Yahtzee to be successful, or something else to bring people in.

StriderKyo should write every review.

[Othello Harrington]

Shit, we already have 100 angry video game nerds imo

[Frogacuda]

My goal is to make this a site that you can go to on a daily basis and find something entertaining. Funny, interesting, intellectual, goofy, whatever, but something entertaining.