Once you start to get into the industry of videogame “journalism” you soon find out it is less of a free ride and more of a complex balancing act. Simply put; writers want to write the truth, publication owners want to get readers, game publishers want high scores and coverage and game developers want fair treatment.
The whole system begins to break when a PR company meets a publication owner. If the publication owner gets an early copy of a game, chances are they get a lot of extra readers. If they are likely to give the game a higher score than other publications, they are also likely to get the “exclusive review”.
On the flip side, if a sire or magazine prints negative things about a game, the game’s developer and publisher will likely take their ball and go play elsewhere. It’s not fair, and it’s not right (from some perspectives), but that is how this industry has built itself.
Sore Thumbs, the blog started by Dan Hsu, ex Editor in Chief for EGM, has a very interesting post written by an anonymous source who Dan confirms works in marketing and PR for large game publishers.
Anonymous Guy comes right out and says all the things (s)he has done:
I have pulled ad buys in protest of what I felt were unfair review scores. I have spoken to the “boss” of publications before, and complained about certain journalists. I have “banned” certain media outlets from getting pre-release access to games, because of previous unfavorable coverage.
We all know this happens, but to hear somebody come right out and say it isn’t frequently done. Why would somebody do this? Try to bend the truth and manipulate people to fit their needs? AG makes the point that it is all but impossible to avoid things like this and blames bad journalism as the main culprit.
Lets say you have a game that takes 30 hours to complete, and reviewer plays 2 hours of it and gives it mediocre review based on the first few levels, just because he has 10 other games to review and can’t put in 20 hours. Or when seeing a game pre-release, the journalist complains about things in the game that are obviously work in progress. Or when an editor of a big games website gives his FPS guy a sim racing game to review. Or when someone looks at all the other reviews online for a game, and just follows the crowd by posting a similar review (look at what’s happening to Too Human right now… does that game deserve scores that bad?). These things happen all the time.
AG then continues something which I agree with to an extent, the feeling that reviewers approach game publishers as if the reviewer is the more important one in the deal, and that they deserve a copy of the game
A great unspoken truth is that those involved in games development and publishing feel that many journalists feel a sense of entitlement – that they deserve to have their asses kissed because of the power they wield over the sell-in (convincing retail buyer to take a game) and the final sell through of games to gamers.
In his final point, AG calls for more “real” journalism, “What this means to me is not harsher reviews, but thoughtful analysis about games, real knowledge of game development, and a deep history of playing games”.
Essentially the same thing I heard a year or so ago when I went to a talk by Ernest Adams who called for “game critics not reviewers”. Right now we are at the point in time where videogames are coming of age and reaching a truly mature stage. We need to make sure the publications, online or offline, are doing the same.
If you care about videogames and the industry surrounding them, and also on the corruption which acts as the oil to keep things moving, I highly suggest giving the post a read. For that matter give their entire blog a read, it’s all good stuff. Ars Technica also have a very good article on the topics raised.
We may be calling for less crap from publishers using underhanded tactics when it comes to pushing their game, but we also need to call for equal effort on the part of the videogame journalists sat on the other side of the fence.
As AG writes:
The fact is game journalists – of which there are hundreds at the moment – are living off the blood sweat and tears of creative people who love games and regularly work 100 hours weeks. The fact they casually rip on a game gives others involved in the development and marketing process good reason to pissed.
It seems like too many people are willing to bash down any games that become popular, just so they can act “above” everyone else.
I wonder if this is the only medium stuff like this happens in, I wonder if record companies “ban” certain journalists who are harsh on their artists.
Bloggers need to start considering themselves journalists, otherwise it will never turn into proper criticism.