Totally Not Corrupt Professional Objective Gaming Journalism DRAMA

[Destroid]

The only time I ever see this guy talking it's trollish stuff coming out of his mouth, I guess he just enjoys being inflammatory, he seems like some kind of videogame shock jock.

 

[sea]

Uh actually that is false, they have been going down the shitter like all "video game news" sites. (gamesutra link) Not enough people value their coverage if Viacom dropped them fast.

Let me clarify. There are two points at play here:

1. Cost of content production
2. Entitlement to free content

The first is what I was trying to say above - that different standards of content have different production values. GameTrailers very obviously has higher expenses than your average YouTube channel. My speculation is that these expenses, and not lack of viewers themselves, led to the recent events described in that article.

The second is that it costs money to produce content - if you are actively avoiding paying for that content by skipping ads then you are not supporting the content creator. I don't want to draw a direct comparison with piracy, but the two are definitely not unlike each other. I think content creators have every right to be upset about people enjoying their content and then not compensating them for it.

Unfortunately I don't think Pachter clearly responded to either, but I think that's more or less what he was trying to say in the video above.

 

[Cadmus]

Uh actually that is false, they have been going down the shitter like all "video game news" sites. (gamesutra link) Not enough people value their coverage if Viacom dropped them fast.

Let me clarify. There are two points at play here:

1. Cost of content production
2. Entitlement to free content

The first is what I was trying to say above - that different standards of content have different production values. GameTrailers very obviously has higher expenses than your average YouTube channel. My speculation is that these expenses, and not lack of viewers themselves, led to the recent events described in that article.

The second is that it costs money to produce content - if you are actively avoiding paying for that content by skipping ads then you are not supporting the content creator. I don't want to draw a direct comparison with piracy, but the two are definitely not unlike each other. I think content creators have every right to be upset about people enjoying their content and then not compensating them for it.

Unfortunately I don't think Pachter clearly responded to either, but I think that's more or less what he was trying to say in the video above.

I think it's fucking stunning how when everything else fails, the businesses try to guilt people into paying them.

 

[Dexter]

http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/video-game-websites

 

[J1M]

Skip to 1:30

Fucketh me, I was fooled into clicking on a video with Pachter in it.

I watched just the adblock part and couldnt tell if the video was a parody or not. Who is Pachter or wtf? Is it a joke video or for real? Cuz if its for real its the most retarded thing ever. The whole point the mail was making was that the shitty trailer website provides no service thus theres no reason to support them. ALl they do is rehost bullshit PR videos and such and I dont even care to find out if its true. I havent been on any gaming website for years cuz its pointless

That's like saying youtube is a pointless site. They serve as a way for people to easily find game trailers.

Also, their FFXIV review was pretty funny.

 

[AngryEddy]

Skip to 1:30

Woah, a Jew trying sucker the white man in to giving him money, that's weird!

 

[Dr Tomo]

Uh actually that is false, they have been going down the shitter like all "video game news" sites. (gamesutra link) Not enough people value their coverage if Viacom dropped them fast.

Let me clarify. There are two points at play here:

1. Cost of content production
2. Entitlement to free content

The first is what I was trying to say above - that different standards of content have different production values. GameTrailers very obviously has higher expenses than your average YouTube channel. My speculation is that these expenses, and not lack of viewers themselves, led to the recent events described in that article.

The second is that it costs money to produce content - if you are actively avoiding paying for that content by skipping ads then you are not supporting the content creator. I don't want to draw a direct comparison with piracy, but the two are definitely not unlike each other. I think content creators have every right to be upset about people enjoying their content and then not compensating them for it.

Unfortunately I don't think Pachter clearly responded to either, but I think that's more or less what he was trying to say in the video above.

I would say that the cost of production and lack of viewers themselves is the reason for GT's spiral as I am skeptical they get as many viewers in comparison to a site's like The Escapist and Machinima. Also it really comes no surprise that people skip ad's using ad block since it offers pretty good protection against site's being lazy with curating ad's. If anything the the demise of many of these sites comes from amateurs that also have crappy editors, production of crappy content, and mismanagement. Defy Media & PC Gamer seems to be doing fine unless someone posts evidence otherwise and I believe it mainly comes from mismanagement.

 

[sea]

GameTrailers was actually bought by Defy Media so who knows, maybe you're right and the site is on track for a rebirth. I definitely remember that years ago, GameTrailers was the best place to get HD video (well before it was on YouTube), and maybe now that is not a significant advantage anymore. I can also see how being semi-merged into Spike TV would have diluted the site's focus.

 

[Dr Tomo]

“Game Critics Aren’t Professionals, They Just Pretend To Be”

The members of VGRHQ have worked in multiple industries, covering numerous beats as journalists. Just recently, one of us (our co-founder) bumped into an old colleague, who had become the Culture Editor of a relatively large newspaper.
The two got to talking about the video game industry, and how its journalists – especially its critics – are perceived by those who practice “real journalism.” As the former colleague in question often acted as a film and theater critic, he never had much respect for game critics.

We’re concealing his identity but we reserve the right to post his comments directly:

“In the eyes of most real journalists and critics, a video game critic is little more than an amateur pretending to be a professional. And it’s not because of what they’re critiquing; it’s just because they’re not very good. They don’t come across as professionals. They too often come across as petulant, whiny teenagers, and that’s not doing your industry any favors.”

We sat down to talk about these statements last night, and there were some conflicting viewpoints. The first opinion involved the standard reply of most gamers: “Who cares? Who really cares what anyone else thinks?” This got plenty of support because after all, we don’t have to prove ourselves to anyone. We get up and go to work just like everyone else and yeah, we take it seriously. If we consider ourselves to be professionals, that’s all that matters.

But then came the contrasting viewpoint, shared below:

“You know, running around in circles yelling, ‘who cares what anyone thinks?’ actually isn’t helping. And it’s not really true because it does matter. Journalists and critics in this industry are woefully underpaid and most often, they go completely unrecognized. In fact, the only thing a game critic gets from the people he tries to service is hatred, and maybe some form of mainstream recognition would help.”

Maybe, maybe not. The bigger question is, is that man right? Is it true that too many of our critics are merely “playing at being professionals”? Maybe most gamers don’t care, but those who bring you the coverage you eat up on a daily basis have to exist, or there will be no coverage. Everyone who rants and raves about review scores won’t have anything to rant and rave about. At the same time, are some journalists and critics just preying on this behavior and as such, disqualify themselves as “professionals?”

Perhaps it doesn’t matter that in the world of journalism and criticism, video game journalists are at the absolute bottom of the totem pole. And maybe some of us are guilty of being unprofessional at times. We could argue that we’re merely giving the public what they want; i.e., inflammatory material that they just love. But that’s no excuse. We need to practice professionalism, and we’d like to think that those we honor at VGRHQ work hard, and are indeed professionals.

Perhaps that’s enough for now.

Original link (reddit)

Not sure if this has been posted already but this has generated a lot of hate in the comment section of the article website and also reddit comments. Is it true that game critics aren't professionals?

 

[Zewp]

Absolutely. His inability to recognize the truth and unwillingness to do something about it is the best proof of him just being a hack playing at being a critic. If you're being told you're unprofessional, you don't stick your fingers in your ears and tell everyone "this is what you get, deal with it." You do a bit of proper introspection and see if you can't make any changes for the better.

The videogame news industry is widely derided and for very fucking good reason. It's filled with people who couldn't make it in the real world.

 

[Ebonsword]

If we consider ourselves to be professionals, that’s all that matters.

LOL, seriously?

Well, hell, I guess I'm a professional astronaut then, because I consider myself to be one.

 

[markec]

If we consider ourselves to be professionals, that’s all that matters.

LOL, seriously?

Well, hell, I guess I'm a professional astronaut then, because I consider myself to be one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob7Fin6aVtA#t=70

 

[Cadmus]

If we consider ourselves to be professionals, that’s all that matters.

LOL, seriously?

Well, hell, I guess I'm a professional astronaut then, because I consider myself to be one.

This is exactly what I would expect a special needs child to respond after having been encouraged by his teacher in murica "GO JOHNY BELIEEV IN YOUR SELF, YOU CAN BE AN ASTRONAUT EVEN IF YOU DONT HAVE EYES AND LEGS!"

 

[evdk]

Game journalism is an RPG - you play a role of a critic.

Marvellous, larpers are truly everywhere.

 

[muds_animal_friend]

This is exactly what I would expect a special needs child to respond after having been encouraged by his teacher in murica "GO JOHNY BELIEEV IN YOUR SELF, YOU CAN BE AN ASTRONAUT EVEN IF YOU DONT HAVE EYES AND LEGS!"

Something similar must have happen to the average games journalist: "Go Johnny! Believe in yourself! You can be a games journalist even though you have no discernible critical thinking skills nor a solid foundational knowledge of any genre outside of first person shooters. LIVE YOUR DREAM JOHNNY!"

 

[Cadmus]

This is exactly what I would expect a special needs child to respond after having been encouraged by his teacher in murica "GO JOHNY BELIEEV IN YOUR SELF, YOU CAN BE AN ASTRONAUT EVEN IF YOU DONT HAVE EYES AND LEGS!"

Something similar must have happen to the average games journalist: "Go Johnny! Believe in yourself! You can be a games journalist even though you have no discernible critical thinking skills nor a solid foundational knowledge of any genre outside of first person shooters. LIVE YOUR DREAM JOHNNY!"

Well, it's exactly that when you read some of the game journos patreons that were posted her some time ago.
"DONATE ME MONEY SO I CAN PURSUE MY DREAM AND WRITE ABOUT WHATEVER I LIKE"

 

[Tehdagah]

"Journalists and critics in this industry are woefully underpaid (...)"

No they aren't.

 

[Bubbles]

I'd be surprised if your average RPS journalist made more than 60k a year.

 

[muds_animal_friend]

Well, the average wage for their industry -- marketing copywriter -- is c. $50,000 pa in the US according to http://www.indeed.com/salary/Marketing-Copywriter.html

 

[Average Manatee]

What should a game journalist be paid? Writing about games is a job that has no significant up-front costs, no training required, requires not the least bit of strenuous exertion, and provides no real service (any service they provide is duplicated by hundreds of people doing it for free). And on top of that, the vast majority of them are do their job poorly, hardly even playing the games they are supposed to be talking about, accepting and defending bribes on an unprecedented scale, and acting as nothing but the advertising mouthpiece of the industry they are supposed to be "critics" of.

I'd say they deserve minimum wage but that would be doing a disservice to the fine workers at McDonalds who actually have to put labor into their work, meet a strict work schedule, and keep a pleasant atmosphere in the face of unruly customers.

 

[Jasede]

I dunno, I'm fine with people like Yahtzee and stuff getting paid; they provide entertainment, and for 'free' too.

But paying some blogger for his uneducated opinions on video games? No fucking way. There's very few 'serious' video game critics. The only one I know, Alex Kierkegaard, is unfortunately completely crazy in the head and a credit card scammer.

 

[Average Manatee]

People like Yahtzee would do just fine on youtube along other entertainers like Pewdiepie. No need to wrap entertainment together with faux-journalism to give the appearance of having ethics and standards whilst bending over for every publisher who looks your way.

 

[Jasede]

They'd make /more/ money on Youtube. Pewdiepie earns millions of dollars a year.

 

[Dr Tomo]

Well to throw more fuel on to the fire here is TB's 2 cents over this discussion over game critics like himself. Also sorry for the paragraph spacing as it is easier on the eyes compared to his Berlin wall of text. Iwitlonger link

Some people asked me about that "Games Critics aren't professionals, they just pretend to be" thing and my thoughts on it. My thoughts are that the article is not relevant, it just pretends to be. Professionalism in this industry is almost entirely defined by how you are viewed in two key areas, the developers/publishers and your audience. If you are viewed as professional by developers and publishers, you will be trusted with advanced copies and the access you want. If you aren't, then you won't be.

That's about as far as it goes and is the reason why acting in a professional manner when dealing with these companies is important. Professionalism in terms of your audience is a far more nebulous idea that varies wildly from person to person. Some viewers view the idea of professionalism as a negative, a relic of media that's long since past it's sell-by date in this rapidly changing industry.

Some viewers see any sort of non-PR friendly interaction with the audience as unprofessional and condemn, while others crave that very same contact. Some view humour-focussed content as unprofessional, some find being overly critical of a title to be unprofessional, while some complain that professional videogame critics aren't critical enough. In my view, professionalism within this specific niche is all about fairness and consistency.

Can you set aside your personal bias enough so that you do not unfairly condemn a title, while still maintaining your own individuality and preferences? Can you be even-handed yet still bring the condemnation when it's justified? Can you resist the temptation to create pieces which are purposely inflammatory even though you know they will garner more hits and ad revenue? In short, can you actually critique games and not fall into the trap of pandering and clickbait? Can you be fair and accurate?

Any other definition of professionalism outside of these bounds is in my view irrelevant. It doesn't pay the bills, it doesn't keep a roof over my head. If large multi-national companies view us as professionals and we hit the right notes for our audience, then those are the only defining factors that have any merit and importance. I doubt any of us are chasing Pulitzer prizes, we're more interested in making sure can afford the weekly shop.

I'd be surprised if your average RPS journalist made more than 60k a year.

I was under the impression that "game journalists & critics" made < 30k per year. As I remember reading articles made by them bitching about how journalists from other media outlets earned at the low end at least 35k. Basically the only reason why you would want to be a "game journalist or critic" is because you are passionate about the activity.

 

[Drax]

Well to throw more fuel on to the fire here is TB's 2 cents over this discussion over game critics like himself. Also sorry for the paragraph spacing as it is easier on the eyes compared to his Berlin wall of text. Iwitlonger link

Any other definition of professionalism outside of these bounds is in my view irrelevant. It doesn't pay the bills, it doesn't keep a roof over my head. If large multi-national companies view us as professionals and we hit the right notes for our audience, then those are the only defining factors that have any merit and importance. I doubt any of us are chasing Pulitzer prizes, we're more interested in making sure can afford the weekly shop.

.

What a whore.