http://www.digra.org/wp-content/uploads/digital-library/09287.29284.pdfThe new gatekeepers: The occupational ideology
of game journalism
By David B. Nieborg and Tanja Sihvonen
>"“game journalism” appears as a ratherdifficult pairing of words. It is accused of having problems
pertaining to its contents and form, its organisational
structure, as well as its ethics"
le ebic ethics me me lel.
>"journalists do not aim to work aswatchdogs of the establishment, but rather as mediators of
the value statements that deliver game capital."
Journalists are mouthpieces for publishers, mot watchdogs, and they know it.
"Favourable game reviews, then, might have a influence
effect for smaller indie games and less marketed titles."
If they push indie games, they become more then AAA shills, they're right for the little guy, see?
>"New Games Journalism (NGJ) is a derivative of “NewJournalism” applied to game journalism, and its focus is not
on the critical review of games but rather on the reflection
on the subjective experiences of the person playing the
game. In NGJ, contextual information, references to other
media, creative writing, and personal anecdotes are used to
explore game design and play. The term was coined by
Gillen in 2004 in a NGJ manifesto that was first published
on the state website."
See more on this later.
"Gamers hold power over game magazines by voting with
their purchasing preferences. If they do not provide the
necessary "eyeballs" to be sold to advertisers (or do not take
a subscription to a print magazine), there will be no
audiences to be sold."
Which is exactly what's happening.
So. game journos are shills, are aware they're shills, and also have lofty aspirations, leading them to promote indie games and, eventually, a social justice agenda.
Nothing we didn't know before, but still interesting.
https://archive.today/0NXNjThe New Games Journalism
By Kieron Gillen
>"When things are bad, it’s a war between money-men who want to keep profits by reducing costs and the editorial who want to keep profits by being better."Eat the rich class war now? Lot's of (probably justified) cynicism about business in here, and I'm sure we can all guess this guy's politics.
>"This journalism was intensely personal, throwing away the rules of standard journalistic discourse like the pretence of objectivity and an embracing of the “I”.""Facts aren't truth", "Objectivity is a false god".
>"New Games Journalism exists to try and explain and transfer the sensations allowed by videogaming to anyone who’s willing to sit and take time to read it. It paradoxically manages find a way to be more accessible to the average human being by actually concentrating on the real reasons why people devote huge chunks of their waking hours to games rather than obsessing in tedious detail over the ephemera that surrounds it (How many levels? how many guns? Can I be Goro?). It asks the question “Why game anyway” and then gives as many answers as they are people, as interesting as people, as precious."Person experience/subjectivity can obviously be a power force in journalism, but to mistake it for a replacement for facts is dangerous. What he's really saying it that most game's journalists would rather be writing fiction, which is what must be why he does comics now instead of writing for RPS.
I don't have much left to say, and need to sleep, but just though I'd try and point us in the right direction. Finding out WHY vidja writers are mostly sjws might help us gain a better view of the whole picture.