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Gaming Journalism |OT| May contain trace amounts of games. Or journalism.

It's like rotten.com, you know it's gonna be repulsive and gross, but you still browse it from time to time. My question - is this dangerous to my brain
If you already feel the constant negativity and bullshit (which is how they do political activism it seems) is overwhelming you, then keeping it up is dangerous for you as the more clicks you give to articles designed to be clickbait, the higher their metrics are even with adblock on, and the longer they can carry on their usual business.

If I were to list unforgettable examples:
  • Importing fanservice games, the obscure and not so obscure, to rant about how problematic they are even before they hit Japanese shelves.
    • Oneechanbara (a fucking D3publisher budget game, gotta nip them in the bud)
    • Uppers (which got a delayed release because Marvelous got cold feet)
    • Dead or Alive (various)
    • Valkyrie Drive
    • Catherine remake
    • Hostess Girl game on 3ds by level-5
  • What the hell [game publisher] you're not censoring the game enough
    • Ruiji's shoes in Persona 5, then articles how shitty Persona was
    • A Greek Statue with a visible 3 pixel long penis that can't be visible unless enhanced on higher res displays, in Animal Crossing. Treehouse is too shameless for leaving it in.
    • A visible cartoon butt in an augmented reality 3ds game a few months after was cut, what the hell nintendo
    • Bravely Default has too much fanservice
    • Luigi has a bulge in the render implying he has male sexual organs, how lewd
  • Assume fantranslators who don't want to talk to Kotaku are all alt-righters and not well informed people concerned with self-preservation after what Kotaku did with so many project coverages
    • asking nintendo for comment
    • "how is this even legal"
    • then more articles about the inevitable DCMA now that the copyright author can't feign ignorance
    • and if they feign ignorance they will never pass on the chance to harm them as that time a domain expired and they bought it to redirect to their site, and covered how they "gave it back" as if out of their good hearts and not the contractual legal right of the developer in question
    • an investigative reporting piece on the Final Fantasy Type-0 project by "Dragon Crown is pedobait lolis by a 14yo sex-obsessed sexist horny teenager, who's also homophobic once he dares show me examples of equal opportunity male fanservice because he's not trying to refute my claims but obviously wants to SEDUCE me thinking i would consent to homosexual sex just because i am a male feminist who thinks women, fictional or not, are real people" Jason Schreier, where he didn't only do the above, but after entering in contact with other translation members, went and painted the project lead who was attacked by Square's legal department and at his lowest point, as a horrible pirate and a scummy human being who deserves to rot in jail and zero sympathy (I bet he didn't talk to him directly -he had better things to do after all during the translation project- and Jason was still salty about it) and everyone should play the official localization with gender neutral pronouns for moogles and politically correct "jokes" added by the localization team. That tactic didn't do too hotly considering other project leaders noticed, and even commenters called them out in later pieces when it got too blatant, so they're sticking to a 3-pieces rhythm for these projects (initial coverage, more coverage with fan dev interviews AND "reaching to nintendo for comment", then "project cancelled, it was illegal anyways")
  • Stalking a game developer at Ubisoft to smell her perfume then complain about it.
There was a subreddit called KotakuInAction that was originally about compiling their best "gems", but eventually it was co-opted by political activists for the right and the alt-right and those examples not only aren't the focus anymore, but are deemed off-topic. I would love to see an account or something compiling the best of their craziness, in screenshot form of course so that it's not rewarded with clicks.
 

Helios

Member
YtkqInz.png
 

DunDunDunpachi

Patient MembeR
Why is cosmic horror laid at the feet of Lovecraft when it is convenient to cry about ancient racism?

I know he was a major contributor but there were plenty of others who contributed to that constellation of stories. Does Jorge Luis Borges no longer count? What about Mary Shelley? What about Ray Bradbury? What about August Derleth?

And does the game itself affirm and promulgate his "racist views"? Because that's kind of the only part that should matter to the player. Since it clearly does not -- otherwise that would be the headline -- what's the point of complaining about it?

This would be like grousing about the "white male dominated roots of FPS gaming"... oh wait, I'm sure such an article already exists.
 

Dr. Claus

Vincit qui se vincit
Why is cosmic horror laid at the feet of Lovecraft when it is convenient to cry about ancient racism?

I know he was a major contributor but there were plenty of others who contributed to that constellation of stories. Does Jorge Luis Borges no longer count? What about Mary Shelley? What about Ray Bradbury? What about August Derleth?

And does the game itself affirm and promulgate his "racist views"? Because that's kind of the only part that should matter to the player. Since it clearly does not -- otherwise that would be the headline -- what's the point of complaining about it?

This would be like grousing about the "white male dominated roots of FPS gaming"... oh wait, I'm sure such an article already exists.

You are thinking too much into it. The truth is that Patrick Klepek is a hack of a writer and had to rely on bullshit to write an article.
 
H

hariseldon

Unconfirmed Member
Thank fuck there is no girls with big breasts for Mr. "Rape Time" Klepek to shield his frail little eyes from. He may have not been able to see anything he was writing.

No need, he's already wanked himself blind.
 

Thabass

Member
giphy.gif

The necromancer has come !





D6PEwbmWkAAZ0qf.jpg



D6PEwbXW0AcUHVC.jpg


I laughed so hard when they made that Tweet. I feel like that's kind of the charm of the series and hence they're using that type of language to promote. Is a good idea? Maybe., Is it professional? Probably not. Am I entertained? You bet your fucking sweet ass I am.

Jason, I love you, but don't go all-in on defending your employer sometimes.
 

Scopa

The Tribe Has Spoken
>trump-esque
people like him deserve 0 respect.
He reminds me of the smelly basement dwellers that used to come into my games shop once a month when their government benefits cleared to get their anime/games fix. Because it was their sole social outing, they would hang around the counter like aids, just droning on and on about nothing and I’d basically have to tell them to fuck off eventually so I can help normal customers.

That’s what I think of when I see his picture.
 

somerset

Member
There are certain jobs in life one can only laugh at- and laugh harder at the people who opt to do them, and then claim the job is actually worthy of respect. A game (paid whore) 'journalist' rates lower than a fluffer- much much lower in my opinion.

At best they are a thin veneer for paid PR from the main advertisers that fund their organ (is that also a US publishing term?). At worst they are straight up mentally disturbed ego driven sociopaths.

Sadly, it is part of beta psychology that such people need heroes. People in the public eye they look up to and trust. Big Brother in the terms of 1984. Alphas and gammas don't (people at the top and bottom) - but those in the middle do.

Smart people look for those that do the work for them. Like research or keeping an ear to the ground. And even then smart people know these sources will go from reliable to corrupt most of the time, cos of how capiltalism works (when someone gets an audience, that audience suddenly becomes very useful to paid liars- marketeers- and they have the cash to corrupt most people).

But the paid 'journalist' is never honest nor moral. That's not why paid journalism exists or how it works. The paid journalist is selling a position for money. Maybe a position you think you agree with. Maybe a position you think you don't agree with. But a position for the cash someone will pay for having that position promoted.

It gets worse. Fringe 'journalism' - as in gaming - is where no-hopers who *wish* they could work for the NYT or the BBC are employed. These losers have massive chips on their shoulders- honestly think one day they'll get out of their journalistic ghetto, and go work for one of the 'respected' media giants. Mr chippy will thus be thin-skinned and highly defensive - in other words will look like an even bigger pathetic loser when pushed.

Honestly, no-one should give the idiots the time of day. By all means read some of their dribble to get the PR facts of the day about your hobby. The PR stuff (game detail, hardware detail) is factual eventually. But their opinions should have less value to you than used tissue paper.

Mind you, in the UK all journalists are looked down on. That you yanks lionise them has always been a source of much hilarity.
 
Well Jason (like a bunch of game “journalists”) have figured out that you can get attention if you
A) pretend to be a victim
or
B) pretend to be fighting for/protecting victims

You get clicks from those
A) that love to be outraged
or
B) want to roll their eyes at recreational outrage

I will say tho that it seems a bit short sighted. That reputation doesn’t seem like something you can walk back when the outrage money dries up.
 

Virex

Banned
These people are not journalists. They are activist. They wouldn't know what the hell journalism is even if it hits them in their faces. They are activist and nothing more.

As for Shreier. In my language we would call him a "Dom poes"
 
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These people are not journalists. They are activist. They wouldn't know what the hell journalism is even if it hits them in their faces. They are activist and nothing more.

As for Shreier. In my language we would call him a "Dom poes"
I don’t think that applies to Jason and a bunch of others. If the clicks and attention wasn’t there, they wouldn’t be doing it.

It’s more of an “opportunist” type of thing. If the winds shifted today right now, you’d see them change course as well.

Not saying some aren’t activists. But Jason is more... Ditto
Ditto_Number_1.0.png


He will change to whatever is needed at the time.
 
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Cranberrys

Member
Gaming journalism is dead to me.

Game Informer is the only outlet I follow since I'm a suscriber for a long time and I find their content to be gaming focused without pushing any political agenda. In this day and age, I found them pretty brave for doing that. Other than that, I follow some YouTubers and some random blogs about specific stuff like history of western RPG's.

Most game journalists attack on a daily basis a whole Community on the fact that a very few pourcentage of people in it are conducting themselves like assholes and whining about the backlash. Never once they ask themselves if it was legit to come lecture us the way they did with no respect at all, like we are a bunch of stupid illiterate people. The joke's on them. They came full throttle at a Community who spent years during the 90's and early 00's dealing with outside attacks on video games (about are violent we are, how antisociable we are and how video games culture like anime was stupid) and expect us to sat down, listen to their good words, and take the blame. They didn't see it coming but they unleashed the beast, it's on them. Sure it led to some awful things (I can't tolerate death threats and stuff like that).

Before all this nobody had a problem with minorities or women. When GTA SA was released I Don't remember any gamer going ape because the character was black. When TR released in 96, nobody went crazy on Eidos and Core because the main character was a woman. Women working in the industry like Amy Hennig were respected and she said so herself. Again, if a very few assholes did Something, it was peripheral. The Community as a whole wasn't racist nor sexist, journalists rewrite history to fit their narrative.

I began being active on the internet late 96 and I remember discussing the first TR extensively with other fans, never once I cross some anti-women comments, sure we made of fun of Lara when she was going "Haaaaa" everytime she took a medkit or her spiky boobs but that's it, that was harmless, it was just fun because, well, it was fun. Everybody loved the game and the character and she quickly became an icon. A woman couldn't have been an icon if the Community was deeply sexist. GTA SA couldn't have sell 20 millions copies on PS2 alone, if the community was deeply racist. It's bullshit. Sure, some people on the Community are sexists and racists but like in every other human Community, we are not living in a vacuum, but that Doesn't give them the right to call all of us toxic and talk to us like we are brainless.
 

#Phonepunk#

Banned
Every time I see a games media outlet call gamers toxic they also have news stories calling people “bullshit” and hyping any dumb controversy for outrage and gossip about personal & political drama. They want to stir the shit without getting their hands dirty. If gaming is toxic then double so for gaming media
 
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Gaming journalism is dead to me.

Game Informer is the only outlet I follow since I'm a suscriber for a long time and I find their content to be gaming focused without pushing any political agenda. In this day and age, I found them pretty brave for doing that. Other than that, I follow some YouTubers and some random blogs about specific stuff like history of western RPG's.

Most game journalists attack on a daily basis a whole Community on the fact that a very few pourcentage of people in it are conducting themselves like assholes and whining about the backlash. Never once they ask themselves if it was legit to come lecture us the way they did with no respect at all, like we are a bunch of stupid illiterate people. The joke's on them. They came full throttle at a Community who spent years during the 90's and early 00's dealing with outside attacks on video games (about are violent we are, how antisociable we are and how video games culture like anime was stupid) and expect us to sat down, listen to their good words, and take the blame. They didn't see it coming but they unleashed the beast, it's on them. Sure it led to some awful things (I can't tolerate death threats and stuff like that).

Before all this nobody had a problem with minorities or women. When GTA SA was released I Don't remember any gamer going ape because the character was black. When TR released in 96, nobody went crazy on Eidos and Core because the main character was a woman. Women working in the industry like Amy Hennig were respected and she said so herself. Again, if a very few assholes did Something, it was peripheral. The Community as a whole wasn't racist nor sexist, journalists rewrite history to fit their narrative.

I began being active on the internet late 96 and I remember discussing the first TR extensively with other fans, never once I cross some anti-women comments, sure we made of fun of Lara when she was going "Haaaaa" everytime she took a medkit or her spiky boobs but that's it, that was harmless, it was just fun because, well, it was fun. Everybody loved the game and the character and she quickly became an icon. A woman couldn't have been an icon if the Community was deeply sexist. GTA SA couldn't have sell 20 millions copies on PS2 alone, if the community was deeply racist. It's bullshit. Sure, some people on the Community are sexists and racists but like in every other human Community, we are not living in a vacuum, but that Doesn't give them the right to call all of us toxic and talk to us like we are brainless.


I have a feeling that being so closely tied to GameStop/EB Games is the reason there isn't any political horseshit in Game Informer. I can't imagine GameStop wanting to incite anything so they just play it safe and stick to games. No matter what political position you take you're gonna get shit on, why bring that on themselves?
 

Cranberrys

Member
I have a feeling that being so closely tied to GameStop/EB Games is the reason there isn't any political horseshit in Game Informer. I can't imagine GameStop wanting to incite anything so they just play it safe and stick to games. No matter what political position you take you're gonna get shit on, why bring that on themselves?

I'm suspecting the same thing but in that case, I'm pretty pleased about that.

In France, I read some stuff by local game journalists about the fact that The Division is a fascist game based on the notion that you kill looters who came from underprivileged social classes and that's fascist (according to the journalist). I think it's beyond stupid because the game show you plenty of other underpriviled people from any gender/race (since it's a quarantine area pretty much everyone is underprivileged anyway) who scavange to survive but stay civil at the same time (all the people you meet/see in the street who Don't shoot at you) so your duty is to protect theses persons not to engage in a debate, you're military, you're not a social worker if you see a dude Killing innocent people in the streets you Don't sit there and talk to the guy about his childhood traumas. There's Nothing fascist, it's just what's wrong and what's right, there's no other logical way to look at it. It's an emergency situation and you're playing a military-like character, you can't Apply real life here, you can only analyze the situation in the context of the game. There's no need to be political. Now if the journalist can't stomach games with a "realistic" military content, fine, but then Don't play it, Don't write about it, Don't give us your opinion because we don't care, move on to a type of game you like but stop the lecturing.
 
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Scopa

The Tribe Has Spoken
I’ve been listening to the Game Informer podcast (never read the magazine) for about a year now because, yes, it’s mostly free of political bullshit, which is hard to find nowadays.

But...

They occasionally have this annoying little dork on called Imran Kahn who is a flaming SJW fairy (better suited to Waypoint VICE) and trying real hard to inject his virtue signalling verbal faeces into the podcast at every occasion.

Now. If they are smart, they will nix this post haste if they value their bottom line. But, I’m not holding out hope.
 

DanielsM

Banned
I'm actually tired of them being called games journalists, I doubt such a thing exists. They're game bloggers who occasionally do journalism, imo.

I would not be surprised by large publishers starting to really clap down on access to these types of bloggers. If someone wants to blog about video games, I think there isn't anything wrong with that, but not sure how useful it is anymore for the publishers to cater to 100s of bloggers. Not sure why publishers are giving clowns a stage to perform on, especially when its getting to the point of being counter productive. Many of them really don't even appear to be gamers or even enjoy gaming.
 
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Thabass

Member
I'm suspecting the same thing but in that case, I'm pretty pleased about that.

In France, I read some stuff by local game journalists about the fact that The Division is a fascist game based on the notion that you kill looters who came from underprivileged social classes and that's fascist (according to the journalist). I think it's beyond stupid because the game show you plenty of other underpriviled people from any gender/race (since it's a quarantine area pretty much everyone is underprivileged anyway) who scavange to survive but stay civil at the same time (all the people you meet/see in the street who Don't shoot at you) so your duty is to protect theses persons not to engage in a debate, you're military, you're not a social worker if you see a dude Killing innocent people in the streets you Don't sit there and talk to the guy about his childhood traumas. There's Nothing fascist, it's just what's wrong and what's right, there's no other logical way to look at it. It's an emergency situation and you're playing a military-like character, you can't Apply real life here, you can only analyze the situation in the context of the game. There's no need to be political. Now if the journalist can't stomach games with a "realistic" military content, fine, but then Don't play it, Don't write about it, Don't give us your opinion because we don't care, move on to a type of game you like but stop the lecturing.

You. I like you.
 
Are there any other good gaming podcasts that are free from political crap besides Game Informer? I used to listen to the Roundtable podcast and really liked that those guys kept things focused on games rather than pop-culture, wrestling, anime, and politics but haven't been able to find something similar since they stopped recording.
 

Scopa

The Tribe Has Spoken
Are there any other good gaming podcasts that are free from political crap besides Game Informer? I used to listen to the Roundtable podcast and really liked that those guys kept things focused on games rather than pop-culture, wrestling, anime, and politics but haven't been able to find something similar since they stopped recording.
They’re getting few and far between.

A year ago, I would have suggested the Player One Podcast, but even they have bent the knee. Just listen to Phil go out of his way to mention his dislike for that Tenapel guy (Earthworm Jim) on the latest episode. The other two guys avoid talking political bullshit mainly, but Phil is starting to lean into it for some fucking stupid reason. He’s old enough to know better. It’s not incessant yet, but I’m not holding out hope.

Other than that, for general gaming. IGN’s Game Scoop is free of politics, but it is a brief and wishy washy cast.

8-4 Play is great, but is mainly Japanese focused.

All my other free of politics recommendations would be platform specific podcasts or retro (or not gaming at all).

In fact, I’d like some recommendations too, lol.
 

DanielsM

Banned
And here is me while reading that sentence

Wait till IGN, Gamespot, and Kotaku group together and petition the United Nations to recognize the rights of virtual zombies in response to Days Gone. Zombie Lives Matter. I think I'm joking.... let's check back in a year or so. :messenger_tears_of_joy:
 

Shaqazooloo

Member
Even as someone that very rarely reads gaming articles, it's very hard to not notice that gaming Journalism has just become about crapping on gamers and finding non-issues to get pissed off at to drive clicks. Everytime I see one of Kotaku's or Polygon clickbait article's titles I thank God that I never decided to give them the time of day.
 
Ultimately I have no issue with outlets exploring racism, sexism, politics etc whatever in games "journalism". I feel that there can be things to be learned from looking at other topics in videogames besides "how to beat this boss" or whatever. I disagree much more in trying to silence people from talking about these things but there is a time and place for everything. The big issue now is all these outlets realize these types of articles are the ones that generate the most controversy which means more clicks.

Where I find it annoying and cringey is when it becomes harder and harder to just read about videogames as they are. Just stupid games I piss my time away to relax. Generally speaking I could care less about all the other shit.
 

Petrae

Member
There was a time when I thought the gaming press was pretty freaking cool. It talked about video games, and looking forward to new magazine issues every month was great. Hell, I wanted to *be* one of those people for awhile.

Those times have been over for years. Mass Effect 3-Gate really drove the nail into the coffin, with “journalists” (and even some people on this very board) attacking video game players, calling them names, and treating the people who read/watch their material like utter shit. From then on, the war between the old guard of “games journalists” and readers has been fought with varying levels of intensity.

In danger of being completely irrelevant, “games journalism” now feeds on manufacturing outrage through its incessant whining about sociopolitical bullshit and playing the victim on everyone’s favorite stage, Twitter.

“We’re under attack!”
“We’ve been blacklisted!”
“Nobody knows the trouble we’ve seen!”
“WAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!”

“Games journalism” is lower than worthless now. If it all ended tomorrow— if IGN, Kotaku, Polygon, Game Informer, Eurogamer, and every other site closed up shop— it wouldn’t be a bad thing. The sociopolitical outrage would be confined to social media (which is where it belongs) and the mantle of gaming “news” would simply be taken up by publishers and platform holders.

Perhaps Sony and its ultra-“progressive” stance would continue to trumpet about its moral high ground, but everyone else would be fine.

It’s a damned shame to see what “gaming journalism” has become. I’ve been going back through old EGM issues of late, and I sure wish we could’ve gotten back to that.
 

cormack12

Gold Member
I mainly get occasional articles from nichegamer or oneangrygamer these days. Don't visit sites often they just get linked in places. I did have high hopes for EE that TheQuartering set up but it doesn't seem to really capture me. It is broad but shallow and very niche. I have been impressed with that Sophia Narwitz though, not just in her scathing backlash to the political shit that is infesting most things these days but she actually knows her shit with depth. Her editorial/responses are well researched and are written without fear, and the actual ones that cover games are pretty thorough and fair especially when compared to other outlets - I hope she stays with NG. In terms of youtube, I sometimes catch a response from TheQuartering to latest crap but I prefer written/podcast consumption.

It does beg the question though, what do people actually want as content on podcasts etc. I watched some old gamesmaster shows on youtube last week and they have not aged well. It seems that without bending the knee for early access you can't really break into the mainstream even to have a voice (never mind monetizing).

It gets worse. Fringe 'journalism' - as in gaming - is where no-hopers who *wish* they could work for the NYT or the BBC are employed. These losers have massive chips on their shoulders- honestly think one day they'll get out of their journalistic ghetto, and go work for one of the 'respected' media giants. Mr chippy will thus be thin-skinned and highly defensive - in other words will look like an even bigger pathetic loser when pushed.

And I think this is the best point in the thread and easily covers approximately 95% of current games writers.
 

brap

Banned
I’ve been listening to the Game Informer podcast (never read the magazine) for about a year now because, yes, it’s mostly free of political bullshit, which is hard to find nowadays.

But...

They occasionally have this annoying little dork on called Imran Kahn who is a flaming SJW fairy (better suited to Waypoint VICE) and trying real hard to inject his virtue signalling verbal faeces into the podcast at every occasion.

Now. If they are smart, they will nix this post haste if they value their bottom line. But, I’m not holding out hope.
So is the short mexican woman. Forgot her name. She's like the only woman there though lmao.
 
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