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[Riposte]

I'll start with a few, concrete examples and try to work my way out.

I would pay for Soren Johnson's writing on videogames. I guess what that means is that I'm not much interested in the skin-deep analysis that comes with most game reviews: even if professional gaming journalists at RPS or GB are better at it than the average troll on GAF, I learn more about the likelihood that I will enjoy a title from reading impressions here. I don't need professional product reviews. On the other hand, writing specifically focused on design theory, without bias among formats or genres, is a rare commodity that gives me a fair amount of pleasure. Soren would have an easier time than other authors coaxing money from me because he's an authoritative voice and his views are already of interest to me, but I don't think my interest in his sort of writing is limited to celebrity game designers. (Although a hypothetical subscription-based magazine or website would do well to have such an authoritative voice on hand, at least initially, to get me in the door).

I would pay for "Iwata Asks" or that enormous 4gamer (I think) interview with Miyazaki about Dark Souls. I guess that means I would pay for extensive interviews with game designers. Those specific interviews are on subjects that interest me more than the average video game, but I think I would be willing to pay a bit even for interviews concerning games that mean little to me (say, for example, Uncharted) if the interviews delved deep into the development process and how the designers thought about the game they were making.

I would pay for Opiate's posts on the business side of things. Industry economics and business strategies are much-bemoaned but rarely explored in depth. I would be pretty interested in writing focused on high-level business analysis of industry trends and the implications of new technology.

Now, I don't know that I would pay more than a few dollars per week for these individual items. But if you packaged them in one website and added the occasional insider info about the goings-on at certain studios, then I could see myself subscribing.

Or you would read it when someone posts it all on GAF.

 

[ajim]

I used to buy an Aussie mag called Hyper for many many years. I used to read it from cover to cover. I bought it because the writers at the time were absolutely hilarious, their writing style was so wacky and insane with many ongoing in-jokes (BLAU!!). It's heyday was when Cam Shea was editor (now of IGN AU). You can occasionally get glimpses of his fucked up (yet awesome) humour on the IGN Pubcast but I reckon they told him to tone it down because he doesn't really do it anymore

I stopped buying Hyper when they decided to go all serious, article after article with not an ounce of humour or personality in it from the writer. It bored me to death.

Now I don't buy any mags and am strictly online.

Sad. I'd pay for something good again.

yep. Used to love Hyper and Nintendo magazine system (which randomly died) because of the hunour and in-jokes.

would love to have something like them again!

 

[FryHole]

Or you would read it when someone posts it all on GAF.

Well the thread title is 'videogame writing you would pay for' so you'd hope not.

 

[Mandoric]

I do wonder if the state of the media reflects the state of the industry as a whole. As things have homogenised to target the widest audience possible, perhaps the writing has followed. Videogaming has lost the ability to delight and surprise as often as it used to, although perhaps that's just old age on my part.

I don't think the writing itself has necessarily homogenized, I just think that the death of midtier has led to the death of games writing as a useful product. I don't need to follow the development of the next Bioware title to know that I'm going to either love it or hate it depending on whether I like the one plotline they've been repeating since the late '90s, or that CoD 12 is a must-own or a skip depending on whether I liked CoD 11.

Since the concept and systems are well-known long before launch, all journalism can do is tell me when the execution fails; this new obsession with bias is a product of games media's reduction to being a glorified buying guide.

 

[Cerebral Assassin]

There will always be a market of people who are willing to pay for quality writing, the problem is that there aren't enough writers out there that have the portfolio of work that would entice people to pay.

 

[axisofweevils]

The OP seems to have read the same magazines I did. One recent magazine that I loved for its irreverent humour was NGamer (or Nintendo Gamer) which always ended each issue with a spoof version of Iwata Asks. Sadly, that magazine has died too.

There is one silver lining though - almost all the NGamer staff have moved to the Official Nintendo Magazine, which now retains some of that zanyness and is far more critical than you'd expect an official magazine to be: the 100th issue of ONM featured an opinion piece suggesting Nintendo should go third party...

 

[FryHole]

There will always be a market of people who are willing to pay for quality writing, the problem is that there aren't enough writers out there that have the portfolio of work that would entice people to pay.

When I see some of the gits that pass for games journalists acting up on Twitter or whatever with their 'witty' banter, I do wonder where the hell the people who can string a few words together with a certain amount of grace went to. Although maybe they just don't want to talk about games anymore.

The OP seems to have read the same magazines I did. One recent magazine that I loved for its irreverent humour was NGamer (or Nintendo Gamer) which always ended each issue with a spoof version of Iwata Asks. Sadly, that magazine has died too.

There is one silver lining though - almost all the NGamer staff have moved to the Official Nintendo Magazine, which now retains some of that zanyness and is far more critical than you'd expect an official magazine to be: the 100th issue of ONM featured an opinion piece suggesting Nintendo should go third party...

I see NGamer is the latest in the Super Play lineage, so I'm not surprised that was one of the better modern magazines, they were always good.