Games Journalism – The MisconceptionsBy Lee

As some visitors to this site are probably aware, I write for a popular PlayStation 3 centric news site.

As I pass my one year anniversary with this particular online publication, I’ve become more and more aware of just what some people think games journalism is, and the reality.

Studying journalism’s totem pole of respectability, with positions ranging from print media to obituary writing, games journalism (or gaming journalism or even game journalism, the practice has bred numerous similarly sounding names) has the unfortunate indignation of languishing quite close to the mucky foot. Somewhere above writing for your local parish paper but still below the dazzling heights of sports or music journalism, writing about videogames comes with its very own tailored form of digital stigmata.

Branding its practitioners as “chancers”, “misfits” or, if the hand on the iron in question belongs to a male between the ages of 15 and 21, “lucky bastards”, there are a lot of misconceptions, half-truths and, in some cases, blatant falsities flying around about just what it’s like to work in this industry.

Here are just five of the most obvious ones.

If you know a lot about games, you can write about games

Though the job title might indeed be “games journalist”, when people conjure up images of the type of person who embodies this noble endeavour, the emphasis is unfortunately usually skewed towards the first word, and not the second. Viewing the role of gamer as a primary requisite for working in games journalism is disingenuous for a number of reasons. The most flagrant of these is that a lot gamers are young, impressionable and couldn’t string a sentence together if they wanted to. Most games journalists are in their 30s and hence have a distinct advantage over their younger counterparts. Namely they’re not likely to fly off the handle or throw a hissy-fit when asked to review Hannah Montana on the DS (again).

You have to know how to write to be any kind of journalist; though I’ll grant you, I can point to numerous examples of works by certain gaming journalists that contain grammatical errors so egregious they would make your head spin. Of course, I’m not infallible when it comes to grammar and have been known to slip up as much as the next mortal. There are people working in this industry, however, that I honestly ask myself “Who are you sleeping with?”

For the most part, gaming journalists are writers first with knowledge of the gaming area second. In this day and age, a talented writer can pretty much write about anything. I could take a stab at horticultural journalism if I were so inclined. I just doubt I’d enjoy it. Having extensive acumen of the gaming industry’s history, current landscape and possible future is quite helpful when writing about this particular field, but it’s not mandatory. The gaming world inhabits such a vast spectrum that it’s practically impossible for one gaming journalist to know everything about every facet of such a complex and varied topic. That’s what wikipedia is for.

Despite the above declaration, this hasn’t stopped — and never will stop — dedicated gamers trying to become gaming journalists. I should state that I don’t discourage this practice. After all, if it’s what you want to do then all power to you. I will say this however: if you’re thinking of entering the games journalism field, please do everyone a favour and brush up on some basic grammar. Subscribe to Grammar Girl, read up on the art of writing, review some of your favourite journalists’ works and figure out why you like what they produce. It’s not enough that you’re unbeatable at Tekken. To become a good games journalist you need to play less and read more. Give or take a few years and your writing should be something most people will enjoy. This won’t happen overnight.

Games journalists are great gamers

It’s natural to think that those of us who spend hours peering down a virtual sniper scope or charging around race tracks in cars we’ll never afford as part of our day-job should classify as at least “good” gamers, if not excellent ones. The fact is, though playing games is obviously an integral aspect of games journalism, the average writer in the games industry spends far more time at his or her PC writing about the latest titles than actually playing them.

The stark reality is, if games journalists spent all their time playing games (and with games they actually want to play – see below), they’d quickly find themselves as unemployed games journalists – also known as bums who play games all day, which is actually quite the growing demographic. Answering an enquiring editor’s question of “Where’s the content?” with “Didn’t you hear? Warcraft man, cap increased to 85!” just isn’t going to cut it. Hence, any assumption that games journalists are the cream of the crop is just folly. If you want a job where you get to play games all day – don’t be a journalist in the gaming industry. Be a politician.

Games journalism is easy

Also known as “games journalism is nothing but a non-stop fun riot” and “the articles just write themselves!”, there is a gross misconception that writing about the gaming industry is exceptionally easy to do. This is tied quite closely to my first point with strong evidence supporting this theory found in the shed-load of blogs and fan-sites out there populated by a never-ending host of gaming acolytes more than willing to write about games for nothing. And if they’re doing it for free, it must be easy.

I have a lot of respect for people who are so passionate about something that they regularly dedicate their free time creating news stories and opinion pieces on the topic in question. In fact, I readily admit that I’m not much higher in this pecking order considering not all of my writing is paid work. I am, however, at least confident in my ability to create good, relevant and interesting copy that is worthy of the time it takes someone to read it. The amount of bad games journalism found on the Internet is truly shocking. And I’m not just talking about bad grammar. Sites regularly steal other sites’ content while others break embargoes or care little about professional conduct.

This type of games journalism is easy. It’s just not actual games journalism but more inane drivel from the minds of people who have little interest in gaming (or writing for that matter) and more about how much traffic they can generate to their site from the standard “Why Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo sucks balls” shlock articles.

Good gaming industry content requires research, an eye for detail and the ability to engage your reader. Just because your audience may not know the grammatical nuances of various writing styles, this does not give you carte blanche to spew out any old drivel, assured that it will be lapped up nonetheless.

Games journalists get lots of free games

The key word here is “free”. Games journalists do get free games but some people are under the impression that my post-man must despise me; cursing my name every time he visits my house burdened by a cornucopia of new gaming wares. The fact is: it’s just not possible to review every game that you could get your hands on. There’s therefore absolutely no point signing up for a review copy of a game you know in your heart of hearts by the time you get to it the sequel will be out. Getting into games journalism for the free games is like wanting to be a professional footballer for the free travel. There are easier ways of getting access to a lot of games. Try being successful at something else and buying them for instance.

The other aspect of this endless gifting parade is that nothing is really free in this world. More often than not, that complimentary game that has just arrived in the mail is not something you would personally choose to play. I have reviewed sports games, retro games, crap games and great games. You do it because it’s part of the job. I can think of worse jobs of course, but writing a good review is still work no matter how you spin it.

Finally, the scourge of the review process is that you must play the game with an eye towards critiquing it and not simply enjoying it for what it is – entertainment. David Mamet once said that adapting his own work for the screen was like teaching his children about sex – by raping them. Extreme perhaps, but the review process can be similar. Taking something perhaps hundreds of people have spent countless hours pouring their hearts into only for you to bang on about a camera angle is not something most people enjoy.  It’s a hackneyed and almost silly argument at this rate but, trust me, reviewing a game is not the barrel of laughs you might think it is.

Games journalism is one giant big happy family

Though it’s true many online and print publications are more than willing to help each other out at times, it’s important to recognise that this is very much a cut-throat industry. Gaming enthusiasts are a fickle bunch and will quickly go elsewhere if your site is not as up to date with the latest news and views. Because of this, many web-sites that cover the gaming industry are regularly at loggerheads with each other, when they’re not surreptitiously trying to poach each other’s readers by any means necessary.

Without naming names, I’ve come across more than one over-zealous or downright untrustworthy gaming journalist in my time writing in this industry. We might be dealing with games here but not everyone is adhering to the same set of rules. Take anything you hear from the mouth of a gaming journalist (myself included) with a grain of salt. It’s a competitive market and people have been known to lie, cheat and steal to get a hot story. It usually comes back to bite the offender in question but, in the mean time, you’ll be left disappointed while someone else is off basking in the glory of all your hard work.

Tags: Gaming, journalism