A Broken System Part 5: Games Journalism

There is a serious issue with games journalism, between corruption, collusion, and an utter disdain for gamers something needs to change.

Script:
First let me address the elephant in the room, this is not about Gamergate. You don’t need to be part of that group to realize there’s a huge multi-headed problem in the game industry concerning what passes as journalism. If you ignore this, dismiss it, or make a joke about “Oh yeah it’s about ethics in games journalism” you are part of the problem. There has been a problem for years, essentially since the inception of gaming, that has only gotten worse. The amount of disdain that gaming sites seem to have towards the people who actually play games is just overwhelming at this point. It shows in reviews, it shows in editorials, and it shows in how they present the community. It all helps perpetuate a completely broken system.

Unfortunately the system is so broken that there are multiple parts and issues to deal with. First and most damaging is the money. They always say if you want to find the source of a problem follow the money. Now Posting on the internet, hosting a website, and employing people isn’t free. This problem doesn’t concern the normal cost of doing business. This is concerning the tactics used to manipulate the traffic for monetary gain. What I mean by that is the proliferation of what is known as clickbait. They write articles or headlines that are intentionally misleading or controversial just to drive traffic to the site. Part of the human condition is being attracted to disaster and negativity as well as the absolute belief that our opinion is the correct one and needs to be shouted to the world. This isn’t terribly offensive but it’s still a contributing factor to the overall problem.

A bigger issue that is a series problem, is game journalists cozying up to games publishers. Now thankfully primarily this isn’t pure collusion, which I’ll get to. It’s usually just done by putting relationships with the publishers ahead of consumers. Whether they believe it or not, whether they accept it or not, games publications have a duty to the consumers. They exist to inform the consumers who are spending hard earned money on products. They do not exist to promote or serve the games publishers, that’s the job of PR. That said, it can be at times a difficult situation for journalists, especially ones who are actually enthusiastic about the games. What I mean by that is, it’s hard to push a game you love without seeming like you’re in bed with the publisher or developer. Pushing a game you love however, is not a problem, until you write a review and ignore any flaws that others might perceive.

This is one of the biggest issues with the perception of games journalism today and any critical medium. The idea that a review is merely just an opinion on something and can never be objective. This is only partially true however, especially when talking about video games. Reviews exist not as just a platform to push an opinion, that’s why editorials and opinion pieces exist, but to inform a consumer of the experience. Yes at the end of the day their is bias, the tone will always be determined by the writer’s feelings on the game, but to let that bias get in the way of being informative is dangerous and dishonest. Essentially if a reviewer has such strong feelings on a game before even playing it or is connected in some way they should excuse themselves from the review. Most major publications that people are following have a pool of talented writers to draw from. A person who hates fighting games has no business reviewing a fighting game. A person who is friends with a developer of a game also has no place reviewing that game, at least not at a major publication.
Gaming sites and games publishers will always have a symbiotic relationship. Unfortunately this can sometimes leave consumers out of the loop. This happens when a journalist decides to either hide information that is damaging towards a publisher or publish intentionally misleading information that paints the publisher in a good light. Now this may at first seem horribly offensive, and the solution might seem obvious but the situation is a bit more delicate. If a journalist publishes that info or for example breaks a review embargo, something I talked about before, then they risk losing any connection to that publisher. This may result in the loss of early review copies so the journalists can have reviews day one or earlier to inform the consumers. However with review embargoes becoming the norm this is becoming irrelevant anyways.

The worst of it though is actual corruption among games journalists. This takes many forms however, mostly through nondisclosure. This is a proven issue within games journalism that has ranged from personal to business to everything in between. It’s understandable that game journalists especially at bigger publications are going to cross paths with developers and others in the industry. This is not a problem in itself. Neither is games journalists being close friends with people working on the games they’re writing about. The problem lies when these relationships are not disclosed. This is especially harmful to the consumer and goes back to what I said about bias. It is almost impossible to write an article, especially a review, that is informative and critical when you have a personal investment in the subject. The solution is very simple to this. Again the relationship itself is not the issue, the issue is disclosure. In a bigger publication the review should be handed off to someone else. At the very least, and for smaller publications, a mention of the connection should be made at some point during the article or review. Consumers deserve to know about anything that may influence the review outside of the game itself. That is something that is ethics 101 and it’s not a difficult thing to do. Even if you believe you can be unbiased, you probably can’t.

People like to dismiss calls about ethics in games journalism because the mainstream media, and the public in general refuse to take gaming seriously. Despite evidence to the contrary, gaming is seen as a childish hobby for failed teens and middle aged men living in their mom’s basements. So no one cares about whether or not games journalists are being held to the same standard as outside journalists. It’s sad but it’s true that this is how it is. Some of us gamers are not ashamed by that title and care about our industry and the problems within. We would like to better it any way possible. That’s what this series is about and what this video is about. The system may be broken, but we can fix it.