Kieron Gillen’s Workblog

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There’s another wave of Games Journalism Journalism. It’s been irritating me. It’d irritate me more if it I thought it had anything to do with me or I inspired any of it. The difference being, I offered a partial-solution, pointed towards pieces I found inspiring and was generally phrasing an argument instead of just fucking whining.

Two things.

First, because it appears there’s people who don’t actually realise this is a mistake, if you criticise games journalism for not being actual journalism you just don’t actually know the definition of fucking journalism. The objective reporting model is one definition of journalism. Another is just writing for a periodical publication, whether a magazine or broadcast or whatever. If a games writer just rewrites press-releases and prints pictures of DOA girls in their underwear all day in a magazine, they’re still a games journalist. News Reporters may get huffy about it, but they’ll get huffy about anything. It’s just the language. Deal.

Leading onto the second, barely anyone who whines that there’s no “real” journalism in games actually cares about or would read “real”games journalism anyway. The most grating thing about the recent upsurge, which forcibly illustrated this, was a couple of news posts on Slashdot games. Posted within an hour of each other, sitting directly beside each other on the page. The first linked to Jim’s phenonemal 10-page article about his trip to Korea - less travel journalism to an imaginary place, more real travel journalism to a place that’s so distant from the Western gaming experience that it may as well be imaginary. Extensive, painstakingly researched and one of the best pieces you’ll read this year. The second was some nobody’s semi-literate ramblings that just noted that “games writing is rubbish and perhaps it should be a bit better?”.

The first manages to just dribble over twenty comments. The latter gets over three-hundred.

They’re making Tim Edwards cry.

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*pat on the shoulder*

There there, it’s alright. There always have been and always will be complete tits in this world. It’s a terribly sad fact of life, but one that not much can be done about.

Well, apart from culling on a grand scale, of course.

Jim’s piece, while clearly superior, doesn’t need much discussion (from Western audiences at least). The exact opposite is true of the other article when it’s given to Slashdotters.

My conclusion being that quality of writing probably didn’t have much effect on the following discussions.

Got any links for those of us who missed the Slashdot discussion on games journalism? Is it this?

I don’t need the Rossignol link, as I have read the piece and could not do it better justice than to agree with you that it’s one of the best pieces you’ll read this year. No discussion necessary. Which, as Tom noted, may be why there’s a lack of /. comments.

Kieron > “barely anyone who whines that there’s no “real” journalism in games actually cares about or would read “real”games journalism anyway”

The fact is that barely anyone, whinger ir not, would read “real” games journalism in any case. Literary journalism of whatever kind has always had a far, far smaller audience than hard news, consumer-oriented criticism or the sensationalistic tabloid fun-press. Those who practice literary journalism in the context of games (and by “literary journalism” I don’t mean fictionalized documentation a la In Cold Blood but rather well reported, literate and insightful pieces a la John McPhee or a lot of the things that used to appear in The New Yorker on a more regular basis) — those who practice literary journalism in the context of video games are always going to have a smaller audience and generate less hoopla than more “traditional” journos (and of course there’s no reason why you can’t do both).

It’s not just the gaming press, it happens everywhere. I have good friends, smart people, who can’t stand some of my favorite non-fiction authors because they are “pretentious” or [insert similar denigrating adjective here].

I think to a certain extent it’s just a matter of diet. If your brain derives nourishment from the rich fare of pieces like Rossignol’s, you’re happy with that, but of course there are far more people eating at McDonald’s. I’m a bit concerned about how fat and pasty everyone’s getting as a result, but I don’t begrudge McDonald’s employees their jobs. (And if you’ve followed the metaphor this far, you deserve a break, so I’ll post this now and get back to my own cooking.)

Quick response: The Slashdot story -
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/07/1954219

I didn’t want to link to it, as what’s said isn’t really relevant. As it really is a waste of time reading it all. It’s more the idea of how the discourse is settled.

Only skimmed your comment - have to dash to do something else, and will process later - however on first glimpse I don’t think there’s anything I disagree with.

Tom raises a good point. I think I’d be more likely to comment on an article I violently disagree with than one I found interesting and entertaining. Put in an “I liked this article” button and we’d see something. For that matter, a “This article bored me until I wanted to stab my thigh with a biro just to feel something again” button would have some interesting results too.

Yeah, but all opinions are just subjective, right, and it’s just what some guy thinks and journalism is whatever you want it to be unless you want it to be something that I don’t want it to be and I think reviews should be more objective but previews should be more subjective, except for if it’s a game that I think I’m going to like when it should just be my opinion psychically transfered into everything I read everywhere I go so I never need to think a single fucking thought as long as I live my pathetic turgid pointless carbon-wasting farce of an existence.

[…] urs of lying still, wide awake, I got up and flicked around the internet, and noticed that Kieron had finally posted a response to the idiotic ramblings of some failed writer on Slashdot abo […]

Wait, so you kids are just upset some Americans were baited more by a fairly generic argument that they could express themselves about rather than your best bud’s piece on some niche market those same readers couldn’t give a damn about? As you say, it’s “real travel journalism to a place that’s so distant from the Western gaming experience that it may as well be imaginary”. So why the hell are you ‘fucking whining’ as well?

Yes, Paul, that’s exactly it.

Rossignol’s article is so good it made me weep slightly out of sheer rage at another’s talent. And then, it did the best thing of all. It inspired me to work harder. *That*’s good journalisim.

I just saw Jim’s article pimped on another forum I post at, unrelated to any Future stuff. So I guess someone was listening…

Are you also reacting the deification of Dan Hsu who bravely pointed out that computer game magazine front covers were for sale?

Christian: Oh, don’t start me about that particular “I’ll slander everyone by not naming names” piece. Fucking hell.

for his next trick mr. hsu will point out that water is wet. (but he won’t tell you which water is wetter than others)

also, isn’t real journalism - in the context of games - being done by joints like games biz daily, etc? (in addition to FT, WSJ, and the business press in general?)

i think the qualifier “real” stands fast in light of what’s considered a tough interview in this particular genre/industry/etc. (hsu v. moore)

[…] ost of us would be too. That being a games journalist (and I’m using Kieron Gillen’s broad meaning of the term here) would somehow foster a critical and analytic […]

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