Interesting to see The Washington Post get in on gaming news. I've had a look and it's very... generic? Like, it reads like a selection of Polygon articles with maybe slightly more down-to-earth...
Interesting to see The Washington Post get in on gaming news. I've had a look and it's very... generic? Like, it reads like a selection of Polygon articles with maybe slightly more down-to-earth writing? They have one article about gamers with disabilites, Fortnite news and... a ranking of Zelda games. A lot of "numbered lists" ("Five simple Rainbow Six Siege tips to help first-timers stay alive and win"), lots of esports.
It's okay, I guess. I'm still waiting for a gaming site that doesn't feel like it has to cater to teenage players. Which might be pointless since there's barely any games that even acknowledge an audience beyond that.
Yeah, that's how I felt about it too. I was kind of expecting serious gaming journalism with some in-depth analysis or something, but got a bunch of hot tips for returning to Minecraft and basic...
Hopefully they'll end up producing some of both, unfortunately it seems like those tips and lists articles are the ones that drive a lot of the traffic and pay the bills with advertising.
It's funny how that is something I want but I can feel my eyes roll as I type it. Several years ago, Warren Spector warned videogames not to end up like comic books. I'm not sure if the guy who...
I was kind of expecting serious gaming journalism
It's funny how that is something I want but I can feel my eyes roll as I type it.
Several years ago, Warren Spector warned videogames not to end up like comic books. I'm not sure if the guy who dropped everything to work on Epic Mickey and Epic Mickey 2 is the best voice for it, but I think I know what he meant. Comics are an amazingly creative medium. I actually was never that into them as a kid but discovered them way late, with stuff like Akira, Persepolis and – IMO still one of the most beautiful books ever printed – Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth. There's obscure Swiss Comic magazines that go way into art territory, a whole world of French indie comic artists who produce some absolutely fantastic stuff, a rich history of US underground comics (Robert Crumb, etc) and thousands of mangas that totally don't suck. Now comics have arrived in the mainstream, mostly through Marvel movie adaptations and... it's guys in tights all the way down. Maybe a girl in tights here, maybe a guy in tights having totally real problems and deep discussions with... other guys in tights.
I'm definitely seeing games that can go into a direction that warrants serious discussion. There's so much potential. There's also glimpses of what high quality journalism meeting games at eye level could look like. But they probably don't generate a lot of money compared to covering Ninja's latest Fortnite quips. I'm seeing a slight tendency to try and make videogame storytelling relevant through social issues but then you see the kind of gameplay these stories build upon and you ask yourself if anyone even really cares about the medium itself rather than the parts imitating the movie industry. I'd rather see videogames as their own category, more similar to music which has entire branches that don't even do lyrics and require accepting a medium going into directions that are actually hard to write about.
Some of the people working on the new section did an AMA on /r/Games today as well: https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/diaijd/we_are_launcher_the_new_washington_post_staff/
Interesting to see The Washington Post get in on gaming news. I've had a look and it's very... generic? Like, it reads like a selection of Polygon articles with maybe slightly more down-to-earth writing? They have one article about gamers with disabilites, Fortnite news and... a ranking of Zelda games. A lot of "numbered lists" ("Five simple Rainbow Six Siege tips to help first-timers stay alive and win"), lots of esports.
It's okay, I guess. I'm still waiting for a gaming site that doesn't feel like it has to cater to teenage players. Which might be pointless since there's barely any games that even acknowledge an audience beyond that.
Yeah, that's how I felt about it too. I was kind of expecting serious gaming journalism with some in-depth analysis or something, but got a bunch of hot tips for returning to Minecraft and basic strategies for not-dying in Rainbow Six Siege.
Hopefully they'll end up producing some of both, unfortunately it seems like those tips and lists articles are the ones that drive a lot of the traffic and pay the bills with advertising.
It's funny how that is something I want but I can feel my eyes roll as I type it.
Several years ago, Warren Spector warned videogames not to end up like comic books. I'm not sure if the guy who dropped everything to work on Epic Mickey and Epic Mickey 2 is the best voice for it, but I think I know what he meant. Comics are an amazingly creative medium. I actually was never that into them as a kid but discovered them way late, with stuff like Akira, Persepolis and – IMO still one of the most beautiful books ever printed – Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth. There's obscure Swiss Comic magazines that go way into art territory, a whole world of French indie comic artists who produce some absolutely fantastic stuff, a rich history of US underground comics (Robert Crumb, etc) and thousands of mangas that totally don't suck. Now comics have arrived in the mainstream, mostly through Marvel movie adaptations and... it's guys in tights all the way down. Maybe a girl in tights here, maybe a guy in tights having totally real problems and deep discussions with... other guys in tights.
I'm definitely seeing games that can go into a direction that warrants serious discussion. There's so much potential. There's also glimpses of what high quality journalism meeting games at eye level could look like. But they probably don't generate a lot of money compared to covering Ninja's latest Fortnite quips. I'm seeing a slight tendency to try and make videogame storytelling relevant through social issues but then you see the kind of gameplay these stories build upon and you ask yourself if anyone even really cares about the medium itself rather than the parts imitating the movie industry. I'd rather see videogames as their own category, more similar to music which has entire branches that don't even do lyrics and require accepting a medium going into directions that are actually hard to write about.
Rambling again, ugh. Maybe I should point out some positive examples but they're so damn rare. I always liked this NYT Magazin article about Dwarf Fortress from 2011. I read everything I can find about Jonathan Blow, so reading this Guardian article which actually feels like the author gets him is nice. I also find this epic article about Red Dead Redemption 2 to perfectly summarize the state of AAA gaming in 2018. There's a German print magazine called WASD that I guess targets graphic design nerds more so than gamers but it's the closest thing to a quality "serious" game magazine I've come across. Gets a bit lost in the storytelling aspect, though, just as most game journalism does.
Honestly, though, there aren't that many great examples I remember.
Some of the people working on the new section did an AMA on /r/Games today as well: https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/diaijd/we_are_launcher_the_new_washington_post_staff/