I wrote about video game journalism at length some time ago, but a few thing have happened since, so maybe its time for a revisit…
Job mentioned something in the comments section of yesterday’s post which I feel warrants elaboration. As I’ve stated in the past numerous times, one of the main purposes of this blog is to help spread information. Primarily things related to video games, everything from stuff that’s in the headlines, to stuff that’s below the radar. Basically, anything which I think is particularly interesting or just fucking cool, and my aim is to present it either friends of mine whom I think might find such information interesting, or to just spread the word to the rest of the world. And maybe for the folks who are “in the know”, I guess its a chance for them to hear my opinions on them and perhaps foster dialogue. But for everyone, I guess I just want to save everyone the time and energy of looking for such things by doing it for them.
Does that make me a news source? I guess…. but its not like I’m some news bureau or something. But as we’ve all seen, and not just in video games, the lines between actual new reporting, primarily online, and blogging is starting to blur. Sticking with games (and who knows if this also applies for everything else… a part of me wants to say yes), for the most part “real” news sites like IGN, Gamespot, and 1UP have writers who go out and scope the news, either by going to places, talking to people, or having their ears on “the street”. And in this case, the streets are often message boards. And perhaps the most well known of them all is… you guessed it… the GAF, or Gaming Age Forum.
So what the hell is GAF? Its a video game message board. And what’s so special about it? Well, it seems to be the place for video game discussion. You can seriously find anything and everything there is to know there; not only is news at is reported by the bigger sites dissected, but you can find import coverage (there’s quite a few members who are fluent in Japanese), sales figures, analysis, speculation, debates, and best of all, folks who manage to find the craziest stuff from seemingly out of no where. Often its from other, perhaps lesser known message boards. Video game news, as is all news, is extremely fluid, and as I see it, there’s a need within anyone who’s a fan of something to get pass the world to as many people as possible.
And who exactly goes to this thing? Lots of folks. Mostly whose who are really big fans of video games, i.e. “gamers”. You have everyone from casuals, to fanatical, obsessive diehards, but there’s plenty of working professionals as well, such as other game journalists and even designers, who all use the GAF as a place to seek feedback. Like many online communities, certain relationships can often be formed; I’ve made a few even friends via the GAF, and have even managed to get paid work by impressing editors with what I had written. And like many online communities, the GAF has its cast of characters. Some are simply very passionate about their beliefs and opinions, and when stating them, get into arguments with others who are the same way but disagree, while others just say stuff to get a reaction, whether it be intentionally funny, or intentionally antagonistic. There are people who find message boards a means to get information or help, and a fun distraction. But there are others who take it seriously, often too much so.
I’m not exactly uncovering secrets by stating that the internet breeds crazy people. Having learned while living in New York City, that these days, the one thing people crave more than anything else is attention. And the internet allow people who feel lonely and disenfranchised folks to feel a sense of belonging. Which is great and all, but it?s helped to spur some rather bizarre subcultures. How else can things like furries become as big as they have. I’m certain that guy in Topeka, Kansas who always wondered why it might be like to dress up as a sexy raccoon might have finally gotten that extra push when he realized that were folks just like him all over the world, thanks to the world wide web. For many, the internet fills an emotional void in their lives, and it seems to be the case most certainly with video game fans. As mentioned previously, being a video game aficionado is ultimately frustrating. Because most folks, if they really love something, will want to create something of their own. Someone who really like comics or movies can always simply draw or get a camera, but its not as easy when it comes to video games. Its very hard to create games, and requires a lot of specialize skill (and more than just one). So fan of games will often converse with each other, with a certain underlying level of frustration. Hence why there is a lot of crazy people at gaming message boards.
Anyway, back to journalism, it used to be that gaming news sites often got the “good stuff” from message boards, but now there’s a new source: blogs. A place where people who pontificate on whatever they wish, and on their own personal forum. Hey, just like I do! Often it?s on something that’s caught their attention, like the current events, or things which they feel others should know about. Again, just like myself. And because they can be a good source of news, the major outlets are paying attention to them, and re-reporting this. But often, the original news was found somewhere else, like a message board, which is actually re-reporting something from another message board, or new site. Basically, it all gets quite messy, and figuring out the original source is often quite impossible. But that’s the way it goes. Most people who recognize this quietly understand it all. The internet is this massive gold mine, and everyone’s harvesting it for the goods. There’s a certain sense of bragging rights that comes from “finding something.” Which leads to a dick waving contest of who find something first, and/or lay down bragging right as the person who “found it.” This of course is fucking ridiculous because then you have people fighting over “ownership” over something which they didn’t even just create.
Which I guess brings me up to this, since I believe enough time has passed for me to talk about it (its no longer embarrassing and is not something I can look back and laugh): recently, someone of the GAF accused me of plagiarizing. Its a long messy story, but I’ll try to keep it simple: recently it was discovered that 1UP had published a strategy guide for Dead or Alive 4 in which the author actually stole the information from another source. This of course sent everyone in the GAF into a tizzy, including one person. Let’s call him Person X. Now Person X was just like many other GAFfers, a young guy, in his early 20′s, went to school, and wasn?t just into games, but into talking about them, primarily on the GAF. And he was most definitely a GAF personality; Person X would start many topics, and participate in many others. Like many members, he was quite opinionated, and what he would say (and the frequency in which he said things) made him noticeable, and not everyone liked him. But hey, whatever, everyone needs a hobby. Anyway, over time, Person X contacted me, I believe to discuss something I had said which he had found agreeable. Over time I discovered that he was just an ordinary fellow; most people seem to forget that seemingly esoteric or hotheaded folks online are just regular folks that use the anonymity to sometimes act peculiar. But in the end, I would like to think, they’re just nice, and normal people, like you and me.
One opinion which Person X stood by quite vocally was that video game journalism, as a profession, was bullshit. As stated in the past, it does have a bad reputation, and for good reason. But there are people who wish to see things improve, and perhaps one day gain some respectability, such as myself. And Person X thought this was equally foolish. And that’s okay I guess… everyone’s entitled to their opinions. Then out of the blue, Person X began reviewing games. An odd turn, considering how he felt that it was such a pointless waste of time, yet he developed a real zest for it. He even developed a shtick of sorts, in which he exclusively reviewed bad games. In them he would spend much time ripping it apart, often for comedic purposes. Now, I personally am not a fan of this… when people ask for advice on how to write a game review, I always suggest that the reviewer not go out of his or her way to “talk trash” about a bad game. A few jokes at it’s expense here and there is fine, but often reviewers take things too far, and it then becomes some bad Dennis Miller impression. But hey, to each their own… if that’s what Person X was going for (its a gimmick, but one that can be marketable when done right), more power to him. Plus he was starting out, and we all write pretty shitty in the beginning. Hence why I never said anything, even when he would instant message me some zinger of his to gauge my reaction (I tended to not really say anything and simply try and chance the subject). At least one time I wondered why he had given certain game reviewers a hard time towards their review style (which he articulated as being “too bloggy”) and then turns around to do the same thing himself. To that, he responded that he ultimately doesn’t care and is only in it for the free games. Needless to say, given that I actually care about the field of journalism, this bothered me. But I tried not thinking about it. Besides the frequency in which I spoke to X has changed over time, and since I don’t spend that much time online anyway, we stopped talking after awhile.
Anyway, back to the DOA4 controversy… as people were dog-piling 1UP, Person X decided to bring my name up. He brought up the fact that I had once said some rather not so nice things about 1UP. And its true: a long whiles back, I had a big problem with the way they were handling the whole blogging thing, and primarily how they were marketing their bloggers, primarily young female bloggers. I ended up speaking with a few, and to one in particular, I had a lengthy exchange via LiveJournal. It was something I felt pretty strongly about, but again, this was on LJ and not on the GAF. Why? Well, I’m not exactly stupid; given the types of people who frequent the GAF, I knew it would have just started some big debate that I honestly did have the energy or time for. The key to effective arguing is to pick your battles well.
But here in the middle of an argument, Person X posted something I had said, granted about the same party in question, but taken completely out of context. This took place over the weekend, a time when I choose not to surf the web. So imagine my surprise when I came across my name, totally out of the blue like this. Despite the fact that no one really said anything, and how one should never air personal grievances in public, I felt as I had to say something, since my peers were present, and I felt as if my reputation had been maligned somehow. It’s also worth noting that it this point, a few days had passed since I had brought up, and during that time he conducted “detective work” to put someone else on the hot heat: after attention was called up on the problem, the article was pulled down and the one of the site’s editor was present to address the situation; when someone who was late to the game wanted to see the offensive material in question, Person X posted a copy of the page which he had cached, which needless to say infuriated the editor (who simply wanted to get to the bottom of this himself, which is perfectly understandable). So I simply had into question Person X’s quite vocal belief that game journalism is a joke, and treating it as such when getting involved, yet how he could then turn around and call people out, especially by drudging things said in other places and from the past. Again, I maybe shouldn’t have said such things in public, but I guess I was sorta freaked by the fact that he had saved something that I wrote on some girl’s LiveJournal many months ago, for such a thing, that bothered me so. It just felt… I dunno… stalker-ish.
As expected, he did not react well, but I was surprised by what was said: Person X claimed that he was simply championing “journalistic integrity” and that I had no room to speak because I was ripping off the GAF by using it as a source for all the news and whatnot I write about on this very site! One specific point was that I had failed to cite sources, but admitted that I had “fixed” in recent time. And its true, to a certain extent: this site, and the whole culling of gaming odds and ends was originally just something for friends. So I felt no need to really bring up where I found the information at; none of them cared what the hell a GAF was then, and I suspect that most still don’t give a damn. But as time passed, and I realized that more and more strangers were reading it, and how it was also leading the other to paid work, I felt it necessary to mention the source. But then again, as stated beforehand, gaming news, like all news, flows from one place and the purpose of message boards to help this happen. Its important to cite the original author of an article on a cite, but those who find it and then post in on a message board? There’s no glory in that, hence why pursuing it is a lost (not to mention retarded) cause.
There have been occasions in which I have “reported” something, and then later on it appears as “news” for some other site, or even in the pages of EGM. Do I become upset by this? Dear God no. Sometimes I’m just happy with the knowledge that I knew about such-and-such first, as well as have friend or colleagues who know this fact. I’m not some egotist who has to let everyone know that I discovered some great internet fad, because I have better things to do. Besides, how do I really know that if EGM prints something I previously reported, that they got it from me in the first place? The web’s pretty fucking huge you know, with tons of people “discovering” the same shit at the same, or sometimes, differing times. When Steve mentioned to me a whiles back“Hey, I think Entertainment Weekly is reading your site! All the game related stuff in their hot ten list was something you’ve just written about last week!”, it felt very nice to hear, but my head’s not that big.
Plus one must consider what I consider to be “news” in the first place, which for me is letting the whole world know how cool a game in which you drive an ambulance and now down zombies can be. But then again, I guess this is all just one small example of what a clusterfuck the world of video game journalism is: what is considered news, what the sources are, and the means by which it spreads. As Job said yesterday, much of it seems to revolve around the GAF. So what does it say that most gaming news “comes” from message boards? I don’t know…. all I know is that I just don’t sit around all day typing key words into Google, hoping for something interesting to pop up, and most people are the same, regardless of their interest. We all have our sources for news, and for some, its habit that we enjoy spreading the good word. That’s really what makes my blog somewhat like an issue of EGM, or EW, or any other “news” publication I guess.
Back to the internet drama: so why exactly did Person X decide to drag me into the mud like that? Hard to say, but one guess is that it was a means to get attention. Despite when someone says “I don’t care” to a particular group, its always a sign that they actually desire gratification or approval from them. But in regards to gaming message boards, its goes back to a primary issue of video game journalism: almost anyone can do it. Hell, look at me, I was just at the right place, and at the right time. Someone who liked what I wrote was in a position to allow me to do the same but be paid for it… I didn’t have to go to school or apply for anything. It happens a lot, and it really irks some, at least those who believe that those who are making a living of it are perhaps not deserving of such a privilege. And sometimes, I can see why it can be so frustrating. But as I’ve also learned, one should never start shit online. Because not matter what you say, people will find out.
BTW, this all why I really don’t post that much at the GAF anymore. These days I tend to stick around the insert credits forum… its much nicer there.
… Oh, to Person X, or any other internet stalkers out there, if you are reading this, hi!
