BigKid.com.au

I LIKE PLAYING GAMES JUST LOVE IT

More gaming sites need to be taken over by IGN to get the anti-marijuana message out to the CS kiddies.

Voodooextreme is the pits now after IGN took them over … total BS site. Ah well who cares, gaming in general sucks now - the a***holes you come across online, the cheats, the quality of games is a complete turnoff for myself and I have been playing since 1978. I am at an all time low as far as lack of interest in games right now, almost ready to admit I have given it up as a pastime.

Take up a musical instrument instead everyone. If you already do play something, play it instead of wasting your life gaming. GAMES WASTE YOUR LIFE! Don’t become a victim and look back in 10 years time and say damn I wish I became something because I didn’t stop playing those stupid games.

Back to the topic, I think the biggest problem with gaming journalism is the complete lack of accountability. While the mainstream media at least has a show like Media Watch picking away at the loose threads, gaming has no such watch-dog. Gaming journalists have gotten away with verbatim press-release copying, zero fact checking, and outright lies - and I sure can’t remember the last time I saw a gaming web-site print an aopology for posting incorrect information.

I’m sure this is partly the product of passionate hobbyists becoming reporters (and more power to them, the web wouldn’t be the same without them), but if gaming journalism wants to be taken seriously, it needs to start treating the news it’s handling just as seriously.

Ed - good points. It’s interesting however that many of the people writing in that report are arguing for a more opinionated, personal approach to game journalism - in other words, moving away from a traditional ‘news’ reporting style. And by doing so, the need for accountability isn’t so strong as it’s subjective reporting, and not pretending to be ‘the One True View’.

There’s a need for both - once you get to know a particular writers’ likes and dislikes, you can learn to trust or discard what they are saying. And at the same time you can refer to the more professional ‘News’ style of sites for more generic information such as features, releases, etc.

It’s the same as music or movie writing - I ignore certain critics as they’re opinions and influences are quite different to mine, and others I pay a lot of attention to. And then to find out when something is released or to get news about a band or movie I’ll use something as generic as Amazon.

What would be nice would be an IMDB for games…

Best solution still is play the demo. If you like it, buy the full game.

I’d love to do searches on the folks who worked on games you loved when you were young..See what they are doing.. We need a iGdB

God, the number of times I proposed doing an igdb.com thing to various publishers…it is a good idea and something Gamers.com was trying to do before it crashed a few years ago.

I think my view of games journalism is…too detailed to go into at this time of night :)

Anyone in particular you’re searching for, Shane?

Just the ability to do what you do on IMDB.. You go in and look at a director or whatever and then delve back.. find who they work with.. Play seven deegrees of Kevin Bacon.. But I guess with gaming it would best to 7 deegrees of Carmack or someone like that.

Just would love to not have to google search a name when you come across it to find the cross section.. Anyone tried "weapons of mass destruction" and I’m feeling lucky on google?