Oz Industry Bemusings
Krome Studios Director John Passfield has served up a small spanking to the Australian press in his latest Game Musings. John bemoans the lack of recognised voices within the industry, and vents some frustration at the way local gaming press consistently prefers overseas “stars” to it’s own countrymen. This recently resulted in the obtuse situation where Australian GamePro magazine interviewed an American and a Brit for insight into the Australian games industry (!). John’s point is a good one, but (as he acknowledges) it has another side…
It is unreasonably difficult for local press to get much out of Oz games companies in the way of press, comment, or opinion. Believe me, we’ve tried for years with very mixed success. Webpages often aren’t updated, most blogs have little to say on the industry, noone knows anything about .plans, and emails are rarely answered. I used to check every company site every night, then every week, then every month, and then I gave up. There are exceptions, but they are few in comparison.
The reason many overseas companies get media coverage is because they understand the importance of consistent, informative updates, and accessible information. It doesn’t have to be anything contract endangering, it just has to be something. A major online site ran a series a few years ago on “developer desktops”, showing screen grabs of what particular developers’ desktops looked like. Players eat that stuff up, and international games sites link it without thinking. We tried to produce the same thing focusing on Oz developers, but didn’t receive one response. Five minutes of time could have netted major links, yet we could raise no interest. I don’t know if it’s because companies can’t afford the staff, are too busy to spare the time, or simply have not discovered the internet, but for technology savvy people they are generally - and bewilderingly - bad at utilizing web-based PR.
I suspect there is another reason companies are reluctant to spend time talking to local media: the real money and opportunity is overseas. If Blues News, IGN, Gamespy, Voodoo Extreme, or any of the other major international games news sites sent an email requesting details for press, you can be sure the replies would be prompt and complete. That’s understandable. But the major online players aren’t specifically interested in a small (or even a large) Oz start up when they can fill space with another snippet from John Carmack on the lastest Doom 3 tech. The big sites aren’t interested, and the smaller sites aren’t considered. That’s a self-imposed and totally unecessary bind.
And here is where I think many Oz companies miss the point of the internet. It doesn’t matter where the information is, as soon as it’s online, it’s picked up by scores of search engines and exposed to the world. Everything on the internet is worldwide. By snubbing local media, companies are closing the door on a very good chance of international exposure. BigKid got new Australian content linked on Blues and VE many times, and we’re just one small hobby site. There are now many others who would jump at the chance to post anything local industry offered, even if it was a meagre company website update. All developers have to do is come to the party.
There is free and enthusiastic games press going begging in this country, and ironically it seems most of the people willing to take advantage of it are not Australian. If local industry is lacking recognizable voices, the companies themselves must shoulder at least some of the blame. The good news is that they also hold the power to change it.
posted by monty · at 1:49 pm · filed under Editorials
Here here! Well said.