The video game industry made a huge leap, not just in terms of technology, but in the process of defining itself as a narrative of storytelling. Many questions were asked about whether video games can be called art, whether art and business are mutually exclusive, and whether it is the consumer or the journalist who makes the call about which game stays on radar, and which game becomes a financial failure. From the discussion of this last question was spawned the hashtag “#Gamergate”, at least, the part which concerns itself with corruption in the games media; and after the publishing of a quite bold and daring article on the website Gamasutra, half of the internet went mad. This article attacked the gaming culture from an angle that nobody knew even existed. It stated the following:
“‘Game culture’, as we know it, is kind of embarrassing -- it’s not even culture. It’s buying things, spackling over memes and in-jokes repeatedly, and it’s getting mad on the internet. ‘Gamer’ is just an old demographic label that most people increasingly prefer not to use. Gamers are over. And that’s why they’re so mad.” (Alexander, 1)
The so-called gaming culture responded by shouting
corruption back in the face of journalists all around the globe, and once
Hollywood actor Adam Baldwin has coined the hashtag #Gamergate, the discussion continued
on the rather limited platform of Twitter. This aforementioned corruption in
professional journalism has manifested itself in many ways in the past, but for
the sake of clarity: let us focus on the two most pertinent ones.
 |
| Geoff Keighley, as an internet meme |
The first controversy has occurred two years ago, when
the video game called Halo 4 was about to be published. Publisher Microsoft
Studios spent an absurd amount to ensure that the whole of the internet knew
about the worldwide release of the product. This promotional campaign involved,
among many things, game journalists trying to raise awareness, and getting paid
for doing so. However, Geoff Keighley, considered one of the leading figures in
video game journalism, struck a deal with Microsoft to promote not just Halo 4,
but also the game’s shareholders, namely, Dorito and Mountain Dew. The end
result was a lengthy video, in which Keighley was sitting in a chair, a table
of Mountain Dews on one side, a table of Doritos on the other, with the standee
of Halo 4’s protagonist, Master Chief somewhere in the corner, while Keighley
himself was accepting phone calls from consumers who were interested in the
promotion.
After this video became the very symbol of what game
journalism stands for, an article appeared on Eurogamer, written by Rab
Florence, criticizing Keighley for having no standards whatsoever:
“He is one of the most prominent games journalists in the world. And there he sits, right there, beside a table of snacks. He will be sitting there forever, in our minds. That's what he is now. And in a sense, it is what he always was.” (Florence, 1)
However, what caused the real upheaval is that shortly
after the article went viral, it was immediately censored, and Florence was
fired from Eurogamer. Later, it was made public that Keighley’s colleagues at
Gametrailers.com were the ones who rattled enough cages to neuter Florence’s
article. Since then, Florence became the fallen voice of the people, and these
people did not forget.
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| Jim Sterling and his popular show of satire |
The other problem pointed out by Escapist journalist
Jim Sterling is that as video games have grown in budget over the years,
publishers have had to make more and more brand deals to maximize
competitiveness when they launch on the market. This also applies to review
scores: blockbuster titles need to get high scores to please shareholders, but
as publishers pushed for higher and higher scores, the decimal system became
completely unreliable. Sterling stated the following,
“The review score system has gotten so
thoroughly screwed that 8 out of 10 just doesn't cut it anymore. It's now
become Hate out of 10.” (Sterling, 1)
Stating that a game is great (which
translates to an 8/10) simply upsets the average consumer, who wants better and
better quality products, and, as a direct result, better scores. This
phenomenon reached the point by the end of 2011, that Warner Bros.’s Batman:
Arkham City was awarded by an 11 out of 10.
It should come as no surprise that after the gaming
press being bought thousands of times in the past, gamers, if they can be
called as such, have a lot of ammunition. They can take an easy shot at video
game journalism, and the only rebuttal that the media can conjure up is the
denial of the existence of video gaming culture. Thereby, attacking the
consumers themselves, and making #Gamergate personal for everyone involved in
video games.
Works Cited
Alexander, Leigh. “Gamers don’t have to be your audience. Gamers are over.” Published at Gamasutra, August 28, 2014
Florence, Rab. “Lost Humanity 18: A Table of Doritos” Censored and re-published at Eurogamer, October 24, 2012
Sterling, Jim. “Hate out of Ten” Published at The Escapist Magazine, November 14, 2011
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