Despite their popularity as critics, some video game journalists simply don’t know how to write about them. In one example, Jason Takahashi’s coverage of the Cup head on VG 24/7 showed his lack of expertise in the field, and his inability to navigate the tutorial stage of the game is embarrassing. Even if you’re a professional game journalist, if you don’t know how to play a game, it’s not your fault.
The biggest problem with game journalists is that they are expected to be familiar with the medium and at least have a decent understanding of the game’s difficulty. In reality, you don’t have to be an esports champ or a professional athlete to be a good game journalist. In fact, I have yet to meet any journalist who has played a single esports game without writing about it.
A recent example of this is the cancellation of the E3 gaming conference, presumably due to financial reasons. The resulting uproar has led to the closure of dozens of game stores worldwide. This is a sad state of affairs for the video game industry. Thankfully, this trend has been reversed in many countries. However, there’s a more pressing problem: the games industry itself. As the number of gamers grows, the number of game companies’ PR departments is growing rapidly. While this situation is bad for consumers and the gaming industry, it is also a major problem for the gaming media.
Despite their inability to understand the game industry and its complexity, many game journalists are increasingly blaming the industry for their failure to report on the industry. Unfortunately, this is a trend that’s unlikely to change anytime soon. The gaming community is sick of such entitled bulls***. So why are game journalists so bad at games? It may have something to do with their lack of time. If the game industry continues to lose interest, gamers will simply move on.
While it’s true that many game journalists don’t have enough time to play games, some do a good job. In fact, one of the most famous and respected gaming journalist, Jason Shrier, exposed the problematic AAA game development cycle. Some other popular websites include IGN and PC gamer. Additionally, YouTubers are great sources of news on video games. If you’re not a gamer, you can still follow gaming journalist reviews.
There are good and bad game journalists. Some, like Jason Shrier of Kotaku, have done great work exposing the harmful AAA development cycle. Others, like YouTubers, have made a career out of analyzing the industry’s culture. Regardless, you can’t be too careful with video game journalism. So why are game journalists so bad at games? It’s easy to make a mistake by ignoring the art of video games.