Not limited to it though. I've been working on writing a few books of my own with varying degrees of success. Yes, I've discovered that creating things is hard. Which is probably why I think most people are too hard on video games. They are incredibly hard to make and many people devote a large portion of their lives to them. So when people dismiss some of them out of hand. It is pretty hard to be anything but disgusted.
That is not to say that there aren't a lot of bad games out there. In the age of the Indies and Steam Greenlight there seem to be a never ending pile of garbage covering over the descent games. I don't know what the system for sorting through all these games should be; but currently it just seems like, with a few exceptions, there is FAR MORE bad than good games.
The funny part of this is that books are going through the exact same thing as video games. Except in books, it seems to be more a matter of what people are willing to pay than a problem that financing a book from a major author is expensive. Readers have gotten a taste of the free to $3.99 market and don't care how crappy a book is just that it's cheap. More like the mobile games market has been on and off.
What I find so interesting and so hard to just completely ignore are the deluge, and yes, it's a deluge. Of completely uninformed and seemingly uninterested game journalists. They work for the big outlets, mostly as second stringers or perhaps folks who cover an event and nothing else. I'm sorry but if I'm getting paid to cover a game on a live show I MIGHT actually google that game ahead of time and at least know SOMETHING about it. But that doesn't seem to be their concern. What I also find strange, is that the people who DO KNOW about games are being systematically fired from the industry for, get this... Making too much money! Yes folks, most of these people live in San Fransico or L.A. where gas can be over $5 a gallon. But these folks can't be making $30-$50 grand a year! Oh no, why would they want to start a family or actually live in a descent part of town. No, that's just TOO MUCH!
Meanwhile, the executives at these companies are making upwards of six figures and see nothing wrong with it; even though they are just cookie cutter positions that can be filled with a Pizza Hut Exec. just as easy as the Exec from Ebay. There IS NO DIFFERENCE! They are just glorified paper pushers who learn how to be executives, not the head of a particular company. This is made more obvious every time the folks running at IGN or Gamespot make a decision.
Currently, I feel like Polygon is supporting the entire game journalism industry with excellent news and some descent, if not over harsh reviews. Giant Bomb is #2 down, from #1. While the move for half the staff to Chicago and then New York; has resulted in some good video and some even better straight up journalism. The overall production of the site seems to be just reaching the status quo and while Dan Rykert has been less of an improvement that probably the other dozen people they could have chosen. He hasn't derailed the site as much as having so few people there doing the actual video production work or the in office journalism.
What do I have against Dan? He is never prepared. He doesn't have much of the information that most the viewers have. I have heard him answer some questions in the negative from a place of pure ignorance rather than actual opinion. He has also, managed to do nothing for the opinion of the site as a bunch of guys just messing around. As it seems that he is more interested in Wrestling than in video games.
This was not supposed to be a tirade about Dan Rykert, I loved his work at Gameinformer and his video show, Replay. I'm not entirely sure what happened but I don't like it.
Anyway, I think that with SO FEW positions available in video game journalism, companies should try to find the best people for the jobs not just the easiest people to train. I also think that considering Twitch is on shaky ground as a streaming service for games in the future. The heavy reliance that many companies have put on it should be reexamined. How long with it be before Youtube falls into the same trap. The idea of having millions of people streaming video content is an awesome one. But our society seems to go for the quick buck rather than what is right for world every time and this will happen with these services just as it did with the proliferation of internet service. It's 2014, people, we should ALL HAVE FREE HIGH SPEED GIGABIT ETHERNET! This would not only change how our society functions but the job opportunities and educational opportunities would be limitless. But it's SO MUCH better to have one or two companies stranglehold internet service and thus begin creating a state where in order to use the internet or say something on the internet you must deal with them.
Our parents allowed the cable and satellite companies to control our televisions and we are still trying to pry them away. Are we going to let this happen with our internet as well? Probably, because the people in control, are too rich to care. They just want their big money now and they don't care what happens down the road. Well, that kind of thinking is basically what will not only be the end of the US but of other country in the world. People need to start thinking about the future and less about onyl the next five years.
My advice for fixing all of this? Well, first and foremost pay attention. Don't be the most uninformed person in the room. Try to be the most informed. If there is a game that you love, talk about it on Twitter. Tell your friends, you know the people you know in real life. Make sure to call the journalists on their mistakes. Not in a mean way, just let them know in the comments, politely what their mistakes were and where they could look for the information. On Youtube, make sure to LIKE the videos you like. I knwo this sounds stupid. But the more LIKEs a video gets the better in does with marketing types. Companies want to know that their dollars are going to something that is doing well. Make sure to subscribe to Giant Bomb if you love the content over there. About the other problems I talked about? Write emails to your congressman or congresswoman and let them know that you are concerned about these issues. And vote, those government types really respond to that.
That's my advice and if any of this made you mad, or upset. Sorry.....
And if that made you mad? You have no soul and I cannot help you... :)
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