When I was working in a game store back when I was 19, a friend said something insightful that I think about every day. “You work a job where personal opinion comes off as professional advice,” and that rests in the back of my head till this day. Today, 18-years later, I’m finding his statement ever still valid.
After years of working in the games retail space, writing about video games, dealing with customers who each have a unique flavor, and eventually working for a large retail company within the web content area, I can enthusiastically say that I know what I am talking about. I’m like Ron Swanson walking the aisles of Home Depot telling employees, “I know more than you” in a less egotistical way.
But, not many can say the same, and I am really starting to question it. We went from taking about the fun of games amongst ourselves to listening to the talking heads discuss statistics and financial data who have no business discussing it. Frankly, with the way that things have been going lately, and according to social media, it makes me think that, perhaps, we are jumping the shark in terms of delightful conversation and taking all of this a bit too seriously.
An Intro to Games Journalism
I don’t want to paint hobbyists in a negative light since there is a value in the art of discussion. But folks like Greg Miller and the rest of the crew at Kinda Funny have a long history of operating in the realm of games journalism, yet their programming seems to blur the lines between actual journalism and entertainment. We see this with statements uttered by Greg Miller himself when he said, “Xbox needs a win” during a podcast when referring to their review of Hellblade 2.
I say that Kinda Funny fits more into the realm of entertainment because of statements like that. It doesn’t provide any actual insight or ask questions. It is a statement that is well defined as a strong opinion that holds weight. Of course, it only has an impact because of the audience that happens to ingest this content and then regurgitate it to those who are blind to the content. Instead of that statement feeling like genuine criticism of Hellblade 2, it feels more aligned with what folks are calling “the console war” concept.
Let me explain something here: when it comes to the facts and delivering information, you can obviously count on their experience as trained individuals. Opinions matter on a person-to-person basis, and understanding the difference between the two is essential to understanding games media coverage as a whole. Plenty of mutuals of mine are properly trained, have degrees, and can report on games the same way as Greg Miller and company, but, unfortunately, stating facts and translating press releases don’t get you hosting gigs or Patreon subscribers.
While games and those who discuss them are important, it is the fans that really determine exactly what happens and how that information is perceived. It is the position of journalists to take the information and deliver it in a way that is easy to understand. Sure, they are allowed to have opinions, and that is key to understanding the writer. It has never been more important to understand the difference between fact and opinion as many are confusing one for the other and using it to speak with that sense of authority or, worse, write off a major story as meaningless despite it being grounded in fact.
Talking Heads… the Bad Kind
Don’t get me wrong, it is fun to talk shop every so often, especially between friends. But we are starting to sink into a world where talking heads who know nothing of business strategy are speaking about how certain competitors are dead and how Phil Spencer should be demoted to the lower levels of hell. But what is even more nauseating is how they comment directly about an aspect of the business and how it pertains to shareholder value with a tone of bitter smugness to it, a holier than thou-like approach to the conversation. See: the game you liked but never got a sequel because of its inability to bring in money. And that, of course, trumps any sort of argument when you’re trying to focus on the subject matter of artistic value. Game, set, match. You lose. Good day, sir.
Even worse is when that obtuse approach to a game overtakes the artistic element as a whole. We don’t like what Microsoft and Sony have done by gutting their entire divisions and closing studios, which were events that occurred because a spreadsheet showed a red box instead of a black or more gleefully-colored green, blue, chartreuse color, anything that sent a sense of relief into the poor soul who otherwise would deliver the bad news, leading to the lives of those who worked below them falling into complete disarray. The very folks who are up in arms against this tactic are the same people who will point to a Metacritic score and go, “Well, them’s the brakes, kid.” There is no arguing here. Nothing you can say would get these people to view a game based on it’s own artistic merit because they don’t want art. They want the same thing over and over again, spoon fed to them because, if it takes a minute to wonder if this is art, that’s too long for them.
There is a very human element missing from the conversations. Numbers as a whole could tell a story, but they aren’t; that’s what letters are for, which tend to be reserved for titles and the names of various parameters that must be met to consider a game successful. When we discuss something in terms of art, the only number that tends to appear is the cost of said piece. Picasso was never asked, “well how many did you sell?” We never look at The Mona Lisa and go, “If we don’t have enough eyes on this, we are going to have to take her down. Sorry. She didn’t hit her optical attention quota after 220 years.”
Games as a Business (and Nothing Else)
Speaking about games as a business in this manner takes a special someone who is willing to detach themselves from the actual intellectual conversation and opt for something numbers-based because they lack the ability to understand the themes and emotions. It’s like comparing weapons in an RPG. Green arrow means it must be good, but you’re not looking at what the weapon actually does. It’s blindly following and hoping that, eventually, someone will respect your opinion over that of other trained writers who continually bust their asses to tell you about the latest game. They are often met with the ire of jealous individuals who don’t have what it takes to do any sense of basic research and just base everything off of vibes and “trust me bro” sources. I want to die every time a “pretty accurate source” is mentioned. Saying otherwise doesn’t bring clicks, though.
That is the real issue here, isn’t it? These are people who have tied their entire personality to a box, and they are unable to detach themselves from the bias. I don’t care if people found Hellblade 2 enjoyable or not; I didn’t play it, but the fact remains that there are redeemable aspects to it, and no one wants to even lift it up for these reasons. I haven’t seen a single person mention how something of this caliber could lift the industry or ask how it could. Instead, we have to recover from the low din of folks shouting “Xbox tax” like they are expecting the IRS to come in and investigate.
I try to keep my head balanced and, I admit, I sometimes fall into knee-jerk reactionary content. I’m not immune to it from time to time. But, even I can come to new revelations after witnessing some input from my peers whose opinions I do value. I think there is strength in self-realization and meditation. Digging your heels in deeper while the face of truth stands directly in front of you is childish. But, hey, it does bring in the money. Deep inside you know that you could be wrong, but the fear of a change of heart is so much more damaging to the ego than being made a fool on social media, I guess.
The People VS. Journalism
Here’s a harsh truth that surprises almost everyone I tell it to: I’ll take the word of a Kotaku, IGN, or Polygon reporter no matter how much they are abused by social media. When I heard Jason Schreier was writing a book about Blizzard and the events that occurred there, I was excited; I still am. The reaction to the book by those who do not understand the situation accused him of sitting on stories and evidence for financial gain. Other trained journalists understood how that isn’t the case and moved on. You know, like normal people. Either that, or they simply kept their opinions to themselves, which is a practice that needs to be executed more often.
As someone who was involved in a sexual assault case myself and who had to testify against the guilty party, I can tell you that Jason is doing the right thing. But who am I for you to care about what I have to say? I do have experience, after all. Maybe if I yell at a camera for twenty minutes, you’ll believe me. Do you want another overweight white dude who can’t properly grow facial hair clogging up your feed? Give me some money, and we can work this out. I got a credit card that won’t pay itself, but I digress.
People not understanding the semantics and nuance of how this industry works is why we often see ourselves in the positions of “enemy of the day” on social media platforms. Instead, people opt for the talking heads who only see things on the surface level. These are the folks who do validate your emotions without any sense of why they should be valid in the first place. Because anyone who goes against what you think is the enemy.
Recently, another independent gaming outlet caught some attention by presenting a report card of a game review for Hellblade 2, ranking it within over 40 different aspects and then applying scores to these concepts. Then, there is more math to figure out the proper score for the game. I get the idea is to better reinforce the review of a game, but isn’t that what the written portion of the review is there for? Anyway, that’s not the point; the point is a lot of people saw this and then stated that professionals do not like it because it “would make us be held responsible for our reviews”? You can’t see me, but I’m making a confused face here.
Of course, on a surface level, having a report card might seem like a good idea to a few people, but it doesn’t solve the issue of being a subjective concept. Adding more numbers and variables to something like a review doesn’t mean that you know what you are talking about. Like, rating the “soundtrack composition” requires you to have some knowledge of musical theory and how something like the circle of fifths operates, and that is just the bare minimum.
If you took some of these aspects of the sheet and then applied it to something like Balatro, one of the best games of the year, it would automatically get a low score because, according to the math, it wouldn’t apply to a majority of these elements. But, the game is a wonderful experience, so now the outlet would need to figure out how to properly address something like this that lacks a story and some of the more complex elements that exist here. The problem is that very few people consider this; they saw a way to strike back against professionals, and that seems to be the only thing that really matters. No one cares how this outlet scores their games; they just care about sticking it to the “man.”
Self-Reflection
I know what you are thinking. “Steve, aren’t you a talking head? Isn’t Seasoned Gaming a platform to help exploit the same type of anti-journalist propaganda?” This couldn’t be further from the truth. I don’t fully consider myself a journalist due to my already constrained schedule, but if diving into games and writing about how much I love them makes me one, then so be it. I ask questions, and I look for answers, so I guess that makes me a journalist.
I guess, when you really break down the staff who write for Seasoned Gaming, we have a lot of experience. Several of us are writing books, or have been managers of large companies with years of business strategy experience. We have programmers, musicians, editors, people in the know. We can’t forget our very own fearless leader, Ains, hosts the Bitcast, a weekly podcast that features an IGN employee and a lawyer who is admired in his field of expertise, both of which I respect highly and whose opinions I would actually listen to. Then there is Dan, the most authentic curmudgeon who has a level of tenacity that is unmatched. His tolerance for garbage takes is so low that it is incredibly admirable and gives me a new set of personal goals that I should follow instead of writing this out.
Everything you get from Seasoned Gaming is free. There are no ads. There are no paid promotions. We aren’t trying to sell you a subscription. We aren’t even trying to cause controversy to grift you into supporting a game that doesn’t exist. We speak from passion and love for this industry, and it is so painfully obvious. I know that this is a surprise to most, but we don’t need to break down games into a series of numbers to tell you if it’s good; in-depth spreadsheets are for big businesses who are trying to determine who deserves a job or not.
Everything We Have is All We Get
So yeah, I think the discussion around gaming has become too critical to a point where we forget the purpose of all of this. We have tons of great outlets out there who are still talking about how much they love games and appreciate the many aspects they present. We have reviewers of all sorts voicing their opinions. We have people genuinely excited for games to be released, and those are all great, but there is a lot of disingenuous behavior. We don’t have to boil every game down to financials, and we can ask questions and come to new revelations.
During that Kinda Funny podcast, “Snow Bike” Mike made one good point when it came to the Hellblade 2 review: that we need games like this. As I type this, XDefiant and Marvel Rivals are entering the hero shooter realm that is currently occupied by games like Overwatch, Valorant, and Apex Legends. These are games that feature heavy monetization designed to create as much user spending as possible. While it is possible to look at something like Hellblade 2 and argue metrics on why we won’t get a Hellblade 3, we would be left here mourning what else Ninja Theory could do with this tech while Senua is injected into Fortnite, a true hell if I ever saw one.
