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Yeah, review have always had a slant and people forget just how bad they where in the past. I would rather watch someone play the game and skip the reviews, however it must be said the old slanted review model has largely died off. We don’t buy magazines with advertorials anymore, and the appetite to pay for such content is at a low point by both consumers and advertisers.
I am not writing for a publication but sure I guess you expect the same level of journalism as VGC so lets cover it a bit.
Lets use their own words About how they 5 years ago where getting 7 million views a month. That great, and the article although a fluff piece about themselves is not nearly as bad as the one linked before. But hey that could just be different writers after all, but nope both done by the editor in chief Andy Robinson. And don’t get me wrong VGC is one of the better ones, but at 7 million views a month they are not competing with video from places like twitch and you tube. In fact the written coverage on games has become a walled garden of insiders writing tone deaf articles and reviews in general.
Take the reviews for example, VGC’s coverage on Borderlands 4 Does not even address the games broken state but gives it 4/5 stars vs VGC’s coverage 6 years ago on Anthem Where they lambaste the game for it’s faults. Hell we can take this further and look at coverage on the same thing under different media in current times, the VGCs review of Borderlands 4 has no view counter on it but also has no comments, where as a smaller creator on youtube using clickbait has over 6000 comments and more views then they have subscribers (425,000).
I am sorry you don’t see the degradation of written games media, and I understand it was never top shelf stuff, but it is not a controversial take that needs extraordinary evidence. People are clearly not happy with the quality and content (hence the constant downsizing due to dropping revenues) leading places to sell out more to cover the bills thereby leading to a death spiral. Just look at coverage of some of the worst most broken releases to get why audiences are turning away:
How would you have cited “declining quality of writing” as an inciting factor? How would you measure it? And why did it just become a problem in the past few years rather than any of the problems that are listed in the article?
The part I am talking about is below the the part you are quoting. It was a critique on the part that goes:
"According to Press Engine’s database of ‘tier 1’ publications that cover games (which is defined as major websites, both specialist and mainstream, with seven-figure-plus audiences), the global pool of game journalists has declined by 25% in just two years. The vast majority of these departures were from specialist games websites like IGN, Polygon, or Gamepot.
If amateur, part-time, or freelance writers are included, the number of departures from the games media swells to more than 4,000 people since October 2023."
I am not sure if you are just a touch upset that everyone does not agree that your writer owned slop factory is of high standards or if you just missed the part where I was trying to point out the weak writing as asked. But if I was to “cite” the declining quality of writing, I could do so by referencing old popular articles compared to current ones, I could show screen shots of the ever mounting assault of ads, or I could do what I am doing here and just assume that my audience is not wilfully ignorant of the current state of the format.
You can not out of one side of your mouth state the industry of writing is dying then say out of the other that the writing has not suffered.
I have old some old magazines that are at least readable with ads that don’t move. This is not a radical take, just like all corporate media the quality has declined in general (not suggesting that there was a lack of bad journalism in the past). Also, they may not have hard quotas there but the writers are paid to make articles and content to fill the site (it is like how best buy did not do commission vs future shop but where both the same company and fired those that did not make sales regardless).
As for how to improve this particular article, I would say a good start is to pick a format, is it a op ed or an interview? Or is it a report on events? I would go the op ed direction myself and rely less on the quotes from other journalists and data from the weird internal marketing source. I would have likely incouraged having a message and then sprinkled in actual employment numbers from major publications throughout the article and not done what this one did that was “this program sends out less free codes” as a data point. The data used is too weak for anything other then an opinion piece but the article is too light on the writer’s input to be one.
There is also a big “citation needed” part that should have set off a editor.
“If amateur, part-time, or freelance writers are included, the number of departures from the games media swells to more than 4,000 people since October 2023.”
“If” indeed! They went from 25% down and then if you include free lancers swelling to more then 4,000 people. That’s just sloppy writing. At least give initial numbers and keep the format consistant.
Do you feel that way about the site reporting the linked article?
Yes, although I am not the first dood, but posting as someone who did read the linked article it is a barely veiled attempt to support the “writer’s” media and looks more like a lazy filler article to meet a quota. I use quotes around writer as the article in question is 2/3s quotes more in the style of an interview with “Veteran games journalist Alex Donaldson” and a few comments from “Press Engine co-founder Gareth Williams” (nothing wrong with that per say). The other 1/3 is “data supplied to VGC by Press Engine…” (again nothing wrong with this on its own). The issue is when we take the article in its whole this seems more like someone talked to a colleague or two then put a header on it using in house data from a “… popular PR tool used by developers and publishers to distribute codes and press releases to a global database of journalists and content creators.” and adding a few other comments from the very founder of the program used in house to round it out making a very thin and kinda lazy article. This reminds me very much of the stuff written I saw many many years ago when I worked at a newspaper watching that media circle the drain.
Also on the point of:
The sites are all completely cluttered with ads, a lot of the articles are just AI slop, and the industry is driven by greed.
This is not AI slop but good old fashioned 4:30 on a Friday human slop covered in ads, for example I got 2 pop ups with ad block reading it. This is what it looks like without ad blocker:
But then again, you get what you pay for and I guess the irony here is that the article (that could be used as a captain obvious joke) pointing out the collapse of games media is in itself an example of a degrading quality of writing leading to the demise of said media. The real joke is that the article does not even touch on the degrading quality of the writing and experience (other then a “…lack of diversification in content…”) but instead putting the blame on every thing else (thanks google, AI, COVID and advertising spending I guess?).
Yeah and now I own them all. I did not pay for a single one as VHS is treated as trash most of the time. Don’t play them just have them sitting in a closet due to their stupid giant plastic boxes that become brittle and crunchy when exposed to sunlight (kinda like the corporate ghouls that made them).
It was a many hour stream yes. But no that is the context, other then Thor just getting it flat out wrong and then doubling down there is not much more of that part of this story.
And if grabbing the first video covering it on youtube is “walking … to [a] conclusion” then I guess so is this very thing I am typing. I guess we should all just stop what we are doing until someone digs up the original livestream in its totality, then at that point we can argue about if it really is the true copy…
Come on the dood in question here does not dispute that is what he said, just the other day he thrust the knife in one more time.
Oh no, not putting this into a conspiracy. Not at all saying Thor is part of a large shell company.
The issue I am pointing to is how people (Thor included) defend and fight for those same multinational corporations. Hell even you by belittling one aspect of enshitification as lesser and not worth any attention is not doing any good.
Remember that we can do more then one thing at a time.
I think it’s a little gross how much we’ve chosen to pile on as a community.
The man is still advocating (to this very day) against Stop Killing Games, why does he get a pass? Why should I give a flying fuck about companies that have been bleeding a hobby I enjoy for years. Why are people so FUCKING WILLING TO STAND UP IN DEFENCE OF THE INDEFENSIBLE!
Sorry that last one is not the games industry only. But really why do people think its gross to call someone on their bullshit, but not gross to play defence for a multinational company?
Again, I answer. A lot of people.
This man has allowed his hubris and ego to destroy him, a story people like to see. The petition is not yet done and is now getting hate articles done on it (odd that). People are still posting about him as he is now the poster child of a shitty industry most dislike. The harassing of the studio he worked for is news to me (and I think a lot of people as it does not seem to have yet happened).
People who “move on” like you are talking about are a modern day plague, its how we get the absolute clown world we now live in. Have some principle and integrity.
And I am telling you (not likely the only one) that this is very much a real issue. What you are looking at is someone killing their career over the need of their ego to double down over and over. They have become a figurehead of the worst part of the games industry.
This is not going to “go away” anytime soon, and as Thor is still digging deeper will only get worse.
I mean this guy was just about the only opponent to this petition, he went HARD and is now being dumped on.
Not in the slightest in this case. He very much did say that live and also still stands by what was said. The idea that you need someone to walk you though it to such a degree is odd and likely is because you are looking for a particular reality that you can agree with.
Like I could understand if we were talking about some event that had opposing claims here, but in this case the man in question does not even deny that was what he said. And if you want “the context” more then what was on that clip, the live stream was just that he was made aware of the campaign and this is how he reacted.
This initiative can eat my ass, the whole thing. It can eat my entire ass
https://youtu.be/GuTp4Am51i0?t=395
Its like the most used clip in almost any coverage of this, I don’t get why you keep asking as if its not a well documented thing.
Its a non functioning product at launch, something that should be called out in a review. It is a low quality slop review, whether or not I agree with the conclusion. You can like or dislike a game counter to a review but I expect that at the very least an attempt will be made to point out pitfalls, and that was not done. The Suicide Squad was a bad game, someone liking it does not justify a dishonest or lazy review. You can not toss out one anecdotal view while pushing your own without looking a bit silly.
Neither of which are true is a bold statement that needs more then a “trust me” level of response. Next your going to tell me that redfall was actually good without much issues is more likely then some one was paid to write a fluff piece (a thing that happens in all forms of journalism). You seem to be pushing the idea that its the audience is wrong and desperately assuming that people don’t like the media state due to an inability to reconcile their own preferences with the articles (wild and odd).