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FengShuiGod

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FengShuiGod

1518

Forum Posts

256

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Reviews: 1

User Lists: 1

#1  Edited By FengShuiGod

The more this sophomoric nonsense goes on the less I get into and from gaming. I visit gaming websites less and less, and I am beggining to play games only occasionally with friends because this internet bullshit is so poorly thought out. Yeah, I'd like to be able to visit genericgamingnews.com to find out about some interesting game I haven't heard of, but when I'm apt to run into so much superfluous baggage along the way I just avoid it completely and stick to known quantities or whatever I can find within a couple clicks on Steam. These guys/gals think they are the John Ruskin of games or something, but visiting a lot of websites feels more and more like grading a stack of remedial freshman social anthro papers.

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FengShuiGod

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#2  Edited By FengShuiGod

@jarmahead said:

@fengshuigod said:

Game journalism (or whatever you want to call it) is generally broken and worthless. I don't know exactly why, but there is a quality rift with other mediums when it comes to game criticism. Film, literature, photography, painting, whatever, have their inanities too, but they have smart voices that game culture really doesn't have. Maybe it is just because games are relatively new, I don't know, but people in the game crit/journo industry seem to have narrower backgrounds, experiences, and intellects. When does gaming get its Ebert, when do we get an essayist like Sontag, or Robert Hughes, or whatever? Or is video game culture always going to be relegated to the cultural status of guns magazines and car shows, wherein the "journalism" is little more than advertisements, top ten lists, and moribund social commentary that reads like freshman work? I mean, compare even relatively minor critical figures from the art world like Libby Lumpkin or Sinead Murphy to the drivel passed around as commentary on games. It's a joke.

Not everything needs that sort of stuff. Most games are about shooting the enemy first (which I'm a fan of). Even Porn has more potential for depth in it's mainstream elements, because sexuality is a bottomless pit of potential for what you're talking about.

Also, you're mostly talking about a certain kind of site that is basically run by robots and exists for a very particular purpose, and "games journalism" isn't it.

Still, I think it's unrealistic and pointless to expect those things from games. There is rarely anything worth getting into in a way you could as a really serious film critic, outside of the hyperbole of hipsterism that "indie" (meaning specifically the annoyingly indie types, not independent developers). And that stuff is so trashy most of the time even it doesn't have a place in critique.

Also remember that games aren't all "art." Sure, there are a lot of elements that would be considered art, but there's also a lot of math and logic and stuff like that in games. It's not art. It may contain art but it's more than art and I don't think it fits in with the other mediums just because it's so different. It's interactive, it's evolving at a rapid rate, and it's nothing like film or literature or even porn.

Well sometimes it's like porn.

I'm not saying that games are like film or literature, or that they need a criticism like film crit or lit crit. I do think they need critical voices who can have smart discussions and civil disagreements about the industry and the content it produces, similarly to how Dave Hickey talks about social identity and the art world or how Paul di Vivie wrote about bicycling. I mean, it's possible, like when Zizek touched upon games in an interesting way. So I wouldn't say it is irresponsible or pointless. Biking is not surfing is not painting is not buddhism is not bullfighting is not gaming but almost all of these have great works of criticism written by intelligent people. Not so with gaming. If nothing else, a figure like these would legitimize a fledgling industry and set something of an example. Plus, their writing saves us time shooting down sophistry and second rate fluff.

Does gaming need this to function as entertainment? No, gaming can function on many different levels, but this kind of cultural criticism is something that the current gaming press aspires to and fails miserably at, so I'm just saying I wouldn't mind seeing a more legitimate version of it.

Of course, this is something other than journalism ("game journalists" seem to have their foot in both camps which can muddle the distinction) and I wouldn't mind some good games journalism qua journalism either, though there is occasionally some passable stuff out there.

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FengShuiGod

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@tourgen said:
@spaceinsomniac said:

@kidavenger said:

If shit like this http://www.giantbomb.com/stardock-corporation/3010-1064/forums/stardock-embroiled-in-clashing-lawsuits-story-only-559660/#291, especially the conversation around it is fine, then everything that happened last week should have also been a fine topic of discussion, but it wasn't even allowed to happen and that's fucking bullshit.

That link right there is petty much a smoking gun regarding the hypocrisy of game journalism today.

Yeah, sadly true. That's some "who's fucking who and who's getting fat" journalism right there.

Wow, just wow.

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FengShuiGod

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#4  Edited By FengShuiGod

@extomar said:

Then use the PBS/NPR model or even GB's subscriber model. Because I keep hearing how people can't comment on things they subscribe too so praising or complaining about the Bombcast or any Premium feature is a "no-no"? No one wants to see the GB site or Bombcast or premium features go away so they can't comment on what works and what doesn't work with how they work? That is ridiculous.

I keep repeating it but people keep confusing patronage with pay off. There isn't automatically a problem with patronage where people are in a tizzy over something I don't see yet. If Zoe Quinn approached Ben Kuchera saying "Please promote me for $N" then that would be a problem. Ben Kuchera thinking what Zoe Quinn is doing is neat and pays her to do some more then commenting that "I like what Zoe Quinn is doing" is not a problem.

It is a problem because he works in the games industry. If he was willing to recuse himself from all coverage concerning her projects then it wouldn't be a problem, (which he may have done, I don't know and haven't seen any coverage of her work by him). The thing about conflicts of interest isn't that they always cause a problem, its that they always give the appearance of a problem. It tarnishes reputations and calls into question people's motivations. Even if someone is behaving totally ethically, it won't be believed if there was money changing hands, nor should it.

This. A lot of silly stuff has happened in the game industry for awhile. Pretend the last month didn't even happen and this still stands. Reviewers or game personalities/journalists/whatevers going on about how even though they got a trip and a bunch of swag and went to a party where they got to play the game but it totally didn't matter when they wrote the review. Maybe not, but can you imagine if, say, Leslie Stahl was wined and dined by company X and then did a story about how that company was doing good work?

Even if everything in the review was legitimate and objective you should still recuse or disclose because there is the POTENTIAL of PERCEPTION of bias.

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FengShuiGod

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#5  Edited By FengShuiGod

Game journalism (or whatever you want to call it) is generally broken and worthless. I don't know exactly why, but there is a quality rift with other mediums when it comes to game criticism. Film, literature, photography, painting, whatever, have their inanities too, but they have smart voices that game culture really doesn't have. Maybe it is just because games are relatively new, I don't know, but people in the game crit/journo industry seem to have narrower backgrounds, experiences, and intellects. When does gaming get its Ebert, when do we get an essayist like Sontag, or Robert Hughes, or whatever? Or is video game culture always going to be relegated to the cultural status of guns magazines and car shows, wherein the "journalism" is little more than advertisements, top ten lists, and moribund social commentary that reads like freshman work? I mean, compare even relatively minor critical figures from the art world like Libby Lumpkin or Sinead Murphy to the drivel passed around as commentary on games. It's a joke.

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FengShuiGod

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If you live in the city it is fine, but where I grew up, you had to have a car. If you were over 18, male, and didn't have a car you were considered a chump. The closest thing from my house was a grocery store that was 3 miles away. I only lived 6 or 7 miles away from town, but a lot of people were 15-20 miles away. If you were out of high school you had to have a car. If you didn't have a car your options to do something consisted of the tv and the computer. By senior year of high school almost everyone in my class had a car. People don't joke around when they say a car is freedom. America is built around the motor vehicle and in many rural and suburban areas you are extremely limited in what you can do if you don't have a car.

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FengShuiGod

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#7  Edited By FengShuiGod

I guess if you want to defend junk that's your prerogative, but there is Junk, and then there is junk. This game doesn't even rate. An interesting counterpoint that I instantly thought of was this recent piece from the Paris Review: http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2014/08/04/bad-call/

Empty calories start out as fun and games, but before you know it you're a hooked and obese imbecile, another symptom of the omnipresent grid of commercial stupidity. Pretty soon people don't care and such vapidity is openly welcome. It's harmless after all.

It would be nice to see some real game criticism. You know, give me a Robert Hughes or something, but with vidya games. Instead.....

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FengShuiGod

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#8  Edited By FengShuiGod

Ugh, this stuff gives me a headache and reminds me why I mostly stick to videos content and avoid the forums and the chat. Can't people just be nice?

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FengShuiGod

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#9  Edited By FengShuiGod

So many spoilers ITT.

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FengShuiGod

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This show is too silly. Hopefully next season is better.