@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.
Log in to comment