Let's not debate the title of this blog post or discuss the term "journalism."  
 
Joystiq's Justin McElroy posted a news post yesterday where he attempted to file down a 3DS cartridge and put it into a Nintendo DS. The result? Nothing. Not surprising, really.   
 
Like all things posted on video game websites, GameJournos.com decided to chastise Justin for posting "filler" material. Once the GameJournos post was criticized for calling Justin out for using humor, GameJournos clarified saying "The problem I have is with filler material that serves zero purpose. The “discovery” that a Nintendo 3DS game cannot and will not work in a Nintendo DSi is, I think, not particularly earth-shattering. It’s expected. Attempting to mask the intrinsic low value of this news post by applying a coat of humour to it doesn’t change the fact that this isn’t newsworthy and is, in fact, a complete waste of time."  
 
Gamejournos also criticizes Justin for following the statement "we've got a detailed walkthrough of exactly what happened after the break." with "Nothing." 
 
In your opinion, is this sort of post acceptable? Was this filler material or purely Justin attempting to put his good humor to work? Should Joystiq have ran this story? Does it bother you that you may have clicked on the article expecting some sort of revelation when, in all actuality, you were greeted by something you could have simply inferred? 

Here's a link to Justin's article. 

I'm confused, you're asking if this is bad journalism but we can't discuss journalism?

That's a old joke though, so the humor is kind of not funny...

That gamejournos guy is a joke. He's just some guy who's pissed off that he doesn't have a job in the industry. He thinks that by bashing other people who do have jobs and fans and talent he can drag himself up. 
 
I was arguing with him on twitter yesterday too and just unfollowed him when I saw his blind rage at "OMG WEBSITES DON'T USE 5/10 AS AN AVERAGE OMG" 
 
Anyway as for the joystiq post who really cares. It's a disposable medium - Justin makes that post and an hour later it's on the second page. People looking for that information find it. It's not like the website Joystiq only has so much space for content. They post a lot of stuff I don't care about, but it's super easy just to scroll onto the next thing, instead of flying into a rage like this joker does. 
 
Furthermore Justin often does articles with a more humorous twist - this article wasn't about "HERE ARE THE DETAILED STEPS TO MAKE YOUR 3DS GAMES FIT IN DSI I AM ROBOT BLOGGER" and a lot of joystiq readers are fans of justin, so they're going to want to read his stuff.

W/e  Ive tried something similar before.  i thought it was kinda interesting even though i didnt expect it to work

The article is just a joke and its kind of obvious that it is.  
To make fun of Joystik for just posting for posting sake is pretty shallow. 
They practically post press releases when they come out without writing anything about them besides a "funny" headline. 

Perfectly fine by me. Blog sites like that have to produce a ton of material, and if it makes a few people laugh what's the big deal? Games journalism isn't the same as real journalism.

I am also so sick and tired of people using the term "games journalism" 
 
Nobody at joystiq (or giant bomb for that matter)  claims to be a journalist or hold themselves to those standards. They're press. Enthusiast press. For a largely frivolous and luxury media. Why should everything be taken so seriously? 

It's a blog. Joystiq is pretty good for what they are, but it's not like the Internet has particularly high standards. It was kind of dumb, but unless he posted something wrong or offensive, it's pointless criticism for the sake of criticism.

" It's blog. Joystiq is pretty good for what they are, but it's not like the Internet has particularly high standards. It was kind of dumb, but unless he posted something wrong or offensive, it's pointless criticism for the sake of criticism. "

It's more professorial bloggering (if that is a word) then it is journalism. As is with most video game "journalism". People invest in the humor as the people have the right to invest their time, wasteful or not, anywhere they like. That GameJournos page strikes me as a bit pretentious.

Yes it is bad 'journalism' but, because people like Joystiq and GB don't like being called journalists, we can't say that. If people want video games to be regarded as art then the people covering and criticising these games need to start to take on the responsibilty they have or let someone else step up to the plate. 
 
EDIT: Just to clarify GameJournos.com is horrible, some of the stuff he criticises is just ridiculous, I was just commenting on the question posed by the OP. I would like it very much if there was a website dedicated to proper journalistic cover of video games but the industry is kind of fucked what with embargos, NDAs and metacritic so the chances of that happening are very slim.

Fuck GameJournos.com.
 
It's a pointless rant about a silly article.

I really don't care and neither should anyone else.

I don't think it matters. It isn't paid content so can you really complain about filler content. Giantbomb does loads of ridiculous stuff that we all love and that doesn't get attacked

Wow, game journalists can't have fun these days? I'm glad Giant Bomb exists. 
 
Don't encourage gamejournos.com by discussing this. Of course it's fine.

Justin's article - an amusing waste of time 
GJAIF - a waste of time 
 
Tell me: who's better?

Someone cracked a joke on the Internet? Fucking psychos, I tell you.

While that site started out as a great idea, now I'm not even going to bother giving him a page hit..

Well if I had done an experiment such as that, I'd have posted what the results were regardless... I mean I've already done the legwork, so why not at least write about it? If nothing else it'll stop other people trying it.
 
As to why he even tried it in the first place, imagine if it had worked somehow? Yeah I know it's not likely, but strange things happen occasionally.
 
So for that guy to call it a waste of time is just stupid. And arguably rather ironic.

There's all sorts of content that I wouldn't consider to be newsworthy that news outlets cover.  Case and point; anything relating to Charlie Sheen isn't newsworthy to me.  But, some people don't agree with me.  So, I think arguing what is 'newsworthy' and what isn't is an argument that can't be won or lost.   
 
And isn't this a bit of the pot calling the kettle black (I know, I know.  That's racist)?  Is it 'newsworthy' to called out a fellow journalist?  Who does that serve?

Sure it's silly but who cares. The ironic part about this is he's accusing JMac of filler when he's pretty much doing the same thing. Yeah game journalism isn't perfect but why don't you show us how it's done and create something yourself instead of just criticizing other peoples work.
Not to mention Justin McElroy is a gentleman damnit and I will not see his good name besmirched!

Gamejournos just sounds awful.

Filler material can be good. I think he's over-exaggerating.

I made my opinion clear the comments on GJAIF. I said:     
 

    

To be fair to Joystiq, I actually thought about the "question virtually nobody is asking", and I've heard other people wonder aloud about what would happen if you put a 3DS cart in a normal DS too. Maybe we're just weird and we're asking bizarre questions that shouldn't be asked, but Joystiq did answer our pondering. 

I do agree that featuring the short post with little information as prominently as any other post about major gaming news is kinda dumb, and they should probably devise a way to be able to cover this sort of stuff without giving it a whole news post, but I it should be covered in some way. 

 

Fuck the games journalism police.

 I really don't understand the hate that Ben gets over his GJAIF blog. It can sometimes cross the line from bad journalism into little niggles that annoy him, but for the most part he does a good job drawing attention to the poor state of the game journalism industry, or as it should probably be called a lot of the time - the game publishers PR industry. "

"Update: Because some people have the intellectual capacity of a particularly dumb glass of water, I’ve had to clarify my stance on this post."

" when will people learn  ALL VIDEOGAME JOURNALISM IS A FUCKING WASTE OF TIME "

I don't think gaming "Journalism" is actually even a real thing. But for sure this ain't it. It's just dumb blog fodder.

I agree that that article was pointless filler, but it's their site and if they think it's worth a laugh or two then they can do it. I have no clue who anyone mentioned in the OP is, but if I was on that site I just wouldn't click the article.