Diminutive Diatribes: The Game News Media's Double Edged Sword

                 I've made my disdain for the game news media and their hype machine preeeeeettty transparent in my past editorials.  However, even I can admit that they are a necessary part of video gaming culture.  I mean, without Kotaku spotlighting BrentalFloss or Laura Shigihara, they might never get thousands, if not tens of thousands, of fans.  Without the Escapist talking about a female game developer receiving harassment, how would we know?  And we do need to know.  We do.  Now, I have a complicated life...a frustrating life...and I don't like to deal with a lot of the drama of the world.  I know others who have a similar mindset and don't want to hear about some tragedy or some new thing to be scared of.  But we NEED to know.  At least in a cursory manner if not in a more indepth one.  Because if we live in a complete bubble, we're going to be left behind by the world and the people around us.

Games news media?  Essential.  Absolutely.  Both for our culture and for us as individuals.

            The game news media plays an important role in video game culture.  Hell, without Kotaku, Retroware TV, or any other game review/news media hub, people might not have ever known about Justin Carmical's tragic death or about the amazing work he tried to do for people.  We wouldn't know about the pros and cons of game consoles, we wouldn't know about the idiocy of companies like EA, the list just goes on.  HOWEVER, there is something that really grinds my gears about all this.  Editorializing.

Without news, a lot less of us would have known.  Even if we didn't want to know about his passing, we did need to know.

            Listen, I editorialize alot.  So do others on the sites I mentioned.  And, honestly, that's not really a big deal.  It can be fun, hearing a difference of opinion or being exposed to an idea that we haven't heard before.  As I've said, all opinions are important.  I actually tend to like editorials, like Ben Yahtzhee's Extra Punctuation or Kotaku's Random Encounters.  However, when we are relying on you to deliver the news...and you deliver an editorial...then we have a problem.

Whether they make you angry or not, an editorial is a clear as day, "this is my opinion" piece.  Just like this blog.  And that's not necessarily a bad thing.  Really, it's not.

            This may just be a personal preference, but every time, every post I see, basically playing Fox News with Nintendo, treating it's recent turn of bad Wii U sales as the end of the world, I get angry.  Because, you're putting either your viewpoint into an article that didn't really need it, because it's news, not an editorial, or you're trying to drum up views by sensationalizing the news.  That's not good.  Anyone who has seen modern news programming knows that they try to scare the ever loving crap out of their audience so they will keep watching...this has even begun to bleed into games media...and I hate it.

            Going back to Nintendo, Kotaku seems to have a particular dislike for it.  Blistered Thumbs had a similar disdain for the Xbox One...now, you're allowed to, in an editorial.  Editorials are basically our opinions put to paper to share.  But we DEPEND on you guys for the news.  We need to know if Dark Souls 2 is gonna be delayed or if the Wii U has lost more 3rd party support.  But what we don't need is all the fear mongering or sensationalism or hatred that gets added in.  Yes, Nintendo has had a bad time with the Wii U.  Know what else had a bad time?  The Gamecube.  What was that succeeded by?  THE WII.  You know, last generation's machine that practically printed money...why do you feel the need to make us believe Nintendo has ended in a NEWS article?

This and the controversy surrounding it?  Yeah, we need to know.  We rely on news.  So, why does so much of that news sound like a thinly veiled editorial?

            Point of all this discussion is that the games news media is a double edged sword.  We need it.  We need it to know if our rights are being suppressed by Congress, Youtube, or if one of our own, like Total Biscuit, are being harassed by an unscrupulous developer, so we can rally together and fight.  We need to know that women are being harassed so that we can tell people to knock that off and hopefully grow as an industry.  We need to know that the Wii U has had crappy sales and that this might affect it's future with other developers.  What we don't need to know is that you think Nintendo is dead, that women gamers are being butthurt, or that the world will end tomorrow if we don't fight SOPA and PIPA.  In news, we need facts...not wild speculation or opinion.  But we're human...so that's almost certainly what we're going to get.  It's almost impossible to divorce our opinions from any piece of news, especially when we're reading it.  And so, we have this eternal conundrum.  Game news media is the sword we use to defend our medium, but also the razor we use to cut ourselves in the bathroom.

            What can be done to solve this problem?  I honestly have no idea.  That's why this is a shorter discussion.  There ISN'T really a solution to this.  I mean, the best I can suggest is that people remember that these news pieces aren't the word of god.  They are biased.  They have people behind them.  So, take them with a grain of salt.  If you can remember that, then perhaps you can whether the promises of net neutrality dying, Nintendo going third party, or the Xbone being the first console to be dead on arrival.  Because these are just speculation...not fact.  And for the games news media, I just have to ask...try not to be Fox News.  Try not to sensationalize things for the sake of views.  Try and think about what you would think reading a news article that you've written.  How it would make you feel.  Don't try to spread anger or fear.  If we're going to grow up as an industry, anger and fear aren't what we need.  Reason, rationality, calm, etc. are.  Passion is grand.  Vitriol is horrific.

The sad thing is that even the article talking about Mario and microtransactions admits this is hearsay and that the talk of this is nothing new.  Then why did you need to report on it and spread anger/fear?

And also, please, know that you don't need to report on everything.  Games news media is like any news media...it feels like if it doesn't have a story, then we won't listen.  Maybe.  But we won't go away either.  We need you...so don't feel like you need to pad out your pages with articles that either don't matter or are just mean spirited.  Perhaps my favorite examples of this are, the Attack on Titan Burgers are disgusting (1, not your call, some of us might like them, 2, Really?  You really had nothing else to report on?) or the random person somewhat affiliated with Nintendo talked about making a microtransaction so that Mario could have a higher jump.  Why do we need to know or care about a hamburger marketed on an anime?  Why should we care about someone spouting rumors who probably has no power to influence what Nintendo says or does?  Answer...we don't and we shouldn't...but news media sites need their views.

Did we really need to know this exists, Kotaku?  I mean, really...you know, a slow news day isn't the end of the world.

            Like I said.  Stay vigilant and take all these "news" articles with a grain of salt.  More often than not, there's a subtext there.  Don't be taken in by it.  It kinda sucks that we, the consumers, have to pick up the slack for a vitriolic or fear mongering media machine, but...we NEED the news.  So, I think for the moment, that's how it has to be.  Maybe in the future it won't be like that.  We can always hope, right?

                             Believe none of what you hear and only half of what you see
                                                                                    -Benjamin Franklin