I love it when games writers get all reflective. Anything that tries to make the craft better can only be a good thing, and the best piece of writing to date is easily Kieron Gillen's New Games Journalism manifesto.
But that doesn't mean all suggestions are equally good. Case in point: Chris from the Artful Gamer's New New Games Journalism Manifesto which attempts to build on Gillen's original idea.
It's a thoughtful, well-written piece, though I almost threw my back out while trying to understand it. In a nutshell, here's Chris's take:
- Old games journalism, which consisted of traditional reviews and pseudo-objective scoring systems, just didn't cut it anymore. This led to...
- Gillen's call for a New Games Journalism (NGJ), which suggested the text should be similar to something a travel writer would produce. It should be about the experience of playing a game, not about bump mapped textures.
- But according to Chris, things went awry, and New Games Journalism just ended up looking a lot like old games journalism, but with a lot of 'I' statements. In other words, it was still saying whether a game was good or bad, but was now a subjective, narcissistic wank.
- Chris's New New Games Journalism (NNGJ) is (I think) an attempt to realise Gillen's original idea. Chris believes this should take the form of a critical discussion of how the game -- and games in general -- intersect with ourselves and society.
But NNGJ, by this definition, sounds like a PhD written in the mid-nineties. It's academic, and seems to have academic intentions, and I can't see how it could be considered a form of journalism, let alone a solution. More importantly, I think Chris either overstates -- or even fabricates -- the flaws of the New Games Journalism movement: just because it hasn't produced cracking pieces of journalism, doesn't mean it needs fixing.
And that's the main problem with Chris's piece. NGJ just isn't broken. It doesn't need replacing. Its message is simple: play a game, be honest with yourself, and articulate the experience. If you articulate it well and your writing resonates with an audience, then you are a good games journalist. Look at anything by Alec Meer on King's Bounty, or Eurogamer's brilliant piece on Pathologic. This is the kind of stuff that can sell games, and it doesn't even need a score.
These pieces may be rare, but the foundation of NGJ is sound. It's about bringing journalism to games, where previously all we had were reviews, and if it does have a flaw, it's that it's still young. Chris's vision of NNGJ, however interesting it may be as a critical tool or academic platform, is a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.
Posts
