Brutal Gamer

Gaming Blogs – Tabloids of the 21st century?

By Zeth - April 9, 2009 - 14:37 UTC - Be first to Comment!

It is a valid question – are the gaming blogs that are sprouting up everywhere (hello!) akin to some kind of dispersed tabloid newspaper? Now, full disclosure time, I write for a gaming blog. I know you’re shocked but I had to be honest here

A was happily sitting outside the gym last night wondering if I could truly be bothered to go inside when I happened upon a post on my Twitter feed from @Naughty_Dog. They were updating from the MI6 talks and most interesting a lot of it was. The thing that caught my eye and got me thinking was the statement they tweeted of “Naughty_Dog interesting to continue to hear the perception that ‘blogs’ are associated with lower quality, less/no fact checking. #mi6″. In their defence they then posted “Naughty_Dog almost sounds like there is trepidation in engaging these new outlets. I don’t believe it’s as perplexing to engage as i’m sensing #mi6″.

Now this leads me to expound on those thoughts. As a fledgling Games Blog we have sent emails and begging letters to most, if not all, major developers and publishers in the UK (as well as parent companies in the US). We have hounded a few more than others but on the most part, when they have responded, they have treated us with courtesy and good grace. We have found though that, and this is not geographically dependant, there is a big difference in the way they engage with us. You would think that the smaller companies would bite your hand off when you say you have a daily unique count of x thousand and so xxx,xxx page views a month right? Well not necessarily. We get mixed involvement from people, some of the larger companies offer the most personable responses. For example we have a great flow of communication with companies like Blizzard, Sega, Ignition, Bizarre Creations and Rockstar – some of the companies you would of thought it hard to get the attention of.

What this blathering leads me to is that we operate at an unknown level to most other media/PR outlets. We are not a crazy fan magazine/club or site. We don’t have the financial clout of a corporate magazine site like IGN or Gamespot/Cnet. What we do have is our ears to the ground and a community of avid followers all deeply passionate about the subject matter.

Now the thought is that, in a bid to clamor for attention, gain credibility and increase our standing/hits, we rush stories out, we buy into, and in turn sensationalize, rumour, we create inflammatory articles to boost our viewing/reader base. Hey a fanboy war kicking off on N4 about one of your posts will blow it to the top of the chart right? Right. All this behaviour seems typical of a grubby tabloid looking to make their 20p a day from you. Pawing at your eyes with ludicrous headlines and slanderous conjecture.

So what is the solution to this problem? Well publishers and developers need to send people down in to the trenches and see which of these so called “specialist” blogs are actually doing the good work. Which sites are reliable and consistently serving the community. Sites like Sarcastic Gamer, Destructoid, Gamercast Network and dozens more are all trying to keep things on a even level. Trying to provide a worthwhile link between the communities that play the games and the people that make them. No other industry has this dynamic and it is both exciting and troublesome. The ability to give and get feedback directly from the end user is a powerful tool for both future marketing and future game development. Some publishers and developers already do a good job of listening to the community (DICE is a prime example! As are Insomniac, Valve and Naughty Dog) and others need to take note of the way these companies interface with their community.

For our part, and I say “our” as in the games “blogging” community we can do our best to just work with the companies willing to embrace this new avenue. We need to put a little more ethical thinking in to the articles and rumours that we run. Sure we can spend each day splashing PSP720 and Xbox900 all over our news pages, but sooner or later your audience will walk away and the high tide of BS posts you once road will leave you face down on the beach with your arse in the air! Deep research is a luxury that we don’t usually get time for (heck we all at BG do this around work, college and life in general!) but it is something that needs to be mulled over. If we can remove this incessant need to be “1st!” all the time then perhaps we can achieve a higher standard. As it is you, yes you dear reader, have the most power of all. You find a site that just talks smack all the time or whose reviews and articles have so many holes in them you could go potholling then walk away (well click anyway). There are plenty of quality Blogs/Game news sites around, we like to think we’re one of them but only time will tell

So, in summary, are gaming blogs the new tabloids? Hummmm, I would say no. At the end of the day we’re not trying to vilify anyone, we are not try to make you “buy” our product. We are just crying out as loud and as best we can in an area that is slowly being swamped in start-ups and “me too” sites tempted by the hope of free games and swag (which you really don’t get btw – trust us on that one!). To the companies I say, give us a chance. We can hand you an ear to teh community and a platform to air your views on. Just don’t expect us to be puppets of the industry (at least most of us!) as we take our responsibilities to our communities very seriously – after all, we are all just gamers at heart.

Want to talk it over more then our writing staff are always around via email, on XBL or PSN, or over in our very own forums.

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