With the above line, we are up and running. We kicked off with the Ultimate Grudge Match! Game journalists vs. developers. Representatives from Harmonix and Irrational games squared off against reps from one of the biggest websites, Wired.com, and G4 TV. They fielded some of the tough questions and went head to head on the key issues that cause tension between these supposedly related fields.
Overall, we had a good clean match. No one got very mutilated, except for a dislocated toe and one detached retina, but if science has proved anything it’s that these are things we can live without. The panelists sat and took questions, first from the panel’s host and later from the audience. Both sides strangely came to agreement on many of the heated topics, but we saw some decent debates.
One issue that arose is that we in the gaming press are wannabe developers, that we write because we cannot do anything useful in the true gaming world. Patrick Klepek from G4 TV knew where the blame lies. “A lot of people just have a kind of fundamental lack of respect.” Developers feel that writing a review for a game is easy, and that basically a monkey can do our jobs. But, when asked about whether we should be removed entirely, John Drake (from Harmonix) stood up for the press. Once we established that we weren’t eliminating writers physically, John said, “There is something to be said about an unbiased, or relatively unbiased opinion from outside the company.” PR and publicity departments can do something, but we journalists are here to stay.
The question of why Chris Kohler (from Wired.com) is such an asshole came up, but the resulting silence reverberating throughout the room was the panel’s only response. Interestingly, Chris himself also had no comment.
A lot of compromises were made. Both sides generally wished that reviews could afford to be a little more thorough, that journalists could have the time to take a more in depth look at games, that communication could happen more easily between developers and the press, and that developers could afford to have more time to perfect their games.
Overall, one final conclusion was come to. It is press or developers who are responsible for a tension among the various gaming media. It is you, loyal gamers. You with your unrealistic expectations and high standards. You, always demanding more product and more accuracy and better opinions (that last one doesn’t even make sense). At the next PAX perhaps we will see a panel where devs and press join forces to take on the common gamer. Alas though, only time will tell.
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
