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Ex-Kotaku staff go independent and launch Aftermath

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Re: Ex-Kotaku staff go independent and launch Aftermath

#101

Post by klausa »

AlexandrB wrote: post #72

I find it funny how many comments here complain about the infusion of politics into games media but not one mentions the fact that games media in general is a prime example of "access journalism". Most gaming media outlets live in fear of losing access to pre-release copies of games because it would mean their reviews will lag behind their competitors. This means they go easy on games (the average review score on any…

This is very 2008 understanding of the industry.

Sure, insider access to studios and pre-release games is important to media, but that’s… also the same for movies and books and TV and music publications? And the argument about the scoring is so old and trite. There are so many games coming out nowadays that the bad ones just don’t get the time of the day. Does median score on Pitchfork hover around 5?

But even apart from that, written reviews aren’t the big traffic drivers they used to be. Bits of gameplay narrated by staff, guides, walkthroughs etc, and other commentary are only increasing in how much they matter traffic-wise.

The truth is that for the most part (with notable exceptions) people on both sides of the divide are adults, and nobody is going to blacklist a website because they didn’t like a negative review.

Publishers also generally do not get to influence review scores, the firing of Jeff Gerstmann from GameSpot and subsequent exodus of editorial staff is still An Event that everyone remembers and knows about.

Re: Ex-Kotaku staff go independent and launch Aftermath

#102

Post by jhchabran »

loveparade wrote: post #77
AlexandrB wrote: post #72

I find it funny how many comments here complain about the infusion of politics into games media but not one mentions the fact that games media in general is a prime example of "access journalism". Most gaming media outlets live in fear of losing access to pre-release copies of games because it would mean their reviews will lag behind their competitors. This means they go easy on games (the average review score on any…

Player reviews for games aren't much better, unfortunately. So many games get review bombed for political reasons. It's the Amazon equivalent of "this book sucks because my package was late" but orders of magnitude more frequent. It's nearly impossible to find high quality game reviews.

While I'm not sure I see as much games being review bombed for political reasons in my sources for video game reviews, I strongly agree with you that it's really hard nowadays to find high quality reviews. It's always been bad in mainstream video games medias though, but underdogs that are more open to criticise game tend to not last very long.

The best approach I've found is to become aware of who are writing the reviews I perceive as high quality and simply follow them when they change medias and pay attention to what they communicate about their current position.

Ultimately, the best reviews are almost always coming from sources that have a business model that doesn't rely on ads.

Re: Ex-Kotaku staff go independent and launch Aftermath

#103

Post by TerrifiedMouse »

jchw wrote: post #87
AlexandrB wrote: post #72

I find it funny how many comments here complain about the infusion of politics into games media but not one mentions the fact that games media in general is a prime example of "access journalism". Most gaming media outlets live in fear of losing access to pre-release copies of games because it would mean their reviews will lag behind their competitors. This means they go easy on games (the average review score on any…

I do agree, the bickering about politics is a little silly when you consider just how terrible the actual "journalism" part is. I think there's a general feeling that all journalism has faltered a little bit in the face of the Internet and a 24 hour news cycle, but I'm not even sure video game journalism was ever good . I'm not sure it was ever really 'journalism'. I'll admit I do miss the older generation of video g…

> I'm not even sure video game journalism was ever good

In my youth I read a few PC game magazines. Not sure about the accuracy of the reviews but the people writing them did try to make their reviews as entertaining as possible with jokes and what not.

Sadly, those old magazines are long gone so I can't really go back and re-read them to see if it's just rose-tinted glasses. I don't even remember the magazine name or which country it was from.

Edit: Come to think of it, those reviewers were kind of like Yahtzee (formerly*) of Zero Punctuation fame.

* https://twitter.com/YahtzeeCroshaw/status/172168721254128042...

Re: Ex-Kotaku staff go independent and launch Aftermath

#104

Post by AlexandrB »

jchw wrote: post #87
AlexandrB wrote: post #72

I find it funny how many comments here complain about the infusion of politics into games media but not one mentions the fact that games media in general is a prime example of "access journalism". Most gaming media outlets live in fear of losing access to pre-release copies of games because it would mean their reviews will lag behind their competitors. This means they go easy on games (the average review score on any…

I do agree, the bickering about politics is a little silly when you consider just how terrible the actual "journalism" part is. I think there's a general feeling that all journalism has faltered a little bit in the face of the Internet and a 24 hour news cycle, but I'm not even sure video game journalism was ever good . I'm not sure it was ever really 'journalism'. I'll admit I do miss the older generation of video g…

> I'll admit I do miss the older generation of video game 'journalism' nonetheless. Had its problems, but the thing is, it did feel like people were sharing their genuine and honest opinions as a capital-G "Gamer" more often.

It's important to recognize that the stakes were lower back then. When games cost hundreds of millions to develop and market and are expected to have revenue in the billions bad reviews have the potential to have a massive impact on that revenue.

> You can see this especially in the bizarro way that people have become regressive about sexuality in video games-I'm not really sure how a bunch of people were convinced to go all the way from 90's style "toxic masculinity" to a totally puritanical anti-sexuality stance in such a short period, but I'll be damned, they really managed to do it.

I don't know if I agree. If you look at the most profitable gaming sector - mobile gacha games - some of these games are extremely "horny". But there's also another elephant in the room here that has nothing to do with games journalism: China. I think a lot of content in popular games is toned down so it doesn't run afoul of Chinese regulators. There are examples online[1] of it being done retroactively, but if a game is being developed from day one with the Chinese market in mind, you would never know what was cut to make that happen.

[1] https://old.reddit.com/r/wow/comments/49x7m0/chinese_wow_cen...

Re: Ex-Kotaku staff go independent and launch Aftermath

#105

Post by menacingly »

djur wrote: post #71
menacingly wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Careful, it’s gatekeeping to prefer that your game journalists have ever played a game at all other than when researching for an article. They write like this because it’s how anyone writes on a topic about which they have no experience. If you embed me as a wartime reporter, I’ll talk about the weird food and noise, not what most people reading the article want to read about.

What do you think people reading wartime coverage want to read about?

I don't know. So I will let my 0.0% experience with the topic keep me from writing about it.

Re: Ex-Kotaku staff go independent and launch Aftermath

#106

Post by klausa »

netbioserror wrote: post #80
yoyohello13 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem to care quite a lot...

Are you trying to well-poison "caring" about the scope and quality of entertainment media? What's your aim here? Am I supposed to pretend that total randoms flooding entertainment media with their off-topic pretentious garbage is normal and alright?

Genuine question: what other „entertainment media” are you reading in 2023 that does not contain what you describe as „off-topic pretentious garbage”?

Re: Ex-Kotaku staff go independent and launch Aftermath

#107

Post by tomku »

KoftaBob wrote: post #50

What is it about news media, newsletters, etc that makes them so bad at pricing their subscriptions? When you consider the fact that the average reader will want to read a variety of publications/newsletters about topics, charging $7/month for JUST your news site is, I'm sorry to say, delusional. This isn't to single out Aftermath specifically, I see this kind of thing all over the place. Lots of substack newsletters…

It makes more sense when you consider that many of the journalists who have gone into newsletters are there because they felt that the need to appeal to "average readers" and build a broad customer pool (edit: often at the insistence of their evil bosses) was restricting their genius and that they'd have a better time narrow-casting to a smaller (but more consistently monetizable) fanbase.

Re: Ex-Kotaku staff go independent and launch Aftermath

#109

Post by klausa »

throw4847285 wrote: post #88

It's wild to see the sheer impact of Gamergate on online culture. The fact that this thread is filled with GG talking points baffles me. The level of vitriol for Kotaku specifically made no damn sense, given how diverse the writing staff was. I always interacted with Kotaku the way everybody should interact with a publication: there were some writers I liked, some I didn't, and some clickbait. It declined in quality…

> The level of vitriol for Kotaku specifically made no damn sense, given how diverse the writing staff was.

I think you got the cause and effect backwards here, unfortunately.

Re: Ex-Kotaku staff go independent and launch Aftermath

#110

Post by kevingadd »

imwillofficial wrote: post #18

Ah, the folks from the worst example of journalistic integrity in the last 10 years spinning off to do the same thing? I think I’ll pass.

Kotaku is one of the only game outlets that actually got blacklisted by publishers for negative coverage. What's the integrity violation you're so upset about? I hope it's not a completely made up one like gamergate
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