The End of Video Game Journalism

by ‪@LegendaryDrops‬ • The death of video gam...
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[@AzweeeL]

IGN saw this video and gave it a 7

[@Lord_Bemo]

nice pfp

[@EFXVoila]

I7N

[@paulharsh78]

Too much water.

[@wojciechkups2914]

I heard IGN gave a 6 to SW Acolyte and I almost spilt my coffee.

[@willslls8901]

They gave your comment a 7.

[@luism8130]

Video game journalism died in 2007 when GameSpot fired Jeff Gerstmann for giving Kane and Lynch a bad review while the website was littered with Kane and Lynch full screen ads and banners.

[@emmettstone9518]

Man, I'm old I actually remember that. You're totally right. I also remember how it affected my thoughts on gaming journalism.

[@sirhc8927]

I remember this.

[@frozenkingdomBM14]

Wow, im old lol. I remember this.

[@jjc5871]

To be fair, that game was awesome.

[@devalue7064]

i believe the internet will be better with the automatic AI search. in 2000's people made guides and other stuff for free and didnt expect any ad revenue out of it. now everything is done sorely for income. this will remove all the low quality stuff from the internet.

[@TheInnocentRabbitofCaerbannog]

Journalists: (does everything possible to make everybody hate them) Also journalists: "Why arent we making money?!"

[@dabalolaa]

It amazed me how much IGN played defence for AC: Shadows, it's so obvious they're hands is on the same ESG/DEI pile and are acting as PR for these games.

[@observer3984]

Ac shadows drama is legit braindead though xd

[@leto_atreusII]

@@observer3984 Not the pricing though...

[@observer3984]

@@leto_atreusII every AAA game is 80€ though and the expensive editions have a 40€ season pass with 3 expansions, which is tbh a normal price nowadays I'd just settle for the subscription, cancel and play the game for a month, it gets you the highest edition lol

[@leto_atreusII]

@@observer3984 If you take it laying down that's on you sub. 🤷

[@McCheese-xc9ig]

If you're a journalist and worried about being replaced by AI, then you're not really a journalist.

[@Jkaninteangemittnamn]

Depends on the ower - He thinks he can make "same" or slightly worse content to the fraction of spendings and he belives the wiever wont care .The owner are already sceening all content anyway and acts like a gatekkeeper .An Ai makes his work easier he belives instead of that one that want parent leave

[@Alexander_Sannikov]

from my pov, a steam review from a user who put 150h into the game is at least 10x more valuable than a review of a journalist why played for 15h

[@ChuddAnon]

Whoa there buddy. What do you mean 15 hours? Slash that by half 😅

[@worldspam5682]

15h already enough for single-player titles. The problem is that they spend less than an hour.

[@stankobarabata2406]

To be completely fair and to play devil's advocate, Steam reviews are shite lol. People hijack and abuse them for pretty much anything, from point farming, to trolling, to misinformation for mischief's sake, to meme reviews that don't really say anything like "here's a post of a cat" farming for more points and replies. Not to mention how some gamers get salty and review bomb games over practically nothing. I don't trust either side, I trust what I see via video footage.

[@Ghorda9]

@@stankobarabata2406 all it takes is to read the reviews, it's pretty easy to tell if you could take them seriously or not

[@stankobarabata2406]

@@Ghorda9 That's not my point but whatever.

[@junkanoopunch]

They aren't journalists, they are activists.

[@dishmanw]

Plus they aren't critical thinkers. They say that JK Rowling is anti-trans, but they don't know why. They are taking someone else's word. They are the new religion, "Listen and Believe" or "Listen and Obey".

[@traincore1955]

They remind me a blog. Blogs have been outdated for a decade now. Same goes for gaming journalists. Literally no one cares.

[@SpocksBro]

Even worse, they are "Murxists" of the "everything is political" kind which is why politics is shoved into everything nowadays. Got to "wash them brains"!

[@Chopzi11a]

Synonymous terms really

[@Linkwii64]

Exactly.

[@Silversmith70]

Its like the journalists have weird agendas that aren't just gaming. I don't listen to them at all and I used to.

[@Tina-mt9cl]

Go research Mao's Cultural Revolution and the Soviet Union. This all makes sense after understanding the same has happened in the past in different places.

[@SoldierICEsnake]

I don't like IGN right

[@bobbythorton7693]

Journalist that work for companies are now corrupt or have a agenda.

[@gggamer3851]

Once apon a time a man in germany named Addolf used journalism to turn the entire country against jews. And it worked​@Tina-mt9cl

[@alexandercastleberry480]

Everyone is using that word wrong. Journalists don’t have an agenda. If the person does have an agenda then they are not journalists. They would be propagandists.

[@erenmos]

Their only job was talk about video games, and they failed, they dont deserve this job

[@Jabarri74]

Making up their own narrative to sell their BS to customers that don't exist

[@strategygaming5830]

Kinda like when speedrunners bring up politics and it’s just delusional gross takes and then you realize this person isn’t good because they are smart. Just trying to watch someone be really good at a game not have the worst takes.

[@phyxion123]

The cabal push these extremists that dont even like gaming just pushing their agenda forward for this exact reason. They entice the studios to go along with it with ESG scores and when the radicals get in there they gatekeep job postitions further excelling the problem. This cycle is happening all over in many industries, most notably big tech. Meanwhile society is blatantly steam rolling downhill, life is getting more difficult for everyone as everything is on fire and they are so wrapped up in their extremism they dont even notice or care they are causing the problems.

[@Bazonkaz]

This is the only answer

[@protercool8474]

​@@strategygaming5830 can I get some examples? I'm not even a little bit into the speed running scene, so I've never seen this

[@Pat7713]

Unbiased game journalism died with TotalBiscuit.

[@Ghorda9]

we still have Yahtzee

[@AvionInfinity]

Totalbiscuit was great, but he was in no way unbiased.

[@dpng6573]

Jeff gerstmann is still a threat

[@kkplx]

TB was also compromised by that point. It's good he died before he could taint his legacy more than he was already doing at that point.

[@PsypherWolf]

He wasn't unbiased, he was an EA apologist.

[@properwaffles]

You can’t make people like things, and you shouldn’t get offended when they don’t like what you make. Cream rises to the top. Bitching about someone else’s end product isn’t going to make your turd float.

[@bluemoondm8629]

The problem there is you're talking about market capitalism and most of the "journalists" are die hard Marxists or at least hardcore Socialists that don't believe in the concept of the best product succeeding in a competitive market. All they see are power structures and oppressed/oppressor dynamics (not that those things don't ever exist, but they are not the reason for everything.)

[@davidfletcher369]

Words to live by, well said.

[@warren1078]

Randy savage, is that you?

[@kennymichaelalanya7134]

Properwaffles. Put your comment on a shirt. Great comment.

[@OM3GA-Z3RO]

The moment Game Journalists lost their veil was the moment that they and game devs celebrated TotalBiscuits death.

[@adrixshadow]

A Legend R.I.P.

[@pointfrogg]

Wow that's beyond fucked up. Then again the greats always have the most hate. ALWAYS ONLINE = DO NOT BUY! RIP TotalBiscuit. Gone but not forgotten.

[@NuchiAsaki]

He was more deserving of the title of journalist than any of them. Including non-gaming-journalists.

[@Quasiguambo]

You surely can't hold the actions of a tiny minority of people against an entire industry of work. Be reasonable.

[@defaultname7685]

@@Quasiguamboreally generous talking about them like they’re a serious industry lol

[@ruxandragp]

To sum up the problem: Games journalists = People who are not gamers, therefore are motivated by anything other than providing a genuine service to gaming communities

[@bobbobber4810]

And smaller sites which try to get into game journalism get bullied by the big one for saying things the big one wouldn't say. So we end up with just the big bad one.

[@ruxandragp]

@@bobbobber4810 absolutely!

[@user-er1fs3je4x]

Tbh, gamers don't deserve quality journalism, we ruined it for ourselves. In every game I've followed, the journalists that stand their ground and have actual journalistic integrity get pushed out of the scene, made into the "enemies" and ridiculed on reddit by people with room temp IQ. At least from a CS, LoL perspective - gamers are a crying bunch who don't deserve good journalism.

[@gecgoodpasi1654]

@@user-er1fs3je4x yet games like LoL/CS actually have amazing third party websites for any kind of information a gamer would need about the game ... we dont need journalists we got hardcore nerds that do a way better job anyway. For anything game related there is like atleast 10 decent youtubers covering it if its a major game the difference is those youtubers actually play the game instead of a journalist that just pretends.

[@warllockmasterasd9142]

so by your definition if you are not a football player, you cannot write about football?

[@crashzone6600]

Only took 10 years. It was the Gamers Are Dead article that did it for me. When you start saying to not cater to the audience and instead push an ideology, im checking out. I dont think games journalism is dying though, i think the mainstream is dying, and we are moving to personalities we like and trust on youtube. Upper Echelon for instance, is my favorite example.

[@spawn9129]

Those articles was such a wake up call.

[@fillerbunnyninjashark271]

Gamers aren't the customer or audience... If you were the customer, they wouldn't call you a consumer

[@senormarston]

This comment should be pinned. Yeah, mainstream journalism doesn't worth a nickle and there are way better independent content creator informing people and the people are always controlling if they don't sell themselves

[@crashzone6600]

@@fillerbunnyninjashark271 what you are trying to voice is the argument about the modern audience, and that isn't an actual audience, because it is an audience that they want not one that actually exists or will exist. It is the industries idealized projection for what they want, however, the actual audience will always be the people that buy and play the games, which will never be their idealized audience. This is why suicide squad failed. This is why studios keep going out of business, or shut down, because they fail to sell their games, because they went for the imaginary modern audience, instead of trying to cater to people that would play their games. You cannot force a monopoly in the gaming industry, to ignore what the customer wants, when it is too easy to make an indie game who will actually give people what they want. There are too many examples of a single man in his basement producing a game that is better recieved and makes more profit than a game that a AAA studio can produce.

[@richardhunter9779]

You can even do better than UE. He is super into manufactured moral panics, not the kind of guy you want to put your trust into.

[@godman5191]

A saying my grandfather told me hits true when I listen to asmongold. “The worst curse I can think of is to be intelligent enough to know there is a problem and also smart enough to know there isn’t anything you can do to fix it.”

[@leojohn1615]

oof I feel like i live that everyday im not going to lie.

[@WrensthavAviovus]

The least stressed people either are ignorant about what is going wrong in their world or a person who knows what they can and cannot change.

[@benh8657]

That cuts deep.

[@nickchapman3199]

I don’t visit video game publications sites for 2 reasons: one is that webpage advertising has become so insanely aggressive it makes the website unusable. The other reason is simply that the content on KZbin is far better.

[@luizmonad777]

That means they're dying. adverting agressive is sure smoke signal

[@SIPEROTH]

I avoid them even on KZbin.

[@MrLolguy93]

Press S to spit on grave

[@kyled.7748]

I'd rather press P instead

[@applesnpears9828]

Game journalist who was hurt by your comment: "Here's why the spit emote is bad, and why it should be removed"

[@nlomano444]

@@applesnpears9828 wow: removes /spit emote when targeting player. me: immediately creates macro to /point /spit

[@luminousparadox7529]

S 😂

[@luminousparadox7529]

​@@applesnpears9828 double S 😂

[@Vearette]

For me it was Hogwarts Legacy. When the majority of outlets pretended it didn't exist (I think IGN did post a review with disclaimers) it finished off what little time I spent reading their articles. It showed they were more interested in "the message" than focusing on their job.

[@stanislavkimov2779]

While the game is actually very "woke". Crazy.

[@acnash27]

It was the same with Kingdom Come Deliverance. That game got zero coverage in mainstream games media because their developers stood up against the woke mob who cried about zero diversity in their authentic medieval experience.

[@JDJ1213]

TotalBiscuit was right. Never forget,

[@OccamAsylum]

he'd be having a field day.. an FOV day even.

[@InternetHydra]

TotalBiscuit couldn't even tell us if traps were gay or not.

[@yous2244]

What was he right about?

[@themidnightaristocrat]

@@InternetHydra Andrew Tate just told us that they aren't. It's settled/

[@V4Now]

​@@themidnightaristocrat so it is totally gay.👍🏿

[@Rivershield]

I miss game magazines. I remember when DMC4 was announced, there was an article in a magazine called Game Power specifically about how hot the girls looked. "There's no point in good graphics if the girls aren't hot, and DMC 4 understands this universal thruth very well." It's wild to think that the person who wrote this was a game journalist.

[@Brotelho]

The internets golden age is over and now controlled by corporate interests. Makes no sense spending time cruising the net anymore. Back to spending more time with hobbies and socializing.

[@protoroc]

Le sigh the late 90s internet was a wild frontier compared to now.

[@id9504]

Gaming journalism actually died at least 12 years ago with the Mass Effect 3's ending scandal and all the big gaming outlets calling gamers entitled and defending Bioware as one. This is where the first cracks started to appear and it became obvious that there was something deeper going on. Mass Effect 3 was a prequel to what was coming in 2014. Some people may have been too young to remember, but those of us who are old enough remember everything very clearly. Get your history right, kids.

[@megalonoobiacinc4863]

i dig ancient history like this, gotta look into it.

[@osier769]

Forgot about that. I was late to play it, the gamers were right. Also, the gaming industry itself is part to blame for pressuring journalists to write favourable reviews, or risk being cut off.

[@lorecow88]

It was even earlier than that. The Resident Evil 5 "controversy" is the first big instance I can think of, and some of the discourse around Duke Nukem Forever definitely counts.

[@megalonoobiacinc4863]

@@lorecow88 depends on 'how much' you include into 'what'. Geniuses of the time blamed the columbine shooting on Doom, that got a lot of media traction. Yeah, a game about shooting imps and pinkies!

[@rakedos9057]

A game where choices matter, except for the endings where the different endings were just a color change of the same cinematic. Yep I remember that one.

[@ggadams639]

Its crazy because 20 years ago, people bought magazines and it was exciting to see people talking about video games and giving more personal advices and tests. Now there is nothing personal, it's the opposite of what people wants

[@Hyde_Lawrence]

The world is very different now, why the fuck would you care about a "more personal advice" if you can watch a video and get your own idea of the thing you wanna buy, unless you are a kid with no personality and need someone to tell you how good is the new ubisoft game

[@glenmcl]

Gaming went mainstream then got hijacked by actvists. Gaming was better 20 years ago

[@shaneriggs6678]

​@@glenmclthat is true, I'm still confused about why they allowed themselves to be infected by activist, people used to blame video games for mass shootings and violence but a few annoying vocal activist types complaining about misogyny and bigotry managed to kneecap themselves and driving their audience away from their series to appeal to a audience that doesn't exist, are ESG scores and loans really that tempting to be willing to lose their audience in the long term future for a few loans?

[@TwistdTrip]

@@glenmcl Yes

[@bengreenbank]

Those magazines were also full of paid reviews

[@edumalafaia11]

Stellar Blade was a perfect example, in the past the journalist would only review the game and probably make some jokes about the character body being so juicy. They would never behave like a puritan from 17th century making the Studios change their work ( and ironicaly the left/woke are the puritan ones today)

[@mramisuzuki6962]

Seriously they would put the arcade/fighting/ARPG guys(well some are a girl now) to review fan service games like this; Stellar Blade, DMC, Dynasty Warriors, etc.

[@Darth_Bateman]

Yeah, it was and you know who is next after games journalists? The reactionaries who prop up Stellar Blade and shit on Hades 2 because "Hestia doesn't look like that!" and then try to do the SAME thing far lefties are doing with Harry Potter and then try to pretend Hades is a bad game. What I appreciate about Asmongold is : Well, dude could be described as sitting on a fence , but he just loves games and respects people.

[@aunderiskerensky2304]

have you ever noticed the only women who complain about the 'juicy bodies' are the furthest from it?

[@brianestrada1993]

Ironically they are puritans like the conservatives they hate since they all are crazy leftist activists.

[@GrimnirsGrudge]

@@aunderiskerensky2304 Sloppy bodies complaining about juicy bodies. Not shocked. Jealousy is a big driver of human emotions.

[@PristineTX]

Games journalism was already breaking up in 2007-2009. Everybody thought Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) and the 1Up Network were just printing money, remember? After all, they had all the “superstar gaming journalists” (like Seanbaby, Jeremy Parrish, Jane Pinckard, Ryan O’Donnell, Garnett Lee, Shane Bettenhousen, Dan “Shoe” Hsu, Luke Smith Jeff Green and John Davison, among many others) that were all portrayed as gaming celebrities. They supposedly had massive KZbin audiences for shows like “The 1UP Show” and “1UP Yours.” But the truth was, they were not. Even before Hearst Corporation bought them, and then started dismantling them, it was starting to unravel two years before, in 2007. When Luke Smith famously left to shill for Bungie full-time, the bleeding had already started. When Hearst Corporation bought them, the truth was undeniable. It was all a scam. It was all hype. It was over-staffed and losing money. It had all been propped up to sell. When the 1Up Network died, and most of the “star journalists” that were smart enough had scurried as as fast as possible NOT TO FIND NEW “JOURNALISM” JOBS, but instead to “sell out” and become official professional shills for all the big software companies and franchises, the myth of the value and integrity of “games journalism” should have been destroyed. Gamergate should have never happened, because the conclusion that “games journalism is dead” should have been reached seven years prior.

[@Mbeluba]

Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. I guess game enthusiasts proved they aren't fools, because the second time was met with serious backlash. Also, gamergate wasn't really about games. It was a symptom of brewing culture war. It happened because it gaming was the easiest point to burst in the tense cultural baloon. Pressure escaped through gamergate, but source of the pressure was deeper.

[@Eric-uy7ee]

Don't forget Gerstmangate was also late 2007.

[@Mbeluba]

@@Eric-uy7ee gamergate has started in 2014, what are you talking about?

[@flarpman2233]

@@Mbeluba Jeff Gerstman, he was sacked from Gamespot after handing out a bad review for Kane and Lynch in 07 while the website was utterly plastered in advertisements for said game.

[@FireEatingNinja]

Go off king. Gamer Gate was about this. It was corrupt journalists. It had nothing to do with women in gaming, even a little. It was a journalist that happened to be a woman in a serious conflict of interest (Sleeping with developer of game reviewed - not mentioned in the review). The entire narrative flipped and it became about "gamers hate women" when that wasn't even on the table. That's when I knew gaming journalism was over. Everyone fell in line. Glad to see a reckoning coming. GGNORE.

[@askel6498]

Video game journalism killed video game journalism...wait...does that count as suicide?

[@TheKkkeeennnnnnyyy]

This, most haven't been journalists in years, they've been activists pushing agendas

[@dani.2479]

Could count as friendly fire

[@mike9444]

It's cannibalism

[@SludgeBob_]

The Woke World War

[@paulw5039]

I heard you on the wireless back in '52 Lying awake intent at tuning in on you If I was young it didn't stop you coming through (Oh-a-oh)

[@FadingMemories]

Seems like Gamer Gate landed the first blow on them and then instead of trying to recover they double, triple, quadrupled down and wallowed in the mud for years on end, shedding more and more of their actual audience. Can't say I'm sad to see them go.

[@littlebee7147]

It's not really GG. Journalism as a whole has been on decline ever since the advent of the internet giving free news. The smarter ones have long since realized that they can make their own platform and make money their own way and not be in an established institution. And that's what is happening now - people get their news from youtubers because companies leak stuff to them. Heck some marketing peeps gift subs on livestreams if it helps push their brand. So the people still sitting on these old websites aren't really doing much journalism at all. Since the sites are consolidated, you'll see a lot of shared information among these journalists which is pretty useless to the average consumer. In the end, a journalist is only worth the weight of his sources. All the sources for these jounalists pretty much dried up.

[@michaelreid5307]

Who remembers the days in the late 90s / early 2000s when you go into a newsagent and see row upon row of computer and computer-related magazines? Those were the days.

[@Jim-o4t]

Oh yea, I had pc gamer, and several others coming to the house on a month subscription.

[@mantraki]

I dont cuz I wasn't alive back then haha, could you describe it to me?, I'm actually curious about

[@iam16bits]

Yep I was subscribed to Nintendo Power and Game Informer.

[@iam16bits]

@@mantraki So even though the internet existed, the best and most accurate way to get info was in magazines. Back then there were tons of them. You had ones that covered everything like Electronic Gaming Monthly and Game Informer, cheat magazines such as Tips & Tricks or platform specific magazines like Nintendo Power, PC Gamer and Official PlayStation Magazine. But they were more than just news, you could write to them and have your letter/email and fanart published. There were reviews, interviews, guides and even comics. Yep game magazines were something special at a time when gaming was niche and being a gamer wasn't exactly cool.

[@Tchud]

@@mantraki You would go into a Babbage's (they don't exist anymore) or Gamestop and pick up to a dozen gaming magazines, all talking about video and PC games. Nothing else. Full articles, photos, release dates and reviews. Not so much anymore. Now it's all woke or political commentary with nothing to do with gaming.

[@young-salt]

Modern journalism as a whole is mostly, like 99%, just copy paste with the only variation being in what's actually reported and that depends entirely on your echo chamber

[@dimfre4kske67]

No dude the people who killed video game journalism is video game journalists. Remember the coordinated "Gamers are dead" articles of 2014? They let gamers know that they were no longer writing articles for them and so the gamers mostly moved away from the VG news sites and went to YT.

[@Discombobulate453]

Game Journalism hit its peak for me during the days of buying PlayStation Magazine and getting a free demo disc.

[@Wayfarer45]

I fucking miss those days so much. Those little black discs were nearly indestructible lol

[@narcodium]

I remember Xbox magazine had a demo of ninja gaiden that literally tripled the games sales

[@NefashusLP]

I remember getting a Stronghold demo disk and I loved this game so much that I bought the full game later when I had enough pocket money. Good times!

[@seminolewind158]

True

[@speizzer]

Actually the only Playstation discs that survived in my stash ​@@Wayfarer45

[@Dinglberries]

They did it to themselves...

[@admirajachas8058]

By making shitty articles

[@Maruun1986]

Stop calling them journalists, it is like calling a snake a dragon. Just like dragons , journalists have become a myth. It has the same dirty taste like "expert" for me.

[@drzerogi]

Activists is a more appropriate term

[@chunkygiblets4678]

"Journalism" is just an old-world word for blogging. They are sponsored bloggers. If you want to piss them off say you only respect reporters and aren't interested in their diaries.

[@KonglomeratYT]

No. I don't do what bossy strangers demand. They're journalists, and they're terrible. Journalists are terrible. I'll call a snake a dragon too idgaf. XD Then I will claim to be a dragon expert.

[@sash7831]

To be honest it’s just not the way people want to consume media anymore. Also anytime I try to read a video game article it’s always badly formatted for phone and has so many pop up ads I can barely read the article. Not to mention a lot of the time the ads are so bad they make the article unreadable due to blocking the text.

[@luigymendoza]

I remember looking forward to read reviews in many of these sites, see their top 10s, see their videos wrapping up the year. Man, I miss those times, around 2010-2013. In that time, they could give a game I liked a 5/10 but it felt genuine, they had valid reasons to dislike a game. Now, I can even predict what certain sites will say about a game. It's sad.

[@Real-Hawk]

Who else here hates when you want to look up something simple, you see tons of articles that are really long and explain a whole backstory and all contain the same information while the answer could have been provided with 3 words?

[@Lazydino59]

I’ve gone from using google to using AI (Microsoft copilot) and it has been 10x better, would definitely recommend

[@andrewgreeb916]

Well when ya use a game guide you expect the guide to include all the steps for the section before the one you are at, so not really. Now if the guide was one page with no links to sections or chapters then yes, that is bad.

[@Real-Hawk]

@@andrewgreeb916 I was not talking about guides. Read the first line I wrote: Looking up something simple.

[@dwood1149]

It’s true. IGN is the worst - “go around the last tree, go west three steps then up the hill into the field then over there you’ll see the chest by the bush” WTF?

[@railerswim]

I just want to vent about it here but this is a big thing with finding recipes lol. Two page freaking article on the history of Mac and cheese, and I just want the recipe lol

[@JeyDeee89]

We have journalism... it's KZbinrs + Steam Reviews + Gameplayvideos from YTers

[@Gutvald]

Steam reviews can be bought, like youtubers and streamers. They are not better than journalist, and pretend to be your friend.

[@zachb8012]

Exactly. People are just relying on more decentralized sources for analysis of games, current events, etc. Eventually they'll go through the same cycle of losing the trust of their audience and the audience moving elsewhere as individuals succeed and die out. It makes a lot of sense. Look how much easier it is to broadcast analysis than it was when IGN and Kotaku were founded, you don't need a site with thousands of users, you need a couple hundred viewers that directly give you money to effectively do what Kotaku needed an entire office for 10 years ago.

[@notYisan]

game journalist =/= game activist we have many game activist but little to none game journalist.

[@Chopzi11a]

They are synonymous at this point

[@Alticroo]

@@Chopzi11a I think what he's saying is that we need to put effort into distinguishing them again. Call them out for what they are. Make a SBI detected style and keep an external track record of bad acting "journalists"

[@dx-ek4vr]

@@Alticroo Problem is, the venn diagram between games journalists and games activists is almost a perfect circle by this point

[@FlyinggMushroom]

Who tf types =/= anymore lmao

[@FlyinggMushroom]

Game journalism != game activism. There I fixed it

[@NeoN-PeoN]

If game journalism is important, as you say it is, then this is the first step to correcting the problem. We currently do NOT have game journalism. We have paid sponsorships and activism. It needs to fall apart before real journalism has any shot.

[@seanb4380]

TBH actual Journalism hasn’t been a thriving thing for years. Real Journalistic work is a rare, tough and sometimes dangerous thing. Sure actual games Journalism should exist but we haven’t had it for a long time. It died long before this advertising “Journalism” started to be replaced by AI so celebrating this dying is only a good thing imo.

[@PeWpwNizZleE]

what a surprise that shit were you google for "how do i find x" you click a link that says "thats how you find x" and then you land on a site with the headline THATS HOW YOU FIND IT, followed by a 100 word intro about some bullshit, followed by another 200 words on some other bullshit hinting that they are about to tell you how to find it, yet another 200 words later they still have not told you how to find it dies out

[@TheMasterblah]

I love it when they spend the first couple paragraphs explaining what the game is as if you aren't already playing it, and then tell you what platforms the game is available on

[@andrewgreeb916]

To be fair I prefer guide pages that are thorough with a bit of humor, this does mean you will have to skim through a lot of things you already did to get to x, but they are often a fun read anyways

[@emultra759]

'99-'05 golden age of internet. 2012-2016 golden age of Google.

[@jalexander6885]

Every recipe site is like this now. Weed through a tapping novel before you get the recipe.

[@ralphbeez1411]

@@jalexander6885 It's Search Engine Optimization, look it up, once you notice it, you'll find it everywhere...

[@classicviolence]

Games Journalism died when that lady slept for review scores and the industry blamed gamers when everything leaked. That and the Kane and Lynch fiasco.

[@xXxUrbanNinjaxXx]

Facts about Kanye and lynch

[@slckb0y65]

"the death of corpo shills" there, corrected the title for you

[@new-bp6ix]

The best method of honest Video Game Journalism is to watch gamers play the game in front of you on KZbin and there is a good gamers Who give details on the story and why the map design, monsters, etc. are great

[@Sliider36]

That Park Place & Niche Gamer are the only gaming journalism sites that dare to report & write against the approved narrative. they're both based af. highly recommended. they arent afraid to say what we as gamers are all thinking. but those are the only two exceptions ive found.

[@Sliider36]

39:00 40:09 - End

[@ionseven]

Access media is the problem. They will say whatever companies want in exchange for perks and access. Journalism died when companies were permitted to buy them as ad hoc PR and advertising extensions.

[@Zunedoodle77]

Yep. Warren Buffett used the early 90's/2000's to consolidate normal news media. IGN is taking cues from him and doing the same to gaming media.

[@shaneriggs6678]

I believe that activist kinda killed that strategy, it doesn't actually work out buying them if nobody cares about or listen to their opinions on the game movie or series

[@CatSidheNekoko]

I'd argue that it's just the slow death of journalism and games journalism is just the first layer being not only entertainment based news, but one that has lost all credibility for ten years. Breaking gaming news these days is all from leaks, hacks or the devs themselves. Gaming sites can just run a AI writer over the leaked twitter/reddit threads or the dev news release and be done. I didn't even get onto the IDpolitics stuff. The writing was just on the wall even without it.

[@CatSidheNekoko]

A good example of this is the Dawntrail Media Tour for FFXIV. Yoshida personally met with dozens of youtubers and twitch streamers to answer questions. News sites got crumbs by comparison. The producers and devs marketing teams know gaming news websites don't have any clout or eyes on them, especially post new Google search functions.

[@GullyFootTony]

Gaming journalists constantly hate on gamers & wonder why Gaming journalism is dying 🤷🏾‍♂️

[@ventusToonz]

Have you ever been on any of these websites for finding certain items or something. Usually you need 3 lines and maybe a map but they use a full 3000 word essay talking about everything and anything other than just how to get it till the very end and about 5 ads inbetween the paragraphs too, its ridiculous

[@KonglomeratYT]

You can blame google for the length. SEO favors long things. You need to repeat the keywords as much as possible. Setting up a YT video's metadata works the exact same way.

[@MrElite19]

Been watching your videos for about a year now. I enjoy your dialogue and takes. I’m excited to see where you will take your channel. Thanks for the entertainment and for all the effort. (You and the editors 🤣)

[@liquiddude9855]

It sucks how most content creators cant say what is obvios because they are afraid to get canceld by the woke crowd.

[@luminousparadox7529]

Thankfully asmond don't need that dirty money. But I honestly think he'd be just as honest otherwise. Man understands straight unbiased logic.

[@Kevin-mx4vm]

Everyone nose it.

[@glens2019]

I already follow folks that try to dance around the obvious as much as they can until its too hard to ignore. Especially around the time of the Saints Row reboot.

[@a.nonimus6705]

It's not just content creators. It's not just gaming. The whole of western society has been taken hostage by the woke crowd. Everyone in the public eye is terrified of the woke crowd, and the woke movement uses that terror to push a political agenda. Look up the definition of the word "terrorism". It is literally what the woke are doing to our society

[@lorecow88]

The damn will burst eventually. It's just unfortunate that a lot of people had to stick their necks out to say the obvious and get the ball rolling.

[@CrimsonFIame]

Tells me game journalist failing is bad for me and then starts with Paul Tassi one of the journalist who thinks and acts like your typical Kotaku Journalist. Here's the thing I get what he's saying but the ones whose input actually does more positive than negative tends to get overshadowed by those who push their agenda's over gaming

[@KeytarArgonian]

Yeah Tassi gets it right 1/10 times for me. Erik Caine is also progressive but at least he’s honest, genuine and will call out the obvious bullshit from both sides, including when companies are scummy or diversity is clearly forced.

[@rclaws3230]

​@@KeytarArgonianI respect Erik Caine. I feel like we could disagree violently about politics but then go for a beer with no hard feelings.

[@bluemoondm8629]

@@rclaws3230 Yep I'm subbed to Erik's youtube channel (have his initial video on the Acolyte open in another tab) and I have about 75/25 agree/disagree split with him. But even when there is disagreement you can see the common ground there most of the time.

[@shadow12k]

The fact that there’s still media people misinforming people about gamergame is why game journalism is failing.

[@F1rstNameLastName]

Agreed, even the entire Wikipedia page for gamergate is bs and pushes an agenda.

[@moretriflenowplz1837]

I google labs when I have a problem in game and I'm told how to solve it in seconds without going to a spyware hive website where you have to accept a bunch of tracker cookies to read a bunch of nonsense you didn't ask for and then get a half answer making you search again.. Game articles about problems are more ads hiding in nothing pretending to be something.

[@Alexander_Sannikov]

whenever i see a metacritic game that scored 60% from journalists and 90% from gamers, i know it's a phenomenal game, because the critics just don't get it, it's too edgy and offensive for them, but players love it. this always happens when a new genre-defining game appears, you can always trust the journalists to miss its point.

[@kurisu100]

In the beggining they had no competition , and many "journalists" thought , this is an easy job. Then the real gamers came ...

[@mdubleyew7924]

0:01 "Do you know who killed video game journalism? Me" 😂😂😂😂

[@saraceaser]

IGN/Kotaku/etc: This video gets a 7.5/10 not made for ''''modern audiences''''

[@serijas737]

When something is good in the short term for the consumer, but bad on the long run, some very rich individuals have planned it to be that way all along. Because their end goal is to remove the consumer for secured revenue.

[@samuelelias5115]

As a psychology student, one thing one of my teachers used to tell me a lot is that "Nobody sees nothing. You can't see what doesn't exist." He would say in relation to these type of things where yeah there is nuance, yes people exaggerate and misinterpret signals, yadda yadda, but usually, if you sense something, there is something there. If your instincts tell you something is bad, there is a reason for that, there might not be a good reason, but there is a reason.

[@SudoYETI]

Games jounalism, and really journalism in the broader sense, has been replaced by small independent people. Asmon's opinion of a game has more weight than all of the game review sites combined because I'm aware of who he is, what games he likes, and his past reviews. This USED to be true of the others but instead of moving to KZbin and putting a face to a name, it's just some article on a website. ADDITIONALLY because of the nature of youtube, I can go back and look at his opinion of ANY game to get an idea of whats important to him. For instance, I wouldn't put a lot of weight behind an FPS/BR/MOBA review from Asmon, because that's not typically his genre of game. How we do know that? Because we can see what games he plays because he streams them. I don't have the same intimate knowledge of a reviewing on IGN. Reminds me of the review of Doom 2016 when whoever the heck was playing was absolutely terrible at FPS games. Why should I put ANY weight into that reviewers opinion when they can barely play the game? You can extrapolate that same sentiment out to basically almost every journalist there is. Their opinion is basically meaningless.

[@andrewgreeb916]

The issue is that journalists are a bunch of people running around trying to do many stories at once, while an independent person only has to do the stories they know stuff on. Then there is the ideologically captured journalism issue...

[@37Kilo2]

I think it started going downhill as gaming as a hobby became more mainstream, as opposed to niche audiences. I remember when gaming was frowned upon, as gamers were seen as nerds, losers, etc. Now nearly everybody plays games of some sort. As a result, it became lucrative to shill.

[@DrDoctorDr]

Nobody ever frowned upon those who played games. People frown upon the sweaty asmongold follower types - this has not changed you just have a place to gather now and only see the voice of similar sweaty fans.

[@JadeOP100]

"Normal ppl dont read articles" EXACTLY aint nobody got time for THAT! 😂

[@chunkygiblets4678]

2014: "Gamers don't need to be your audience anymore." 2024: "Save us, Gamers!" Is there a single redeeming thing about them? No, there isn't. Nothing of value will be lost and they deserve far worse.

[@HasturYellowSign]

Journalism isn’t dying. It’s on KZbin and twitch

[@heyher_the_odd]

The beginning of the end started almost a decade ago. It's just a REALLY long beginning...

[@jeremesmith9266]

Who would have thought that gaming journalists (political activist writers who never made it to DC) shitting on their audience wouldn’t work out?

[@saiyansnake]

Maaaaaaaaan I remember back in the day before smart phones, when I used to *PRINT* videogame reviews from Game Spot, and IGN to *READ* while taking a shit at school LMAO!

[@skeeplebop]

Core memories right there.

[@drumjod]

I enjoy hearing the different voices on IGN video podcasts, particularly Gamescoop! Definitely noticed a rare moment or two where a voice who otherwise consistently presents genuine takes did seem to hold back in a situation where he'd previously called out this type of bias on a previous occasion. Happy to hear a little support for some of the personalities at IGN, because I've seen countless brutally honest takes that were in opposition to a recent IGN article which had sparked controversy at that time. Also, as a regular viewer of at least half of IGN's main video podcasts (I watch them on YT), I see them highly recommending fairly obscure indie games constantly. But these always seem to be indie games they genuinely had a great time with, not just random junk that is unknown. Even to the point where the vast majority of those indie games are games that don't appeal to me (or most viewers probably,) but it's clear that person really loved it. When someone intelligently presents a genuine perspective that I initially disagree with, that's usually more interesting than hearing someone echo what I already think. That happens really often on "Gamescoop!", and even on "NVC" (where most think BotW and TotK are the best thing since sliced bread.) Over time, it becomes clear that there are some personalities who are better at presenting their perspective than others, at least in a way that appeals to me. Ultimately, I'm just grateful that IGN continues to amplify voices of the different people who work there, especially when they disagree with each other and spark a great back and forth about it. PS: I enjoyed Asmongold's take on this one a lot. Definitely an upvote from me.

[@RenHeika]

This was just proven right when every outlet gave concord a 7.

[@canihave1dab724]

This all started with race and gender baiting articles from kotaku like a decade ago. Then slowly every other game journo website replaced all their good writers with dei hires and like minded weirdos. Luckily, steam reviews and KZbin channels exist or we’d be drowning in propaganda still

[@michaelchiasson2927]

Game Jounrnalist: stares at gamers "You turned them against me!" Gamers: "You have done that yourself."

[@5kyX0]

weaponized virtue signaling and monetization is rabid level wild now for creators of any kind. The moment that cancelling became a tool, being an artist is like living in a glass house at all times.

[@Coltron666]

Journalism is supposed to be objective truth. Not opinion. Unfortunately that's not the case anymore

[@joshuajefferson3504]

All these gaming websites and journalists chose their side when the whole gamergate situation started popping off.

[@Breadfriend69]

I trust a politician more than a gaming journalist or movie critic nowadays. I'm sure if Disney puts out a show of Yoda taking a shit for 2 hours on a toilet, critics will still give it 90% because they're either shilling or scared.

[@XanderZ0ne]

GameSpot is literally carried by Jonathan Ferguson The Keeper of Firearms and Artillery at the Royal Armories Museum in the UK, home to thousands of iconic weapons throughout history.

[@Lowlightt]

Gamespots experts react series in general has been very good. Its probably the only thing actually making them money.

[@incoherentthinker]

Yup. Asmongold killed video game journalism. Tweet that out. Zack Kills everything. Except Dr. Pepper. Because Dr. Pepper is delicious. Especially the Cherry flavor. You're welcome.

[@keggerous]

"I interviewed a bunch of people at the company that pushes woke shit and none of them told me the woke shit was the problem... So I guess it can't be the problem" Absolute idiocy.

[@bugraegriboz7660]

Asmon killed game journalism

[@dacco9414]

No, stupidity did.

[@promethiac2641]

We are all journalists...

[@Lacalta]

So Tru

[@simphiwedlamini.]

This sarcasm right 😂 just makijg sure

[@Ichiban_Kasuga.]

No, he reacts to the people that are. This guy talks an awful lot but never says anything at all. Just a bunch of nothing-burgers. He tries way too hard to sound like he knows enough to have an opinion on the shit he reacts to.

[@maeror1022]

I've heard that junior journalists get pushed into game journalism early into their careers and they deeply resent this happening to them, so they put zero effort into their work and seek only to get out into a different sector of the industry as fast as possible.

[@Mbeluba]

So those who stay are frustrated losers?

[@shaneriggs6678]

That's should have never happened, games journalism should have been a job for people who were already passionate about the video game industry and would be dreaming about having a job if they didn't already have it. It was never meant for people who didn't care about video games

[@kaisokusekkendou1498]

Something I see conflated a lot is _"cheering that the terrible thing is failing"_ being the same thing as _"cheering that the industry is failing"._ That your happiness over a failure in the industry is a self-destructive thing, and you will lose out in the end. But this has a false assumption: we were engaging with the industry in this way in the first place. Let's be honest, there is only one way that the consumer can directly impact the market: give money to what you don't want. Slow or stop the money flowing into the things you don't want to see anymore. When we see one of the things we don't like disappear, then we are seeing change happen. Sure, another terrible thing might show up, but the disruption is an _opportunity for change._ Let's face it... when an industry of junk that you were not participating in collapses, then you haven't really lost anything. You weren't engaging with it in the first place, and now there's at least a CHANCE that something you like might build up in its place.

[@LordAugastus]

IGN killed it... when they blatantly hate/negatively bashed their videos on EA games, then when EA paid them, suddenly every video was why they liked and wanted the game...THat was the end. They became a promoter and not a review or true opinion. AI will just continue this problem.

[@CommanderWar64]

Nah the reason no one is reading these articles is not even because of some “woke”culture or anything like that, it’s because every other monopolistic website is much more appealing to more people. It’s easier to scroll Reddit than go out of your way to read a Kotaku article, not to mention you have to be actively interested in this niche. I like games, but I barely follow new releases anymore.

[@Jeco1245]

"every single gaming site has the exact same opinion on every topic." True. Hive mind nonsense, there is no actual personal opinion everyone just regurgitates the same agreed upon safe opinion. What value does that provide to the consumer???

[@seivmuva]

The whole video ends at 1:00 😂😂😂😂

[@Yunglex313]

15:34 I will actually disagree with Asmongold here. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, was definitely a game chocked full of DEI narratives, but the main reason no one bought it, is because review scores, word of mouth and news prior to release, told of a REALLY, REALLY shitty game, full of things gamers do not want in a 70 dollar game. A bunch of microtransactions, a lot of poorly designed mission gameplay, and a really shitty ending to the Batman Arkham Series, a group of games people loved, and killing DC's top Super Heroes as Villains. And all of that was done really poorly. Not only is Suicide Squad Kill Justice League a DEI fatten game, it is a badly made game. That is the main reason it sold poorly, even if the distaste politically correct ideology did help. Spider Man 2 had the same issues, didn't do as well as Sony wanted, but it was still a good game by most regular players' standards and did decent numbers. Fact of the matter is if you make a garbage game and put it in peoples hands, they will tell you how they feel about it, and it won't do well.

[@bc9554]

DEI = bad game

[@TheRetrostorian]

They wouldn't know that without playing it. The gave captain boomerang guns, ended Kevin conroy, and made a gay joker. That's enough. Given the state of the DC comics though they will only double down. Fully taken over.

[@MaxPalaro]

If they are dying because they dont speak what the users want isn't this good? Im the only one that likes to know what people think about somthing to get my own beliefs in check? I understand the collective thinking of those websites and agree with you, but if they need to speak what readers want to listen than they will continue to be a monopoly again, but now they have readers backing them up. Makes no sense

[@Lowlightt]

Gaming Journalists and Reviewers are a "SERVICE" profession. If they aren't providing a service people want to use, or need to use. Then people won't use it and it will go out of business. If I can't use your review to judge if a game is good or bad then your review doesn't "Serve" me thus its not something that I will consume or use. You don't need to the populist opinion, but you do need to be a tool or service others can use. Ignoring reviews to spit out propaganda isn't a service I need or want. I'm obviously not alone in this opinion. Hence why the entire industry is collapsing. Offer a good or service that people want and this problem goes away.

[@MaxPalaro]

@@Lowlightt People don't like to read, and can't read anymore. Attention Spam is on it's lowest and people are getting dummer. That's why this industry is failing. Reviewers that can't make a mark or have a signature will never be respect and since the companies keep people on the shadows all the time because the hero of the story is the platform. People can't connect to a brand. Radialists have audiences and audiences follow the radialists not the company they work on

[@Dayhawk101]

THE Main reason the Kill the Justice League failed was because of how they did "Batman" and killed him off. It was absolutely terrible, and the live service aspect ruined it for people.

[@CharlesNauck]

You know that scene in the First Jurassic Park where the T-Rex eats the Velociraptor? Same thing. We know the T-Rex isn't our friend we saw that... but it's still great to watch the Velociraptor get its comeuppance.

[@phoboskittym8500]

The Game Journos Pro email exchanges showed us 10 years ago that all of the journos work together in a hive mind

[@MSpotatoes]

Game journalism exists. It's called youtube gamers.

[@cambienvenu]

My only annoyance with Asmon’s opinion is he appears to view all sites as a collective, and not the journalists that work there. There’s going to be good ones and bad ones at almost all publications.

[@EatinPaste]

Exactly. As Asmon brought up, IGN and Hogwarts Legacy is the perfect example, they did many articles and videos on that game and those articles and videos that constantly brought up and spent most of its time on J K Rowling and transphobia got backlash from its readers and viewers. Why? Because those interested in the game weren't being told anything about the game, they were just being talked down to and made to feel bad because they want a game, they're already aware of the issues surrounding the game and they can separate the art from the artist. Why can't those (few) journalists do the same? Because if they can't then they shouldn't really be there. IGN on Hogwarts Legacy also had articles and videos where they just straight up talked about the game. About the stuff shown and info dropped, and those articles were loved and favoured (over the previously stated) by the readers and viewers. (I'm also pretty sure they had little disclaimers about the issues which was, and is, fine as it's not the main and dominant focus) IGN is a company and a company follows what makes them money and, if in the public eye, what makes them look good. They're fine with a journalist talking about hot and sensitive issues like this but of course will step in a bit when receiving backlash. You're right that the journalists are the problem, and the companies as well, but it's always a percentage (doesn't matter how high or low it is) and the journalists can easily be replaced whilst the company will just weather out the storm for as long as possible.

[@BlujusticeVR]

This is how I feel about a small vr dev group combat waffle, customers are putting them on the map but the game is broken as hell and they charged full price, but when anyone says anything they're disrespectful to the community or throw tantrums and say the player base just has a skill issue. Shits crazy.

[@Rarazan]

all journalism now is so bad that there no word degrading enough to describe it, there literally 5 to 10 people who good and honest at this job, in gaming it's just easily detectable

[@Rarazan]

@lollmaonice no

[@gzuskreist1021]

A man in the 1930s-40s coined a term "lugenpresse". Very relevant now in more ways than one.

[@КириллСолоненко-в3ы]

nothing of value is lost

[@JUDPT]

400 thousand minimum on SBI detected didn't buy Suicide Squad

[@Rubycheckers]

I stopped reading Rock Paper Shotgun 10 years ago when they went woke and told everyone Rimworld's scripting is sexist and no you can't disagree because that's toxic and also you're sexist. Well, it took a while, but finally voting with my wallet paid off. Shame though, I liked reading their takes on games. I just didn't want the activism on the side.

[@AcidJiles]

A lot of it died during Gamergate, it has been in it's death throes for a while now.