Video Game Industry: Media Roles

The media and the games industry are inexpiably linked. Without the press, the industry wouldn't be as known or as popular as it is in the modern era. Of course, the presence of the press also means they cover the less savoury aspects of video games, such as issues in development. An important question is to define the role of the media when it comes to any given industry, to ascertain WHY they're even needed.

Andrea Rene, Co-Founder and Host of What's Good Games, believes that the role of the media in the industry is extremely difficult to answer, but that it's an important aspect of video games and video game discussions.

"This is a giant question and one that can't be easily answered. (You could do a whole thesis just on this topic!) The role media plays in the gaming industry greatly depends on the consumer of the media."

Rene went on to further elaborate:

"Video games media is under the umbrella of entertainment news, in so much as it is not covering news you "need to know," like politics, current events, and happenings in your local community. Thus, the idea of "video games journalism" is a bit of a misnomer because the vast majority of outlets, channels, and content that covers the gaming industry does not adhere to traditional journalistic ethics or codes "

As Game Rosa, the director of Blue Fire, put it, "I think games media is really important to get games out there and let the community know what to expect from them." However, she also believes that "It's really important to be very objective. For example, I believe game reviews and scores should be written by more than one person."

Game journalist Sam Jones believes that the media is a key facet of the game industry. Sam, from Fanatical, believes that the industry is something bigger and better than any other entertainment industry in the world and that it's high time the rest of the entertainment world recognised it as such beginning with respecting the media.

"The game industry has excelled in recent years, and people are starting to take notice of what was already a multi-billion dollar industry - far superior to film and TV. The publishers and developers within this industry have the technology and talent at their disposal to create some of the most immersive projects we've seen in modern times - but to ensure that said projects are shared with the world, we rely on the media to not only promote but also challenge these developers and publishers."

The games media itself is not without controversy, quite like the industry it discusses and criticizes. The one that may come to mind for most of you is the hellscape that was GamerGate, which was a harassment campaign and a right-wing attempt to push back progressivism. There's a huge amount to dive into when it comes to GameGate, and I'm not going to even attempt to explain it fully, but it's well worth reading into. The basic outline of GamerGate is that two notable female developers were targeted by harassment, and even reached extremes of doxxing, death threats and sexual assault threats.

There's minor controversies too, of course. For example, there's the now infamous Cuphead playthrough from a VentureBeat reviewer, in which the player couldn't even complete the tutorial in an adequate amount of time. There was also the debacle with Polygon's gameplay of the 2016 DOOM, in which it seemed the player had literally no experience with any first person shooter whatsoever, let alone the biggest FPS of the entire year. While both of these aren't particularly important, and have in fact led to targeted harassment against the journalists in question, they seem to stick in the minds of the general gaming public.

The video game media is a popular industry. It's one that people are always trying to break into, but it's also one that's incredibly difficult to find a foothold in. So what better way to try and discover the best way to get a grip into the juggernaut than asking somebody who themselves found a way into the industry in one of the most prestigious games media companies in the world.

"The journalism industry changes quickly and continually. What worked a few years ago doesn’t always work now, and there’s a lot of luck involved in it."

These words of caution were given by IGN Senior Editor and Playstation Lead Jonathan Dornbush, and while they can seem quite daunting to an outsider, he also had some helpful advice for anybody who wants to break into the industry themselves.

"Read voraciously and work at crafting in your preferred medium as much as you can. Learn from others - even if you’re not being edited yourself, see how writers and editors have grown throughout their careers, and understand that it is very much an experience of always improving.

So what exactly IS the purpose of the media in the industry?

"I think media in video games provides consumers with information they can use to inform their purchasing decisions that does not come directly from the publishers or developers of the products they are buying. The line between information directly from the creators of products and the critics of products is growing increasingly blurry however. Many companies, like Ubisoft and Bethesda, have their own internal teams that create videos for YouTube, streams for Twitch, and manage community forums to discuss their products. These types of content often appear very similar to independent channels (like What's Good Games) and can sometimes be difficult for consumers of content to distinguish between what is "sponsored" content and what is not..."

As Andrea Rene points out in the quote above, media is often used to inform purchasing decisions and allow an outside opinion that isn't influenced by studios interference. However, this is not all Rene believes the media is good for in the industry. To the contrary, she believes that representation and accessibility are something made more prominent by media outlets.

"...Which leads me to why independent media is so important to entertainment news at large and to the video games industry. Having critics and enthusiasts alike evaluate games independently of the content received from the publishers of said games allows communities to more accurately evaluate these products. It's incredibly important for a diversity of voices to be on the media side of the industry for this evaluation process to make sure games are thoroughly being evaluated. For example, creators like BlindGamerSteve provide value insight on the accessibility of games for gamers with disabilities -- something video game publishers have not acknowledged until relatively recently. If media outlets didn't run stories, previews, or reviews on accessibility features that content just would not exist. Writers like Carolyn Petit shine a light on transgender and LGBTQ+ representation in video games, another thing consumers would likely not have as much insight into if video games media didn't exist."

In recent years, LGBTQ+ representation has became a more prominent figurehead of video games, and accessibility has became something that's shown off in big presentations from major companies such as Sony (shown off recently with the reveal of some of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart gameplay).

Media holds an important role in the industry, quite clearly, and as we'll discover shortly in this series of articles, it can help propel a game to the stratosphere before it's even been officially released as a finished product.