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Shoe resigns, does anyone notice?
chamberlain
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=8697326&publicUserId=5379799
Definately one of the 'old guard,' apparently leaving and not being forced out.
Is gaming journalism really that stressful and difficult of a job, or do these guys just burn themselves out on no sleep, booze and red bull? And where can I sign up?
Definately one of the 'old guard,' apparently leaving and not being forced out.
Is gaming journalism really that stressful and difficult of a job, or do these guys just burn themselves out on no sleep, booze and red bull? And where can I sign up?
chamberlain on
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I think it's probably far more to do with the 1up sinking ship. Regardless of what any offical word is on how everything is fine, I'll bet that most of them would jump if a more secure job turns up. Especially with the incomming economic downturn the country is facing.
Not that there's a huge bubble as it is. But as profitable as the video game industry is, there's a glut of information sources out there--certainly more than gamers require, and probably far more than the industry can support. How many regularly updated video blogs do we really need? How much time do we, among the hardest of the hardcore geeks, actually spend consuming professionally produced video game news? I get 99% of my game news here, for god's sake.
Eventually I see this resulting in a lot of gaming "publications" folding, especially the operations with the highest overhead. When the money stops flowing in and starts tricking instead, a lo-fi, text-heavy blog can survive. A print magazine or a highly produced video program is much more likely to cave.
Well, I know most people here hate EGM/1up anyway.
Shoe was a pretty cool guy even if he was prone to preaching in his editorials.
As a side note discussing 1-Up and ZD's financial troubles does anyone know the circulation figures for EGM as compared to other game magazines
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
Yo. Journalist here. (Mainstream type, paper for mid-sized metro area.)
Depending on where you work, journalism CAN be stressful, especially if there's a lot of information to process. Gaming has a LOT of info... you've got lots of publishers each putting out multiple games, and the info tends to cluster around E3 (lots of upcoming info) and fall (lots of games to review). I've read some IGN guys complaining that even though E3 has shifted, the information flow has not. There's STILL lots of things to cover April-June, and keep in mind not all of it is what you see in the magazine. A lot of it is under embargo, meaning you get the info now and you print it later. So even if you don't see tons of articles/posts, that doesn't mean you aren't busy.
Anyway, the point is that the system used to be massive clusterfuck around May E3->slow period to rest->clusterfuck in the fall. But while E3 has shifted to July, a lot of the publishers are now having mini events for game journalists in the months immediately before. So the workflow is now lots of mini-events->massive clusterfuck around July E3->clusterfuck in the fall. What's missing? Right, the time to catch your breath.
Combine that with the fact that journalism pays dick. Forget any stereotypes you have: unless you're a bigshot mainstream columnist, the median salary is barely above $32,000. (According to http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Degree=Journalism/Salary) On top of that, most gaming journalism is done in California, which has a higher standard of living anyway. So, unless you've got a big-time sugar momma, you're working a high stress job with low pay.
In other words, you have to be really, REALLY passionate about what you do to be a journalist. If you absolutely live and breathe games and you're willing to forego eating out in order to play the newest stuff early, then great! But if you start to get tired of games... if you get really sick about having to feign interest in Generic Licensed Game Number 47,631 or, god forbid, spending 10 or so hours reviewing it, then you have a problem. (And burnout can happen. I used to be a video game columnist, and it happened to me.)
So I can certainly see Shoe wanting to move on to something that would pay more (and if you have any kind of college degree, almost everything will) and be a little less stresful.
Tl;dr: Unless you really, really, REALLY love gaming, gaming journalism sucks ass and pays dick.
On the other hand, the hardest of the hardcore as you say respect quality above anything else. Look at how people hate publications like Game Informer whereas the almost universal respect for something like EDGE.
I think you will see far fewer shitty publications in the future, which can only be a good thing. However, like the cancellation of GFW, good mags will get brought down by their other halves, in that case EGM and Ziff Davis' financial troubles.
1up always was on my list of self-aggrandizing upstart "journalist" sites that exists pretty much to tell me what I already know and give me opinions I didn't care to hear about. In gaming, I really just need to know the facts of the matter. Maybe the occasional media package for an upcoming release, but I prefer the spin of the game publisher then.
I subscribe to the RSS headlines of Joystiq and Digg/Gaming, anything else is a waste of time.
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See, I see there being room for traditional journalism coexisting with what you are describing, basically a democratised distribution of information.
However, if it's not good, I am not going to give it any attention.
Zero Punctuation I would say is a good example of how to give out opinion on games. It's entertaining, emphatically subjective, and I genuinely feel like I can trust Yahtzee to be honest. He doesn't have access to any information beyond what you can find in Joysitq/Kotaku, but that doesn't matter.
Eurogamer, too, has really nice reviews and features, and I respect the opinions presented there.
I have a bunch of blogs I read where it's people who's opinions I trust, and that's what I use these forums for too. I don't need an expensive national publication for that any more.
So yeah, I am happy for bad journalism to die out, and I hope that all the talented people who loose jobs from the slow collapse of print media find ways to carry on doing their job, and flourish from the freedom and independence that the internet can provide.
I guess I'm part of their problem.
Truth. I love broken pixels. I re-watch the Cho Aniki and Total Recall episodes every couple of months.
It's the best thing the entire Ziff Davis staff produce.
"Look at this game! Look at this fucking game."
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It's nice that they're willing to be honest about how the business is run.
I would post the Penny Arcade comic here, but the archive is still broken.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/2006/1/20/
See, you used 'coverage' in a positive context and are willingly reading a preview so I think maybe we're on different pages here.
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EDIT: I've never had any problem with Shoe. He's good people. I hope he is happy, whatever he decides to do.
but seriously folks Dan Hsu's been around since the golden days of EGM
I'll miss him, even if this thread is fucking up my ego search.
I don't mind Shane, but he is one of those guys that always has to be better than you, or has a bigger e-peen than you, etc. Garnett and I think along the same lines pretty often, so I enjoy his commentary. Sharkey is always entertaining. It's like he was born cantankerous.
Apotheos, I think of the podcasts as less of gaming coverage, more of a gaming talk show. I'd give them another try, but there's nothing wrong if they're not your cup of tea. Retronauts is enjoyable because it reminds me of when my friends and I get together and bitch about how the old days were better.
1up Yours is probably worse than ever.
Shawn Elliot from GFW is the regular fourth chair but the problem is he's too polite, so Shane or Garnett just talk over him even when he is correcting factual errors on their part. It's really saddening.
Retronauts and The Brodeo are the only decent 1up podcasts, the rest are really really not worth your time. Especially EGM live, what a mess.
After that, all they'd need is Navarro and Matt Cassamassachushyamalan to turn their site into the Captain Planet of gaming journalism.
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
Steam: MightyPotatoKing
Navarro's already a semi-regular
People hate GI? It's like one of the only print magazines that actually has exclusive information. Reviews do such though
Ive read game news on GAF before the publisher actually sent it to me.
GAF > Internet > GAF.
Seriously, if you want gaming discussion, stay here. I do, it's one of the best gaming forums out there. Along with 245.
If you want gaming news, neogaf is unrivaled in speed.
I am looking for a secondary non-mum forum...
Honestly if gaming magazines die I won't be too bent about it. Podcasting and blogs are the way to go!
Hopefully someone at 1up steps up and fills Shoe's shoes to keep the fanboyism and platform hate in check. (Dirt miner game? BURN!) :P