Hi Sean,
Ive enjoyed reading your recent commentary on the difference between ‘gaming’ and the game ‘Industry’. It’s good to see that people are beginning to appreciate the difference. One thing you have mentioned is that the game industry seems finely tuned from the perspective of the development cycle. A hit emerges, publishers race to copy the idea, committees decide what gets green-lit, and then the next media hype cycle begins. (Some classic examples include Halo 2/3, GTA4, Gears of War 2 – all of which suffered backlash from gamers who realised they had been lied to in the hype campaigns).
I was wondering what you think of the current crop of gaming magazines and the role they play in all this. Most mags these days regurgitate the PR spiels from the preview through to the review, and review scores seem to be directly proportional to the marketing budget. But there is only one magazine I am aware of that actually seems to be able to divorce itself from this cycle, namely Retro Gamer (a UK based mag). They have a focus on games that they remember – games that have already been released, enjoyed, hated or overlooked. There is no influence from hype, publishers or the ‘industry’. I think it is a shame that this kind of enthusiasm has been completely removed from the rest of the gaming industry associated press, and I suspect it is contributing to the jaded attitude a lot of long time gamers have towards the industry.
In any case, its good to read your articles, putting into words the ideas that a lot of people I suspect have, but have been unable to put into a coherent form as you have. Keep it up.
I’m aware of Retro Gamer. But I haven’t looked into the magazine or anything. I did love how they devoted so much to Star Control 2. Excellent game that I think many people will still enjoy. It’s “Space war” gameplay makes it stand the test of time.
I suppose with something like Retro Gamer, they can’t rely on ‘hype’ for their content. The games are already out for a while so they actually have to write on *reality* rather than “in this preview, the game is looking really awesome and could revolutionize the genre…”
