Hello everyone and welcome back to the trail in this installment we are going to talk about a pivotal book in my personal life, Confessions of the Game Doctor. A book that I reread and received a new opinion on since I read it last two years ago. Now first off the name is something important, he is the co-father of video game journalism.
This person was credited for being the first person to use the screenshot in a video game review, yes he was in the game reviewing business that far back. He got the Oddessey 2 because he thought it would fair better then the VCS, and he was at CES back in the mid 70s. To say his work on Electronic Games was not pivotal is something of a lie to any gamer today.
Now when I first read this book I came away with the impression that the gaming coverage was vastly improved then what it once was back in the 90s. Bill talks about how he would use a phone and a Rolodex to contact PR reps to get information to add to a story off of a press release that was given to achieve a better story and how he would go to great lengths to have sketch artists and even translators go and read off Japanese player guides to simply go and get information for making modern guides.
Two years ago I thought with the advent of the Internet and my naive nature that we would learn from all of the boils of the past and overall become better then we once were. So two years later do I have the same opinion on the video game journalism market as a whole? Not even close, I actually believed we regressed in the journalism aspect of gaming media to be more of a glorified fans with access role then an active journalism.
This is going to take me a bit to explain.
Some of you may know I once was a review/reporter for the site blisteredthumbs.net and although the editor in chief did not see eye to eye with what I presented with as far as news stories went I had a wild month and a half to discover news on an almost daily basis on top of reviewing new games that were being released on steam.
There was a pivotal contention I had and it was my use of press releases, I tended to use them a lot. My rationale was simple, what better place to go and discover news then to read the PR statements given from the people behind the games themselves? Add some research to check on facts and compare to other stories at the time, plus a dash of opinions and leave it open for the reader to interpret. I was actually doing the same thing as what Bill did in the 70s but with email instead.
The turning point I had was a story I received from a contact in Australia (the Internet was world wide when I checked last) for a story that involved a 3 day event where students would learn the fundamentals of game design as well as have fun workshops in a 72 hour no sleep event. I was given the press release on a silver platter and was told that I had first access to this story. HOLY SHIT! An exclusive that was awesome, I was actually doing journalism at this point!
However since at the time I was on a writing probation I couldn't actually publish the story so I talked to a fellow site writer to see if he could get the okay from the EiC to run with the story, granted I knew it wasn't the best thing to report on at the time, but this was fresh news that I thought we could drum up as a "look at us we are truly covering the world's news."
Then it was rejected, did not even take 5 minutes to get that, stating that the material in the story was not relevant to the site.
I was just flabbergasted but kept pushing forward to try to find more and more unique stories from outside markets and uncover gold that was not being covered by the large sites like Destructoid or Kotaku. Sure enough it happened, by proxy no less, that I was let go from writing duties from the site and did not have a chance to plead my case or return. Ultimately what did me in was several mistakes done on my part on formatting, my inexperience on news writing, and the content of the stories I brought to the table.
I believe the term used was "too fresh." He wanted me to link the source to another news site and then post it to the site adding a dash of me. Which is okay however what will it take for you to then visit their site and stop looking at the original site? This is where I have to sigh is disbelief that truly the whole online journalism when it comes to gaming is having select individuals experience the actual product, get the scoops, and generate the incite and then pass the story around over and over again adding opinions that have no foundation on the original story itself.
Sorry for that tangent there, but looking back at my experiences I was trying to be the 70s reporters like Bill was doing when the industry is simply less of a formal journalist and now more of a character driven environmental. I prefer the former myself, but as many sites out there appeal to the latter and they are doing much much better.
This review did not include about the much the book did it? Well since I have already wrote a review of the book before it was difficult to simply retread on my opinion two years ago, however all the wiser I can tell you the stories mentioned here are a must if you want to be a games journalist. To remember the trials and tribulations that came from the early news days and how the industry changed in the 90s. Also Bill provides some interesting input into various court cases in the 90s and went 3 for 3 for the clients who hired his services.
In short if you are interested in gaming at its very early days from the perspective of a journalist/comic book writer at the time, this is an excellent read and highly recommend this title to you. Also it gives hope to people like me that there are still people out there that care enough to look for pockets of gaming journalism that are willing to act more professional then fan.
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