Innovation in Games (and Games Journalism)
December 1, 2008
Of all of the journalism I routinely read, the area which has the most discourse between writers and written-about is games journalism. The amount of discussion about what is, in reality, a nascent and evolving medium, as well as a nascent and evolving area of journalism, is larger than you'd at first think. Games themselves are moving from being simplistic towards delivering real emotional payoffs and the day will come, somewhere on the horizon, that they finally come into their own as a real storytelling medium.
And games journalism itself is evolving - you need only look at the differences between film reviews and film itself - from everything from blockbuster to self-referencing arthouse - and see that there's a wider gamut today in film than there is in games, and the journalism is a mirror of that difference - from simplistic reviews and advertorial right up through a small number of journalists who not only look critically at the games they're reviewing, they look critically at themselves and their place both within the games medium and journalism world.
Recently, a war has erupted within that community over the coverage of a game called Mirror's Edge. Told from the first person, through the eyes of a runner, the game takes you to the rooftops of a fictional town, where you... run. The game's core mechanic is free running - up walls, leaps across buildings, up pipes, through ducts, but mostly just lots of running. In the game, you see yourself through those eyes.
It's fresh. It's new. And if you read any of the coverage, you'll see it's also flawed, and a lot of the coverage has been quick to point out that while it's innovative, it's also a little broken.
Continue reading "Innovation in Games (and Games Journalism)" »
Of all of the journalism I routinely read, the area which has the most discourse between writers and written-about is games journalism. The amount of discussion about what is, in reality, a nascent and evolving medium, as well as a nascent and evolving area of journalism, is larger than you'd at first think. Games themselves are moving from being simplistic towards delivering real emotional payoffs and the day will come, somewhere on the horizon, that they finally come into their own as a real storytelling medium.
And games journalism itself is evolving - you need only look at the differences between film reviews and film itself - from everything from blockbuster to self-referencing arthouse - and see that there's a wider gamut today in film than there is in games, and the journalism is a mirror of that difference - from simplistic reviews and advertorial right up through a small number of journalists who not only look critically at the games they're reviewing, they look critically at themselves and their place both within the games medium and journalism world.
Recently, a war has erupted within that community over the coverage of a game called Mirror's Edge. Told from the first person, through the eyes of a runner, the game takes you to the rooftops of a fictional town, where you... run. The game's core mechanic is free running - up walls, leaps across buildings, up pipes, through ducts, but mostly just lots of running. In the game, you see yourself through those eyes.
It's fresh. It's new. And if you read any of the coverage, you'll see it's also flawed, and a lot of the coverage has been quick to point out that while it's innovative, it's also a little broken.
Continue reading "Innovation in Games (and Games Journalism)" »
Recent Comments