MEDIA LITERACY

Case Study

Writing about Games

A host of opportunities await talented writers interested in pursuing a career in gaming journalism. Gaming publications provide information on news, games, and peripherals associated with a popular platform. Some, like PlayStation: The Official Magazine and the Official Xbox Magazine, are sanctioned by console manufacturers. Others, like Edge and gameinformer, report on a broader spectrum of the electronic gaming industry. Almost all follow a reveal/preview/review cycle, whereby periodicals announce, promote, and evaluate new consoles and games.

Like traditional journalistic domains, reporting on the electronic playground requires that a writer master several skills and ethical concepts. The game journalist must be able to translate jargon into plain English and conduct interviews with a variety of gaming professionals. Perhaps most important, game journalists have an obligation to gamers to report with integrity and accuracy in the face of pressure from game and console developers to misrepresent the facts. Journalists who fail the integrity test can lose their credibility. Game journalists also share much in common with other types of specialty reporters. Just as science and medical reporters must be familiar with the histories of their respective fields, a competent game journalist should possess detailed knowledge about the origin and evolution of electronic gaming. In addition, game journalism requires a good deal of technical knowledge, business savvy, and familiarity with the legal and ethical contexts of gaming.

Though much of gaming journalism focuses on hardware, software, and economics, a relatively small group of writers who take gaming seriously have followed a decidedly different path. This group practices what they call New Game Journalism. An article published in PC Gamer, a British magazine, provided the inspiration for the movement. In the piece, Ian Shanahan (who uses the screen name always_black) relates the story of how a random online opponent opened a saber duel with a racial slur because he assumed Shanahan to be a player of color. Shanahan then transports the reader into a fleeting gaming moment when, for him, winning a routine match carried special meaning and significance beyond the fantasy of the game he was playing at the time of the challenge, Jedi Knight II.¹

Kieron Gillen, a fellow British writer, found Shanahan's article so compelling that he wrote a widely read blog post calling for the establishment of New Game Journalism-an intensely personal form of game writing that would embrace the human side of gaming. The idea of writing about games in the manner of the New Journalism of the 1960–1970s attracted the attention of game writers on both sides of the Atlantic. Citing the examples of Tom Wolfe, Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, and Hunter S. Thompson, Gillen argued that "the worth of a video game lies not in the game, but in the gamer." If done correctly, New Game Journalism would resemble travel journalism, but would take readers to imaginary places instead of real ones. "Our job is to describe what it's like to visit a place that doesn't exist outside of the gamer's head . . . ," writes Gillen, and to "go to a place, report on its cultures, foibles, distractions and bring it back to entertain your readers."²

Video game fans may be prepared to write professional articles that follow the reveal/preview/review rituals of traditional game journalism. However, all media students have something to say about their own experiences with electronic gaming and the electronic playground. New Game Journalism thus counts as a provocative development. With its focus on the player experience, it gives a voice to anyone who wants to comment on this emergent medium.

APPLYING THE CRITICAL PROCESS

DESCRIPTION Investigate New Game Journalism by reading the reputedly seminal tract on the movement at alwaysblack.com/blackbox/bownigger.html. For purposes of comparison, also read a game review posted on GameSpot or IGN.com.

ANALYSIS Does always_black address you as a consumer, a citizen, or a fellow gamer? What part of the gaming dynamic is important to always_black? How does the standard game review address the reader? What part of the gaming dynamic is emphasized at GameSpot or IGN.com? What type of reader would be attracted to New Game Journalism? What type of reader would be alienated by it? Why?

INTERPRETATION Which form of game journalism-traditional or new-seeks to discover what it means to play electronic games? Which form is devoted to reporting information about electronic games?

EVALUATION Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of New Game Journalism.

ENGAGEMENT Write your own New Game Journalism article. Report on a particularly meaningful experience you had with electronic gaming. Or go to a video arcade on a busy night and record your opinions about what arcade gaming means today.