Anyone been reading The PA (Penny Arcade) Report?


I'm among the first to laugh in the face of anyone who even uses the term "Games Journalism," but really, the content on there has just been superb lately - good enough that I think that if anyone's deserving of the title, it's this lot. They really do subscribe to the idea that less is more, and that if you want to just read hundreds of bitesize chunks of utter shite, then the likes of Kotaku and Joystiq are already there for you. They've also got the fact that this is Penny Arcade, and they can afford to fail, and have the clout to bring in so many readers just by putting their stamp on it that it doesn't even matter.

Oh, and the fact that they're Penny Arcade (plus maybe the fact that it's this Ben Kuchera chap) seems to get them pretty much anyone they feel like interviewing.


Have a look around there. Particular highlights are their interview with Gabe Newell, Tim Schafer, tour of Valve, and "The Beast is Unleashed: Capcom’s Seth Killian explains the most famous minute in competitive gaming," an article which explained a moment that I thought I understood and made it all the more special for it.

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I am uncomfortable with the analogue stick placement on the Dual Shock 4.

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I should add that I think Penny Arcade is okay (although sometimes very funny, and I actually only tend to visit the comic on the way to read PA Report.

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I am uncomfortable with the analogue stick placement on the Dual Shock 4.

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There are at most two game journalists in America.

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Also, Rock Paper Shotgun.

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Sorry there are three at most.

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Rock Paper Shotgun and... who? I'm not seeing them.

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RPS are UK based though, aren't they? I didn't post that as a reply to suzz.

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Print journalism is the publication of news and features about any subject the public wants to know about. So why is games journalism somehow more of a joke than film and music journalism? Or food and drink? Or travel and tourism? Or current aff... OK, let's not get carried away.

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It's no different at all.

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The GRcade Podcast - Episode Seven, in which we talk videogame journalism, is now available!

Indeed, the UK in general has a far greater pool of real journalists working the gaming media.

In America, I'd say John Davison(British), Jeremy Parish and Chris Kohler are the best.

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The amount of power and control PR and publishers have in games journalism compared to other mediums is what makes it the worst, in my opinion. Bullshit like special review "events", promo freebies, pressuring for high scores in exchange for exclusive reviews etc.

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People are always most critical of the field of journalism they're most invested in. I imagine people whose life revolves around music despair of the state of music journalism. Similarly, cinema buffs almost certainly rage about the state of film criticism. The key difference seems to be that good writing in this field is rarely appreciated compared to others. Partly because most gamers have an enormous sense of entitlement. Heck, even this thread - which purports to highlight a positive example - basically begins with the idea that all other games journalism is awful.

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BAM! Nail hit firmly on head. Lock this mother up! (Don't lock it up)

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The GRcade Podcast - Episode Seven, in which we talk videogame journalism, is now available!

The word "Entitlement" is the gaming equivalent of Godwin's law.

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The Decline of Console Video Games is Upon Us

Could you go into more detail about why you have this opinion?

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Heh. It's true, though.

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Gaming is far from the area I am most invested in but the vast, vast majority is just shite I have absolutely no interest in reading.




QFT. I don't even know how it's relevant to this area.

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I am uncomfortable with the analogue stick placement on the Dual Shock 4.

Many instances such as:

Game previews reading like a piece of official PR more and more often these days.

Review guides provided by the PR which highlight bits of the game they want to be mentioned in the review.

Jeff Gerstmann being fired from Gamespot after pressure from the advertisers for giving Kane & Lynch a 6/10.

Ubisoft basically blacklisting 1up.com after giving Assassin's Creed 7/10 http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/vi ... ore-Thumbs

Eidos allowing mags to publish Arkham Asylum reviews if they give it 90%+ and have it on the cover (see http://ramraider.blogspot.com/2009/07/e ... rkham.html and http://ramraider.blogspot.com/2009/07/a ... inner.html) and I'm pretty sure a similar thing happened with the last Tomb Raider game too.

Review events like this http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010 ... tailed.ars where reviewers are basically wined and dined to sweeten them up. The GTA IV one in particular sounded ridiculous as some of the reviewers never even finished the game.

Plus the whole review embargo bullshit with reviews not going live until the publisher/whoever says so. It's a shame none of the big sites have the balls to do what TechCrunch did a few years back to the tech media and basically say "strawberry float you" to embargos, which led to other sites doing the same. See http://techcrunch.com/2008/12/17/death-to-the-embargo/ and http://techcrunch.com/2009/09/23/the-la ... o-is-dead/

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