Surfing around today, I stumbled across this post on Ombudsman reader Troy Goodfellow's blog that asks whether this Evil Avatar story about Battlestar Gallactica belongs on a gaming news site.
This reinforces the place of gaming in so-called geek culture. If you game, you must like science fiction, you probably role play and know a lot of about comics. Somehow, these hobbies and interests have become inseparably linked in the minds of people who write about games.
...
Maybe Evil Avatar is staffed by a bunch of geeks who are really interested in this stuff. But please don't tell me that it's gaming news.
Goodfellow is right, this definitely isn't gaming news. Whether or not it belongs on Evil Avatar, ostensibly a gaming news site, is a slightly different question. After all, as Troy suggests, the people behind Evil Avatar are most likely also interested in science fiction, so they didn't mind writing it. Judging by the three pages of comments from EA readers, their audience didn't seem to mind reading about it (these stereotypes do exist for a reason). Happy writers, happy readers... so what's the problem here?
Well, let's look at this from a purely practical point of view. Consider the people who don't read Evil Avatar. Despite the stereotypes, there is also a growing population of serious game players who are not as interested in the comic books, science fiction and other pop culture that is commonly associated with gamer culture (how big this audience is, and how interested it is in reading about games, are up for debate). If Evil Avatar wants to attract these readers, then they should probably stay away from the Battlestar Galactica news. If they're happy with the audience they have, then they should keep doing what they're doing and leave their potential audience to potentially go to other sites. It's as simple as that.
There's no rule saying that gaming publications have to focus exclusively on gaming matters, and you'd be foolish to suggest one. But gaming sites should definitely consider their audience, both actual and potential, before straying too far from their stated subject.
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No offense, but someone's being a little too anal retentive here.
ReplyDeleteIf you don't want to read the story about Battlestar Galactica . . . don't. It's as simple as that.
What does all the soft core porn babe photo layouts on IGN have to do with gaming?
Ostensibly, nothing, except that the male demographic makes it fit, and somehow, I think a 'off-topic' Battlestar Galactic article is a bit less offensive to some readers than something that should belong in Maxim.
Sorry, games are linked with 'geek culture', have been for quite some time, that's not going to change. Star Wars, anime, comic books, etc. - if you're going to be that upset about potentially being lumped in with those crowds, you may want to just play a little more Madden and get over it.
It's those 'geeks' that drive a LOT of sales. Do a comparison of how much money they put into the industry on an ongoing basis as opposed to your average 'casual' EA Sports gamer who buys one game every couple months and won't even consider buying a game console until it's less than $149.99, no matter how long that takes.
If someone who comes to EA is going to turned off by that, then they're probably not going to find much of interest in the site as a whole . . .
I thought we got over this whole insecurity / geek culture thing by now, I guess not.
So I take it I'm the only one that likes Play's movie/DVD coverage and OPM's Spin section (which admittedly is getting much too big for its britches)?
ReplyDeleteLast time I checked, Evil Avatar's audience was actually, more or less, the hardcore geek slice of the gamer populous. Maybe they don't want to branch out. What's the problem here?
ReplyDeleteI also think Goodfellow was being a wee pedantic about this. Guess what, you didn't pay a dime to read Evil Avatar today. So give them a little leeway; they are not the New England Journal of Medicine and can be forgiven for showing some personality. The guys at Evil Avatar are just playing to their strengths by including news items that like-minded readers will enjoy.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, making geek culture intrinisically tied to gaming is definitely damaging. It limits the medium. Notice that while Catwoman was a cheesy tie-in cash grab of a game, it crossed nobody's mind to call up EA and see about a "The Notebook" videogame. Although, you know, it would probably be just as bad and not help matters at all. But its a fine balance between playing to your base and attracting new players, on the developer's part. Look at Halo 2: fun enough by itself to get celebrities to pretend to like it on MTV, but its basically Starship Troopers only shinier and the aliens have less limbs. As to who's fault it is for making the industry so geek oriented, the journalists or the developers, I'd have to say a little from both columns.
On this note, did you hear Gyakuten Saiban is coming to North America on the DS? If there's an audience that wouldn't be attracted by the over-the-top-lawyer-sim genre, I don't want to meet em!
"So I take it I'm the only one that likes Play's movie/DVD coverage and OPM's Spin section (which admittedly is getting much too big for its britches)?
ReplyDelete"
I think there's a difference between print and online in this case. There's no physical limitations to a website, so if they want to go 'off-topic', that's fine. I don't have to read it, and not much is being sacrificed to put it there.
I'm paying for content in a print magazine, which does have limited space to present content, and I'd much rather see another hundred or so words added to a review to try to give a clearer picture if I might want to buy a game than pictures of P Diddy and Paris Hilton at some Sony-sponsored PlayStation function.
I don't really care if celebs play games, I don't need the fact that they think it's 'cool' to validate my own fandom.
Off-topic doesn't necessarily bother me, but it does if it's at the expense of something that could be on topic. If I want a critical analysis of a movie, I'll look to a movie critic, I don't really care what a game reviewer thinks of The Aviator, especially when that same reviewer could've spent a little more time talking about a game in the allotted non-advertising space in a magazine.
Online, post whatever you want, I'll just skip it if it doesn't interest me. Doesn't take much effort to hit the back button on a browser.
As a way of keeping track of a small section of the audience for the site, I like to watch GameTabs.com.
ReplyDeleteAs a gaming subsection of a larger site, games.slashdot is purely gaming news. There will never be a non-gaming related story on the site.
It's hard to swallow a higher traffic rating for EvilAvatar on GameTabs when Evil Avatar has, in their "games" feed, something about Enterprise being cancelled or the next Bond movie.
It's not a big deal (it's just GameTabs rating, a small portion of the audience), but how can a games only site compete with James Bond?
Absolutely I agree with Ninja20XX in this. Play's "off-topic" section always bothered me. Here's the real kicker for me: Play devotes an uncommon amount of space to some excellent artwork. Maybe they could balance out the shortened article lenghths by giving them more room by axing the DVDs and CDs and whatnot. I mean, I like those little sections at the end. But, not in this magazine. In a website its totally different. Websites are much closer to their communities. Look at this very blog! We are posting these comments directly on the page below the actual blog item! Developing a sense of community by establishing a range of shared interests beyond the specific topic is an overall benefit. Lots of space on the internet, you know, plenty of room to talk about everything that needs talking about.
ReplyDelete99% of video games are set in geek-oriented genres. Check back in on this topic when there's a non-geek game other than The Sims.
ReplyDeleteTroy has links to CBC on his website. What does that have to do with musings on computer strategy games? Hell, his blog is labeled as musings on computer strategy games. I see nowhere in that "commentary on gaming press commenting on science fiction television." So can we chide him?
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm not sure if anyone's checked lately, but I'd be willing to venture that the largest genre of video games is unquestionably deep in geek territory. Kyle, you and Troy are both missing the associative nature of culture. You're trying to go andromeda strain with gaming and isolate it from society at large. You can't unnaturally splice science fiction from video gaming. It'd be like trying to remove fashion from a popular music style. It can't happen, because fashion and rock/pop music are one and the same.
Will science fiction and comic books eventually float away from gaming? Will you and Troy have your imaginary sola gama utopia? If it does happen, it will have happened as a process of cultural evolution, not as the result of Troy's whining. And my bet is that it will have been replaced by something else altogehter; sports, maybe, or perhaps even fashion.
Why? Because everyone does other things besides play and think about games.
Well, most everyone.
People seem to be misinterpreting my stance on this a little. I'm not suggesting that video game coverage and coverage of other topics should be totally separate. What I am suggeting is that spreading your focus to anime, comics, and the other trappings of "geek culture" you may be pushing away what I see as a growing audience of game players who aren't as interested in these topics. Obviously magazines like Play are fine with this, and that's their perogative. You have to know your audience, and also know what you want your publication to be.
ReplyDeleteI saw that as what you were getting at, I just don't think Evil Avatar is the best example to use to try and push that point.
ReplyDeleteI don't see how "geek culture" is any sort of trap nowadays. "Spiderman 2" just won an oscar for best special effects. That's correct, a comic book movie sequel.
ReplyDeleteAnime is big. Comics are being turned into movies every other weekday and gaming continues to grow.
If you don't dig comics or anime or anything related to those types of things, what can a videogaming site cover to keep you happy? Sports news? Because sports games sell? Or how about some random interviews with babes? Yeah, that might reel 'em in. Or maybe some how-to's on tricking out your car.
Wow, special effects. There's a major award.
ReplyDelete(/sarcasm)
One point has yet to be made. The new Battlestar Galactica really is good.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why people have to be "geeks" in order to be attracted to a bit of skin. Do people not know that the majority of "American Men" view car magazenes where women in bikini's are somehow more in focus than the cars?
ReplyDeleteI think, over all, this whole subject is being generallized and steriotyped to a ridiculous degree. I mean, granted, i'm sre the nerdy population of the world relishes the oportunity to check out hot babes in their favorate videogames. But I think it's more of an attemt to lure the general male population.
Also, if someone thinks a certain company needs to show a bit more class, that's their opinion and is probably shaired with quite a few more people. If this technique in gaining sells fails, perhaps the theory of geek lust just isn't true.