Ever since the messy fiasco that was Brink, I've avoided buying video games new (Skyrim being the exception - soul sucking, meme generating, life destroyer that it is). In this used game buy-and-resell-a-thon I've wound up with the GameStop discount card affair. Which is useful and all, but like a clandestine tab of LSD lodged in a cheese curd, there's something extra that struck me by surprise. And has left me uncomfortable. And it was made of paper, also.
A free subscription of GameInformer is the subject of the acid analogy (obviously). While I appreciate magazines, and all of the charm that a paper version of the internet holds, this and similar publications reek heartily of a distinct lack of integrity. There's a million reasons for it, and I don't blame the writers. No real writer would ever want to beat their integrity over the head and leave it bleeding in the moonlight. The soupy, red, puddle that forms around the 'zine when I leave it on my nightstand is very telling, though.
I have to wonder what it's like to write for a mainstream video game magazine/e-zine. Each month I thumb through the odd article in GameInformer, and I just feel bad for the poor mooks that paint up the downfalls of the video game industry like it's a good thing.
"We've experienced the pivotal Racoon City outbreak through the eyes of Jill, Chris, Leon, and Claire, but what was it like for the Umbrella operatives?" opens Tim Turi of GameInformer. "Let's see how Capcom is going to siphon the last few putrid juices out of the dead horse this year!" seems like it would have been more appropriate. My true hope is that Turi is as disillusioned with unnecessary sequels as I am and his opening was a tongue-in-cheek jab at the game; like a movie critic wondering if George Lucas' next project will be to show remake The Clone Wars from the point of view of R2D2.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD received attention in the same issue, and for a brief moment I was excited. The article opened with a, call it what it is, shameless hit of nostalgia for people old enough to appreciate two minute level timers. Then, transitioned nicely into beating on the franchise for its eventual derailment into sophomoric hijinx, and name dropping, over gameplay.
To my chagrin, the reporter blithely went on to say that THPS:HD was a carbon copy remake of all of the most popular levels from the first few installments. There's no way that I'm the only person in the world that has bile rise in their throat when a remake is announced. Who reads this and is excited by it? Who decides to write this stuff? Who gets excited and buys this crap at launch?
You see, the problem with these magazines is that they reinforce the idea that repetition and big titles are good. Yes, yes, I'm aware that I'm flirting with the pretentious "indie or bust" type crap right now, but put the pitchforks down, the beret and turtle neck are staying in the closet. Information is what originally drove these magazines; hence, the "informer" in GameInformer. Now, though, the line between information and marketing is so badly skewed it looks like a roadmap of Europe. Every problem that is strangling innovation out of the video game industry is squarely perpetuated by this kind of shameless ad mongering.
Articles like these instigate excitement over something that is simply not exciting. There's no question that each year's new Resident Evil or Tony Hawk or any other heavily franchised game installments will be playable, but that's all they are. They are average. They are nicely put together and provide fun distraction for around 10 hours. Painting average games up like they're going to revolutionize the way we play games is doing nothing but putting a cork into the creativity bottle. When something original and fun finally does come along, it doesn't get so much as the time of day from developers.
Remember when the first Guitar Hero came out? Get the hell out of my office, you do not. Why do you not remember? Because it was weird, and new, and freaking hard, and likely to be crushed by Dance Dance Revolution so no one cared to push it. Look at it now! Well, its churning out half-baked installments and doing exactly what I’m against, but that’s not the point. The point is that things that are new and original never get the attention they deserve, and that’s squarely because of media publications that won’t quit drooling down our earholes that the next annual Call of Battlefield and Forza Worldcup Batman is going to make us forget our families they're so good.So who is to blame in all this? Who is responsible for the bleeding magazine on my table? Again, I don't blame the writers for all of this, what I truly feel is sympathy. I'm sure that they are just doing their jobs and writing what is assigned to them. What they write is smudged by their editors. And their editors have it smudged by the ones above them. And they, the ones above them, and so on, with the all-important ad revenue having the final say. I can only try to sympathize with the writers that have their hard polished work muscled over by the signers of their checks; like greedy children plunging their smearing fingers into a refined, clay, statue.
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