A den of game journalists and their plots for world domination

Met up with Michael Gill and Stefan Blomberg over at HUMlab, over a supposed fika, after work today. I think the idea was that we should just talk games and play som NDS games, but in the end we just sat down and had some really interesting discussions instead. Most about recent topics on ASOS in general, but also regarding our future as game journalists.

One thing we all agreed on is that we're not quite satisfied with the way game journalism works today. But that might not comes as a surprise to anyone who have argued or debated with us in the past on the topic.

Personally I really think something needs to be done about how we perceive games. Yeah it's that old fun vs art debate all over again, ain't it? No, not really. Because those two don't contradict each others. A game can be fun and it can be art. Are we that naive that we don't think game designers don't know what they put into their products? For example, I think it is quite ignorant to assume that the creators of Sim City hasn't thoroughfully calculated which economical and infrastructure systems works best for their game design. Of course they are fully aware of the sociocultural and ecocultural messages their game send. Story driven games, such as roleplaying games are even better examples. For every quest or choice in a well designed game there is a moral context in line with the story, and of course these are carefully considered when written. Even Postal 2 was written with a purpose.

Why isn't this reflected in games journalism? Are we blind? Asleep? Or is this some big taboo we just can't touch, because, heck.. someone might think we're pretentious? Well, it's time to wake up. We need to analyse what we're fed through the media noise, and if nothing else just to preserve the gaming culture from prejudice and medial slander. Somehow I think that the fear here is that people assume game analysis in this sense would look much as it does when these Maoists do it. However, that's not necessarily how it needs to be like. There is no contradiction between analysing a game, and writing it in a way the readers can relate to easilly. But as it is now I almost prefer the Maoists way considered the alternative is standard media hype. It's about time we wake up.

I'll shut up now though. I could go on forever otherwise.

Gill told me one thing I found a bit of a shame, and that's the fact that Super Play won't be publishing anything on the Stylus Orchestra event. I was wondering whatever happened to that article. I really was expecting something to come from Mattias or Michael there. But it seems it just won't happen. And the big loss here is that I think this is the type of stuff gamers really want to read about; events where games become a little more than just mere games. They get a context. And I am quite certain many gamers out there really would relate, and think that this proves their gaming hobby isn't necessarily just some nerdy procrastination, but actually something really cool. But what do I know? After all my article for Gameplayer was only really well received and appreciated. Nevermind. Just a shame, that's all.

Regarding the Stylus Orchestra however, preliminary it might seem like we will be attending another event in September. I'll get back on that later.


To end this post today, I want to point out I found out the rockband Soak the Sin I mentioned some months ago have their own My Space account. Check it out, they have two of their videos there that you can watch.

Oh, and make yourself a service and pick up any Faith No More album this instant, and listen. Listen.