How Broken is Game Journalism? An Analysis of Three Gaming Sites

Joseph Jackmovich of gamrFeed analyzes 161 articles from Kotaku, Destructoid, and Joystiq in order to determine the quality of gaming journalism.

He focuses on the problems of misleading headlines, sourcing, sexism, and other topics.

How does your favorite gaming site stack up?

[Duke_Silver]

ouch on Kotaku

[TheGameLlama]

Totally expectable though... :/

[Cevapi88]

only tip of the iceberg, if you ask me

[LORD-PHOENIX]

this article comes from vgchartz..

[CrzyFooL]

Is run by Sonic the Hedgehog!!

A HAHA!! A HAHA!! A HAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!

[ChrisW]

A better question might be, "How broken is N4G?"

[Red_Orange_Juice]

thats some factual evidence

[mikeslemonade]

How broken is gaming journalism? They give GT5 a 86.17 avg. score. That is straight up broken if you ask me.

[MegaPowa]

@mike

That's not broken its just an honest review. Something we need more around here.

[HolyOrangeCows]

LOL, they took some of the worst sites to examine possible.

Not to mention, this is made by VGchartz.

Edit: Nice article. Not that I needed this article to know, but LOL @ Kotaku; they're full of crap.

[anh_duong]

new year's resolution for journalist:

stop screwing the readers by over-rating games.. under rating games is not so bad but over rating games is spineless because it screws the people who you ought to really look after

stop prostituting yourself to the games publishers.. for example, stop reviewing games and have adverts for the game on the same page..

stop inciting fanboyism

start playing the games properly before reviewing the games

stop making up news using fictitious sources

impossible tasks?? well we can always wish..

[CrzyFooL]

those pie charts are HAHlarious.

[pixelsword]

How did my favorite site stack up?

Those three aren't my favorite; not even close.

[Godmars290]

Ironic that this is coming from vgchartz who's stories - and numbers - get questioned as much if not more than Kotaku.

@spdk1:
Do you work at vgchartz? Submitted this story? Cause those are the only reason I can think of that someone would call my my comment trolling.

Everytime someone posts numbers from vgchartz, PS3 or 360, the other side calls BS. Its a sad annoying fact of this site.

[Duke_Silver]

And this has what to do with anything in the article? quit trolling.

EDIT: you changed what you originally said, but you're still trolling, this is from gamrFeed, one of the sub-sites of VGchartz, not the numbers site. How does whining about numbers make any sense?

I'd like to see one instance of anything that gamrfeed does that is worse than "OMG HERE IS A CELEBRITY NEXT TO AN X-BOX" posted as news from Kotaku.

EDIT: I did not post this story, I just got annoyed by folks brushing this aside without reading it, the guy supported his ideas pretty well. instead I see folks going "lame vgchartz...lol" I actually really like that site and their news blog is one of the better ones out there. these guys get put on NPR, wall street journal, are cited on guiness world records, and fanboys still whine....

[Godmars290]

I read up to the Sterling quote but didn't feel like going over the whole essay.

He's right, gaming "journalism" is wholly compromised, but that nor NPR using them doesn't their rep *Here*. 360 fanboys are going to complain about their PS3 number and PS3 fanboys are going to complain about their 360 numbers. Me, I wonder why it takes their number site months to change console numbers after they've been publicly announced by their companies. And they never seem to match up or even come close.

I'm just annoyed that in accusing me of trolling, of stating the obvious from a site who's reputation isn't perfect, that you're trolling. That the only point of your comment was not only to troll, but to whine because you're a fanboy of that site.

Surly at the very least you have to appreciate that irony...

[Duke_Silver]

@ Godmars

that's fine - I fully accept the fact that calling you out was basically counter-trolling, but if you parrot off crap others say without reading an article you are no better than the other patrons of a site in which you so eloquently condemn:

"Everytime someone posts numbers from vgchartz, PS3 or 360, the other side calls BS. Its a sad annoying fact of this site."

I could care less about the popular opinion about a site the writer is from, what I am "whining" about is a general mentality of folks that can't be arsed to read a damn article on here, and seem to share the same opinion just for the sake of "fitting in".

also you keep bringing up "numbers" from this sites sister site, what he crap do they have to do with an article like this, your just finding justification for your post.

[ssdninja]

What's even better is that this article is actually a semester-long final project. Considering I have nothing to do with the numbers of vgchartz, it's even separated further by being something produced not originally intended for the site at all. I wanted to get the research out there so I decided to publish it.

Ironic? Or just jumping to conclusions?

[WharenPeace]

I'm merely curious, why did you not focus on the bigger sites, like IGN and Gamespot (especially since they portray themselves as actual game journalist sites)? I don't think I've ever seen either of the gamer blogs hinting that they were not biassed (or I could be wrong)?

[visualb]

yeah I agree its ironic. but if i'm not mistaken VGChartz is kind of blog based? (ala WordpresS) so anyone can write an article?

I could be wrong...point being, the article does have a point

as I've said, VGCharts loses all credibility when talking about sales or itself.

in this case, it does have a point, and although the chart lacks actual evidence, its pretty obvious:

KOTAKY, DESTRUCTOID AND GAMESRADAR ARE JOKE SITES - they can NEVER be taken seriously. they are retarded blogger fanboys like most users on this site.

if you haven't figured this out by now you are new to gaming websites.

[ktchong]

Haven't paid attention to gaming in a long while.

Let me guess: a high-profile PS3 exclusive has just been released, and it's been receiving less-than-stellar review scores. So now it must be the bias and fault of the "journalists".

Something still stays the same.

[Cratos8780]

"Let me guess: a high-profile PS3 exclusive has just been released, and it's been receiving less-than-stellar review scores. So now it must be the bias and fault of the "journalists"."

What has Gran Turismo got to with this article, troll?

[Duke_Silver]

Reading Comprehension FTL!

[visualb]

"Haven't paid attention to gaming in a long while. "

it shows....keep it that way please =| you aren't contributing anything positive.

and next time, read the article instead of being a ***** *** *****

[Ponurasky]

Gaming journalism is broken beyond words. They even shouldn't be called "journalist" in the first place.

[Ilikegames76]

More like fanboys masquerading as journalists.

[NJShadow]

What a great write-up! OK, now this is one example of gaming journalism done right. Granted, it has to do with other sites, but this was an excellent read!

[suicidalblues]

Totally agree. One of the best articles written in months.

[nnotdead]

good read. i wrote on another site that my biggest disappointment in gaming in 2010 was the fact that blogs aren't becoming more professional. instead professional sites where becoming more blog like.

i do think Gamepro magazine has been trying to do a good job at separating the news, editorials, and reviews. hope more start to lean the same way.

[Theo1130]

That article seems to forget that none of those websites are dedicated to solely news, they are blogs, with editorials. Also they critic them for having only one source, well if the company putting out the press release gives you the official information, whats the need for multiple sources? Really bad article to say that game journalism is messed up.

[suicidalblues]

Ever since that reviewer got fired from Gamespot for giving an honest review gaming news has gone downhill.

[tommyth3cat]

Get your logic out of N4G, it doesn't belong here.

[Ether]

I was expecting a bullshit article putting those other sites down, but this was an interesting analysis. Good job.

[SilverSlug]

.... VGchartz.... please don't go judging other sites.

[Vesemir]

Wtf... VGChartz judging other sites....
Just-what-teh-hell-is-this-wo rld-coming-to?

[MasterGuru]

So, how broken is gaming journalism?

So broken that fat and ignorant people like Jim Sterling is considered "one of the best" gaming journalists out there.

[QuantumSponge]

Gus has the following say about the subject:

[SuperMassiveGav]

I got as far as him saying 'Those Are Some Nice Nuts' is an unacceptable headline and just… stopped reading. Humour in games journalism is 'unacceptable' now? Remember people, games are NOT about fun.

[NJShadow]

It's called professionalism. If I wanted those kinds of headlines, I'd just hire some random 13-year old to write them. There's no need for the CONSTANT immaturity found in gaming "journalism" these days. Man, I miss the days when maturity and integrity were the key components of a gaming journalist. >.<

[Homicide]

Thing is, Kotaku, Destructoid and Joystiq (not sure about this one) don't call themselves professionals. Kotaku admitted that its site is a blog. Same with Destructoid. That's their style of delivering news: sarcastic, hilarious, etc. If you want professionalism, go to IGN or GameSpot.

The writer choose the worst examples.

[dredgewalker]

It's so broken that I just rely on word of mouth rather than read the reviews. I don't complain about the score, what I complain about is the content of the review to justify the score. I take everything from the net with a grain of salt these days. It's also depressing that the true journalists are the ones being oppressed by the people they work for.

[Kanji08]

If you're interested in this, here's a couple articles that may also interest you. BitMob did a similar story here:

http://www.bitmob.com/artic...

And while not particularly about gaming journalism, this Escapist article delightfully points out that Kotaku is written on a 4th grade level:

http://www.escapistmagazine...

And, of course, you can always check out GJAIF (Game Journalists Are Incompetent Fuckwits), who will lovingly point out every fuckup these sites make:

http://gamejournos.tumblr.c...

Thankfully, the entire outlook isn't so bleak. There's a lot of really good videogame sites underneath all the bullshit that makes up Kotaku, IGN, Gamespot, etc. Gamasutra and Ars Technica are the more professional sites, while GiantBomb is a bit more "everyday gamer" friendly without (as much) bullshit found on other game blogs. And lastly, if you want a source of good editorials and opinions, GameTheory and Nightmare Mode are always at your disposal.

There are good sites out there. Unfortunately you have to dig for 'em and they're not as easy to find as Kotaku or D'toid. Hopefully this post will convince a few of you at least to expand your horizons.

[hadlee]

Look at these sites as blogs instead. Much like you would the Huffington Post.

[Dark-Cloud]

after they gave gt5 less then 10 i knew they are idiots , they don't know how to make a review , they didn't play half of the game !!! even if they get gold in every track on a spec - b spec and speical kaz locked alots of things , they will unlock them with updates... they dnn't even like cars that's why they gave gt5 less then 9 ...

[Soldierone]

Wait.....how does a flawed video game website have any credibility to write how other sites are flawed? Its like Sony writing about how Microsoft isn't a real video game company haha.

People need to understand that yes there are flawed websites that get paid off. I write within the industry, and sites do things to help "persuade" your opinion, but they dont straight up ask you to do it. There are no PR's that will hate you if you give one game a bad review, its being honest and you make it up elsewhere. However there is obviously a fanboy bias within writers and this is where the issue arises.

IGN Gave GT5 an 8 yet Hot Persuit got a 9. There are several instances on Yahoo where they report completely bias information to make PS3 look bad. There are Sony "run" sites that do the exact opposite. If your going to be a journalist you have one job and one job only, to turn information into something readable to give to an audience. You review things based on it being a game, how fun is it, how will your specific audience like it, etc...You shouldn't be biased and supporting one product over another, you should purely be relaying the information and have no regards in to what you prefer.

Its becoming a political style war, and those annoy the hell out of me. It becomes a bunch of lying theives with no regards to real information. Stop being fanboys, start being a third party, and do it now before its too late and we have no idea what truth is anymore.

[SteveSmith]

Every time I read an article on Kotaku, I always imagine the writer as a nerdy 14-year old kid. I mean, I don't know how the writers look, but I always get this impression.