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Why doesn’t the media take games seriously? (gonintendo.com)

Why don't we take Video Games more seriously?

Dark Arcanine | September 24, 2008 | Blog | PC Wii

Thomas Sutcliffe, a writer for The Independent (a newspaper) has written an article about video games.

His argument is that, despite video games becoming a massive media, it still isn't getting the coverage it deserves. He takes Spore (though he spells it wrong) as an example and discusses how even such a popular game only managed a tiny piece in the back of the paper. This is the complete opposite to sport or films which can take up the whole front page.

He believes that given current popularity that video games deserve the same treatment as the other main types of media. Do you agree?

What did strike me, though – given the almost universal enlistment in an activity that only 20 years ago was the preserve of home-programmers and hobbyists – was the mismatch between the scale of teenagers' involvement in video games and the relative invisibility of this creative field in what you might call the traditional media. From time to time a new game release, such as Will Wright's recently released Spor, will edge its way on to the news pages – and most newspapers carry some form of capsule reviews . But usually they're tucked away in the back alleys of the publication, while film and music and television continue to dominate the big boulevards. Mainstream television does virtually nothing. Arts programmes remain almost exclusively dedicated to cultural forms which are also-rans for many teenagers.

News Story attached to:

Spore Creatures [Wii, DS, PC]

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Comments

0 thumbs!
Play ISDF | September 24, 2008 | reply

I do agree with this guy...although perhaps he might need to take a bit more of his own propaganda and spell Spore right. Although personally I can't see a gaming section in newspapers taking up the same amount of space the sports section does, but it still needs more coverage than near zero.
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  black doom | September 24, 2008 | reply
  
  It is probably a typo that got through a higher up who are out of the know.
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  Big A2 | September 24, 2008 | reply
  
  My city's newspaper has one page on video games, and it's almost always about Wii Fit.
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Blackfalcon | September 24, 2008 | reply

I don't know about about Gaming News in the paper, just doesn't sound right. it's what gaming magazines are for. But I do agree that games just don't get treated the same as other forms of media, even though it's bigger than some.
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Daigoji_Gai | September 24, 2008 | reply

I have to disagree with this guy, it has been widely acknowledged in the media that the gaming industry has eclipsed both the film and music industries. Coverage is expanding and more publications are covering gaming as a serious enterprise (New York Times being a prime example)... There are two problems: 1) gaming journalism hasn't matured - as was evidenced by the fallout over the Halo story and that piece from MTV that calls into question how some gaming blogs picked things up without vetting or doing fact checking. Secondly, veterans of journalism aren't gamers and are still trying to figure out how to cover the gaming industry.

It is expanding, the gaming industry is getting a lot of attention... just many "real" publications don't know how to address it - do they try to be "hip" knowing the gaming audience will see through and reject it, or do they try to be high-brow, again losing the gaming audience and losing the hipness.

More to it, but just my two cents.

A
2 thumbs!
Sonic Flash | September 24, 2008 | reply

The majority of the audience reading newspapers are, for lack of better terms, baby-boomer fuddy duddies, or their parents. If we still like video games at their age I'm sure we can flood the papers with just as much video game coverage as movies.
4 thumbs!
Koloth | September 24, 2008 | reply

I doubt printed news will last that long Sonic. The news paper companies are already struggling. And more and more people are turning to the internet and TV news broadcasts for everything. Most people of my generation don't even get the news paper any more. And why would we? We're internet savy people.
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ZaikXory | September 24, 2008 | reply

He has an interesting point, but the news only tries to bash video games. Perhaps thats why most people aren't really interested in it because of all those stories about kids trying to 'imitate' GTA.
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Final Blade | September 24, 2008 | reply

_{Considering what Koloth just stated on, there's more ways to find information nowadays as opposed to the 70's. There's PC's, TV's as the norm in most house holds, radio's. I mean News papers are becoming for lack of better term, extinct or getting to that with time. Why buy a news paper and pay 5 bucks for it when you could just to to newyorktimes.com or any news site and find the news there?}
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RabidChinaGirl | September 24, 2008 | reply

Anderson Cooper should do a story on video games. Then everyone will take gaming seriously. ;D
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  ZaikXory | September 25, 2008 | reply
  
  Perhaps. That would be an interesting story.
1 thumbs!
AznLiquid | September 25, 2008 | reply

I'm going to have to play the "Korea" card. Korea has 2 TV channels dedicated to gaming (MBC Game and OnGameNet), mostly professional gaming (and mostly Starcraft). The matches can get as intense as any pro sport and the ratings reflect that (3-4 million average viewers, and that's only during regular season games). America should catch up.
0 thumbs!
Dark Arcanine | September 25, 2008 | reply

That's a little over the top though I think, in relation to Korea and Starcraft. I would like to see video games getting more publicity but they basically worship that game.

A TV channel for games in general sounds good though, I've seen some small-time shows where some guys can actually afford to do a 20 minute show late at night but that's about it.
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  Play ISDF | September 25, 2008 | reply
  
  Starcraft, it's their religion and Starcraft 2 shall be the coming of the Lord and Saviour...and some epic ass kicking.
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  AznLiquid | September 25, 2008 | reply
  
  I wouldn't go as far as saying Korea worships the game. They love playing it professionally, but real sports like soccer and basketball are still far more popular.
  
  If you're just talking about general gaming, some of the shows that used to be on G4 were definitely steps in the right direction. Ever seen Electric Playground and Judgment Day/Reviews on the Run? EP was basically a video game news show, they interview developers about new games. JD/RotR was half and hour of video game reviews. I do believe we need more shows like this.