Games journalism. sigh Alright. Let’s do this.

I am currently writing this for Middle of Nowhere Gaming, an independent video games media site that posts critiques of video games, audio and video punditry shows, opinion based editorials, various other features about the video game industry and the video game community, and, of course, news stories. In the past, I have written for other indie games sites (PixlBit, Gaming Precision, Metal Arcade) and these have all done similar content. So while I’ve never written for a major video games media outlet such as GameSpot or Polygon, I am familiar with this particular section of the industry. However, unlike other outlets who have connections with all the major and minor developers and publishers in the industry, we typically write stories based on reportings from other sites. Typically, we will insert our opinions at the end of the article or compile all the information different sites may have reported on all into one post. However, we are still regurgitating someone else’s story or update when it’s all said and done.

So now here’s the question: Is this journalism? Well, let us first understand what journalism is. The definition of journalism, according to Merriam-Webster, is “the collection and editing of news for presentation through the media.” That’s it. That’s all. The main component of journalism is to deliver information to the public. Doesn’t matter if another outlet has already presented that information publicly. Information isn’t owned by anyone in journalism; that would be missing the point. So when I, or any other writer for Middle of Nowhere Gaming posts a news story, they are relaying information to our website’s audience, done in our own individual way.

However, one distinction I can invariably make is we don’t do investigative journalism. We and many similar indie sites don’t have the connections to find unknown information, nor do we have the ability to be able to fact check and obtain multiple sources the way the bigger outlets do. Yet, these mainstream sites don’t do it either. Most video games media sites lack investigative journalism of any kind and this is what I would say most gamers have a problem with. Most of the news reported to gamers is information willingly divulged by developers and publishers, meaning that if there’s some kind of information that the video games industry doesn’t want us to know, we typically won’t.

Unlike some other fields of interests where the press are at odds with their subjects, many of those in the video games journalism field are friends or even former colleagues with publishers and developers. Although accounts from various video games journalists say that they all understand that sometimes their work requires them to do things that might harm a personal relationship they have with someone in the industry, the fact that there are those kinds of relationships means there’s an inherent bias. Don’t get me wrong. There is no rule saying games press and game developers can’t intermingle and there shouldn’t be. However, one does have to wonder if a personal relationship is interfering with a professional one. Especially when one aspect of said profession is completely absent. Well, nearly anyway.

Kotaku recently posted an article about how the website suspected it had been blacklisted by several publishers due to some of the stories it had posted in the past. These stories were not based on information willingly divulged by the publishers themselves, but by leaks and insider information. Kotaku had actually conducted some investigative journalism and as a result, has seemingly been “punished” for not towing the line, by being cut off from some information and perks publishers would normally give other outlets easily. I use “punished” loosely because this is the main problem I have with that article. As someone who doesn’t hold Kotaku with the highest esteem, I’m happy to see how the site has been recently changing beyond the nearly tabloid-like approach of previous years. I still don’t normally read Kotaku, but I’ve noticed the improvements. All this said, I’m confused as to why Kotaku feels wronged for essentially doing a good job. Being blacklisted isn’t a sign of injustice, but of doing your job. Games media benefits from being on good terms with the industry because it results in the investigative portion of journalism being done for them. Similarly, the industry in return essentially gets easy and free promotion for their product. So when you decide to do that work yourself, why would the other party continue to do your work for you? You can’t have your cake and eat it too.

Like I said before, there’s no need for a rule to keep press and industry separate. Similarly, there doesn’t need to be an adversarial contention between the two. However, I think a healthy rivalry does need to exist. The way console manufacturers want their competition to succeed but to be most successful of all is how the press and industry should be. Each party needs to be Ryu and Ken, so to speak. The benefits of the current relationship between press and industry may be beneficial to those two parties but it isn’t beneficial to the public. And that ultimately hurts both parties. Accusations of being paid off, or of corruption, or ethics are happening because the line between games media and the games industry is blurred. I don’t personally agree with many of these accusations, as full-on corruption would damage an outlet severely; their reputation destroyed beyond repair. However, that’s not the issue. I don’t think we’ve ever seen an example of games media doing something to the disadvantage of the public. However, we have seen numerous examples of games media doing something to the advantage of the games industry. That raises questions. What is the games media’s top priority, the games industry or the public?

This mutual partnership between the two should probably be weaker than it is, but I do think it is weakening. More and more information is leaking and getting reported on games media. If games media was completely in the hands of publishers, we wouldn’t have known so much about the fallout between Hideo Kojima and Konami, something that publisher still denies. That story wasn’t first discovered by a major outlet, but that information would not have been as widespread as it is if it wasn’t for the major sites. On the industry side, Nintendo and Sony have started hosting their own events (Nintendo Direct, PlayStation Experience) to deliver information themselves. They get to control the message and what information gets released, yes, but they are essentially marketing and building hype for their own products, something they should do themselves, not by games media at the expense of journalistic integrity. The line between the two is still blurred but there are aspects of each where the line is becoming more defined. More needs to be done and the criticisms towards games media shows that there needs to be a notable change. However, there is evidence that change could happen. Whether it be gradual or more abrupt, I think it will happen.

So let’s answer the question from early in the article: Is this journalism? Is regurgitating news delivered willingly journalism? Yes. Yes it is. But that answer has some caveats. We are delivered news and are informed by the posts sites like IGN, as well as Middle of Nowhere Gaming, write. The punditry shows like Podcast Unlocked and MONG Podcast are also informative and dissect the news and elaborate more on it, using their own personal knowledge and experience to read between the lines and inform the public further. These are forms of journalism. However, they are not the ONLY forms of journalism and the investigative type is lacking in games media. The current relationships between the press and industry possibly prevent that from happening as both are nervous to disrupt the status quo and some like Kotaku seem unwilling to accept that proper investigative journalism will be disruptive. However, things are changing and I’m optimistic that games media will only improve. Video games media is video games journalism but it’s not journalism done well. But we can improve. IGN can, Polygon can, Kotaku can, even Middle of Nowhere Gaming can. And we will.

Esteban Cuevas is an Associate Editor at Middle of Nowhere Gaming and this has actually been about ethics in journalism. You can yell at him about the corporate machine on Twitter and Facebook.