Was gaming journalism more respected and credible back in the late 90s-early 2010's

[Wegra]

Like before gamergate started and all these know nothing journalists popped up did most gaming outletd like IGN, Game Informer, etc used to be better regarded or was it always bullshit?

[orangebomb]

I don't think that games journalism back then was great, as there was plenty of cultural biases and general wonkiness that floated around game journalism then.

The biggest difference is that journalists then at least had some appreance of earnestness and honesty towards video games, respected the medium (even when cracking some jokes that haven't aged well) and knew their general audience.

In a way, it's not too hard to see how quaint VG reviewers and previews were 15-30 years ago that wasn't hijacked by cultural hucksters and "gamers" that never paid their dues or respected the culture to begin with.

[xeiavica]

Back then, that was ALL you had to know anything about video games. There was no gamefaqs or youtube back in 89 or until the bare minimal the very late 90s. So you grabbed your nintendo power and hoped for the best.

[Chdonga]

Reviewers were super desperate for games to be taken seriously but they still had that mindset that "mature" means if a game isn't guns & cussing then it's basically Blue's Clues.

[5ERGEI]

Totally!

Gaming magazines were all the rage in the 90's.

Internet was barely a thing back then. You would go buy a magazine and read articles about games old/new/upcoming.

...and reading the magazines was often times just as fun as playing the games, and 100% part of the "gamer" experience.

Game journalism isn't worth a damn nowadays.

[Jin]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGfEf8-SNPQ

[Toxic-Tin-Can]

I recommend you look up Gamespot's Alien Resurrection review and IGN's God Hand review, the reception to those reviews, and make a conclusion from there.

[aapiarts]

Nothing has been a better game review show than Gaming In The Clinton Years.

[xeiavica]

At 8/9/24 10:42 PM, Chdonga wrote:Reviewers were super desperate for games to be taken seriously but they still had that mindset that "mature" means if a game isn't guns & cussing then it's basically Blue's Clues.

This was more of an american thing, europe wasn't so nuts about how mature == blood n guns. Unless you lived in germany and/or west germany, then you didn't have any guns at all that wasn't laser guns and all humanoid antagonists must be robots or some stupid shit like that.

[Jukestar]

At 8/9/24 10:42 PM, Chdonga wrote:Reviewers were super desperate for games to be taken seriously but they still had that mindset that "mature" means if a game isn't guns & cussing then it's basically Blue's Clues.

Meanwhile Klonoa 1 and Mother 3 existing.

[orangebomb]

At 8/9/24 10:42 PM, Chdonga wrote:Reviewers were super desperate for games to be taken seriously but they still had that mindset that "mature" means if a game isn't guns & cussing then it's basically Blue's Clues.

In the 90's, they probably didn't give a shit about that, as there was still a level of tribalism and counter-cultural flavoring with video games and reviewers then didn't exactly a guide on what "mature" really meant. (Or even if they did, they would be Goddamned if they let elitists and moralists dictate what game they want to make/play)

By the late 2000's, that mentality started to change, which slowly started to morph into the opposite reaction we have today, with some notable long-running exceptions. (That, and copious swearing and gore has become less shocking and taboo, and more quaint and eccentric)

[Chdonga]

At 8/12/24 11:09 AM, xeiavica wrote:

At 8/9/24 10:42 PM, Chdonga wrote:Reviewers were super desperate for games to be taken seriously but they still had that mindset that "mature" means if a game isn't guns & cussing then it's basically Blue's Clues.

This was more of an american thing, europe wasn't so nuts about how mature == blood n guns. Unless you lived in germany and/or west germany, then you didn't have any guns at all that wasn't laser guns and all humanoid antagonists must be robots or some stupid shit like that.

What were European game reviews like in the 90s? I don't really see or hear as much of those like I do American reviews.

[xeiavica]

At 8/12/24 06:01 PM, Chdonga wrote:

At 8/12/24 11:09 AM, xeiavica wrote:

At 8/9/24 10:42 PM, Chdonga wrote:Reviewers were super desperate for games to be taken seriously but they still had that mindset that "mature" means if a game isn't guns & cussing then it's basically Blue's Clues.

This was more of an american thing, europe wasn't so nuts about how mature == blood n guns. Unless you lived in germany and/or west germany, then you didn't have any guns at all that wasn't laser guns and all humanoid antagonists must be robots or some stupid shit like that.

What were European game reviews like in the 90s? I don't really see or hear as much of those like I do American reviews.

I really do wish I knew more, but I know that SEGA was big in europe and brazil. If anyone european knows more, please let us know how gaming reviews were in the 90s.

[GenericDungeonSlime]

When proper gaming magazines existed, like early 2000s Game Informer, you had decently objective reviews. Games would get a 5, 4, sometimes even a 1 or 2. I remember a particularly bad game that got a 1 being the butt of jokes on the magazine for years.

But even back then, the AAA titles were always treated with kid gloves. They got big, multi-page previews and nobody could say a bad word about them, never got less than a high 8. In fact, if it got an 8.8 instead of a 9 you could tell something was wrong

[GrapheneKid]

Games journalism has always been about amplifying company press releases and trading favors for favors. It's actually only within the last 15 or so years where you could even start to call some of the pieces "journalism" where people were investigating working conditions, or asking serious questions about the media consumed, or the ethics behind various practices, or industry trends and trajectories.

This isn't to imply that your favorite site or magazine was a rag back then. It was just more about the product and less about the business propping it up. I would argue that serious journalism follows big money. As gaming has exploded in profitability, it has attracted scammers and scumbags, necessitating the need for investigative reporting and greater transparency that proper journalism can accommodate.

This isn't a political thing: we have good liberal journalists and bad conservative grifters, but there also exist good conservative journalists and bad liberal grifters. The truth is going to be somewhere in the middle, when you stop allowing yourself to be placed in a box and instead examine the facts presented by each side and come to an informed decision on something.

[Narratorway]

I guess that depends on what 'journalism' means to you. Technically, they published articles. Then again, technically, I could say the same thing when I make a forum post.

Gaming mags existed before the internet - hell, gaming mags are where a lot of internet culture aesthetics began - but no adult would look at the content within and think to refer to it as 'journalism'. Only two pre-internet gaming magazines tried to be more than just basically press kits: Edge Magazine and it's US counterpoint, Next Generation. There was another one I think that was more focused on the industry itself that was...I wanna say it was just called The Videogame Magazine.

Gamergate was the result of the teething problems of gaming journalism at large trying to become legit, crashing up against the morass of manchildren that are gamers and realizing they see more of themselves in those literal unwashed masses than they were willing to admit.

[whimsical-wife]

I need a gamer website to hire me as a game journalist and write reviews based on brief plot synopsis and see how long it takes for people to notice im bullshitting and then I get exploded by 47 "LIBERAL GAME JOURNALIST LIAR MELTED INTO A FINE GOO BY REAL GAMER" videos

You know. for science.

Also what's up with entire articles based off of reddit video game fan art?? actual slop