Qt3 Games Podcast: when you need a Skylanders expert, adults aren’t enough

Posted by on October 24, 2012 in Game Podcasts

It’s not enough to have Rob Harvey join us this week to talk about Skylanders Giants. So we press into service a serious expert. But first, we talk Zynga, Sword of the Stars II, Dwarf Fortress, Fallen Enchantress, and “games journalism”.

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  • Mercanis

    There’s going to be some Sword of the Stars II talk, eh? I’m looking forward to it, especially since I received an email from the developer giving folks the “all clear” one year after release.

  • http://www.facebook.com/rudy.basso Rudy Basso

    Robert Florence is actually Scottish, not English. He was one of the two minds behind Consolevania, an internet video games review/sketch comedy show, as well as Videogaiden, its (tamer) television counterpart. I think Consolevania is probably the strongest example of a video game TV show that is both incredibly entertaining and still has a good analytical eye as well (I miss it a lot). Robert Florence has been very critical of mainstream video game media coverage (Gamespot and the like) and gamer culture in general. He also writes a board game column for RPS which is pretty good.

    I think Mr. Florence deserves some props for calling out journalists who may have skewed the line between being professionals and being fans. Maybe his wording was a bit dramatic (movie and sports journos have been taking free tickets forever, right? Dunno if that is necessarily a tragedy) but I think it’s still commendable, and even more so that he’s willing to stick to his guns and even leave Eurogamer when they edited his piece.
    Ultimately, I think you hit it on the head, Tom, when you mentioned that it’s really the state of gaming journalism in general that’s the problem. If you want to see some real terrible journalism, though, check out 90% of MMA coverage – a lot of times interviews with fighters end with “Can I have your autograph?” from so-called professionals, along with some of the most terrible editorials I’ve ever read. Maybe QT3 should have a feature on the next UFC? I’m sure you’ll jump to the head of the class as far as legitimacy goes pretty quickly.

    In completely unrelated closing, I really hope Consolevania comes back through kickstarter or something cause it was the best (link to a Battlefield 2 review by Rab – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3TJTaOEDKQ).

  • CB

    oh my goodness. that review of Skylanders was priceless.

  • Forrest

    What a great episode! Adam’s review busted through the 7-9 scale, and carried not a hint of New Games Journalism :)

  • Brad Grenz

    I love how Tom totally loses control of the interview with Adam by the end.

  • anon

    So, the geoff kaylay image is from a video that’s pretty disgusting. He gives advice to burgeoning “game journalists”, and actually uses something like “or maybe you’re the guy who people go to for the hottest Halo 4 tips” as an example of carving out a niche.

    Also re: most of the game press being a fairly transparent part of the PR machine; I think you overestimate the awareness of the average consumer of the places you mention. Just look at what happens when you post a review for a heavily marketed game that’s below the metacritic average.

    Hotline Miami looks great, the soundtrack is so god damn good. I feel kind of bad for waiting for a sale, but part of it is that it seems to be in need of some patching now anyway.

  • sid

    So now Florence is no longer with Eurogamer. He was either fired due to threat of libel(?) lawsuit/quit on principle/left amicably. In the referenced article he mentioned another journalist, L. Wainwright, by name and cited Wainwright’s tweets on Tomb Raider combined with her free lancing Square Enix as a possible conflict of interest. The article has been edited by EG, removing the segments referring to Wainwright.

    Was it Florence’s responsibility to preserve the journalist’s anonymity? Given that the only other name he named was Keighley, who is a prominent figure in the the industry, it seems unfair to single out a random freelancer to make implications of lack of integrity.

    I am not sure where the alleged threat of libel lawsuit comes from, PennyArcade Report says it is from Intent Media, the publisher of MCV UK, presumably the Wainwright’s employer. This kerfuffle of course now shines the spot light even brighter on the issue.

    Tom, you think that the sausage factory behind games journalism is obvious, and Florence’s article is mostly redundant, but you are an insider. I’m sure there those out there who think Crispy Gamer is as unbiased a source of information as Rock Paper Shotgun.

    I think Florence, while making a valid point, was wrong to name Wainwright, without overwhelming evidence of impropriety. After all reputation is all one has in this business.

    There are no winners here.

  • anon

    Although upon further inspection by the internet, she happens to be guilty.

  • Mygaffer

    There is no such thing as gaming journalism, I think that is a mistake some people make when discussing the ethics. There is definitely a lot of behavior that may be either ethical or unethical but reporting on games is really one of two things.

    1. An extension of PR. You write about games, you get readership which allows you to sell ads and if you are lucky maybe some merch. Your ads of course are those of the products you cover predominantly and so you are being paid by the people whose products you write about. You are a part of their PR machine. This is not really a bad thing.
    2. Criticism. Like literally criticism or film criticism you are dissecting the game and commenting on its mechanics, themes, art, sound, etc.

    Most gaming sites are a bit of both. We wouldn’t have so many writers and so many outlets providing all this great content if the PR side of it did not exist. As Martha Stewart would say, “its a good thing”.

  • Mygaffer

    Yeah, Penny Arcade seems to be the only outlet covering the story and their coverage of it is really great.