What Mainstream Media Think of Gaming 65
John Callaham writes "Video and PC games are a multi-billion dollar entertainment industry. So why don't they get the attention of movies or TV? FiringSquad interviews several members of the mainstream media, including reporters from Time, USA Today, Entertainment Weekly and more, to find the answers and see how journalism will cover games in the future." From the article: "I guess all I'd add is that gaming journalism is at a very interesting place right now. There are still a lot of people who are suspicious of games, and who don't understand their appeal, and there's an opportunity for people who write about games, if they do it well enough, to bridge that gap, and make games interesting to people who don't get them yet."
Can't Wait Until the Boomers Retire (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Can't Wait Until the Boomers Retire (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Can't Wait Until the Boomers Retire (Score:5, Insightful)
Way to prove his point. Card game and board games have little to do with most video games, beyond the fact that you need your brain to play.
As for the social aspect, how is playing video games (online or otherwise) any less social than staring at the TV, or going to the movies, or playing cards, for that matter? Four of my friends around the poker table is just as social as those same four around the XBox.
Re:Can't Wait Until the Boomers Retire (Score:1)
Re:Can't Wait Until the Boomers Retire (Score:2)
Again, proving that you either don't know what you're talking about or don't understand it, one. I have never played video games with my friends where we were not constantly exchanging commentary and insults, much the same as we do when we play 5-Card Stud, or Settlers of Cataan, or watch 24, or ...
Re:Can't Wait Until the Boomers Retire (Score:2, Interesting)
Then you're playing the wrong games. Or more likely, not playing the right ones. Or most likely, not playing any at all. There are tons of multiplayer games that are either single screen or split screen that are a blast to play with friends and encourage a lot of social interaction. Some of
Re:Can't Wait Until the Boomers Retire (Score:2, Interesting)
There are always exceptions to the rule..., or in other words, all generalizations are false.
Re:Can't Wait Until the Boomers Retire (Score:1)
Re:Can't Wait Until the Boomers Retire (Score:1)
Of course, exceptions to the rule exist, like you Grandmother, but they are just that; exceptions.
Back to the regularly complaining...
Re:Can't Wait Until the Boomers Retire (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Can't Wait Until the Boomers Retire (Score:1)
Re:Can't Wait Until the Boomers Retire (Score:1)
Ummm.. (Score:4, Funny)
Aren't they making a movie out of World of Warcraft? Perhaps they are getting to the point of popularity that movies and TV ARE starting to take an interest.
Re:Ummm.. (Score:2)
Your Senator or Congressman can hardly be blamed for preferring to snort his cocaine from 'twixt Titney's Spears than the alternative of seeing a can of Jolt Cola poured over the manb00bs of a software developer.
Let's face it. RIAA and MPAA lobbyists really do have more to offer their represenatives than software industry lobbyists do.
Re:Ummm.. (Score:1)
Re:Ummm.. (Score:2)
I think I'd rather see one based on Pac-Man, actually.
Or Super Monkey Ball. That would rule.
Blurb (Score:4, Insightful)
The underlying assumption here is that if the gaming industry makes as much money as the movie industry it should be covered in the news as much as that other industry. Of course that's not the whole picture. People in big media report things that are important, but they also have to report things that people want to hear about. There is a huge audience that want to hear what Brad Pitt's new movie is, who's playing in the World Cup today, what Microsoft's business plans for future are, and what is going on in Capital Hill. The audience that wants to hear what John Carmack's new game engine will do is small.
Also, just because the gaming industry makes as much money as the movie industry doesn't mean it reaches as many people. The entry level cost to get into gaming is much higher. The learning curve is much steeper too, especially if you've never grown up with videogames. However, the time that can be spent on game(vs. a book, movie, or tv show) is much higher. In short, gaming has a significantly-sized, time-dedicated audience compared to other entertainment media; however, other media have a much larger audience and probably always will(unless you make video gaming cheaper and easier to learn). Thus, the gaming industry will never be covered in big news media as much as other entertainment industries.
Re:Blurb (Score:1)
People in big media report things that are important,
Hahahahahahahhahahaha. Yeah, the corporate media have done a swell job of, say, questioning the US government, especially on issues like "the truth of 9/11" and "why did those exit polls in 2004 not match the vote count?".
Unless you meant "report things that will help them stay in power". Then I agree with you totally.
Re:Blurb (Score:2)
I know I'm a total fanboy, but as soon as I read that I thought "Wii!"
Even the Wii magically makes gaming Fun for All Ages, I wouldn't expect to see more of them in other media. Books are a huge market, and some even make it big (Da Vinci Code, Harry Potter), but they stil
Re:Ummm.. (Score:2)
It's interesting that you should mention WOW, since Rob Pardo did make the Time 100 list this year.
Others that caught Time's attention:
Bill and Melinda Gates, The Gates Foundation
Ranked here anong world leaders and revolutionaries. Currrently funding 1/3 of the world's research on Malarlia.
Caterina Fake and Stewart Butterfield, Flickr
Chris Sewolf and Tom Anderson, Myspace.com
Omid Kordestan, Google
Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Frilis, Skype
Matt Drud
One Reason (Score:5, Interesting)
That said, for stories that they can simply go it alone with, such as interviews, overviews of systems or financials, the mainstream media does a servicable job. TIME's article on Nintendo's new direction the day before E3 (in addition to having the first good set of Wii screens) was the best I saw before or during the show. It's just that there's not a whole lot of news to go around, and getting the extra news to fill in the gaps requires either rampant speculation or dealing with "unprofessional" people. To be quite frank, I don't blame them.
Re:One Reason (Score:2)
LOL. How long has it been since the mainstream media lived up to this ideal? All they're good at is superficial professionalism. Nice grammar and spelling, pretty layout, looking good and/or having a nice speaking voice (for TV/radio journalism). Maybe they'll feign a little neutrality if you'
Re:One Reason (Score:2)
I'm kind of amazed they're still able to publish since their volume of advertising is a lot less than PC Gamer and the like.
How about the freaking BBC! (Score:1, Interesting)
They could try the BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2207229.stm [bbc.co.uk]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5040188.stm [bbc.co.uk]
The BBC even does events in Second Life, they are ridiculously online-savvy.
Or the Guardian (one of the most serious UK papers):
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/games/ [guardian.co.uk]
p.s. the dedicated games press does all the rampant speculation stuff because it's what their readers want! I was interested in all the articles about how Nintendo's Revol
Re:One Reason (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:One Reason (Score:1)
Because it needs 5-10 more years (Score:5, Insightful)
First, who the heck concluded it doesn't get enough attention. I'd say it gets enough attention, notice the E3 coverage on Internet... And there we get to the point.
TV and Movies have been here for over 70 years, part of our culture. If something is on TV, "it gets enough attention".. Aparently TV is shown on TV, and movies are shown on TV and cinemas as well.
We're used to considering what's on TV "important". The fact that thousands of online media followed who sneezes at E3, is a lot less important.
Conclusion: we just need some more time so that Internet truly becomes a respected mainstream media to non-techies, where "important" stuff can happen. Gaming is the same. Give it more time, let the gamers grow some more.
Re:Because it needs 5-10 more years (Score:2, Informative)
I was elated to see the main BBC evening news have a lengthy special report on E3 whilst it was on. This would have been unthinkable years ago; but as gaming becomes more and more mainstream, more and more of the media's demographics will want to see gaming news.
Article in a Sentence (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Article in a Sentence (Score:3, Insightful)
The article said: Video and PC games are a multi-billion dollar entertainment industry.
I see. So how much do they have to make in sales to *become* mainstream, exactly?
Reminds me of a quote by Green Day's lead singer, back around 1998. "People call us an alternative band. Alternative to *what*? We sold 3 million records last year. That's as mainstream as you can get!"
Slashdot (Score:5, Funny)
Should we care? (Score:5, Interesting)
The video game and computer game industry make more money than TV and movies combined.
But the porn industry makes more money than the TV, Music, and video game industry combined.
Yet we don't hear mainstream media talking about porn all that often other than the "Think of the children!" diatribes by hotair pundits.
Re:Should we care? (Score:3, Interesting)
Can we please stop the lies about the porn industry, please? All of the porn industry combined doesn't really make that much money. Try to name one company in the porn industry that is within the Fortune 500. You can't, because there is none.
Hate to break it to you, but the porn industry isn't bigger than Haliburton.
Re:Should we care? (Score:1)
Re:Should we care? (Score:2)
Re:Should we care? (Score:1)
Re:Should we care? (Score:4, Insightful)
Second, there's kind of a fake-out, like how the porn industry can rake in as much in sales as the "mainstream" movie industry. How many movie studios are there left? There's about 3 or 4 big ones left after all the mergers. How many porn producers are there? Thousands. Heck, tens of thousands. Porn is cheap to make, and many thousands of titles are released every year. How many game studios are there that make the biggest hits? Dozens of big players like Sony, Nintendo, and EA, and at least hundreds of smaller ones like Pandemic, ID and Ubisoft.
Because it lacks "Drama"? (Score:3, Funny)
So, until we get some juicy info on Lara Croft's relationship with Duke Nukem, I don't think the mainstream is going to give us as much love. ;)
About time (Score:3, Funny)
my quick reply (Score:3, Insightful)
1. movies based off of Video games. They failed
2. A tv network based on video games(G4). It failed.
3. A sitcom with animated characters from fictional video games(game over). It failed.
The last good video game coverage I saw in mainstream TV were episodes of "That's Incredible!" and "Starcade". That was over 20 years ago. That time has not come back.
well hell (Score:2)
Oh yes - any day now. I've only been holding my breath for over 30 years. I've never seen my skin turn so many shades of blue before I passed out.
Thoughs (Score:2, Interesting)
And I think a major rationale behind movies and games being so strongly hyped is that the actor/celebrity is so much more than the role that s/he plays. The mags these days don't talk exclusively about the current star's acting, they talk just as much if not more about said actor's glamorous life. Peop
Re:Thoughs (Score:2)
not social (Score:2)
I think it's because computer games aren't social. TV and movies are. You can watch a TV show with your friends or even talk about a TV show with your friend and you don't feel like you should be watching it instead. The same goes for movies. Even with a massively multiplayer online game, you're still sitting by yourself at your computer. Talking to someone out of game about the game is silly, unless you're trying to talk them into playing.
I had an opportunity a while ago to visit a "gaming center" fo
Re:not social (Score:1)
Incorrect ... gaming can be very social (Score:2)
Bzzt! Very wrong. There are a ton of social aspects in many games.
The duh department. (Score:3, Insightful)
rhY
Gaming really isn't mainstream. (Score:2, Informative)
Checking the math (or, Yoda Jesus)... (Score:1)
Let's use a handy little tool, found at http://www.westegg.com/inflation/ [westegg.com]. It calculates the value of money corrected for inflation across the years. The Empire Strikes Back, according to the IMDB's list, made $290,158,751 in 1980. Let's just plug that into our little calculator, correcting to 2005...
$736,904,249... Oh, and 53 cents. Just *slightly* more than the $380,268,258.46 that the Passion of the Christ made, corrected for the extra year.
A much more helpful list can be found at http://home.earthli [earthlink.net]
Re:Checking the math (or, Yoda Jesus)... (Score:1)
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