It’s late and I should be sleeping, but this can’t wait until the morning.
It’s hard for me to believe I missed this one. Hard for two reasons: 1) I regularly read Technology Review at work and doubt I would have looked past an article such as this (even though it was posted a couple days ago) and 2) I am fascinated with all things blogs and video game blogging in particular. So when I read this over at Cathode Tan, I was flummoxed. How can someone at the pinnacle of the technology world (MIT) be so off?
First, for the full story, you need to read Josh’s attempt at contacting Tech. Review here (thanks for the mention, Josh). It’s classic. Adam at render was equally upset with the lack of journalistic research and sounded off here. Finally, Amit at Damned Machines is sucessful (?) at contacting someone over there with some jabs at this piece. All good stuff and I’m glad everyone was on this. The video game blogging community is growing pretty quickly. With Bloglines I currently subscribe to 80+ video game blog feeds, with more popping up all the time. There is no dearth of bloggers blogging about video games. To only mention Joystiq (which I enjoy) and Gamespot is simply embarassing. I’m no journalist but I try to hit up Google anytime I’m unsure of something I’m about to write. It makes sense to me, but I’m just a blogger.
But the “there are no gaming bloggers” gaffe is only one of many the writer makes. The article in question also hints at blogging in MMOG’s. Hmmm, that seems like something Foton mentioned, ohh, I don’t know, two months ago! Of course, the all-mighty dollar looms large in all of this and we can’t forget marketing!
“The reason we don’t have more community elements like blogs in games is because the publishers haven’t figured out how to harness it and make money off of it,” says Li.
Holy crap did I just read that right? “We already take fifty bucks out of their pockets but when we can use blogs to take more, we will!” Blech!
And we end with this doozie:
Everyone contacted for this article expressed interest in seeing more game-specific or within-game blogs. While it may be awhile before we see blogs within games, one thing’s for certain: there’s plenty of room for them and, well, there’s interest in blogging.
“Video game blogs are on the rise,” says Swofford. “The segment is growing.”
Plenty of room for them? I beg to differ.Video games move at such a quick place that I really don’t see their utility within most games. Screen shots and funny stories, sure. That usually takes place after you’ve played a session of gaming. But in-game blogging, even in the MMOG sense, doesn’t really resonate with me. And yes, video game blogs are on the rise.
So blog on, gaming bloggers. I’d like us to have an even bigger presence. Join the ranks of more “accepted” forms of blogging (whatever that entails). Personally, I’ve been mulling the idea of a “Carnival of Gamers” in the near future. I’m still hatching my idea, but I’ll be presenting here soon, hoping to drum up some interest. So stay tuned!
Kearns says
I’m still confused on an “in-game” blog.
Meaning that in the game I would take time off from killing mosters and ranking up to go to my abode in the game, boot up my in-game PC, and run my in-game blogging software to blog about something happening in-game that other in-game players will read on their virtual PCs?
Then, perhaps, I could have a virtual RSS aggregator that would aggregate all of the in-game blogs that I liked to read in-game?
All of that sounds about as much fun as MMORPG toilets.
Tony says
The whole “in game blog” does strike me as backwards, too. Not a whole lot of fun.
Now MMORPG toilets, that’s got potential!